A BLOOMING SECTOR: CAN IRISH GROWERS MAKE THE CUT?

Renowned independent florist, Ruth Monahan shares her joy and frustration about the Irish cut flower sector and sets out a simple strategy for the creation of a more sustainable and vibrant future

Every morning I have the privileged joy as a florist to walk into our studio to see wonderful flowers ready and waiting for their journey into a bouquet, a vase, or a display. The majority of our blooms have arrived on a night ferry and are delivered into our studio before we open our shutters at dawn. This is a magical picture for floral romantics and we are lucky to be able to experience cut flowers moving through the seasons, constantly bringing us surprises at their bounty and beauty. However, the main problem with this picture is the lack of Irish grown sustainable flowers that are commercially available to use.

At Appassionata, we strive to use as much Irish grown produce as possible and we love to have all things botanical that are of the season they are meant for. During autumn and winter, we are blessed with twigs, berries, lichen, moss and pine from Clare and the wonderfully fragrant

Eucalyptus from Waterford. Then we’re into the daffodil season where hundreds of yellows and whites arrive every few days from Killowen, to be bought with glee by our

Drury Street shop regulars. Then comes summer, and we have nearly no option but to buy through Holland. Even the foliage we buy is exported to Holland, and bounces back into Ireland a few days later at a higher price. It is then that we welcome our Kilkenny grown sunflowers that arrive by the boxload in August.

Our Dublin city centre location is just perfect for the urban flower deliveries we do, but it doesn’t lend itself to our being able to access wonderfully foraged elements from the nearby countryside without getting arrested. We depend on suppliers to bring us the best of what they can find or grow. We use homegrown hornbeam, viburnums, bilberry, whitebeam, willows and more to create drama, elegance, and statements in vases all over the city and are proud of making sure that their provenance is known.

What is wonderful to see is that there is a new crop of Irish flower growers who, through studious minding of their wares, have created beautiful flower gardens with cut flowers to be used for weddings and bouquets for homes. Having been a super fan of Erin Benzakein from Floret Flower Farm and

Sarah Ryhanen of Saipua, I admire and relish every image they post of the seasonal seedling to blooming of flowers both on their farms and in their work. Flowers are intoxicating things and ignite such passion of discussion about their forms, colours, fragrances and movement. How positive it is to see people like Hanako, The Green Cailin, The Irish Flower Farmer, Ruth Fortune and Jonathan Daunt show and tell about their beautiful produce that can now be found and used to create displays for celebration days.

However, the problem for florists like ourselves is that not only do we work lots of weddings and dress venues and homes for events and weekly work, but we also create many bouquets to celebrate all parts of the circles of life. Our hand tied bunches are tailor made to suit the emotion or message they are intended for. The Irish consumer expects that these bunches last a week or more and has been educated in this presumption by the more traditional flower industry or relay companies. As a design-led flower business employing over 20 talented people, we have been criticised for not buying more home grown blooms. But those who criticise should hear some of our customers’ complaints when flowers don’t last as long as expected.

We would love to include more Irish grown flowers but there are realistic frustrations with the commercial growing industry here. Firstly, there is very little communication from the more traditional growers with florists who really want to use their flowers. As a result, the more established growers only grow the exact same selection year in year out without looking at flower seasons, trends, or bouquet styles, or without actually talking to the end consumer who is the florist. Currently we can buy lillies or Alstroemeria, but flowers have moved on and there is now very little choice on our island. Our other problem is consistency of quality but mostly the problem lies in delivery where supplies of

“There is very little communication from the more traditional growers with florists who really want to use their flower”

flowers might turn up or they mightn’t depending on the supplier’s day. Our Appassionata flower world cannot work like this; we need to know the flowers we will have on every working day.

When you look over the Irish Sea and see the movement behind and in front of British Flower Week (19 to 27 June this year), it really creates a feeling that we need impetus to improve the commercial cut flower growing world here at home. The movement behind #britishflowers should be proud of themselves. They have created enthusiasm in the Covent Garden flower and foliage suppliers, they have created access to their seasonal and sustainably home grown flowers for florists, and they have really pushed consumer awareness in their campaigns by providing great promotional material for florists to use in their shops and packaging.

We have the climate, we have the knowledge but after 12 years working in the flower world here, I can see that there are several issues which inhibit the growth of an indigenous flower growing industry. What is unfortunate is that the consumer and the florist both want Irish grown blooms, they want the story behind the blooms, and they like knowing that through their small spends they are also supporting an Irish business. The large growers here only supply supermarkets, and currently the cut flower garden growers can only supply a certain amount of beauty because it is such hard work to harvest a bounty for a florist who might need hundreds of stems at a time.

FROM AN OUTLIER’S EYE

1. I believe that if we could resolve the following issues, we could come together to create a pride filled flower growing industry with as much of a sustainable approach as possible, with the wonderful result of fragrant Irish blooms being bought around the country by so many people.

2. There is no umbrella organisation for the flower industry. Bord Bia and Teagasc look after elements of flowers but it falls between them both. An example of this is the Bloom festival which, could be amazing as a springboard for flower education which in turn would create a better standard for Irish floristry, for pushing design on, for inclusion of proper floristry practice and promotion of cut flower gardens around the island.

3. The lack of a flower umbrella group means that the flower growing industry is categorised as a crop. The problem in Ireland is that so much focus has gone into the food or crop growing industry, the flowers have been forgotten. Another issue is that consumers have been so spurred on to grow their own food and more that they have forgotten how necessary it is to have flowers in their gardens to keep the bees and butterflies alive. Perhaps, a programme with someone as visionary as Grow It Yourself could help educate consumers about these benefits.

4. The horticultural education schools are currently suffering from lack of attendance. Again, there is very little communication with anyone who works in the professional flower industry. I think that it would be interesting for the students to have their worlds broadened so that whether its seeds, pollination, breeding, growing, marketing, that they know about design and aesthetic, that they are educated and inspired to create living gardens filled with sustainability and imagination, or that they could themselves grow flowers as they know how they could be used to create cheer and joy for a consumer.

5. I think it would be positive to create a forum for the cut flower growing industry to meet the florists who really would like to use their produce. As a florist, I know that we have to turn away so many types of foliage or flowers as the wastage would be too high. This margin tight beautiful world could help guide growers in the kind of leaves and flowers that work well together, to make floral displays consumers will remember, love and return to buy again.

6. Sustainability is not just a buzzword. When you import flowers from abroad you cannot be sure what chemical treatments they may have undergone. It would be nice to think no chemicals are used, but ask any florist and their hands will probably tell another story. As a business, we try to counteract this by recycling and waste management, and by making sure that our practice here is as environmentally friendly as possible. We try to have plants for sale for people to bring more bees and butterflies to their patches, and we always try to spread a smile with the work we do. We were always a member of the Fair Flowers Fair Trade movement, but sadly they have now closed down because it was too difficult to monitor the growing industries. This is a world problem that I don’t feel we can solve here.

“I think it would be positive to create a forum for the cut flower growing industry to meet the florists who really would like to use their produce”

Finally, how wonderful would it be to have a sustainable and environmentally mindful fair trade cut flower growing industry here. The holistic world view of what could be achieved is mind-blowing. If we could get this party started this summer, next July we could be celebrating our success in a field nearby. ✽

RUTH MONAHAN is one of Ireland’s most successful independent florists. She is managing director of Appassionata Flowers, a thriving Dublin-based florist with a retail shop on Drury Street and a floral studio on South Cumberland Street. She can be contacted via email at ruth@appassionata.ie and via her website at www.appassionata.ie