Jane Marx, the founder of the day delivery service, is preparing to send more than 1,000 bouquets this Mother's Day. Each carefully packaged arrangement – soft sweet peas, peach tulips – will come from a Victorian farm. “Because the best flowers are the ones closest to you,” she said.
“We are lucky to have many kinds in Victoria,” Marx said. “Our customers believe that whatever we do in the arrangement is the best season, but unfortunately, this is not reflected more broadly in the flower consumer market.”
According to data from the Australian flower industry, it is estimated that only 50% of flowers purchased in Australia are grown here. CEO Anna Jabour said the percentage changed again during peak hours. “There are a lot of imported flowers, mainly because large supermarkets buy a lot of imported flowers during Mother's Day and other periods,” she said.
Japur said that while not all flowers sold in supermarkets are imported, there is no necessary label of country of origin in Australia. This makes it difficult for customers to make informed choices. “We think that if the community realizes that not all flowers are grown here, they will choose to grow Australians,” she said.
Although flowers are an expensive purchase – flowers are often retailed for $100, florists say they are often impulsive purchases. This means that shoppers don’t always make informed decisions about quality.
Flowers are imported to meet year-round demand for popular varieties such as roses, which are usually brought from Colombia and Ecuador.
Imports are not necessarily cheap and additional costs are borne. Japur said there is a quality cost because they have fumigated and other chemical treatments. “Flowers imported into Australia are fumigated by brominated methyl, which are immersed in glyphosate,” she said. “Blosses grown overseas also travel by plane or ship, and bring environmental costs,” she said.
Sarah Regan, a Sydney florist who runs the same-day delivery service for Little Flowers, is committed to selling 95% of Australian-grown flowers for these reasons. “With local flowers you will get better quality, better freshness, no transit time and less environmental impact,” she said.
“We think imports are an absolute last resort. I don’t think customers will necessarily take the initiative to think about it, but once they know, they do care,” she said. “The responsibility of being a business owner is part of helping people educate in a great way.”
A beautiful group of people employed women from refugee backgrounds who also promised to sell 95% of Australia's growing flowers. “Our social impact is embedded in the work we do, so buying imports is not appropriate,” Marx said.
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Janae Paquin-Bowden, who runs a microflower farm, noticed the change with her husband Chris in Flos de Lyonville, De Lyonville, the Macedonian mountain region of Victoria. “At the Melbourne Farmers’ Market, we have flower shops coming now and we say they just say they [buy] Australian adult flower. We didn't have that ten years ago. ”
Japur said hydrangeas, tulips, poppies and sunflowers are some of the flowers grown in Australia on Mother's Day. “They are really beautiful and have a lot of features.”
“Go to your local florist and ask for Australian adult flowers in particular,” she said. “Avoid supermarkets.”
For affordable alternatives, look for local growers at farmers markets and ask for seasons.
Chrysanthemums will naturally bloom before Mother's Day, which is why they are closely related to dates. That, they contain the word “mom”. “April to May is their natural flowering period, so it's easy to plant them at this time of year,” said Aldo Vumbaca, a third-generation grower.
Vumbaca says White is their most popular color, followed by pink and pastel. Recently, florists have also been asking for “Autumn colors – orange, brown and sunset colors”.
While in the little flower, Regan sold a mixed bouquet of stems that morning from her growers’ network at the Sydney Flower Market. “I bought it from people who have worked on flower farms for generations. There is mud in the bucket. Weathered hands. I think it's just a magic.”
She also sells a large number of seasonal flowers – such as elegant tulips from Victoria, bright sunflowers grown in southern New South Wales Highlands, and Sydney Dutch stocks known for their unique mustard scent.
“The first thing you have to do is to bury your nose in them,” Marx said, who also sells sweet peas, local roses, marigolds and orange bankia for this Mother's Day.
“Flowers that are frequently imported and processed have no aroma,” said Chris Paquin-Bowden.
Vumbaca said he was not entirely opposed to imported flowers, but noticed that they had longevity issues. “You are trying to get three days from the struggle for import,” he said. 35 minutes from Sydney Flower Market, his company, commercial flowers can be cut and sold in one day. “We actually guaranteed a maximum life span of three weeks.”
Marx said local cut flowers usually last about a week if you buy them during the season. “It will be an excellent product; for example, the lifespan of tulips in vases is important because they are in the season. We are selling tulips in large quantities, not roses because that's how much we can get at the moment.”
The best thing customers can do, she said, is to support locally purchased florists. Second: “Look at the most exquisite flowers, such as sweet peas, soup, violet, because they are nearly impossible to import.”
“Look at what you can't imagine will survive on a plane,” Marx advises. “Also, if it's not growing on your street, it may have been imported.”
