The slow flower movement is blossoming

Chris and Janae from Fleurs de Lyonville flower farm (photo by Chloe Smith Photography).

There is a growing trend of sustainable, organic, ‘slow flower’ farming across Australia. Customers are realising that buying fresher, more long-lasting blooms means supporting their local growers. The benefits of buying local are endless: lower emissions, zero toxic fumigation and less time travelling, resulting in flowers looking better for longer in the vase at home!

The global cut flower market is a booming industry, worth an estimated $56 billion in 2022 and projected to reach $70 billion by 2027. In 2022, Australia’s total value of fresh cut flower production was $314 million of which $9.5 million were exported. Australia has been importing fresh cut flowers for around 50 years. Imports currently make up more than 50% of retail value for flower sales in Australia.

Toxic blooms?

Flowers are powerful symbols. We use them to mark rites of passage, festivals and significant life events. No wedding or funeral is complete without flowers. But behind the beautiful bouquets can be significant environmental and human costs.

Flowers can generate serious carbon emissions due to refrigeration and long-haul transport. A shocking statistic by the International Council on Clean Transportation shows that flowers grown in Columbia and flown to U.S. airports for Valentines Day produce some 360,000 metric tons of CO2, roughly equivalent to 78,000 cars driven for one year. International transport isn’t the only culprit. Flowers grown in cooler climates often require heated greenhouses, intensifying electricity use and driving up CO2 emissions.

Floriculture workers are often exposed to toxins in fertilisers and insecticides as well as preservatives used to extend the life of blooms. In Australia, many flowers are treated with glyphosate before they can enter the country. In addition to toxin exposure, workdays can be 16 hours and many workers in low-income nations are still underpaid and chemical safety continues to be a problem.

Fortunately, as awareness grows to the perils of commercial floristry, a niche has opened in the market for consumers wanting to know where their flowers come from, to have that connection to their growers and to support buying locally.

Local micro-growers

Fleurs de Lyonville is one such micro-flower farm in the heart of the Daylesford and Macedon Ranges region in Victoria. The dynamic husband and wife duo, Chris and Janae produce a variety of flowers organically, servicing their local farmers markets, grocers, cafés, florists, weddings and events with their seasonal blooms. They also run farm tours and workshops.

Converting one and a half acres of their eight-acre farm into intensive flower production, with an ethos of ‘happy healthy soils’, they’ve adopted a no-dig philosophy to nurture the soil’s biota. They farm with zero chemicals, harvest and grow their seed with soil blockers to replace single-use plastics, and wrap their flowers in recycled packaging. They grow to a strategised succession plan to limit wastage and minimise their carbon footprint by supplying only to local chains.

Supporting local growers means supporting local families. Chris and Janae work at the mercy of the elements and are busy each day tending to the farm, creating bouquets, selling to market and dealing with the occasional farm crisis, but they wouldn’t trade the flexibility of combining their livelihood with family life.

Some questions to ask when buying your next bunch: How far have your flowers travelled? How can you reduce waste? Are they ethically and sustainably produced? Who benefits from your purchase? Imported flowers may be cheap to buy but is it worth the price difference if it means squeezing producers and keeping wages low?

Micro-flower farms offer us an alternative and show us a new way of looking at things so we can literally stop, smell the roses and think about the importance of a flower’s origin.

Visit fleursdelyonville.com.au

Written by Kerry Reber, Diggers Education and Events Manager.