10 Tips for Sustainable Arranging at Home

for the home

10 tips for sustainable arranging at home

march 2023

Welcome to a very happy intersection of folks who love flowers and work to protect the Earth! We fight to change the patterns of single use plastics, excessive consumption and unnecessary waste by making simple but important changes. Here you’ll find our favorite tips and tricks, so that you can feel confident in your sustainable floral arranging.

Every little bit counts.

A sure way to immediately reduce the carbon footprint of your craft. Plus, your flowers will last much longer, and you are supporting locals! Our favorite places to source flowers are the farmer’s market, local flower farms, or in the “California Grown” grocery store flower section.

1. source flowers locally

The goal is to be on a first name basis with the Goodwill employees. Check your local thrift shop before buying new vessels that are shipped from far away and packed in a bunch of plastic. We usually find an abundance of unique and affordable vessels hiding on those shelves!

2. thrift vessels

3. use materials/ vessels you
already have :)

You might have something cute in your next grocery haul, like a spaghetti sauce jar, jam jar or whiskey bottle. Soak the vessels in warm, soapy water to get the labels off, and you’re good to start arranging. When you’re done with the arrangement, save the vessel for next time.

4. forage in your yard and neighborhood

Mama Earth is always naturally producing around us! We often roam around the garden or neighborhood looking for blooming and healthy treasure. This is an all-time favorite method to improve the affordability, seasonality, and sustainability of your floral arrangements and endeavors.

We firmly opt out of using floral foam, considering it’s made of plastic and contains harmful chemicals for our bodies. There are now many alternative sustainable mechanics for your arrangements, including chicken wire, flower frogs and tape grids. More tutorials on the way!

5. skip the floral foam

Flowers have different lifespans, so rather than getting rid of the whole arrangement at once, replace the flowers that wilt first with fresh greenery or blooms! You’ll be surprised how long you can keep an arrangement looking perky, while avoiding excessive consumption of materials.

6. increase the longevity of your bouquet

This should be at the top of the list, but it deserves its own journal entry. Composting is the ultimate method to complete the resource cycle. For now, start collecting food scraps, floral scraps, newspaper, and cardboard, and we’ll dive into our composting methods soon.

7. compost, compost, compost!

The most important things for flower longevity are good conditioning and clean vessels. If your flowers came with flower food, use as directed and it certainly won’t hurt. However, because sustainability goes hand in hand with simplicity, no need to go out of your way to buy it.

8. simplify with no flower food

In the spirit of ‘every bit counts’, save all those rubber bands on your stems for another time. We’re always reaching for them, so we might as well have a big stash. This creates a general attitude of saving and reusing wherever you can. Soon, it will just become second nature!

9. reuse your rubber bands

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Past trends have included gifting flowers with all the bells and whistles, wrapped in tissue or plastic. Our favorite way to pass along arrangements is in a vessel they can keep and reuse.

Thanks so much for sticking around. This is only the beginning, and soon we will be a community of unstoppable sustainability-seeking, flower-obsessed friends. We can’t imagine anything better.

10. gift flowers sustainably

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