Episode 355: Celebrating the 4th Annual American Flowers Week with Floral Couture Designers Faye Krause of Flora Organica Designs and Carly Jenkings of Killing Frost Farm
June 27th, 2018
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American Flowers Week is the original domestic floral-promotion holiday and it takes place June 28th through July 4th.If you’re listening on our broadcast day, that means American Flowers Week starts tomorrow!
A few weeks ago I welcomed Hedda Brorstrom of Full Bloom Flower Farm and Floral Design as she and I discussed the glorious dahlia gown she created for our 2018 Floral Couture Collection. You can listen to Episode 351 here.
In today’s episode and on next week’s show, you’ll hear from the four additional designers who along with Hedda created our stunning lineup of botanical fashions.
Faye Zierer Krause of Flora Organica Couture, puts finishing touches on her Iris Look (c) Leon Villagomez
Faye’s vision for transforming irises into fashion — with huge success!
Today, I’ve invited Faye Zierer Krause of Flora Organica Designs, based in Arcata, California, and Carly Jenkins of Killing Frost Farm, based outside Missoula, Montana, to each chat about her vision for the gown she created.
Faye teamed up with Sun Valley Flower Farms in her hometown of Arcata, to design and create a stunning iris gown.
Carly Jenkins realized her vision beautifully in the stunning from-the-forest gown (c) Alex M. Brooks Photography
Carly’s highly-detailed sketch of the gown she envisioned in her imagination.
Carly fashioned a woodland couture gown by drawing from her favorite source of botanical ingredients — the forests of the Pacific Northwest and the state of Montana where she frequently forages conifers, cones, moss and lichens and more.
Faye Krause of Flora Organica Designs, in her beautiful design studio, Arcata, California
These two talented Slow Flowers members are so inventive and creative in their artistry, and in the way they interpreted my request to design and fabricate a wearable floral fashion.
I am blown away by how each of these women took a singular idea, buckets of just-harvested botanical ingredients, a few simple tools and supplies — and, magically, transformed them into works of art.
As Faye explains, “using a single color of iris was more impactful and better defined the garment’s form than if I used a mix of colors.”
She drew from 1,500 ‘Hong Kong’ irises donated by Sun Valley — a variety that has slightly ruffled sapphire blue petals and a yellow “blotch”
These features are portrayed beautifully as a floor-length iris skirt, with a soft drape reminiscent of regal velvet. You’ll want to check out the feature story I wrote for the June issue of Slow Flowers Journal in Florists’ Review to learn more.
Download full story of Faye’s Iris Dress here.
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Carly Jenkins, among the ferns, photographed by Heather Saunders at the 2018 Whidbey Flower Workshop
Our second guest, Carly Jenkins, is the queen of the forest and her woodland-inspired couture costume is also fit for a queen. Carly’s favorite design ingredients are sheets of moss and patches of lichen in many shades from gray to green. She loved the challenge of creating a wearable and attractive garment with humble materials.
“I definitely wanted to create a beautiful gown,” she says in the Florists’ Review article for which I interviewed her. “Rather than having beauty and strength be mutually exclusive, I wanted to see them together.”
Left: Carly Jenkins and Katherine Sherba as they sorted moss and lichen for the woodland gown; right: On location at Old Goat Farm — the Woodland Couture photo shoot, from left: Katherine, photographer Alex Brooks, model Berkeley Danysh, Carly Jenkins and Debra Prinzing
Carly and her frequent collaborator, fellow Montana flower farmer Katherine Sherba of Mighty Fine Farm, assembled a fantastical garment that truly reflects time and place.
See more images and read my Florists’ Review story about Carly’s woodland creation.
Download my Story of the Woodland Dress here.
Follow Killing Frost Farm on Instagram
As part of the interviews, I ask both women to share updates on their floral businesses. It’s fitting because both are past guests of this podcast and each has continued to develop and diversify her floral business since you first heard their stories here.
Listen to Episode 239 (March 2016) to hear more from Faye Zierer Krause of Flora Organica Designs
Listen to Episode 296 (May 2017) to hear from Carly Jenkins of Killing Frost Farm and Missoula’s Westside Flower Market
Thank you so much for joining me today.
Our botanical art piece by Ellen Hoverkamp
Wherever you find yourself this week, please feel thoroughly welcome to participate in American Flowers Week, coming up June 28-through-July 4th.
You’re invited to join in – and I can’t wait to see what you plan and product — and I’ll be searching for your stories and posts with the hashtag #americanflowersweek. We have all kinds of resources for you at americanflowersweek.com
And we are just days from the second annual Slow Flowers Summit, our LIVE celebration of American Flowers Week, scheduled for this Friday, June 29th in Washington, D.C.
Only a few seats are left and I’d love your presence at the Summit, as we seek to bring together a diversity of voices, practices and personal stories that together make the Slow Flowers Community so vibrant.
I promise you an inspiring lineup of speakers, gorgeous flowers, fun and interactive design activities and of course, a chance to stretch your imagination in a thought-provoking and stimulating environment.
Take the Pledge!!!
I am grateful to all our entire community of flower farmers and floral designers who together define the Slow Flowers Movement.
As our cause gains more supporters and more passionate participants who believe in the importance of the American cut flower industry, the momentum is contagious.
I know you feel it, too. I value your support and invite you to show your thanks and with a donation to support my ongoing advocacy, education and outreach activities. You can find the donate button in the column to the right.
The Slow Flowers Podcast has been downloaded more than 330,000 times by listeners like you.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening, commenting, liking and sharing! It means so much.
Thank you to our sponsors who have supported Slow Flowers and all of our programs. They are:
Florists’ Review magazine. I’m delighted to serve as Contributing Editor for Slow Flowers Journal, found in the pages of Florists’ Review. It’s the leading trade magazine in the floral industry and the only independent periodical for the retail, wholesale and supplier market. Take advantage of the special offer for a free trial issue
Arctic Alaska Peonies, a cooperative of passionate family farms in the heart of Alaska providing bigger, better peony flowers during the months of July and August. Visit them today at arcticalaskapeonies.com
Seattle Wholesale 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. Find them at seattlewholesalegrowersmarket.com
Longfield Gardens 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. Visit them at longfield-gardens.com.
Syndicate Sales, an American manufacturer of vases and accessories for the professional florist. Look for the American Flag Icon to find Syndicate’s USA-made products and join the Syndicate Stars loyalty program at syndicatesales.com.
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. Check them out at johnnysseeds.com.
Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers. Formed in 1988, ASCFG was created to educate, unite, and support commercial cut flower growers. It mission is to help growers produce high-quality floral material, and to foster and promote the local availability of that product. Learn more at ascfg.org
Mayesh Wholesale Florist. Family-owned since 1978, Mayesh is the premier wedding and event supplier in the U.S. and we’re thrilled to partner with Mayesh to promote local and domestic flowers, which they source from farms large and small around the U.S. Learn more at mayesh.com.
Certified American Grown Flowers. The Certified American-Grown program and label provide a guarantee for designers and consumers on the source of their flowers. Take pride in your flowers and buy with confidence, ask for Certified American Grown Flowers. To learn more visit americangrownflowers.org.
Recently, I played with local roses at a lovely workshop at All My Thyme, with Dawn Severin and instructor Alicia Schwede (c) Becca Jones.
I’m Debra Prinzing, host and producer of the Slow Flowers Podcast.
Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more American grown flowers on the table, one vase at a time. And If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto Itunes and posting a listener review.
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.
The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. Learn more about his work at soundbodymovement.com. Special thanks to Stephen Yaussi for taking over editing duties for the coming weeks while Andrew is abroad.
July 4th, 2018 at 9:40 am
[…] 351 here), Faye Zierer Krause of Flora Organica Designs and Carly Jenkins of Killing Frost Farm (listen to Episode 355 here), as we’ve learned how each designer translated her creative vision into a wearable floral […]
September 30th, 2020 at 7:27 am
[…] Podcast, episode 296, aired in May 2017. I’ll be sure to share a link to that episode, and to a subsequent appearance when she and I discussed the woodland-inspired lichen and moss gown for American Flowers Week 2018, […]