Sustainable Floral Design | Foam-Free Technique & Mechanics

Eco-friendly, nontoxic design has been a recurring theme in floral trend reports for years. Many designers and farmer-florists have been turning away from floral foam and looking for new methods, techniques and mechanics for arranging stems, and "chemical-free" mechanics have become a growing focus.

The movement keeps spreading. More florists are going back to the foam-free mechanics used before the 20th century, taking chicken wire, moss and branches to new heights while also developing their own materials, methods and products.

#foamfree installation at a Pacific Northwest flower workshop

The group hung a 20' x 3' wire grid and used recyclable floral tubes and eco-wraps for water. Ferns were used dry, their fronds hiding the wraps and some tubes, while other tubes were left visible on purpose. All the flowers were grown on the West Coast, mostly in Oregon and Washington.

Photo: Suzanne Rothmeyer Photography

Why now? Because better tools and options exist. Much of the effort is about replacing floral foam, used for decades by florists, retailers, wire services and event companies. Concern about this everywhere "tool" of mainstream floristry has grown over the past decade. Most often it's a green, spongy brick. Soaked and placed in a container or fixed to a structure, it holds water for a while, so it's thought to hydrate stems while holding them in place in everything from centerpieces to casket sprays.

Production isn't slowing much. Many companies make and sell versions of it to florists worldwide. Formulas are proprietary, and current safety data sheets can be hard to find and interpret. Patents for earlier floral foams, though, list phenol-formaldehyde or urea-formaldehyde resins as key ingredients, and safety information for some products has warned of eye, skin and respiratory irritation.

Concern is growing about the people who handle the foam and breathe its dust, and about disposal. Floral foam isn't compostable or recyclable, and municipal waste experts have noted it has no value once it heads to the landfill.

Several prominent designers are now promoting greener alternatives and design methods that don't use foam. You can follow them and their techniques on social media under hashtags like #foamfree, #nofloralfoam and #sustainablefloristry; it's eye-opening.

One of them is an event florist and workshop founder based on Whidbey Island, Washington, and a longtime Slow Flowers member, who is helping raise awareness of foam's environmental and health concerns. Along with others, she's adopting greener tools and techniques as the topic goes mainstream, and teaches large-scale event design to florists, farmers and farmer-florists at her own workshops and at industry events in the U.S. and Canada.

She points out that big installations call for different design and building skills than centerpieces or bouquets. Arches, arbors, chuppahs, hanging floral chandeliers, doorway frames, living walls and freestanding sculptures have traditionally relied on a hidden foam base.

Green mechanics are part of sustainable floristry, she says. Florists sometimes have to act like engineers and improvise; she loves building big, ambitious pieces without foam and working out the engineering, using everything from floral mechanics to structural parts and rigging.

The workshop florist with "Mr. Gorgeous Monster," the centerpiece of a flower workshop, led by a guest designer .

All the flowers and greens were American-grown, mostly in Washington and Oregon, plus some California roses. She is still reusing the chicken wire from that workshop: it went into the next year's workshop pieces and many weddings and events in between, with some still left over.

Photo: Heather Saunders Photography

We talked with her about her approach to foam-free mechanics.

Q: How do you define "sustainable floristry"?

A. Foam-free is just one part of sustainable floristry. Think of it as a three-part movement: rethinking mechanics, shrinking waste, and sourcing and distributing locally grown flowers.

Taken as a whole, though, eco-floristry is part of sustainable agriculture: saving water, building soil, how you feed your flowers, how you support birds and bees, and so on. Just as central to sustainability is how you treat employees and customers, and making a sustainable living for yourself and your business, whether that's a farm, a design studio or a flower shop.

Q: What are the common forms of floral foam?

A. Because formulas are proprietary, manufacturers don't share much; they protect their recipes. We do know foam is made from petrochemicals and has included formaldehyde-based resins. In every form it's a single-use plastic. It makes dust that people breathe, it isn't compostable, and there's little good guidance on disposing of it safely. It can break down into microplastics, one of the most troublesome kinds of plastic pollution.

Q. Why have florists traditionally used floral foam?

A. It's a convenience product meant to give stability and water. She doesn't think it's a good way to hydrate stems, and other mechanics can hold stems in place. In overhead installations she has seen stems fall out of foam as it dries or the stems shrink.

She doesn't want to shame anyone for their choices, but she urges designers to think them through, always starting with one question: "How can I design this without foam?"

Q. How are things changing?

A. As people on this planet, we've realized we have to deal with our plastic problem. Most effort goes into alternatives for food, cosmetic and medical packaging, but those are only a few of the streams feeding the plastic now filling the oceans. Just as people are speaking out against plastic bags, people are speaking out against floral foam.

Q. What is the first and easiest way to get started with a sustainable design approach?

A. Loosely ball up some chicken wire, put it in a vase and start experimenting with your own flowers. If you've booked a wedding with personal flowers and 10 centerpieces, that's a great time to try chicken wire instead of foam. If you can't reuse or recycle the wire afterward, choose something compostable: a tangle of twigs, a handful of curly willow (Salix matsudana), or wood wool (excelsior, shredded wood fiber in various thicknesses).

Q. What are some other useful foam-free mechanics?

A. Mechanics she uses and teaches in detail at her workshops:

• Hidden water sources
• Chicken wire
• Eco-wraps: a floral sponge wrap system created by a former florist. The recyclable, compostable wrap is moistened and wrapped around the stems of a bunch or bouquet to keep them hydrated.
• Reusable chicken-wire-style forms (pillows and eggs, made in the USA). Their shapes mimic rustic chicken wire forms and can be reused or recycled.
• Moss "roulade": a crescent of moss bound in chicken wire. Soaked, it holds and waters stems and can be mounted on an arbor or other structure.
• Stakes in concrete: a vertical frame of branches set in a bucket of quick-setting concrete, to which all kinds of foam-free mechanics can be attached for flowers, foliage and other botanicals.
• A freestanding wood frame with chicken wire forms.
• Reusable floral tubes and water picks.

• See foam-free mechanics and photos on the florist's website at tobeynelson.com , along with upcoming classes, videos and webinars.
• Read more on sustainable packaging from the Slow Flowers Journal in Florists' Review: Beyond Plastic.
• Support the American-grown flowers movement by joining the Slow Flowers Society and subscribing to the Slow Flowers Podcast.
• Subscribe to the Flower Podcast for engaging, educational episodes on the latest topics in floristry, including an interview with a floral artist and educatorknown for a list of reliable foam-free mechanics. You can take a course with her through her website, susanmcleary.com.