Why I don’t use the #nofoam hashtag.

Personally, I loathe named tributes like Mum and Dad*, and pleated polyprop ribbon edging leaves me frozen! 

However for many bereaved customers it is what they want - and need - at their time of loss and it would be wrong to guilt trip them into thinking they are doing something bad, especially whilst grieving.

I also know that for many florists, foam based funeral work - especially in these tough trading times - is the only way their businesses survive and how they pay for food, wages, shop costs, flowers (thus keeping growers/wholesalers trading) etc so I am not going to start guilt tripping them either.

It’s the same with imported flowers.  I fully support British growers, but truth is they can’t grow enough to support the UK flower industry and probably never will.  Not only would mass production in the UK (as it is in The Netherlands) have an environmental impact but properly grown imports supply work, food, education, housing and medical care for hundreds of thousands of people who would otherwise struggle to survive.

Yes, I will always encourage every florist to source conscious choice flowers.  Yes I believe everyone should offer a fully sustainable eco-collection so customers have the choice, and I absolutely agree that if there are sensible and commercially viable ways to avoid the use of single use plastics then it must be done.

But unlike some of the more vocal people in our industry I also know how incredibly hard it is to operate - or pivot - a fully commercial business (i.e. one that is aiming to achieve more than a living wage/be a side hustle) without foam or imported flowers.  To suggest otherwise is naïve.

That’s why I was so impressed to meet young florists like Poppy Sturley, Lois Golding and this month’s Take Five interviewee Gaia Eros.  They absolutely have the passion for all things sustainable - and they all implement it beautifully - but they also have the kindness to understand that it is hard and doesn't easily work for everyone. 

Which is why I personally - and as a magazine - choose not to use hashtags like #nofoam or #grownnotflown or any of the other ones being added at the bottom of posts. Because virtue signalling is not necessarily the same as having virtue.

Yes, everyone must do what they can and we need to get the message across that there are alternatives but not if it means distorting the truth or being unkind to your fellow man or woman.  That is both divisive and, in my opinion, cruel which seems at odds with claiming to be kind and caring.

* Just so you know I also loathe reflexed flowers - why muck with Mother Nature? - and anybody who puts more wrapping than there are flowers will never be my friend; no, not even if it is biodegradable!