Mother's Day for Mother Nature // Ethical Flowers

Mother's day is coming up fast. Whether you are a pre-planner or a last minute purchaser, the chances are that the majority of you guys will buy your mum or mother-like loved one flowers for the big day. Sure there are plenty of people who buy gift vouchers, spa breaks, books and the like, but when it comes to Mother's day, flowers rule the roost. Just check out some of these stats that I found:

Pretty impressive statistics don't you think? But are you thinking about the impact of these? Where do these flowers come from, how are they grown? Organic or not? Are they ethically grown and sourced, are they fair trade etc etc. Here are some more stats to think about:

Most people tend to forget about the biggest mother of all - Mother Nature during Mother's Day, but that can change!

I've found a few great places that have made a conscious effort to keep Mother Nature and Mother Earth in mind when they provide flowers for Mother's Day and other special occasions. And there are gazillions more out there so it's worthing taking the time to do a little bit of research to find the perfect eco flowers for her!

British Flowers:

A British company that is actually a social enterprise to help the local community and work with people disabilities. Organic Blooms grows most of it's own flowers right here in the UK and what is more they focus on growing their plants organically. When they outsource their flowers they do so from reputable growers within the UK. They also have workshops, courses and gift vouchers to give the best floral experience around.

Part of the Wiggly Wigglers natural gardening company, the Great British Florist are another company that focus on British flowers. This company goes beyond sustainability with there flowers but also for the whole farm that they have. They focus on biodiversity, crop rotation, recycling and sustainability for flowers, crops, cattle and more. They are also campaigning to establish a proper British Flowers Quality Assurance Mark to help the cause of #GrownNotFlown flowers.

British and International Flowers:

Wild & Wondrous Flowers are another online retailer of flowers and plants. W&WF's USP is that their main focus is on selling UK native and British grown flowers to keep down the carbon footprint of flower production as much as possible. When they do provide flowers that need to be imported they make sure they are ethically sourced. Again they support many of the sustainability initiative and certification bodies such as Florverde and Fair Flowers, Fair Plants as well as:

• Veriflora - top certification body for sustainability in floriculture and horticulture 
• Rainforest Alliance - an organisation working to biodiversity and promote sustainability practices.

W&WF also use as much biodegradable packaging as possible avoiding cellophanes and plastic. They also source their wrap and packaging from the UK to keep their carbon foot print low.

Bunches are an online floral service that are dedicated to making sure that they stock flowers and plants that are good for the environment and people. You can check out their entire ethos on their website here, but I've broken it down in a nut shell:

• Florverde - Bunches.co.uk source their carnations from Columbian farms that are part of Florverde, an initiative that strives to produces organic flowers in the most sustainable way. The also promote fair pay for all their workers.
• Fair Flowers, Fair Plants - another initiative that promotes sustainability in flower products from start to finish along with ethical working conditions for employees.
• Recycling -  Newly certified ISO 14001 and their packaging is 100% recyclable.
• Charity - 10% off their profits are donated to charities with the UK and the rest for the world

There are many more sites to check out. It's also worth noting that if you do have to buy through sites such as Interflora etc then check out to see if they have a FairTrade section- which many of them do and choose from that selection so that you know that the flowers you buy will be improving conditions of the workers within the flower production.

Buying Instore?

Buying in store? Look for native British flowers and plants or flowers that are labelled as grown in the UK or that have a certification or accreditation logo testifying to their sustainability and ethics if they are from international countries. The flowers in my photo are British Begonias, grown in the UK and being  pot plant will last for many months if looked after carefully. You can scoop up plants like this in all major supermarkets and garden centres. 

LOGOS TO LOOK FOR: