Living plastic free: Flowers
I feel guilty every time I buy flowers. I think it has to do with my cruelty-free chromosome. Something so so beautiful, having it’s life cut short (literally) for me, just seems so, so wrong. I just don’t feel I have the right.
That’s why I never buy flowers for myself. But sometimes, I will admit, I buy them for others. I know, that’s a big wallop of makes-no-sense, illogical, incongruency – but there you have it.
But now that I’ve given up plastic in 2007, buying flowers presents not just a moral challenge, but also a plastic challenge too. Because flowers come wrapped in plastic…
Now you might be thinking ‘Well EnviroWoman, buy a plant instead!' And usually I do. It seems like such an obvious, guilt-free and great solution, doesn’t it? Except plants come in green plastic pots.
I thought if I narrowed my search to plants potted in ceramic or wicker planters I’d come up smelling like a rose. But NOOOOOO, because those puppies can be oh-so-devious – dig deep with your green thumb, and you’ll discover they’re often just a plastic potted plant popped into a ceramic planter.
I searched high and low, and thought I may have to give up on the whole ‘welcome the new team member with flowers’ notion….and then I lucked out and found flowers in a glass vase – completely plastic-free.
The original container the roses were stored in was metal too - so this seemed to be as close to ‘plastic-free’ as I was gonna get. The florist even let me carry my bouquet out of the store ‘as-is’ with no extra packaging/wrapping.
So here’s how things add up:
Category: Flowers
SAINT: Bouquets in a glass vases.
Price: More expensive. You’re not gonna find $5 worth of daisies in a glass vase, plus you’re paying for the vase. But at least the vase is reusable.
Quality: The same…and come to think of it….a much nicer gift for the recipient
SINNER: All flowers packaged in plastic and all plants in those green plastic planters.
Lessons Learned:
- Dig deep. Looks can be deceiving. Sometimes you have to get your hands dirty and get to the root of the problem to discover if there is really is something more sinister below the pretty fascade. True with flowers. True with life. (Can't you just see it now 'The Tao of EnviroWoman'. Pooh, ya better watch out!)
Comments
Hey there, EnviroWoman! A
Hey there, EnviroWoman!
A few years ago, my Mom taught me about forcing bulbs in these lovely glass vases they make just for hyacinths, daffodils, and tulips. No plastic involved. Just pick up some bulbs (in paper bags or your own canvas) and plop them in the glass forcing jars filled with water up to the bottom of the bulb. In a few months, you'll have beautiful, forced flowers all of your very own. Here's an article on it: http://www.savvygardener.com/Features/forcing_bulbs.html.
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Well, here's a virtual
Well, here's a virtual bouquet for you: you've made the "Links we like" section of The Guardian's Newsblog!
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Rob, I'm gonna have to hire
Rob, I'm gonna have to hire you as my PR agent! I love the way you keep track of whose keeping track of me!!! Too funny.
What's even funnier is EnviroWoman's listing on the Guardian shares the limelight and noterity with these fellow Two-Seconds-of-Internet-Fame folks:
You are the ball cock in the toilet tank of life - Disgruntled Commuter
Unlucky Leprechaun targets speeding drivers - police in Orlando 'unleash the power of the leprechaun'
Olive Riley, the 107-year-old 'blobber' - Greenslade blog
If one is judged by the company one keeps....I think I may be in trouble. Oh, and Olive, its called blogging, Dear, not blobbing. Rock on Gramma!
EnviroWoman
Plastic free. Cruelty Free. Vegetarian. Chocoholic
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Well, I for one am very
Well, I for one am very happy I found this blog through the Guardian's linking us both. And I hope we have a few things in common as mostly I'm talking about public transport and cycling and doing without a car ... albeit not in quite such a positive way ...
Keep up the good work.
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Envirowoman, don't think of
Envirowoman,
don't think of buying cut flowers as a cruel thing, the plant needs pruning in order to continue flowering. No showy flowers, no bees, birds, butterflies to pollinate, no pollination no propogation, and the plant eventually dies. The more continual cutting, the more energy is used in making more flowers, more flowers, more visitors and so on.
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Hmm, I never thought of it
Hmm, I never thought of it that way, really. Cutting flowers always seemed like a bad thing to me. Thanks for making this point.
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That is a lot of guilt
That is a lot of guilt you're dealing with.
I think you are also a very important part of the creation - in fact a vital gift to the rest of us. I hope you can accept this fact, and so believe that you are worthy to receive the joy that flowers bring to you.
They are beautiful and we should all have more beauty in our life.
So go get some beautiful flowers for your home and enjoy them guilt free.
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Hey Enviro-woman, I agree
Hey Enviro-woman,
I agree with another poster, I used to work at a pretty flouncy flower shop, and a little-known cost cutter is to order just cut flowers, because then you're just paying for the flowers, not for a vase or for the arrangement.
I've been hearing disturbing rumours about flowers grown in South America (where most flourist flowers come from) that they are completely soaked with pesticides that don't conform to US pesticide standards. Do you know anything about this? Just food for thought. If you like to send flowers to people, maybe you could perhaps start a windowbox cutting garden this summer. Daisies, poppies, whatever!
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An alternative is to get
An alternative is to get loose flowers from the grocery store and pop 'em into your own vase. Our grocer sells them out of a fridge, not wrapped, so you can design you own bouquet.