ILEA Sustainability Panel — Links

I’ve collected these resources for further reading on sustainable floristry for an educational panel on sustainability, presented by ILEA, the International Live Events Association, Chicago chapter. I’ll fill in with more info as time allows. For now, this is a reading list on the topics I touched on in my talk on sustainable floristry. Photo credit: Corbin Gurkin Photography.

General

Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers

Amy Stewart. A comprehensive overview of the floral industry, including why there was a shift from domestically grown flowers to imported. The book that really raised my consciousness of the floral industry.

Slow Flowers

Slow Flowers is a movement promoting the support and purchase of American-grown flowers in the United States.

Cut Flower Growing and Production

WHEN A ROSE ISN’T JUST A ROSE: HOW TRADE POLICY WAS USED TO FIGHT DRUGS FROM COLOMBIA

Hinrich Foundation, Trade Vistas, February 2019.

The Secrets Behind your Flowers

Smithsonian Magazine, February 2011. Chances are the bouquet you’re about to buy came from Colombia. What’s behind the blooms?

Behind the Label: Cut Flowers

The Ecologist, August 2009. What’s the real price of your bouquet? Pat Thomas dishes the dirt on cut flower production in less-industrialised countries.

Say it with Flowers: Ethics and Sustainability in the Flower Value Chain

Trade for Development Centre, February 2014. Kenyan roses

Cut Flower Dying/Bleaching

Bleached: The Cost of Altered Flower Materials

What goes into that perfect stem of bleached greenery? Take a peek behind the scenes….

Sprayed: The Cost of Altered Flower Materials

Part 2 of the “Cost of Altered Floral Materials” posts. Read on for a look into the trend of spray painting natural floral materials and the troubling expense this practice leaves behind.

Floral Foam

How I Gave Up Floral Foam

From Pollen’s blog, our alternatives to using floral foam.

Floral foam: How bad is the stuff at the bottom of your roses?

The Sydney Morning Herald, February 2018. Australian newspaper article on floral foam.