Why should I buy local flowers?

Have you heard about our current cut flower market? About 80% of cut flowers are imported from other countries which means they were cut almost two weeks prior! Most of those flowers are saturated with herbicides and pesticides, posing harm to those that cut them, buy them, enjoy them, and pollinate them.

At Bleum Flower Farm, we practice organic farming methods from the ground up, allowing beneficial insects to safely pollinate and for us all to smell and handle the blooms without harm. We also cut our flowers a day or two before you receive them, giving you a long and gorgeous vase life of 1-2 weeks! Rather than importing stems from other countries, our flowers are seasonally grown right here in Boise, Idaho.

Why are locally grown flowers more expensive than say, Trader Joe's flowers?

Not to harp on Trader Joe’s, I do love a good shopping trip there, but I hear a lot of people say they would rather just buy cheap flowers there or other grocery stores. Those stores can buy and sell flowers at massive quantities often purchasing their flowers internationally at much lower costs (read above about purchasing internationally). Local growers have higher expenses, but can provide fresh, organically grown, and sustainably produced flowers whereas usually grocery stores do not.

Here’s a glimpse of the work it takes to grow even just one type of flower for flower farming:

Order seeds, sow seeds indoors, watch and water those seeds everyday for one-two months creating the perfect environment indoors (grow lights, heat mats, etc), make sure the seeds don’t dry out, pinch some varieties, harden them off by taking them outside and back inside everyday for a week, prep the flower beds for planting by adding amendments and making sure there is irrigation, plant the seedlings in the ground at the correct spacing to fit the maximum plants, cover them with frost cloth if it’s too cold at night, uncover them in the day to prevent temps getting too hot, watch for pest pressure, corral some varieties so they don’t get blown over, and then finally after a few months, cut the flowers!

How many hours do you think it took to bring that one seed into fruition? Hundreds. That is why in order to make growing flowers at all profitable, they need to be more expensive than grocery stores.

Do you grow all of these flowers yourself?

Yes! And most of them are all grown by seed! If there is a crop failure and I'm left stranded with no flowers for a week or two, I will buy flowers from another local flower farmer, but I have not had to do that yet...

Do you use chemicals like pesticides or insecticides?

No! I love our pollinators and I would hate to poison them with chemicals. Not only does it hurt our pollinators, but it hurts us too! I stay far away from chemicals and insecticides. If I need to use anything, I make sure it is certified organic and safe.