US (NY): Slow flower movement blooms in Lower Hudson Valley
Just like the farm-to-table goal of growing, producing and eating locally sourced foods, this field-to-vase mentality is providing blooms picked at the height of their beauty, just miles from where they're sold.
“The first time I heard slow flowers I thought, 'like slow food,' and made the connection,” says Kris Burns, who opened the Lower Hudson Valley's first slow flowers shop, Festoon, in Nyack this month.
Before 1991, the percentage of American-grown cut flowers was over 60 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture but the Andean Trade Preference Agreement (ATPA) signed by President Bill Clinton cut tariffs on some products from South American countries in an effort to thwart cultivation of coca, the main ingredient in cocaine.
Now Colombian-grown flowers account for most of the cut flowers in this country. In 2011, the California Cut Flower Commission started a “Certified American Grown” label to recognize locally grown flowers.
“We have to educate the consumer about where their flowers are coming from and support local economies and local farmers," says Gloria B. Collins, a flower designer who runs GBC Flower Style from her home in Montebello. She's been working with local flowers for the past two years.
Burns says her interest in local, seasonal flowers grew after spending time with friends at their upstate farm. “We started helping them plant their garden and forage for mushrooms, berries and found plants,” she says.
Then she learned more about the floral industry. “It never occurred to me 80 percent of our flowers were not grown in the U.S.”
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