Sustainable Flower Sourcing in NYC
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
Why Local Flowers Matter
Beautiful flowers seem to appear in the market like magic. But the truth is much less glamorous.
The floral design industry suppliers import flowers from all over the world. The process for growing, processing, packing, and shipping for delivery is a complicated stream of logistics, materials, and unsustainable practices. That’s why Jessica Balnaves founded FlowerAggregate, a wholesale and retail cut flower marketplace in Brooklyn specializing in regionally grown and pesticide-free flowers.
FlowerSchool proudly supports sustainable business practices in the floral design industry and we’re thrilled that florists have more options for locally sourced product in New York City. Jessica will be sharing her knowledge and sourcing flowers for Introduction to Design: Local Blooms, a floral design class for beginners, at FlowerSchool New York this June! Reserve your spot for these special extended intro sessions.
Rooted in Sustainability
“I’ve been a designer for about 10 years now, and in my practice, regional flowers have always been really central to me. But obviously, in this world, the majority of flowers are imported, and there was never one place I could go to get locally grown flowers. There wasn’t easy access.
So I got to a point, through my relationships with farms and my understanding of regional agriculture, where I was in a position to open a wholesale shop focused entirely on regional flowers. The idea was that everybody else could also access these awesome flowers that I was driving upstate and into New Jersey to source through all these individual farmer relationships, instead of having to piece it together one by one. Now there’s a source here in New York.”
Last year, FlowerAggregate opened its doors in a new warehouse space in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They source flowers from across the Eastern seaboard, working with over 100 local farms to get fresh flower deliveries each week. FlowerAggregate sources primarily from farms throughout New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, with additional seasonal flowers coming from Vermont, Maryland, and Maine as availability shifts throughout the year. Jessica works closely with small regional farms that share similar values around sustainability, transparency, and responsible growing practices.
Many of the farms they partner with use pesticide-free methods, or are highly transparent about any products they do use. By sourcing regionally, FlowerAggregate is able to offer flowers with a significantly lower carbon footprint than imported blooms, which often travel on multiple flights before reaching the market. It also allows them to support many women-owned farms and growers who prioritize regenerative practices like improving soil health, creating native pollinator habitats, and helping restore nutrients back into the land.
Community in Bloom
“I also wanted to provide a community space for floral designers, because it’s an artistic industry, but also a very labor-intensive one. A lot of us are entrepreneurs and running our own businesses, and it can feel really isolating doing all of that by yourself, when there’s actually a huge community of people we could be tapping into as resources. So Flower Aggregate has become a space where people can come together, meet, talk, discuss, learn, and grow, which has been really exciting.”
Jessica also rents out part of the space for production so designers who need a place to work on weddings, Mother’s Day, or other projects can come in and use it. The space is also available for DIY brides or anyone creating their own florals, along with consultations offered to support their work.
Flower Aggregate has a community reuse section with donated vessels, chicken wire, moss, and floral tubes, all of which are free for anyone to take. The goal is to keep materials in circulation and out of the landfill, and to build a reuse culture so people are not constantly buying the same supplies over and over again.
Working With the Seasons
“When it comes to seasonal flowers, we are very much at the behest of what is happening in Mother Nature. We do not have as much control as imported flowers do. If there is, for example, a hurricane, monsoon, or some other major weather event in a location, that crop can be affected.
With the imported market, because it’s global and often run through centralized hubs like Holland, if one country or region has to go offline for whatever reason, there are usually backups that can backfill that product. So there are a lot more guarantees when you are importing product.
There are fewer guarantees when we are working within a very specific regional growing system. A lot of the time, we can’t know more than about a week ahead of time what is going to be available. We can guess, but if there is a pest blight, especially since many growers are not using pesticides, or if there is a scorcher of a couple weeks with no rain, crops can absolutely be lost, and that happens all the time.
I’m trying to train people to work with local flowers in a way that is about shopping what is available and planning about a week in advance. That can be a little scary for people who are used to ordering from huge suppliers weeks ahead of time and knowing exactly what they are going to get. You have to have trust and flexibility when you order.
But the payoff is amazing, because these flowers are really special. You feel their soul, you feel their energy. It’s really cool."
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