Our Mission

Our quest for a sustainable future for nature is the best business practice we can imagine. Our flowers are grown in a manner that is gentle on the Earth and safeguards the well-being of farm workers, wildlife, and the ecology using the best certified sustainable practices including Organic and Veriflora.

I have always wondered about the people behind the flowers that we sell at Wisteria Lane, but didn't delve too deeply into it until very recently. To my dismay, I quickly discovered that our expressions of affection require painful, low paid toil by a labor force that is predominantly female. The lack of protective equipment and clothing leaves most of them exposed to pesticides in the fields and to the fungicides that the flowers are dipped in before shipment. These chemicals are known to cause terrible symptoms such as headache and nausea, blurred vision, autoimmune diseases and miscarriages among pregnant women.

America's main suppliers of cut lowers next to the Netherlands are Columbia and Ecuador, where a repressive culture has allowed these practices to prevail. However, within a decade most of our roses will be "Made in China". Without any job rights or union protection, young women earning less than $25 a month will face the same occupational, safety and health hazards as their counterparts in South America.

Like the sale of "blood diamonds" the sale of these blood tainted flowers should be abhorred. In the case of diamonds years of international campaigning about child labor successfully brought attention to this horrible practice. If the abundant thorns in the global flower trade prick a few consumer consciences, "floriculture" abuses too may become a thing of the past.

We have taken a step to that end. Wisteria Lane will only be working with flowers that have been certified as either Organic, or Veriflora products. Our ultimate goal is to protect the environment and improve farm worker safety by eliminating millions of pounds of toxic pesticides from agricultural usage.