Sustainability

Why bother with local, sustainably grown flowers?  Why is this important? Let's have a look!

Floriculture consumes more pesticides than any other agricultural sector.  In order to meet the demand for flower sales  U.S. florists rely heavily on imports.  Only 40 percent of U.S. demand for flowers is met domestically. The majority of these imports are produced in South America.   Flowers produced in countries such as  Colombia and Ecuador, are sprayed with highly toxic pesticides, fungicides, and fumigants. Many of these chemicals are banned in North America because they are extremely carcinogenic.  Columbian and Ecuadorian workers, many of them children, suffer from problems associated with pesticide exposure.  The environmental price for growing perfect blooms is poisoned soils, rivers and streams which has contributed to species decline.  The energy requirements to fly and truck flowers across great distances is huge and contriubutes to climate change. Even flowers grown in the U.S using conventional methods can contaminate groundwater and streams through fertilizer and pesticide run-off, with deleterious effects on wildlife and human health.

At Lilies and lavender, our goal is to produce beautiful flowers in a way that doesn't harm people or wreck the planet.  We are serious about using sustainable farming practices.   Sustainable farming works with nature, not against it, by utilizing agricultural techniques that build soil fertility and protect the surrounding air, water and wildlife.  It emphasizes building healthy, rich soil to produce plants that are resistant to pests and diseases.  The ultimate goal of sustainable flower growing is to have a healthy living plant/soil ecosystem that does not need added pesticides of any kind, artifical or natural.

At Lilies and lavender we are constantly working towards that goal.  Some of our practices include the use ofcover crops for weed control and protection from water and fertilizer run off.  We also use farm produced vermicompost, (worm compost), and compost from plant and rabbit waste to enrich our soil.  To protect flowers from insect damage and fungal diseases we use biological controls such as beneficial insects, companion planting of herbs and beneficial funguses which grow on plant roots and leaves protecting them from harmful fungal diseases. 

By buying sustainably grown flowers from Lilies and lavender you are helping to maintain a healthy environment, vibrant community, and a strong and sustainable local economy for you, your children and grandchildren.