‘Help farmers’: Quebec flower growers encourage buying local on Mother’s Day

A new association of flower growers in Quebec has come to life to encourage people to buy local, a growing trend that they say has many benefits.

For those in the floral business, Mother’s Day is the equivalent of the Super Bowl for football athletes.

It’s one of the top-selling holidays of the year and millions of the flowers sold that weekend come from miles away.

It’s why a new association of flower growers,  the Association of Cut Flower Producers of Quebec, has come to life to encourage people to buy local, a growing trend that they say has many benefits.

The owner of Marie Vermette flower shop on Laurier Est, Julie Belleau-Roy,  expects about 25 per cent of the flowers she will use for Mother’s Day deliveries will be from Quebec.

Clients she says, are asking more and more for local flowers.

“I would say for maybe four, five years,” Belleau-Roy said. “I would probably say that the pandemic boosted everything.”

It’s a boost that benefits flower farmers like Valérie Goulet.

“You help farmers in your area to live, to pay their mortgages and groceries,” Goulet said.