Episode 794: Meet Slow Flowers Summit’s Floral Takeover Leadership with author and designer Teresa Sabankaya and local flower wholesaler Kelly Shore of The Floral Source
November 11th, 2026
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We just launched Early Bird ticket sales for the 2027 Slow Flowers Summit, which will take place next year — June 20-22. In addition to lectures, panels, and demonstrations, the Slow Flowers Summit is a showcase for locally-grown and American-grown flowers, sustainable design and education, and a celebration of the season character of flowers. Creatives who attend the 2027 Summit will bring their artistry to the event, inspired by the landscape and historic residence at our host venue, Filoli Historic House & Gardens in the SF Bay Area – and YOU are invited to join in this enriching experience! Today, my two guests and I discuss all the details of our Floral Takeover, as we preview this signature feature of the Summit. You’ll hear from Santa Cruz-based Teresa Sabankaya, who is taking the lead on creative direction and will handle planning and coordination with the Filoli staff. And you’ll hear from floral designer Kelly Shore. Through her company THE FLORAL SOURCE, Kelly is coordinating the major floral donations and contributions that will ensure we have beautiful, high-quality, fresh botanicals for the Floral Takeover. The Floral Source is a 100% American grown, farm-direct wholesale broker and we’re so happy to partner with Kelly to make the floral takeover a don’t-miss success!
The 2027 Slow Flowers Summit will be our 10th annual conference and I’m anticipating an unforgettable experience. Today’s conversation with Kelly Shore and Teresa Sabankaya discusses all of the moving parts of such an ambitious undertaking, one involving more than 100 participants and thousands of stems of flowers – when we converge to together create floral installations and displays at the Filoli estate’s 56-room, 54,256-square-foot Georgian Revival Style mansion, originally constructed between 1915-1917.
Teresa has a deep familiarity with Filoli Historic House & Garden, having taught and designed there over the years. She was a featured speaker at our first Slow Flowers Summit in 2017 and she also presented when we gathered at Filoli in 2021. I asked Teresa to describe her approach to the Floral Takeover, and she said: “Not only is it exciting that this is the 10th anniversary of the Summit, but how cool is it that we’ll be together at Filoli, which is listed on The National Trust of Historic Places. It’s amazing that we get to fill the mansion with Slow Flowers! Also, I’m thrilled to learn more about Filoli’s English Renaissance-style gardens, which are described as “remarkably well-preserved as one of the few surviving and best examples of the style in the world.”
Like Teresa, Kelly Shore is an established floral designer whose studio, Petals by the Shore is based on the values of Slow Flowers, including using foam-free mechanics. She was a presenter at our 2018 Slow Flowers Summit in Washington, D.C. and she is the founder of The Floral Source, a farm-direct wholesale supplier to floral designers and farmer-florists in need of local and American grown botanicals.
A note about the “Bring a Bucket” program. Everyone attending the Slow Flowers Summit is invited (and encouraged) to bring flowers to share! This invitation mostly applies if you live, garden, or farm close enough to drive to Filoli. Please consider bring your season’s best blooms and donating one or more buckets to be featured in the Floral Takeover. In exchange, floral donations will be featured in Slow Flowers Summit social media tags, your company logo will be featured in our Floral Roundup.
The first to donate in this manner include speakers Kristine Albrecht of Santa Cruz Dahlias, Hannah Muller of Full Belly Farm, and Alanna and Michael Karam of Willamette Willows. We’re thrilled that our speakers’ fields will enhance our floral takeover. You and your flowers can join in the fun!
Thanks so much for joining us today! This podcast is committed to shining a light and amplifying the voices of our members, celebrating the many stories of this community, stories as diverse as each of you. Be sure to get in touch with either Kelly or Teresa – especially to indicate your interest in the Floral Takeover.
Contact Kelly Shore of Petals by the Shore and The Floral Source: kelly@petalsbytheshore.com
Author and Designer Teresa Sabankaya: teresa@teresasabankaya.com
Join Us: November 13th Slow Flowers Member Meet-Up
In Slow Flowers news, coming up, this Friday, November 13th, we are hosting a Member Meet-Up and you’re invited to join this free online event, 9 am Pacific, Noon Eastern. The topic: SCALING YEAR-ROUND PREMIUM FLORICULTURE Production, With Sarah Daken and Tom Precht of Grateful Gardeners
Tom is an accomplished professional with a robust background in sustainable farming, scientific research, and sales. As VP and co-founder of Grateful Gardeners and Floraponics, he successfully managed a thriving cut flower farm with over $310,000 in annual revenue, cultivating more than 200 flower varieties. His expertise spans organic farming, aquaponics, controlled environment agriculture, and customer relationship management. Sarah is an accomplished legal professional and entrepreneur with extensive expertise in law and sustainable agriculture. As President and Co-Founder of Grateful Gardeners and Floraponics, she established a thriving organic and aquaponic cut flower farm, showcasing her proficiency in organic farming, sales, marketing, and inventory management.
Learn from Sarah and Tom as they share an update on Floraponics, Grateful Gardeners‘ sister business. Fueled by several years of R&D and hands-on farm trialing, their venture taps into technology and innovation to solve some of the principal challenges to year-round domestic floral production. Tom and Sarah will address how the U.S. floral market is collapsing under carbon costs and transit times — major barriers to delivering premium floral products affordably. They will walk us through Floraponics and Grateful Gardeners’ goal of achieving climate independence, a closed-loop ecosystem, and EV floral delivery.
The Meet-Up will be a 1-hour introduction to the future potential for a more sustainable domestic floral supply. Bring your questions! You must pre-register to join us — use the button below to pre-register.
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 final sponsor thanks goes to Rooted Farmers. Rooted Farmers works exclusively with local growers to put the highest-quality specialty cut flowers in floral customers’ hands. When you partner with Rooted Farmers, you are investing in your community, and you can expect a commitment to excellence in return. Learn more at RootedFarmers.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.
Thanks so much for joining us today. 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; Paper Feather
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