Episode 264: Red Daisy Flower Farm in Denver with Megan McGuire, grower, designer and antiques dealer
September 28th, 2016
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Welcome to Red Daisy Farm in Brighton, Colorado (c) Andrea K. Grist photography
Before I introduce you to today’s inspiring guest, Megan McGuire of Red Daisy Farm outside Denver, I want to share more details about the upcoming Slow Flowers Creative Workshop that I’ll be co-teaching with Dundee Butcher of Russian River Flower School in Sonoma’s wine country — Monday, October 17th and Tuesday, October 18th.
This valuable workshop experience is designed to help you clarify, document and communicate your personal aesthetic message as a floral professional – in both written and visual formats suitable for your web site, social media and mobile platforms.
In a safe, supportive and intimate setting, our small group will focus on YOU! We’ll go deep into Slow Flowers “brand building” as each participant finds his or her own voice as a floral storyteller. If you’ve been thinking about investing in your businesses’ future, now is the time to sign up.
Meg (center) led a tour of her fields and high tunnels for our Slow Flowers Colorado Meet-Up guests. (c) Andrea K. Grist photography
Flowers grown and designed by Meg McGuire of Red Daisy Farm
Now, I’m so pleased to return, at least in my memory, to Colorado. I spent several days in the Rocky Mountain State during the month of August, visiting flower farms, meeting talented designers and seeing their work, and recording several interviews.
Our fabulous group of flower friends gathered at the Rocky Mountain Field to Vase Dinner. From left: Andrea K. Grist, me, Alicia Schwede, Robyn Rissman, Meg McGuire, and Robin Taber (c) Certified American Grown/Field to Vase Dinner Tour.
Today’s conversation is the third in my Colorado series, so if you missed the interview with Denver floral designer Robyn Rissman and her collaborator Alicia Schwede — the design team that created the Field to Vase Dinner flowers at The Fresh Herb Co., or if you missed the recent interview with Don Lareau and Daphne Yannakakis of Zephyros Farm and Garden, here are the links to those episodes:
Meg McGuire and I enjoyed a relaxing morning recording this episode on the porch of her beautiful historic farmhouse (c) Andrea K. Grist photography
Another gorgeous arrangement designed by Meg McGuire, using flowers from her Colorado fields and high tunnels.
For years, Megan McGuire and her husband Terry Baumann had their eyes on a charming early 20th century farmhouse in Brighton, Colorado, just outside Denver. By the time that they finally became the owners, it seems as if the Red Daisy Farmhouse possesses them – but in a good way, a very good way.
Meg is a Slowflowers.com member and we’ve corresponded for nearly a year about my wanting to visit her if I returned to Colorado.
Red Daisy Farm’s floral crops are healthy and fresh. (c) Andrea K. Grist photography
Stunning! Meg’s flowers and design aesthetic are exquisite.
Fortunately for me, Meg also invited me to stay in her guest house, a 3-bedroom residence on their property that is available as an Air B&B.
It’s decorated with Meg’s signature farm-chic style and when I stayed there for a few nights in August, I had some fantastic roommates: Robin Taber of Blue Door Farm in Grand Junction — a flower farmer-friend of Meg’s who drove all the way across the state to join us and to attend the Field to Vase Dinner in Longmont — and Andrea Grist of Andrea K. Grist Floral Design, who flew to Denver from her Kansas City home base, and jumped in to help with all our Slow Flowers events. What a fun weekend!
Some of the goodies inside Red Daisy Farm’s barn store (c) Andrea K. Grist photography
Red Daisy Farm is a flower farm supplying local DIY brides and floral designers. There is a huge barn filled with vintage and antique treasures — ideal for shabby chic, cottage decor, and people in search of architectural salvage! Meg and her sister Erin host Barn Sales and are also open by appointment. How perfect that you might find an elderly ceramic pitcher in the barn and then be able to take home bunches of dahlias, roses, lisianthus, zinnias, sunflowers or cosmos.
The Slow Flowers Colorado Meet-Up at Red Daisy farm drew farmers and florists from across the Front Range, the Western Slope and beyond (c) Andrea K. Grist photography
The lawn adjacent to Terry and Meg’s farmhouse is the perfect setting for outdoor dining, and this is where we all gathered as a Slow Flowers Community (c) Andrea K. Grist photography
Terry Baumann, partner, husband and chef!
A highlight of my visit was the Friday night Slow Flowers Meet-Up, a beautiful al fresco gathering complete with delicious barbecue by Terry Bauman and conversation with new and old friends, centering around Slow Flowers and the ways that farmers and florists can collaborate. That was a very special evening, complete with a guided tour of Red Daisy Farm and amazing Colorado twilight.
Thanks for joining today’s conversation. I was particularly struck by one thing Megan said as she explained why she hosted a Slow Flowers Meet-up: She said, “I need a network; I really want to get a community together of local Colorado farmers and florists; I want us to come together and make a success of local flowers.”
If you feel a similar urge, then this is precisely why the Slow Flowers community is for you.
Please consider joining Meg and hundreds of other flower farmers and floral designers who value the networking, the connections, the business opportunities and marketing resources that come from your investment in Slowflowers.com. Follow the link to our “create a listing” page and get involved!
You can also find and follow Meg McGuire at these social places:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OREGON FLOWER FARMERS!
Today, September 28th, marks a special birthday in our Slow Flowers Community.
The Oregon Flower Growers Association is celebrating its 75th anniversary today. Since 1941, the Oregon Flower Growers Association has been providing local flower growers a place to sell. You can hear the history of the OFGA in an podcast episode with 3rd generation rose grower Sandra Peterkort Laubenthal, now the board president, in a podcast interview recorded two years ago. Congratulations to the flower farmers and the flower loving Portland business owners who shop there
What a milestone for local flowers!
The Slow Flowers Podcast has been downloaded more than 120,000 times by listeners like you. THANK YOU to each one of you for downloading, listening, commenting and sharing. It means so much.
Thank you to our lead sponsor for 2016: Certified American Grown Flowers. The Certified American-Grown program and label provide a guarantee for designers and consumers on the source of their flowers. Take pride in your flowers and buy with confidence, ask for Certified American Grown Flowers. To learn more visit americangrownflowers.org.
More sponsor thanks goes to Syndicate Sales, an American manufacturer of vases and accessories for the professional florist. Look for the American Flag Icon to find Syndicate’s USA-made products and join the Syndicate Stars loyalty program at syndicatesales.com.
A big bouquet of thanks goes to Longfield Gardens… providing 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. Visit them at lfgardens.com.
A fond thank you Arctic Alaska Peonies, a cooperative of 50 family farms in the heart of Alaska providing high quality, American Grown peony flowers during the months of July and August. Visit them today at arcticalaskapeonies.com
And finally, Welcome to our new sponsor, the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers. Formed in 1988, ASCFG was created to educate, unite, and support commercial cut flower growers. It mission is to help growers produce high-quality floral material, and to foster and promote the local availability of that product. Learn more at ascfg.org
Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more American grown flowers on the table, one vase at a time. And If you like what you hear, please consider logging onto Itunes and posting a listener review.
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.
The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew and Hannah Brenlan. Learn more about their work at shellandtree.com.
September 26th, 2018 at 3:42 am
[…] The DBG group gathered for a farm tour with Meg, followed by a delicious lunch and a hands-on floral design workshop that I taught, using gorgeous flowers, herbs and foliage from the farm. Meg is a past guest of this podcast. […]
February 20th, 2019 at 7:39 am
[…] I first met Robin through her friend and fellow Colorado flower farmer, Megan McGuire of Red Daisy Farm, a Slow Flowers member and past guest of this podcast. […]
September 11th, 2019 at 8:01 am
[…] in her region, so I was doubly impressed that she flew to Denver to network with others at the Slow Flowers meet-up and BBQ hosted by Red Daisy’s Megan McGuire for Colorado flower farmers and florists. Laura and I […]