Sourcing Wedding Flowers Responsibly in Oregon

Working Seasonally

As a wedding florist who works in different seasons and with a wide range of color palettes, my main focus when it comes to specific flower selection is about seasonality.

Many of my clients aren’t well versed in specific flower varieties (that’s my job!), but every so often I have clients who love specific flower varieties. Think, peonies, dahlias, daisies and ranunculus to name a few. I always welcome the sharing of opinions on specific blooms, but I like to tell my clients about my focus on seasonal blooms instead of focusing on ‘the favorites’.

I do this for a few reasons, but it comes down to price, quality and sustainability (you’ll find in this post that these three often connect and overlap).

Let’s take peonies for example. Peonies are highly desired flowers for so many reasons, but the reality is that peonies, like most flowers, are very seasonal. This means that wherever they’re grown, they are only grown for a specific time in the year depending on the climate of their growing location.

Here in Oregon, peony season typically is in April-May, but sometimes can extend through June (and with the wild growing season of 2022, I even got my hands on them in July!). They’re typically a spring flower, so if you’re getting married in say, May, you’re in luck if you like peonies. If you come to me with a December wedding date and are looking for peonies, quite literally, right now, the week that I’m writing this in late December, peonies are $7.00 a stem. Yes, $7.00 a stem, wholesale, for one. single. peony. Depending on retail markup, this single peony would cost my client $21-$28 dollars. This is just one flower example of why seasonality matters, but you can apply this to many other blooms.

But let’s say my client is willing to spend nearly $30 dollars for each peony and we decide to use them in their December wedding. Let’s move on to my next point: quality. Peonies have a relatively short vase life. It’s 5 or so days, and this can drastically be shortened if your peonies are exposed to excessive warmth and sunlight.

So in this example, a peony in December for an Oregon event, is not being grown in Oregon, but likely somewhere in South America. And while there are several flower varieties that are quite hardy and do pretty well with an international transport, the quality of a fresh-cut peony in spring from an Oregon grower will undoubtedly be better than a peony being shipped thousands of miles in the off-season.

And to round out my three main reasons to source flowers seasonally, is due to sustainability. As an eco-conscious florist, buying seasonally certainly makes my business a lot more eco-friendly than if I were to constantly use off-season or imported product. The focus on seasonality allows me to work with blooms that are grown in my area during late winter, spring, summer and fall, and eliminates a large carbon footprint of having to fly out-of-season blooms to my doorstep.

Stock flower, locally grown on the left, imported on the right

Sourcing Locally

As a florist who began floristry on the east coast in central Virginia working at a flower shop, I wasn’t used to working with such an abundance of locally grown flowers as I am now. While the flower shop I worked at did get seasonal, locally grown blooms from time to time, a lot of our product was shipped to us (also due to not being close to a flower market).

Part of the reason I decided to move to Portland, Oregon was the flower scene, but I was in for an even greater, pleasant surprise when I found out how many flower farmers there are in the Oregon and Washington areas. I have to say, at times, it’s pure bliss as a florist, and I have been taken aback time and time again seeing how incredible locally grown flowers are.

I do want to say that in this case, when I talk about sourcing locally, I don’t mean buying from a local wholesaler, I’m referring to local growers; in other words, flowers that come from flower farms here in Oregon and Washington. Sourcing locally also brings me back to my three points in the last tidbit, which were price, quality, and sustainability. I won’t go through all of those again, but you can understand how locally sourced flowers would make said flower variety most cost effective, higher quality, and have a less of a negative environmental impact.

I will add that another reason for sourcing locally is being able to put my business dollars back into the local economy and support so many other small business owners, many of whom are women, LGBTQ+ and/or BIPOC.

Thinking Sustainably

As previously mentioned, sustainability is something I strive for in my business. Both working with locally grown and seasonal blooms allows me to lessen my carbon footprint when I can, but sustainability also means considering whether I’m using natural products vs. preserved and dyed products.

There’s been a trend with wedding florals where many people are attracted to neutral colors that are often achieved by using chemicals to preserve a foliage or flowers. Preserved florals are quite different from dried florals, and that distinction needs to be made more often in the wedding industry. While many opt for dried florals, because of their lovely texture and ‘forever’ life, preserved products are a different story.

Preserved products do not use a natural process to dry or preserve, but rather use harsh chemicals. This means they should not be composted and be sent to the landfill instead. The same goes with dyed and glittered florals (often colors you don’t see exist in nature), which have plastic additives to turn their color and should not be composted. And while I’m not an expert in the process behind preserving or dying, I opt not to use dyed or preserved products, not only to retain the integrity of the natural beauty floral have to offer, but because of sustainability reasons.

A Mix Of Cost-Effective and Luxe Blooms

Using a mix of ‘luxe’ and ‘cost-effective’ blooms is another consideration I take into sourcing flowers and this helps greatly with budget. Each wedding has carefully selected blooms, some of which are on the pricer side (garden roses, delphinium, orchids, to name a few) and some which are either less pricy or have a big impact for their price (roses that open up big and fluffy for a beautiful focal bloom, or ‘filler’ flowers like stock or dianthus).

Using this method of bloom selection brings a unique variety of event flowers to designs, while keeping them elevated but not over-the-top in terms of cost.

Portland Flower Market

For those interested, the physical location where I get the majority of blooms is the Portland Flower Market, which is located in industrial Swan Island in Portland, Oregon. I still remember the first time I stepped foot in the market - I was in complete awe of all the blooms and hard-goods the different wholesalers had to offer.

The Portland Flower Market includes several national and international wholesalers such as Mayesh and Frank Adams, but my personal favorite is what florists and industry professionals call the ‘Middle Market’ (located in the middle of the market), also known as Oregon Flower Growers Association. OFGA is grower-owned and self-operated and includes blooms, plants and other goods from dozens of growers in Oregon and Washington.

A typical start to a wedding production week begins with a 4:45 wakeup call in order to get to the market by 5:30 am. Flowers are then taken back to my home studio, processed and stored in my flower cooler 'until the design days thereafter.

Connecting with a Sustainable, Seasonally Focused Floral Designer

Searching for a wedding florist can be overwhelming, especially if you’re getting married in a city or destination where wedding vendors (such as florists) are plentiful. Of course, you’ll be drawn to certain florists’ styles and choice of color palettes, and their pricing may impact your decision. But what many couples don’t consider is how the flowers for their wedding will be sourced. And while all the details may not factor into your decision, I do believe that knowing some of a florist’s sourcing process will be beneficial in decision-making.

For me, as a Portland wedding florist, it makes all the sense to source seasonally, locally, and as eco-friendly as I can, because quality, beauty, sustainability, and supporting other small business owners and growers are all really important to me. This is a big part of how I want to continue in the floral design industry.

If my sourcing information resonated with you, whether you too want to support more small local businesses, appreciate the beauty of locally grown, seasonal blooms, or appreciate businesses who are eco-conscious, I’d love to chat with you further about your floral needs!