If you’re a flower fan (and who isn’t, really?), you're probably familiar with our flowers through the farmers’ markets. There’s another location our flowers go - the Connecticut Flower Collective.
The Connecticut Flower Collective is a collaborative grower’s market, offering locally-grown specialty cut flowers to the floral industry. Four years ago, Elise and five other Connecticut flower growers created this organization in an effort to make local flowers more accessible to florists and designers. Individual flower farms often do not have the quantity and variety of flowers needed by florists. The options for these buyers were:
1) spend hours coordinating with multiple local farms to source their stems or
2) use a larger wholesale provider with whom the origins of the flowers may not be clear.
Enter the Connecticut Flower Collective!
Today, the organization has grown to 25+ flower farms and hundreds of buyer members, including florists, photographers, and event planners. The Collective provides a single location where members can access local flowers at a scale previously unavailable in the region. The Collective simplifies the schedules of farmers as well. Rather than coordinating with individual florists and wedding planners, Elise can focus her time and energy on growing, harvesting, and preparing the flowers themselves and then deliver everything to one place.
I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that the Connecticut Flower Collective is transforming the flower market in the state. By simplifying access for buyers, the Collective makes it easier for local, higher-quality flowers to be used in Connecticut weddings and events. By allowing flower farmers to focus on growing rather than selling, the availability of local flowers should grow as well.
On Wednesday, the Collective acts as a private farmers’ market for members to shop, but on Thursday-Saturday, the market opens to the public! The Collective also hosts events, including two upcoming workshops on lavender and fall flower arranging. If you’re interested in learning more and/or adding more flowers to your life, I would highly recommend a visit!
Flowers all the way to the ceiling.
Dried flowers too!
If you’re shopping our farmers’ markets this week, you’ll see some of our most anticipated flowers of the year. Lisianthus have arrived! And finally! Elise seeded these plants all the way back in January. Yes, close to 8 months ago. The lisianthus flower looks like a faux rose and comes in gorgeous pastel colors. They’re well worth the wait. Dahlia harvest has begun too! The white varieties are grown in the protection of a high tunnel so that they remain pristine. The added warmth of the tunnel also means that this variety is the first ready to harvest. More and more colors and varieties will continue to make their appearance at the markets in the coming weeks.
Also, HATS are here!!! All of us on the farm are rocking them, and you can, too! They’re for sale online and at the markets.
- Kiersten
