Our Values

For the last year or so I have shied away from talking in depth about our values and the issues behind why we do what we do and the way we do it.

It all felt too exposing. Too isolating. Critical. Unnecessary. So I’ve not done it as much. I’ve kept communication commercially relevant. There are after all other voices who talk about sustainability in floristry so well, to larger audiences than I, and so I’ve not felt my perspective is needed.

But this has meant I’ve not shared our research on the carbon footprint of weed suppression techniques, or plastic and coir pots, or followed up any of the work I did on chemicals on flowers (the blog post on which is still one of the top results on google!) I’ve felt like it’s not been my place to talk about these issues, my imposter syndrome raging, despite ‘sustainability’ being a core value for our business and a personal motivator.

A few months ago I took Michelle’s brilliant Carbon Literacy Training for Wedding Professionals (Sustainable Weddingalliance UK) and it helped me enormously. My “what is the point?” attitude has been replaced with “action required” and I’ve decided that I will talk about the very tricky issues that pervade the floristry industry and sustainable floristry.

I care. I think we all do if we stop and think about it for a while. I know my customers do.

Talking about these issues is not intended as criticism of how others do things. In fact it’s not actually about *your* business at all: it’s about mine! I spend a lot of time researching and considering information in order to make decisions - and to be quite honest it’d be quite nice to share the deliberations and resulting experiences.

It’s also true that I have absolutely no desire in making inane ‘Top 10 plants to grow’ posts and if I’m going to create posts I might as well talk about something I care about.

Yesterday’s post on tulips started some great conversations. A good start.

Year 7 and I’ve re-found my voice!

- Harriet x