My flower displays this Harvest were an attempt to show the difference between sustainable and unsustainable ways of sourcing, packaging and displaying flowers. It was no mistake that the flowers wrapped in plastic were all dead – a comment on our dying Earth.

Flowers should be a source of joy and thankfully there are lots of initiatives to help us buy them literally in good faith. UK supermarkets that are part of the Plastics Pact launched in 2018, are switching to compostable and recyclable alternatives to plastic packaging, including hydro-paper (see photo below), eco-friendly flower boxes and bio foam. By ditching plastic from flower bouquets, Morrisons is saving 925 tonnes of plastic each year. Online florists like “Bloom” are working towards the achievement of a carbon free business model, supporting sustainable production and packaging. In the US and Canada the Slow Flower movement is taking off, emphasising a focus local, seasonal and sustainably sourced flowers, connecting growers with retailers.

As the impact of climate change is falling disproportionately on developing nations, they need our support. You may want to look for flowers that come from producers assured by the Fairtrade and Florverde schemes.

These farms receive a premium of 10% for every stem sold, to be invested in practices that promote biodiversity and the health, education, and social welfare of local communities.

Why should we care about all this? What’s it got to do with us? My answer would be that God has blessed us with the most extraordinarily beautiful and abundant Earth, that is more than adequate to meet our needs. We worship God by adopting sustainable and appropriate practices and technologies that work well, heal not harm, that are concerned for the poor, and that nurture relational values. We are all called to be faithful and responsible stewards of his creation.