It’s very cool to see a large company like Sam’s Club get behind the Fair Trade program.  They’re now offering Fair Trade flowers for sale on their website.  You can read all about Fair Trade flowers here, but the important thing to know is that in addition to labor and environmental standards, a portion of the purchase price goes directly to the workers for a community development project (like a microlending...

One of the things that comes up a lot when I talk to florists is the idea of a ‘luxury’ flower.  There is such a thing as a high-end, high-quality, bigger, better, bolder, and more fragrant flower.  And those flowers cost more.  Why? Some of them are hard-to-get new varieties for which breeders charge a premium. Some of them take more time and effort to grow. To get a really extraordinary, baseball-sized rose on a...

If you’re in the flower industry and have never been to Latin America, or if you’re a flower lover who is quite certain that you will be sick and tired of cold, grey weather by February, listen up.    There’s a tour of Ecuador’s flower industry coming up in February, and it’s worth checking out. I found Ecuador to be heartbreakingly beautiful.   Really, there is something about this country that...

If you’re in the floral industry, or if you’re a "stakeholder" when it comes to sustainability in agriculture of any kind, you’ll want to know about a meeting coming up on October 29.  (This meeting is not open to the general public, but to  "companies, organizations, scientists, regulators and others working on sustainable agriculture issues for food, floral, fiber, and biofuel crops." ...

After hearing from several florists who wanted to talk more about the benefits of buying from a local florist, I’ve spent the last twelve days listing a dozen reasons to buy flowers from a florist.  Thanks to all of you who have posted comments or sent e-mails.  But why stop there? I’m sure I left a few out!  Send me your reasons and I’ll post them on my blog and work them into the next talk I give to a floral...