Thistle & Fern - Albury Wodonga Florist

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Let’s talk sustainability

Over the past couple of years, we have made a very conscious choice about our responsibility to reduce, recycle and reuse. To further reduce our carbon footprint, we will strengthen our commitment to sourcing local, in-season flowers and if this cannot be achieved, we will endeavour to source Australian grown flowers.

The thought behind this movement is, to buy local, firstly this supports our local community, buying organic seasonal blooms, local blooms come straight from the garden, not wrapped in plastic, chemical and pesticide-free and ethically sourced. This also cuts back on transport emissions and our local growers are a beautiful bunch of like-minded people, we love supporting them and their blooms are blooming beautiful.

BEAUTIFUL KING PROTEAS FROM WOORAGEE


Buying locally cannot always fulfil the volume of flowers we require, so we pledge to buy and source Australian grown blooms, again we are supporting our Australian growers knowing that the flowers are ethically sourced and grown to the strict standards of the Australian Flower growers which cut back on the emissions of overseas transport.

In our shops, we have reduced our single-use plastics. You won’t see any cellophane wrapping or plastic-coated papers, we use only paper and twine, we strive to use as little packaging as possible, paper towel is wrapped around our stems and if needed we use compostable bags to keep stems moist.

We don’t use Floral foam unless it’s absolutely required, which to be honest is hardly ever. Floral foam can be made of carcinogenic materials, the vessel in which it is held is single-use plastic which breaks down into microplastics and contaminates our waterways.

It is our goal not to use floral foam when you see our installations of garlands and large arrangements we come up with some ingenious ways to use vessels that are reusable, no floral foam!

INSTALL AT PLOSH PLONK ON MAIN, NO USE OF FLORAL FOAMS


We love Naturally dried flowers, however, we do not encourage or use chemically enhanced or coloured flowers, unfortunately, these types of treated dried flowers do not break down, they cannot be composted and are often toxic and can often be coated in a water-soluble plastic coating.

We encourage Australian Native Flowers that have been allowed to dry over time, whilst the colours may be more muted, this is the most environmentally friendly way to achieve dried flowers in your home and a further commitment on our behalf to be responsible in our impact on our environment.

BUNCHES OF FRESH FLOWERS THAT WILL NATURALLY DRY


You may have seen our always popular signature posy jars, we encourage the purchase of these little beauties, there is no waste and we love it when they are returned and reused!

Think of it like a boomerang that keeps coming back, our posy jars are made of recycled glass and are quick and easy to maintain.

POSY JARS ARE AVAILABLE IN RECYCLED GLASS JARS AND MAY BE REUSED


We strive to lower our wastage and regularly do a bin audit, all our waste in the floristry side of things is composted via the council green waste collection. We are hoping to be able to do more on the composting side of things in the near future, we will keep you posted.

In 2022 we are encouraging our clients to think local, think Australian and entrust us to put together the most beautiful, seasonal and ethically sourced bouquets, and event floristry knowing that we are all doing our bit to reduce, reuse and recycle.