Why I Love Using Locally Grown Flowers
There are few things I love more
than a big old bucket of blooms grown right here in Manitoba soil.
The colour. The texture. The uniqueness.
There are endless reasons to love locally grown flowers.
Every wedding season, I aim to use as many locally grown flowers as possible. And every week when I get my delivery, I get excited. It’s a different kind of excitement than I get when I pick up flowers at the wholesaler (which is still exciting), and I’m not entirely sure I can explain to you why…but I’ll try. Here are a few of the big reasons to love Manitoba-grown flowers:
Environmental benefits: When I design your wedding bouquets with locally grown flowers, I’m reducing the environmental harm caused by shipping flowers in from around the world. My local farmers also use a reduced amount of chemicals on their flowers (or none at all!), and limited to no packaging materials to reduce unnecessary waste.
Supporting the local economy: Buying flowers from a local farmer means keeping my (and your) money in-province, to support a local business that pays her employees a living wage. As with many international trades, the international flower world often involves underpaying, overworking, and poor working conditions. My wholesaler does work with fair-trade farms, but that’s not as wide-spread as I wish it was. And, the more I can keep money in Manitoba, the better.
Colour and variety: when ordering locally grown flowers, we need to be more flexible. My farmers simply can’t guarantee when a specific variety will open or that a bug won’t eat it, or that a hailstorm won’t come along and damage a crop. BUT, the results of this flexibility are mind-blowing. The colour, texture, and uniqueness that you can achieve with locally grown flowers is what I dream of!
Not every flower can be locally grown (for example, we don’t really grow roses successfully in Manitoba, though one of my local farms is starting to grow garden roses!). Some of my personal favourite locally grown flowers include zinnias, sweet pea, Queen Anne’s Lace, bleeding heart, ranunculus, cosmos, scabiosa, foxglove, and lisianthus!
How about I show you just how awesome locally grown wedding flowers are?
When I’m selecting flowers for a wedding bouquet, two of the things I’m thinking about are the shape and texture of the overall design. Whatever the client’s style is, I have specific goals I need to achieve and I think strategically about which flowers I can use to do so.
In Kat’s bouquet, I needed to add the perfect sense of whimsy with a trailing line, and this rust amaranthus was perfect. I also wanted to add a lot of boho-inspired texture, so along with imported blooms, I used strawflower. Even when it’s freshly cut, strawflower has a unique dried texture that adds a really cool vibe.
When you want jewel tones…and not just filler flowers! Focal flowers tend to be easier to order via wholesale — think roses, garden roses, hydrangea, etc — so it’s a great challenge to use a locally grown focal flower when I can.
My favourite focal flowers that can be grown in Manitoba include zinnias (one of my top 5 fave flowers!), dahlias, and lisianthus.
In Roberta’s jewel tone bouquet, you can also see a lot of the awesome texture and movement that those locally grown flowers add!
A lot of flowers have a stiffer stem and a more structured feel to them. When I’m looking for a softer, airier, and more romantic texture, I look to locally grown flowers and vines as much as I can: the ruffled petals of a ranunculus or peony bloom, the romantic curlycues of a sweet pea vine and bloom, or the delicate and petite petals on a phlox bloom can all add a sense of lightness and femininity to your arrangement.
I’m always on the hunt for flowers that will blend my colour palette and add that something special. The hues that are muddier, muted, even a little ombre variation within the petals…that unique colouring can be hard to find when you’re ordering from wholesale farms that make their money off of growing reliable flowers. They don’t want those magical little touches that makes one bloom different from the next…they want them to all be as close to the same as possible.
But local flowers? That’s where we can get those perfect little variations that make your bouquet sing. The taupe lisianthus here is PERFECT.
Fluttery sweetness! And another bonus — super lightweight! All of the flowers in this bouquet were locally grown (I did use imported foliages, though), and though there were a LOT of stems in there, the bouquet was shockingly lightweight.
Again, the colours here are amazing. These rich berry tones are so easy to achieve with locally grown flowers.
Here in Manitoba, we can reliably use locally grown flowers from mid June through early September, though some early bloomers can be available as early as late May (ranunculus, tulips).
With the reality of covid, using local flowers feels different than it did in the past. I KNOW the flower farmers that I work with. I’ve walked through their fields and talked with them about their businesses. Supporting my local growers is also a step that I can take to provide a small measure of support to people and an industry that I care deeply about.
It doesn’t really matter to me if using locally grown flowers is a priority to you or not (though I would love to hear that it is!). It’s a priority to me, and so I will use them as much as I possibly can.
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Flowers are the best way to make a statement at your wedding. Whether you already have a specific vision or want me to dream up something custom just for you, reach out to Stone House Creative for stunning bridal bouquets, truly unique ceremony backdrops, and beautiful floral centrepieces to create the perfect ambiance for your wedding!