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Wondering what’s NEXT in your portfolio of floral products and services? Today’s topic – the art and business of flower pressing — promises to inspire you. I’m thrilled to share our recent November Slow Flowers Meet-Up with Kate Punnett, who’s based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She is a pressed flower artist dedicated to sustainability and she crafts custom pressed floral art, greeting cards and fine art with botanicals she grows and sources from fellow farmers. Her studio, The August Press, also creates professional-grade flower presses inspired by the timeless art of pressing flowers – listen and watch to learn more about her techniques and how you can get started pressing flowers in your own studio.
A few weeks ago, we held November’s Slow Flowers Member Meet-Up, a virtual Zoom gathering that showcases experts among our community who generously share their talents and knowledge with fellow Slow Flowers Members. Our session featured Ottawa-based floral artist Kate Punnett, owner of The August Press. As a longtime specialty cut flower grower who has spent the past several years perfecting her personal flower pressing technique, Kate now sells original and digitized pressed flower artwork, takes commissions, sells her custom-designed presses, and teaches others about the wonders and joys of pressing the flower we love.
It felt like a great time of year – especially for those of us who want to slow down and explore a new facet of our lives in flowers — and I invited Kate to lead this session. Flower pressing is an age-old practice. Think about placing a violet in the pages of a thick dictionary – and months later discovering its perfect, papery form! Kate is pushing the methods and elevating the art form far beyond dictionary pressing.
This is definitely one of our Podcast episodes that calls for you to click over to our show notes at slowflowerspodcast.com to find the video link – in which you’ll watch Kate demonstrate some of the techniques she employs. It is especially cool to see how Kate breaks down thick buds and blooms like roses and sunflowers so they can press flat, and to learn how she utilizes a bloom or stem’s most natural angles, much as you might observe them growing in the garden. SO much to consider and I’m delighted to share our conversation with you today!
You will also see more photography of Kate’s pressed florals and products, including her new version of the Handbook for the Pressed Floral Artist, a digital guide that you can order online for a modest investment.
Follow The August Press on Instagram
Slow Flowers WORLDWIDE Summit 2025
In more news, if you’re listening to this episode when it drops on Wednesday, November 27th, it’s time to take advantage of our Black Friday through Cyber Monday ticket promotion for the upcoming Slow Flowers WORLDWIDE Summit, taking place online in the New Year – January 9-11th.
That’s right, starting this Friday, November 29th through Monday, December 2nd, we are rolling back the Summit ticket prices to our $50 off introductory Early-Bird rate. And remember, Slow Flowers members always receive an additional $50 off their ticket purchase as a member benefit. Check out the link in our show notes, or click on the bio in our IG account — @slowflowerssociety, or visit slowflowerssummit.com. Enjoy fifteen hours of online education from some of the top floral experts in the Slow Flowers community and I hope to see you there!
Bonus Episode
By way of previewing our amazing speakers, we just posted a bonus to today’s episode — an encore interview I recorded in 2015 with Sarah Statham of Simply by Arrangement, based in Yorkshire England. You can find that Episode 692-Bonus in our show notes and on any platform where you subscribe to the Slow Flowers Podcast. There is a gallery of more than 60 beautiful images from Sarah’s world and I know it will inspire you to learn more in the days leading up to her presentation for the Slow Flowers Summit.
Thank You to Our Sponsors
This show is brought to you by slowflowersdot.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.
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.
I’m so glad you joined us 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!
Music Credits:
Drone Pine; Gaena; Tall Harvey
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