Foraging Flowers in January

My friend, Jessica, loves to arrange flowers and always has a small bouquet somewhere in her beautiful urban condo. Jessica is also the one who alerted me to the environmental impact of buying cut flowers from a florist or market.

Like other goods that are imported from countries thousands of miles away, flowers have a serious environmental impact. Most of the flowers in the US come from Colombia and are flown here in temperature controlled planes. The “shelf life” for most cut flowers is 3 – 5 days so speed is incredibly important. Not only the transportation but the cultivation for flowers also has an impact as these flowers take a tremendous amount of water and are generally grown with chemicals.

So, to do our part and make our own contribution to fighting climate change, Jessica and I pledged to forage for flowers and to try to buy only locally sourced stems instead of purchasing them at the market or grocery store.

This not only influences the way I decorate the house but also how I garden. Knowing that my biggest source of flowers will be my own garden greatly inspires me to plant flowers that I can cut and bring indoors. With a continued promise to grow as many native plants as possible, this definitely narrows the field, so to speak.

As I foraged this week in my garden, I knew I could pick some dried flower heads and grasses but I really wanted something colorful and living. After the cold spell of the century followed by torrential rains, the pickings were pretty slim. But, every bit of green and living caught my eye. All of a sudden moss, lichen and evergreen branches looked beautiful!

I decided on a few buds from my paper bush and the short elongated blossoms from mahonia. I found a small grove of mahonia – one of the worst invasive plants in Georgia – at the side of the house. I hadn’t even realized it was there. I need to cut all the blossoms back so it won’t continue to spread. I used yellow speckled acuba as a filler and put it all in a small crystal vase.

I can’t say that it’s a stunningly beautiful arrangement but it is colorful and it brings a small spot of nature into my living room. And, there was zero negative environmental impact. Actually, since it served to help control an invasive plant, I’ll put it in the positive column. What more could you ask for in January!!