Flower Power
Fresh, local, pesticide-free flowers are the next big thing in the market
By Karen Connington

Before we incorporated sustainability into our purchasing power, many of us bought fruits and vegetables, and even meats and fish, for their shape, color or shine. Today we’re apt to select the “greenest” apple in the bunch — that is, the organic or locally grown one — over the big, round red one with the highest gloss. We even extend this sensibility to our choice of wines, skin creams and counter-top cleaners. Why is it, then, that we buy flowers so impulsively — almost romantically — as though we were just picking a few daisies from our own garden? Where, in fact, do these flowers come from?

According to a story published in The New York Times, more than three-fourths of cut flowers sold in the U.S. are imported, primarily from warm nations like Colombia, which delivers about half our supply. And Ecuador grows about one-third of our roses. Bulbs and other varieties arrive from Europe and Africa. According to Ashley Krest, owner of Field Florals in Paonia, “most cut flowers travel to more countries than you or I by the time they get from grower to buyer.”

Krest has been growing flowers in the North Fork Valley for 10 years. In 2005 she opened a booth at the Aspen Saturday Market with her friend Daphne Yannakakis, who owns Paonia’s Zephyros Farm and Garden with husband Don Lareau. “When Ashley decided to focus more on design, we took over the farmers’ market booth on our own,” says Yannakakis, “but Ashley still makes guest appearances.”

The two women share a passion for flowers that drives a number of creative projects, from sharing specimens to planning weddings and events, and researching agricultural grants. But the core of their partnership is rooted in a commitment to the purity of their product. They are central players in a slow but gradual movement to clarify not only the cut flower itself, but the public’s understanding of what a “fresh” bloom actually is, or isn’t.

“People are tuned in to eating organic foods, shopping farmers’ markets and booking at restaurants that serve local produce.  But they’ll still stick their faces in bouquets of fumigated roses,” Yannakakis says. “Nobody washes these flowers — they permeate pesticides wherever they land.”

Melanie Ettenger is the flower garden manager at The Cameron Place, a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in Palisade.  She’s studied the origins of botanical gardens and seed collecting as part of her doctoral work at the University of Arizona. Though her crop at The Cameron Place is USDA certified, some local growers sow chemical-free fields while choosing not to file for official certification.  In Ettenger’s mind, products speak louder than paperwork.

“From my perspective, the important question is, can I check out the primary source of these plants and can I meet the people who grow them? Fresh flowers grown organically mean local flowers grown organically. Organic blooms flown in from thousands of miles away simply cannot look that great unless they’ve been synthetically manipulated in some way, altering quality, fragrance, color and durability,” she says.

The U.S. government does not currently regulate the use of pesticides on cut flowers. In order to deliver an unblemished, pestfree product, foreign exporters employ a laundry list of pesticides that have been documented as carcinogens, immune disruptors and neurotoxins. Public demand, however, particularly from European consumers, is beginning to alter that scenario, largely through the efforts of small, fair-trade growers in South America, but this trend, too, is slow. According to a New York Times report in 2008, only $19 million of a $21-billion-a-year cut-flower industry represented organic sales.

Wendy Scott Blakeslee, owner of Mountain Flowers in Aspen, sees convenience as the culprit: “People go to the grocery store and buy flowers for $9.99 because they happen to be shopping and the bouquets there are cheap.  They don’t think about what it costs to ship one box of flowers across continents. It saves no one money in the end, hurts local florists and growers, and takes an enormous toll on the environment.”

Mountain Flowers and Harrington Smith in Basalt are the Roaring Fork Valley’s main retail outlets for local and organic flowers outside of the summer markets. “You can’t beat the freshness factor of a blossom that was growing in a field one day and at my shop the next,” says Eileen Harrington.  Both shops are challenged by Colorado’s short growing season and constantly seek the purest wholesale options.

But what local organics lose in longevity is offset by a flourishing diversity. Zephyros, Field Florals and The Cameron Place combined grow more than 40 different varieties of blooms, including common annuals like zinnias, sunflowers and dahlias; herbs like oregano and thyme; perennials; and edibles like lavender, rudbeckia, nasturtiums and violas.

Local growers are constantly devising new schemes to increase distribution and educate budding botanists. Krest and Yannakakis are talking to Whole Foods about supplying their planned store in Basalt and other franchises throughout the region. Zephyros will add workshops to its current calendar of weddings and events next summer, while Ettenger plans to introduce flower-production techniques into the intern-training program at The Cameron Place. And Krest will deliver fresh bouquets across the region once a week, by subscription, all summer long.

For those planning summer nuptials, now is the time to act. Locals Lee Liebmann and Sarah Helsley hired Field Florals months before their celebration. Instead of leafing through photos of glitzy bouquets, they previewed blossoms ready to reap when their wedding bells rang.  “My husband and I were turned off by the excesses we saw in the local wedding industry and decided to go a different route,” says Liebmann.

As we watch the last snows of winter melt into the seeds and bulbs bearing this spring’s harvest, there is a hint of fragrance in the air. Tulips, daffodils, peonies, forsythia, flowering quince and lilacs will be the first blossoms ready to cut for the early markets. They beckon us to come to our senses — all of them — and relish the sweet romance in nature.