Greenwash The Flowers, Field House Farm, Everingham (2026)

12/03/2023

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Someone sent me latest reel this morning and added a 🤮 emoji.
I was already aware of Tomas and his self-styled ‘Europe’s most famous floral designer’ label, but it’s impossible to accuse him of greenwashing.
Tomas uses floral foam by the tonne to construct gigantic shapes; he dyes flowers to fit his palette, he’s part of the ‘more is better’ school – but sees nothing wrong in his profligate use of resources.
He does not attempt to greenwash his work, but glories in its excess.
Tomas’s work is sought after and praised; his weddings and events are admired for their wastefulness; his customers demand that their event outshine anything that’s gone before.
Sadly, Tomas isn’t alone. There are far too many event florists happy to pander to clients’ demands without thought of the cost to the planet.
Luxury is judged by how much money has been spent, hedonism rules and quiet elegance is forgotten.
Where do we start?
Images from

11/03/2023

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The latest YouGov global study on Environmental Marketing revealed that 71% of people in the UK agreed with the statement,
“I am sceptical about most brands’ attempts to convince me that they are green”.
With just one week to Mothering Sunday, the busiest day of the year for giving flowers, we’ll see so many online flower delivery companies making unlikely claims about the sustainability of the flowers they’re offering.
Remember, there are no UK-grown Roses blooming in March.
Every Rose, Gerbera, Lisianthus and Carnation in those bouquets have been imported and any positive environmental claim by the company selling them must be treated with suspicion.
If only 29% of the population swallow the claims anyway, wouldn’t the firms’ monies spent on hiding massive carbon footprints be better spent on working to reduce them?
If you’re trying to be kinder to the planet this Mothers’ Day, buy Daffodils or buy your Mum a gift voucher that can be used later in the year when the weather allows a much greater range of British flowers to be available.

05/03/2023

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The article about online flower delivery companies (see yesterday’s post) gave legitimacy to firms making spurious claims about their flowers.
statement that ‘most of their flowers are home-grown’ is repeated unchallenged where just a few minutes perusal of the images on their website would have shown this to be highly unlikely.
are labelled ‘genuinely sustainable and ethical’. I do not believe any company importing flowers can be called genuinely sustainable and, as Arena win their ethical award by paying for accreditation from The (un)Ethical Company Organisation, the praise can be ignored.
Throughout their copy-and-paste article, Astill and Lewis carp about the cost of the bouquets, ‘Prices are a little high”, ‘Luxury bouquets are very expensive’, culminating in their bald comment about Floward’s service, “It’s not cheap”.
You honestly want flowers grown under acres of plastic, watered, cut, refrigerated and flown 5,000 miles to be cheap too? The planet you live on is only worth destroying provided it’s done cheaply?j.astill if you’re interested in doing original research about the honest environmental cost of the flowers on sale on 19th March please get in touch.
(Image from Arena Flowers)

04/03/2023

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A recent piece in The Telegraph reviewed their favourite online flower delivery companies in preparation for Mothers’ Day.
Lazy journalists simply copied the firms’ own claims on their websites with no effort to check the truth.

It’s another type of greenwashing: like a crooked dealer laundering dirty money, this sort of article in a respected newspaper gives credence to dodgy claims. Why should firms worry about veracity about their products when they can be pretty sure that gullible journalists will lap up their propaganda?

Happily, the Telegraph placed The Great British Florist in first place for providing the only genuinely seasonal British-grown bouquet they reviewed - but, even then, they found fault with the relatively small choice of flowers on offer. Er… you bought locally-grown flowers in Britain in February, have you looked out of the window?
As for the other online delivery companies they reviewed, I’ll continue tomorrow…

Genuinely seasonal, honest flowers for Mothering Sunday can be found by searching www.flowersfromthefarm.co.uk

03/12/2022

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The catastrophic drought affecting the area around London and the Home Counties has worsened, say experts.
With little rain having fallen for four years, whole regions of Scotland and the South East have been declared an emergency zone and livestock have died in their millions. Starving people are leaving their homes and trekking miles to relief centres, which are themselves short of food and water because of the civil war in the Hebrides.
Much of the Midlands, the whole of East Anglia and much of the Borders are already in crisis and Worldwide charities are warning that millions in the UK will die without immediate aid.

In other news, our world-famous Rose farms in Snowdonia continue to export between 3 and 4 million stems of roses every day to the Ethiopian market and the same area is busy harvesting thousands of tonnes of green beans, sugarsnap peas, baby leeks, asparagus, mangetout and baby sweet corn for East Africa’s dinner tables.

Looks different when you swap a few names on a map doesn’t it?

I’ve superimposed the UK map onto that of drought-ridden Ethiopia at exactly the same scale, so my comparison of distances is genuine.

Now tell me you’re still happy importing 50,000 roses for your one-day luxury event.

19/11/2022

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A few weeks ago I complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about Prestige Flowers] describing themselves as organic and single-use plastic free.
The ASA rejected my complaint as they deemed I was a competitor of Prestige 🙄.
Not to be put off, I inveigled my lovely niece into making a similar complaint (which is why I ordered those plastic-wrapped neon Chrysanthemums from Prestige a few weeks back) and yesterday she got a reply.
The ASA are currently looking into how they respond to matters of an environmental nature, so they cannot take up her complaint at this time…..
Great to hear they’re launching a Climate Change & Environment Project but sad that, in the meantime, customers will continue to be duped by Prestige Flowers] and other online flower delivery companies into believing they’re buying an eco-friendly product.

13/11/2022

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A FOAM-FREE FUTURE?
3/3
When floral foam is banned, what will happen?
Will families suddenly decide not to have flowers at their loved one’s funerals?
No. The demand will remain constant.
Funeral Directors .uk will need to liaise with florists about a whole new range of designs and practices.
New mechanics will have to be worked out and new pricing bands introduced to take account of the extra work/time involved.. and this would be the same for EVERY florist: no-one would lose out because every single florist would be in the same position.
At present, we have a two-tier situation with traditional foam-users feeling threatened by the upsurge in users. It can make for poor relations among florists when we should be a united team.
Will a ban on floral foam actually make for better relationships?

12/11/2022

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A FOAM-FREE FUTURE?
2/3
Stopping using floral foam was very easy for me. I’m a one-woman band, a sole trader with no-one dictating how my flowers should be arranged.
It’s not as easy for everyone.
Some of a florist’s business will involve delivering arrangements to customers that have been ordered through a relay company such as
The rise in online delivery companies like has eaten into this sector, but the orders are still coming in and the florist is required to clone a specified design - again based on floral foam.
The companies taking customers’ orders need to update their designs to let florists work more sustainably.
COP27 is making us all think about how we can work and live without further damaging the planet.

11/11/2022

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A FOAM-FREE FUTURE?
1/3
One day in the not-too-distant future, floral foam will be banned.
For many, that day can’t come soon enough, but I recognise it’s scary for many florists who believe they can’t run their business without it.
Most of a high street florist’s business can be funeral work; the orders coming straight from the funeral director with no contact with the bereaved’s family. 80% of this work features the same common designs, all based on floral foam - so it’s not surprising many florists believe their business depends on it.
COP27 can make us think we individuals are powerless to help the environment crisis but, if you’re trying to change the way you do farewell flowers, you’ll find inspiration and every little helps.

10/11/2022

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If you only do one thing…
If stopping using floral foam altogether is still a step too far:-
If, despite knowing the damage it does, you worry your business won’t survive without it:-
If you only do one thing, stop pouring the water in which you’ve soaked it, down the drain.
That water is now brim full of micro plastics and, whether you pour it down the sink, down a gully in the street or down the toilet it’ll end up in the sea and damage further our already fragile oceans.
The ‘best’ place (and I use that phrase with regret) is onto the ground in your own garden.

06/11/2022

We are coming to the end of the British growing season, when genuinely more environmentally friendly options are available to florists in the UK. This is a time when transparency is most crucial as some floristry businesses switch to naturally dried or foliage and branchy options that can be sourced locally grown whilst some choose to use imported flowers.

These are individual choices reflecting individual circumstances but how this is communicated to customers is key to combating greenwashing and spreading misinformation, like the common misconception that dried flowers are better. Naturally dried options are great, unfortunately it is the artificially preserved, bleached and dyed that seem to feature far too often in these so called ‘eco’ designs. So to repeat our main takeaways from the week:

Wholesalers and Suppliers: Label provenance and production processes.

Floristry service providers: Ask questions of your wholesalers and suppliers and label your products and services accordingly. Preference using locally grown and un chemically treated ingredients where possible.

Customers: Ask questions of your floristry service providers and if you can seek out and support businesses that preference using locally grown and un chemically treated ingredients where possible.

Thanks so much for having us this week and for all your comments and shares. For more from us, follow us on .collective.
The truth is, we are so passionate about raising awareness of issues such as those we have discussed this week that for 2023 we’ll be focusing much more on SSAW as a content and campaigning platform. Be sure to look out for our winter campaign ‘Why Buy Roses in February?’ which we will be launching soon too. Check out our journal post to find out more in the meantime: https://www.ssawcollective.com/post/why-buy-roses-in-february
📷 &

06/11/2022

We wanted to round up our posts for the week over here by sharing some of the processes we have tried to put in place to create a business and customer service model that is honest, professional and sticking to our core values.

If you work in floriculture and can relate to the topics we have touched on in our posts over the past week and you have felt frustrated by the status quo like us, these might be useful to try if you haven’t already. Many we are sure are already well put into practice. Please do comment with anymore you have to add:

Familiarise yourselves with the availability lists of local growers and ideally buy from them as much as possible. Supporting the existence of these growers is vital to creating the existence of a viable alternative to the current system. Check out to find growers near you.

Ask them about their growing practices, many small market flower farms in the UK grow chemical free, outdoors and in unheated greenhouses or are working really hard to improve their production processes - it’s a great pleasure getting to know the grower’s story and forming close relationships is often mutually beneficial.

As a handy reference, Claire Brown of , who hosted the account recently, has written a guide to the availability of seasonal flowers in the UK, aptly named ‘The British Flowers Book’.

Ask your wholesalers where the flowers you are buying are from. Look out for certifications and standards.

Be honest about where the flowers you are using have come from and if you are using a mixture of imported and local be up front about it, make sure hashtags and descriptions are clear. As said, ‘there is no shame in using imports - only deceit in pretending that you don’t.’

Be fair to your industry colleagues, calling others out is not always a productive exercise. Having a conversation with them about something that you feel might be helpful for both parties to unpick, is more likely to lead to positive change. We can only do this together. In order to build a better floriculture industry we’ve got to still have an industry to be able to improve.

Continued in comments…

Greenwash The Flowers

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