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" Arrangements from Petal by Pedal. From your favorite restaurant&amp;#039;s rooftop farm to the foodie buzzwords du jour\u2014&amp;quot;local&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;GMO-free,&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;organic,&amp;quot; to name a few\u2014watching what we eat in the name of the planet has never been so in style. But while we&amp;#039;re all gearing up to stock up on seasonal produce as the weather warms up, what about our favorite spring indulgence\u2014flowers? You might assume that this time of year, blooms would definitely be local. But, the reality is that most professionally distributed bouquets actually come with a decent amount of mileage. Most florists (both online and brick-and-mortar) import their flowers from locations all over the world. Plus, the delivery process only amplifies the carbon footprint. Pretty ironic for nature&amp;#039;s bounty, no? &amp;quot;Unfortunately, there is not a lot of consumer awareness about the flower industry,&amp;quot; says Kate Gilman, founder of Petal by Pedal, a new NYC boutique florist that not only sources its blooms locally, but delivers arrangements by bike messenger. &amp;quot;It hasn&amp;#039;t yet been privy to the same consciousness movement that food has (buying organic, cage free, locally grown, etc).&amp;quot; But it seems that the trend is taking root (so to speak)\u2014an array of bike-delivery florists have already popped up in San Francisco (including Farmgirl Flowers and Bloom That), and the launch of Petal by Pedal on March 20 means that the eco-floral movement has officially gone bicoastal. It might just be a budding industry, but Gilman clearly has faith in its longevity. After all, she left behind a career in law for her entrepreneurial new gig. She gave us the lowdown on taking that plunge, trading delivery trucks for bikes\u2014and of course, her go-to bloom of the moment.  Arrangements from Petal by Pedal and two adorable Frenchies for scale. What inspired you to begin Petal by Pedal? Living in New York City, we have access to just about everything! I found that a trip to the farmer&amp;#039;s market enabled me to make a bouquet that was nowhere else. When shopping online, I was greeted with inconsistency and overdone bouquets; a trip to the brick and mortar florist typically meant too much time and too much money. In both scenarios, I was missing the kind of locally grown bouquet and membership feeling I desired and had found so quickly at the greenmarket. The more I looked into it, the more I was shocked by the industry standard of imported blooms, overdone bouquets and wasteful packaging. Wherever I shopped, I continued to find a real lack of authenticity and transparency\u2014how and where the flowers were grown. It seemed that a flower was a flower was a flower, when in fact, one flower came from Ecuador, another from Holland, another from California. It does not have to be this way\u2014there are incredible stems growing all around us in New York and I wanted to create an online platform that connected the grower to the consumer. There is real value placed on a high quality rustic bouquet\u2014and new expectations that companies do well through doing good. I think people want the whole experience, from purchase to receiving the bouquet, to connect with them\u2014with an easily clickable website, a thoughtful card-making process, a handcrafted bouquet and delivery by our fleet of bicycle messengers. Tell me about your career before deciding to become an entrepreneur. Was it scary for you to take this leap? I had graduated from law school and was lined up to work at a large law firm. I had sought to become a lawyer to affect positive change in people&amp;#039;s lives but soon found the reality of a legal career unexpectedly stifling and the creative part of me began to wonder whether there wasn&amp;#039;t something else I was meant to do. It was around this time that I began to develop relationships with many local growers at New York City&amp;#039;s greenmarkets during my weekly trips to purchase flowers for my apartment. The decision to step away from the certainty of a job into a new career in flowers was the scariest thing I have ever done, but the moment was absolutely right. I find myself here today, on the brink of our launch, with no regrets.  An arrangement from Petal by Pedal. Bike-messengered flower arrangements are starting to become a trend around the nation. Why bikes? This is definitely a growing movement\u2014especially on the West Coast. Cities are becoming more bike-able every day. In general, our generation demands more connection to the products we use, more involvement in the company story behind them and an overall awareness for the environment. I think that the bike-messenger delivery movement speaks to that simplification and authentication that we so crave! What is your favorite flower of the moment? My favorite flower at the moment is the anemone. It has no scent or honey, so when growing outdoors, it relies on insects literally just happening upon it in order to become fertilized. An accidental flower, perfect for me, an accidental entrepreneur. Anenomes can come in a variety of colors and react quickly to sunshine and warm water. I appreciate their playful effect on a bouquet and the way their heads tilt upwards as they grow and bloom. And if you believe in myth, anemones are the flower in which fairies sleep after sunset\u2014I have yet to find one in any of mine, though! This story originally appeared on ELLE.com "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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