It goes without saying that we are huge advocates of supporting  British flower farmers. We wholly promote using British and seasonal flowers for your wedding day. It is always with delight then that we enjoy celebrating British Flowers Week. We love that British flowers and foliage get the love and publicity they deserve. Luckily we are finding that their popularity is growing more and more which is amazing to see. This week is British Flowers Week 2017 and we wanted to mark it with a little recap as to why we think you should buy British blooms and support our homegrown experts and businesses.

You will be supporting an independent business

Our directory is absolutely bursting full of wonderful, passionate flower farmers, florists and floral designers. Many we have known personally for years now. If you buy British you are most likely supporting a local independent business. We have written a series titled ‘A day in the life of…‘ chatting with some of our flower farmers and florists so you can find out what goes on behind the scenes and what it takes to create your beautiful bouquets. This year we have also been running a series on social media called #seedlingtobouquet so you can actually see how your flowers are created for you, from the ground up. It always amazes me how much heart and soul they put into creating the most beautiful wedding flowers for brides and grooms.

It is more eco-friendly and ethical

This is a big topic regarding the environmental and ethical impact of the large scale flower industry which could create many a blog post just on their own. For the purpose of this post today we will just keep it to a couple of brief points for now.

It has been stated that approximately 90% of our flowers in the UK are imported. That’s an awful lot of air/road miles right there! There also needs to be consideration regarding mass production and the sustainability of the chemicals and energy used. Many of the chemicals used in the mass production of cut flowers have loose regulations as they are not an edible crop. A Human Rights article in 2007 said one-fifth of the chemicals used in the flower industry in developing countries are banned or untested in the United States. Whether this is still the case or not a more recent study has looked into the effect of pesticides on children living in agricultural communities in Ecuador and the results don’t sound great.

With regards to the people behind the production, unless you are buying flowers marked fair trade you can expect there to be some questionable ethical issues regarding the work force. Many employees in countries which are mass producers of cut flowers such as Kenya, Ethiopia, Colombia and Ecuador, can work in poor quality conditions. If you fancy reading up more you could have a look at these articles as a start; Befair.be (Say it with flowers; the ethics and sustainability in the flower chain and The Guardian (The women suffering for your Valentine’s flowers)

With most British flower farms you can be a lot more certain about where your flowers are coming from and the process it has taken to get them (as mentioned in reason 1).

There is so much choice with British flowers

No matter what time of year you are getting married there is such a massive variety of choice. Yes even in winter! A couple of years ago we shared with you why you should pick British for each season. These posts offer a great guide as to what you can expect depending on the month you are getting married. You can find all the posts here; Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. If you use Pinterest then why not also take a look at our profile  we’ve got a ton more seasonal flower inspiration over there for you.

An additional resource provided by British Flowers Week is this downloadable chart which you can download here. It breaks down which flowers are available when, a great little resource if you are planning on using British flowers at your wedding.

It is not just about your bouquets and buttonholes

British flowers can also be incorporated into your wedding day by the way of confetti and edible flowers. Both of which you will find on our directory. You can also read about our day at Shropshire Petals and what goes into making the natural petal confetti here. If you fancy wandering through flower fields yourself to see where your confetti originates then The Real Flower Petal Confetti Company open their fields from 30th June – 17th July this year.

Make a statement with edible flowers and herbs. We’ve got some brilliant businesses on the directory that grow the flowers to provide as pretty edible decorations and garnishes for your big day. Great for decorating cakes, desserts, savoury dishes, cocktails and more. We provide a whole load of inspiration on how to use them here on the blog.

Hopefully you will be celebrating British Flowers Week 2017 along with us and hopefully we have inspired you to not only choose British flowers for your wedding but to make the change in your day-to-day life too. Please do take a look at our directory bursting full of such talented floral businesses, I am positive you will be blown away by the prettiness!

Images: (2) Catkin Flowers (3) Bare Blooms ,(4) Forage and Blossom (5) Bride & Bloom, (6) Blue Poppy, (7) Pyrus, (8) Wild Bunch, (9) Bride & Bloom, (10) Flower Garden at Stokesay Court, (11) Wild Bunch, (12) Blue Poppy, (18) Shropshire Petals, (19+ 20) The Real Flower Petal Confetti Company, (21) Bees Bakery & Maddox Farm Organics by Emily Takes Pictures, (22+23) Greens of Devon by Betti Confetti Photography