{"id":130163,"date":"2026-02-11T16:27:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T16:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/130163\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T16:27:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T16:27:32","slug":"these-brooklyn-florists-are-rethinking-valentines-day-with-seasonal-blooms-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/130163\/","title":{"rendered":"These Brooklyn florists are rethinking Valentine\u2019s Day with seasonal blooms \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Credit_\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Locally and domestically sourced flowers are arranged at Stems Brooklyn ahead of Valentine\u2019s Day, part of the shop\u2019s effort to offer seasonal alternatives to imported roses.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Stems Brooklyn<\/p>\n

Hundreds of millions of roses will be exchanged on Feb. 14. Yet Valentine\u2019s Day\u2019s most coveted gift carries an ugly legacy: an industry built on low costs and a high environmental footprint.\n<\/p>\n

A handful of Brooklyn florists, however, are offering alternatives to the classic commercial rose. They believe seasonal flowers can make an even more meaningful Valentine\u2019s Day gift by doing less harm to the planet while supporting local farms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think about where things come from a lot,\u201d said Suzanna Cameron, founder of Stems Brooklyn<\/a> in Bushwick. Cameron pays attention to the journey any given flower makes from farm to vase and uses that information to decide which blooms to source for her customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think about the people that were growing them, who cut these flowers, who packed them, who put them in the truck, who put them in the airplane,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

The majority<\/a> of roses in the U.S. are imported from Colombia, where the flower is produced cheaply. From there, they embark on a fuel-intensive journey on refrigerated cargo planes before being put on display in flower shops across the country.<\/p>\n

South America has a low cost of production due to large-scale operations, low labor costs, and minimal heating and cooling needs thanks to its favorable climate, explains John Dole, who teaches horticultural science at North Carolina State University.<\/p>\n

While roses bloom in parts of the U.S. from late spring to early fall, \u201cValentine\u2019s Day is in February, which favors the lower cost imported flowers, especially the long-stemmed roses we all love so much,\u201d Dole said.<\/p>\n

\"\"A mix of imported and seasonal Valentine\u2019s Day flowers at Stems Brooklyn.Photo courtesy of Stems Brooklyn \"\"Stems\u2019s shopfront.Photo courtesy of Stems Brooklyn<\/p>\n

Demand for imported cut flowers is only growing. Agricultural specialists at Miami International Airport are already predicting a record-setting year<\/a> for imported cut flower inspections ahead of Valentine\u2019s Day, expecting to top last year\u2019s record of 1.3 billion stem inspections.<\/p>\n

This year, Stems has decided to highlight an underrated but seasonal Valentine\u2019s Day flower \u2014 the tulip. Through a campaign called \u201cKiss My Tulips,\u201d Cameron is sourcing the flowers from a New York farm<\/a>, drastically cutting the shop\u2019s carbon footprint.<\/p>\n

Julia D\u2019Angelo of Fern Botanic<\/a> in Astoria, Queens also sells seasonal bouquets and focuses on eliminating waste. She composts all floral waste, even from large-scale events.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Angelo draws a red line when it comes to working with floral foam<\/a>, a water-absorbing block of plastic often used in floral design. The single-use material will \u201cbe in a landfill forever,\u201d she said. It\u2019s one reason she and several other florists are committed to foam-free arrangements.<\/p>\n

\"\"Fern Botanica\u2019s seasonal selections.Photo courtesy of Fern Botanica<\/p>\n

Floral foam is made of phenol-formaldehyde plastics, which break down into microplastics. The material\u2019s toxic compounds are already finding their way into rivers and oceans and being ingested by aquatic animals, according to a 2020 study<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bypassing foam hasn\u2019t hurt business, D\u2019Angelo said. \u201cI don\u2019t feel that we are hindered in our design capabilities at all.\u201d Cameron of Stems agrees, adding that chicken wire works just as well.<\/p>\n

The arrangements produced by these sustainable shops sacrifice none of the color or beauty of a traditional bouquet. A floral arrangement from Molly Culver, owner of Molly Oliver Flowers<\/a> in Sunset Park, features tulips, ranunculus and anemones \u2014 all seasonal to the Greater New York area this time of year. Her small business is dedicated to supporting local growers and purchasing seasonal flowers year-round.<\/p>\n

Culver has extensive knowledge of soil science and agricultural practices, having studied organic farming at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She\u2019s passionate about bringing people into the conversation around floral seasonality.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re going to heal the Earth and work in concert with it, then seasonality is a really big part of it,\u201d she said. Part of that, she added, \u201cis understanding that peonies just don\u2019t want to bloom in December in our region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dole said those looking to buy locally still have access to beautiful flowers this time of year. \u201cThere are a number of wonderful cut flowers that are grown in cool greenhouses or high tunnels in the U.S. with low energy costs during the winter,\u201d including \u201cgorgeous anemones, ranunculus, tulips, sweet peas, stock and more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Locally grown specialty \u201ctulips on the bulb,\u201d including the \u2018Pink Symbiose,\u2019 \u2018Exotic Emperor\u2019 and \u2018Heartbeat\u2019 varieties from Bloomcourt Farm, are prepared for Valentine\u2019s Day at Molly Oliver Flowers.<\/p>\n

Cameron and others agree sourcing local and seasonal flowers is an extension of the care and thoughtfulness they believe a Valentine\u2019s Day gift for that special someone should carry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always just been about sharing love and connection with all kinds of people,\u201d Cameron said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Locally and domestically sourced flowers are arranged at Stems Brooklyn ahead of Valentine\u2019s Day, part of the shop\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,288,55968,14570,9,24,12,370,63,2539,904,47697],"class_list":{"0":"post-130163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-florists","13":"tag-flowers","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-newsletter","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-shopping","20":"tag-things-to-do","21":"tag-valentines-day"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}