"How do you change your industry?" Recently Erin one of our designers was interviewed by Gertrude Paper Studio and that exact question arose. How is the floral industry changing or trending and how are you personally changing it? Out of the interview questions, this one really stood out and got us thinking!
Many people don’t know how the cut flower industry came to be. The floral industry has records in the United States dating back to the late 1700's where the first settlers established greenhouses for cut flowers and food. As many industries in america have, the floral industry has gone through several pivotal moments of growth.
The first was the achievement of refrigerators which provided longer lasting cut flowers. We then achieved refrigerated transportation which increased the range of consumers the greenhouses could service, as well as the areas in which we could farm for diverse and hardier blooms. As the industry grew, we began relocating to grow larger crops all year around. By the 1960's we were importing our carnations from Columbia which eventually lead to roses and chrysanthemums being outsourced as well. This began the decline of many american grown flowers. In the boom of the 1990's consumers became bored with low diversity of cut stems they could purchase, thus allowing a resurgence of American greenhouses and flower farms. Today, American grown flowers are largely produced in California and Florida. While many florists in United States are still outsourcing to South America and Europe, there are few that are intermingling outsourced blooms with locally sourced blooms to achieve specialty arrangements.
Here at Boulder Garden’s we understand how environmentally detrimental it is to ship large amounts of flowers to the US. So we try to buy from local farms whenever we can. By buying from local farms when we can we are helping not only our local economy but we are helping diversify mass wheat and corn crops around the United States which is great for the bees and environment. This is only a small portion of the ways that we are helping change our industry as a whole.
If you want more juicy questions with inside answers and trade secrets on the wedding and florist industry, the full interview is on Gertrude Paper Studio's blog. Katie, Gertrude's genius, is an entrepreneur and mom of one that is so incredibly sweet and yet unapologetically so real! Check her out for more great gifts and tips for all women. For more on this hot topic, keep checking back with us weekly for more ways we are helping change the floral industry.
