Many of you have seen our flower field, thoughtfully adjacent to our cob-house market, and probably admired the beauty and abundance of blooms we grow. Each week we pick bunches and prepare bouquets to offer to our market customers. What may come as a surprise is that the majority of our flowers are actually sold to florists and designers across Western Canada. Three years ago we started selling through the Vancouver Flower Auction. In 2020 we created an online shop, allowing our wholesale customers to pre-order directly from us for delivery to UFG. Each week the flower team begins at dawn to harvest and prepare countless buckets of flowers. Of course it must be noted that these flowers are transported and delivered by Ellis, with rarely a single stem broken! Living on a small island like Salt Spring is an incredible privilege and we take the gift of flower farming seriously. Developing markets for organic flowers is important work for us.
From an environmental standpoint, organic flower growing is a protest against the sprayed, dyed, and chemically fertilized flowers grown on conventional farms. Just because humans don't consume cut flowers doesn't mean that is is acceptable for the chemicals used to produce them to enter the environment. Our flower garden is a living ecosystem, full of organisms big and small, that we fiercely wish to protect. In addition, there is published evidence suggesting that the florists using conventional flowers (and undoubtably the growers producing them as well) have traceable amounts of dangerous pesticides in their systems from working with this product.
From a grower's livelihood standpoint, developing markets for our flowers allows our family to make a modest living doing something that causes no harm and contributes beauty and biodiversity. Two years ago we were able to hire three flower employees and pay them a living wage - what a joy to bring more people into our cult of flower love! Each week on the auction we bring not only our own flowers but also any excess flowers grown by our farming colleagues on Salt Spring: Hey Day Farm, Bullock Lake Farm, Small Earth Organics, and Flowers by Tali. Promoting the work of other growers is key to promoting the greater vision of organic flowers and we love the wide variety and high quality we are able to offer to our dedicated wholesale customers.
Are you a florist interested in organic, locally grown product?
We want to hear from you!
Please fill our our Wholesale Flower SURVEY
Also feel free to send us an email with all your questions, comments, and requests related to wholesale flowers.
Each year (especially during winter farm planning) I find myself recommitting to my relationship with flower growing. I am often faced with my own insecurities about growing a non-edible product; comparing the usefulness of flowers to that of kale or onions. At this particular moment in time, as we are witnessing catastrophic ecosystem collapse and biodiversity loss, I ask: "is my contribution leaving the earth a better place for the next generation?" With two beautiful boys to think think about now, I am able to more confidently see the worthiness of the flower garden. The insects, the birds, the soil microorganisms - they all benefit from our flower diversity, our soil amendments, our irrigation, and ultimately from the shear volume of plants we nurture. Isn't it lovely to think of this charming ecosystem existing for beauty and biodiversity? This undeniable charm also lifts the human spirit and satiates our innate hunger for art and nature.
I pulled together some of my favourite instagram posts about our wholesale flowers from the past few years - click below to check them out!
Locals, I haven't forgotten about you!
If you are on Salt Spring and itching to secure your flower abundance for 2021, please sign up for our Flower CSA!