6 Tips For Picking Healthy Grocery Store Bought Blooms

(7 minute read)

FLOWERS SHOULD BE ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYONE

Gifting and receiving a fresh bouquet of blooms is a great feeling! Studies have proven that the presence  of flowers has immediate and long term positive outcomes on mood, memory and intimacy, so naturally there are a LOT of flower-lovers out there!

But any floral professional will advise you that flowers are not cheap. Every designer and florist prices their work differently in accordance to their experience, expenses and what their local market can bear...and that's OK. That's business. So while not all volumes and varieties should be available on all budgets (as that undermines the art and business of fine floristry and the flower-growing industry) it is still possible for a lover of flowers to purchase a simple, convenient and inexpensive bunch of blooms. 

Now unless your errand route allows for it, most floral shops or farmer's markets won't meet all of these criteria. But which venue usually does?
Grocery Stores.

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Why are Grocery Store Blooms Cheaper?

Let me preface by saying that there is no shame in buying flowers from a grocery store. Of course I'd love to see you buy from a flower shop, farmer's market or me, there is no denying that supermarket blooms are convenient, they are often locally grown, and they can be very pretty. They are also cost-effective and can therefore be a more manageable way to bring blooms into your life and home regularly. But why are grocery store bouquets usually cheaper than their flower-shop counterparts? There can be several reasons:
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1. ​They are marketed as quick-grab convenience items; therefore they need to be under a certain (and low) price point to move quickly;
2. Their flowers are ordered in very large and consistent volumes which garners better prices from growers/suppliers;
3. They are sometimes a "loss leader", meaning priced to garner very low/no margin, because the allure of selling fresh flowers is compelling as a marketing tool to draw new customers and increase food sales;
4. Some markets do not invest in the large, costly equipment and specially trained staff to ensure bloom health, so they have less overhead to account for.

Of course this is not true of every grocery retailer, so don't paint them all with the same brush and cease purchasing their flowers. Instead,  buy confidently after using these 6 tips for healthy bloom assessment!​

HERE'S HOW TO PICK 'EM

#1 - Look Around

Probably the most important step is to observe the grocery setting you are in. Is this a designated floral department? Is there an on-site florist? Are there raised/tiered displays of buckets? Are their proper floral coolers? ...Or are there merely sad-looking buckets of blooms beside the check-out line? If it's the latter, it might be best to walk away. Most cut flowers require refrigeration during storage to slow their development (blooming) and suppress bacteria growth in their bucket water. Both ensure a decent vase-life and ultimately a happier customer. In my experience, and neighbourhood, some premium chain retailers are bringing their A-game, but I should mention that smaller neighbourhood food markets with outdoor bucket displays and covered awnings should not be dismissed for lacking coolers.  These small corner markets often boast the freshest blooms direct from the farm so don't rule them out immediately. Instead skip to tip #2!

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#2 - Bigger Isn't Always Better

There's a spectrum of readiness that you should judge the bouquet on before you pluck it. If it's a mixed bouquet, meaning it is composed of more than one variety of flower, zero in on the focal blooms and ask yourself, "are they big and blown open? Or are the bullets"? This is easy to tell when the bouquet contains varieties like roses or peonies, which should naturally open up over the course of it's vase life. If its are already wide open and marshmallowy when you delicately squeeze... it's old and won't last more than a few days at home. If it's hard as a rock with little to no petal lifting, it was harvested too early and is never going to open up. 

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#3 - Choose Varieties Wisely

Supermarkets predominantly procure bouquets with blooms that have naturally long vase lives. So varieties like carnations, chrysanthemums, alstroemeria, and hardy greens are very common. So too are varieties that hold their form when they dry, and thus hide their deaths well. These include babies breath, thistle, hypericum berries, and eucalyptus. Supermarkets order within these recipes in part because if they last a long time after purchase, they seem "fresh", which results in happy customers and repeated sales... but it is also because they can tolerate being mishandled. I would recommend upgrading to bouquets with more unique blooms (ex. delphinium, ranunculus, roses, freesia, peonies, tulips etc.) that require more care and show their age (see tip #4) easily. They may not last 10 days, but at least with these you will know they were handled with more attention and actually are fresher!

#4 - Conduct an Inspection

Each variety of flower shows its age differently, but there are some easy ways to determine age and health more generally:
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1. Hold the bouquet upside down, and delicately bounce/shake it to see if any leaves fall out of the plastic sleeve. If they do, they're old! Pick again.
2. Peer through the plastic wrap and look for signs of fuzzy white mold or black mushy/slimy stems. If either are present, avoid it and others from within that same bucket -- those spores travel!
3. Look into the bucket and regard the water. Is it full of leaves? Does it have an unpleasant smell? Is there even water in it? Bucket and water cleanliness is essential for cut flower health. It should never stink, be a funky colour, or full of debris. Nor should it be empty! 
4. ​Regard the flower faces. Broken stems, bruised petals and wilting can result from mishandling by stocking staff or by fellow patrons when (re)placing bouquets in their buckets. To get the best bang for your buck leave those bouquets behind.

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#5 - Buy Locally Grown

Did you know: even in the dead of winter the Ontario flower growing community is busy producing beautiful and unique varieties of flowers in their greenhouses? So assuming that all fresh flowers are imported from warmer climates in the cold season is actually not true. Whenever possible, consider buying local varieties before imported for these three (of many) reasons: 
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1. Imported flowers are older when they arrive to Canada. At a minimum roses from South America can take up 6 days from harvest to arrive at a Canadian wholesaler, and then another 3-5 days to arrive assembled and sitting in a retailer's display bucket. Local blooms can be in the store within 2 days of harvest. 
2. Contributing to the global fossil fuel pollution problem, imported blooms have to be flown in and trucked out to their destination...and not all journeys are a direct flight to Pearson! South American exporters send their blooms through US customs in Miami and are then trucked up to Ontario from Florida! ​Local blooms only need to travel from their farm to their processing center within the region.
3. Imported flowers are frequently abused in transport. These days, the process of dry-packing blooms is an exporting science so there's no real threat to their condition when they are in a cold dry hibernation mode. The threat is when their temperature increases (which happens when they wait on the airport tarmac in Miami for example) or when customs officials inspect them (which can involve punching their hands into the boxes in search of drugs or bugs). Local blooms don't have to undergo inspection abuse or the dry-packing process. They usually travel in water!

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# 6 Stick to Seasonal

Okay, so you're onboard with the "shop local" initiative... but how do you know which blooms those are? Often, grocery store bunches are wrapped in "Pick Ontario" promotional sleeves (see logo above) which certify that the blooms inside were Ontario grown. But when in doubt, think seasonal! Below is a very general list of what to look for -at the grocery store- at different times of the year:

SPRING - Tulips, daffodils, hyacinth, lilac, peonies, pussywillow

SUMMER - Dahlia, amaranthus, sunflowers, asiatic lilies, gladiolus 

FALL - Chrysanthemums, ornamental grasses, ornamental kale or cabbage, sunflowers

WINTER - Ranunculus, anemone, amaryllis, evergreens

​ALL YEAR ROUND - Alstroemeria, chrysanthemums, gerbera daisies, freesia, spray roses, snapdragons, statice, calla lilies

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See What's Grown In Ontario!

IN SUM...

I would be remiss if I didn't remind you that The Paisley Rose also designs seasonal bouquets which, during the warmer months, feature homegrown blooms from here on our micro flower farm. But I also appreciate that ordering from me isn't always within the cards of convenience. So if the grocery store's bunch is just the ticket, go for it! And enjoy those blooms and their healing properties knowing you picked them with my tips and tricks in mind!

Questions? Leave them in the comments or shoot me a private message!