For several years I bought flowers for my home, at the market, from street vendors or in flower shops, but only when I started this journey into the world of flower trade, a more thorough search also began on their seasonality and provenance.
Have you ever tried to smell those roses that we buy even just for fun during a November evening? They don't smell, do they?
Probably they come from Kenya and were collected almost a month before by workers without rights, after having been cultivated in an arid territory and using precious water for the local population, freezed in cells with temperatures around zero and maybe soaked in pesticides to preserve them during the long journey by ship that took them to Amsterdam from where after being sold at auction they travel by land to arrive in Milan. The one of roses is the most striking example, because is worldwide best-selling flower and contains a symbolic meaning for which we expect to find them available 365 days a year. In Italy, in nature, they only bloom in the hottest months, while in countries in the southern hemisphere they can be grown in heated and low-cost greenhouses, all year round.
In 2008, Amy Stewart with the book Flower Confidential, raised the problem of intensive cultivation of flowers from developing countries, for which numerous chemicals are used, illegal in the countries where they are then exported. From here the Slow Flowers movement was born, to promote greater awareness of the sustainability of the flowers we put on the tables or in the living rooms, which should not be treated with less attention just because we do not eat them. Exactly as organic fruit exists, there are also organic flowers, cultivated according to parameters of sustainability and attention to the environment. A number of flower farms in South America have also been certified at European level for their sustainability, but once collected these flowers still make a long journey, passing through Miami and the Amsterdam auctions.
Is it still possible to buy local and seasonal flowers?
In Italy, alongside traditional flower growers who guarantee fresh and seasonal products, niche growers cultivate rare flowers or those that are not offered on the international market because they are fragile during transport. The demand is driven by a culture that is increasingly aware of the environmental impact of the products that enter our homes. In the Slow Flower Farm we find fascinating triple daffodils, majestic fritillaria, tulips that smell of honey and flowered branches, which bring us to the city that timeless charm of flowers gathered in the country gardens.
Therefore, our RAWs are composed by flowers from local and organic growers and greens from the Slow Flowers Farms of northern Italy, cultivated according to the rhythm of nature, without using chemical fertilizers or pesticides and collected at the time of the order.
*Emily Dickinson
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