Sustainable Floristry
Sustainable floristry is a term often mentioned in the wedding and events industry. The message is slowly creeping out there to couples and corporates who are looking for something more from their florists. I have been in the sector for 7 years and during that time, freelanced, worked for florist retailers and had my own bricks and mortar in the Fleurieu Peninsula. I’m now a studio-based florist and am able to work across all of the Fleurieu – from McLaren Vale to the Adelaide Hills. I’m more agile. I can ramp up and down as the events season dictates. Smarter and less wasteful. I don’t carry over stock – I only order what I need, so no storage concerns.
When speaking to couples and clients, I always share where I do my sourcing – locally grown and if the brief requests it, more widely to Australian grown. I talk about what I use in my mechanics – how I create bouquets, arbours and table arrangements and what elements of these can be recycled. I also share what I do with waste and encourage guests to ‘take home at the end of the night’. Where stems can’t be repurposed, I experiment. I recently started hand dyeing fabrics using petals and used the fabric for wreaths, giving them a vintage feel.
The biggest hurdle for all sustainable florists, is the use of floral foam – or avoidance of. That’s not to say I never use – but avoid using wherever possible and am mostly successful. For example, when you transfer arbour flowers across to bridal tables – you are being less wasteful, however trying to do that using a chicken wire structures proves challenging. Often leading to using more flowers as the structure is less sturdy and with no water source for stems to survive. How do you balance? I recently read about a new floral foam product called Phoam Labs (@phoamlabs), which is derived from corn and is totally renewable. I am staying connected with the US based company to see how this all unfolds in Australia. I’m excited to try it.
So, when I get the brief – ‘I’d like to use flowers from my garden for our wedding’. I get excited to craft something so personal. Creating wedding bouquets, aisle piece, table centre pieces and ceremony meadows which are unique to the couple. No copies of other florists’ work – just what’s meaningful to the couple. And, what is meaningful to me on a personal and professional level, pushing out my thinking around: How do I charge? How do I plan for the event? How far in advance do we start working together on a planting plan? Could this be a new offering? Could this be the way of the future for sustainable floristry? There is space for this and I’m open to it. It’s both sustainable and scalable.