Farmers Market Wilts Without Flowers

Prompted by residents clamoring for the return of flower sales at the open-air Farmers Market, Councilman Steve Dicterow said he will ask his colleagues to reconsider the issue.

When the market opened in June in the school district parking lot, growers were allowed to sell bouquets. But local florists grumbled to the City Council that the lower prices were hurting sales at their stores.

As a result, when the market moved in November to a city-owned parking lot adjacent to city hall, the council banned the sale of flowers.

Since then, market manager Jennifer Griffiths said, overall sales have dropped 35% to 50%.

“A farmers market without flowers is just a sadder place,” Griffiths said. “The market has suffered tremendously, drastically. . . . I’ve had people walk up to me since we’ve moved to our new location and say, ‘Where are the flowers?’ When I say we don’t have them anymore, they just walk away. They don’t even shop.”

In a memo to his colleagues, Dicterow said he has been contacted by “numerous residents” asking that the city consider reinstating the sale of flowers. He recommended that the council review its policy.

Griffiths said the Orange County Farm Bureau has markets in seven Orange County cities. The Laguna Beach location, open from 8 a.m. to noon every Saturday, is the only one that has banned the sale of cut flowers, she said.