"US (OR): "Flower consumers have big say in local growers' success"

Florists with shopping carts are buying local: Not food, but flowers. As members of the wholesale Portland Flower Market, they push their carts down wide aisles, checking out buckets of just-picked roses and lilies.

Selecting Oregon-grown flowers is as important as supporting other local farmers, says Sandra Laubenthal of Peterkort Roses near Hillsboro. Her family has been growing and selling flowers since 1923. Once, they were bigger producers.

Laubenthal laments that there were about 200 rose growers in the U.S. 20 years ago. One-tenth have survived. "We growers have changed what and how we grow, and we are happy to see that people are asking for locally grown," she says.

Even though the Portland Flower Market is open only to people in the trade, flower consumers have a big say in local growers' success.

"If you want locally grown flowers from your florist, just ask," says Laubenthal. "Florists have been shopping this market for 75 years and they know to come here."

Read more at OregonLive.com