The allure of organic food is obvious at this point. The industry has seen exponential growth in the last 25 years, making the shift from being fringe to being the golden standard. Although there is no mystery in organic food, organic floriculture has been somewhat slower on the uptake. But progressive farmers Mandy and Steve O’Shea think there is no other way.
“The flower industry is in the early stages of that transformation. People are starting to connect the dots and realize that the industry is off-balance and toxic,” says Steve. “They are beginning to see the value in sustainable floriculture and are getting excited at the nearly unlimited potential expansion in creativity and beauty that results when everything growing in your garden, woods, roadside, swamp etc. becomes fodder for your imagination and paint for your canvas.”
An interest in floriculture grew alongside their early farming endeavors. While working on an olive farm in San Francisco years ago, Mandy was responsible for creating daily arrangements for the estate. “I had 80 acres of gorgeous landscaping and gardens to play with, and it forced me to be creative and to always experiment with every botanically and texturally interesting plant and flower that grew on that property,” she says. “My love for foraging really started there.”
Later, she moved home to Georgia with Steve, and they began 3 Porch Farm. On their farm, the two work hard to find means of farming that are sustainable, and they’ve led the agriculture movement in Athens towards organic and naturally grown practices.
Although they grow many staple crops for the area, the O’Shea’s have also been innovative in bringing new things to the market. They create many value-added products, and they’ve branched into flowers as another way to expand the local industry.
“As we began our own farming endeavor in Georgia, we began to play more with flowers. As the years have progressed, we’ve remained vigilant about taking the broad view of our life and our farm, and those check-in sessions have led us more and more into flowers,” says Mandy.
Most of the flowers sold in the United States are imported from other countries. In order to pass through customs inspections, the flowers have to arrive in pristine health—they aren’t permitted to arrive carrying diseases that would threaten domestic flowers or people. If even one of a large shipment of flowers arrives with the sign of nematodes, grubs, mites, mildews or diseases, the whole batch will often be thrown out. This is financially disastrous to both the grower and the buyer. To avoid losing business and money, many flower growers internationally and domestically coat their flowers with pesticides.
“In addition to the poisons put in the soil to kill grubs, nematodes, and mites, and the ones sprayed on the leaves to kill caterpillars, aphids, and thrips, and the ones sprayed to kill powdery mildew and botrytis, there are even poisons applied after the flowers are harvested,” says Steve. “The roses that you buy at any given store in the U.S. were most likely completely dipped in a barrel of poison right before shipping. It is common practice. Makes you think twice about taking a bath in rose petals.”
On top of growing flowers to sell in bulk, Mandy and Steve have launched Moonflower Design, a floral design studio in which their organically grown flowers are arranged for occasions like weddings or for restaurant décor.
“To have a creative outlet is very important to both of us, and floral design allows us to have that outlet,” says Mandy. “We also see the need to be a part of this movement. The expansion of domestically grown organic flowers is starting to take hold, and we want to help further the cause in North Georgia.”
Growing organically is not without challenges. Currently, Steve and Mandy are battling tarnished plant bugs, Japanese beetles, powdery mildew, aphids, thrip bugs, caterpillars, spider-mites, potato beetles, flea beetles and five different kinds of grasshoppers, to name a few. With these kinds of road bumps, they can understand the appeal of spraying down plants with synthetic pesticides and fungicides, especially considering that without these powerful chemicals they lose anywhere from 15—85 percent of a crop.
“It’s easy to see the allure of chemical agriculture when you lose a crop to pathogens of any sort,” says Steve, “But we have a strong sense of responsibility that keeps us moving in the right direction.”
Jodi Cash blogs at The Seed and Plate.
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