When you buy a bouquet of flowers for your loved one, do you know where those flowers are grown? Colombia? The Netherlands? What about right in your own community?
A new group based in Ann Arbor has expanded upon the burgeoning local food movement to include locally grown flowers. It’s called the Michigan Flower Growers Cooperative.
Once a week from spring to fall, the co-op allows growers to sell wholesale to floral designers, florists and distributors.
Many of the flower growers work full-time jobs, and the co-op allows them to drop off their lilies, daisies, and tulips, and come back later to pick up a check.
“This was necessary not just because local flowers are due their time, but because there’s a lot of small and independent growers who really need support and a viable business, and flowers are it,” said one of the founders, Amanda Maurmann.
It’s an innovative way farmers are reshaping their business while revitalizing the Michigan economy. We filed an audio postcard from one of the co-op’s market days. Click on the link above to hear our story.
The Flower Cooperative re-opens in April 2018 and is located at 2401 Industrial Parkway in Ann Arbor.
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