Green Wedding|Celebration|Alternative Weddings|Eco-wedding

Green Weddings -
Adding an element of "sustainability" to your relationship.


It doesn't have to be New Age, or involve dances before Gaia (although it could...). Making a commitment to becoming life partners is a statement of relational integrity. An engagement or wedding is or should be an affirmation of what each individual in the union has become in her/his life and for what they can become for each other, together, in the future. It makes sense that the symbols and rituals incorporate the best elements of the beliefs and values that the couple hold in common.

Many couples are foregoing diamonds as a symbol of engagement, based upon the diamond trade's roots in civil war and destabilization in Africa. Others are refusing to enter into the "gift registry" merchandizing bonanza promoted by the big department stores. Folks we know, who are concerned about the suspect pedigree (and expense) of imported cut flowers are using flowers and foliage they have grown themselves or are buying from local farms - a practice we heartily encourage.

We offer a sustainable alternative to couples who want their weddings/celebrations to reflect their beliefs: the Green Wedding. We are very happy to sit with you and discuss the amazing assortment of locally grown and/or Fair Trade organic cut flowers or plants that can be used in our designs. Our consultations become a brainstorming session on the ways that a celebration can make use of (elegant!) recycled or recyclable products - from Fair Trade certified and/or organic flowers to paper goods to the wedding dress itself.

Give us a call at either shop, Encke or Tiger Lily, and we'll be happy to talk "green".
201-836-1276 or 201-287-1800
http://www.tigerlilyflowershop.net/

Tulip Mania and Speculative Bubbles (the undeserving tulip)

Most students of economics know that capitalism was born in the Netherlands during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Holland, in fact, birthed the world's first commodity futures market, and logically, the world's first speculative bubble. The commodity that caused a financial frenzy wasn't gold, silver, tobacco or silk.

It was the tulip.

Tulips were highly valued and sought after as symbols of affluence. Because their bulbs reproduced cloned buds and could be dug up and transported at the end of their season, their "futures" could be traded and speculated upon. In 1636, a highly prized variety of tulip was discovered and cultivated (it was infected with a mosaic virus that gave the flower brilliant striations of color). During a lull in the 30 Years War, the French entered the tulip market, and the bidding on the mosaic-infected varieties took off. The price of the bulbs at its height was 150 times the average yearly earnings for a skilled craftsman or guild member (they formed the majority of speculators). The frenzy became known as the Tulip Mania of 1636, and the flower has become a symbol of rampant speculative fever ever since.

In our era, the symbol should no longer be the undeserving tulip. It rightfully should be the Bush.

Flowers for your broker...

Yesterday we ran a

"Wall Street Bail-out Special."
Free* flowers.

(*Your children will pay for them later...)


Today's sale:

Hardy* Mums: $7.99 (or 2.2 Euros)
* "fundamentally strong..."

How do main street businesses respond to Wall Street crises? On Monday morning, the streets of suburban Teaneck were like a ghost town. I imagined everyone at home, hiding under their blankets, wondering if the news anchors were going to go on the air and just announce that The Great Depression II has now begun. It won't happen like that, of course - anymore than the Crash of '29 was signalled by brokers leaping from office building windows.

This is Reaganomics coming home to roost. And what a dirty, pestilential flock of birds it is.

How do like deregulation now? It's a technicolor example of privatized profit and socialized debt. Keep government out of the affairs of business - until, of course, it comes time to pull their miserable, bloated selves out of the gutter. But this is not just "corporate greed" or something endemic only to Wall Street. It's structural. It is the logic of capitalism itself. Which is why the answers must also be structural, and they must adhere to an entirely different kind of logic: people (including future generations of people) before profits. Just a thought.

Sources of Fair Trade Flowers

At the bottom of this post you'll find a list of contacts that was provided to me by Kazuko Golden of TransFairUSA. Kazuko leads TransFairUSA's group trying to develop and promote sources of Fair Trade cut flowers in the US.

As we've noted in past posts, the US is way behind Europe, where an increasing percentage of cut flowers are Fair Trade certified. (Half of the roses sold in Switzerland are FTC.) Every retail florist that begins to sell Fair Trade Certified/Organic cut flowers becomes part of a larger, crucial effort to educate the US public about sustainability - economic and environmental. This will be a transitional process that will surely gather momentum, just as the Fair Trade movement has gained traction in the coffee market. Aside from being the manifestly right thing to do, I am sure that it will also prove to be profitable for retail florists as our customers become more knowledgeable. It is an easy step to take from comprehending fair trade related to food and coffee to cut flowers.

Our experience in selling FTC gifts in our shops in Teaneck (a moderately progressive, but by no means radical town) is that our patrons have generally heard of Fair Trade, even if they cannot articulate a complete definition. They like and admire the idea, and have expressed a preference to buy fair trade when there is a choice. This can be one more reason to come to your retail florist as opposed to buying flowers at the local supermarket or Costco.

(As I write this, I am watching a woman crossing the street in front of our store, holding a ready-made bouquet she bought at the local butcher shop...) We're in a tough business.

If you're ever in the NY/NJ metro area, please visit us at our shops:

Encke Flowers
281 Queen Anne Road, Teaneck

or Tiger Lily
569 Cedar Lane, Teaneck

Anyway, here's the list:

Jessica Bergna
EcoFlowers/Organic Bouquet
http://www.ecoflowers.com/
jbergna@ecoflowers.com

Edin Maslesa
Fall River Florist Supply
Direct Line 508-742-1846
Mobile 781-956-5012
Fax 508-672-1433
http://www.fallriverfloristsupply.com/

Perez, Sharon M.
World Flowers, USA Incorporated
przshar@aol.com
(863) 214-5202

Alaina Paradise
One World Flowers, Incorporated
aparadise@oneworldflowers.org
(505) 304-7458

Mr. Diego PadronAsociación de Comercio Equitativo
0-11-593 2 2441113
drpadron@hotmail.com


Hortensia Ulvrri
InBloom Group LLC
(305) 436-0030
hortensia@inbloomgroup.com