Slow Flowers Podcast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FlSd-SPH8I I have a great interview to share with you today -- and it includes a virtual visit to Bitterroot Flower Shop in Missoula, Montana, where I caught up with owner Lindsay Irwin. Local flowers "Designer's Choice" I first met Lindsay through fellow Slow Flowers members Carly Jenkins and Jamie Rogers of Killing Frost Farm. and their wholesale venture Farm to...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPyvi6pwqro You may have met today's guest as the owner and design director of Floressence, an event floral design studio focused mainly on weddings . . . over the years, thousands of weddings! In 2020, Anne Bradfield followed her dream to become a full-service floral studio, providing deliveries for daily floral needs, subscriptions, as well as wedding and event fl...

https://youtu.be/UKxyY99TUk8 I have a very special treat for you. Earlier this month, I traveled to Missoula, Montana, where I gave the opening presentation to the Montana Cut Flower Workshop. The conference planners asked me to share a national overview of the insights and forecast for the Slow Flowers Movement, including flower farming and floral design trends. Julio Freitas of The Flower Hat Im...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6znwoR7IIU I'm excited to share Part Two of my visit to Vashon Island and introduce you to Halee Dams of Marmol Farm. Halee describes herself as a small-scale grower who uses organic and earth-friendly practices. Marmol Farm's Hallee Dams with her flowers She has a farm stand and a flower truck and she supplies private customers and Island shoppers through a retail...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXTA76tCFPE Last week I took a short ferry ride from the mainland - from Tacoma's Pt. Defiance - to Vashon Island, Washington, a beautiful, evergreen place with deep agricultural roots and people who love both living among nature and having relatively quick access to the urban settings of Seattle and Tacoma. I actually look at Vashon Island everyday from my upstairs...

I'm so excited to introduce today's guest, Vanessa Vancuren of Pop's Flowers, based in Edgewood, Washington. Click below to watch the farm tour and interview, recorded on August 23, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tef_MdZkZ9c Dahlias of the season (left) and flower farmer Vanessa Vancuren of Pop's Flowers Sunflowers frame the view of the log house at Pop's Flowers I visited Vanessa last week...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vr35HgXyJE Today, we visit the gardens and workshop of longtime Slow Flowers member Kris Bennett of KRISanthemums, a full-service floral design studio that is situated at Bennett Botanical Gardens, Kris's five-acre garden and wedding venue in Eastern Oregon. I've finally placed Hermiston on the map -- it's close to Walla Walla, Washington and Pendleton Oregon -- a...

Today, I'm thrilled to introduce Françoise Weeks and Sid Anna Sherwood. In celebration of our Slow Flowers Podcasts 8th anniversary, we launched our new, live-stream video format -- calling it the Slow Flowers Show -- with the goal of sharing the faces and voices of our members, as well as tours of their farms, their shops and their studios -- and most of all, their flowers. In addition to finding...

Today's guest: Kiara Hancock of K. Hancock Events In celebration of our Slow Flowers Podcast's 8th anniversary, we launched our new, live-stream video format -- calling it the Slow Flowers Show -- with the goal of sharing the faces and voices of our members, as well as tours of their farms, their shops and their studios -- and most of all, their flowers https://youtu.be/UytU9c7Yq9o Today, you're i...

In celebration of the Slow Flowers Show's 8th anniversary, we launched our new, live-stream video format on July 21st with the goal of sharing the faces and voices of our members, as well as tours of their farms, their shops and their studios -- and most of all, their flowers. The video edition of today's episode aired as the Slow Flowers Show on Wednesday, July 28th, simultaneously broadcast to b...

https://youtu.be/o9vPCvrSjjI Today's conversation was originally broadcast in late May by "Sustainability Champions," an investigative podcast series made for the environmental stewards of the world, produced and hosted by Daniel Hartz. The series defines Sustainability as "the avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance" and Champion as "one who supp...

Sarah Reyes welcomed me to Wildflower and Fern in Oakland, California I'm so happy to introduce you to today's guest, Sarah Reyes of Oakland-based Wildflower and Fern. Sarah's passion for local flowers moves through both retail and wholesale channels. She calls herself a botanical liaison, a term that sums up the role she plays for both customers of her 240-square-foot retail flower shop, which op...

Kristine Albrecht of Santa Cruz Dahlias with 'KA's Khaleesi' Of course you've heard me talk about my road trip to California in late June for the 4th Slow Flowers Summit. A few days before the Summit took place, I was treated to a morning visit at Santa Cruz Dahlias, the micro- flower farm owned by award-winning dahlia breeder Kristine Albrecht, a Slow Flowers member. I'd been wanting to learn mor...

Today's guest is Felicia Alvarez of Menagerie Farm + Flower (c) Jill Carmel Photography June was a super-busy and invigorating month and I have lots to share with you! I'm recording the intro to today's episode on July 5th. Yesterday, my husband and I arrived back in Seattle after driving home from the SF Bay Area, my car filled with Slow Flowers Summit supplies; my heart filled with love for our...

Kelly Shore of Petals by the Shore & The Floral Source 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 th...

Susan McLeary (c) e.e. berger 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 s...

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 Am...

The Wedding Garden at Filoli Historic House & Garden (c) Gretchine Nievarez Over the past year, you've heard from many of the panelists and personalities scheduled to present at the upcoming Slow Flowers Summit, scheduled for June 28-30, which is right around the corner. And today, I'm bringing you straight to our Summit destination, Filoli Historic House & Garden based in Woodside, California, wh...

Today, we continue our series to highlight the talented speaker lineup for the upcoming Slow Flowers Summit, taking place June 28th-30th at Filoli Historic House & Garden in Woodside, California, with an extended conversation I'm excited to share with you. Abra, pruning roses as a volunteer at the Georgia Governor's Mansion Please meet Abra Lee, horticulturist, author, speaker and founder of the m...

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. Our fabulous speaker lineup includes (top row), Susan McLeary, Emily Saeger, Molly Culver; (mid...

Spring selection of blooms at Old Dominion Flower Cooperative 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...

Niki and William (left); Niki Irving (right), photographed at Flourish Flower Farm 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. Just-picked North Carolina flowers, so beautiful! Photographed at Flourish Flower Farm. Niki and her husband William own a nine-acre specialty cut flower farm nest...

Jennifer Jewell, author, radio host and garden advocate I'm delighted to welcome back return guest Jennifer Jewell to the Slow Flowers Podcast for our lovely, wide-ranging conversation about what defines a garden, where those gardens are, who are the gardeners who tend to them and how we are both emerging from 2020 with a much clearer understanding of the roles women play in making the earth a bet...

Jordan Wach (left), Hannah Brannan of Gather Flora (center), and Jessica Hole of Sonoma Flower Mart (right), photographed in 2020 on the Sonoma Flower Mart truck, preparing to deliver flowers pre-ordered on the Gather Flora platform 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 cons...

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 th...