Only within the past couple of years have I been made aware of these
ethical considerations. Many people, I think, have no idea. And the
biggest U.S. company in the cut-flower industry, FTD, isn’t helping.

If you visit FTD.com, you’ll see that it does have an
“Eco-Friendly” product category. But it looks like nothing more than
greenwashing to me. Emblazoned across the webpage is a logo that features a recycling logo and the words “Go Green Living,” along with this meaningless copy:

In an effort to embrace the ever-changing needs of our consumer and our
society, FTD proudly presents “Go Green Living.” A movement that is
making us aware of the way we have and continue to effect our planet,
we recognize the need for natural, fresh, sustainable or organic
products to be made available to our customers. Send these stunning
bouquets, gourmet treats and gorgeous gifts to not only delight your
recipient, but make a statement about the importance of protecting the
beautiful earth we inhabit.

I
called FTD to ask what, if anything, the Go Green Living designation
means. Under what conditions are Go Green flowers grown? Are there
publicly available standards I can read? Is this a certification
program?

“They are certified sustainable,” the customer-service rep I spoke with said.

“By whom?” I asked.

“Um... [keyboard sounds] It doesn’t say by who,” she replied. “I believe Go Green is a service provided by FTD.”

“But you guys are the ones selling the flowers,” I pointed out. “Of
course you’re going to say they’re sustainable.” For a certification
system to have any teeth, I added, it has to be operated by an
independent party.

The sad thing is that North America does have a highly regarded
certification system for sustainable flowers, and I’m sure that FTD’s
executives know this. It’s called VeriFlora. Its website discusses its criteria (which span environmental and social responsibility categories), and it’s managed by Scientific Certification Systems, a certification company that specializes in audits across a number of industries.

According to an interesting article on ethical flowers in the new issue of Plenty magazine,
about 30 percent of the stems sold by Canada’s largest floral
distributor, Sierra Flower Trading, are VeriFlora-certified. Why is FTD
lagging?

I told the customer-service rep that I and countless other consumers
would love to see FTD offer VeriFlora bouquets. She promised she’d put
a recommendation into the company’s system. While you’re at it, tell
them to get rid of that Go Green Living nonsense, I added.

So where is a conscious consumer to go for flowers? Here are some options:

Organic Bouquet (the flower arm of eco-boutique Organic Style) has some VeriFlora offerings; a search on the term yielded 43 results.

Even more selection might be found at California Organic Flowers, which sells stems grown in the Golden State
that are
certified as organic by both the USDA and the more stringent California Certified Organic
Farmers (CCOF).

Diamond Organics’
floral offerings are also mostly from California, and a company rep
told me the flowers are definitely USDA-certified and probably also
CCOF-certified organic.

Meanwhile, Flowerbud.com has 22 VeriFlora bouquets, though strangely it doesn’t trumpet that fact very loudly.

Lastly, mainstream 1800flowers.com sells one lonely fair-trade rose bouquet, certified by TransFair USA.