Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

Take a deep breath and inhale the intoxicating fragrance of a sweet pea. Who wouldn’t want to grow this stunning annual flower – beloved for its dreamy petal hues, evocative scent, and popularity in both the cottage cutting garden and the florist’s vase? Meet Marryn Mathis, whose students and customers call the Sweet Pea Queen, a Stanwood, Washington-based flower farmer who raises tens of thousands of sweet peas. She’s just published Sweet Pea School, an essential book based on her successful workshops. Marryn leads us down the fragrant path of sweet pea selection, growing, seed-harvesting, and arranging – and guaranteed, you will join me in wanting to grow many more sweet peas this season!

I’m not sure whether it’s a hard and fast rule, but I was taught to plant my sweet pea seeds on St. Patrick’s Day, which is also when the food gardener who shared this advice with me plants her edible peas. Traditionally, of course, I direct-sowed those seeds in my garden. And, depending on the vagaries of spring weather, some never sprout, while others happily flourish and climb their trellis support to bloom like crazy.

But there are much better ways to have a successful yield of gorgeous, perfumed sweet peas and it helps if you learn from Marryn Mathis, author of the brand-new book Sweet Pea School.

Marryn was recently our Slow Flowers Member Expert at the February meet-up, and she had attendees enthralled with her story of building a unique sweet pea business at The Farmhouse Flower Farm. Her family business grows tens of thousands of sweet peas to harvest their seeds for flower farmers, farmer-florists, gardeners and flower lovers to purchase for fall and spring planting. The Farmhouse Flower Farm is also known for selling dahlia tubers, but that’s a story for another day. Because we’re here to talk about Sweet Pea School, the gorgeous guide, which will be published on February 25^th – next week.

Inspired by Marryn’s popular “sweet pea school” workshops, the gardening book is a master class in the romantic bloom, including:
>sweet peas and their history;
>best practices;
>step-by-step instructions for designing floral arrangements with sweet peas;
>a color-organized overview of popular varieties;
>and Marryn’s personal story of becoming a flower farmer and building The Farmhouse Flower Farm.

Order your book here
Find and follow The Farmhouse Flower Farm on Instagram and Facebook
Sign up for The Farmhouse Flower Farm newsletter and course updates

And congratulations to new Slow Flowers member Regina Grubb of Pintsized Posies – her name was selected in the random drawing of those who attended the Member Meet-Up on February 7^th, and Regina will receive a copy of Marryn’s Sweet Pea School book.

---

Last Chance for Slow Flowers SUNDAY at the NW Flower & Garden Festival (February 23rd)

In other important news, don’t forget – the clock is ticking and there are only a few more days to register to attend Slow Flowers SUNDAY at the NWFGF on February 23^rd, 9:30 am to 1 pm. Slow Flowers SUNDAY is designed for YOU — flower farmers, farmer-florists, floral designers, flower lovers, and gardeners! TICKETS are just $99 per person, and include Continental Breakfast, Networking, three inspiring lectures and demonstrations, Door Prizes, a Gift Bag, plus complimentary admission to the NW Flower & Garden Festival.

---

Thank you to our Sponsors

This show is brought to you by slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 750 florists, shops, and studios who design with local, seasonal and sustainable flowers and to the farms that grow those blooms. It’s the conscious choice for buying and sending flowers.

Thank you to our lead sponsor, Flowerbulb.eu and their U.S. lily bulb vendors. One of the most recognizable flowers in the world, the lily is a top-selling cut flower, offering long-lasting blooms, year-round availability, and a dazzling petal palette. Flowerbulb.eu has partnered with Slow Flowers to provide beautiful lily inspiration and farming resources to help growers and florists connect their customers with more lilies. Learn more at Flowerbulb.eu.

Thank you to the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, a farmer-owned cooperative committed to providing the very best the Pacific Northwest has to offer in cut flowers, foliage and plants. The Growers Market’s mission is to foster a vibrant marketplace that sustains local flower farms and provides top-quality products and service to the local floral industry. Visit them at seattlewholesalegrowersmarket.com.

And thank you to Longfield Gardens, which provides home gardeners with high quality flower bulbs and perennials. Their online store offers plants for every region and every season, from tulips and daffodils to dahlias, caladiums and amaryllis. Check out the full catalog at Longfield Gardens at longfield-gardens.com.

---

Thank you for joining me today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than one million times by listeners like you. Thank you for listening, commenting and sharing – it means so much. As our movement gains more supporters and more passionate participants who believe in the importance of our domestic cut flower industry, the momentum is contagious. I know you feel it, too. If you’re new to our weekly Show and our long-running Podcast, check out all of our resources at SlowFlowersSociety.com.

---

I’m Debra Prinzing, host and producer of the Slow Flowers Show & Podcast. The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one stem, one vase at a time. Thanks so much for joining us today and I’ll see you next week!

---

Drone Pine; Gaena; Cabsha; Turning on the Lights
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

I’m thoroughly inspired by my friends at New Covent Garden Flower Market in London, the brains behind British Flowers Week, now in its fifth year!

In fact, I recently wrote this homage to Helen Evans and her colleagues for the American Flowers Week feature in the current June 2017 issue of Florists’ Review magazine.

Here’s a portion of my report:

In 2015, while in London for the Chelsea Flower Show, I met with Helen Evans, one of the geniuses behind New Covent Garden Market’s successful British Flowers Week (BFW) campaign (June 19-25, 2017). 

The U.K.’s most important wholesale floral hub launched BFW in 2013 as a low-budget social media-driven “annual celebration of seasonal locally grown flowers and foliage that united the U.K. cut-flower industry, and sparked public and media interest in where our flowers come from.”

It has become a popular and successful campaign to promote British flowers and floral designers. By the time we had finished sipping from our steaming mugs of tea in the Market’s employee breakroom, I thought, “I should start an American Flowers Week.”

In late May of 2015, I returned to the U.S. inspired by the BFW model and equipped with Helen’s suggestions and resources, and introduced American Flowers Week (AFW) one month later.

Today marks the Day One of British Flowers Week and I’m so in love with the work of Mary Jane Vaughan, the first featured designer, and with her floral choices, including British-grown stock, sweet peas and other beautiful botanicals.

Please enjoy and follow along, as we’ll be sharing all five days to inspire you — AND to get you excited about your own plans for American Flowers Week, coming up with the June 28th-July 4th unveiling of more flowery goodness!

Floral Designer: Mary Jane Vaughan

Known for the simplicity and understated elegance of her designs, Mary Jane Vaughan has gone from running a shop in Fulham, London to becoming an award-winning luxury weddings, events and contracts florist some thirty years later.

Read more about Mary Jane’s approach to designing with locally-grown British flowers.

There are three entries to Mary Jane Vaughan’s designs for British Flowers Week:

The Showstopper (above): A curved canopy of white stocks and laurel leaves.

Technical (above): The inspiration for Mary Jane’s three exquisite British Flowers Week creations was found in the work of her favourite British architect, Dame Zaha Hadid OBE. Hadid’s bold, undulating designs combine geometry with femininity and nature, which is what Mary Jane also strives to do in her work.

Mary Jane says: “I’m a huge fan of Hadid. She designed the London Olympics Aquatic Centre. I managed to get tickets to see it and I was so excited to be under her roof. So, to be able to create something inspired by her work means a lot to me, because I think she was an amazing, incredible talent. All her shapes are so fluid, organic and asymmetrical. They’re very bold and very brave. There’s so much that I love about them.”

Hadid‘s designs were often inspired by the movement of water, and so we chose – for our technical design – to make a fluid-shaped, assymetrical necklace of lilac sweet peas, blue cornflowers, white stocks, pale pink atirrhinums, alchemilla mollie, ferns & a single peony.

Signature (above): Inspired by Hadid’s Viso Vase. Slender & curved, our vases were made with laurel leaves and filled with the beautiful British favourite – the sweetpea. An intricate wired design, it features lilac sweet peas, blue cornflowers, white stocks, pale pink antirrhinums, alchemilla mollis, ferns and a single peony.

Read more about British Flowers Week

Get involved in American Flowers Week, coming up June 28-July 4. Lots of details and resources available here!