I like flowers and as with most things I like, the more of them the better. Big bunches of blooms are irresistible to me and I enjoy flower markets almost as much as I enjoy libraries (For me, if there is heaven, it’ll be a library with high quality tea and flower arrangements. And people dressing up for reading.). In Belgium, it’s much easier and cheaper to indulge in flowers than it is in Estonia and I have taken full advantage of that.

Recently, however, I’ve been thinking about the origin and the real cost of flowers. It’s one of those unpleasant subjects where the reality is probably not quite as pretty as a flower. While I’m not hugely knowledgeable on this issue, I know that if something is cheap for me, chances are the price is paid by someone else. And that someone else is likely the worker at a Kenyan flower farm.

I’m not going to pretend that I have fully reformed, I’m sure I’ll buy bunches of flowers in the future and not all of them will be sustainably grown. But I will make an effort to find fairer options. And I am considering how to use more local blooms and things from my own garden and also, how to do more with less.

As you can see, I’ve been trying to find ways of making single blooms look good. I admit that it’s much easier with handfuls of peonies: you just chuck them in a random container and they’ll look amazing. When you use less, getting a result requires more thought: about the colours, proportions, the size and shape of the vase. But of course it can be done and I think there is something powerful about a solitary flower.