Those cut flowers you buy for Mother's Day used to be grown in Bradenton. Not anymore. Here's why.

Manatee Farms has been growing and selling flowers for more than 125 years in Manatee County.

What’s different as Mother’s Day approaches is that the company now imports 90 percent of its cut flowers from offshore and is focusing on locally grown potted plants and certified sustainable imported cut flowers.

Robert McLaughlin, the company's chief sustainability officer, took a visitor this week through the company's refrigerated storage area, where a brisk 36 degrees keeps flowers from Ecuador, Colombia, Israel, Netherlands, Italy, Thailand, California and elsewhere fresh — but not frozen — before being shipped to retailers.

Consumers want to know where the products they buy are grown. They also want to know workers are ethically treated and are given the proper safety training and equipment to do their jobs.

Certified floral farms preserve the local ecology surrounding the farm and work to minimize their footprint on Mother Earth, said Whiting Preston, CEO of Manatee Farms.

"A lot of the cut flowers are produced offshore. It has become more of a global industry," Preston said.

Among the organizations certifying the flowers imported by Manatee Farms as sustainable are Rainforest Alliance Certified flower and fern farms, Florverde Sustainable Flowers and Expoflores, McLaughlin said.

Flowers wholesaled by Manatee Farms are marketed nationwide, but the majority of their retailers are in Florida, he said.

The shift to imported cut flowers has been a gradual evolution, given rising labor costs and tougher environmental standards, Whiting said.

The way flowers are marketed is also changing. Even though local florists remain important, grocery stores and online providers have gained a larger market share.

One area where domestic growers retain an advantage over foreign competitors is in potted plants. Stringent import rules protect U.S. growers from the kind of diseases that have devastated the citrus industry.

As part of the changing nature of the business, Manatee Farms, which in the past operated under the banners of Cortez and Manatee Floral, has launched a new website, manateefarms.com, and a new marketing campaign designed to drive consumers directly to customers that carry the Manatee Farms brand.

In the age of tech savvy consumers and eco-conscience awareness, the company is changing the way it reaches its customers to help raise awareness of why eco-friendly floral products are important and is investing in technologies to help its retailers grow, Manatee Farms said in a press release.

This story was originally published May 8, 2018 at 5:43 PM with the headline "Those cut flowers you buy for Mother's Day used to be grown in Bradenton. Not anymore. Here's why.."