Are Dried Flowers more Sustainable than Fresh Flowers?

Are Dried Flowers more Sustainable than Fresh Flowers?

If you’re a flower lover there’s a good chance you also have a love of nature, and finding the best sustainable options for flower delivery is important to you. Local flowers are always a wonderful option, which you can find at your local farmers market, but if you’re looking for a way to send someone flowers without hurting the environment then I’d like to make the case here that dried flowers are a more sustainable alternative to fresh. Of course no produced product is perfect, and everything has it’s cost to the environment, but if you’re looking for an eco friendly way to send flowers then there is no doubt that sending dried flowers is your best bet.

1. At the Growers Level : fresh flowers must be put in clean water and refrigerated immediately after being harvested. This is where we begin to see the benefit of dried flowers, which get cut in the field and are either air dried outdoors or in warehouses that don’t require temperature control, and of course zero water use.
2. In Transit : Flowers need to be grown in specific climates, and then shipped around the world. While dried flowers do require as much transit as fresh, they again do not require rushed refrigerated transport, which is a huge cost to the environment.
3. At Market : Fresh flowers have an incredibly short shelf life and need to be kept in buckets of water which constantly gets refreshed in air conditioning or refrigerators.
4. At Home : Fresh flowers last on average a week, and up to 3 weeks if kept in a cool room in clean water, and for that reason need to be replaced monthly for those who like to keep flowers as a fixture in their homes and businesses. Dried flowers last practically forever, or that is to say they don’t ‘go bad.’ Like anything they can gather dust and will fade if exposed to sunlight, but for all intents and purposes they will last forever, which means there will be much less waste for those who choose dried over fresh.

Aside from the fact that dried flowers are more sustainable than fresh, they also make for beautiful modern home decor and a unique and delightful gift. There is nothing that brings someone more joy than discovering a flower delivery at their doorstep, especially when they find that they’ll get to cherish those flowers forever!