The Flower Podcast

This week, my guest's story began with a high school internship that led her down a surprising path into farming vegetables and a personal interest in the beauty of flowers and the joy of sharing them with others. Somewhere along the way she became flower obsessed, growing well over one hundred different varieties. At Whipstone Farm, Shanti Rade and her partner, Cory have found a love of farming i...

Meet our guest of the week, Lauren Uhlig of FlorxEight! Join us as we dive into her incredible journey as a full-time architect turned passionate rose enthusiast. Since planting her first roses in 2017, her urban Maryland backyard is now blooming with nearly 200 rose plants. Sharing the love with local florists, Lauren is also fostering a sense of community around her favorite flowers and inspirin...

If you have a deep desire to craft vibrant weddings and intricate designs, then you're in for a captivating discussion with Dawn Weisberg. She's the visionary behind Tularosa Flowers, located in Southern California, where she curates opulent wedding experiences and designs. With a rich background in costume design for theater and film, Dawn seamlessly translates her passion into beautiful floral a...

Home gardeners, flower farmers, and florists are always looking for flowers to help set them apart in their offerings and esthetics. My guest this week found her way to growing cut flowers eventually on Camano Island, Washington. Brenna Estrada and her business Three Brother Blooms takes pride in growing a wide variety of stunning, pollinator-friendly plants. She is passionate about growing severa...

This week's guest started her floral studio as a little flower shop with the sole inspiration to make people happy via beautiful flower arrangements. With minimal flower experience, a passion for flowers and determination, The Hidden Garden has become a phenomenal design studio with a strong presence in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. How inspiring is it to know that a business began with a desire...

This week's episode is with Galena Berkompas and the name of her business says it all, Micro Flower Farm. Just a few years ago she began with the goal of trying to fill her property in Vancouver Washington, with all the flowers she could which then morphed into a business selling her flowers and helping others do the same and this week she's sharing her journey on The Flower Podcast. It was great...

This week my guest is Erica Penn located in Portland TN. She's been growing flowers for several years, but recently relocated from the Philadelphia area to my back yard and it's been a pleasure to get to know her and her beautiful flowers, especially dahlias. Her business is called Fleur Paws Flower Farm where she cultivated flowers with the help of her Golden Retrievers. Seeing her flowers first...

Our guest this week is Craig Scott of East Coast Wildflower located in the NSW Central Coast of Australia. Craig began farming with his father in 1984 growing both cut flowers and foliages for florists. Their wholesale business distributes floral products through the Sydney Flower Market. East Coast Wildflowers is one of Australia's leading wholesalers specializing in Australian wildflowers and So...

In this episode, we dive into the world of flower care, exploring products to ensure the well-being of blooms before they reach our valued clients. My guest has an impressive career spanning nearly forty years in the horticultural industry. Dennis Wheeler currently serves as Sales Manager with Chrysal a global leader in post-harvest care for the past 29 years. Dennis embarked on his professional j...

My guest this week is a 2nd generation grower carrying on the family tradition of embracing innovation and sustainable growing practices to ensure the highest quality Phalaenopsis orchids are produced. Now growing and selling over 4 million orchids a year, Toine Overgaag of Westerlay Orchids is sharing his family's flower journey from roses to orchids, tips on growing Phals, and what's next as the...

This week's guest is Dr. Alicain Carlson she is the head to technical services for Syngenta Flowers. Her story begins with flower farmings and floral design work at Lynnvale Studios while in college. She received her masters and PHD at North Caroline State University in the cut flower research program with Dr John Dole where she also co wrote the book Postharvest handling of Cut flowers and greens...

My guest is Mandy Benoit,owner of Trillium Floral Designs. A full service flower shop located in Ottawa, Canada, Mandy has over 20 years of experience and in 2020 took over the family business shortly after the pandemic started. Using her background in multimedia design and writing for a Canadian florist magazine, Mandy pulls from all of these and adds a personal touch to the established business....

Karl Vahrmeyer Jr. is our guest this week. He is part of the second generation that's continuing the family legecy at Green Park Nurseries on the Niagara Peninsula in Ontario, Canada where they grow and sell branches. Karl Sr. started the nursery in 1980 where he grew trees and plants for garden centers and nurseries. In the early 2000s, they started growing only cut branches for the floral indust...

I'm always surprised by how flowers can find people and change their lives for good. This week, Kim Kachougian is my guest. She is the owner and lead creator of a flower design company in New York City called Mac and the Mushroom. Flowers found her through the set design on the one and only Saturday Night Live, where she has been for over 10 years. Kim has won 4 Emmy Awards for her attention to de...

This week we're replaying our episode with our guest Felicia Alvarez of Menagerie Farm and Flower. She shares her love of fragrant garden roses through her sustainable farming practices, her specialty farm nursery, and helping others through online learning and in person workshops through the Menagerie Academy. Today's episode is packed full of growing tips , how-to's and why's from Felicia. Learn...

My guest is Sandra Sigman, award winning floral designer, owner of Les Fleurs, and author. She has recently launched her first book, French Blooms which is a beautiful book displaying the design principles she learned from her favorite Parisian florist. Get ready to be transported to a world of elegance and creativity as we dive into the story behind this French inspired floral journey. Sandra mov...

Ready to talk Dahlias? This week my guest is Kristine Albrecht of Santa Cruz Dahlias. Known for her award winning dahlia hybrids and her book, Dahlia Breeding for the farmer florist and the home gardener, Kristine is sharing her flower journey along with numerous tips and insights on her hybridizing process, cover crops, soil testing and more. She is the president of the Monterey Bay Dahlia Societ...

My guest today is Jen Vazquez, Founder and CPO, Chief Pinterest Officer, of Jen Vazquez Media. Jen worked as a Division Director for a Fortune 500 company and continued on to create her wedding photography business and then, Pinterest arrived on the scene. Her world changed because of Pinterest and today, some refer to her as the Pinterest queen, she started Jen Vazquez Media where she helps other...

This weeks guest is Daniel Schavey Co-Founder of Petal Pickers Flower Co., began in 2017, as a small farm operation specializing in growing fresh and fragrant, often heirloom, varieties of specialty cut flowers.  They supply fresh seasonal cut flowers, distinctive bouquets, and botanicals to retail establishments and floral studios in the greater Greenville, SC area. It was great to connect with D...

Our guest this week considers herself self-made and having bootstrapped her business with no funding from anyone, she got very creative. Well it was with that attitude, fortitude, and $200 that started out as a daily delivery service based out of her small apartment and grew into a bicoastal, floral studio. She hustled and eventually was doing events and speaking gigs all over the country! Carly C...

This week our guest is David Beahm and we're talking all about the wow factor and making dreams into realities. David is an expert at transforming venues both in the United States and throughout the globe. His destinations collection features some of the most luxurious and exclusive properties in the world, setting the stage for any event a client can imagine. He truly makes a client's dream a rea...

A conversation about flower farming wouldn't be complete without discussing pricing. Having a pricing structure is vital not only for profit success but as we have discussed many times over the years, pricing can be a major source of stress but with proper structure in place, pricing doesn't have to be a dreaded part of your flower farm. This is part 2 of my chat with Kimby Decker of Millsap Farm...

I'm still amazed at how flowers are being used in so many inventive ways! Flowers can be used to create beautiful and one-of-a-kind pieces in everything from fashion and design to art and decor and even edibles. It's exciting to see how one natural element can be used in different ways, and my guest today is known for creating lavish floral designs that look like they were lifted from a classical...

The shift from growing vegetables to flowers, or even just adding flowers to your farm's inventory, may appear to be an insurmountable challenge; however, flowers may prove to be an invaluable asset to your growing business. My guest for this week is going to share with us her experience with expanding the farm to include flowers, as well as what this expansion has meant for the company's sales an...

Today my guest is Emily von Trapp and her business is von Trapp Flowers located it Waitsfield Vermont. Emily is the third generation to grow and cultivate on her family's land and has been selling sustainably grown flowers in Central Vermont for over 25 years. I have to admit that I was amazed at the amount of flowers she produces and I'm thrilled to have Emily this week on The Flower Podcast. Emi...