By Sally Sola, Founder, Cheltenham Flower School
Sustainability is a tricky thing to talk about as a general topic, but I can talk about how sustainability looks like to me personally as a florist and The Cheltenham Flower School. I have tried to write a more generalised blog on the topic (in fact there are multiple drafts on my laptop). However, I think talking about it in relation to my business makes it more relevant to me, to my company’s ethos and values and hopefully to you, the reader.
The first thing for me to say is that wherever possible, I will try to make the best possible ecofriendly choices available to me. Sometimes the time of the year makes this easier and sometimes it can make it more difficult. Let me explain further, and to do this I am going to break it down into smaller sections.
Moss Bases vs Oasis
For me I think this was one of the first and yet biggest change. When I was learning to be a florist, the only time I saw moss was to “top” planted bowl designs or at Christmas for door wreaths. Even the latter wasn’t a regular or common practice in the shops I worked in. When I worked in events it happened a little more frequently, but again only at Christmas.
But over time I became more curious about the negatives of Oasis and the alternatives available in and this developed further during the pandemic in 2020/21. Over that time, as I went online and as my usual supplies became more difficult or challenging to source, I tried experimenting and soon discovered that using moss as an alternative was more appealing. This was in large part because using moss, and consequently practicing more traditional floristry skills, is far more rewarding using Oasis. You see, not only is moss more environmentally friendly, but it encourages you to create designs with a more natural movement and shape and which, when made correctly, are far more secure. It was from this insight that I therefore started with the idea of using moss for seasonal wreaths such as Christmas and Spring wreaths. And this, in turn, led me to invest in myself and reach out to a florist I had gotten to know to ask for some additional professional training where I learnt how to create bigger arrangements using moss. That upskilling enabled me to feel confident that when I pass this knowledge onto my customers, I am teaching a more traditional form of floristry whilst making a positive environmental choice. And, when I say more traditional floristry techniques I mean no short cuts. Moss requires you to take the time and invest it in proper planning and preparation, and it is this time and focus which, I think, leads to much better results (in my honest opinion). And so even if my customers only do this once or twice in my workshops they are benefitting from a more organic form of floristry whilst limiting their environmental impact.
Reducing Single Use Plastics
This overlaps with the above section. Did you know that Oasis contains single use plastics? There has been a lot of work and investigation over the more recent years where companies are attempting to find an alternative to traditional florists’ foam. I think there may still be some way to go but it shows very promising signs. However, there are of course more obvious plastics such as cellophane plastic used to wrap flowers, or the plastic carrier bags. It is very rare I have the need to even use either of these items these days but if I do need to put things in a bag or wrap a bouquet, I now always use hessian reusable bags and plain brown paper wrapping. I’m not perfect, and sometimes I have no alternative, but I do my very best to avoid single used plastics.
Buying Locally or UK Grown Flowers
If you have read any of my previous blog posts (and thank you if you have) I have written about this topic at length in one titled “Why Buy Local Flowers”. However, if you haven’t read it, I will explain a bit here. I love everything about British grown flowers, especially those grown here in the Cotswolds. They offer different varieties of flowers to those you would perhaps see from our Dutch suppliers. Don’t get me wrong, Dutch lorries and suppliers still have an importance place, especially during the winter months when I wouldn’t have a business if I didn’t use imported flowers but, where I can, I use local as their simple beauty is not to be ignored. And buying local means that I am reducing my carbon footprint and supporting local flower farms at the same time.
Conversation
This I think is the most important thing. If it wasn’t for conversations around sustainability and educating ourselves in our own way, then nothing would ever change. I am learning new things all the time and will continue to learn and share my knowledge with others through conversations at my workshops or in the greater community. In the hope that together we can all make small changes that result in a bigger difference. As my husband says, if something is worth doing it is worth doing badly. What he means by this (at least I think he means this, otherwise it may just be his excuse for not doing the washing up very well…) is that we should not let perfection, or the fear of not doing something as well as we might want, stop us from trying something and doing something. You don’t have to reduce your carbon footprint to zero as your first step. Everything you do, be it making your Christmas wreath with moss for the first time or wrapping a hand tied bouquet in plain paper, you are doing something more sustainable than if you didn’t do anything. And the first step to doing that is be aware of these things, and being part of the wider conversation.
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