My masters degree is in management and sustainable business and the year I joined the dahlia society I was absolutely shocked that everyone was using floral foam for shows! I couldn't believe it!
I did a whole bunch of research regarding the use of floral foam for our local dahlia show and I was able to convince our board to go foam free in 2022. A couple of other people on the board and I tested out a bunch of stuff and did a demo at a meeting on different ways to exhibit without the foam. We used other mechanics including chicken wire, wedges, etc. instead. Fast forward to the show weekend. IT WAS AN ABSOLUTE DISASTER. People not in our local society that were going to show had no idea we didn't have foam and boy that went over like a lead balloon. They would have brought their own had they known we would not be using it. Everyone hated it, and I have to admit that included me. It took so damn long to try to get each stem into the perfect position and then while walking the vase over to the show table, the stinkin' wedge would pop loose and you'd have to start over. By the end of the weekend I was sorry I suggested it.
While doing research I discovered that the vases we use in West Michigan (I'll try to find pictures later) originally came with caps that fit on top that had holes in it, and worked kind of like a ready made grid on the vase. However, those weren't perfect either and everyone liked foam way better so someone threw out all the caps years ago! 🤪
Pin frogs would be awesome IF they weren't so expensive considering how many would be needed for a show. A pin frog type of thing that is part of the actual vase itself would be super ideal, but then there's the issue about how difficult it would be to clean and sterilize that many vases with pin frogs at the bottom. I ordered some of Holly Chappel's Floral Pillows to try and those worked ok, but it is cost prohibitive. Florist tape grids don't work and look stupid for this. Chicken wire balls wanted to pop out of the smooth vases.
Someone needs to design something that is part of the vases themselves, easy to clean, fast and wonderful to use. I don't know what it is and I have spent a lot of time thinking about it.
One other thing to mention is that I learned that the National Dahlia Society in the UK was forced to go foam free for their show 2 years ago because the venue they use made changes to their policies. Following this is the email reply I received from Ron Thomas, the NDS Chairman of Show and Show Manager:
_Hello Missy
Ref: National Dahlia Society (UK)
I have been passed on your enquiry regarding the use of the wet green oasis at our National Show from our General Secretary Mrs June Nash.
Our Show is held at the RHS Garden at Wisley, my name is Ron Thomas and my role is the NDS Chairman of Show and Show Manager.
Our National Show runs for six days at the RHS Garden at Wisley, the RHS have now banned the use of Oasis on all of their sites, so we can no longer use this type of Floral Foam, although the use of Smithers FibreFloral and Agrawool is permitted and the curatorial team at the RHS are happy that both can be put in with composting, having used it at our show in 2021 it was found to be unsuccessful for staging Dahlias over a six day period.
It caused rashes to break out on some exhibitors skin and shortness of breath
It did not hold the stems firmly enough
The stems rotted from the inside
Blooms could not take up water, due to the Fibre sealing off the bottom of the stems which prevented the uptake of water.
The RHS:
As part of the RHS's efforts to improve sustainability, and make environmentally-minded choices when planning their events, they have made the decision to ban all plastic containing floral foam at shows and events from 2021. Floral foams on the market are non-biodegradable (the brown bio-foam still takes 4 years to break down by 90% under special conditions) and use micro-plastics, and due to the nature of its use it is very easy for these to get into water supplies. Only the use of newspaper, Dahlia stalks, Moss, wooden sticks, Agrawool, FibreFloral, or other compostable staging material is permitted.
At this moment in time we are looking at an alternative means for staging blooms, but this is still on the drawing board._
Anyway, I think the ADS needs a committee regarding sustainable mechanics that actually work for staging blooms. Sorry for my long winded post about a tiny portion of what you asked about!
