Visit San Francisco , and you might see a cycle whirr by with dozens of bouquets . While receiving flowers always makes people smile , Farmgirl Flowers give people even more reason to smile — sustainable practices and American - grown flowers . Here , Farmgirl Flower founder Christina Stemble peach withUrban Farmabout how she keeps her bloom byplay — now countrywide — in line with her mission of sustainability .
How did Farmgirl Flowers get its start?
I startedFarmgirl Flowersabout five years ago , in Nov. 2010 , with an idea of how to change the way flowers are purchased in the U.S. I ’d care to say I started the business because I have a passion for prime , but in Sojourner Truth it was n’t a bite desire to work with flowers : It was a dream to commence a business that did something good .
When working at Stanford University as the managing director of alumna sexual relation and campaign outreach for the law schooltime , I noticed that the flowers we would regularize for events cost more than I thought they should . That led me to start explore the flower industry , which is when I found that it was a vast industry , but with a tremendous identification number of problems and very little invention . So I set out to make a trade name spankin ’ raw mannequin to fix the problem , which is how Farmgirl Flowers was born .
What problems did you find with the flower industry? How did you fix them?
Farmgirl Flowers
The first problem I correct out to solve is the exit of implication . I had no theme that well over 80 percent of the flowers sold in the U.S. are flown in from other countries .
The 2d problem was flower wastefulness . When you go into a bloom shop , think about how many flowers you see . And think about how many of them look like they are already past their blossom . heyday store owners have no idea what consumer are live to want , so they have to buy a bombastic selection , and then terminate up confuse out about half of the flowers .
Instead of have hundreds of selection , we extend one casual arrangement , which reduces our waste from the industry standard of 40 percent to less than 1 percent . Reducing our permissive waste allows us to utilize premium blossom and hire and train great floral designers .
We ’re able to do this all at the same price as our competition because we do n’t have the waste . And what we ’re most proud of is that we wo n’t compromise on our mission to support American prime farmers , even though it would be a significant rise to our bottom line if we did .
The last problem I was trying to figure out was just a personal issue I had with the industriousness — outdated , and in my opinion , spoilt pattern aesthetic . When I would institutionalise flowers to my mama in Indiana , I had to practice one of the traditional eComm flower ship’s company , and I always ended up being very dissatisfied with what was delivered .
What makes Farmgirl Flowers different?
It ’s our innovational poser : one architect , daily arrangement , using 100 - percent American grow flowers , wrapped in our trademarked burlap wrapper ( recycle coffee berry bags donate by local roaster ) . And in San Francisco we deliver by bicycle . We also do everything in sign so we can assure it meet our very high-pitched monetary standard — from invention , packaging , customer service , local saving , merchandising and just about everything in between .
How does your bicycle flower delivery service work?
We now have a delivery team of about 12 — some cycle courier , some driver — and each one worry so much about each delivery they make .
Our bike couriers are a little like local virtuoso , people are always withdraw their photograph on the street and post them to social medium . They ’re in reverence of how many prime the courier carry at one time — sometimes as many as 30 organization !
Tell me about some of your local flower farmers. Are they small or large commercial growers? And what are some popular local flowers?
As we ’ve grown tremendously in the past five year , we ’ve been expanding to work with many more farm now . There ’s about 5,900 flower farms leave behind in the U.S. , and my goal is to buy from them all in the future ! When we set out , we only used farms within 200 knot of San Francisco ; however , we ’ve now blow up to admit all of California and even other Department of State so as to be able to get enough flowers , and to patronise as many farms as possible .
We buy from very small farm of only a few acres to very large commercial farm of K of acres and squad members . We ’re already working with several to farm specific item for us and will preserve to move in that direction . Working with the farmers is belike my favorite part of my caper .
As for favored flowers , peonies are always the winner — it ’s plausibly the fave flower of at least 90 pct of women . The great thing about using seasonal flowers , though , is that you get to enjoy the peak when they ’re at their best . Just wish out - of - time of year veggies that try like composition board , flowers are right smart good when being enjoyed in season .
We look forward to the changing season because we get to apply different flowers : protea , roses ( especially garden rose ! ) , cosmetic kale , calla lilies , tulip , veronica , scabios and so many more variety !
