Blooming For A Greener Future - Sustainable Florist

The Wild Rose Flower Farm

We know the way florists have been packaging their bouquets and flowers and here at The Wild Rose, We know that we can no longer accept the way flowers are traditionally grown and then packaged to send out to customers.  We want to be a part of moving floristry towards a more sustainable future which is good for our customers and great for the planet.

What does being a sustainable florist mean I can hear you saying? 

Becoming a sustainable florist means moving towards a circular economy, one where we are trying to eliminate waste and using products that can be easily recycled or returned to the earth.

We grow all our foliage and as many of the flowers as we can in our own Wild Rose flower farm. Picked daily, these include the not so straight stems, the imperfectly perfect flowers.  Flowers with fragrance and often with a special guest appearance like a grasshopper.  They all go towards making our arrangements special. Not a single stem goes to waste. The Wild Rose takes pride in caring for all our flowers even the imperfect ones are perfect to us. 

They aren’t sprayed, so you can thrust your nose into them to inhale the fragrance.  They are given a lot of love and special treatment to make them grow – like nicely aged horse manure from my neighbours horses and homemade compost.  That compost is made from goodies from our Wild Rose flower farm and garden, from food waste from our kitchen, and from all the greens we collect as we process our foliage and flowers instore. 

It is immensely satisfying growing gorgeous flowers, taking the off cuts from our processing which we add to the compost pile and around 6 months to a year later then adding delicious crumbly compost full of wriggling earthworms and nutrients back to the garden beds to grow the next seasons flowers.  Truly completing the cycle so not a single stem or leaf is wasted.

The Wild Rose Supports Local Growers

We source our beautiful flowers and foliage from local growers wherever possible.

Sustainable Wrap

However, we wanted to do more.  We wanted to wrap our stems in a way that is also sustainable.   We wanted to find a solution where the ingredients of the packaging are good for the environment.  It also keeps our flowers, which are a highly perishable product, fresh and ensures they get to the customer looking as beautiful as they did when they were picked and when they left our store.

This hasn’t been an easy challenge to solve and one we have worked on for a while now, but one we finally think we have achieved. 

What have we done?  We’ve taken plastic cello and white tissue which most of our customers would have put straight into the rubbish. Now here at The Wild Rose we have a fully home compostable solution – wool and cellophane. 

Let’s start with the cellophane, it is made from readily renewable cellulose, sourced from responsibly managed plantations – fully biodegradable and home compostable after it has helped transport our flowers. 

How do you know if you are using or have received Cello or Cellophane?  An easy test is to burn it – cello melts, bubbles and blisters.  Real cellophane burns like paper.  The reality is that in New Zealand it is incredibly hard to source Cellophane, so it is most likely plastic cello.

Inside that we have wool.  And yes, again it is 100% biodegradable, home compostable and sustainable.  What’s more, the worms love it! When we aren’t using it as a nice wet wrap for our flowers, we are using it like a mulch layer around our flowers or to help with starting our seedlings at our flower farm. 

We ran numerous tests to check that even our most sensitive of flowers were happy with this sustainable transport solution and they all gave it a big thumbs up – they didn’t droop at all, they stayed strong and upright and looked fantastic.  Until now, we have had to take further precautions for some of the flowers that tended to need more moisture than others and were susceptible to wilting in the time it took to get them delivered. 

The reason is that this wool is highly absorbent and can hold around 40% of its weight in water which our flowers can then drink as they travel on our couriers around Auckland and New Zealand. 

The wool we use would otherwise be a waste product and saves it from going to landfill.  It is ‘non-textile grade’ wool that commonly comes from the belly of sheep bred for meat and is cleaned with soap and hot water.

We love that now when customers receive Wild Rose flowers and unwrap them, they can also divert their wrap from the rubbish bin and put it into their compost bins and feed the worms while returning to the soil.  From the land and returning to the land.  

There is always more we can do so I’ll start looking at my next sustainability project.  But before I do that, I’m going to make this solution available to other florists throughout New Zealand.  Because it is only when we all work on better solutions for the environment that we can help our country and our planet. 

The Wild Rose Sustainability Efforts

We’re revolutionising NZ's Flower Industry with our Flower Gift Boxes. Ensuring that these boxes are environmentally friendly was a top priority during design and we’re proud to have delivered a stunning, recyclable product.

Because we care about our carbon footprint, we have also developed our nationwide delivery boxes to be fully recyclable. These boxes provide a sturdy and environmentally friendly solution for shipping flowers across the country. Once you've enjoyed your flowers, simply recycle the box to help us close the loop on sustainability.

 

This ensures that you receive beautiful flowers wrapped in materials that won't harm the planet. Every element, from the cellophane to the wool and the box, can be recycled for a better planet!

Our delivery partners are actively engaged in being sustainable:

We’re always looking for more ways to contribute to initiatives that are a great fit for our business. If you have a request for support or an idea that you think fits with our goals email Simran@kennerley.co.nz