The other day a client walked into our shop and after admiring the flowers in our cooler, began asking questions such as “Do you buy local or is everything imported?”
I am proud to say that we do buy local. However, at this time of year, Ontario growers are faced with extremely cold temperatures which result in much higher costs to operate their greenhouses. Some local growers choose to keep the temperatures at a minimum, just enough to keep their plants from freezing, because the operational costs are more than what they can produce in the winter months. To grow a flower the average time period of sunlight hours is 6 weeks. As we all know, the sunlight we get in the winter months is also at a minimum. There is a big demand on flowers for peak holiday times such as Valentine’s, Easter and Mother’s Day and oftentimes local growers rely on that 6 week period in between holidays to rebuild their supply.
We are also a member, a buyer at the Ontario Flower Growers, which is a co-op, a combination of some 175 Ontario flower growers who supply “The Clock” (based on the Dutch Flower Auction system) with locally grown product. From here we attend the auction and purchase gerbera, tulips, snapdragons, chrysanthemums, carnations, not to mention various different types of flowers and plants that are grown in Ontario. The other great thing is, that our purchases are made in Mississauga, within the 100km radius of our shop.
There are times when we have to purchase other flowers, at this time of year, which come from other regions, such as California and Florida, and as far away as Holland, Israel, Africa and Australia, Columbia and Ecuador. Be assured that all of these flowers are purchased free trade and employees are paid fairly.
Whether you walk into our shop to make a purchase or if you check out our website, www.appleblossomflowers.com to order on our online site, you can be sure that the stock that we sell, is supporting local growers of flowers and plants and that you are assisting in the fair trade environment of flower production and its purchases. We appreciate questions asked by our clients because an educated consumer is our best customer.