Slow Flowers Podcast

https://youtu.be/POoTHpbaQCA?si=DBy_34cDOmkDdFDj The 2027 Slow Flowers Summit will take place live and in-person on the grounds of Filoli Historic House and Garden, the famed cultural destination in the San Francisco Bay Area. Late last month, I traveled there for a site visit and planning session, meeting up with several of Filoli’s horticulture and floriculture team members, including Jackie Sal...

https://youtu.be/ghmgQ3yuTrE?si=sm4fuDckincOJRYe Celebrating their 10th season of what the Windmeyer family calls “The Grand Experiment,” Lynn and Tim Windmeyer are breathing new life into land in and around St. Joseph, Missouri, where seven generations of Tim’s family have farmed, since approximately 1868. Named Homeplace Fields, the endeavor combines Lynn’s creative design talents and Tim’s agri...

https://youtu.be/3b8sXWElGzQ?si=MEoPebVs3zY_zakt Today’s episode tells the story of Outlook Flower & Bulb Farm in Outlook, Washington, where Joel Martin and his father-in-law Harvey Hess are reviving a flower farm that originated when Joel’s ancestors moved from the Netherlands to the U.S. and settled in Eastern Washington in 1949. John Friend, Joel’s grandfather, took things over in 1965 and cont...

https://youtu.be/ISLSuR2MQEA?si=OxJ43x9BJ_YyNlhJ In The Genius of Flowers, award-winning journalist and flower historian Jill Brooke reveals a truth that resonates: flowers are not passive, fragile objects. They don’t suffer in silence—they are master strategists, adapting, collaborating, and thriving through ice ages, climate shifts, and constant change. Blending science, history, and personal gr...

https://youtu.be/mQvEM_t4rmc?si=99CNLBmXVTFgoGVn Flower farming is a magical and very personal experience for Chelsea Willis, owner of Sweet Delilah Farm. With a background in psychology and a passion for human relationships, she believes that flower work is heart work. Connecting to the land as both a grower and a designer allows Chelsea to make meaningful ties to her community. Her farm is locat...

https://youtu.be/Gq3hs8tc8Wo?si=64jB7EX2_EMdo-a8 Jennifer Jewell’s long-running public radio show "Cultivating Place" asks: “Is cultivating place well the ability to feed your family better? Is it the ability to have a say in how our climate and our environment is cared for, starting right in our own backyards? Is it, in part, the tending to your household or community economy in a healthy and san...

https://youtu.be/R-QtKdwKdSU?si=fipDZUssACCpompf If the garden is your muse, or your source of peace and mental wellness, you’ll want to join me today on a restorative and inspiring visit to FloraWood, where Jen Wilcoxon’s delightful home garden and design studio serve as the basis for her creative, plant- and flora-based business. Jen founded FloraWood in 2019 to share her love of all things gree...

https://youtu.be/G89VtK9U79s?si=mfwBN6zQB5hNmBhJ Bloomz Flower Farm is a 25-acre farm and design studio in Zillah, Washington, with gorgeous views of Mt. Adams, surrounded by beautiful farmland in all directions, including wheat and alfalfa production. Here, owner Sara Groeneweg has infused flower farming into all aspects of her life and business. After earning an agriculture education degree at W...

https://youtu.be/Jv0AOhkze38?si=v4B1hNOw4a4Jo9us Spokane, Washington-based floral personality Katie Lila is on a mission to make fresh flowers a cultural expectation. Not just a novelty, but a norm. She has navigated many facets of the flower-verse – from running a floral event business, to crafting large-scale art installations, and producing her floral-centric TV series. We first featured Katie...

https://youtu.be/SqVoGI3RoGU?si=IZrA4gsWPLOOIDz4 In her new book, Floramama, flower farmer Chloé Roy combines ecological growing practices, proven business strategies, and the artistry of floral design into a visually rich guide to small-scale floriculture. This Quebec-based farmer-florist originally published Floramama in her native French language in 2023, and now, New Society Publishers has tra...

https://youtu.be/R8chcTR0f-I?si=PxNp5SHukl4Nj9uo In 2019, Corinne Bryson founded Flora Good Times, a retail plant and flower shop and design studio in Beacon, New York. Located on Beacon’s beautiful Main Street, in a lush, plant-filled jewel box of a space, Flora Good Times specializes in unusual houseplants and unconventional flower arrangements. Corinne has cared for and loved thousands of house...

https://youtu.be/5rTaqAt8MMA?si=JK-HVupL5vkVczZn Labellum Flowers is a contemporary flower boutique in Bozeman, Montana, by the way of New York, Paris and Los Angeles. Founder Remy Greco-Brault describes Labellum’s style as hip, modern and organic. She writes: “We love mixing natural elements and incorporating rich textures into our work. With artistry and imagination, each arrangement tells a sto...

https://youtu.be/RLtEwfUHmgg Belle Pétale is a boutique floral design studio located in Lakewood, outside Tacoma, Washington. For owner Teresa Rao, each of her made-to-order floral arrangements is created with a custom palette of seasonal flowers sourced in the Pacific Northwest from local flower farmers. Teresa credits three influences for her aesthetic: “My spirit is American; my heart is Mexica...

https://youtu.be/leh1b6oTw2w The Snohomish County Flower Collective is a regional wholesale floral hub founded in 2023 to bring together nearly 40 growers under one roof. Frequently called the Sno-Co-Flo-Co, the group is based in the historic town of Snohomish, about 35 miles north of Seattle, and most of their members have farms in Snohomish and nearby counties. Their home base is at Fleurs Creat...

https://youtu.be/FMW7OVIK5U8 Based on her recent design workshop for the Seattle Growers Market, Gina Thresher of From the Ground Up Floral shared a design demonstration during our Slow Flowers Member meetup in June – and we filmed the session to share today. Gina’s European Sustainable Armature Bouquet elevates floral artistry by moving beyond foam, glue and tape. She shares the method of creatin...

https://youtu.be/IgB9f_-9SVc?si=Nd0prSpTRs6Sb7hc Designed by Alanna Messner-Scholl of Waverly Flower Co., the “Earth Dress” is a slender, floor-length gown that appears to grow from a demure pair of seed-embellished ballet flats. It seems fitting that a sustainable farmer-florist who once attended the Fashion Institute of Technology would conjure up this organic-looking garment using compost, soil...

https://youtu.be/2GBCwmvQz9g?si=acEjUfFB92SDBSJI Our 12th annual American Flowers Week is coming right up – June 28th through July 4th. To showcase this year’s Botanical Couture collection, I’m welcoming return guest Françoise Weeks to the Slow Flowers Podcast. A longtime Slow Flowers Member, her name is synonymous with botanical couture. As an educator, she has taught thousands of students around...

https://youtu.be/qLDRA7aDbe0?si=ErpsCddUPW3DRei2 In the runup to our American Flowers Week’s annual Botanical Couture collection, I’m welcoming Caitlin Mathes to the Slow Flowers Podcast. A longtime Slow Flowers Member based in New York’s Finger Lakes Region, Caitlin has been cultivating the Tagetes species, also known as the marigold, since 2019. Her passion led to establishing The Marigold Garde...

https://youtu.be/yJlU-Ca9W3M?si=5Q5zGfnc51bXKSDS Niki and William Irving are proud stewards of Flourish Flower Farm, a 9-acre farm in Asheville, North Carolina. Nestled in the heart of old tobacco country, they love nurturing their beautiful slice of paradise in the Blue Ridge Mountains -- a dream come true after many years of farming on leased land. They achieve their priority of growing specialt...

https://youtu.be/6Fw4Yodu3Ww?si=9dEb1tKVamN6haAQ I recorded today’s conversation on the final day of our recent flower and garden-inspired river cruise in Holland and Belgium. It was a spontaneous decision to sit down with Eileen Tongson, a longtime Slow Flowers member, owner of FarmGal Flowers, and one of 29 North American growers featured in the pages of The Flower Farmers book, who had joined t...

https://youtu.be/5fCEbvjLDBc?si=L614SYdRlT9RgmFI The cover story of Slow Flowers Journal’s spring issue – published in early May -- features an editorial-style photoshoot of a wedding at the top of Catamount Mountain in New York’s Berkshires. The florals for this beautiful production were designed by Rebekah Mindel of Meadow Wilds, today’s guest – and if you haven’t seen or read my story yet, I’d...

https://youtu.be/UNpJQvGNuPc?si=BsOX2cXLaMTtF44S Jodi Logue is a Pacific Northwest flower farmer based in Olalla, Washington. As owner of Moss and Madder Farm, Jodi believes in the power of community-building. She is known for bringing flower farmers together from across the Kitsap Peninsula, from Bremerton to Tacoma and points between. Listeners met Jodi on the Slow Flowers Podcast in October 202...

https://youtu.be/a14eAaKuufw?si=l-DMCSjyfhpK1DBK Julian Langelaan is a pioneer in the emerging organic farming movement in the Netherlands. As the founder of Op Beemster Klei, which translated means, “a farm with clay soil, in the Beemster region,” Julian began growing cut flowers 10 years ago. The healthy, high quality, annuals, perennials, and ornamental woody shrubs from Op Beemster Klei demons...

https://youtu.be/NkUs5zQIaCQ?si=r8yE4x6setQ4Zpud In anticipation of my visit to FAM Flower Farm during last month’s Slow Flowers Tulip Tour in Holland and Belgium, I invited floral entrepreneurs Linda van der Slot and Marlies Weijers to join me on the Podcast. Friends since age 12, who married into Dutch tulip bulb and dahlia tuber-producing families, respectively, Linda and Marlies left careers o...

https://youtu.be/ng5wllVlQyU Back in 2018, we included Retail Garden Centers Adding Floral Design Services as one of our trends to watch in the annual Slow Flowers Floral Insights and Industry Forecast. I noted the early wave of retail nurseries and garden centers opening or reviving in-house floral shops with a distinctly local emphasis. As it turns out, that’s the year that Delisa Hiel joined Ga...