Episode 792: Floral Foraging from your backyard with landscape designer and horticulturist Susan Ryan of Gardendigs
October 28th, 2026
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In late August, I joined other members of the Northwest Horticultural Society for a special event in Susan Ryan’s Tacoma residential garden. We learned her philosophy around designing florals from the landscape and created a seasonal floral arrangement using familiar and uncommon design ingredients. I was there to introduce and interview Susan, as the two of us discussed her garden-gathered approach to floral design. Susan led us on a walking tour as she described some of her favorite ornamental shrubs, perennials, vines, and annuals suitable for cutting. She encouraged gardeners to experiment with plants that may not be common floral design ingredients and showed how she relies on greenery and leaf texture to build structure in the vase. Today’s episode shares a peek into Susan’s garden and how she created a lush vase arrangement from plants at her fingertips — no special trip to the flower market for this experience.
Susan Ryan is an APLD Certified Landscape Designer and Certified Professional Horticulturist and owner of Tacoma-based Gardendigs. She served 12 years as a community Master Gardener and studied extensively at South Seattle College in the landscape design, construction and horticulture department. Susan holds a BFA in Interior Design and her interiors have earned awards and been featured in numerous publications. She is a Northwest Flower & Garden Festival Gold Medal Show Garden winner.
A Slow Flowers member since 2025, Susan’s business model combines everything that I’m also drawn to, namely landscape design and floral design. Love of nature and a desire to create beauty led her interior design and textiles interest to expand outdoors and design a hybrid business model that makes total sense to me. Clients come to Gardendigs for nature-inspired floristry; site visits and coaching for residential gardens; and garden design and styling. There is a lot of education woven through these services, because Susan wants to empower and encourage her clients to have a deeper relationship with their own small parcel of yard or garden.
Today’s episode will introduce you to Susan during a short Q&A I led at a late-August workshop in her garden. Thanks so much to Gillian Mathews and Sue Goetz of the Northwest Horticultural Society for inviting me to be part of the morning in Susan’s backyard – and for participating in the fun. After the Q&A, you’ll enjoy the walking tour that Susan led through her property in a historic Tacoma neighborhood, followed by her design demonstration featuring just-clipped elements. Be sure to check our show notes for details on the “slow pottery” that Susan commissioned for workshop participants to use and bring home – I especially loved this aspect of the event.
Follow Susan Ryan of Gardendigs on Instagram and Facebook
Slow Flowers Summit 2027 — Ticket Sales Open on November 1st
Top Row: Leslie Bennett, Melissa Olson, Nichole Skalski, and Hannah Muller
Center Row: Alana and Michael Karam
Bottom Row: Jacqueline Pham, Kristine Albrecht, Jennifer McClendon, and Jim Salyards
Head’s up for all of you interested in the Slow Flowers Summit for 2027! This coming week, on Sunday, November 1st, we will open up Early-Bird ticket sales with a $100 off savings at both membership and general levels.
You can click over to slowflowerssummit.com to check out the speaker lineup, the program, the venue at Filoli Historic House and Garden in the SF Bay Area. Also, we’re offering you the chance to manage your payments through Klarna – a new feature for the Summit.
And, I’m very excited to announce our special Oakland Flower Lovers Garden Tour, a separately-ticketed private tour that will take place on Wednesday, June 23rd, the day following the Summit. We’ve designed a small-group tour of Oakland area residential gardens and studios of four of our members, including Pilar Zuniga of Gorgeous and Green; Leslie Bennett of Pine House Edible Gardens and Black Sanctuary Gardens; Max Gill of Max Gill Design, and Sarah Reyes of Wildflower & Fern. The day includes round-trip transportation from Filoli and includes a catered taqueria lunch. Plus floral design demonstrations and a chance to geek out in garden spaces. You must be registered for the Summit to register for the garden tour – all the details can be found at slowflowerssummit.com.
Thank you to our Sponsors
This show is brought to you by slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to florists, shops, and studios who design with local, seasonal and sustainable flowers and to the farms that grow those blooms. It’s the conscious choice for buying and sending flowers.
And thank you to our lead sponsor, My Patio Tree: Expertly Grown Plants, Perfectly Designed to Elevate Your Garden. Their second-generation family tree farm has curated the best-performing, cutting-edge, multi-zone varieties to enhance your garden, patio or special event. Every tree purchased supports Plant With Purpose, a nonprofit organization that restores hope by reversing global poverty and environmental damage. Learn more at mypatiotree.com.
Our first sponsor thanks goes to 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. Find the full catalog of flower seeds and bulbs at johnnyseeds.com.
Thank you to Charles Little & Company for supplying our industry with some of the most beautiful and sustainably-grown design ingredients, available nationwide through their website at charleslittleandcompany.com. Based in Eugene, Oregon, the farmers at Charles Little & Company have been growing and drying flowers since 1986. New products and dried flower collections are added to their website at the first of each month. Check it out at charleslittleandcompany.com.
The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 1.6 million times by listeners like you. Thank you for listening, commenting and sharing – it means so much. As our movement gains more supporters and more passionate participants who believe in the importance of our domestic cut flower industry, the momentum is contagious. I know you feel it, too. If you’re new to our weekly Show and our long-running Podcast, check out all of our resources at SlowFlowersSociety.com.
I’m Debra Prinzing, host and producer of the Slow Flowers Show & Podcast. The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. 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. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one stem, one vase at a time. Thanks so much for joining us today and I’ll see you next week!
Music credits:
Drone Pine; Gaena; Crown of September
by Blue Dot Sessions
http://www.sessions.blue
Lovely
by Tryad
http://tryad.bandcamp.com/album/instrumentals
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
In The Field
audionautix.com