Episode 305: American Flowers Week Recap & Rebecca Reed of David Austin Roses
July 12th, 2017
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David Austin English Garden Roses are becoming more important than ever as cut flowers for floral design.
This week we’re continuing to celebrate the success of the third annual American Flowers Week, while also hearing from Rebecca Bull Reed, U.S. Sales Executive for David Austin Roses, this week’s guest.
I’m so pleased that Rebecca agreed to lecture on David Austin Garden Roses to the florists and farmers of the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market this past spring. I was able to record Rebecca’s presentation in late April and I’ve been waiting for the perfect time to share it with you.
But first, let’s wrap up the news of American Flowers Week! I have new campaign numbers to share — 5 million and counting! That’s the social media impressions generated by YOU and YOUR Instagram & Twitter Posts in the past 30 days!! #AmericanFlowersWeek has exploded — just like fireworks!
Rita Anders of Cuts of Color in Weimar, Texas, delivered American Flowers Week bouquets and bunches to Central Market stores in Houston.
In our third year, participation in AFW more than tripled the impressions generated last year, putting #americanflowersweek on the map in all 50 states!
[Imagine the true metrics if Facebook let us track hashtags? Just sayin’!]
Thank you to each one who joined in! The Slow Flowers Community has the momentum to effect change in the marketplace, so continue posting and sharing the #slowflowers message every week of the year!
Tammy Meyers of First & Bloom outside Seattle created a beautiful styled photo shoot for American Flowers Week.
The 3rd Annual American Flowers Week has come to a close and it was our best ever! With participation across the U.S. in all sectors of the floral industry, this New Floral Holiday is waving the flag and making a splash from coast to coast.
This year, Slow Flowers, which presents American Flowers Week, commissioned five floral-inspired fashion shoots depicting iconic American grown blooms. The designers who contributed their creativity and artistic talents teamed up with generous flower farms that donated stems straight from their fields and greenhouses.
Four of the five looks are shown above. We’re saving the final look to feature in an article that will appear in the August 2017 issue of Florists’ Review — so stay tuned for the big reveal! Our All-American floral looks would never have been possible without the support of Slow Flowers’ sponsors, including Certified American Grown, Arctic Alaska Peony Cooperative, Longfield Gardens, Syndicate Sales, Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, Johnny’s Selected Seeds and Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers.
Flower farmers and floral designers threw design, education and arranging parties around the country during American Flowers Week. This signage announced the Zinnia-themed design event staged by the new Lowcountry Flower Growers at a Charleston, S.C.-area farmers market.
American Flowers Week inspired grocery stores like Town & Country Markets and New Seasons in the Pacific Northwest, Central Market in the Houston area and Whole Foods Markets in the Mid-Atlantic region. Farmer groups in the Southeast, in Maryland, in New York’s Hudson Valley staged flower arranging parties and partnered with creative florists, continuing to build community and educate floral designers and consumers in their marketplaces.
Get out your crayons: Our American Flowers Week Map of State Flowers!
In other places, florists created beautiful styled shoots and designed promotions to benefit charities, like Kathleen Barber of Erika’s Fresh Flowers, whose flowers raised funds for Northwest Battle Buddies, a nonprofit partnering combat veterans with professionally trained dogs.
The media paid attention, too, with feature articles appearing in leading trade magazine Florists’ Review and a beautiful spread by Janet Eastman in The Oregonian.
Be sure to check out our show notes and links to posts at AmericanFlowersWeek.com to see beautiful photographs of campaigns, photo shoots, inspired posts and other resources. And stay tuned for next month when we announced plans for 2018 and how you can get involved in the planning for even more exciting ways to promote you, your flower farm and your floral designs!
Rebecca Reed, US Sales Executive for David Austin Garden Roses
Next up, Rebecca Bull Reed of David Austin Roses. I’ve known Rebecca as a professional friend for years — dating back to 2002, 3 and 4 when I was just getting started with my garden writing career and Rebecca was a garden designer who worked in sales at one of my favorite shops in town called Herban Pottery.
We continued our friendship through the Garden Writers Association after Rebecca moved to the Southeast to join Southern Living Magazine as a garden editor there for nearly a decade. We would see one another at annual GWA symposia and I always wished there was a way to reconnect with her more than once in a while. I was so excited when Rebecca returned to the Pacific Northwest in 2014, where she is now based as the US Sales Executive for David Austin Roses.
She is an accomplished horticulturist and garden communicator specializing in David Austin English Roses, bare root roses, own root roses, sales, marketing, project management, lifestyle publishing, photo shoot story production, instructional writing, garden design, product promotion, education, and public speaking.
I’ve seen so many of the David Austin’s garden roses at the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, most of which are supplied as cut flowers by Dawn Severin of All My Thyme, a past guest of this podcast. Hearing from Rebecca may make you want to go back and listen to last year’s interview with Dawn — you’ll be inspired to add more David Austin garden roses to your cutting garden or flower farm — and to incorporate these beauties into your floral designs.
Find/follow David Austin Roses at these social places:
David Austin Roses on Facebook
David Austin Roses on Pinterest
David Austin Roses on Instagram
Rebecca generously shared some of her lecture slides for me to post here.
Thanks so much for joining me today. It has been a crazy month and I’m so pleased that you have joined the conversation to hear from leading voices in the Slow Flowers Movement.
The Slow Flowers Podcast has been downloaded nearly 210,000 times by listeners like you. Thank you to each one of you for downloading, listening, commenting and sharing. It means so much.
If you value the content you receive each week, I invite you to show your thanks and support the Slow Flowers Podcast with a donation — the button can be found on our home page in the right column. Your contributions will help make it possible to transcribe future episodes of the Podcast.
Thank you to family of sponsors:
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
Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, a farmer-owned cooperative committed to providing the very best the Pacific Northwest has to offer in cut flowers, foliage and plants. The Growers Market’s mission is to foster a vibrant marketplace that sustains local flower farms and provides top-quality products and service to the local floral industry. Find them at seattlewholesalegrowersmarket.com
Longfield Gardens provides 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.
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.
Johnny’s Selected Seeds, an employee-owned company that provides our industry the best flower, herb and vegetable seeds — supplied to farms large and small and even backyard cutting gardens like mine. Check them out at johnnysseeds.com.
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
I’m Debra Prinzing, host and producer of the Slow Flowers Podcast. 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 Brenlan. Learn more about his work at KineticTreeFitness.com.
Wingspan
July 19th, 2017 at 8:40 am
[…] popular roses for both the landscape and floral arranging and if you haven’t listened yet, head on over to Episode 305. It’s the perfect lead-in for today’s equally fabulous topic: […]