Floral designers pick local over big carbon footprint

Whatever your bent, don't even think about grabbing clippers and picking forests and parks clean. "You can't just do it. You have to have permission or a permit, unless it's your own garden," says Hatter, who teaches "incredible edibles and traditional medicinals" at the University of Tennessee's Smoky Mountain Field School.

Floral designers, and gardeners, for that matter, have long improvised with homegrown stuff.

Collingswood florist Michael Bruce recently raided a client's garden for a last-minute bridal bouquet. He used fresh figs, lavender, rosemary, sage, lemon balm, liriope, and two nasty invasives: porcelain berry, which nonetheless has outstanding purple berries, and Japanese knotweed, which has arcs of creamy white flowers.

"What I picked from her garden made this marvelous little masterpiece that the bride flipped for," Bruce says. "You could not have created that with flowers grown by a wholesaler."

But Bruce, known for his provocative displays at the Philadelphia Flower Show, believes most business owners, especially these days, will choose price over sustainability. "I think you do the best you can with what you have," he says.

Read garden writer Virginia A. Smith's blog at

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Contact garden writer Virginia A. Smith at 215-854-5720 or vsmith@phillynews.com.