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Happy 9th Anniversary to the Slow Flowers Podcast!

This week, we are celebrating our 9th anniversary of the Slow Flowers Podcast. Yes, folks, as the first-ever flower podcast and the longest-running flower podcast series, with 469 episodes, we are committed to delivering fantastic episodes to you each week — all free for your education and enlightenment.

It’s truly amazing to look back on how this show has become the voice of the Slow Flowers movement since our first episode #100, broadcast on July 23, 2013. We’ve brought you inside the Slow Flowers Movement, up close and personal, with hundreds of inspiring and intimate conversations with individuals who are deeply immersed in growing specialty cut flowers and designing with them. These are advocates who care deeply about a sustainable, safe, and local supply of seasonal floral ingredients — and they share their stories with heart and passion.

One year ago, to mark the 8th anniversary, we added a video component to the Slow Flowers Podcast, so you have a chance to watch the conversations as well as listen to them — including seeing videos of flower farm tours and floral studio tours. We hope you value this content, created specifically for our Slow Flowers Community. It’s such a privilege to be your host as I share new episodes, week in and week out, can you believe it — for 9 entire years! As we enter our 10th year, this means we’ll be making a big splash by sharing more people and their flowers with you!

In another milestone of celebration, I’m devoting 2022 to a year-long series that revisits a book I wrote ten years ago — The 50 Mile Bouquet.

Today’s guests, siblings Norman Peterkort and Sandra Peterkort Laubenthal, are featured in the pages of this pioneering book, published by St. Lynn’s Press with photography by David Perry. The chapter about Peterkort Roses is titled “The Last Rose Farm in Oregon” and we’re bringing you both a reflection and a look ahead.

I have visited Norman and Sandra on several occasions, but this week, I made a point of traveling to their greenhouses outside of Portland, Oregon, to film our conversation. Learn what’s been happening at this unique and resilient flower farm over the past decade, and gain new insights on diversification and innovations they have implemented.

READ:

Of Note: Last week’s episode included a visit to the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, a farmer-owned cooperative. As you heard us discuss, Peterkort Roses is not only a founding member farm of SWGMC, their family was also a founding member of the Oregon Flower Growers Association, which opened in 1942 as a farmer-owned wholesale hub. Pretty amazing history for one boutique specialty cut flower farm! Shop for Peterkort Roses at the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market. And if you’re in Portland, you can often catch Sandra and her roses in their stall at the Oregon Flower Growers Association.

Thank you to our Sponsors

This show is brought to you by Slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 850 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, Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers delivers iconic burlap-wrapped bouquets and lush, abundant arrangements to customers across the U.S., supporting U.S. flower farms by purchasing more than $10 million dollars of U.S.-grown fresh and seasonal flowers and foliage annually. Discover more at farmgirlflowers.com.

Thank you to Details Flowers Software, a platform specifically designed to help florists and designers do more and earn more. With an elegant and easy-to-use system–Details is here to improve profitability, productivity, and organization for floral businesses of all shapes and sizes. Grow your bottom line through professional proposals and confident pricing with Details’ all-in-one platform. All friends of the Slow Flowers Podcast will receive a 7-day free trial of Details Flowers Software. Learn more at detailsflowers.com.

Thank you to CalFlowers, the leading floral trade association in California, providing valuable transportation and other benefits to flower growers and the entire floral supply chain in California and 48 other states. The Association is a leader in bringing fresh cut flowers to the U.S. market and in promoting the benefits of flowers to new generations of American consumers. Learn more at cafgs.org.

Thank you to Store It Cold, creators of the revolutionary CoolBot, a popular solution for flower farmers, studio florists and farmer-florists.  Save $1000s when you build your own walk-in cooler with the CoolBot and an air conditioner.  Don’t have time to build your own?  They also have turnkey units available. Learn more at storeitcold.com.   

Thanks so much for joining us today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 870,000 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 and consider making a donation to sustain Slow Flowers’ ongoing advocacy, education and outreach activities. You can find the donate button at slowflowerspodcast.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. 

Music credits:
Camp Fermin (uptempo); Gaenaby Blue Dot Sessions
http://www.sessions.blue

Lovely by Tryad 
http://tryad.bandcamp.com/album/instrumentals
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Acoustic Shuffle; In The Field
audionautix.com

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The urgency to reverse climate change and better care for the future of our planet are top of mind issues for many floral professionals. If you’re listening or watching today, you’re probably here because you want to know more about the Slow Flowers Movement — and we schedule our topics and guests with values of seasonality, sustainability and social equity in mind. We know from our members feedback and surveys that you, too, want to make mindful decisions about your own role in creating a better floral marketplace.

Today’s guest has been a valuable resource throughout my own quest to become better educated, including understanding the scientific facts and academic research around sustainable and non-sustainable practices in the floral marketplace. I recently visited Becky Feasby, owner of Calgary, Alberta-based Prairie Girl Flowers, and the two of us spent much of our 72 hours together in conversation about our shared passion for making the floral industry a safer and more sustainable one. Those conversations are captured in today’s show and I’m excited to share it with you.

Becky writes that ethical and sustainable floristry involves looking at not only how and where we source our flowers, but also considering the waste generated by designs and packaging.  She maintains that like other agricultural crops, we need to examine not only the carbon footprint of our flowers, but also the use of pesticides, water pollution, exploitation in the supply chain, and waste.  Sustainable floristry means using local and seasonal flowers; for her, it also means not importing flowers from overseas; never using single use plastics for packaging or floral foam in designs; and supporting local growers and creatives to give back to the community.

Becky is a past guest of this podcast, Episode 400 (May 2019). Listen here.
Follow Becky and Prairie Girl Flowers on Instagram for her popular weekly series #sustainabilitysunday
Learn more about the upcoming Sustainable Flowers Project, a three-day workshop, which she is co-producing with TJ McGrath of TJ McGrath Design.

If you’re heading to the Slow Flowers Summit, just a few weeks away on June 26-28th in New York, be sure to meet Becky and TJ there in person to learn more about their workshop. I’m hoping to be there in September, too! 

News of the Week: You’re Invited to our Slow Flowers Member Virtual Meet-Up

Later this week on Friday, June 10th (at 9 am Pacific/Noon Eastern), you’re invited to join the Slow Flowers Member (Virtual) Meet-up. Join Shannon Algiere, our special guest, as she introduces the famed Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, our Slow Flowers Summit host and venue for Day Two and Day Three.

Shannon is Arts & Ecology Director at Stone Barns Center. She brings over 25 years of experience in holistic farm design, crops production, garden and greenhouse management and farm-based education. She and Philippe Gouze will open our June 27th (Monday) session with a presentation entitled THE FLOWERS OF STONE BARNS CENTER & BLUE HILL. At the Meet-Up Shannon and Stone Barns Center Greenhouse Manager, Daniel Bartush will give us a preview of the floral program at Stone Barns Center and the programs of the Arts & Ecology Lab. 

You must pre-register to join us. I’ll share the registration link in today’s show notes for Episode 561 at slowflowerspodcast.com.

Thank you to our Sponsors!

This show is brought to you by Slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 850 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, Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers delivers iconic burlap-wrapped bouquets and lush, abundant arrangements to customers across the U.S., supporting U.S. flower farms by purchasing more than $10 million dollars of U.S.-grown fresh and seasonal flowers and foliage annually. Discover more at farmgirlflowers.com.

Thanks to 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.

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 this year than ever, and you’ll want to check out the course offerings at thegardenersworkshop.com.

Thank you to Details Flowers Software, a platform specifically designed to help florists and designers do more and earn more. With an elegant and easy-to-use system–Details is here to improve profitability, productivity, and organization for floral businesses of all shapes and sizes. Grow your bottom line through professional proposals and confident pricing with Details’ all-in-one platform. All friends of the Slow Flowers Podcast will receive a 7-day free trial of Details Flowers Software. Learn more at detailsflowers.com.

Thanks so much for joining us today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 855,000 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 and consider making a donation to sustain Slow Flowers’ ongoing advocacy, education and outreach activities. You can find the donate button to the right.

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. 

Music credits:
Turning on the Lights; Gaena
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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Today, I’m so delighted to share my wonderful conversation with artist Ronni Nicole Robinson. Ronni creates works in plaster and paper and all of her pieces are botanically-inspired, utilizing flowers, branches and stems she clips from surrounding gardens and nature to incorporate into her embossed surfaces.

When planning the 2022 Slow Flowers Summit, “Flowers as Artist’s Muse” emerged and felt like the ideal theme to connect the stories, aesthetic, and craft of each of our gifted presenters. I knew I wanted to invite Ronni Nicole to share her unique point of view and her floral-embellished artwork to inspire Summit attendees.

And today, she will inspire you too. Ronni Nicole has been creating “flower fossils” in plaster and paper, pursuing her art full-time. She comes to us from the Ron Nicole studio in New Hope, Pennsylvania and I know you’ll enjoy this gifted artist as she discusses her process and techniques, as well as her philosophy of art, design, nature and beauty.

If you like what you hear today, please consider joining us at the Slow Flowers Summit where Ronni Nicole will share her remarkable journey as an artist and one who draws creative and soulful guidance from nature and especially from flowers. Ronni’s presentation takes place on Monday, June 27th (Day Two), and is followed by a Q&A.

Follow Ronni Nicole on Instagram

Slow Flowers Summit News: Flower Donation Program

If you’re a regular listener, I know you’ve heard me talk about the upcoming Slow Flowers Summit, our fifth conference, which takes place June 26-28 at two venues just outside New York City. We’ll gather on Day One at the Red Barn at Maple Grove Farm in Bedford, New York, a beautiful private event venue, and then, we will continue Days Two and Three at Stone Barns Center in Pocantico Hills, New York. One of the ways you can get involved with the Summit is to participate in our Floral Donation Program to support design demonstrations and our Floral Design Takeover at Red Barn.

We’re inviting domestic flower farms and growers to provide donated flowers and foliage to be used throughout the 3-day event. In exchange, floral donations will be featured in Slow Flowers Summit social media, in our printed program, as well as at the in-person Summit. Interested? Click below for all the details.

Thank you to our Sponsors!

This show is brought to you by Slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 850 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, Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers delivers iconic burlap-wrapped bouquets and lush, abundant arrangements to customers across the U.S., supporting U.S. flower farms by purchasing more than $10 million dollars of U.S.-grown fresh and seasonal flowers and foliage annually. Discover more at farmgirlflowers.com. 

Thank you to Flowerfarm.com, a leading wholesale flower distributor that sources from carefully-selected flower farms to offer high-performing fresh flowers sent directly from the farm straight to you. You can shop by flower and by country of origin at flowerfarm.com. Find flowers and foliage from California, Florida, Oregon and Washington by using the “Origin” selection tool in your search. It’s smarter sourcing. Learn more at flowerfarm.com.

Thank you to the 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.

Thank you to Red Twig Farms. Based in Johnstown, Ohio, Red Twig Farms is a family-owned farm specializing in peonies, daffodils, tulips and branches.  Learn more at redtwigfarms.com.

Thanks so much for joining us today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 851,000 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 and consider making a donation to sustain Slow Flowers’ ongoing advocacy, education and outreach activities. You can find the donate button in the column to the right.

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. 

Music credits:
Heliotrope; Turning on the Lights; Gaena
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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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We have just recognized Earth Day and the Slow Flowers Podcast focused on a non-green topic: Funeral Flowers.

This episode was inspired by two Slow Flowers members in the Seattle area who have been researching ways to infuse sustainability into sympathy flowers.

I’ve invited Lori Poliski of Flori LLC, and Tammy Myers of LORA Bloom and First and Bloom to share their experience, research, and future plans on this topic.

Just for context, based on funeral industry statistics, if half of the funerals in the US annually have traditional funeral flowers, Lori and Tammy estimate that up to 1.2 million plastic and floral foam saddle caskets, wreath forms and cages that end up in the landfill, every year. 

The women want to change “farewell flowers” to make them not only environmentally friendly, but beautiful, meaningful and personal.  After a long life or a tragic death, one should be laid to rest with beauty – and the flowers should do no harm.  

They are on a mission to raise awareness about this topic, first, with consumers, florists and the funeral industry and second, by offering sustainable options in for clients in the Seattle area and hosting sustainable mechanics classes for florists. While the main focus will be around sympathy or farewell flowers, there’s certainly potential for making daily deliveries and event work greener. 

Lori and Tammy have partnered with a certified green burial cemetery, Cedar Lawns in Redmond, Washington, to start. They recently designed green farewell flowers for a photo shoot at Cedar Lawns and are preparing a brochure and a booklet as well as listing the items digitally on their respective websites. 

Resources and Where to find and follow Lori and Tammy:

Follow Flori on Facebook and Instagram

Follow LORA Bloom on Facebook and Instagram

Follow First & Bloom on Facebook and Instagram

Learn more about the Green Burial Counsel

Last Friday, on Earth Day, I posted a video announcing the just-released new findings from the 2022 National Gardening Survey, which includes specific questions about cut flowers that Slow Flowers Society developed in collaboration with the National Gardening Association, which conducts the annual survey.

Click here to read more. Last year’s survey found that 58 percent of respondents said it is very or somewhat important that the flowers they purchase are locally grown. This year, that number has climbed to 65 percent — nearly 2/3rd of respondents prefer locally-grown flowers.

The attitudes about American-grown flower purchases is also trending up — from 57% of respondents in 2021 saying it’s very or somewhat important that the flowers they purchase are U.S. grown, to 61% preferring domestic flowers.

There’s much more to learn and as a bonus, we have prepared a media kit for Slow Flowers Society members to use for their own local promotions. If you are a member, you’ll find a special email in your in-box this week sharing the download details. All in all, I’m encouraged about the needle moving higher as we now have two consecutive years of consumer attitudes about Local and US-grown flowers!

Thank you to our Sponsors!

This show is brought to you by Slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 880 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, returning for 2022, Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers delivers iconic burlap-wrapped bouquets and lush, abundant arrangements to customers across the U.S., supporting U.S. flower farms by purchasing more than $10 million dollars of U.S.-grown fresh and seasonal flowers and foliage annually. Discover more at farmgirlflowers.com. 

Thank you to the 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.

Thank you to Store It Cold, creators of the revolutionary CoolBot, a popular solution for flower farmers, studio florists and farmer-florists.  Save $1000s when you build your own walk-in cooler with the CoolBot and an air conditioner.  Don’t have time to build your own?  They also have turnkey units available. Learn more at storeitcold.com.  

Thank you to Flowerfarm.com, a leading wholesale flower distributor that sources from carefully-selected flower farms to offer high-performing fresh flowers sent directly from the farm straight to you. You can shop by flower and by country of origin at flowerfarm.com. Find flowers and foliage from California, Florida, Oregon and Washington by using the “Origin” selection tool in your search. It’s smarter sourcing. Learn more at flowerfarm.com.

Thanks so much for joining us today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 842,000 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 Slow Flowers Society.com and consider making a donation to sustain Slow Flowers’ ongoing advocacy, education and outreach activities. You can find the donate button at slowflowerspodcast.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. 

Music credits:
Homegrown; Sage the Hunter; Gaena
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
by:
audionautix.com

The trend line is moving up!

It’s Earth Day 2022 and wow, has the past year been packed with great news for flower and garden lovers!

One year ago, Slow Flowers Society announced the first consumer insights around cut flower purchases, collected as part of the 2021 National Gardening Survey. The NGS is a well-regarded survey conducted annually since 1973, which tracks consumer behavior and produces a comprehensive market research report used by the lawn and garden industry to make strategic decisions around product development and sales.

Last year’s Survey established benchmarks on consumer attitudes about domestic and locally-grown cut flowers and their purchasing preferences. The findings were so encouraging and they gave us a statistically accurate tool to evaluate consumer attitudes and behavior shifts from 2020 moving forward.

For 2022, Slow Flowers has again partnered with the National Gardening Association, sponsors of the National Gardening Survey. This year’s research was conducted for a full month, from early January through early February. Around 2,600 people completed the national survey.

In planning for our second consecutive year, we worked with the NGS to expand last year’s questions to add the phrase “floral arrangements” to the cut flower question. We are excited to share those insights with you:

Q: “When buying cut flowers and flower arrangements, how important is it to you that they are Locally Grown?“

For 2022, 65% of respondents indicated it is Very or Somewhat Important that cut flowers and floral arrangements they purchase are locally grown.

That’s up from the 2021 National Gardening Survey, which found that 58% of respondents indicated it is Very or Somewhat Important that the cut flowers they purchase are grown locally.

Q. “When buying cut flowers and flower arrangements, how important is it to you that they are U.S. Grown?“

For 2022, 61% of respondents indicated it is Very or Somewhat Important that cut flowers and floral arrangements they purchase are U.S. Grown.

That’s up from the 2021 National Gardening Survey, which found that 57% of respondents indicated it is Very or Somewhat Important that the cut flowers they purchase are U.S. Grown.

Combined Importance When Buying Cut Flowers/Floral Arrangements

These numbers are encouraging! What’s to account for the needle moving? The 2022 survey included a wording change — from “Cut Flowers” to “Cut Flowers/Flower Arrangements.” As NGS researcher Paul Cohen explained, it’s likely that these numbers are due to a significant increase in the percentage of respondents who said they made a flower purchase. He also notes that the addition of “flower arrangements” likely spurred more respondents to report flower purchases. Paul Cohen also speculates that the significant backlog of weddings that created a boom year for weddings in 2021 (from only 1.3 million in 2020 to roughly 2 million in 2021) also contributed to the increased number of customers for local and US-grown cut flowers. And as a footnote, 2022 is forecast to be another banner year for weddings, with 2.5 million couples expected to tie the knot.

Where Do Consumers Purchase U.S.- and Locally-Grown Flowers?

With input from the Slow Flowers community, we added a new follow-up question to the National Gardening survey. We asked:

Q. “When purchasing cut flowers and flower arrangements that you know are grown within the U.S. or locally grown, which of the following places have you purchased them from?”

The most common purchase locations for cut flowers and flower arrangements grown within the US or locally grown were supermarkets, mass merchants/discount stores, retail florists and farmers’ markets.

Supermarkets: 32.5%

Mass Merchandiser/Discount Stores: 28.6%

Retail Flower Shops: at 26.1%

Farmers’ Markets: 23.8 %

Other notable outlets included:

On-Farm Shopping: 9.5%
eCommerce Flower Websites: 5/6%
CSA flower subscriptions: 3.7%

So what does this mean for you and your floral enterprise? Slow Flowers’ investment to participate in a national survey brings the conversation about the origin of cut flowers and floral arrangements to the center of the dialogue.

Simply by asking these questions, we elevate local and domestic flowers to top of mind — and this is important. The statistics reflect an ongoing cultural shift, one that I predict will only increase.

The survey results are a free resource for our members and we encourage you to incorporate the findings into your own branding, marketing and conversations to elevate your platform.

Next week, we will release a member press kit with resources that include a press release, survey graphics, and social media assets for your use. If we want more people to talk about local and domestic flowers, we need to give them something to write about! We’re doing the same, thanks to your support! You can look for these resources in a special member mailing or find a link to download them at slowflowerssociety.com

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Welcome to Part Two of the Slow Flowers Podcast, Episode 522, a special bonus conversation with singer-songwriter Eva Leach. I’m honored that she’s sharing her new original music with us.

If you’ve attended Holly Chapple’s Flowerstock Festival, you’ve already been treated to live performances by Eva and her frequent collaborator (and brother) Nathan Leach. Nathan & Eva is a Musical Duo from Charleston, South Carolina. The origins of their story are pretty recent and immensely fascinating. While in school at USC Columbia, Nathan longed to get back into guitar playing, so he began to post cover songs on YouTube. Over time, he expanded the roster of featured talent to include the occasional help from his sister, Eva. In 2013, they posted a cover of Family of the Year’s “Hero”. In 2015, that video went viral. It’s mindboggling to say this, but music videos on the Nathan & Eva YouTube channel have been viewed more than 26 MILLION times.

In 2018, I was inspired to invite them to join me on the Slow Flowers Podcast holiday music show (Episode 340).

In celebration of Eva’s new EP Sick Girl, released April 1st, we recorded this interview, in which you’ll hear two of her three original new songs.

Follow Eva on Instagram

Follow Eva on TickTock

Find Sick Girl on Spotify

Read more, Charleston City Paper profile of Eva and Nathan Leach

I shared our sponsor thank you’s in Part One today, so we’ll just wrap things up by saying The Slow Flowers Show is a member-supported endeavor and I value our loyal members and supporters! If you’re new to our weekly Show and our long-running Podcast, check out all of our resources at Slow Flowers Society.com and consider making a donation to sustain Slow Flowers’ ongoing advocacy, education and outreach activities. You can find the donate button in the column to the right at slowflowerspodcast.com.

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I’m so excited this week to share the video from our March Slow Flowers member meet-up featuring author Teresa J. Speight as our special guest, along with many of our Slow Flowers members who appear in the pages of the new book Black Flora, just released by Bloom Imprint.

Black Flora is a book that is long overdue and it showcases the excellence and contributions of Black flower farmers and floral designers throughout the country.

This book recognizes the rich, beautiful, complex, and diverse narrative being told by African Americans in today’s floral marketplace. Based in the Washington, D.C., area, garden writer, podcaster and blogger Teri Speight interviewed 25 Black floral personalities to learn how they have rooted their lives in the floral world.

Black Flora’s pages are filled with more than 90 vivid photographs illustrating the talent and artistry of Black floral designers and creative directors coast to coast. There are stories and images from cutting gardens and flower farms, rural acreage to urban lots.  Each profile explores family legacy and professional influences, as women and men of varied backgrounds and generations share the journey that led to careers in wedding and event design, botanical art, horticultural therapy, cut flower farming, entrepreneurship and activism.

I’m so pleased to introduce you to this project, and for you to meet Teri as we discuss and introduce many of the creatives featured in Black Flora. Order your copy of Black Flora at bloomimprint.com or find it via any online bookseller! Or, ask you independent local bookseller to order it for you!

This book recognizes the rich, beautiful, complex, and diverse narrative being told by African Americans in today’s floral marketplace. Based in the Washington, D.C., area, garden writer, podcaster and blogger Teri Speight interviewed 25 Black floral personalities to learn how they have rooted their lives in the floral world.

Black Flora’s pages are filled with more than 90 vivid photographs illustrating the talent and artistry of Black floral designers and creative directors coast to coast. There are stories and images from cutting gardens and flower farms, rural acreage to urban lots.  Each profile explores family legacy and professional influences, as women and men of varied backgrounds and generations share the journey that led to careers in wedding and event design, botanical art, horticultural therapy, cut flower farming, entrepreneurship and activism.

I’m so pleased to introduce you to this project, and for you to meet Teri as we discuss and introduce many of the creatives featured in Black Flora. Order your copy of Black Flora at bloomimprint.com or find it via any online bookseller! Or, ask you independent local bookseller to order it for you!

I love what Teri wrote in her introduction to Black Flora:

Find and Follow Teresa J. Speight:
Cottage in the Court on Facebook
Cottage in the Court on Instagram
Cottage in the Court on Twitter

Sustainable Farming News

If you’re interested in learning more about sustainable flower farming practices on Slow Flowers member farms across North America, check out our recent story on the topic, published in the March issue of Johnny’s Advantage Newsletter. For the past several years, the Slow Flowers Society has surveyed our members on a wide array of topics. The insights gained have helped inform our annual Slow Flowers Floral Insights & Industry Forecast. For 2022, inspired by conversations with Johnny’s Selected Seeds’ flower experts, we asked survey-takers to share their preferred sustainable farming methods.

Curious about the specifics, I spoke with six of the respondents, who elaborated on their approaches to farming with sustainable methods. These six conversations included Stacey Chapman, of Westwind Flowers in Orange, Virginia; Becky Feasby, of Prairie Girl Flowers in Calgary, Alberta; David Brunton, of Right Field Farm in Millersville, Maryland; Susan Schultze, of Joy de Fleur Flower Farm in St. Paul, Minnesota; Jennifer McClendon, of JenniFlora Farm in Sebastopol, California; and Stacey Denton, of Flora Farm & Design Studio in Williams, Oregon. Each of these growers has a different story, with farm location, size, and scale and crop specialties varying widely. I learned so much from my conversations with each of these flower farmers, who are all very thoughtful about what they do on their land, as well as articulate about the “why” of what they practice.

Thank you to our Sponsors!

This show is brought to you by Slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 880 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, returning for 2022, Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers delivers iconic burlap-wrapped bouquets and lush, abundant arrangements to customers across the U.S., supporting U.S. flower farms by purchasing more than $10 million dollars of U.S.-grown fresh and seasonal flowers and foliage annually. Discover more at farmgirlflowers.com.

Thank you to 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.

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 this year than ever, and you’ll want to check out the course offerings at thegardenersworkshop.com.

Thank you to Details Flowers Software, a platform specifically designed to help florists and designers do more and earn more. With an elegant and easy-to-use system–Details is here to improve profitability, productivity, and organization for floral businesses of all shapes and sizes. Grow your bottom line through professional proposals and confident pricing with Details’ all-in-one platform. All friends of the Slow Flowers Podcast will receive a 7-day free trial of Details Flowers Software. Learn more at detailsflowers.com.

Thanks so much for joining us today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 828,000 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 Slow Flowers Society.com and consider making a donation to sustain Slow Flowers’ ongoing advocacy, education and outreach activities. You can find the donate button in the column to the right.

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. 

Music credits:
Game Hens; Turning on the Lights; Gaena
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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

First of all, I hope you had a happy Valentine’s Day! Today, we are in for a real treat. So many of our members – flower farmers and floral designers alike – are devoted to changing the dialogue around flower sourcing. During what is one of the biggest floral holidays of the year, it has not been unusual to read media reports about flower shortages or all the negatives around flowers in general. The chocolate and jewelry folks wouldn’t have it any other way — just discourage people to buy flowers, right? 

Well there is another message and you’ll hear it today. It’s good news – and you already know it! Local Flowers Come to the Rescue for Valentine’s Day, with a new approach to help Cupid get flowers to gals and pals. 

One of our members is doing something incredible and I can’t wait to introduce you to Jaclyn Rutigliano of Hometown Flower Co. Based on Long Island, Hometown Flower Co. partnered with the Empire State Building to present “Local is Beautiful” – a Valentine’s Day Floral Installation and Pop-Up Shop celebrating New York and New Jersey-grown flowers. 

Visitors to the Empire State Building’s 86^th floor Observatory Deck from last Thursday, February 10^th through Monday, February 14^th were greeted with an eye-catching floral installation designed 100-percent foam free and exclusively with fresh flowers sourced directly from New York and New Jersey growers.

We joined Jaclyn last week while she was putting the finishing details on her pop-up to record a visit and learn more about how this promotion came together. By way of quick background, Jaclyn and her husband and partner Marc Iervolino founded Hometown Flower Co. in 2019 as a Long Island-based sustainable floral design studio and pop-up flower truck. A third-generation floral design, Jaclyn is a past guest of the Slow Flowers Podcast and she and Marc are featured in Where We Bloom, a book I wrote in 2021.

Thanks so much for joining us today to get in the Local is Beautiful Valentine’s Day spirit with Jaclyn. I will share the Floral Facts and talking points that Jaclyn developed for the media, lifestyle influencers, visitors to the Empire State Building and flower customers – Slow Flowers provided support for the collateral material that Hometown Flower Co. shared and we’re so excited to help them get the word out.

WHY LOCAL FLOWERS?

The majority of the floral industry’s flowers are harvested by workers marginally compensated, around 60% of whom are women. They are then bred for long distance air travel (hence, no more natural floral fragrances) which comes with a massive carbon footprint from long distance air travel. Most stems are already covered in chemical pesticides but then get topped off with a warm welcome at the border with a spraying of Roundup upon entry into the U.S. Nothing says “stop and smell the roses” like a good whiff of Roundup at your nostrils! Flowers then get trucked to various wholesalers who have purchased from a global marketplace, where they then remain until a florist purchases. Once at a florist, they remain again until use for a special event or for a customer order- who then desires a product that will last at least one week. Hometown Flower Co. believes there is a better alternative: source directly from local growers, providing the freshest possible flowers within just a couple of days from when they were cut.

Some Takeaway Floral Facts:

• Did you know, every year Colombia exports ~30 million roses to the U.S. for Valentine’s Day? That’s a long way to travel! Between the carbon footprint & the pesticides sprayed at the border, we think there’s a better alternative: local flowers.
• 74% of consumers don’t know where their flowers come from. Currently the U.S. imports ~80% of flowers sold and 200,132 TONS of flowers land in Miami each year. During the weeks of Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, 80,000-130,000 boxes of flowers arrive daily, equaling seven daily flights, six days per week. 
• What can you do if you live in a region that does not have easily accessible locally-grown flowers? Look for florists and farmers who ship nationwide at SlowFlowers.com, TheFlowry.com, or check for Certified American Grown labeling for your grocery store blooms.
• Floral Foam = Plastic. Did you know, the “green stuff” used by many florists to keep designs hydrated is actually a single-use plastic? This outdated and unnecessary design hack ends up in our landfills and is filling up our waterways with microplastics. Help the floral industry ditch the foam: order your flowers sans floral foam.
• There are flower farmers currently located in all 50 states. 58% of respondents to a recent survey said they want to support locally-grown flowers. Here’s what consumers can do:

• Request locally-grown flowers from your florist
• Find sustainable farmers & florists at SlowFlowers.com
• Look for the Certified American Grown sticker on packaging

Find and follow Hometown Flower Collective at these social places:

Find HFC on Facebook

Discover HFC on Instagram

See more pretty from HFC on Pinterest

Join our February Member Meet-Up

This Friday is our February Slow Flowers Member Meet-Up and you’ll want to sign up to join us at 9 am Pacific/Noon Eastern on February 18th. The link to preregister can be found below or in our Instagram Linktree profile for @slowflowerssociety.

I’m so excited about this month’s topic — our focus is on winter flower crops and designing from the garden in winter. This session is inspired by the fantastic conference I attended and spoke at in Southern Flower Symposium in Charleston, S.C., produced by Jim Martin of Compost in my Shoe and fellow members of Low Country Flower Growers in August 2018. Cuts of Color’s Rita Anders was a keynote presenter, speaking on the topic: “Optimizing Cut Flower Production in our Southern Climate” — and it was an incredible session that enhanced people’s understanding of how they could extend the seasons and grow during the winter months!

We’ve invited Rita to give us a peek into her winter growing practices in Weimar, Texas, and asked Jim to share a floral design demo and talk about winter growing in Charleston. His winter floral designs from South Carolina have been blowing my mind, especially because so much of what he designs with is cut from his own garden. You will love this session! We’ll see you there!

Thank you to our Sponsors

This show is brought to you by Slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 880 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, returning for 2022, Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers delivers iconic burlap-wrapped bouquets and lush, abundant arrangements to customers across the U.S., supporting U.S. flower farms by purchasing more than $10 million dollars of U.S.-grown fresh and seasonal flowers and foliage annually. Discover more at farmgirlflowers.com.

More thanks goes to:

Red Twig Farms. Based in Johnstown, Ohio, Red Twig Farms is a family-owned farm specializing in peonies, daffodils, tulips and branches, a popular peony-bouquet-by-mail program and their Spread the Hope Campaign where customers purchase 10 tulip stems for essential workers and others in their community. Learn more at redtwigfarms.com.

The 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. Visit them at seattlewholesalegrowersmarket.com.

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.

Thanks so much for joining us today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 815,000 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 Slow Flowers Society.com and consider making a donation to sustain Slow Flowers’ ongoing advocacy, education and outreach activities. You can find the donate button in the column to the right here at slowflowerspodcast.com.

I’m Debra Prinzing, host and producer of the Slow Flowers Show & Podcast. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one stem, one vase at a time. 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. You can learn more about Andrew’s work at soundbodymovement.com. 

Music Credits:

Caprese; Turning on the Lights; Gaena
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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

At the beginning of a New Year, I often find myself focusing on all the projects and improvements I want to tackle, not as “resolutions,” but as “upgrades” that frankly, I’ve probably been thinking about for the entire past year — and now it’s just time to put those ideas and concepts into practice. There’s something that resonates with the phrase, New Year, New You, and I have to say, I already feel like I’m ticking off some of those goals in small and large ways.

Whether that means getting beautiful prints framed so they can hang on my office wall rather than be stacked in a pile or ordering new filing cabinets and sorting through reams of paperwork that was previously mounded on the floor of my office; or subscribing to new software that will improve how Slow Flowers Society functions — it’s a long list. I’ve done those three things so far in less than three weeks — so I’m patting myself on the back. 

Today’s guest might just help you unlock something that you’ve been struggling with — how to streamline your recipes and proposals and take your wedding and event branding to a new level. Please join me in welcoming Corrine Heck, founder and CEO of Details Flowers Software.

The Details Flowers Software platform was created by florists, for florists, with the primary goal of providing a solution to help floral businesses of all sizes succeed. Motivated to create a system to help florists do more and earn more, Details believes in helping to shape the floral industry as a whole and help it grow. The platform connects florists, designers, growers, suppliers, wholesalers, and educators together to inspire a more beautiful world through flowers!

Founded in Ormond Beach, Florida in 2015, Details Flowers Software was created by Corrine Heck. As an event florist, Corrine designed and executed hundreds of events, becoming a leader in floral design in the Central Florida market. After years of growing her floral business, Corrine decided to move in another direction and take on the challenge of building a much-needed, all-in-one software solution for people just like her: florists.

Details partnered with the Slow Flowers Summit in 2021 and will return as a sponsor for our 2022 Summit – and just recently, they came onboard as a Slow Flowers Podcast sponsor.

Today we’ll learn about this useful and beautiful tool for organizing your floral enterprise and listen closely because there is a special offer for listeners that Corinne shares at the end of our conversation.

Thanks so much for joining us today. If you’re interested in learning more about Details, visit detailsflowerssoftware.com for a free 7-day trial. And take advantage of a 20%-off discount for your first year — use the promo code Corinne offered — it’s  SlowFlowers22.

As I mentioned, Details is one of our sponsors for the 2022 Slow Flowers Summit, and to learn more, you’ll want to subscribe to our Summit newsletter — Here is the link to subscribe. We update our registrants and followers on the 15th of each month, so I’ll also share a link to the January 15th newsletter — with lots of news on the venue, and answers to all the FAQs you might want to ask. June will be here before you know it and I’m so excited to see you there!

Thank you to our Sponsors

This show is brought to you by Slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 880 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, returning for 2022, Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers delivers iconic burlap-wrapped bouquets and lush, abundant arrangements to customers across the U.S., supporting U.S. flower farms by purchasing more than $11 million dollars of U.S.-grown fresh and seasonal flowers and foliage annually. Discover more at farmgirlflowers.com.

And thank you to the 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. Visit them at seattlewholesalegrowersmarket.com.

Thank you to Rooted Farmers, working 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.

and Thank you 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.

Thanks so much for joining us today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 806,000 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 Slow Flowers Society.com and consider making a donation to sustain Slow Flowers’ ongoing advocacy, education and outreach activities. You can find the donate button in the column to the right at debraprinzing.com

I’m Debra Prinzing, host and producer of the Slow Flowers Show & Podcast. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one stem, one vase at a time. 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. You can learn more about Andrew’s work at soundbodymovement.com. 

Betty Dear; Vienna Beat; Gaena
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