If you want to get completely blameless and innocent flowers, you can look for Local, Organic and Seasonal. Why?
Local, Organic and Seasonal
Value Flowers only use flower farms in Britain that are organic or in transition to organic.
The organic flower company sells lovely organic flowers, and they say they are committed to supporting UK growers.
Organic fruit tree saplings
Imagine if we all planted fruit trees. In a few years, there'd be free fruit everywhere all summer. Just Green delivers 4ft tree saplings (Victoria plum, pear, cherry…) for £20 plus £4.95 p&p. Order by 7th Feb for delivery by valentines day.
Snowdrops are in season in February and March.
Or if you don't like the look of them, compromise:
Local and Seasonal
Scilly Flowers ships their blooms over from the Scilly Isles, so no flying. So does Scented Narcissi, who say theirs are grown outdoors and harvested by hand on family-run farms.
Clowance Wood is a family run nursery in Cornwall offering valentines bouquets
Organic
By nature do organic, fair trade and local flowers (though not all at the same time!)
Other options
Arena Flowers sell flowers that are FFP (Fair Flowers Fair Plants) certified. (FFP is a label for sustainable plants and flowers. It combines some of the values of Faritrade and Organic, though critics say its not as rigorous as either. Still better than nothing, though.)
Wiggly Wigglers sell beautiful bouquets and say they are committed to reducing the amount of pesticides they use. (They're also good on composting equipment and wormeries...)
Fairtrade flowers are available from most supermarkets, but do read a bit more about Fairtrade.
