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SLOW FLOWERS Podcast: A Conversation with Flower Farmer Robert Kitayama (Episode 144)

Wednesday, June 4th, 2014

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Before introducing you to this week’s guest, I must share with you a heartwarming letter I received recently from Emily Calhoun, a farmer-florist who owns Floriography in Corrales, New Mexico. She gave me permission to read her letter to you:

Here's a glimpse of Emily (right) and the New Mexico floral landscape (left)

Here’s a charming glimpse of Emily (right) and the New Mexico floral landscape (left)

Hi Debra, I wanted to let you know what a HUGE difference your podcast has made in my life and my businesses.

In January we expanded our farming and design operation to the Albuquerque-Santa Fe area. This means I am traveling that long, lonely (300 mile) desert corridor between the northern and southern part of New Mexico. This drive can be draining and depressing, especially after working huge hours at either location.

Each trip I plug in my phone, queue up the SlowFlowers podcast and get lost in your interviews. The drive disappears and I find myself at my destination refreshed, inspired and motivated to forge ahead – -spreading the good word of local flowers to our clients and educating the state about its potential as a producer.

In fact, last month I mentioned your books, podcast and phenomenal website in my presentations at the NM Agrifuture conference. I was presenting on creating successful agricultural businesses in small and urban areas. Naturally, I pushed flowers. Having your resources really helped add legitimacy to what we were doing and showed that this whole flower thing for real! As a result I have been able to recruit farmers, young and old, to grow for us (a la Ellen Frost’s model). WE even piqued the interest of the NM Secretary of Agriculture!

Right now we are the only commercial cut flower farm in the state and are working diligently on growing that number! Hopefully soon we will be covering the state and the region with locally grown flowers.

From the bottom of my flower pickin’ heart, Thank you! Emily

Okay, pretty amazing, right? Thank you, Emily – your voice and vision will now be heard by everyone listening to this podcast and I encourage them to check out your great web site, Floriographynm.com, to see what she’s up to in promoting the Slow Flowers Movement on her corner of the planet. Send her a little floral note so she knows we applaud her tenacity in changing New Mexico’s relationship with their flowers — we’re rooting for your success, Emily.

Janice Wills Curtis of the California Cut Flower Commission snapped this photo as I interviewed Robert Kitayama at Sunset.

Next, my interview this week comes to you from the Garden Stage at Sunset magazine’s Celebration Weekend at the Sunset HQ in Menlo Park, CA.

I spoke twice this past weekend, sharing the Slow Flowers’ eco-conscious floral design approach – and I combined my exhibit with my friends at the California Cut Flower Commission.

We gave away thousands of lily bulbs for people to take home and plant in their own gardens and took photos of thousands of people who wanted to stand in front of a flower field.

Here’s our photo in the CCFC-Slow Flowers booth at Sunset’s Celebration Weekend. (c) CCFC

Those photos were posted all over social media, getting the word out about supporting local flowers. It was a blast!

I also persuaded Robert Kitayama of Kitayama Brothers Farms in Watsonville, Calif., to sit down with me for an interview. You will be fascinated to hear his family’s story as it spans the generations, several areas in the west and numerous changes in flower crops – as this company has continued to evolve with the times.

A sea of colorful gerberas in the Kitayama Brothers’ greenhouses. (c) Linda Blue, CCFC

Kitayama Brothers has been growing and shipping beautiful cut flowers from Northern California since 1948. Located on majestic Monterey Bay, the company’s greenhouses in Watsonville enjoy perfect flower growing conditions.

The Monterey Bay’s cool evenings along with sunny days create an ideal environment for growing more than 20 different flowers and cut greens. Today, the farm’s top crops oriental and Asiatic lilies, lisianthus, gerbera daisies, snapdragons, mini callas, iris, gardenias and stephanotis, making their product selection a top choice for wedding and event professionals from around the country.

Robert Kitayama (left) and his brother Stuart Kitayama (right), pose with their mother at the 2013 Monterey Bay “Field to Vase” dinner. (c) Linda Blue, CCFC

I have gotten to know Robert and his family’s floral enterprise in the past few years, including spending a weekend at the farm in Watsonville last year where I arranged centerpieces for the field-to-vase dinner held inside one of Kitayama’s greenhouses the night before the Monterey Bay Greenhouse Tour.

This year’s tour is coming up on June 21^st and you can get more details here. And check out Kitayama Brothers’ free gerbera plant promotion here.

One of those luscious, lavish gardenias . . . so awesome! (c) Linda Blue, CCFC

Thank you for joining today’s conversation with Robert Kitayama, just one of the many passionate flower farmers I encounter on my journeys through the fields and greenhouses where beautiful, fresh and local flowers are produced.

Please join me next week for another insightful and educational episode of the Slow Flowers Podcast. Thanks to listeners like you, this podcast has been downloaded more than 12,500 times.

If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto Itunes and posting a listener review.

Until next week please join me in putting more American grown flowers on the table, one vase at a time.

The Slow Flowers podcast is engineered and edited by Hannah Holtgeerts and Andrew Wheatley. Learn more about their work at hhcreates.net

Posted in American Grown, Creativity, floral design, General, Podcast Episodes, SLOW FLOWERS Podcast | No Comments »

SLOW FLOWERS Podcast: The Little Flower School of Brooklyn comes to Oregon (Episode 143)

Wednesday, May 28th, 2014

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‘Who needs a prince’ – seriously great iris name!

Last week was quite amazing in so many ways. First of all, I was on assignment for Country Gardens magazine, working with the uber-talented photographer Laurie Black, my collaborator in so many great articles that we’ve created over the years for editor James Baggett and art director Nick Crow.

With her partner-husband Mark King (ever the calm one and a genius when it comes to all the technical aspects of location photography), Laurie and I were tasked with capturing the story of Schreiner’s Iris Farm, the lovely and alluring bearded iris, and the two women who are nearly single-handedly reviving interest in these old-fashioned spring flowers.

Nicolette (left) and Sarah (right), at their happy place in the iris garden.

Those women are my guests today – Sarah Ryhanen of Saipua and Nicolette Owen of Nicolette Camille. While they independently own their own Brooklyn-based floral studios, together the friends collaborate as teachers through The Little Flower School of Brooklyn.

‘Oh Jamaica’

Smitten by the bearded iris, especially watercolor-washed varieties in apricot-peach-pink; smoky browns; mustardy-yellow; mahogany and silvery-lavender spectrums, Nicolette and Sarah have been fans of Schreiner’s Irises for years.

They worked with the Salem, Oregon-based, third-generation family farm to create a one-day Iris-intensive and invited students to join the fun.

Here’s how the workshop was described:

In this class, students will bask in the glory of the fields at peak bloom, and in a tour of the display gardens witness first hand the incredible diversity of color and form this unique perennial offers. We’ll discuss and demonstrate the tenets of composing an arrangement in our elegantly layered Little Flower School style. Special emphasis will be placed on flower selection, color blending and the mechanics of building a low lush sprawling arrangement without the use of floral foam. Working with the very best of the Schreiner’s specimens, along with a menagerie of other locally grown Oregon flowers, students will receive in-depth. one-on-one instruction as they build their own rambling garden style arrangement.

Generous in sharing their knowledge, Sarah and Nicolette demonstrated with their favorite irises and perennials.

Generous in sharing their knowledge, Sarah and Nicolette demonstrated with their favorite irises, annuals, foliage and perennials.

The day was packed with beauty and creativity. It was an inspired, sublime experience — from the first moment when we met, toured the gallery of irises and the gorgeous display beds showcasing irises and their favorite companion perennials — to an afternoon of floral design instruction. Meeting many members of the Schreiner family was a bonus! Thanks to Steve Schreiner, Ray Schreiner and sister Liz Schmidt (plus we met sister Paula, who stopped by while leading an iris tour for Portland’s Japanese Garden).

About 18 students gathered for the workshop, from established floral designers to apprentices and those considering a career switch, and me – a floral dilettante! Together, we fixated on Sarah and Nicolette’s language of flowers.

These two communicate with such beautiful interlocking poetry and prose. And you’ll just have to wait for the summer 2015 issue of Country Gardens to learn more, read my story and see Laurie’s awesome photography!

Love these colorful benches at Schreiner’s Iris Farm.

After our workshop, however, the three of us sat down in the double-Adirondack benches so generously provided by the Schreiner family. We talked a lot about the farmer-florist concept, the Slow Flowers movement, and the importance of staying close to the source of your flowers.

Nicolette at work.

Here’s a little more about The Little Flower School of Brooklyn:

The Little Flower School is the teaching project of Nicolette Owen (Nicolette Camille) and Sarah Ryhanen (Saipua); each known for their loose, natural, garden-focused floral designs. Fueled by their reverence for flowers and penchant for travel, the two traverse the globe teaching, learning, and hunting down the most beautiful floral specimens.

Sarah and Nicolette first met over dinner in July of 2008 – a time when each of their separate floral businesses were first establishing. As distinct competitors, their friendship championed a spirit of collaboration and – they hope – has helped to foster an atmosphere of sharing and collaboration amidst a new wave of New York floral designers.

Students of The Little Flower School are men and women; novices, floral enthusiasts, designers in other medium, those looking to start their own floral business, and those with established floral businesses looking to broaden their design knowledge. Classes are seasonally oriented and often exalt a particular flower or design concept.

Here’s more about Nicolette:

Nicolette Owen runs her custom floral design studio, Nicolette Camille Floral, in Brooklyn NY. Her work is known for its romantic effusions, nuanced color and texture. Each arrangement is evocative of both the wild and formal garden. Nicolette’s first book collaboration, Bringing Nature Home, was released by Rizzoli in April 2012.

Sarah extolling the virtues of foxgloves – biannual and perennial forms.

And more about Sarah:

Sarah Ryhanen is a self taught flower designer, grower and co-founder of Saipua. Her compositions have a haunting, sensual quality. Her work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Vogue and Martha Stewart. She splits her time between the Saipua studio in Red Hook Brooklyn and Worlds End, her new flower farm in upstate NY. And listen to my earlier podcast interview with Sarah here, in which we speak of her decision to begin growing her own flowers with her partner Eric Famisan.

Please enjoy this conversation and join in by sharing your comments below.

Thank you for joining me this week. Because of the support from you and others, listeners have downloaded episodes of the Slow Flowers Podcast more than 12,200 times! I thank you for taking the time to join to my conversations with flower farmers, florists and other notable floral experts.

If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto Itunes and posting a listener review.

Until next week please join me in putting more American grown flowers on the table, one vase at a time.

The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Hannah Holtgeerts and Andrew Wheatley. You can learn more about their work at hhcreates.net.

Posted in American Grown, Blog Posts, Creativity, floral design, Gardening, General, Plants, Podcast Episodes, SLOW FLOWERS Podcast, Writing | 5 Comments »

SLOW FLOWERS Podcast: The Fabulous Bows and Arrows of Dallas (Episode 142)

Wednesday, May 21st, 2014

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Adam and Alicia, flower arranging at Cynthia Alexander’s Quarry Flower Farm in Frisco, Texas (c) Ryan Ray

Another great moment on the flowe farm, captured by their frequent collaborator, photographer Ryan Ray.

Alicia, up close, with some of her favorite just-picked, fresh-from-the-field flowers. (c) Ryan Ray

Today’s guest is Alicia Rico, co-owner with her husband Adam Rico of the Dallas-based floral and events studio Bows and Arrows.

This playful business name sums up their his-and-her style: Alicia is the feminine “bow” and Adam is the masculine “arrow.”

Their work has been showcased twice in Martha Stewart Weddings, and on every popular design and floral blog, as well as in countless other magazines.

Over the past few years, I’ve heard a lot about Alicia and Adam – and their fabulous floral aesthetic at Bows and Arrows. That’s because my friend Whitney White spent some time working with them as a studio manager when she lived in Dallas.

Whitney White in a 2012 Bows and Arrows photo shoot. Love this imagery! photo: (c) Apryl Ann

So last month, when Whitney and her beau Ryan Page were wed in Seattle, where they now live, Alicia and Adam came to join the celebration.

They were here as guests, and as part of the “friends of the bride” creative team who conjured up seasonal spring magic for Whitney & Ryan’s outdoor wedding — including at the wedding site, a local park, and at the reception venue – an intimate Italian restaurant that is a favorite of Whitney & Ryan’s.

Erica Knowles of Botany 101 Floral here in Seattle served as lead wedding designer and Texas flower farmer Cynthia Alexander of Quarry Flower Farm, a previous guest on this podcast, lent her creativity, as well.

Just hours before the ceremony, Alicia Rico taught seven bridesmaids how to make floral crows to adorn their locks. (c) Debra Prinzing

Alicia (right) with her former studio manager and bride-of-the-moment, Whitney White (left) (c) Debra Prinzing

Alicia, modeling a floral crown. (c) Debra Prinzing

Much of this flower-making took place before, during and after the bridal brunch that Cynthia and I hosted at my house the morning of the wedding. After hearing about her from Whitney, I was thrilled to meet Alicia and learn more about her design philosophy, the business she and Adam have built, their work as conceptual floral artists and more.

And after a spirited, hands-on, mini-floral crown workshop for 7 bridesmaids (only one of whom had any floral design experience), which took place on our back porch, I grabbed Alicia and convinced her to sit down with me for a short podcast interview. I wanted to get to know her – and I wanted YOU to get to know her, too.

More artistry from Bows and Arrows (c) Ryan Ray.

On their website, they describe having a philosophy as follows:

Just as each flower is unique from the next, we carry the belief that each bride is unique from the next. Founded in 2009, Bows and Arrows is dedicated to the creation and communication of beauty via the art of floral and event design. We approach each event with the desire to preserve the integrity and natural presence of flowers and environments. Inspired by art, nature and culture, we build our aesthetic and design around what personally resonates with each bride to create an event that is purposeful, hand-crafted and lovely.

Please enjoy our conversation and be sure to visit my web site, debraprinzing.com to see photos of Alicia and Adam, of their floral work, and to get details about their forthcoming design workshop in Marfa, Texas, the hip and hot destination.

Thank you for joining me this week. Because of the support from you and others, listeners have downloaded episodes of the Slow Flowers Podcast more than 11,600 times! I thank you for taking the time to join to my conversations with flower farmers, florists and other notable floral experts.

If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto Itunes and posting a listener review.

Until next week please join me in putting more American grown flowers on the table, one vase at a time.

The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Hannah Holtgeerts and Andrew Wheatley. You can learn more about their work at hhcreates.net.

Posted in Blog Posts, Creativity, floral design, General, Podcast Episodes, SLOW FLOWERS Podcast | 2 Comments »

SLOW FLOWERS Podcast: Henry Hudson’s Amy Nardi on Australia’s Love for Local Flowers (Episode 141)

Wednesday, May 14th, 2014

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Today we’re celebrating local flowers – both in the U.S. and in Australia. Seasonal and local flowers are flourishing in Australia, too!

Amy Nardi, creator of Henry Hudson, the beautiful, Australia-based floral blog.

Like many of this podcast’s guests, Amy Nardi and I met “virtually,” through an email correspondence. Originally, she contacted me to ask permission to link to my web site from hers.

I was aware of her beautiful website: HenryHudson.co.au, but I didn’t know her personal story. We decided to record our conversation so I could share it with listeners of the Slow Flowers Podcast.

With a professional background in the fashion and floral industry, Amy Nardi created Henry Hudson to be a place where all kinds of floral folk could head to, gain inspiration, find out what is happening in the floral world, and find new floral friends all over the globe to floral exchange ideas with.

“Bouquet of Scraps,” from a Henry Hudson photo shoot.

Australia Fashion Week Installation.

A floral still-life, from a Henry Hudson post.

She says: “We love flowers so much, we thought there must be other people out there who love them just as much, too (and want to talk about them!).”

Indeed that’s true. And I know you’ll be fascinated to learn about the locally-grown influences in Australia, where flower farmers there are a valued resource to florists throughout the country.

Floral Art, ‘Frozen Windflowers’

Here’s a little bit more about Amy, in her own words:

“I grew up in rural New South Wales (Australia) in a very small town. My parents are farmers, although we grew oranges and grapes (juice and wine). I was creatively influenced at a young age — my mum was not only a keen gardener, she’s an amazing seamstress and painter. When it came to floral industry influences my Aunt and Uncle were flower farmers and another Aunt was a florist. I used to follow her around like a shadow at work and at home picking up scraps and making posies.

“I have always been a creative person. If I wasn’t sewing something, I was drawing or crafting something. Or dancing. At University I studied Design, majoring in Fashion. I have always loved design. This is really where I cemented my understanding of the elements and principles of design and how they can translate into anything and everything.

“After Uni, I decided I wanted to work in the corporate world and I got into HR (Human Resources). However, to feed my creative side I formally studied Floristry in my spare time for 3 years. One day I decided I wanted to try out the creative industry full-time and left my corporate world to work full-time in Floristry. However, after a few years of work for a Floral studio that predominately had large event work, I was diagnosed with Arthritis in my hips (in my early 20’s) and was told I had to go back to a job where I wasn’t on my feet for more than 3 hours continuously a day. While I was devastated, I knew that this wasn’t the end for flowers and me. I went back into the HR world and still did my own small weddings and events on the side. Now I work for a great American Management Consulting firm, in their HR department, and I curate the Henry Hudson website also. It keeps me very busy!

“I started Henry Hudson just over a year and a half ago, I wanted to bring together the floral community and share the work and stories of innovative and cool floral designers and amazing local growers. I have a keen interest in economics, statistics and interactions and I wanted to involve that somehow into Henry Hudson, hence the trend predictions!”

A bronze and green suspended floral installation.

Follow Henry Hudson here:

Facebook

Instagram

A Slow Flowers Celebration

Please join me in celebrating the launch of my long-awaited resource: SLOWFLOWERS.com.

What is Slowflowers.com? It’s a sister project to this podcast. A free, online directory of American-grown flowers and the designers, shops, studios and farms who source those blooms.

The mission of Slowflowers.com is simply this:

To promote American-grown flowers, to make it easy for flower consumers to connect with florists, shops, studios and farms who provide American-grown flowers, and to encourage truthful and transparent country-of-origin labeling in the floral industry.

If you haven’t done so yet, please visit the site and check it out. There are already 250 domestic floral resources listed there — and my goal is to grow that list to one thousand!

If you’re a flower consumer, sign up to receive our quarterly e-newsletter. If you own a floral business focused on seasonal and local flowers, please create a listing so others can easily find you!

I want to give a special thank you to the 229 individuals and businesses who contributed to the Slowflowers.com campaign on Indiegogo earlier this year. Together, they helped to raise more than $18,000 to complete this project.

An extra special thank you goes to our three main supporters. The California Cut Flower Commission, our premier sponsor, and the San Francisco Flower Mart and Mellano & Co., established growers of beautiful flowers, the two presenting sponsors.

My goal with this project is that anytime someone wishes to purchase or send flowers, they stop and ask themselves: Can those flowers be American grown? Slowflowers.com provides that answer.

Thank you for joining me this week. Because of the support from you and others, listeners have downloaded episodes of the Slow Flowers Podcast more than 11,000 times! I thank you for taking the time to join to my conversations with flower farmers, florists and other notable floral experts.

If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto Itunes and posting a listener review.

Until next week please join me in putting more American grown flowers on the table, one vase at a time.

The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Hannah Holtgeerts and Andrew Wheatley. You can learn more about their work at hhcreates.net.

All photographs appear, courtesy of Amy Nardi and Henry Hudson. The photo of the white ‘Henry Hudson’ rose (top of page, center – in collage) is from Connon Nurseries.

Posted in American Grown, Blog Posts, Creativity, floral design, General, SLOW FLOWERS Podcast | 1 Comment »

SLOW FLOWERS Podcast: Flower Confidential with Amy Stewart (Episode 140)

Wednesday, May 7th, 2014

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The floral ceiling chandelier — using all American grown floral ingredients — from the White House State Dinner (photo: Brendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse)

I have exciting news to share this week: The New York Times published a piece by former food columnist Marian Burros entitled: “My, What Lovely Flowers. Who Lobbied for Them? — after a push by growers, U.S. products adorned a White House Dinner.”

More than two months ago, I wrote about this exciting event — a stop on the Slow flowers journey in which the White House acknowledged for the first time ever its use of American Grown flowers for a public function. That was the State Dinner for the French President on February 11th. You can read my February 21st blog post, and my analysis of that event here.

I’m gratified to see that NYT’s follow this story and give it the gravitas it deserves. Shining a positive light on American flowers is important, but there is much more that needs to be done in order to change the broken floral industry. One thing YOU can do is to join me in simple floral activism.

You can do this by visiting a compelling new web site: VOTE FOR FLOWERS. There, you’ll be able to identify your member of Congress and send him or her a letter urging support and engagement in the new Congressional Cut Flower Caucus.

Like others in the pro-domestic flower movement, I do NOT want the White House’s use of American flowers to be a one-time gesture. Like the presidential commitment to serve local, American-sourced food AND wine at White House functions, it is only right that domestic flowers grace the tables of all White House events. Stay tuned for ongoing updates on this story.

Writer and all-around curious observer of the natural world, Amy Stewart (c) Delightful Eye Photography

Now let’s turn our attention to today’s fabulous guest: Amy Stewart.

Amy’s first book, “From the Ground Up,” was published in 2001 by Algonquin Books.

I first learned about Amy in 2001 when a local bookseller here in Seattle told me about From the Ground Up, a memoir by a young Texas native who wrote about her first grown up garden. The bookseller called it “heartwarming and said I had to read it.

Amy was that author. She wrote From the Ground Up as a journal documenting her post-college Santa Cruz garden. When I reviewed in 2002, I wrote:

“There’s something very endearing and charming about Stewart’s self-effacing writing voice. She truly wants us to experience the same emotional highs and lows, the essential passion of gardening, that she lives through. It’s a wonderful late-night read . . . Pick it up as an alternative to moonlight gardening.”

A few years later, I met Amy at the SF Flower & Garden Show. We were back-to-back speakers and met during that “changing of the guard” thing that happens when one speaker wraps up her book-signing and another takes that seat warmed by her predecessor. It was just a casual introduction, but there was a familiar recognition of a kindred spirit in the garden-writing world.

Since then, our friendship has been based on mutual admiration, similar professional interests and occasional collaboration. In fact, in 2011, Amy and I teamed up with three others to launch GREAT GARDEN SPEAKERS.COM, an online speakers bureau for our profession.

And so it goes. My world changed when Amy Stewart wrote Flower Confidential in 2007. At the time, I had already begun interviewing American flower farmers and florists, unaware that she was writing an expose about the Global Floriculture Industry. Things happen like that in our worlds – after all, how could you explain the proliferation of vegetable gardening books that flooded the marketplace over the past five years?

But back to Flower Confidential. It truly was a book ahead of its time. When Amy wrote about the huge machine that relies on cheap floral imports, she started a conversation that resonated with me and with so many others – it was a dialogue I wanted to join. I was inspired to continue seeking out and telling the stories of American flowers and the people who grow and design with them.

When The 50 Mile Bouquet was published in 2012, I was honored that Amy agreed to write the forward, her generous show of support for the next chapter in the American Grown story. In that forward, Amy wrote:

“A great deal has changed since Flower Confidential. The notion of supporting local farmers was just gaining traction. The idea of celebrating our seasonal abundance – even if that means giving up tomatoes in January – was not quite mainstream. Just as “slow food” was catching on, the flower world was beginning the shift that The 50 Mile Bouquet celebrates.”

Indeed, a great deal more has changed – for the good – since Amy wrote our forward in the fall of 2011.

Amy Stewart and Debra Prinzing.

With Amy’s blessing, I’ve gone down the flower garden path to document the exciting cultural shift in the domestic floral industry. All you have to do is read about the White House’s choice of American grown flowers to understand that.

During the same time, Amy’s career has skyrocketed. She is the award-winning author of six books on the perils and pleasures of the natural world, including four New York Times bestsellers, The Drunken Botanist, Wicked Bugs, Wicked Plants, and Flower Confidential.

Amy lives in Eureka, California, with her husband Scott Brown. They own an antiquarian bookstore called Eureka Books and tend a flock of unruly hens in their backyard.

Amy has appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition and Fresh Air, she’s been profiled in the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, and she’s been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, Good Morning America, the PBS documentary “The Botany of Desire,” and–believe it or not– TLC’s Cake Boss.

Four of Amy’s previous books have been New York Times bestsellers. They have been translated into eight languages, and two of them–Wicked Plants and Wicked Bugs–have been adapted into national traveling exhibits that appear at botanical gardens and museums nationwide.

She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the American Horticulture Society’s Book Award, and an International Association of Culinary Professionals Food Writing Award. In 2012, she was invited to be the first Tin House Writer-in-Residence, a partnership with Portland State University, where she taught in the MFA program.

I recently stopped at Amy and Scott’s house in Humboldt County, northern California, while on a road trip from LA to Seattle. They don’t live too far off of Hwy 101 and it was an easy detour, my 2nd visit to their charming Victorian house surrounded by a slightly unruly garden and an opinionated clutch of hens.

As is typical, our conversations involved book writing, book publishing, book promotion and more — all those things that authors obsess about. And before I left the following morning, Amy and I sat down in her cozy work space – her combination writing and art studio in the attic of this vintage residence, and talked about Flower Confidential.

Amy Stewart’s next gift to the book-reading world is a historical crime novel about a real woman who was an early 20th century sheriff and detective. Girl Waits With Gun, is a novel based on a true story. It will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2015.

Visit amystewart.com to follow Amy and all of her projects – including her busy lecture schedule and her other outlet -painting and drawing.

Here’s a photograph of a floral arrangement I made last spring – and then wrote about.

Amy’s charming oil painting of that same arrangement ~ a surprise and cherished gift.

And enjoy this Q&A with Amy about why she loves to paint.

Because of the support from you and others, listeners have downloaded episodes of the Slow Flowers Podcast more than 11,000 times! I thank you for taking the time to join to my conversations with flower farmers, florists and other notable floral experts.

If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto Itunes and posting a listener review.

Until next week please join me in putting more American grown flowers on the table, one vase at a time.

The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Hannah Holtgeerts and Andrew Wheatley. You can learn more about their work at hhcreates.net.

Posted in American Grown, Blog Posts, Book reviews, Creativity, floral design, General, Podcast Episodes, SLOW FLOWERS Podcast, Writing | 1 Comment »

SLOW FLOWERS Podcast: Hear from a Floral Wholesaler who Promotes American Grown (Episode 139)

Wednesday, April 30th, 2014

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I recently visited Joost Bongaerts, floral wholesaler and owner of Florabundance.

Over the past several weeks you’ve heard my conversations with floral designers who are leading the way when it comes to sourcing their flowers, leaves and branches from local farms. They place high value on seasonal blooms, because they know their bouquets and arrangements will be all the more beautiful and cherished by the customer – a customer who is also asking, Where do my flowers come from?

Yet many of these florists whose operations are not large enough to guarantee sizeable orders or meet minimum purchase requirements face a dead-end when they ask their local wholesaler to provide domestic or locally-grown product.

The wholesaler is basically a broker, an agent between the grower and the designer. The way the wholesale florist makes money is to buy low and sell high. I know this is an essential truth in any modern-day distribution system, but – to me – it can lead to a situation where the wholesaler holds all the power to set price, to determine what is brought to market, to manage the flow of goods from producer to end user. And in floral, over the years, that set up has led to a near-total obscurity of sourcing and certainly NOT truth in labeling.

It has been close to impossible for designers seeking flowers from the wholesaler in their town to ever know WHERE those flowers came from or WHO grew them, let alone what growing practices were used.

This model is only beginning to change. As we heard from Foxglove Brooklyn and The Local Bouquet, two studios featured in recent episodes, their big breakthroughs occurred when a light bulb went off in the mind of their wholesale florist. The energy and enthusiasm these designers express whenever they can source American grown flowers has stimulated a shift in thinking at the wholesaler. It might not even be the owner of that wholesale business who gets it, but perhaps an enterprising salesperson or account manager who says: “Ah ha! I get it – they want more local product and If I can source it – my sales will increase.”

So . . . in the coming months, in an effort to crack the code and inspire more wholesale florists to “see the way to the future,” I’ll be featuring conversations with the ones who are committed to transparency in their sourcing practices.

Today, we’re kicking it off with Joost Bongaerts, owner of Florabundance in Carpinteria, California.

Joost has been involved in the horticulture and floral industry his entire life – and through Florabundance he sells flowers to retail florists and designers all around the country.

Located as they are in the flower-basket of the U.S., Florabundance has the unique ability to source from small and large flower farms in California and in many other states on an almost a year-round basis.

I applaud Joost for labeling all of the CA-grown options on the Florabundance web site. In the future, we should see other wholesalers adopting this practice. And next, we’ll urge them all to identify other states, as well as use the soon-to-launch American Grown Flowers logo.

Here’s a little more about Joost and his background:

Born in 1959 in Den Hague, The Netherlands, Joost grew up in Holland. His father managed agricultural land holdings all over the country. Joost spent summers working on his family’s farm in northern Holland and became interested in agriculture and horticulture as a result. He attended The Land en Tuinbouw School in Dordrecht and continued his education in Gouda, graduating with a degree in plant science.

Joost also spent a semester at Michigan State University as part of an exchange program, which led to his desire to work and live in the United States. Joost began his professional career in 1981, marketing fresh cut flowers from Holland for The Dutch Flower Auctions & Exporters Organizations which was located in Livonia, MI.

From 1983 to 1991 Joost worked for several Dutch companies selling flower bulbs and perennial plants to specialty cut flower growers in the United States and Canada.

In 1991 Joost and his wife Alexandra opened BonFleur, a European-style retail flower shop in New Canaan, CT, which they sold to their manager in 2002. During this time Joost also imported flowers from Holland and started to do business with Florabundance, becoming a partner in 2002 and eventually full owner in 2008.

Joost’s background and experience in selling flower bulbs to growers, importing cut flowers and running a successful retail flower shop provides a unique perspective from which he has developed the Florabundance brand into one of the premier wholesalers in the United States.

Here’s a bonus feature: a UBloom episode about Florabundance, produced by J Schwanke for his California Grown Experience video series.

httpv://vimeo.com/15039946

I predict that by sharing my conversations with “floral middlemen,” three things will happen in the coming months and year:

1. Other wholesalers will begin to hear the buzz – and they’ll be curious about the successes of their peers like Florabundance’s Joost Bongaerts.

2. More florists will point to these examples and nudge along their own wholesaler, asking them to source domestically, seasonally and locally – for good reason.

and . . .

3. The consumer will benefit – and have more confidence in the purchases he or she makes.

Please send me your suggestions for who you’d like to hear from on future episodes of the Slow Flowers Podcast.

And tune in next week to hear from a special guest. Author Amy Stewart, who wrote Flower Confidential in 2007, will join me for a conversation about that groundbreaking book. Don’t miss it!

Because of the support from you and others, listeners have downloaded episodes of the Slow Flowers Podcast nearly 11,000 times! I thank you for taking the time to join to my conversations with flower farmers, florists and other notable floral experts.

If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto Itunes and posting a listener review.

Until next week please join me in putting more American grown flowers on the table, one vase at a time.

The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Wheatley.

Posted in American Grown, Blog Posts, Creativity, floral design, General, Podcast Episodes, SLOW FLOWERS Podcast | 3 Comments »

SLOW FLOWERS Podcast: The Local Bouquet of Little Compton, Rhode Island, and More on the Seasonal Sourcing Conundrum (Episode 138)

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2014

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The Local Bouquet’s adorable logo depicts the studio’s farm-focused spirit.

Today’s interview was inspired by an email I recently received from Mary Kate Kinnane and Maureen Azize, partners in The Local Bouquet, based in Little Compton, Rhode Island. Their full-service floral design studio uses locally and domestically grown blooms for every occasion – and it’s their dedication to this philosophy that prompted them to reach out to me.

Mary Kate (left) is the studio’s wedding and event coordinator; Maureen (right) is the field coordinator and director of cut flowers.

Their letter was just one of several similar “cries for help” from Slow Flowers believers around the country, including Justine Lacy and Jessica Stewart of Foxglove Brooklyn Floral Design Studio, who were my podcast guests two weeks ago.

The essential question is this: HOW CAN SMALL FLORAL BUSINESSES MOTIVATE THEIR WHOLESALE SUPPLIERS TO OFFER AMERICAN GROWN FLOWERS FROM LOCAL FARMERS AND OTHER DOMESTIC SOURCES?

Here’s the note that Mary Kate and Maureen sent:

A seasonal arrangement from The Local Bouquet.

Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Mary Kate and I am co-owner and co-operator of The Local Bouquet, a full service floral design studio in a small town in Rhode Island. My business partner Maureen and I are both 26 years old, newly married and new mothers too.

We started our floral company one year ago, providing people with only locally and domestically grown blooms in all of our designs.

We have spent the past year educating our customers on why local and U.S. grown in better and why place of origin is important to think about when it comes to the flowers in their lives. No one in our area is providing the public with this type of product and so as a result customers are new to this “field to vase” movement.

Mary Kate in the studio.

We really have learned a lot in the past year from you and all of the educational media you are sharing, so I want to thank you for that. We need your help and expertise though! We realized when we started our business with this unique mission that it would be a challenge to get our hands on local and domestically grown blooms throughout the year, especially in our area of the country. We never imagined just how big that challenge would be though.

In the past five months we have educated ourselves at the flower market, only buying what is U.S. grown, which is a very small list. When we ask our sales reps if they would ever buy more local blooms, they shake their head no and laugh! So lately we have been taking it upon ourselves to talk to the farmers directly.

Some of the popular no-rose Valentine’s Day bouquets created by Mary Kate and Maureen.

We have reached out to farmers not just in the New England area but also on the eastern seaboard and the West Coast. We have had disappointingly little luck. All of the farmers outside of our state are not interested in selling to small businesses like ours. They all give us the same speech about how we need to guarantee them big numbers on a weekly basis for them to want to ship all the way to R.I.

So how are we supposed to join this “field to vase” movement if we aren’t located where all of these big U.S. flower farms are? Does that mean we are automatically out and we only get 3 good months out of the year to make it as a business? We would like to think not, but lately with all of the defeat it’s hard not to.

Here’s what a winter bridal bouquet looks like in Rhode Island. Stunning!

This is where we need your help. How do we get our hands on more blooms from the U.S.? How do we convince these farmers that even though we are small and just starting out, it is an investment to work with us and one that will grow the “American Flower Farmer” movement. Do you know of any farms that would be willing to sell/ship to us? Do you have any recommendations for us as florists who are trying to support the local and domestic farmers? Any help you could give us would be greatly appreciated!

By the way, we thoroughly enjoy your podcasts week-to-week! This might be an interesting topic to discuss; the florist need for more local and domestic blooms and the farmers thoughts to selling and shipping to small time businesses like ours.

Maureen in the design studio.

Here’s a little more about Mary Kate and Maureen, from their web site:

To put it simply, we are two women who LOVE flowers! Sisters-in-law and best friends, we love being outside, getting dirty in the gardens, and being creative in our designs. With backgrounds in floral design, gardening, and landscape design, our mission is to bring you the freshest locally and USA grown flowers, including blooms from our own little flower farm. We design natural, free-flowing and elegant bouquets and arrangements, inspired by nature and tailored to meet our clients’ needs!

Beautiful, fresh, seasonal and local!

We certainly didn’t solve the Sourcing Conundrum in today’s conversation, but I am so grateful that we took the time to meet via a Skype interview. I feel like these podcast interviews provide insights and education to all of us who care about the origins of the flowers we purchase and design with.

Because of the support from you and others, listeners have downloaded episodes of the Slow Flowers Podcast more than 10,000 times! I thank you for taking the time to join to my conversations with flower farmers, florists and other notable floral experts.

If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto Itunes and posting a listener review.

Until next week please join me in putting more American grown flowers on the table, one vase at a time.

The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Hannah Holtgeerts. Learn more about her work at hhcreates.net.

Posted in American Grown, Blog Posts, floral design, General, Podcast Episodes, SLOW FLOWERS Podcast | 3 Comments »

SLOW FLOWERS Podcast: The Urban Flower Farmer, Tara Kolla of Silver Lake Farms (Episode 137)

Wednesday, April 16th, 2014

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Urban flower farmer Tara Kolla, owner of Silver Lake Farms in Los Angeles.

This week we’re celebrating a huge milestone for this young floral-focused podcast. The first episode of the Slow Flowers Podcast debuted last July. As of this week, more than 10,000 episodes have been downloaded! This is such encouraging news – and I thank YOU for listening and allowing me to share my interviews with influential leaders in flower farming, floral design and other related topics each week.

For the past 10 days, I’ve been teaching, reporting and traveling in California, working my way from south (Los Angeles) to north (Eureka-Arcata) and points between (Carpinteria-Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and SF). Eventually, I’ll get home to Seattle. The excursion has offered me a wonderful chance to sit down for some face-to-face interviews with new guests whose voices you’ll hear on the Slow Flowers Podcast in the coming weeks.

I snapped this cute photo of Tara and her flowers on April 10th. She was preparing luscious bouquets for her CSA deliveries.

The first person I’d like to introduce you to is Tara Kolla, owner of Silver Lake Farms in Los Angeles. We met at her urban farm (ahem. her backyard!) for a little lunch and then turned on the recorder in order for me to catch up on her 10-year career as a flower farmer specializing in organic blooms in all 12 months.

In 2012, when we published The 50 Mile Bouquet, I was delighted to tell Tara’s story of flower farming, despite many odds, in the heart of Los Angeles.

The narrative began in 2004, when Tara left her career in public relations and marketing to follow her dream to be an organic urban farmer. She planted sweet peas in her half-acre backyard and sold the fragrant flowers by the bunch at her local farmers’ market.

A twin-carrier, filled with two yummy bunches for the upcoming market delivery.

In doing so, she never expected to become the poster child of the city’s urban farming movement. I called the chapter “Flower Patch Politics,” and shared her tale of tenacity and passion as she endured an enforced shut-down from LA’s Department of Building and Safety.

A detail of a Silver Lake Farms bouquet. Check out that anemone!

That experience lasted nearly two years and involved Tara’s work to reverse an obscure 1946 “truck gardening” law that limited residential farms to only the cultivation of vegetables for off-site sale – not flowers.

Facing fines, jail time or a costly legal battle to obtain a land-use variance, Tara dug in her heels and decided to lobby for a change to the ordinance.

“I didn’t want to lose, give in or submit,” she says. Tara’s fierce belief in justice helped sustain her during a yearlong fight for what became known as the Food & Flowers Freedom Act, although she acknowledges that it took a toll on her physically, emotionally and financially.

Yet Tara feels grateful for the wave of support from her community, including longtime Silver Lake Farmers’ Market customers and fellow urban farming activists.

The media thrust Tara into the role as spokesperson for everything from sustainable agriculture to the plight of the small family farm.

Flowers for market, year ’round, organic and fresh!

Ultimately victorious, she’s been back in the business of growing flowers for several channels of distribution for nearly four years. Tara’s story is a huge inspiration and you’ll find its happy ending heavily seasoned with reality. We’ll discuss that in today’s podcast as we cover everything from diversification, branding, marketing and the future plans for Silver Lake Farms and its bountiful, healthy, organic and fresh flowers.

Here’s an overview (from Tara’s web site) of her flower farm and its many offerings. Take note of the links to various locations and social media platforms where you can find Silver Lake Farms’ flowers:

Silver Lake Farms was started in 2004 by Tara Kolla in the back yard of her home.

We now grow more than 100 different kinds of organic flowers and greens on less than an acre in Silver Lake and Glassell Park – so close to Downtown LA!

Typically our season begins with layers and layers of soft pastel petals in deep violets, blues and pinks. From late Jan to Mother’s Day: delicate dreamy ranunculus, anemones, and oh so fragrant sweet peas. Spring covers the field with antique wildflowers, adding an air of romance to our palette, and a delicate, natural touch: larkspur, Queen Anne’s lace, soft grasses, airy branches…

From Summer to Fall, it’s all about passion, texture, drama! Velvety, papery, tassely forms saturated in color: cockscomb, amaranths, strawflowers. But the Summer season’s main protagonist has to be, of course, the dahlia. Who can resist our Cafe Au Laits?….

We grow everything naturally, employing biological, organic and sustainable farming practices, without chemicals or pesticides. This way, our flowers are stronger, more vivid in color, longer lasting and richer in depth of tone and fragrance.

You can purchase our flowers in a number of ways. We’re at the Hollywood Farmers’ Market every Sunday from 8am-1pm. We’re there from February 1 thru October 31st.

Our flowers are also available through our Flower CSA, through FarmboxLA,GoodEggsLA, and on the first Saturday of every month we pop up outside Valerie Echo Park.

Love our blooms? We do floral design for weddings and private parties. For more information, contact flowers@silverlakefarms.com

“For a truly sustainable event, think about what’s on the table, not just what’s on the plate.”

If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto Itunes and posting a listener review.

Until next week please join me in putting more American grown flowers on the table, one vase at a time.

The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Hannah Holtgeerts. Learn more about her work at hhcreates.net.

Posted in American Grown, Blog Posts, Creativity, floral design, Gardening, General, Plants, Podcast Episodes, SLOW FLOWERS Podcast | Comments Off on SLOW FLOWERS Podcast: The Urban Flower Farmer, Tara Kolla of Silver Lake Farms (Episode 137)

SLOW FLOWERS Podcast: Meet the Foxglove Brooklyn design team – and hear of their search for seasonal and local blooms (Episode 136)

Wednesday, April 9th, 2014

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An email arrived in my in-box last month from Justine Lacy and Jessica Stewart, two supporters of my recent Slowflowers.com campaign. I had sent them a thank-you message after they contributed on Indiegogo, and it prompted this reply:

Justine Lacey (left) and Jessica Stewart (right) are a young, dynamic floral duo committed to seasonal and locally-grown flowers in their designs. Photo credits (c) Judie Zevack and courtesy of Foxglove Floral Design Studio.

This is what spring looks like in the hands of Foxglove’s designers.

“Hello Debra, this is Justine, Jessica’s business partner here at Foxglove Floral Design Studio in Brooklyn. We are ardent fans of your work – both your floral designs and your leadership and activism in the slow flower movement (and your great podcast!).

“We’ve been following your Indiegogo campaign as we’ve found it an exciting challenge, and a challenge nonetheless, to help our clients connect with local farmers in the New York/New Jersey area. We do love the wholesale market in Chelsea and love to work with fantastic European blooms, and we like getting to know the growers in our area who are providing the more local options, like flowering branches in spring. However, we are very (very) ready for your directory of like-minded, slow flower-inclined designers, growers, wholesalers, etc. I’m currently reading Amy Stewart’s “Flower Confidential” and finding that the more we know, the more we want to source local!

“On that note, the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market is so inspiring – one day, Jessica and I would love to help New York (or even Brooklyn) create a wholesale market dedicated to local flowers! With the amazing flowers grown (and wild) that thrive in our seasons here, it would certainly be a dream come true for many.

“We’d love to chat with you a bit more regarding ways that we, and other New York florists we’re connected with, can provide more local flower options for their clients. If you would be available for a phone chat, or even via email, to answer some questions about how Foxglove can further strengthen our relationships with farmers and connect more of our clients to local options.”

A gorgeous example of Justine and Jessica’s design work.

Well that introduction led to a promised phone date that we scheduled in late March. And I am pleased to share what we discussed with you today. You see, Jessica and Justine agreed to let me record our hour-long conversation for this podcast. We’ve condensed it a little, but you can follow along from the beginning to the end ~ and I promise you’ll gain important insights into today’s challenges facing progressive floral designers who truly desire for their work to be local, seasonal and sustainable.

Let me tell you a little bit about these two innovators:

Foxglove Floral Design Studio specializes in thoughtful, naturally-styled arrangements for weddings and other special events. The studio is committed to celebrating regional and native flora and is proud to partner with local farms to bring seasonal flowers to their clients during the growing season. Foxglove also works with other American and European growers to source ethically and sustainably grown blooms throughout the year.

Based in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Foxglove serves all of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and will happily work on location elsewhere. We love to create one-of-a-kind floral and event designs for our clients and celebrate every kind of love.

Justine grew up in Charleston, SC. She misses the wisteria in the spring and the winter camelias. And lots of fresh shrimp. Jessica is a Western PA native, and has been gardening since childhood. She loves beets and books and long car rides.

More seasonally-inspired work from Foxglove.

Beautiful palette of locally-grown flowers!

A styled photo shoot at Straw Hill Farm, one of Justine and Jessica’s floral sources.

Sweet and personal – a little gem of a design.

Whether you are a flower farmer who is eager to understand the needs of eco-conscious floral designers OR a floral designer who’s experiencing some of the same challenges that Jessica and Justine are facing, I know that today’s conversation will be inspiring and relevant. Thanks for joining us.

The floral marketplace realities that Justine and Jessica are experiencing is both a challenge and an opportunity – and I’ve heard these same concerns from others around the country, designers who are frustrated with the challenge of finding an American-grown-minded wholesaler to work with or anyone else who will help their studio source farm-grown flowers from domestic fields and greenhouses.

In the coming weeks, you will hear additional chapters of this ongoing conversation, with farmers, florists and the “middle-man” wholesaler . . . and I expect that together we’ll begin to see a shift in the sentiments. Let’s turn frustration into possibilities and opportunities. Together, let’s redefine the floral industry and heal the broken model we’ve had to endure for so long. I welcome your suggestions for people and businesses to include in the dialogue.

Because of the support from you and others, listeners have downloaded episodes of the Slow Flowers Podcast more than 9,500 times! I thank you for taking the time to join to my conversations with flower farmers, florists and other notable floral experts.

If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto Itunes and posting a listener review.

Until next week please join me in putting more American grown flowers on the table, one vase at a time.

The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Hannah Holtgeerts. Learn more about her work at hhcreates.net.

Posted in American Grown, Blog Posts, Creativity, floral design, General, Podcast Episodes, SLOW FLOWERS Podcast, Slowflowers.com the Directory of American Flowers, Writing | 3 Comments »

SLOW FLOWERS Podcast: Fresh from the Field Wedding Flowers with Lynn Byczynski and Erin Benzakein (Episode 135)

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014

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If you’re in the floral industry — a flower farmer, a wholesaler, an event planner or a floral designer — you’re probably thinking about wedding season, right? In fact, I was recently talking with some of my fellow board members at the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market about planning a wedding event and we all agreed to schedule it before Memorial Day. “Wedding season official starts after Memorial Day,” someone in the group reminded us.

Fresh From the Field Wedding Flowers, The Book & DVD

If that’s the case, the timing to welcome today’s two guests is perfect. Lynn Byczynski and Erin Benzakein are the authors of a brand new book and companion DVD called Fresh from the Field Wedding Flowers: An Illustrated Guide to Using Local & Sustainable Flowers for Your Wedding. The 112-page book was published in February by Fairplain Publications and is available in print for $40 and for various e-reader platforms.

Fresh from the Field Wedding Flowers is a tremendous resource promoting the use of local flowers for weddings. It was created for the eco-conscious couple committed to having a greener wedding, the specialty cut flower farmer who sells flowers for weddings, the floral designer who wishes to get in on the locally grown trend, and the passionate gardener who wants to grow flowers for events.

Illustrated with dozens of photographs from actual weddings, this book celebrates the romantic, bold, vibrant arrangements created by today’s top floral designers using local flowers and other botanicals. It informs brides about how to find local growers, what levels of service to expect, and how to stretch a floral budget. It includes advice for DIY weddings, and instruction in basic floral design techniques. Step-by-step photo essays show how to make a hand-tied bouquet, a boutonniere, a mason jar centerpiece, and a large altar arrangement.

Four videos totaling 75 minutes teach you the mechanics and overall thought process that go into creating flowers for an event. Designer Erin Benzakein demonstrates how she constructs an abundant bridal bouquet, a large altar arrangement, a low and lush centerpiece, a boutonniere and a pin-on corsage. The videos can be viewed on a computer with the CD that accompanies the book; or they can be viewed online with the links and passwords included in the book. Here is the Table of Contents:

About the Authors 4

About This Book 5

The beauty of local flowers 7

Eco benefits 7

A sense of place 10

Trending designs 11

Seasonality 12

A few words about wildflowers 13

What to expect when buying local 14

Prices for local flowers 18

Where to use flowers 19

Money-saving tips for tight budgets 20

How to find local flowers 23

The DIY Wedding 25

How many flowers do you need? 29

Succulents: unusual and textural 30

Floral Design Basics 33

Mechanics of floral design 35

Tools of the trade 37

The Absolute Essentials 38

Step-By-Step Design 39

Hand-Tied Bouquet 40

Boutonnieres and Corsages 57

Mason Jar Centerpiece 64

Large Urn 73

The Video Tutorials 84

Bloom Times 89

Ingredients 93

Photo Credits 110

About the Authors:

Lynn Byczynski

Lynn Bycynzkski. Lynn is an established flower farmer who has grown certified-organic flowers for florists, supermarkets, a pick-your-own subscription, and weddings. Based in Lawrence, Kansas, where she and husband Dan Nagengast raised their two children on a small farm, Lynn has turned her love of flower farming into a vibrant career as a publisher and author. In 1997, she wrote The Flower Farmer: An Organic Grower’s Guide to Raising and Selling Cut Flowers, which has been credited with helping thousands of people get started growing cut flowers commercially. The revised and expanded version of this essential reference was released in 2008 and it’s still a best-seller. Lynn is also the founding editor and publisher of Growing for Market, a national magazine for small-scale, sustainable vegetable and flower farmers that she has published since 1992.

Erin Benzakein

Erin Benzakein. Owner of floret, a flower farm and floral design studio based in Mount Vernon, Washington, Erin met her coauthor Lynn when she proposed submitting an article to Growing for Market. You’ll hear the rest of the story of how that collaboration developed in my conversation with the two. Today, Erin is a flower farmer, a designer and writer whose popular blog features original photography and chronicles the daily life of her family- and flower-centered business. Cut flowers grown on Erin’s farm are sold at Whole Foods grocery stores throughout Washington, Oregon and Canada. Erin teaches floral design and small-scale flower farming workshops and I’ve written about her work for Sunset and Country Gardens magazine. Victoria Magazine and Design Sponge have also featured her in stories. Last fall, I interviewed Erin and fellow farmer-florist Jennie Love in a podcast about their Seasonal Bouquet Workshops. Follow this link to listen to that episode.

I’m so impressed with this project and I can’t recommend it enough as a useful guide for any flower farmer or DIY bride who wants to dive into floral design. And for established floral designers who want to expand their repertoire of services to feature seasonal and locally-grown flowers, I think you’ll draw lots of inspiration from the resources in Fresh From the Field Wedding Flowers, especially from all the contributed designs and the 75 minutes of design instruction. Lynn and Erin have shared a preview video clip to give you a flavor of the demonstrations: