Sourcing Marigolds

Sourcing for Success

In September, I had a wedding for a couple who, from the beginning, wanted lots and lots of marigolds. As a rule, I do not promise any particular flower for an event. I always want to know what they love, but I make sure to understand what they love about that flower and what about its relationship in an arrangement they feel drawn to. Sometimes, nature or human error has its way with a particular flower I ordered, arriving at my studio in bad form or not at all! But when that happens, I have all of the information I need to pivot so that the floral designs maintain the stylistic integrity the client is expecting.

Happily, for this September wedding, the request for marigolds seemed an easy one to satisfy as it was prime marigold season. Still, it was the height of summer heat which is draining on a flower’s energy. Moreover, regardless of the time of year, the flowers we get from our wholesalers go through many hands and handoffs before they reach me. Every head they pass through is an opportunity for a mistake. Given those factors and the importance of the marigolds being in the design, I ordered 60 bunches (that’s about 600 stems!) from three different sources.

The Sources:

Winkelman Flower Farm, Lindale TX

I ordered everything they had. I felt confident that this local farm would have the best quality blooms since these marigolds would have been grown in the Texas summer then cut and placed directly into water for us to pick up in our air conditioned car. I was right, they were gorgeous and out performed the marigolds from the other two sources.

Local Wholesaler, California

These marigolds ordered at my local wholesaler came from California and were the least expensive. They held up best after the local farm flowers. Still, I think the travel to Texas must have worn them out because not all of them made it to the wedding.

Online Wholesaler, Ecuador

Ordering the marigolds from this online wholesaler was the most expensive choice of the three and I had to throw out several bunches immediately because they did not recover from the boxed shipping. As the wedding approached, I had to toss more and more that were showing slime at the stems and turning brown at the heads. Even though they came direct from the farm in Ecuador, I suspect it was just too long out of water and too often in the heat.

You can see the wedding results on this post here: Green and Orange Wedding featuring marigolds