The Slow Flowers Podcast is the award-winning show known as the “Voice of the Slow Flowers Movement.” Launched in 2013 as the original flower podcast, we’ve devoted more than 10 years to covering the business of flower farming, floral design, and the Slow Flowers sustainability ethos. Listen to a new episode each Wednesday, available for free download here at slowflowerspodcast.com or on iTunes, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.
We just launched Early Bird ticket sales for the 2027 Slow Flowers Summit, which will take place next year — June 20-22. In addition to lectures, panels, and demonstrations, the Slow Flowers Summit is a showcase for locally-grown and American-grown flowers, sustainable design and education, and a celebration of the season character of flowers. Creatives who attend the 2027 Summit will bring their artistry to the event, inspired by the landscape and historic residence at our host venue, Filoli Historic House & Gardens in the SF Bay Area – and YOU are invited to join in this enriching experience! Today, my two guests and I discuss all the details of our Floral Takeover, as we preview this signature feature of the Summit. You’ll hear from Santa Cruz-based Teresa Sabankaya, who is taking the lead on creative direction and will handle planning and coordination with the Filoli staff. And you’ll hear from floral designer Kelly Shore. Through her company THE FLORAL SOURCE, Kelly is coordinating the major floral donations and contributions that will ensure we have beautiful, high-quality, fresh botanicals for the Floral Takeover. The Floral Source is a 100% American grown, farm-direct wholesale broker and we’re so happy to partner with Kelly to make the floral takeover a don’t-miss success!
Slow Flowers Summit Floral Takeover
The 2027 Slow Flowers Summit will be our 10th annual conference and I’m anticipating an unforgettable experience. Today’s conversation with Kelly Shoreand Teresa Sabankaya discusses all of the moving parts of such an ambitious undertaking, one involving more than 100 participants and thousands of stems of flowers – when we converge to together create floral installations and displays at the Filoli estate’s 56-room, 54,256-square-foot Georgian Revival Style mansion, originally constructed between 1915-1917.
Teresa has a deep familiarity with Filoli Historic House & Garden, having taught and designed there over the years. She was a featured speaker at our first Slow Flowers Summit in 2017 and she also presented when we gathered at Filoli in 2021. I asked Teresa to describe her approach to the Floral Takeover, and she said: “Not only is it exciting that this is the 10th anniversary of the Summit, but how cool is it that we’ll be together at Filoli, which is listed on The National Trust of Historic Places. It’s amazing that we get to fill the mansion with Slow Flowers! Also, I’m thrilled to learn more about Filoli’s English Renaissance-style gardens, which are described as “remarkably well-preserved as one of the few surviving and best examples of the style in the world.”
Like Teresa, Kelly Shore is an established floral designer whose studio, Petals by the Shore is based on the values of Slow Flowers, including using foam-free mechanics. She was a presenter at our 2018 Slow Flowers Summit in Washington, D.C. and she is the founder of The Floral Source, a farm-direct wholesale supplier to floral designers and farmer-florists in need of local and American grown botanicals.
A note about the “Bring a Bucket” program. Everyone attending the Slow Flowers Summit is invited (and encouraged) to bring flowers to share! This invitation mostly applies if you live, garden, or farm close enough to drive to Filoli. Please consider bring your season’s best blooms and donating one or more buckets to be featured in the Floral Takeover. In exchange, floral donations will be featured in Slow Flowers Summit social media tags, your company logo will be featured in our Floral Roundup.
The first to donate in this manner include speakers Kristine Albrecht of Santa Cruz Dahlias, Hannah Muller of Full Belly Farm, and Alanna and Michael Karam of Willamette Willows. We’re thrilled that our speakers’ fields will enhance our floral takeover. You and your flowers can join in the fun!
Thanks so much for joining us today! This podcast is committed to shining a light and amplifying the voices of our members, celebrating the many stories of this community, stories as diverse as each of you. Be sure to get in touch with either Kelly or Teresa – especially to indicate your interest in the Floral Takeover.
Join Us: November 13th Slow Flowers Member Meet-Up
Sarah Daken and Tom Precht of Grateful Gardeners
In Slow Flowers news, coming up, this Friday, November 13th, we are hosting a Member Meet-Up and you’re invited to join this free online event, 9 am Pacific, Noon Eastern. The topic: SCALING YEAR-ROUND PREMIUM FLORICULTURE Production, With Sarah Daken and Tom Precht of Grateful Gardeners
Tom is an accomplished professional with a robust background in sustainable farming, scientific research, and sales. As VP and co-founder of Grateful Gardeners and Floraponics, he successfully managed a thriving cut flower farm with over $310,000 in annual revenue, cultivating more than 200 flower varieties. His expertise spans organic farming, aquaponics, controlled environment agriculture, and customer relationship management. Sarah is an accomplished legal professional and entrepreneur with extensive expertise in law and sustainable agriculture. As President and Co-Founder of Grateful Gardeners and Floraponics, she established a thriving organic and aquaponic cut flower farm, showcasing her proficiency in organic farming, sales, marketing, and inventory management.
Learn from Sarah and Tom as they share an update on Floraponics, Grateful Gardeners‘ sister business. Fueled by several years of R&D and hands-on farm trialing, their venture taps into technology and innovation to solve some of the principal challenges to year-round domestic floral production. Tom and Sarah will address how the U.S. floral market is collapsing under carbon costs and transit times — major barriers to delivering premium floral products affordably. They will walk us through Floraponics and Grateful Gardeners’ goal of achieving climate independence, a closed-loop ecosystem, and EV floral delivery.
The Meet-Up will be a 1-hour introduction to the future potential for a more sustainable domestic floral supply. Bring your questions! You must pre-register to join us — use the button below to pre-register.
This show is brought to you by slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to florists, shops, and studios who design with local, seasonal and sustainable flowers and to the farms that grow those blooms. It’s the conscious choice for buying and sending flowers.
And thank you to our lead sponsor, My Patio Tree: Expertly Grown Plants, Perfectly Designed to Elevate Your Garden. Their second-generation family tree farm has curated the best-performing, cutting-edge, multi-zone varieties to enhance your garden, patio or special event. Every tree purchased supports Plant With Purpose, a nonprofit organization that restores hope by reversing global poverty and environmental damage. Learn more at mypatiotree.com.
Our final sponsor thanks goes to Rooted Farmers. Rooted Farmers works exclusively with local growers to put the highest-quality specialty cut flowers in floral customers’ hands. When you partner with Rooted Farmers, you are investing in your community, and you can expect a commitment to excellence in return. Learn more at RootedFarmers.com
Our first sponsor thanks goes to Johnny’s Selected Seeds, an employee-owned company that provides our industry the best flower, herb and vegetable seeds — supplied to farms large and small and even backyard cutting gardens like mine. Find the full catalog of flower seeds and bulbs at johnnyseeds.com.
Thanks so much for joining us today. The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 1.6 million times by listeners like you. Thank you for listening, commenting and sharing – it means so much. As our movement gains more supporters and more passionate participants who believe in the importance of our domestic cut flower industry, the momentum is contagious. I know you feel it, too. If you’re new to our weekly Show and our long-running Podcast, check out all of our resources at SlowFlowersSociety.com.
Thank you for listening! Sending love, from my cutting garden to you! (c) Missy Palacol Photography
I’m Debra Prinzing, host and producer of the Slow Flowers Show & Podcast. The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one stem, one vase at a time. Thanks so much for joining us today and I’ll see you next week!
After over a decade as an attorney, Felicia Reid became a garden developer and designer. Her approach to gardens and gardening is about being a ‘good friend’— to both people and planet, so it’s fitting that her business is named Good Friend Ecological Gardens. Back in 2015, Felicia was a legislative attorney in housing, agriculture, and consumer policy. Through her work she witnessed how climate change and industrial agriculture impacted farmers – inspiring her to use her own garden as a positive response to those challenges. Since 2020, she has tended to the Good Friend Ecological Garden —home base, lab, and design studio— uphill from the Mohawk River in Niskayuna, New York, north of Albany. The Learning Garden is native-forward and combines edible and ornamental landscapes into a place where biodiversity and sustainability thrive. It includes formal and relaxed spaces, a seed lab, and an intensive, small-scale cut flower farm. As a designer, Felicia uses ecological principles to develop resilient, thoughtful, and beautiful spaces for her clients. She believes community education is critical to rethinking and enriching our relationship with the world around us. And she teaches others to develop their own observation- and evidence-based approaches to enrich the land around them, no matter how big or small. The gates open at Good Friends Ecological Gardens each season, as garden lovers and the gardening curious are invited to visit, tour, and learn from Felicia.
Good Friend Ecological Gardens
As I mention in today’s episode, I “discovered” Good Friend Ecological Gardens and owner Felicia Reid after she joined Slow Flowers as a member a few years ago. Whenever a new member signs up, I try to visit their websites, sign up for their newsletter and follow them on social media – and that’s initially how I “met” Felicia. Recently, she posted a link to a small business feature about Good Friend that appeared in the Albany, New York, publication called Metroland. I read it, bookmarked it, and though: I want to learn more about how she blends garden design with a from-the-garden floral design service. On the Good Friend website, Felicia writes: Good Friend specializes in feel-good blooms—locally grown and lushly designed. Flower arrangements are available June through September only. We honor ‘slow flowers’, which prioritizes local flowers, sustainable growing practices, and customer relationships.
Flowers and pollinators from Good Friend Ecological Gardens (c) Morgan Minear for Metroland
That certainly resonated with me, so I reached out and invited Felicia to join me on this episode. We recorded our conversation a few weeks ago to share with you today.
Felicia in Good Friend Ecological Gardens (c) Morgan Minear for Metroland
Colorful perennials in the Good Friend Ecological Gardens
Garden bouquets designed by Felicia Reid
Here’s a bit more about Felicia Reid: Aside from the wildlife that lives on site year-round and those that pass through Good Friend Ecological Gardens, she shares her world with her husband, Carl, a luthier and audio engineer; their dog Artie, and Squee, a cat who’s far too intelligent for anyone’s good.
In 2023, Felicia was accepted into the Master Gardener Program through Cornell Cooperative Extension (Schenectady County) and began speaking about ecologically-minded residential garden development. She has completed certificate programs at the New York Botanical Garden, Berkshire Botanical Garden, and the American Horticultural Society—including programs on ecological gardening, growing cannabis, and landscape design. She has written on gardening and food culture for Edible: Capital District. She says her greatest lessons come from learning to read and respond to the land, and the gardens that have grown alongside her.
This podcast is committed to shining a light and amplifying the voices of our members, celebrating the many stories of this community, stories as diverse as each of you.
Find and follow Felicia Reid of Good Friend Ecological Gardens on Instagram
Slow Flowers Summit 2027 — Early Bird Tickets on Sale
SPEAKERS: Slow Flowers Summit 2027
Okay, it’s TIME! We just opened up Early Bird tickets for the 2027 Slow Flowers Summit! Early-Bird tickets come with a $100 off savings at both membership and general levels. Also, we’re offering you the chance to manage your payments through Klarna – a new feature for the Summit.
EARLY BIRD Ticket Buyers: We also have a very special GIFT with PURCHASE for you:
If you register for an Early Bird Ticket, you will receive exclusive access to four encore video presentations from our 2026 Slow Flowers WORLDWIDE Summit, originally aired this past January. The sessions have only been viewed by attendees of that online conference, and we’re now going to share more than three hours of floral education with you as a bonus with your registration. You will learn from amazing floral educators, including sustainable design with Shane Connolly, the Royal Florist; Françoise Weeks on Botanical Couture; Max Gill on growing and designing with clematis; and a bonus floral design demonstration with Dee Hall Goodwin of Mermaid City Flowers. When you buy your Summit ticket, we will send you the private link to view these sessions. I’m so excited for you to enjoy and enhance your knowledge and skills!
This show is brought to you by slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to florists, shops, and studios who design with local, seasonal and sustainable flowers and to the farms that grow those blooms. It’s the conscious choice for buying and sending flowers.
And thank you to our lead sponsor, My Patio Tree: Expertly Grown Plants, Perfectly Designed to Elevate Your Garden. Their second-generation family tree farm has curated the best-performing, cutting-edge, multi-zone varieties to enhance your garden, patio or special event. Every tree purchased supports Plant With Purpose, a nonprofit organization that restores hope by reversing global poverty and environmental damage. Learn more at mypatiotree.com.
Thank you to the Seattle Growers Market, a farmer-owned cooperative committed to providing the very best the Pacific Northwest has to offer in cut flowers, foliage and plants. The Growers Market’s mission is to foster a vibrant marketplace that sustains local flower farms and provides top-quality products and service to the local floral industry. Visit them at seattlegrowersmarket.com.
Our next sponsor thanks goes to Longfield Gardens, which provides home gardeners with high-quality flower bulbs and perennials. Their online store offers plants for every region and every season, from tulips and daffodils to dahlias, caladiums and amaryllis. Check out the full catalog at Longfield Gardens at longfield-gardens.com.
The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 1.6 million times by listeners like you. Thank you for listening, commenting and sharing – it means so much. As our movement gains more supporters and more passionate participants who believe in the importance of our domestic cut flower industry, the momentum is contagious. I know you feel it, too. If you’re new to our weekly Show and our long-running Podcast, check out all of our resources at SlowFlowersSociety.com.
Thank you for listening! Sending love, from my cutting garden to you! (c) Missy Palacol Photography
I’m Debra Prinzing, host and producer of the Slow Flowers Show & Podcast. The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one stem, one vase at a time. Thanks so much for joining us today and I’ll see you next week!
In late August, I joined other members of the Northwest Horticultural Society for a special event in Susan Ryan’s Tacoma residential garden. We learned her philosophy around designing florals from the landscape and created a seasonal floral arrangement using familiar and uncommon design ingredients. I was there to introduce and interview Susan, as the two of us discussed her garden-gathered approach to floral design. Susan led us on a walking tour as she described some of her favorite ornamental shrubs, perennials, vines, and annuals suitable for cutting. She encouraged gardeners to experiment with plants that may not be common floral design ingredients and showed how she relies on greenery and leaf texture to build structure in the vase. Today’s episode shares a peek into Susan’s garden and how she created a lush vase arrangement from plants at her fingertips — no special trip to the flower market for this experience.
Susan Ryan of Gardendigs
Susan Ryan is an APLD Certified Landscape Designer and Certified Professional Horticulturist and owner of Tacoma-based Gardendigs. She served 12 years as a community Master Gardener and studied extensively at South Seattle College in the landscape design, construction and horticulture department. Susan holds a BFA in Interior Design and her interiors have earned awards and been featured in numerous publications. She is a Northwest Flower & Garden Festival Gold Medal Show Garden winner.
Susan Ryan with Debra Prinzing for our Q&A in the garden
A Slow Flowers member since 2025, Susan’s business model combines everything that I’m also drawn to, namely landscape design and floral design. Love of nature and a desire to create beauty led her interior design and textiles interest to expand outdoors and design a hybrid business model that makes total sense to me. Clients come to Gardendigs for nature-inspired floristry; site visits and coaching for residential gardens; and garden design and styling. There is a lot of education woven through these services, because Susan wants to empower and encourage her clients to have a deeper relationship with their own small parcel of yard or garden.
A day of floral design with garden-foraged ingredients
Gillian Mathews, Debra Prinzing, Susan Ryan and Sue Goetz
Today’s episode will introduce you to Susan during a short Q&A I led at a late-August workshop in her garden. Thanks so much to Gillian Mathews and Sue Goetz of the Northwest Horticultural Society for inviting me to be part of the morning in Susan’s backyard – and for participating in the fun. After the Q&A, you’ll enjoy the walking tour that Susan led through her property in a historic Tacoma neighborhood, followed by her design demonstration featuring just-clipped elements. Be sure to check our show notes for details on the “slow pottery” that Susan commissioned for workshop participants to use and bring home – I especially loved this aspect of the event.
Slow Flowers Summit 2027 — Ticket Sales Open on November 1st
Slow Flowers Summit 2027 Speakers Top Row: Leslie Bennett, Melissa Olson, Nichole Skalski, and Hannah Muller Center Row: Alana and Michael Karam Bottom Row: Jacqueline Pham, Kristine Albrecht, Jennifer McClendon, and Jim Salyards
Head’s up for all of you interested in the Slow Flowers Summit for 2027! This coming week, on Sunday, November 1st, we will open up Early-Bird ticket sales with a $100 off savings at both membership and general levels.
You can click over to slowflowerssummit.com to check out the speaker lineup, the program, the venue at Filoli Historic House and Garden in the SF Bay Area. Also, we’re offering you the chance to manage your payments through Klarna – a new feature for the Summit.
Pilar Zuniga of Gorgeous and Green
And, I’m very excited to announce our special Oakland Flower Lovers Garden Tour, a separately-ticketed private tour that will take place on Wednesday, June 23rd, the day following the Summit. We’ve designed a small-group tour of Oakland area residential gardens and studios of four of our members, including Pilar Zuniga of Gorgeous and Green; Leslie Bennett of Pine House Edible Gardens and Black Sanctuary Gardens; Max Gill of Max Gill Design, and Sarah Reyes of Wildflower & Fern. The day includes round-trip transportation from Filoli and includes a catered taqueria lunch. Plus floral design demonstrations and a chance to geek out in garden spaces. You must be registered for the Summit to register for the garden tour – all the details can be found at slowflowerssummit.com.
This show is brought to you by slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to florists, shops, and studios who design with local, seasonal and sustainable flowers and to the farms that grow those blooms. It’s the conscious choice for buying and sending flowers.
And thank you to our lead sponsor, My Patio Tree: Expertly Grown Plants, Perfectly Designed to Elevate Your Garden. Their second-generation family tree farm has curated the best-performing, cutting-edge, multi-zone varieties to enhance your garden, patio or special event. Every tree purchased supports Plant With Purpose, a nonprofit organization that restores hope by reversing global poverty and environmental damage. Learn more at mypatiotree.com.
Our first sponsor thanks goes to Johnny’s Selected Seeds, an employee-owned company that provides our industry the best flower, herb and vegetable seeds — supplied to farms large and small and even backyard cutting gardens like mine. Find the full catalog of flower seeds and bulbs at johnnyseeds.com.
Thank you to Charles Little & Company for supplying our industry with some of the most beautiful and sustainably-grown design ingredients, available nationwide through their website at charleslittleandcompany.com. Based in Eugene, Oregon, the farmers at Charles Little & Company have been growing and drying flowers since 1986. New products and dried flower collections are added to their website at the first of each month. Check it out at charleslittleandcompany.com.
The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 1.6 million times by listeners like you. Thank you for listening, commenting and sharing – it means so much. As our movement gains more supporters and more passionate participants who believe in the importance of our domestic cut flower industry, the momentum is contagious. I know you feel it, too. If you’re new to our weekly Show and our long-running Podcast, check out all of our resources at SlowFlowersSociety.com.
Thank you for listening! Sending love, from my cutting garden to you! (c) Missy Palacol Photography
I’m Debra Prinzing, host and producer of the Slow Flowers Show & Podcast. The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one stem, one vase at a time. Thanks so much for joining us today and I’ll see you next week!
Last month, I partnered with Seattle Growers Market to host a group of flower and garden lovers who had joined Laura Iarocci’s Explore Flower Tours visit to the Pacific Northwest. An Atlanta-based floral designer who specializes in weddings and events, floral design education for church and cathedral flower guilds, and floral-enriched tours in Europe, the U.S., and beyond, Laura is also a Slow Flowers member who highlights local flowers and sustainability in her programming. Since 2011, Explore Flower Tours has been an extension of Laura’s Faith Flowers design school and studio, leading curated tours that include flower workshops with local, leading designers and instructors, flower farm visits, garden tours, flower shows, unique floral events, and more. During my day with the Explore Flower Tours group, we began with staff-led tour of the cooler and displays at Seattle Growers Market. After lunch, the group joined me in a floral design workshop using a bounty of seasonal flowers, foliages, and textures – and together we created a 100% compostable, foam-free centerpiece. The following day, I caught up with Laura to record today’s conversation about her unique business model that combines teaching, touring, and wedding design.
Debra Prinzing and Laura Iarocci
Before Laura Iarocci joined the volunteer flower guild at The Cathedral of St. Philip, the Episcopal cathedral in Atlanta, her relationship with flowers was as simply loved them. Up to that point, she had been a Wall Street banker. A relocation to Atlanta and a search for a creative outlet sparked what has become a fulfilling career and life in flowers.
At the time, when her children were little, Laura loved the quiet joy of arranging behind the scenes, creating florals that commemorated and provided hospitality and fellowship – and making services, funerals, and weddings more beautiful.
She tells the story in her 2018 book, “Faith Flowers,” a guide to arranging church flowers. “There were not so many flower arranging classes then as there are today. A very kind gentleman named Tyler Gresham, whose family had owned a flower shop in Atlanta, took me under his wing when I became the Flower Guild chair. He taught me how to buy flowers, prepare recipes and design in the classic English style. I worked as much as possible with the many other experienced arrangers on the Flower Guild.”
Over time, Laura has taken classes with some of the leading designers and instructors around the world, exposing herself to new ideas and techniques to apply to church design.
She formed Faith Flowers in 2010. Her studio now includes a flower school, flower tours around the world, and floral design for weddings, events, and funerals.
Explore Flower Tours workshop at Seattle Growers Market
We recently sat down to record the conversation you’ll hear now, the day after I taught a sustainable design workshop for her Pacific Northwest flower and garden tour produced by Laura’s sister business, Explore Flower Tours.
The finished arrangements from Explore Flower Tours workshop at Seattle Growers Market
I hope we spark some new ideas for your business, as you think about creating floral design experiences and excursions for your customers and communities. This podcast is committed to shining a light and amplifying the voices of our members, celebrating the many stories of this community, stories as diverse as each of you.
This show is brought to you by slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to florists, shops, and studios who design with local, seasonal and sustainable flowers and to the farms that grow those blooms. It’s the conscious choice for buying and sending flowers.
And thank you to our lead sponsor, My Patio Tree: Expertly Grown Plants, Perfectly Designed to Elevate Your Garden. Their second-generation family tree farm has curated the best-performing, cutting-edge, multi-zone varieties to enhance your garden, patio or special event. Every tree purchased supports Plant With Purpose, a nonprofit organization that restores hope by reversing global poverty and environmental damage. Learn more at mypatiotree.com.
Our next sponsor thanks goes to Longfield Gardens, which provides home gardeners with high-quality flower bulbs and perennials. Their online store offers plants for every region and every season, from tulips and daffodils to dahlias, caladiums and amaryllis. Check out the full catalog at Longfield Gardens at longfield-gardens.com.
Our final sponsor thanks goes to Rooted Farmers. Rooted Farmers works exclusively with local growers to put the highest-quality specialty cut flowers in floral customers’ hands. When you partner with Rooted Farmers, you are investing in your community, and you can expect a commitment to excellence in return. Learn more at RootedFarmers.com
The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 1.6 million times by listeners like you. Thank you for listening, commenting and sharing – it means so much. As our movement gains more supporters and more passionate participants who believe in the importance of our domestic cut flower industry, the momentum is contagious. I know you feel it, too. If you’re new to our weekly Show and our long-running Podcast, check out all of our resources at SlowFlowersSociety.com.
Thank you for listening! Sending love, from my cutting garden to you! (c) Missy Palacol Photography
I’m Debra Prinzing, host and producer of the Slow Flowers Show & Podcast. The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one stem, one vase at a time. Thanks so much for joining us today and I’ll see you next week!
The 2027 Slow Flowers Summit will take place live and in-person on the grounds of Filoli Historic House and Garden, the famed cultural destination in the San Francisco Bay Area. Late last month, I traveled there for a site visit and planning session, meeting up with several of Filoli’s horticulture and floriculture team members, including Jackie Salas, today’s guest. The weather was glorious and Jackie led Niesha Blancas, our social media manager, and me on a walk through Filoli’s cutting garden while we filmed and recorded content. While introducing us to the vast perennial and annual beds and borders, Jackie clipped and gathered some of her favorite blooms, foliages, and texture elements for an arrangement she subsequently designed. This was a delightful education for a flower-lover like me, as Jackie shared about the character of California gardens, the history of cut flower growing and design at this renowned estate garden, and how she favors plants with two or three uses – both in the landscape and the vase. Filoli plays a leading role in horticulture and gardening education, with an emphasis on sustainability and design, and we know you and other Slow Flowers Summit attendees will be enriched by your time there next June. Today’s conversation is a beautiful preview – as we are gearing up to open Early Bird ticket sales on November 1st.
Jackie Salas, Horticulture Production Manager at Filoli Historic House & Garden
You may have heard that we’re celebrating our 10th Slow Flowers Summit next year. The dates are set for June 20th to 22nd, 2027 and you’re invited to join the Slow Flowers community as we highlight new ideas and leading voices in floral design, flower farming, and sustainability topics. The big news is that the Summit will take place in the San Francisco Bay Area at Filoli Historic House & Garden. This might sound familiar, and it is – because Filoli’s leadership has invited us to return after our successful 2021 conference there.
FILOLI: the recently-renovated “High Place” at Filoli in Woodside, Calif., destination for the Slow Flowers Summit 2020
I’m so excited that we’ll again experience a full immersion of the gardens, landscape, and natural areas at Filoli, as we learn from expert Slow Flowers instructors, including from Filoli’s horticulture and floriculture teams.
Today’s guest is Jackie Bergquist Salas, Horticulture Production Manager at Filoli. Here’s more about Jackie. She is a San Francisco Bay Area native who has always had a passion for petals. As a child growing up in the East Bay, she thought it normal to harvest backyard roses for Thanksgiving centerpieces, and large bouquets of fresh Calla Lilies from her yard long into May. She took this passion to UC Davis, where in 2005 she earned a B.S. in Environmental Horticulture with specializations in Landscape/Turf Management and Nursery Production/Floriculture. While at Davis she also worked in the university’s Floriculture Labs. Continuing her florific journey, Jackie she obtained a M.S. in Public Horticulture from the University of Delaware and the Longwood Garden’s Graduate Program in 2009. She picked up floral arranging skills at a private estate after college, and honed her growing skills at Children’s Fairyland in downtown Oakland, California. These experiences led her to her dream job at Filoli Gardens and Estate, where she manages the Horticultural Production spaces and staff.
Slow Flowers Summit visits Filoli Historic House and Garden Above, from left: Sarah Reyes, Teresa Sabankaya, Debra Prinzing, Jim Salyards, Marlene Delgado, Aimee Sanders, Melissa Olson, Sonia Capitant, Brendan Dellerba; Front: Kristine Albrecht and Laura Sasso. Not pictured: Jacqueline Pham
As I mentioned, Niesha and I spent a few hours recently, touring the cutting gardens as Jackie introduced us to the late summer-early autumn plantings. After meeting the plants where they grow, we followed her into the floral arranging room in Filoli’s mansion, a special place where all the vase collections are stored, flowers are dried, and design supplies are stocked for staff to easily create close to 20 arrangements weekly for the public and administrative areas. I encourage you to watch the replay video of my conversation with Jackie as we toured the gorgeous Filoli Cutting Gardens and as she designed a seasonal arrangement. You’ll find it at slowflowerspodcast.com or on our YouTube channel for Episode 790. By the way, Filoli Horticulture is a member of the Slow Flowers Society and we’re so grateful for their involvement as both a host venue and fellow members.
One more series of thank you’s I want to share. During our few days in the Bay Area, Niesha and I were joined by several Slow Flowers members, including some of our Summit speakers and designers. We had a great time on a walk-through of the Filoli mansion, and later visited in the Café at Filoli for networking and good friendship. A special thank you to our Filoli counterparts, including Jim Salyards, Brendan Dellerba, Sonia Capitant, Aimee Sanders and Marlene(a) Delgado for all their input and guidance – you showed us a magnificent time and it’s a preview of what’s to come.
Thank you to speakers who joined us, including Kristine Albrecht (and her husband Brion Sprinsock) of Santa Cruz Dahlias, Jacqueline Pham of Pham Peony Gardens, and Melissa Olson of Penflora Designs. We also welcomed Teresa Sabankaya, who has agreed to serve as the Creative Director for the Floral Takeover at the Filoli mansion. Sarah Reyes and Laura Sasso of Wildflower and Fern in Oakland also joined us. What a treat to connect in person as we all began to imagine the many ways we can deliver a fantastic, inspiring, and idea-filled 2027 Slow Flowers Summit.
Thank you to our Sponsors
This show is brought to you by slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to florists, shops, and studios who design with local, seasonal and sustainable flowers and to the farms that grow those blooms. It’s the conscious choice for buying and sending flowers.
And thank you to our lead sponsor, My Patio Tree: Expertly Grown Plants, Perfectly Designed to Elevate Your Garden. Their second-generation family tree farm has curated the best-performing, cutting-edge, multi-zone varieties to enhance your garden, patio or special event. Every tree purchased supports Plant With Purpose, a nonprofit organization that restores hope by reversing global poverty and environmental damage. Learn more at mypatiotree.com.
Thank you to Charles Little & Company for supplying our industry with some of the most beautiful and sustainably-grown design ingredients, available nationwide through their website at charleslittleandcompany.com. Based in Eugene, Oregon, the farmers at Charles Little & Company have been growing and drying flowers since 1986. New products and dried flower collections are added to their website at the first of each month. Check it out at charleslittleandcompany.com.
Thank you to the Seattle Growers Market, a farmer-owned cooperative committed to providing the very best the Pacific Northwest has to offer in cut flowers, foliage and plants. The Growers Market’s mission is to foster a vibrant marketplace that sustains local flower farms and provides top-quality products and service to the local floral industry. Visit them at seattlegrowersmarket.com.
The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 1.6 million times by listeners like you. Thank you for listening, commenting and sharing – it means so much. As our movement gains more supporters and more passionate participants who believe in the importance of our domestic cut flower industry, the momentum is contagious. I know you feel it, too. If you’re new to our weekly Show and our long-running Podcast, check out all of our resources at SlowFlowersSociety.com.
Thank you for listening! Sending love, from my cutting garden to you! (c) Missy Palacol Photography
I’m Debra Prinzing, host and producer of the Slow Flowers Show & Podcast. The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one stem, one vase at a time. Thanks so much for joining us today and I’ll see you next week!
Celebrating their 10th season of what the Windmeyer family calls “The Grand Experiment,” Lynn and Tim Windmeyer are breathing new life into land in and around St. Joseph, Missouri, where seven generations of Tim’s family have farmed, since approximately 1868. Named Homeplace Fields, the endeavor combines Lynn’s creative design talents and Tim’s agricultural skills. Both are Missouri natives. Lynn’s love for flower growing was instilled by her mother. Tim’s own childhood on land just one mile away brought him to study agriculture in college. The couple once lived abroad working for a humanitarian aid organization, teaching growing techniques to farmers in many countries. Today, Tim and Lynn, along with their four children, are putting down roots via a different type of agriculture: flower farming. I visited them early in their journey – back in 2018 – and their story made quite an impression on me. We recently reunited (virtually) for an update. It’s amazing to see how much this family project has come into its own and I’m happy to share their story with you!
The Windmeyer family, from left: Bennett, Stella, Tim, Everett, Lynn, and Joy (c) Goldie Lynn
I vividly recall the day when Andrea Grist, a florist, long-time Slow Flowers member, and local flowers advocate, brought me to visit Homeplace Fields in St. Joseph, Missouri, when I was in the area for a gathering she hosted. It was such a lovely place and we spent time walking the plantings area and talking with them in the studio, a reclaimed dairy barn where earlier generations of Tim’s family once milked their cows. Their children were younger and Lynn was just beginning to develop her aesthetic as a farmer-florist. I loved learning about this young floral operation planted on generations-old land.
The Windmeyer family in front of their historic farmhouse, circa 1868 (c) Goldie Lynn
Today, Homeplace Fields is a specialty cut flower farm that primarily sells florals to retail customers through CSA subscriptions and via pickup spots at local businesses around St. Joseph, Missouri. The farm has a few wholesale customers, as well. As a designer, Lynn commits to a few weddings each season, and together Lynn and Tim host a popular Flower Farm Day each September. Produced with Nesting Goods, their local retail partner, the family-friendly event has become a community favorite each fall. The farm comes alive with creative artisans, live music, a corn pit, food trucks, and, of course, farm-fresh blooms.
Above: Video from a past Flower Farm Day, including the famous “corn pit” (which, to be honest, until I watched this, I had pictured EARS of corn rather than kernels of corn). It looks like great fun!
Lynn, in the Homeplace Fields studio (former dairy barn)
Thanks so much for joining us today! Find and follow Homeplace Fields at their social places: Instagram and Facebook
Thank you to our Sponsors
This show is brought to you by slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to florists, shops, and studios who design with local, seasonal and sustainable flowers and to the farms that grow those blooms. It’s the conscious choice for buying and sending flowers.
And thank you to our lead sponsor,My Patio Tree: Expertly Grown Plants, Perfectly Designed to Elevate Your Garden. Their second-generation family tree farm has curated the best-performing, cutting-edge, multi-zone varieties to enhance your garden, patio or special event. Every tree purchased supports Plant With Purpose, a nonprofit organization that restores hope by reversing global poverty and environmental damage. Learn more at mypatiotree.com.
Thank goes to Rooted Farmers. Rooted Farmers works exclusively with local growers to put the highest-quality specialty cut flowers in floral customers’ hands. When you partner with Rooted Farmers, you are investing in your community, and you can expect a commitment to excellence in return. Learn more at RootedFarmers.com.
Our first sponsor thanks goes to Johnny’s Selected Seeds, an employee-owned company that provides our industry the best flower, herb and vegetable seeds — supplied to farms large and small and even backyard cutting gardens like mine. Find the full catalog of flower seeds and bulbs at johnnyseeds.com.
The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 1.6 million times by listeners like you. Thank you for listening, commenting and sharing – it means so much. As our movement gains more supporters and more passionate participants who believe in the importance of our domestic cut flower industry, the momentum is contagious. I know you feel it, too. If you’re new to our weekly Show and our long-running Podcast, check out all of our resources at SlowFlowersSociety.com.
Thank you for listening! Sending love, from my cutting garden to you! (c) Missy Palacol Photography
I’m Debra Prinzing, host and producer of the Slow Flowers Show & Podcast. The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one stem, one vase at a time. Thanks so much for joining us today and I’ll see you next week!
