‘Blommm’ is a tribute to perfect imperfection. At florist Paulien Verhaest, you won’t find roses and tulips all year round. No, these bouquets are purely natural and are arranged according to the seasonal availability and color palette.
‘Blommm’ is a tribute to perfect imperfection. At florist Paulien Verhaest, you won’t find roses and tulips all year round. No, these bouquets are purely natural and are arranged according to the seasonal availability and color palette.
Paulien: “Gent is home to so many sustainable businesses, and it inspires me endlessly to see how all these starting entrepreneurs are making the right choices and consciously choosing to follow a sustainable path. When I first visited local flower farmers, I was surprised to hear that they sold far too little to make a living. Their fields were full of beautiful flowers grown with love and care, so much more beautiful than the ten identical roses you find in the supermarket.”
We give bouquets for major occasions, such as births, birthdays, and weddings, to the people we care about. Yet the story behind the classic flower industry is far less rosy. Farmers in the Global South aren’t paid enough, and the pesticides used on flowers cause harm to both people and the environment. They have to spray them because so much money is at stake, and they cannot afford crop failures on the many rose or tulip fields. There is hardly any regulation, but a random Greenpeace sample on Valentine’s Day showed pesticide residues on those flowers that are strictly banned in Belgian agriculture. I found that shocking.
Blommm started last year on Mother’s Day. My motivation keeps growing thanks to the visible results. I work with 8 local growers who haven’t been active for long, and I see them grow, expand, and become profitable. Even though we are just a small company from Ghent, we do achieve results and make a difference somewhere. Our flowers have not been flown in, which helps us limit our ecological footprint. Recently, we did the math: since our start, we sold 300,000 stems, saving 30 tons of CO2 emissions. According to Scientific American, you have to count 100 grams of CO2 per flower. We prefer to be kind to the environment and work with bike couriers. One day our flowers are still in the field, the next day on your dining table.
We are a social enterprise and pay a fair price to our flower farmers. We pay them up to 6 times more than traditional flower traders, which explains why our bouquets are more expensive. They also look different: not all the same stem lengths or stuffed with palm leaves. Blommmekes are an ode to imperfection. Crooked stems or small tears in the leaves are part of it. The flowers are pure nature and grow in all weather conditions. And our bouquets definitely don’t have to hide behind those of florists. On the contrary, if you take good care of our flowers, they stay beautiful longe,r and all the flower buds really bloom. More and more people consciously choose purity. I feel we are ready for those fair and sustainable products.
A bouquet of happiness from Blommm is one of the tips you can find in our year-end guide, Duurzaam en (h)eerlijk feesten.
Melissa works as a freelance journalist and loves writing about psychology, relationships, and sustainability. Her heart beats for bouquets from local flower growers, for finding gems in second-hand goldmines and fair fashion shops, and for living more kindly and consciously in every aspect of life.
