Episode 706: Flori’s Lori Poliski on the Art of Pot-et-Fleur, A Large-Scale Design Demonstration With Plants, Cut Flowers, and Foliage
March 5th, 2025
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Lori Poliski is reviving the forgotten art of Pot-et-Fleur, an iconic floral style, historically defined as “living arrangements with plants, cut flowers, and foliage.” Having originated in 17th century France and continuing through the Victorian era, Pot-et-Fleur offers today’s florists a contemporary, sustainable, and long-lasting method of designing with local and seasonal ingredients. The method is flexible because it uses living plants combined with flowers. Using potted ferns and lush, green tropicals, seasonal cut botanicals, foliage, and branches, Lori recently demonstrated this old-new technique at Slow Flowers SUNDAY. She introduced us to the history and benefits of Pot-et-Fleur, touching on important selling points, discussing plant sourcing, selection, and care. I’m excited to share this replay video and audio from Lori’s inspiring presentation.
Slow Flowers SUNDAY took place on February 23rd, co-located at the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival. After our very successful virtual Slow Flowers WORLDWIDE Summit in January, it was so nice to gather together in person with 45 flower friends for a half-day mini-Summit. And after which, our guests attended the final day of the NW Flower & Garden Festival.
In the past few weeks, you heard me preview the three educational sessions and hats off to each of our presenters. Diane Szukovathy of Jello Mold Farm and Vivian Larson of Everyday Flowers introduced the audience to Floral Standards, the new book they co-authored with the farmers and staff of the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, while Quynh Nguyen of Pink and Posey inspired us with her paper floral artwork and her new project, The New Art of Paper Flowers.
The day concluded with today’s guest, Lori Poliski of Flori, a Woodinville, Washington-based gardener-florist who is always pushing the envelope of sustainability. Lori treated us to a lecture on the History of Pot-et-Fleur, followed by her large-scale design demonstration with living plants, cut flowers, and foliage.
In the past, Lori and Tammy Myers were guests of this Podcast as they discussed “Farewell Flowers,” their approach to sustainable funeral and sympathy design – Episode 555 from April 2022.
This episode contains the audio from Lori’s Slow Flowers SUNDAY presentation. I encourage you to click on the YouTube link above to watch the video of her beautiful presentation and design demonstration!
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Download a PDF of Lori’s materials list (below)
Membership News
In Slow Flowers Member News, we just dropped the March newsletter, filled with inspiring content, resources, and a roundup of the incredible press coverage we’ve enjoyed during the month of February – including mentions and interviews in the New York Times, Scientific American, the Oregonian, Fine Gardening magazine, Johnny’s Seeds Online, and the Growing Greener podcast. And check out the list of more than 70 new and renewing Slow Flowers members from February – you might see some peers and competitors on the list, and you might also be inspired to join our membership community yourself!
Thank you to our Sponsors
This show is brought to you by slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 750 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.
Thank you to our lead sponsor, Flowerbulb.eu and their U.S. lily bulb vendors. One of the most recognizable flowers in the world, the lily is a top-selling cut flower, offering long-lasting blooms, year-round availability, and a dazzling petal palette. Flowerbulb.eu has partnered with Slow Flowers to provide beautiful lily inspiration and farming resources to help growers and florists connect their customers with more lilies. Learn more at Flowerbulb.eu.
Thank you to returning sponsor, the Association of Specialty Cut Flowers. The ASCFG is a gathering place for specialty cut flower growers of all levels of experience, a hub of knowledge, where seasoned experts and budding enthusiasts come together to learn, share, and support one another. The ASCFG is dedicated to empowering its members with the knowledge and resources needed to thrive in the world of cut flower farming. Learn more about the ASCFG and how to be a part of it at www.ascfg.org.
And thank you to The Gardener’s Workshop, which offers a full curriculum of online education for flower farmers and farmer-florists. Online education is more important than ever, and you’ll want to check out the course offerings at thegardenersworkshop.com.
Thank you for joining me today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than one 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.
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!
Music credits:
Drone Pine; Gaena; Turning on the Lights; Le Marais
by Blue Dot Sessions
http://www.sessions.blue
Lovely
by Tryad
http://tryad.bandcamp.com/album/instrumentals
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
In The Field
audionautix.com