Why we sit out on Valentine’s Day.

Another Valentine’s Day is upon us: the annual celebration of those we love. My husband and I enjoy the holiday every year with a dog walk, Chinese food & a movie. I love the holiday and what it stands for (supposedly)—but I loathe the industry based around it, built as it is on the import of massive quantities of out-of-season flowers. HONEYBABY is committed to never sell flowers out of season, for two main reasons:

CHAPTER 1: The Inexorable Harm to the Environment (and by Extension, Humans) Incurred by Importing Flowers

The mainstream floral industry is an environmental disaster, and Valentine’s Day roses are perhaps its single most destructive aspect. A bouquet purchased from a commercial florist or supermarket chain almost certainly consists of flowers imported from countries thousands of miles away—primarily Columbia & Ecuador—where growing conditions are ideal year-round. These flowers are grown in massive greenhouses under artificial lights, sprayed with hundreds of chemical pesticides (it’s the only way growers can ensure their crop will pass inspection), and flown hundreds or thousands of miles in air-conditioned planes. Each bunch is individually wrapped in single-use plastic, driven across the country in air-conditioned trucks, and stored in giant refrigerators at massive wholesale facilities before arriving to your local florist, where they will be wrapped again.

Now, let me be very, very clear: this post is in no way shape or form meant to be a shame campaign. Obviously if given the choice and information, few of us would deliberately support an industry that is massively destructive to the environment. Despite the recent trend toward “ethical consumerism”, the floral industry has largely evaded the scrutiny shone on other industries (e.g. the foods we eat, beauty products, etc.)—both because flowers seem inherently “environmentally friendly”, and because for most flowers are an occasional discretionary purchase. “Greenwashing” campaigns abound in the floral industry: next time you see the “growers’ bunch” at your local supermarket—unsubtle marketing that strongly implies, without strictly stating in a way that would amount to false advertising, that they were locally grown—look more closely for a label; chances are you’ll see something like “product of Columbia.”

Beyond corporate duplicity, we all live insanely busy lives, and our finite time and attention are necessarily spent on things other than investigating the environmental costs of complex international supply chains; hence, we take this occasion every year to shine a light on something that you may not have thought of before or even considered, with the hope that this may spark some curiosity about flower farming, and maybe even help you appreciate the flowers in your own garden in a different way.

Also: this is not meant to cast aspersions on other florists and/or farmers who use imported flowers: there is absolutely nothing inherently wrong with selling or using imported flowers wholesale, or farming flowers during the season and supplementing what you grow with flowers ordered from elsewhere out of season, etc. We all have to make a living within the system as it currently exists; as far as I’m concerned, any number of flowers grown locally are far better than none (we are grateful for how many other local flower farmers we have in our area, in fact).

Yet we’d be lying if we said it doesn’t break our heart a little every time we see a champion of local farming selling dozens of plastic-wrapped imported flowers in the middle of a Michigan winter. It’s a personal decision—and for us, it’s an easy one, and one we take pride in.

CHAPTER 2: The Beauty of Seasonality.

Flowers are special BECAUSE you can’t order them from Amazon any time you want. We all know the difference between buying a tomato from a supermarket in the middle of January & tasting one straight off the vine, warmed by the summer sun: it simply is not the same fruit. For us, it’s the same with flowers. Peonies, for example, are special because they only grace us with their presence for 2-3 weeks of the year—but, those weeks are filled with their singular delicious scent & a pillow of the softest petals imaginable that leave you wanting more and more.

Living in tune with the seasons is as close to an organized religion as I get, but I feel it’s importance in my life deep into my soul. This business of mine is not just a way to make a living for me, it IS living. My life is dictated by what the sky looks like on any given day, the temperature of the sun and soil, whichever birds are singing (or not) could tell me exactly what month of the year it is if I suddenly was no longer allowed to look at a calendar.

For millennia humans have been using flowers to signify the most important moments of their lives—weddings, festivals, births, deaths. Flowers are special, like living jewels. They bloom triumphantly in the harshness of nature, and in gardens by way of our hands sowing seeds. Flowers are food for some, and hotels for others. They sway in the wind & open and close with the sun. They reappear after fires and floods only to sleep for months on end in winter.

So, it begs the question:

Is a flower grown under the glare of artificial lights, swaying in forced air from electric fans, cut & dipped into a barrel of pesticide to kill any insects drawn to it, thrown into plastic, and shipped thousands of miles away to end up on a kitchen table during the coldest month of the year really a flower?

With love,

HB XO

New Years Cleansing Ritual

I guess this is our first blog post, hopefully of many. We wanted to do something special for New Year’s, so we decided to share with you all our GO-TO “ritual” to welcome each New Year. We hope you like it! We’d love to hear all about your experience! Maybe what some of your commitments were, if you feel comfortable sharing. Or, if you post on social media be sure to tag us @honeybabyflorals so we can see what you came up with!

Happy New Years everyone!

-HB XO