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Welcome to the final Slow Flowers Podcast episode of 2015.

Every single week this year; in fact, every single week for 2-1/2 years, I’ve had the immense privilege of hosting dynamic and inspiring dialogues with a leading voice in the American floral industry.

You’ve heard from flower farmers and floral designers who are changing the marketplace and how we view and consume the flowers in our lives.

As 2015 comes to a close, I would like to dedicate today’s episode to the Slow Flowers Highlights we’ve witnessed this year.

Next week, on January 6th, I will share my Floral Insights and Forecast for 2016 with you.

The past twelve months have built on the successes and shifts that began in previous years. Each time we turn the pages of the calendar to a New Year, we can applaud the strides made in the Slow Flowers movement.

I can date my own awareness to the American grown floral landscape to 2006 — that’s nearly a decade ago — when I met a very young mom named Erin Benzakein while I was scouting gardens in Mount Vernon, Washington.  She was growing sweet peas and had big ambitions.

Something about our conversation resonated with me. I was an established features writer with a huge home and garden portfolio. I’d written countless floral design stories for regional and national publications and yet it had never occurred to me that there was a great imbalance in the way flowers are grown and sourced in this country.

At the same time, my writer-pal Amy Stewart was working on a book about the global floral industry’s dark side, which was published the following year called Flower Confidential. She delved deep into the stories behind the status quo, and opened mine and countless others’ eyes to the extraordinary reasons nearly 80 percent of cut flowers sold in the U.S. were being imported.

Curious to learn more, I subscribed to Growing for Market, Lynn Byczynski’s newsletter for market farmers. I joined the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers and attended my first regional meeting in 2010, held at Charles Little & Co. in Eugene, Oregon, and later that year I went to the national meeting in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

I began connecting with flower farmers wherever I could, both in California where I was living at the time, and in Oregon and Washington. I met people virtually, as well, thanks to the ASCFG list-serves where I learned much about the issues facing small farms and American growers.

READ MORE…

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Welcome to our Special Holiday Edition of the Slow Flowers Podcast!

Today’s amazing guest, Dennis Westphall, is co-founder of Jello Mold Farm in Mt. Vernon, Washington, which he operates with his wife and partner Diane Szukovathy. Diane may be familiar to you because she’s appeared on two prior episodes of the Slow Flowers Podcast – and she is the “cover girl” of the 50 Mile Bouquet (along with floral designer Stacie Sutliff).

Dennis is an accomplished mixed media artist and an award-winning singer-songwriter who has nearly 200 original songs to his credit.

I will let you hear the story directly from Dennis, as he shares his inspiring career path, one that takes us from the era when he was a street musician at Seattle’s Pike Place Market to his success as a founding member of the band Tickle Tune Typhoon, to the past decade when he transitioning into a flower farmer, and much much more.

Interspersed between our fascinating conversation, Dennis will perform several songs for your holiday enjoyment.

Two are original compositions, both lyrics and music, and two are classic songs that have been given the whimsical Dennis Westphall “new lyric” treatment.

I know you’ll love this episode as much as I do — a gift from Dennis to the flower farming and floral design community to enjoy this holiday week.

Check out more details about Tickle Tune Typhoon’s retro vinyl albums and CDs of the foot-stamping, finger-snapping music that has delighted school children and their families for generations.

Thank you so much for joining me today for this very special episode.

I love how Dennis describes flower farming as a botanical art-supply source for the florists who purchase flowers from Jello Mold.

It’s such an appropriate metaphor for the important, interdependent relationship between flower farmers and floral designers — one that brings success to the entire Slow Flowers community.

Watch a recent segment on Seattle’s KING 5 TV (NBC affiliate) with excerpts of Dennis singing

Dennis has generously shared the lyrics to his original song called “Flowers”:

Recorded by Tickle Tune Typhoon on the CD, All Of Us Will Shine
Music and Lyrics by Dennis Westphall

[Chorus]

Flowers aha
Flowers aha
Beautiful colors bloom
Flowers aha
Flowers aha
Blossoms will dance for you

Ah the smell of summer roses
And it’s a dandy day to watch a pansy play
Gracefully they grow
Bouquet on tiptoe
Rising in the sky so blue
Sunflower shines on you

[Chorus]

Flowers grow make the world a grand bouquet
Row on row bringing color to our day
Flowers grow a pleasure to the eye
That fragrance oh it fills the air and makes you sigh
Everybody sigh
I’m so gladiola, you’re gladiola too

Flowers aha Flowers aha
Beautiful colors bloom
Flowers aha Flowers aha
Blossoms will dance
Blossoms will dance for you

Find Jello Mold Farm on Facebook

Find Jello Mold Farm on Instagram

Hear Diane Szukovathy on Slow Flowers Podcast #103 “Marketing Local Flowers the Co-op Way” and on  #215 “Cooperative Wholesaling Among Farmers”

Next week is our final episode of 2015 and as one year ends and another begins, I will be sharing with you the “2016 Slow Flowers Forecast and Insights.”

In the meantime, I  wish you a wonderful holiday season!

I thank you and others in the progressive American-grown floral community for supporting this endeavor.

Until 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. THANK YOU to each and every one of you for downloading, listening, commenting and sharing. It means so much.

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 Wheatley and Hannah Holtgeerts. Learn more about their work at shellandtree.com.

The prosaic poinsettia has a new, sexy reputation, especially at a time when floral designers are desperate for beautiful focal flowers to go with all the greenery in our lives.

For the past decade the gardening world has watched an explosion of breeding in the poinsettia world. I remember attending a press event in the early 2000s when Molbak’s Nursery in the Seattle area hosted all of us at a breakfast to unveil the new poinsettia colors and varieties (streaked and flecked; and a palette ranging from cream to wine). I wrote that story for The Daily Herald about 15 years ago, so no doubt the news hit the gardening world quite a while ago!

Slowly, floral designers are discovering — and embracing — poinsettias. The flowers are tricky to source as cut options, although I’ve heard from some designers who are able to find poinsettia cuts. We just don’t see them here in Seattle.

What’s my other option? I went to Lowe’s this week to find locally-grown poinsettias from Smith Gardens in Bellingham, Washington. I was in search of a soft peachy tone and wasn’t disappointed. The flower I found wasn’t labeled (although I did learn that Noche Buena is the Mexican name for poinsettia).

I found three pots with this beautiful type of poinsettia, $6.98 each. Two of the three had broken stems, with unusable blooms, so Lowe’s sold them to me for $2 each. In all, that netted me 7 huge flowers for $11, which seems like a great price.

Since coming home from the home center, I looked up peach poinsettias online and have decided it’s possible this one is called ‘Visions of Grandeur’, described as a luxuriously rich, yet soft peach/pink/cream plant. But I could be way off because the colors seem to vary as widely as the petals of ‘Cafe au Lait’ dahlias. Either way, it’s lovely, feminine and romantic.

I began my arrangement with a Goodwill purchase from last in August, a silver-plated Gorham fruit bowl. I think I paid $6.99 for it; just found the same bowl on eBay for $35. I’m in bargain heaven with this great-priced bowl and discount poinsettias!

I placed a dome-shaped vintage metal flower frog in the base and added a second “level” of structure with chicken wire, domed at the top of the 9-inch container.

Foliage and branches:

• Dark purple Agonis flexuosa, California grown, valued for its sultry color and feathery texture
• A silvery-green fir known in the landscape trade as Korean fir (Abies koreana ‘Horstmann’s Silberlocke’), from Leo’s Trees, a Southwest Washington vendor who sells at the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market. Danielle Bennett, assistant manager at the Market, told me that Leo only brought in two bunches. I understand why because Korean fir is very slow growing so he probably didn’t want to trim so many boughs from the tree! I planted one of these ornamental conifers in a prior garden and I loved its wonderful winter sheen when hit with the afternoon light!
• Rex begonia foliage, clipped from my houseplant. I love how the raspberry-wine foliage plays off of the Agonis foliage and the scale of each leaf holds its own against the poinsettia blooms.

Flowers:

• Poinsettias. Following instructions mentioned in my recent blog post about International Poinsettia Day (Dec. 12th), the best way to prepare stems for floral design is as follows: Cut, then dip into hot water 140˚ F for 20 seconds; then plunge into cold water for 10 seconds.
• ‘Snowflake’ white spray roses, grown by Green Valley Floral in Salinas, California

A bonus: I used my leftover pieces to create a couple of small arrangements, which also included the final blooms from two raspberry-hued amaryllis grown by Vivian Larson of Everyday Flowers. I enjoyed these in a larger arrangement last week and the final buds just opened this week.

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Today’s podcast brings you Part 3 of our coverage of the Flower House, a fabulous, groundbreaking floral art project that designer Lisa Waud instigated in the city of Detroit.

Today, we continue the miniseries with more conversations recorded with designers who came together for this visionary project that opened to the public for a 3-day run beginning on October 16th.

Here are links to Part 1 and Part 2, my prior episodes gathering the voices of some of the lead designers who executed individual rooms in the Flower House.

First, I’ll introduce you to Liz Andre-Stotz of Parsonage Events, who teamed up with two other Michigan designers to turn the first floor bedroom of the Flower House into “A Little Michigan Magic.”

The room was a true Michigan collaboration with Jamie Platt from A.R. Pontius Flower Shop in Harbor Springs, Michigan, and Jennifer Ederer, owner of Modern Day Floral in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Then we’ll pivot to Holly Rutt of Sweet Pea Floral Design, another Michigan designer, who chose the first-floor bathroom and called her installation “In Loo of Flowers.”

MEET LIZ ANDRE-STOTZ

Based in Clarkston, Michigan, Parsonage Events is a family affair. Liz runs the full-service floral design studio with mom Susan and her husband Bill Stotz.

READ MORE…

If you’re ambivalent about the traditional Christmas poinsettia, then I’m excited to help change your mind. Check out this gorgous “living” poinsettia gown. Yes, the prosaic holiday potted hostess gift has received haute couture treatment by London-based floral stylists, Okishima & Simmonds, in celebration of International Poinsettia Day, which is tomorrow, December 12th.

“We love to create unique designs that merge the floral world with the fashion world and International Poinsettia Day has given us an exciting opportunity to do that,” says Simmonds of Okishima & Simmonds, commissioned on the project by Stars for Europe, the EU-wide poinsettia campaign.

“We wanted the dress to flow so that it looked as though it was growing out of the poinsettia beds beneath, so used the traditional red poinsettia for the skirt and showcased other colors through the bodice.”

HOW THEY DID IT

After I received the gorgeous photos and Liz’s press material for International Poinsettia Day, I had more questions for her.

She explained: “Our aim was to link the poinsettia with the world of fashion and get people to look at the traditional Christmas plant in a fresh way. The dress looks like being a world first!” (yes, indeed!)

If you’re up for trying a poinsettia floral arrangement, take on the Poinsettia Challenge, just launched by friend Loree Bohl of the fabulous blog “Danger Garden.”

She’s just announced the design-with-poinsettia contest and the deadline is 12/24 to submit photos of your entry! Loree writes:  Send your image to spiky plants at gmail dot com. The contest will close on Christmas Eve, I’ll post the entries during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

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This week we’re introducing a new ongoing feature that I hope to bring to you once a month: the “Slow Flowers Field Trip.”

As you know, I love interviewing flower farmers and florists for this Podcast, but what I love even more is visiting them in person to see them in their element — whether that’s out in the shed starting seeds, in the fields harvesting, or in the studio creating something breathtaking.

As often as possible, I’ll hit the road and visit Slow Flowers members to share a snapshot of a community, highlighting what’s grown in that region, and introducing you to the people who grow and design with those flowers.

For 2016, we’ve already booked a field trip to feature the North Bay Flower Collective, north of San Francisco, and several other destinations are in the works.

If you’re interested in bringing the podcast to your corner of the U.S., get in touch and we’ll see what might come together.

While it’s located only 30 miles north of Seattle, visiting Whidbey Island takes a little planning because it is reached via ferry from the mainland. The island is notable as one of the longest islands in the country, at 55-miles long, and it lies between the Olympic Peninsula and the I-5 corridor of western Washington. Whidbey Island forms the northern boundary of Puget Sound.

In my earlier years as a garden writer, Whidbey was a magnet for fantastic specialty plant nurseries and private garden tours, so I have spent quite a bit of time there. Now, thanks to the efforts of today’s guests, there is a nascent cut flower farming community, which is essential to Whidbey’s destination wedding scene.

A few weeks ago, I took a day trip to Whidbey, driving north to the waterfront community of Mukilteo, where I caught the 20-minute ferry ride across Puget Sound to Clinton, on the southern tip of the island. My three stops were concentrated on the southern half of the island, in and around the town of Langley, where there’s a mix of tourism, businesses serving vacationers and owners of second homes, as well as small agriculture.

Let me introduce you to the guests you’ll hear in this extended one-hour episode:

On my first stop, I visited Pam Uhlig and her daughter Kelly Uhlig, flower farmers who own Sonshine Farm, a specialty cut flower farm that packs more stems into a small homestead than you can imagine.

While pursuing a horticulture degree at a local community college Pam apprenticed with Vivian Larson of Everyday Flowers (a past guest of this podcast) – and that’s where I saw her in action. Kelly, a 4-H superstar who’s herself now a college student, is just as committed to flower farming as her mom. Together the two make a dynamic team; they are now members of the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, where the local floral community snaps up their gorgeous flowers.

After interviewing Pam and Kelly and taking a tour of their farm, I went to meet Melissa Brown of Flying Bear Farm. Melissa is a farmer-florist interested in growing flowers for her own floral design business.

We met up first on a parcel that a friend has invited Melissa to plant with flowers, which is where we recorded our podcast interview.

And then . . . Melissa took me to the Flying Bear Farm headquarters, just outside Langley. That’s where she and her husband Benjamin Courteau have just moved, along with Melissa’s parents Molly & David Brown, into a fabulous compound complete with a barn, two residences, an art studio, and lots of terra firma for growing flowers.

Melissa’s folks treated all of us to a delicious luncheon where the conversation only got better with more creative voices around the table.

After lunch, I grabbed some time with our final guest, Tobey Nelson of Vases Wild.

Tobey and I have been talking about this emerging Whidbey Island flower farming-floral design community for a couple of years so I credit her with pulling together my field trip.

She has an extensive background in landscape design, fine gardening and wedding & event florals, which makes Tobey particularly passionate about sourcing from local flower farms on Whidbey Island.

That said, it’s not unusual for her to jump on an early-morning ferry to come into Seattle where she shops for flowers grown by the farms of the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market.

Please enjoy each guests’ unique perspective on growing flowers, island style. They are building a creative interdependence that is a small-scale model of what can and should happen in every community where flower farmers and florists come together.

Here’s how you can find & follow the Whidbey Island creatives:

Sonshine Farm, Pam Uhlig and Kelly Uhlig on Instagram

Flying Bear Farm, Melissa Brown and Benjamin Courteau on Facebook

Flying Bear Farm on Twitter

Flying Bear Farm on Pinterest

Flying Bear Farm on Instagram

Vases Wild, Tobey Nelson on Facebook

Vases Wild on Pinterest

Vases Wild on Instagram

Thank you so much for joining me today. Episodes of the Slow Flowers Podcast have been downloaded more than 74,000 times and I thank you and others in the progressive American-grown floral community for supporting this endeavor.

Until 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. THANK YOU to each and every one of you for downloading, listening, commenting and sharing. It means so much.

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 Wheatley and Hannah Holtgeerts. Learn more about their work at shellandtree.com.

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It’s not yet officially winter, but orchid season is upon us. And today’s guest will tell us all about growing orchids for floral design.

Please meet Joan Bateman, who with her husband Mark Srull own Orchidaceae.

Joan and I have served together on the board of the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market for two years, and we work closely together on the market’s marketing committee.

I’ve wanted to feature an orchid episode for quite some time!

Joan and I finally sat down a few weeks ago, surrounded by the beautiful plants she and Mark grow, to record this conversation and share it with you.

Here’s a little more about Orchidacead:

Based in Walla Walla, Washington, Orchidaceae is an award-winning Northwest grower exclusively dedicated to quality orchids.

With over 30 years of experience, Mark and Joan grow and supply orchids for weddings, special events, interior plantscaping, floral arrangements and to collectors around the country in search of esoteric orchid varieties.

In 2002, the couple moved their nursery from Seattle to Walla Walla and embarked on a rural, flower farming lifestyle.

They brought with them extensive experience in graphic design and marketing, and Mark’s enthusiasm for growing orchids, originally as a hobby that’s earned him numerous awards from the American Orchid Society.

Orchidaceae has a reputation for having the most interesting new orchid hybrids. Its breeding program that includes Paphiopedilums, Zygopetalums, Angraecums, Cattleyas and a variety of unique species. The Phalaenopsis are selected to give floral stylists a distinct design edge with stunning color, interesting patterns and unique styles.

Why Walla Walla? “Even though our major markets are in Seattle and Portland, the growing conditions are very positive here, because of the light,” Joan says.  “We’re excited to be a part of the market and have such a broad variety of our orchids available to Seattle buyers.”

If you want to learn more about orchid growing and how to have success with orchids, check out the link to Orchidaceae’s answers to the most common questions for orchid care. In the Pacific Northwest you can find Joan and Mark’s beautiful plants at the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market and at the Portland Flower Market.

 

Listeners of the Slow Flowers Podcast have downloaded episodes more than 73,000 times. I thank you and others in the progressive American-grown floral community for supporting this endeavor.

Until 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. THANK YOU to each and every one of you for downloading, listening, commenting and sharing. It means so much.

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 Wheatley and Hannah Holtgeerts. Learn more about their work at shellandtree.com.

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Welcome to the first edition of the Slow Flowers’ “Best Gifts for Florists and Flower Lovers.”

The holiday season is upon us and today’s episode will accomplish several things. I created this special gift-themed segment to highlight some of my favorite artisan-made products that I’ve become familiar with in the past year or longer.

Second, I wanted to share the voices of “makers” with you. All are women this year, but that is just a happy coincidence (I’m sure we’ll find many male makers to highlight in the future). I recorded short conversations with each of these select artisans. Each is driven to create beautiful and high-quality products inspired by flowers, botany and nature.

Please enjoy these conversations and check out these artist-makers, their work, and – most importantly, links to their online stores so you can see their collections of American-made goods for gift-giving. Have an unforgettable Floral Holiday and moreover, be inspired by the creative entrepreneurs you’ll hear from today.

PHOTOGRAPHIC TAPESTRIES

First up, meet botanical photographer Ellen Hoverkamp of My Neighbor’s Garden.

I’ve written about Ellen’s work for the Los Angeles Times and for Garden Design Magazine, so over the past few years, we’ve become friends.

It was especially rewarding to have Ellen attend an all-day workshop I taught at Blithewold Mansion in Rhode Island last fall – and to see how readily this gifted artist moves from one medium to another.

A Connecticut-based artist and former art teacher, Ellen Hoverkamp first started composing images from nature using an early model flatbed photo scanner in 1997, she didn’t even own a camera. Nor did she know the names of most of the plants she used. “It was all about form and color for me.”

Fast-forward to 2005 and Hoverkamp’s evocative and artful assemblages of botanicals and edibles were profiled in The New York Times; they’ve since been exhibited in museums and graced covers of books and periodicals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ellen arranges flowers, pods, branches, vines, gourds and roots as vivid still-lifes against striking black backdrops.

I like to imagine that if Ellen had been born three or four centuries ago, she would have been a Dutch master painter. “I love the hyper-real details of my images,” she says.

Ellen relies on cuttings from public gardens, nurseries and private landscapes to create her pieces. She says that the mission of her work is to bring attention to the efforts of gardeners and to the beauty of nature.

At Ellen’s web site you can find a beautiful online store with her photographic products, including signed prints, note cards and my favorite– photographically printed scarves.

Ellen is a renaissance woman. Her 12-by-58-inch scarves feature seasonal floral and botanical compositions printed on silk charmeuse. The reverse side is hand-died contrasting fabric and Ellen custom sews each one.

In addition to drooling over Ellen’s botanical scarves, I know you’ll want to peruse the fine art work on her web site. You can order prints of most of the floral and veggie compositions there – and there are hundreds to choose from. Ellen posts new work each week on her Facebook page, so check out my link to find and follower her there.

Finally, you can now order her beautiful black canvas tote bags featuring a cornucopia of edibles or a just-picked-from-the-garden floral array. Click here to order.

SEATTLE MADE TO CONTAIN YOUR STEMS

Next up, please meet Kristin Nelson of Kri Kri Studio, a Seattle-based ceramic artist whose vases are popular favorites of the local floral design community here and far beyond, including Barney’s stores in Japan.

I’ve selected Kristin’s vessels to present my All-American floral entries at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show for the past two years. Learn more about her story here.

It seems so fitting to combine locally-grown flowers gathered in vases of equal quality and beauty, made by a talented artisan who touches every single product that leaves her studio.

Kristin’s new VIT Collection is modern and clean, inspired by Scandinavian design and a perfect complement to any flower in any season.

I love Kristin’s color sensibility in the glazes she selects — everything from calming neutrals to joy-inducing brights.

If you’re in Seattle, you may want to check out Kristin’s upcoming studio sale in early December where you’ll meet the artist and get to choose the perfectly-imperfect hand-made vase just for yourself or perhaps as a gift for a special recipient. Kri Kri Studio’s Facebook Page will have more details – so check it out here.

Kristin also shared details and links to these upcoming Seattle events, where you can meet the artist and purchase her lovely pieces:

Clementine PoP uP, Nov- Jan

Praxis Arts, Sat. Nov 28^th  

Multi Studio Event, Dec 12th & 13th

To be on Kristin’s mailing list for her annual sale, email her at krikristudio@aol.com

HAND-LETTERED AND HAND-MADE

Next up, please meet Karen Plarisan and Karly Sahr of Verbena Flowers & Trimmings based in Roseville, California.

The mother-daughter team lives and breathes flowers. Karly Sahr has a graphic design and art degree from U.C. Davis, while mom Karen Plarisan has a landscape design and horticulture background.

They gather inspiration from being surrounded by nature, so it is only fitting that Verbena has developed into a pesticide-free farm and flower design studio.

In addition to floral design work, the two have added an online store that features Karly’s creative product designs.

I want to highlight the “Earth Laughs With Flowers” t-shirt featuring Karly’s exquisite hand-lettering.  She and Karen gifted me a very special tote bag with that same screen print last year and I can’t tell you how many people stop and ask me how they can purchase that tote. The totes aren’t available right now, but the t-shirts are. I know the design will resonate with flower farmers and florists alike.

This week you’ll find a sale going on – 30 percent off t-shirts, stickers and all graphic downloads – through November 29th. And Karen and Karly are offering a free “Life in Color” download with every purchase. It’s just the thing to add to your own inspiration board or to print and give a friend who needs a creative lift.

LUXURIATE WITH HANDMADE SOAPS & BODY PRODUCTS

Next up, please meet Holly Rutt of the Little Flower Soap Co., based in Michigan. Holly spends most of her time during the warmer months running Sweet Pea Floral Design, serving wedding clients, but when the temperatures drop, she turns her focus to a joint maker-project with her husband Justin Rutt.

The Little Flower Soap Co. is a small batch, body care company established in 2010.

Holly and Justin’s mission is to design products that become must-have, can’t live without favorites. They have developed completely natural, healing recipes that smell amazing, really work and are cutely packaged.

Please enjoy this short interview with Holly.

It’s too bad you can’t smell all these wonderful fragrances we’re talking about, but her prices are so affordable that you can easily order a few products to give as gifts, but save one yourself.

Holly’s enthusiasm for her products are contagious. There’s something for everyone cooking up in the kitchen at Little Flower Soap Co.

Check out all of the products here.

And a quick note – you’ll meet Holly wearing her floral designer hat in an upcoming segment of The Slow Flowers Podcast when I interview her about the flower-filled bathroom she designed for The Flower House in Detroit. so stay tuned.

SUSTAINABLE FLORA FASHION

My final gift selection introduces you to Mary Brewster of American Flora, a sustainable fashion company based in Connecticut. I hope you’ll enjoy the story of how we met and about Mary’s goal of sourcing textiles and manufacturing women’s fashion here in the U.S.

I’m so pleased to feature this All-American maker who’s charting new territory in women’s fitness and lifestyle apparel.

Mary’s inspiration for starting American Flora came largely from being a ballet dancer and teacher. She wanted to create pieces that would provide a comfortable feel and feminine look in the studio, and would also pair well with lifestyle wear. She was particularly focused on finding a sustainable fabric.

Mary happened upon a book with a painting she had studied while spending a semester of college in Florence. She says that “Botticelli’s Allegory of Spring had always moved me, but I realized that it also depicted so much of what I wanted for my company. Beautiful Flora, the goddess of flowers is shown scattering her seeds over the world. A symbol of renewal.”

Her collection uses a fabric called Repreve. It’s made from recycled plastic bottles. Another kind of renewal and positive look to the future.

“Flora seemed to roll off my tongue, and was so fitting for the other passion in my life, gardening. After many hours of working on a name for my company, it came to me. American manufacturing was a must in the equation. There it was. American Flora,” she says.

I’m so pleased to feature American Flora and Mary Brewster’s innovative designs. You can shop for American Flora products here.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

And thanks for joining me today, the day before Thanksgiving. As you enter this holiday season, I wish you moments of rest and creative contemplation.

We all have been racing through a year of flower farming, floral design, events and professional commitments that are equally wonderful and exhausting. Now it’s time to pause and hopefully reflect and recharge to prepare for a new year.

It is with a spirit of gratitude that I thank each of you in the Slow Flowers community for your support. To me, it’s a confirmation that we are on this creative journey together, changing the way Americans view and value the flowers grown on our domestic farms.

Episodes of the Slow Flowers Podcast have been downloaded more than 72,000 times. I thank you and others in the progressive American-grown floral community for supporting this endeavor.

Until 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. THANK YOU to each and every one of you for downloading, listening, commenting and sharing. It means so much.

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 Wheatley and Hannah Holtgeerts. Learn more about their work at shellandtree.com.

Music credits: audionautix.com

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In the past few weeks I’ve shared with you a few interviews from floral designers involved with The Flower House in Detroit, the magical, celebrated, 3-day floral-art installation that was the brainchild of my friend Lisa Waud.

Today, we continue this miniseries with more conversations recorded with designers and flower farmers who came together just a month ago for this visionary project.

Please meet a trio of designers from three different states who came together to create the “living room” of The Flower House, the impactful first room that thousands of visitors were able to experience upon entering through the front door.

And you will hear from a floral designer-flower farmer duo about how their relationship has flourished this past season, culminating in the bountiful downstairs kitchen of The Flower House.

First off, please step into “The Living Room,” designed by Jody Costello of J. Costello Designs, Lia Colapietro of Lia Colapietro Floral Design and Kelli Galloway of Hops Petunia.

Based in Royal Oaks, Michigan, outside Detroit, Jody Costello shares this statement on The Flower House web site:

detroit is my city. my parents were born and raised here, i was born and raised here. my great grandmother had a flower shop for decades in detroit. it’s been hard to witness detroit crumble.  over the last few years, there’s been a change, an energy that gives us all hope that our hometown is making a comeback. 

flower  house to me is about recognizing detroit’s history and creating an ephemeral honor with flowers.  and, i just can’t pass up the opportunity to work with such an inspiring group of very talented, supportive designers.  for my space in flower house, i want the flowers to feel as if they just started growing; taking over.

when i was 18, i lived in west virginia and i used to hike along the new river which once was filled with mining towns.  they’ve all since disappeared but i loved the way nature began its takeover of the abandoned buildings. wildflowers and fern grew through the cracks of foundations and moss carpeted the roof.

 i love finding just the perfect thing to put into an arrangement; gorgeous fruit from the local market, hunting down some sweet little blossom in my yard or finding a lilac bush blooming by the roadside.  it’s all in the discovery and details for me.

Lia Colapietro is based in Perrysburg, Ohio, not too far from Toledo.

Here’s her statement:

what inspired me to get involved with flower house? to be honest, i just love what’s going on in detroit these days. flower house is a perfect opportunity to get involved, stretch my creativity, and work alongside gobs of talented, like minded folk.

as a hint of what i’m designing for my part, i would love play with a look that is overgrown, dreamy, and a little magical…

hands down, my favorite floral task is tromping around outside and hunting for the perfect hunk of moss, lichen-y branch, or snipping the most perfect bloom in the garden.

adding a foraged or home grown element to a project always makes a piece feel extra special. sharing that really makes my day.

 

Kelli Galloway of Hops Petunia Floral is based in Kingston, New York, about 1-1/2 hours north of New York City. Here are her observations:

i don’t exactly remember how i found out about the flower house project but i do remember the second i read of  it i knew i needed to be a part of it. i grew up near detroit and went to college there, i spent a lot of my younger years running around that city, it holds a special place in my memories.

after i left, i was always drawn to it, i have such immense pride for it, it’s the hardest working city i know. watching it grow and change over the years and finally get the recognition it deserves, makes my heart so warm. that being said, i’ve been trying to figure out a way i could be a part of it again, both to give back and create something beautiful there. This project is the most perfect way for me to do so. i’m so honored to be a part of it.

my style is very layered and organic, like the way some of houses in detroit have become, i want to build into the house, as it would want me to, to add more layers and more shape, i plan on creating a floral room that engulfs you and hugs you, from the walls to your heart.

what do i love most as a florist? color, and the way nature can shake you when you least expect it. i love finding those special gems in a bunch of roses or anemones that is just perfectly different, the petals have fallen just so or the color isn’t quite the same, i love building drama with color, makes me giddy

I recorded my  interview with Lia, Kelli and Jody on October 15th, the final installation day at The Flower House. Please enjoy this short clip!

Here’s how you can follow each of the creatives you meet here today:

Follow Jody Costello on Facebook

Follow Jody Costello on Instagram

Follow Lia Colapietro on Instagram

Follow Kelli Galloway/Hops Petunia on Facebook

Follow Kelli on Instagram

Follow Kelli on Pinterest

I captured this second interview on the same day with Susan McLeary of Passionflower Design and flower farmer Amanda Maurmann of Cornman Farms.

Amanda’s Michigan-grown flowers and produce were featured in “Fruits of Labor,” the downstairs kitchen designed by Susan, Francoise Weeks and several other talented designers. Hear my recent podcast interview with Susan and Francoise here.

This interview introduces Amanda’s story and reinforces the interdependence between floral designers and flower farmers. Susan and Amanda discuss this during our conversation.

I found it especially fun because we were all seated on the ground as Sue and Amanda stripped foliage to prep stems for the beautiful Michigan-grown floral centerpieces that would decorate the Field to Vase Dinner tables that evening.

 

Susan and Jody both mentioned their excitement about a new dahlia farmer named Michael Genovese of Summer Dreams Flower Farm in Oxford, Michigan.

Like Amanda of Cornman Farms, Michael and his beautiful Michigan blooms adorned The Flower House and the Field to Vase Dinner that amazing evening.

I want to give a special shout-out to Michael, who jumped in and helped the F2V staff and volunteers far beyond the call of duty. He lent muscle and equipment to prepare the yard where the giant dinner tent was erected – and boy do I have a ton of respect for this young man.

I hope to return to Michigan next growing season to visit Cornman Farm and Summer Dreams and share more about these flower farms with you.  You can follow Michael and Summer Dreams here.

Episodes of the Slow Flowers Podcast have been downloaded more than 71,000 times. I thank you and others in the progressive American-grown floral community for supporting this endeavor.

Until 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. THANK YOU to each and every one of you for downloading, listening, commenting and sharing. It means so much.

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 Wheatley and Hannah Holtgeerts. Learn more about their work at shellandtree.com.