Is your Fresh Flower Bouquet Chemical Free?

We all know the difference between chemically sprayed food versus organically or sustainably grown food, right? Likewise, some commercially grown cut flowers may also be sprayed to promote growth out of season or prolong shelf life. And if the fresh flowers have been imported, they have definitely been chemically sprayed (see notes below on Australia's biosecurity regulations).

In other words, I would not like to sniff a cut flower if I knew it had been heavily treated with chemicals, such as silver nitrate, to promote shelf life.

As with feeding my family with organically grown vegetables and fruit, I prefer to have organically, sustainably grown cut flowers sitting in my vase on my kitchen table. And certainly, for wedding and bridal bouquet work, no bride wants to knowingly carry a chemical cocktail in her hands walking down the aisle. If you think I'm being overly dramatic, I know a bride who developed a nasty skin reaction to the heavily sprayed roses in her bouquet on her wedding day!! Not ideal, for sure!

And a final note on chemically laced cut flowers; in Australia biosecurity regulations dictate that any imported cut flowers are treated (fumigated) before they enter Australia to comply with pest and disease regulations. This means that not only are these flowers laden with various nasty chemicals, at their country of origin, the workers growing and cutting the flowers may be exposed to unregulated dosages of toxins and other nasty chemicals. For further reading on this topic .. Biosecurity for imported cut flowers - Australian Flower Traders Association (ausflowertraders.com.au ).

Fortunately, for those of us who love fresh flowers, awareness in Australia is growing of the benefits of 'grown not flown' fresh flowers. Local flower farms using sustainable methods are becoming more common. In fact, local small and even micro flower farms are a wonderful way of supplying nearby florists and wedding florists with cut fresh flowers that do not transport long distances well. I know this firsthand, because we're one of those local micro flower growers, in our case scented roses, who love what they do and do it with lots of care for both the flowers and the environment.

By the way, did you know that roses grown en masse for the international cut flower industry were bred without scent so as to lengthen their shelf life, because scent will shorten the life of a flower! I personally can't imagine a beautiful rose without its lovely rose perfume, can you? Next time you go to sniff a lovely bunch of roses, if they're scented then they may have been grown near you, and hopefully without pesticides or other nasty sprays.

So, if you're looking for a wedding florist or just a lovely, scented bunch of flowers for your kitchen table, seek out your local flower farmers. You might be surprised to find some not too far from you, like us ...

We not only grow beautiful scented roses without pesticides or other nasty sprays, we also do lovely bridal bouquets and bridal party flowers for small intimate weddings. If you're in the lower Hunter Valley of NSW, you can contact us via this website, or DM us on Instagram @ lillianheirloomroses.

I'd love to hear from you ..

xx Lillian