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Today we welcome back wedding and event florist Kelly Shore, owner of Petals by the Shore, based in Damascus, Maryland. In celebration of our 7th annual domestic floral promotion, American Flowers Week, which runs June 28-July 4th, I invited Kelly to discuss two of her recent projects:

First, the botanical couture ensemble Kelly created for this year’s American Flowers Week collection, which features wax flowers, heathers, serrutia and other South African plants grown by her friends at Resendiz Brothers Protea Growers in San Diego County.

And second, to update us on American Grown at Home, curated collections of wholesale flowers which she markets through The Floral Source, her sister business.

Kelly has spent the past several years educating herself about domestic flower sourcing. She began in her own backyard, motivated by a desire to support flower growers in her area, many of whom she originally purchased from through local farmers’ markets.

As her involvement in the Slow Flowers movement grew, Kelly’s commitment and awareness expanded. She committed to only sourcing 100-percent American-grown ingredients for her designs. She reached out to flower farms around the country, introducing herself and asking how she could support them. For some, that meant directly selling their flowers to Petals by the Shore. For many, though, that meant suggesting that Kelly encourage conventional wholesale florists in her area to order more domestic product for their coolers.

In response, Kelly began to invest in photography and graphic design to launch her “American Grown at Home” branding through a new channel of her business, called The Floral Source. She says: “The whole purpose of creating curated boxes was not to generate money for myself, but to empower the design community with the knowledge about what is grown by U.S. flower farmers. I told my florist friends: ‘If you’re not confident or you don’t know where to get flowers domestically, here’s how you can sample these farms without taking a huge risk.’”

The Floral Source was originally designed to host retreats and farm tours for professional florists, with the goal of exciting her peers about domestic sourcing and demystifying the ordering process. The platform gave Kelly a way to highlight dozens of flower farms, their flowers and a seasonal approach to floral design. “I have often felt like my design community was intimidated about connecting directly with growers,” she explains. “And I know that it’s hard to break habits, because it’s easy to go to one place, buy the cheapest, and get the floral product you know and have relied on. But to break out of that mold and transition to sourcing domestically, you have to be willing to reach out to multiple growers.”

I’m so happy to welcome Kelly Shore to the Slow Flowers Podcast. You’ll also find all the details about The Floral Source and how you can subscribe to Kelly’s curated collections of U.S.-grown blooms. A few days after we wrapped up the recording for this episode, Kelly announced a new offering for American Flowers Week — a special American Grown at Home box of blooms This celebratory collection is for all flower lovers, not just designers, highlighting 22 farms in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia – all members of the Old Dominion Flower Cooperative, a Slow Flowers Member group.

The lush seasonal box of summer blooms and greenery will be a surprise box, curated by Kelly. It features a little bit of seasonal goodness harvested from all of the mid-Atlantaic botanicals grown by Old Dominion Flower Cooperative farms. Each $150 order includes a 5” Accent Decor metal vase that buyers can use when they participate in a virtual workshop with Kelly on July 1. Celebrate seasonality and our local and American growers and bring the joy of flowers into your home for American Flowers Week. The box will ship from the co-op on June 30 overnight to be delivered to you July 1.

Check it out! And if you miss this offering due to your schedule — no worries, there is a fantastic lineup offerings at The Floral Source, featuring domestic flower and foliage offerings all season long. 

This episode is coming to you on Wednesday, June 30th, right in the heart of American Flowers Week, our 7th annual celebration, June 28th through July 4th. Please help us celebrate! You can find all the free social media badges, logos, branding and other resources like a coloring map of all 50 USA-state flowers at americanflowersweek.com! Show your floral patriotism and post photos of your red, white and blue, or any other color of your seasonal and local floral harvest! Be sure to use the hashtag #americanflowersweek when you post! I’ll be doing just the same, friends.

Thank you to our Sponsors

This podcast 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.

And thank you to our lead sponsor for 2021, Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers delivers iconic burlap-wrapped bouquets and lush, abundant arrangements to customers across the U.S., supporting more than 20 U.S. flower farms by purchasing more than $9 million dollars of U.S.-grown fresh and seasonal flowers and foliage annually. Discover more at farmgirlflowers.com.

For each Podcast episode this year, we thank three of our Major Sponsors.

Rooted Farmers works 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.

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.

Johnny’s Selected Seeds, an employee-owned company that provides our industry the best flower, herb and vegetable seeds — supplied to farms large and small and even backyard cutting gardens like mine. Find the full catalog of flower seeds and bulbs at johnnysseeds.com.

Thanks so much for joining us today! The Slow Flowers Podcast has been downloaded more than 740,000 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.

I value your support and invite you to show your thanks to support 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 Podcast. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one vase at a time. And If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto iTunes and posting a listener review.

The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization.

The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. Learn more about his work at soundbodymovement.com. 

Music Credits:

Game Hens; Skyway; 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

In March 2017, I wrote a 10-page profile of Susan Mcleary for Florists’ Review magazine’s “Creativity” issue. It’s this article that inspired me to invite Sue to be our Keynote speaker at the upcoming Slow Flowers Summit, taking place next week on June 28-30th in the San Francisco Bay Area at the amazing venue, Filoli Historic House & Garden. Sue’s personal story of seeking, claiming and boldly nurturing her creative process and practice as an artist will inspire and embolden everyone who hears her at the Summit.

Susan is a floral designer, artist and instructor who creates unusual, boundary-pushing floral art including elaborate floral wearables, large-scale installations, and her signature succulent jewelry. Her soulful, seasonally-inspired creations have been described as exquisite living artwork. A passionate teacher, Susan offers private design instruction for new and professional florists in her studio, on her online class platform, and through destination workshops.

Susan’s work has been featured on the cover of Fusion Flowers Magazine twice, and in leading industry publications and websites including Martha Stewart Weddings, Florist’s Review, My Modern Met, Refinery 29, SELF, Buzzfeed, Belle Armoire, Cosmopolitan, Ebony, and Grace Ormond Wedding Style. Susan is a member of Slow Flowers Society and Chapel Designers. Her first book, The Art of Wearable Flowers was released March 3, 2020. 

A few weeks ago, in anticipation of Sue’s keynote presentation The Creative Journey, she and I met up over Zoom to record this special episode. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. As I mention in the interview, Sue has appeared as a co-guest on two past episodes of the Slow Flowers Podcast, but that was many years ago.

Learn More Here:
Susan McLeary on the Slow Flowers Podcast:
Episode 217 (October 2015)
Episode 220 (November 2015)

Read my 2017 article, A Curious Creative (pdf)

Here are the many ways to study with Sue McLeary:
Online Courses (a la carte)
The Essentials Toolkit (bundle)
The Virtual Studio (membership-based), includes Live Sessions and new courses. Total of 60 courses in the library to date

As Sue mentioned, she launched a new course yesterday, June 22nd, called The Floral Mentor: A transformative floral learning opportunity.

Transform the 3 Key Areas of Your Floral Business in the Next 30 Days: 

• The Heart – Cultivate your unique creative voice, overcome limiting beliefs, and cultivate a more purpose-driven floral business.
• The Art – Unlock the magic of the principles of design to create more advanced, artful and balanced work every time.
• The Business – Learn practical business, branding, and marketing skills to grow a more profitable and life-giving floral business.

The Floral Mentor opened on June 22nd and is available for signup through June 30th. In this course, Sue and her cohort of friends and colleagues help you master the art, the heart, and the business of floral design. It’s all about aligning your core values with your business, Sue explains. She writes: “Pull up a virtual chair in my personal studio to learn from me and some of my key mentors!” Sue introduces students her wonderful mentors who teach valuable lessons Sue has learned from each of them. Together, Sue and her mentors will help you create the art you’re truly capable of, build a fulfilling business you love, and join hands to move the floral industry forward together. I can get behind those aspirations! Maybe this course has your name on it, too. check it out!

Next week is also our 7th annual American Flowers Week, June 28th through July 4th. Please help us celebrate! You can find all the free social media badges, logos, branding and other resources like a coloring map of all 50 USA-state flowers at americanflowersweek.com! Show your floral patriotism and post photos of your red, white and blue, or any other color of your seasonal and local floral harvest! Be sure to use the hashtag #americanflowersweek when you post! I’ll be doing just the same, friends.

Thank you to our Sponsors

This podcast 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.

And thank you to our lead sponsor for 2021, Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers delivers iconic burlap-wrapped bouquets and lush, abundant arrangements to customers across the U.S., supporting more than 20 U.S. flower farms by purchasing more than $9 million dollars of U.S.-grown fresh and seasonal flowers and foliage annually, and providing competitive salaries and benefits to team members based in Watsonville, California and Miami, Florida. Discover more at farmgirlflowers.com.

For each Podcast episode this year, we thank three of our Major Sponsors.

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.

Red Twig Farms. Based in Johnstown, Ohio, Red Twig Farms is a family-owned farm that specializes 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.

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.

Thanks so much for joining us today! The Slow Flowers Podcast has been downloaded more than 738,000 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.

I value your support and invite you to show your thanks to support 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 Podcast. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one vase at a time. And If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto iTunes and posting a listener review.

The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization.

The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. Learn more about his work at soundbodymovement.com. 

Music Credits:

Delamine; Skyway; 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

Here we are, less than two weeks until the fourth Slow Flowers Summit begins on Monday June 28th and continues through Wednesday June 30th.

We launched the Slow Flowers Summit in 2017 in Seattle, intentionally scheduling it to take place during American Flowers Week as the core event during our annual domestic flower holiday week.

And as the Slow Flowers Summit has expanded and improved, so has American Flowers Week, its original impetus. We’ve been celebrating already, as the buildup to American Flowers Week begins in June, leading up to that specific holiday week of June 28-July 4th.

This year’s special botanical couture promotion is a perfect one-dozen floral garments, created by flower growers, farmer-florists, designers, and members of the Slow Flowers community — all with the motivation of elevating flowers and sharing their talents with the public.

Today, I’m excited to introduce Tammy Myers of LORA Bloom. Seattle-based, LORA Bloom is an online E-commerce and marketing platform that provides an additional sales channel for florists, giving them a marketplace where customers can find custom, one-of-a-kind designer arrangements for local delivery. LORA Bloom’s florist partners are aligned with Tammy’s own values of supporting local flower farms and offering foam-free designs. 
Read our October 2020 article about LORA Bloom in Slow Flowers Journal. Listen to Tammy’s first appearance on the Slow Flowers Podcast in Episode 201 (July 8, 2015), where you’ll learn more about her evolution from a studio florist to her present role as creator of the LORA Bloom platform.

And when I asked Tammy if she was up for designing a second American Flowers Week botanical couture look (she was a participating designer in 2019, as well), Tammy came up with a stunning project that included six of her LORA Bloom florists as collaborators.

The result is what we are calling a Floral Tribute to RBG — the late U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who Tammy considers a fashion icon and a female role model. Because Ginsburg died in 2020, the timing was significant to honor her now.

Floral Palette: Domestic U.S.-grown botanicals from Washington, Oregon and California
Creative Concept/Creative Direction: Tammy Myers, LORA Bloom, lorabloom.com,
@lorabloom.flowers
Model: Riva Juarez, rivaladiva.com, @rivaladiva
Hair/Makeup: Riva Juarez
Photography: Missy Palacol, Missy Palacol Photography, missypalacol.com, @missy.palacol
Collaborating Slow Flowers Society florists: Tammy Myers; Anne Bradfield, Analog Floral, @analog_floral; Maura Whalen, Casablanca Floral, @casablancafloral; Sharlet Driggs, Sharlet Floral, @sharletfloral; and Lori Poliski, Flori, @flori.flowers
Other florists: Sophie Strongman, The Old Soul Flower Co., @theoldsoulflowerco and Kristal Hancock, Sublime Stems, @sublimestems
Location: University of Washington Campus, Seattle, Washington

Thanks so much for joining us today! I love something that Tammy shared with me when I interviewed her for the story that appears in Slow Flowers Journal Botanical Couture special edition:

By the way, if you haven’t yet seen the free, 72-page special edition of Slow Flowers Journal, released on June 1st, you can find the link here. You’ll read all about the RBG Floral Tribute along with stories about the eleven other botanical couture looks created for American Flowers Week. Prepared to be wowed at all the beauty and talent in our collective community! Maybe it will trigger some ideas for you to get involved in 2022!

Next week:

Next week, you’ll hear my interview with Susan McLeary, our keynote presenter at the upcoming Slow Flowers Summit. It is guaranteed to inspire you, as Sue is such an important influence, an incredible floral artist, and a boundary-pushing leader in our community. I can’t wait to share our conversation with you – and for attendees of the Slow Flowers Summit to see Sue’s design demonstrations and hear her keynote, The Creative Journey: Finding Your Artistic Voice, Truth and Expression.

To me, the Slow Flowers Summit gives our community the opportunity to gather annually and celebrate domestic flower growing and sustainable floral design, to go deeper than it is possible in an online, virtual, social media kind of way; to have human contact; a mind-meld, as one of our past speakers described it; to push ourselves to consider new ideas and unique perspectives; and to hear from a diversity of voices in the floriculture and horticulture marketplace. There are still a few spaces left to attend the Slow Flowers Summit and you can find all those details at slowflowerssummit.com.

Thank you to our Sponsors

This podcast 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.

And thank you to our lead sponsor for 2021, Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers delivers iconic burlap-wrapped bouquets and lush, abundant arrangements to customers across the U.S., supporting more than 20 U.S. flower farms by purchasing more than $9 million dollars of U.S.-grown fresh and seasonal flowers and foliage annually, and providing competitive salaries and benefits to team members based in Watsonville, California and Miami, Florida. Discover more at farmgirlflowers.com.

For each Podcast episode this year, we thank three of our Major Sponsors.

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.

We’re thrilled that our Podcast sponsor, Mayesh Wholesale Florist, is also a Supporting Sponsor of the upcoming Slow Flowers Summit. 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.

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.

Thanks so much for joining us today! The Slow Flowers Podcast has been downloaded more than 736,000 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.

I value your support and invite you to show your thanks to support 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 Podcast. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one vase at a time. And If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto iTunes and posting a listener review.

The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization.

The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. Learn more about his work at soundbodymovement.com. 

Music Credits:

Skyway; Great Great Lengths; 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

The Slow Flowers Summit is one month away — it’s really impossible to believe as I speak that sentence, especially after having to postpone the 2020 Summit, which would have been our fourth consecutive year holding a live, in-person gathering to celebrate Slow Flowers Society and American Flowers Week.

Alas, as each of you knows, little took place last year. However, as we entered 2021, with the availability of vaccinations and some incredibly creative event planning by Karen Thornton, our Summit event manager along with the leadership at Filoli Historic House & Garden, we now can joyously proclaim that the Slow Flowers Summit 2021 will take place on June 28-30th.

You have met many of our speakers on past episodes of the Slow Flowers Podcast, but in the coming weeks you will hear from several others. Consider this an introduction and a preview of their presentations coming up.

Today, I invited two of the three panelists who are part of Sustainable Farming x Floral Design – what I envisioned as a conversation about how sustainable farming practices influence design choices, aesthetics and style. Hear each presenter’s personal journey through farming to floral design, and enjoy visual inspiration as each demonstrates a signature arrangement using all locally-grown seasonal flowers.​

Kellee Matsushita-Tseng will be moderating the panel, joined by Emily Saeger and Molly Culver. Today’s episode features a conversation with Kellee and Emily. Molly was unable to join us but I have a bonus for you — links to Molly’s past appearances on the Slow Flowers Podcast:
Episode 172: Brooklyn Grows Flowers! Meet Molly Oliver Culver of Molly Oliver Flowers
Episode 412: The Flowering of Brooklyn with Molly Oliver Flowers
Episode 451: From Grower to Designer to Consumer: How two floral models are changing and adapting, with Yvonne Ashton of Mayesh Wholesale Florist and Molly Culver of Molly Oliver Flowers

First, I’ll tell you a bit more about Kellee and Emily – and then we will jump right into the conversation:

Kellee Matsushita-Tseng is a queer, fourth generation Japanese-Chinese farmer. They are an educator and instructor at CASFS (The Center For Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems) at UC Santa Cruz, training folks to grow a variety of fabulous fruits, flowers, and vegetables. They train growers in flower production, design, and sales for fresh markets and special events. They believe that cut flowers should be accessible to everyone, both for their cultural and spiritual significance, as well as for their beauty and sensory delight. Kellee is delighted to be part of creating a flower movement that is rooted in social and environmental justice. They are currently enamored by our native Matilija poppies, and excited to continue exploring design possibilities with other great natives.
Follow KELLEE on Instagram @bravenewseed ​

Emily Saeger is a Filoli Horticulture Alumni and currently pursuing a Masters in Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington. She has eight years of horticultural experience blend production agriculture, landscape maintenance, garden and floral design.  She has worked for several notable Bay Area farms including, Fifth Crow Farm, Bluma Farm and Hidden Villa.
Prior to entering the Landscape Architecture program in the fall of 2020, Emily served as the Lead Horticulturist at Filoli, where she looked after the rose garden, cutting garden and orchard.  Her design aesthetic is a blending of her work experience – foraged and cultivated, wild and formal – always designed with seasonality and senescence in mind.  A strong believer in the healing powers of nature, through her gardens and floral design she hopes to facilitate this connection for all.  
Follow EMILY on Instagram @emilyadelias 

Thank you so much for joining our conversation today! There are still a few spaces left to attend the Slow Flowers Summit and you can find all those details at slowflowerssummit.com. We are so excited to welcome our attendees to a safe, in-person, COVID-compliant and mostly outdoor setting at Filoli Historic House and Garden. The countdown begins!

A few announcements:

If you missed last week’s Slow Flowers Member Virtual Meet-Up with Beth Van Sandt of Scenic Place Peonies and Brandon Scott McLean of East Hill Floral — two peony experts from Homer Alaska — we have the playback video to share with you!

Save the date for our next Slow Flowers Member Virtual Meet-Up on June 11th. More details to come but the theme is American Flowers Week!

Speaking of American Flowers Week, which takes place June 28-July 4 each year, we’re heading into our 7th annual campaign! I want to share an invitation specifically for flower farmers who may be planning a special promotion, pop-up sale, workshop or other way to celebrate American Flowers Week. I’ll be writing a story about what flower farmers are doing during the campaign for an upcoming issue of Growing For Market — and I’m looking for ways to feature you and your plans. Please get in touch if you have something in the works! You can shoot me a note at debra@slowflowers.com.

And finally, we have just drawn the winners for the May 12th book giveaway featuring Niki Irving’s new book, Growing Flowers. Niki is a longtime Slow Flowers member, a farmer-florist and owner of Flourish Flower Farm in Asheville, North Carolina. We discussed Growing Flowers, her first-ever book, and issued a giveaway challenge to our listeners. Thanks to the generous donation from Mango Publishing, we have two copies to give away to listeners. We asked you to post a photo of one or more of the flowers you are growing, and use the #growingflowrs hashtag, as well as tagging @flourishflowerfarm, @slowflowerssociety and @mangopublishing. We rounded up all of your posts and did a random drawing for the two books. Congratulations to Jenni Hulburt and Flower Folly Farm. We’ll be in touch to get your addresses for receiving a free copy of Growing Flowers. I know you’ll enjoy Niki’s new book!

Thank you to our Sponsors

This podcast 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.

And thank you to our lead sponsor for 2021, Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers delivers iconic burlap-wrapped bouquets and lush, abundant arrangements to customers across the U.S., supporting more than 20 U.S. flower farms by purchasing more than $9 million dollars of U.S.-grown fresh and seasonal flowers and foliage annually, and providing competitive salaries and benefits to 240 team members based in Watsonville, California and Miami, Florida. Discover more at farmgirlflowers.com.
For each Podcast episode this year, we thank three of our Major Sponsors:

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.

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.

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.

Thanks so much for joining us today! The Slow Flowers Podcast has been downloaded more than 730,000 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.

I value your support and invite you to show your thanks to support 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 Podcast. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one vase at a time. And If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto iTunes and posting a listener review.

The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization.

The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. Learn more about his work at soundbodymovement.com. 

Music Credits:

Heartland Flyer; 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

I’ve documented the emergence and rise of regional wholesale flower hubs for more than a decade — you’ve heard it all on the Slow Flowers Podcast!

We have witnessed, encouraged and featured on the Slow Flowers Podcast numerous other regional efforts to bring flowers from the field to the florist and consumer in innovative ways — from legal cooperatives to privately-held wholesaler operations; from casual meet-ups to marketing collectives.

My deepest ties are with the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, a farmer-owned cooperative whose origins date to 2010 when a group of growers came together at a regional ASCFG meeting held at Charles Little & Co. in Eugene, Oregon. Fortunately, I was there and witnessed those first, ambitious, optimistic conversations that yielded what we here in Seattle enjoy today. At the time, there were only two other models to which the founders of Seattle Wholesale Growers Market could look: Oregon Flower Growers Association, which has a long history in the Portland market, having been founded in the 1940s; and Fair Field Flowers, a small but mighty collective of Wisconsin and Illinois growers serving Madison and Milwaukie florists. Fair Field Flowers ceased operating as a collective on January 1, 2019, but many of the flower farmers who participated still grow and sell flowers; just independently.

And now, we have a new example to highlight. Let’s welcome two of the founders of Old Dominion Flower Cooperative, a Washington, D.C.-area local flower cooperative.

My guests are Melissa Webster, founder, and Megan Wakefield, director of operations — two growers who are part of this group that launched publicly at the end of January.  Soon thereafter, Old Dominion joined Slow Flowers Society and reached out to introduce themselves. Here are some statistics from a few months ago — I wouldn’t be surprised if the numbers have grown in all categories:

• 22 farms within 90 miles of Great Falls, VA
• 85+ years of combined cut flower production experience
• 40+ acres under production 
• 100% female 

Old Dominion Flower Cooperative is a community marketplace that brings together local growers, designers, and flower lovers by providing top-quality, seasonal, sustainable, diverse, and locally-grown cut flowers and foliages. They aim to make these floral products accessible to designers and the public, while also respecting the efforts of their local farming community. 

Old Dominion Flower Cooperative started in the winter of 2020 with a series of conversations led by local flower growers and floral designers in the greater D.C.-area about how to fill a gap they saw in the local floral industry. They identified that a lot of fantastic flower growers in the area were having trouble breaking into the wholesale market and even more designers and flower shops that want to use local flowers but were having a hard time finding consistent sources of blooms.

With an emphasis on education and high-quality floral product Old Dominion started a six-week training program for member farmers in March. Taught by their mentor Barbara Lamborne from Greenstone Fields and Laura Beth Resnick from Butterbee Farm, topics covered include harvesting, quality control, growing for designers, and conditioning.

I’m excited to share this conversation with you today. Before we get started, let me tell you a little more about Megan Wakefield (left) and Melissa Webster (right)

Melissa Webster is the owner of Old Soul Flower Company. She has been growing for her community for over eight years and is passionate about good stewardship of the land. Melissa received her M.A. from Georgian Court University where she studied food access; soon after she was the farm manager at Common Good City Farm in downtown Washington DC. Melissa spent time as the education director at National Farmers Union where she worked with farmers around the country. Melissa is a strong advocate for beginning and female producers. Melissa owned Ladybell Farms in West River MD, before moving to Great Falls, VA in 2019 with her husband (Ben) and three dogs (Riley, Brixton, and Bean).

Megan Wakefield is the owner of Walking Wild Gardens, based in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. She started gardening with her grandmother when young and later owned a small herbal shop on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. She says her love of gardening, plants, tea, and herbs are all due to her grandmother’s influence. In law school, Megan started getting interested in where her food came from. As a first-year lawyer, she started volunteering on a local farm on weekends. Soon, she was hooked and left her 9-5 legal job to work on farms.
Today, Megan owns Walking Wild Gardens. She teaches gardening workshops, offers consultations, blends tea and builds beautiful gardens. In the end, everything I do is about building relationships with plants.

Thank you so much for joining my conversation today! We are committed to nurturing this new business model for wholesale flower hubs and the stories continue.

Find and follow Old Dominion Flower Cooperative on Instagram and Facebook

Join this week’s Slow Flowers Member (Virtual) Meet-Up

We have a very special Slow Flowers Member Meet-Up coming up very soon and I want to give you all the details.

It’s all about PEONIES and we’re meeting virtually – on Zoom – as we’ve done for more than a year, folks! Join me, Friday, May 21st – 9 am Pacific/Noon Eastern and meet two Slow Flowers members from Alaska’s peony country! Grower Beth Van Sandt of Scenic Place Peonies  and designer Brandon Scott McLean of East Hill Floral will share their knowledge and talents — and introduce us to the upcoming Alaska peony season. Beth and Brandon will come to us LIVE from the greenhouse at East Hill Floral. Learn about the selection, cultivation and post-harvest “best practices” for peonies from Beth. Watch an inspired floral design demonstration from Brandon!

Thank you to our Sponsors

This podcast 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.

And thank you to our lead sponsor for 2021, Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers delivers iconic burlap-wrapped bouquets and lush, abundant arrangements to customers across the U.S., supporting more than 20 U.S. flower farms by purchasing more than $9 million dollars of U.S.-grown fresh and seasonal flowers and foliage annually, and providing competitive salaries and benefits to 240 team members based in Watsonville, California and Miami, Florida. Discover more at farmgirlflowers.com.

For each Podcast episode this year, we thank three of our Major Sponsors:

Our first sponsor thanks goes to Rooted Farmers. Rooted Farmers works 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.

Syndicate Sales, an American manufacturer of vases and accessories for the professional florist. Look for the American Flag Icon to find Syndicate’s USA-made products and join the Syndicate Stars loyalty program at syndicatesales.com.

Johnny’s Selected Seeds, an employee-owned company that provides our industry the best flower, herb and vegetable seeds — supplied to farms large and small and even backyard cutting gardens like mine. Find the full catalog of flower seeds and bulbs at johnnysseeds.com.

Thanks so much for joining us today! The Slow Flowers Podcast has been downloaded more than 727,000 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.

I value your support and invite you to show your thanks to support 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 Podcast. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one vase at a time. And If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto iTunes and posting a listener review.

The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization.

The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. Learn more about his work at soundbodymovement.com. 

Music Credits:

A Palace of Cedar; On Our Own Again; 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

Let’s welcome Niki Irving of Flourish Flower Farm of Asheville, N.C., a longtime Slow Flowers member, a flower farmer, florist, educator and now, author.

Niki and her husband William own a nine-acre specialty cut flower farm nestled in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Niki farms more than 300 varieties of cut flowers and foliage and creates seasonally-inspired designs for weddings and special events. She sells her flowers wholesale both locally and nationally, motivated by  a belief that flowers make the world a more beautiful, joyful place.

Let’s jump into the conversation and talk all about Niki’s new book, “Growing Flowers.”

Enjoy these photos of Niki, a talented farmer-florist, and read through the Table of Contents to help you see the range of comprehensive information Niki shares in her new book.

Click here to order a signed copy from Niki

Find and follow Flourish Flower Farm at these social places.

Flourish Flower Farm on Facebook

Flourish Flower Farm on Instagram

Thanks to the generous donation from Niki’s publisher, we have two copies to give away to listeners. Here are the instructions:

• Post a photo of one or more flowers you are growing and be sure to use the hashtag #growingflowers
• Follow & tag @flourishflowerfarm, @slowflowerssociety and @mangopublishing.
• We’ll gather up all of the posts on May 21st and announce the book recipients in our May 26th episode of Slow Flowers Podcast. Can’t wait to see your photos!

Before we meet our featured guest, I want to share a short bonus conversation with Maura Feeney of Camellia Faire Floral Studio, based in Philadelphia. You may know this talented floral artist by her former studio name Maura Rose Events, now rebranded as Camellia Faire.

Maura is a returning designer at this year’s PHS Philadelphia Flower Show and Slow Flowers is supporting her installation. Currently, she is seeking Slow Flower member growers to provide blooming plants to use at their exhibit called Rooted + Gathered. Maura isn’t asking for a donation — she has a budget to purchase the plants, and you’ll have promotional credit and receive photography from the exhibit. Check out details above and reach out to Maura at info@camelliafaire.com.

We’ve been talking all about floral books this week and so here’s another chance to participate in an online contest and win a copy of my new book Where We Bloom.

Details Flowers Software, one of our Resource section sponsors for the book is running a Where We Bloom Instagram Giveaway for the month of May.

Details challenges you to share your creative studio space by posting a photo on IG with the hashtag #wherewebloomdetails. Three top winners will receive a copy of Where We Bloom along with a FREE subscription to Details software.

Follow these rules to enter:

Thank you to our Sponsors

This podcast 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.

And thank you to our lead sponsor for 2021, Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers delivers iconic burlap-wrapped bouquets and lush, abundant arrangements to customers across the U.S., supporting more than 20 U.S. flower farms by purchasing more than $9 million dollars of U.S.-grown fresh and seasonal flowers and foliage annually, and providing competitive salaries and benefits to 240 team members based in Watsonville, California and Miami, Florida. Discover more at farmgirlflowers.com.

For each Podcast episode this year, we thank three of our Major Sponsors.

Thank you to Red Twig Farms, based in Johnstown, Ohio, 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.

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.

Our next sponsor thanks goes 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 has been downloaded more than 724,000 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.

I value your support and invite you to show your thanks to support 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 Podcast. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one vase at a time. And If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto iTunes and posting a listener review.

The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization.

The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. Learn more about his work at soundbodymovement.com. 

Music Credits:

Donnalee; Entwined Oddity; 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

Today, we have two guests who will bring us up to speed on some exciting floral news happening in and around the Bay Area. As many listeners may recall, there was considerable disruption in the floral marketplace last year with COVID and yet so many flower farmers and florists prevailed, pivoted and innovated as they figured out how to get local, seasonal and sustainably-grown blooms into the hands of consumers.

Now, with 2021, the pressure comes not from a pandemic but from a vulnerable global supply chain, and here’s where my first guest enters. Please meet Hannah Brannan, a software engineer and founder of Gather Flora, a web platform that connects farmers and florists to facilitate convenient and improved local flower sales.

Hannah’s love of flowers traces back to a childhood, playing barefoot in her grandmother’s magical garden in Texas.  In 2014, Hannah moved to California, home to 80% of U.S. domestic floral production, where she rekindled her childhood enchantment in flowers.

Hannah has spent the past several growing seasons embedded in Northern California’s floral community. Last year, she ran the sales platform for the Sonoma Flower Mart (with 8 farms and 44 weekly active users) and volunteered on the Board of the Sacramento Valley Flower Collective, all while beta testing gatherflora.com .

As Hannah recently wrote: The most inspiring, locally grown flowers that make it to flower shops today are produced by small and medium-sized, mission-driven, dedicated growers and brought to us by wildly dedicated local florists. However, the time, energy, and multiple rounds of back-and-forth communication aren’t always feasible for busy, hard-working florists. I learned that the sentiment of being overstretched resounded from farmers and florists alike and it was clear that there was a need to apply technology in a thoughtful way to alleviate these challenges. Ultimately, I found that I could best serve the community by merging flowers and software and the result is Gather Flora

You’ll hear about Hannah’s path to flowers from software coding and engineering to volunteering in a flower shop and on flower farms. It all comes together in her newes chapter — running the Gather Flora Flower Stall at the San Francisco Flower Mart.

To finance the Flower Stall launch, Gather Flora created a Kickstarter Campaign to raise $13,500 needed funds. As of last week, the campaign had met and exceeded its goal at $15,588 and counting. You’ll hear Hannah discuss more in our episode — please join me in wishing this young collective endeavor a huge success. I think the main insight here is that while buying flowers online is very convenient, there are still times when florists want to use their senses and shop in person. Now Gather Flora has a hybrid way to connect farms and florists in the Bay Area.

More resources from and about Gather Flora:

• CA-based florists and wholesalers sign up for pre-orders here. 
• Gather Flora+ Max Gill Master’s Workshop Scholarship Application here
• In 2021, we are looking to expand our network to 50 CA flower growers. If you are an interested, CA-based grower, please apply here
• For all non-CA-based growers (US and international) who are interested in receiving future updates about Gather Flora regional expansion click here.
• Follow: @gatherflora (IG) and Gather Flora (Facebook)

Bonus Guest: Elise Schultheis

When Hannah and I began planning this episode, I suggested we bring in a second guest — a Slow Flowers member who uses the Gather Flora platform.

And I’m delighted to introduce you to Elise Schultheis of The Flower Wagon. We recorded this episode on Earth Day, April 22nd, which was also the date Elise debuted her new, sustainably-minded business in the Bay area. How fun is that!?

Elise’s business emerged from her love of flowers and her entrepreneurial spirit, formed while also completing an MBA with a focus on Sustainability and Social Impact. The Flower Wagon, also named “Flora” is a 1963 Volkswagen Single Cab fueled by flower power. After several months of tuning her up and converting her into a flower shop on wheels, Flora is now filled with fresh blooms and is on a mission to celebrate the San Francisco Bay Area’s sustainable, locally-grown flowers and the people who grow them.

Follow The Flower Wagon on Instagram!

A Post-Script: You heard Hannah talk about working with the Sonoma Flower Mart in 2020, and now comes news that the business is for sale. Sonoma Flower Mart, an amazing local flower distribution business based in Sonoma County, California  is looking to connect with interested buyers. Sonoma Flower Mart is an established local flowers business with access to a great network of farms connected through the Gather Flora platform. There is so much community support behind this business and the local flowers community is excited to welcome a who shares the value for community & local. 

If you are interested in learning more, contact Sonoma Flower Mart at flowers@sonomaflowermart.com. Let’s help local flowers flourish in an important hub — California wine country! Sending everyone involved our best wishes to see this endeavor continue under new leadership!

Help me Celebrate our NEW BOOK: Where We Bloom!

As you’ve been hearing over the past weeks, my new book Where We Bloom, recently debuted and the response has been so encouraging!

And if you’re in the Seattle Area, you’re invited to join us at one of two upcoming book-signing events. Meet me, my partner in BLOOM Imprint, creative director Robin Avni, and several of the Slow Flowers members whose beautiful studio spaces are featured in the pages of Where We Bloom!

On May 1st, 2-4 p.m., we will be at Ravenna Gardens at Seattle’s University Village shopping center, signing books and greeting kindred spirits. Farmer-florist Lori Poliski of Flori, featured in Where We Bloom, is bringing flowers from her garden to give away while supplies last.

On May 8th 1-3 p.m., you can find us at PaperDelights in Burien, just south of Seattle, where we are joining Teresa Rao of  Belle Pétale, also featured in Where We Bloom, for a booksigning and mother’s day flower pop-up.

Hope to see you there! We’ll have our masks on as we respect all COVID social distancing guidelines, but hey – it’s spring, it’s almost mother’s day, and we are ready to bloom with you!

Thank you to our Sponsors!

This podcast is brought to you by Slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 875 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.

And thank you to our lead sponsor for 2021, Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers delivers iconic burlap-wrapped bouquets and lush, abundant arrangements to customers across the U.S., supporting more than 20 U.S. flower farms by purchasing more than $9 million dollars of U.S.-grown fresh and seasonal flowers and foliage annually, and providing competitive salaries and benefits to 240 team members based in Watsonville, California and Miami, Florida. Discover more at farmgirlflowers.com.

For each Podcast episode this year, we thank three of our Major Sponsors. 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.

Johnny’s Selected Seeds, an employee-owned company that provides our industry the best flower, herb and vegetable seeds — supplied to farms large and small and even backyard cutting gardens like mine. Find the full catalog of flower seeds and bulbs at johnnysseeds.com.

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.

Thanks so much for joining us today! The Slow Flowers Podcast has been downloaded more than 720,000 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.

I value your support and invite you to show your thanks to support 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 Podcast. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one vase at a time. And If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto iTunes and posting a listener review.

The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization.

The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. Learn more about his work at soundbodymovement.com. 

Music Credits:

Game Hens; Waterbourne; 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

Since Slow Flowers Society’s roots were established in 2013, there is a perennial question I’ve been asked over and over: How Do We Know if Consumers Care about Local Flowers?

I strongly believe having a statistically-accurate snapshot of people’s attitudes is one important way the Slow Flowers Movement can demonstrate and help move the needle on this subject. Yet, I’m aware of only two surveys that ever asked consumers about their attitudes toward domestic and local cut flowers — one in 2013 conducted by the California Grown Association and one in 2019 conducted for the Washington Flowers Project in my region. Clearly, we need research metrics to measure and document how awareness and attitudes are changing around one of the most important topics of the Slow Flowers Movement.

At the beginning of 2021, Slow Flowers Society began to collaborate with and invested in the well-respected National Gardening Survey, which has been conducted annually since 1973. Now, for the first time, the National Gardening Survey has established benchmarks around consumer attitudes on domestic and locally-grown cut flowers. The findings are so encouraging and we now have a statistically accurate tool to use to track changes and shifts in future years.

I’m so pleased today to welcome the two men responsible for the 2021 National Gardening Survey, David Whitinger, National Gardening Association executive director, and Paul Cohen, research director and a professor in the Department of Business Administration at Carleton University and principal of Paul Cohen & Associates.

Dave and Paul will explain more about the National Gardening Survey, which is the comprehensive market research report that leaders in the lawn and garden industry count on each year to track consumer shifts and help them make strategic marketing decisions.

The Survey provides in-depth and up-to-date marketing information on industry trends, household participation, consumer profiles and retail sales. Nearly 2,500 U.S. households respond each year to an array of questions about their behavior and spending power in the lawn and garden space. Companies in the gardening industry financially support the research and sales of this year’s 361-page report provide revenue for the National Gardening Association.

Download our graphics inspired by survey findings. You are welcome to use them in your own conversations with customers, newsletter articles, blog posts and social media. It’s my goal that the Slow Flowers membership will join me and encourage discussion about consumer behavior and attitudes!

Social media graphics for IG:

Let’s dive right so you can hear the “big reveal” as we hear how survey respondents answered the two Slow Flowers questions:

How important is it that the flowers you purchase are American-grown?

and

How important is it that the flowers you purchase are locally-grown?

Thank you so much for joining me today as we geeked out on the research and contemplated what consumers think about your cut flowers. I’m eager to hear what you think! Do the rankings of 57% preference for domestic flowers and 58% preference for locally-grown flowers resonate with you experience as a flower farmer or floral designer? Please let me know your thoughts!

We are already beginning to plan for additional questions to pose in the 2022 National Gardening Survey, so please reach out if you have suggestions and/or if you’re interested in sponsoring this endeavor as a Slow Flowers partner. Let’s leverage the power of research and use this well-regarded study to validate our values and beliefs around the importance of local and domestic cut flowers.

Thanks to Ellen Frost of Local Color Flowers and Lisa Ziegler of The Gardener’s Workshop for helping me present a bonus Slow Flowers Meet-Up last week. Ellen shared her timely preview of her upcoming online course, “Growing Your Business With Local Flower Sourcing.” Registration for Ellen’s course continues through Friday, April 22nd so check out the link I’ve shared and join me in congratulating floral designer Teresa Rao of Belle Petale for winning our giveaway of one complimentary registration to Ellen’s course.

Please join me TOMORROW, April 22nd, on Earth Day, for an interactive IG Live Q&A on Sustainable Floral Design with Tobey Nelson and Becky Feasby. The event takes place at noon Pacific/3 pm Eastern. You’re invited to join us at @slowflowerssociety on Instagram! Hope to see you there!

JOIN ME AT THE WHERE WE BLOOM BOOK LAUNCH!

You’re invited to join the Virtual Book Launch & Happy Hour on Tuesday, April 27th at 4 pm Pacific/7 pm Eastern to celebrate the publication of BLOOM Imprint’s first title, Where We Bloom! 
The Zoom Party will include a Q&A conversation with Robin Avni and me as we discuss how this beautiful and inspirational book came to be. We also will welcome:

• Guest appearances from three of the Creatives whose spaces are included in the pages of Where We Bloom: Maura Feeney of Camellia Faire, Aishah Lurry of Patagonia Flower Farm and Susan Chambers of bloominCouture.
• fun giveaways (2 signed copies of the new book + 2 sets of our BLOOM notecards) along with a few surprises from our Resource Section sponsors

and

• a toast from Emily Thompson, of Emily Thompson Flowers, who wrote the sweet and personal foreword to Where We Bloom

Thank you to our Sponsors

This podcast 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.

And thank you to our lead sponsor for 2021, Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers delivers iconic burlap-wrapped bouquets and lush, abundant arrangements to customers across the U.S., supporting more than 20 U.S. flower farms by purchasing more than $9 million dollars of U.S.-grown fresh and seasonal flowers and foliage annually, and providing competitive salaries and benefits to 240 team members based in Watsonville, California and Miami, Florida. Discover more at farmgirlflowers.com.

For each Podcast episode this year, we thank three of our Major Sponsors. 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.

Our next sponsor thank you 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.

Our final sponsor thanks goes to 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.

Thanks so much for joining us today! The Slow Flowers Podcast has been downloaded more than 716,000 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.

I value your support and invite you to show your thanks to support 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 Podcast. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one vase at a time. And If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto iTunes and posting a listener review.

The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization.

The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. Learn more about his work at soundbodymovement.com. 

Music Credits:

LaBranche; Brass Buttons; 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

Today, I have a very special episode for you and I’m thrilled to share it! Please meet the three siblings who together are called The Wild Mother: Leah Palmer, Lauren Palmer and Callie Palmer. They are based in Oklahoma City and call their enterprise a Creative Studio, which encompasses their tagline “More than Just Flowers.”

Here’s a bit of an introduction, adapted from their website’s “About” page:

The Wild Mother Creative Studio is owned by Afro-Indigenous sisters and floral artists Lauren Palmer and Leah Palmer, located in the heart of Arts district, Downtown, OKC. Their love and honor of culture, storytelling, and their affinity for natural elements and color theory lend themselves to producing their “Floral Stories.” It’s an added bonus that they get to work alongside their younger sister, Callie. The Wild Mother’s offerings include full service wedding and event floral, curbside carryout floral for large-scale events, and holiday floral offering.

The Wild Mother has positioned their entire business as a legacy project—using flowers and floral art installations to heal their lineage forwards and backwards; to send honor to their ancestors whose experiences in America were tragic; and to build a world for their future descendants that is more beautiful, more equitable, and more just.

I first learned about The Wild Mother from Susan McLeary who encouraged me to attend a free webinar hosted by the studio at the beginning of this year. Called “More than Just Flowers,” the webinar was outlined as: A Panel Discussion for Creatives on Building Affirming, Equitable and Just Brands. Moderated by Leah and Lauren, with help from Callie, the session covered meaningful representation in the wedding & creative industry; a discussion of exploitation versus appreciation; goals for building an anti-racist brand and considerations for BIPOC clients. 

A number of floral community voices participated, including Sue McLeary and Kristin Griffith-VanderYacht, who you’ve met here on the Slow Flowers Podcast. Other panelists included a number of people from related disciplines such as event planning, marketing and branding and fine art curation. It was a powerful gathering with honest and open dialogue designed to inspire and challenge attendees who want to be intentional and inclusive with the way they shows up in the world.

Next, The Wild Mother launched The Lay of the Land, an online course for creatives interested in digging deeper in the topic of building an affirming, equitable and just brand.

I’m eager for you to meet Leah, Lauren and Callie. One of the reasons I asked them to join me today was to introduce their upcoming project called Send Flowers to Greenwood. This is an ambitious series of floral installations that will commemorate the Greenwood Massacre of 1921.  Oklahomans and the rest of country are only now beginning to acknowledge what took place 100 years ago in Tulsa, when the vibrant, successful Black-owned Greenwood District, known as “Black Wall Street,” was destroyed and many of the people who lived there lost their homes, businesses, and lives due to an attack by Klan members and others who wanted to eliminate the existence of brown and black people in their city.

Taking place at the end of May, The Wild Mother’s  #SendFlowersToGreenwood will be both a virtual and physical outpouring of love, light, and life for Greenwood Tulsa and the descendants of victims of the Greenwood Massacre of 1921.

Wow. Just wow. I’m so pleased we had this conversation today and I  thank you for joining us. There are so many small and large ways to get involved and support The Wild Mother and Send Flowers to Greenwood you can find those details in our show notes.

The Wild Mother encourages all of us to post images of flowers on social media from May 10 through June 7 and dedicate that post with the hashtag #sendflowerstogreenwood. I love this pure gesture of respect and humanity and I am eager to participate. I hope you will, too.

Find and follow The Wild Mother at these social places:
The Wild Mother on Instagram

The Wild Mother on Facebook

Join me for a BONUS Slow Flowers Event on April 16th

A couple of other Slow Flowers opportunities are coming right up. On Friday, April 16th, we have a BONUS Meet-Up scheduled at 9 am Pacific/Noon Eastern with Ellen Frost of Local Color Flowers. The topic: Domestic Flower Sourcing Strategies When Supplies are Limited. Considering the current panic around floral availability and product supply-chain in the floral industry, Ellen and The Gardeners’ Workshop are reintroducing their online course Ellen “Growing Your Business With Local Flower Sourcing” and in anticipation, Ellen is joining Slow Flowers this Friday to answer your questions about flower sourcing when supplies are limited.

The names of all Slow Flowers members who attend will be entered into a drawing for one free registration to the course (valued at $495) which begins April 26th. Ellen has added new content to the 2021 curriculum, including a Bonus Session: “What we can do NOW during this unprecedented global flower shortage.”

By the way, if you missed last week’s April Meet-Up on Sustainable Floral Design with Tobey Nelson and Becky Feasby, you can find the replay video above. On EARTH DAY, Thursday, April 22nd, I’ll host an interactive Q&A with these two passionate women as part of an IG Live session about sustainable floristry at noon Pacific/3 pm Eastern. You’re invited to join us there!

Thank you to our Sponsors

This podcast 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 for 2021, Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers delivers iconic burlap-wrapped bouquets and lush, abundant arrangements to customers across the U.S., supporting more than 20 U.S. flower farms by purchasing more than $9 million dollars of U.S.-grown fresh and seasonal flowers and foliage annually, and providing competitive salaries and benefits to 240 team members based in Watsonville, California and Miami, Florida. Discover more at farmgirlflowers.com.

For each Podcast episode this year, we will also thank three of our Major Sponsors. Our first thanks goes to Rooted Farmers. Rooted Farmers works 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.

Our next sponsor thanks goes 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.

Our final sponsor thanks goes to Johnny’s Selected Seeds, an employee-owned company that provides our industry the best flower, herb and vegetable seeds — supplied to farms large and small and even backyard cutting gardens like mine. Find the full catalog of flower seeds and bulbs at johnnysseeds.com.

Thanks so much for joining us today! The Slow Flowers Podcast has been downloaded more than 714,000 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.

I value your support and invite you to show your thanks to support 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 Podcast. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one vase at a time. And If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto iTunes and posting a listener review.

The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization.

The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. Learn more about his work at soundbodymovement.com. 

Music Credits:

For We Shall Know Speed; Turning on the Lights; 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/

In The Field
audionautix.com