Does your city grow the freshest blooms?
To mark Mother's Day, Lawn Love ranked 2024's Best Cities for Local Flowers.
We compared the 500 biggest U.S. cities based on five floral categories. We looked at access to flower shops and specialty-cut flower vendors, consumer ratings, and even the number of flower festivals, among 11 total metrics.
See which cities' local floral scenes are flourishing in our ranking below. To learn how we ranked the cities, see our methodology.
See how each city fared in our ranking
No. 1: New York | Overall score: 49.73
Local tips: Spot your favorite flowers in one of NYC's many green spaces with help from the Citywide Bloom Guide. Add some charm to your day with a stroll through the NYC Flower Market, or get a beautiful bouquet of fresh or dried flowers from Stems in Brooklyn.
Impress your beloved with a weekly delivery from Molly Oliver Flowers, which offers a locally and sustainably sourced flower subscription service.
No. 2: Miami | Overall score: 47.2
Local tips: It's easy to buy blooming flowers in Miami, which has the most flower shops per square mile. You can find an impressive bouquet at House of Lilac or Midtown Garden Center.
Stop and smell the flowers at the annual Tamiami International Orchid Festival.
No. 3: San Francisco | Overall score: 38
Local tips: Learn about rare and endangered flowers from across the globe at the Conservatory of Flowers. Explore the San Francisco Flower Market or check out one of the many floral oases growing in and around the city.
No. 4: Seattle | Overall score: 33.18
Local tips: Find inspiration and gardening tips at the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival, and buy fresh blooms throughout the year at Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, a sustainable and farmer-owned cooperative.
Escape the city and head up to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in April.
No. 5: Los Angeles | Overall score: 31.74
Local tips: LA is home to the nation's largest wholesale flower district.
Populous cities like New York (No. 1), Miami (No. 2), and San Francisco (No. 3), bloom to the top of our ranking with high access to flower shops, delivery services, and events.
Scenic coasts and flowers go hand in hand — 33 California, 7 Florida, 6 Washington, and 5 Oregon cities sprout into the top 100. Evergreen State cities claim the best access to flower farms — Seattle (No. 4), for one, is surrounded by a whopping 36 flower farms.
Smaller cities like Asheville, North Carolina (No. 12), Bend, Oregon (No. 13), and Ann Arbor, Michigan (No. 14), stand out at the top thanks to their top-quality bouquets. Asheville also boasts annual flower festivals, such as Biltmore Blooms and the Asheville Orchid Festival.
Other small cities wilt to the end of our ranking — such as Alameda, California (No. 498), Woodbury, Minnesota (No. 499), and South Fulton, Georgia, in last place — with little access to fresh flowers. Most cities in the bottom 100 have populations below 200,000 — except for Toledo, Ohio (No. 411) and Corpus Christi, Texas (No. 415).
Behind the ranking
First, we determined the factors (metrics) that are most relevant to rank the Best Cities for Local Flowers. We then assigned a weight to each factor based on its importance and grouped those factors into 5 categories: Flower Access, Delivery Access, Vendor Quality, Local Demand, and Events. The categories, factors, and their weights are listed in the table below.
For each of the 500 biggest U.S. cities, we then gathered data on each factor from sources including the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers, EventsInAmerica.com, Festivalnet, Find A Florist, Garden Club of Virginia, Google Ads, International Flower Fairs, Local Flowers, Slow Flowers, Town & Tourist, and Yelp
Finally, we calculated scores (out of 100 points) for each city to determine its rank in each factor, each category, and overall. A city's Overall Score is the average of its scores across all factors and categories. The highest Overall Score ranked "Best" (No. 1) and the lowest "Worst" (No. 500).
Make your yard bloom
Shop local this year and surprise your mama with a bouquet of fresh flowers. Or, grow your own blooms and gift your mother figure a homemade (and homegrown) bouquet with some help from our tips below.
This story was produced by Lawn Love and reviewed and distributed by Stacker Media.
