Episodes

https://youtu.be/BdnRayT0M2A?si=PQVfp6yMUSJD7n42 The Flower Farmers has been in the works for two years, as my co-author and the book’s creative director Robin Avni and I have poured our storytelling passion into the narratives and imagery that portray 29 North American growers. The book was released on May 6th by Abrams, and we’ve been in major celebration mode ever since. Today’s episode brings you to the lecture that Robin and I recently presented for the Northwest Horticultural Society, as w...

https://youtu.be/vw5w4ZwBuZU?si=YZLcTE7pJ5P5-zVP The Carrier family has been growing cut flowers and plants for more than 40 years, raising their three children with a love for flowers, and keeping the business in the family as it transitions into the hands of the next generation. Plant Masters, the specialty cut flower farm owned by Leon and Carol Carrier, and their son Leon Carrier III, is based in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. The family floral enterprise supplies numerous farmers’...

https://youtu.be/uGRgC8rjB_U?si=ucehNezGBXce9kuX Marly Surena-Llorens was born and raised in the U.S., but her Haitian mother’s stories of tropical gardens filled with palms, crotons, and bougainvillea plants inspired her lifelong love of flowers. Yet, Marly says some of her most vivid floral impressions came from the BBC programs of her youth, when she watched period TV dramas in her family’s Brooklyn apartment. Today she gardens and grows cut flowers on two residential lots in Allentown, Penns...

https://youtu.be/P3SoClolo0g?si=_2euyh84isd_Ina4 It's a Red-Letter Week here at Slow Flowers, as my longtime collaborator, Robin Avni, and I celebrate the May 6th publication of The Flower Farmers, our beautiful and informative new book featuring 29 growers across North America. You’ve heard a bit from some of the experts profiled in The Flower Farmers, and you’ll continue to meet and be inspired by them in the coming weeks and months. Pages from The Flower Farmers, featuring Diddle & Zen's Abby...

https://youtu.be/2G-OjAkuVJY?si=lijpFSK8vvnkJW6L Renowned potter Frances Palmer has spent decades creating art that has enchanted designers and artists around the world. But there is another vibrant side of her creative life that she’s equally passionate about and devoted to – flower gardening and arranging. Today, join me in an engaging conversation with artist and passionate gardener Frances Palmer as we discuss her world and her new book: Life with Flowers: Inspiration and Lessons from the Ga...

https://youtu.be/ILIsMQVb0xs?si=apa9xNGFjmMBb6gq I’m always so inspired by the paths taken by our Slow Flowers Members to create their floral endeavors and today’s guest has a fabulous back-story, which we’ll share with you today. Sydney Fee of Fee, Fi, Fo Farm is based in New York’s Finger Lakes Region, home to nearly 150 wineries and many destination wedding venues. Sydney is entering her fifth year as a farmer-florist, growing intensively in a 1,500-square-foot cutting garden and borrowing pl...

https://youtu.be/02kn4dOI2tg?si=M1TUm5AjdtUwbr_z Just in time for gardening and farming season, I’m thrilled to introduce you to The Flower Farmers, my new book co-authored with longtime collaborator Robin Avni. The Flower Farmers delivers a visually compelling collection of stories and flower-growing wisdom to inspire gardeners and flower lovers alike. Immerse yourself in the stories of 29 flower farms, including the people and places where flowers are planted, harvested, arranged and brought t...

https://youtu.be/AMujMVQSGkM?si=2ZjthEzgpVZzdUH_ It’s early in the season, but Amy Linhart already has been harvesting from her crop of 13,000 daffodils to supply her main wholesale customer, an upscale regional grocery chain in the Seattle-Tacoma region. I visited Humming Harvest Farm in late March for a tour of the fields and new high tunnel, both of which allowed me to envision the bountiful year to come, Amy’s sixth farming season. She started farming flowers as a side venture to her full-ti...

https://youtu.be/00GygVX1-oY?si=RNAkJecm0tqTCNyR The Southern California farm synonymous with breathtaking blooms and gorgeous flowers and foliage is celebrating its 100th year in business this year. Founded by Giovanni Mellano in 1925, Mellano & Company is embarking on “Blooming into a New Era,” a year-long celebration highlighting the generations of families and faces who have played an integral role in the company’s success throughout the years, while also looking ahead to its next century of...

https://youtu.be/JtAXk83WRGs?si=fOCKwJtSS5qZysiZ Lovers of Fynbos, the beautiful plants in the Proteacae family, will enjoy today’s conversation with expert protea grower and long-time Slow Flowers member Diana Roy, flower farmer and Creative Director of Resendiz Brothers Protea Growers. Along with the farm’s founder and CEO Mel Resendiz, Diana and other protea growers in the greater San Diego area are welcoming the 20th International Protea Association Conference to their region, taking place l...

https://youtu.be/UL1__YrDzHs?si=lKHhw6SLt2EANe_a After years of frustration over outdated and unsustainable floral options that funeral homes offered bereaved families, floral designer Nicole Wright decided to produce an alternative resource to help the industry shift from standard practice to updated and safer options. She wrote and produced "Returning Home," her new book for the funeral industry, florists, and families. All of the arrangements featured in its pages were designed with local and...

https://youtu.be/XJdj0U5NqC4?si=irqk_FX_GQ_qLe-j If you’re interested in what flower farming’s “chapter two” might look like, today’s guest shares one version of that narrative. After 8 years of intensive urban flower farming and floral design in Philadelphia, Cassie Plummer of Jig-Bee Flower Farm pulled up roots and moved to northeastern Vermont to be closer to family and to establish a simpler and quieter life. She calls it the Jig-Bee sequel, and the cinematic narrative is fitting because the...

https://youtu.be/NCf0gEPkzDk?si=8FLuZLE6FHh28WuQ Lori Poliski is reviving the forgotten art of Pot-et-Fleur, an iconic floral style, historically defined as “living arrangements with plants, cut flowers, and foliage.” Having originated in 17th century France and continuing through the Victorian era, Pot-et-Fleur offers today’s florists a contemporary, sustainable, and long-lasting method of designing with local and seasonal ingredients. The method is flexible because it uses living plants combin...

https://youtu.be/cq7Uf-SBTC8?si=w8z2EoJRqN1NqrfP Master Gardener and writer Willi Galloway is a home gardener who loves to grow food and cook with the vegetables she harvests from her urban kitchen garden in Portland, Oregon. An award-winning writer and radio commentator, Willi is the author of "Grow Cook Eat, a food-lover’s guide to vegetable gardening." Originally published 13 years ago, the essential handbook has been updated and just re-issued, with a focus on 50 flavorful vegetables, herbs,...

https://youtu.be/xuhf4DJpX2o?si=wyTAMBP3B1B8qw9t 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 Sch...

https://youtu.be/Qr-Di1slgMQ?si=sHuKvg69KD_g4MIf Join Quynh Nguyen, the paper artist behind Pink and Posey, as she shares her decade-long journey in paper artistry, from crafting her first floral arrangement to co-creating the Papertalk Podcast. Quynh is the author of The New Art of Paper Flowers – just published in late 2024. She has produced fine art paper floral installations for Nordstrom, Creative Live, Fran's Chocolates, and many more commissions, including collaborations like Greenwood Ri...

https://youtu.be/xo0eJsPkCKQ?si=JQMfrx44CujdC8ys Last weekend I was invited to Vancouver, British Columbia, where two floral luminaries, Hitomi Gilliam and Per Benjamin, were teaching an in-person workshop for students of their Floristic Dialog courses. I wanted to interview Per to learn more of his about-to-be-published book, Sustainable Floral Design – A Sustainable Future found in History. This beautiful new book, co-authored with Max van de Sluis, draws inspiration from different periods thr...

https://youtu.be/7SxS3vDHrQo?si=EkE5x41RdrS5V0qn Showcasing floral agriculture as a valuable farm crop in an area surrounded by ranches and alfalfa farms, Kim and Kylie operate Yellow Petal Flower Farm in Fallon, Nevada. Let's hear how they created a multi-generational, woman-led flower farm and floral design business serving Reno, Lake Tahoe, and the surrounding region. The Nevada Department of Agriculture, along with Made in Nevada, recently presented Yellow Petal Flower Farm with the 2024 Nev...

https://youtu.be/cHpC0UiCDzA?si=fdpuerpqG-mQ63Xk Experienced plantswoman Sue Dykstra has operated nurseries for decades. She opened Creekside Growers in 2001, expanding the Middleville, Michigan business from a small plantstand to a full-service garden center with 65,000-square-feet of covered greenhouses. Over the past several years, Sue and manager Kelly Lewis have transitioned the nursery to a cut flower farm with indoor and outdoor production, retail flower shop, and the wholesale hub for We...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czmwuwa6XG4&feature=youtu.be Yes, you can grow gorgeous cut flowers in Alaska. Just ask Misty Vanderweele, anAlaska native who founded All Dahlia’d Up in 2013, a boutique flower farm in Palmer. There is a magical effect on the intense color palettes and robust health of Misty’s blooms, as the short growing season is balanced by up to 22 hours of endless sunshine-a-day during the peak summer months. Misty believes that all that sunshine fills the flowers with good ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckPGJ2K-PVQ This year, in recognition of Slow Flowers' annual focus on changing cultural and creative shifts in the floral industry, our Forecast hones in on seven key insights. In a year where Artificial Intelligence has become omnipresent, we find ourselves reverting to the Analog world of nature. Innovation and personal expression are being challenged by the AI-dominated ecosystem, and the authentic values of the Slow Flowers Community are its antidote. Nature’...

https://youtu.be/yOLV0XJX1ic?si=3ZxsB3shtvPOrquK Jessica Stewart of Bramble & Blossom Happy New Year! We’ve pulled one of our most popular episodes of 2024 to share with you today and I know it will inspire you with new sustainability ideas for the coming wedding season! Meet Jessica Stewart, a pioneering Slow Flowers floral designer, and learn how she leads with joy when communicating her values to wedding clients, while also infusing her aesthetic with sustainable values. This episode is calle...

https://youtu.be/KzWJQWxQIkE?si=odYVvhdRI_2Z5hn7 For the past decade, I have kept an important annual ritual. Before I turn the calendar page to the New Year, I take time at the end of December to reflect back on the one that’s coming to a close. This exercise has become our recurring Slow Flowers Society "Year in Review," a habit that takes stock of the prior 12 months and considers how our many programs and efforts have supported the Slow Flowers Mission. You’re invited to join me as we review...

https://youtu.be/9bau3g6_h6A?si=a70BbD2OFYpQmrrW Back by popular demand, we're hosting Johnny's Seeds' floral experts, Joy Longfellow and Hillary Alger, who will introduce some of Johnny's Selected Seeds' 40-plus new flower seed varieties for 2025! Hillary and Joy take us behind the scenes to learn more about the dazzling selections of floral varieties and mixes for 2025 – from the subtle to the vibrant, including four NEW introductions -- straight from Johnny's Exclusive Breeding Program. And l...