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The cover story of Slow Flowers Journal’s spring issue – published in early May — features an editorial-style photoshoot of a wedding at the top of Catamount Mountain in New York’s Berkshires. The florals for this beautiful production were designed by Rebekah Mindel of Meadow Wilds, today’s guest – and if you haven’t seen or read my story yet, I’d love to share it with you to it today – and introduce the creative farmer-florist who brought a botanical sensibility to her collaboration with planner Lisa Jaroscak Chin of Elegante Weddings and Events. I introduced the story as follows: As a wedding designer who grows many of her own botanicals and also sources from local farms, Rebekah Mindel’s floral vision reflects the couple’s aesthetic, while capturing the character of the ceremony’s place, venue, and natural setting. Her manifesto appears on Meadow Wilds’ website and includes this statement: “The Meadow Wilds process is collaborative and visionary. We design with an artist’s eye, pulling inspiration from the natural world, sensory experiences, all of earth’s fine details, and of course, love.” Join me in a conversation with Rebekah to learn about how the connection between place and design informs her studio.

Designing the florals for an editorial-styled photoshoot that portrays a spring wedding presented Rebekah Mindel of Meadow Wilds a chance to work creatively in a unique place, full of elemental power. As she told me: “The ceremony’s stunning location was literally on top of a mountain. Windblown textures and the expansive feeling of grand vistas became central aspects of the floral design.” The collaboration with planner Lisa Jaroscak Chin, Columbia Tent Rentals and photographer Molly McCauley was a rare opportunity for Rebekah to realize her vision with rare creative freedom.

• Vendor Credits:
• Planning: @_eleganteweddingsandevents
• Venue: @catamountevents @catamountmtnresort
• Photography: @mollymccauley_photo
• Videography: @magicflutephotovideo
• Rentals: @columbiatentrentals
• Florals: @meadowwilds
• Stationery: @hudsonvalleyletterpress
• Dress Boutique: @mira_couture
• Dresses: @marchesabridal 
• Tuxedo: @galxndrstyle
• Hair and Make Up: @bridalbyalexandria 
• Stylist: @francesca_stylist.to.the.bride
• Cake: @cakesbyashleeo
• Shoes: @jimmychoo
• Talent: @olviyaaaaa @_thomasmichael

For the floral aesthetic, Rebekah drew from ornamental shrubs on her farm to create structure, volume, and texture in several stately urns and ground arrangements. Flowering bulbs and perennials from her fields, and from fellow Hudson Valley growers added to the floral recipe. A wide variety of branches, including ninebark and viburnum, created the necessary scale, while an ephemeral, earthy spectrum of apricot, mauve, plum, and chartreuse greens added detail and interest. Allium, foxglove, lupine, tulips, peonies, columbine, and other local blooms play against baptisia foliage, while cultivated and wild-foraged ingredients reflect the beauty of place and time.

“I think the fact that I’m a grower allows me to bring more of an organic quality to this project,” Rebekah explains. I wanted to share it with our listeners and readers – and I especially wanted to introduce Rebekah’s floral aesthetic and her collaboration with other creatives to produce a wedding photo shoot that benefitted each. Click below for the Spring 2026 issue of Slow Flowers Journal and read the story about Rebekah’s project, along with an inspiring collection of real weddings that celebrate local flowers from our Slow Flowers members.

In our conversation, you’ll also learn about Rebekah’s journey to flowers and together we remember an important mentor of hers, Melissa Glorieux of Aster B. Flowers. I’ve also added a link to the June 2016 Podcast Episode 252 – “Bouquets Grown in Massachusetts with Melissa Glorieux of Aster B. Flowers” – which introduces Melissa and her pioneering work in the Slow Flowers movement.

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.

Thank you to our lead sponsor, Flowerbulb.eu and their U.S. lily bulb vendors. One of the most recognizable flowers in the world, the lily is a top-selling cut flower, offering long-lasting blooms, year-round availability, and a dazzling petal palette. Flowerbulb.eu has partnered with Slow Flowers to provide beautiful lily inspiration and farming resources to help growers and florists connect their customers with more lilies. Learn more at Flowerbulb.eu.

Thank you to the Seattle 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. Visit them at seattlegrowersmarket.com.

Our next sponsor thanks goes to Longfield Gardens, which 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. Check out the full catalog at Longfield Gardens at longfield-gardens.com.

Thank you for joining me today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 1.5 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; Color Country
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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

Back in 2018, we included Retail Garden Centers Adding Floral Design Services as one of our trends to watch in the annual Slow Flowers Floral Insights and Industry Forecast. I noted the early wave of retail nurseries and garden centers opening or reviving in-house floral shops with a distinctly local emphasis.As it turns out, that’s the year that Delisa Hiel joined Gardenwerks, an established retail nursery and landscape design business in Helena, Montana, founded by her father-in-law Michael Hiel. Gardenwerks is truly a family affair, with Delisa’s husband Peter Hiel serving as designer and foreman on the landscape side of the business. Delisa dreamed up, installed and now manages Gardenwerks flower farm, essentially creating a sister business that extends the nursery brand and provides a new suite of plants and design services to the community. I recently connected with Delisa to discuss her approach to flower farming and floral design, as she shares a fantastic model that brings together horticulture and floriculture with intentionality.

The flower farm at Gardenwerks grows more than 100 fresh cut flower varieties one important facet of the long-established full-service nursery, landscape design-build business. From the months of March through September, under the management of head flower farmer Delisa Hiel, Gardenwerks offers unique, seasonal fresh flowers and produces artisanal, natural designs for weddings and special events in Helena and the surrounding area. In the off season, customers can find beautiful dried flowers and increasingly, season-extention offerings like winter-forced tulips.

I recently spoke with Delisa about her family’s nursery business, as we touch on the “symbiosis” that brings together flowers and plants in harmony. The economics of growing cut flower crops and raising cutting garden plants under the same roof as a landscape nursery seems obvious to me, but I always question why more garden centers are missing out on the market potential of flowers. I think it boils down to personnel. You can’t just throw a talented landscaper onto the flower farm setting and expect them to magically grow and design blooms that resonate with the floral marketplace. Luckily for Gardenwerks, which has served Helena for decades, Delisa Hiel joined the family and brought her horticulture, design, and floriculture expertise to the company. I’m excited to share her story with you today.

It’s so inspiring to see how a nursery and garden center like Gardenwerks has included flower farming and floral design services in the mix – I wish more independent garden centers would recognize the potential of this model. Thanks to Delisa for sharing her story and perhaps stimulating more conversation around flower-growing as a revenue center in the green industry.

Find and follow Gardenwerks Nursery and Gardenwerks Flower Farm on Instagram and Gardenwerks on Facebook.

Thank you to our Sponsors

This show is brought to you by slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 700 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.

Thank you to our lead sponsor, Flowerbulb.eu and their U.S. lily bulb vendors. One of the most recognizable flowers in the world, the lily is a top-selling cut flower, offering long-lasting blooms, year-round availability, and a dazzling petal palette. Flowerbulb.eu has partnered with Slow Flowers to provide beautiful lily inspiration and farming resources to help growers and florists connect their customers with more lilies. Learn more at Flowerbulb.eu.

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.

Thank you to My Patio Tree: Expertly Grown Plants, Perfectly Designed to Elevate Your Garden. This 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.

Thank you for joining me today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 1.5 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; Golden Grass
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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

We’ve recently highlighted Slow Flowers members who serve not only the professional floral market, but the home gardener in search of cut flowers, flower seedlings, education, and inspiration. Capturing the attention of this often-overlooked population is not hard these days. Home gardeners and flower lovers are avid followers of social media’s influential growers and designers.They are the principal buyers of books about cut flower gardening and about growing specific types of flowers, as well as the shoppers who eagerly line up to buy cutting garden plants not always seen at garden centers. After hosting several recent episodes on this theme, I continue the conversation in today’s episode with Xenia D’Ambrosi of Sweet Earth Co. Xenia shares how she developed an online course, The Eco-Friendly Cutting Garden, to teach students how to plant a backyard flower garden that benefits the environment. The course evolved from a series of in-person, on-farm workshops, adapted for an online format to serve a wider population of cutting garden students. Xenia discusses how she developed the course, the demographic of her students, and the ways this course reinforces her brand as a sustainable cut flower grower and designer.

Here’s an excerpt from The Flower Farmers, the 2025 book I co-authored with Robin Avni. One of the 29 flower farmers featured in its pages is today’s guest, Xenia D’Ambrosi of Sweet Earth Co.

We wrote:
. . . in 2010, a cancer diagnosis altered everything for Xenia D’Ambrosi. “It was a life-changing event,” recalls the woman who at the time worked on Wall Street in finance. While going through her cancer treatments, Xenia began her own version of horticultural therapy. “I started to reconsider what I wanted to do and how I wanted to take care of myself and my family.”

She embraced eating locally and gardening. “I volunteered at some local farms and I truly believe that having my hands in the soil healed me.” She also studied at New York Botanical Garden for a certificate in gardening with a focus on sustainable design and began to create edible landscapes for others in her community. She grew vegetables and herbs for both her family and for private chefs and formed Sweet Earth Co. in 2012. A few years later, she added cutting garden design and transformed the kids’ playfield into a “farmstead,” a thriving teaching farm filled with an acre of cut flowers, which grown for commercial use.

Xenia D’Ambosi used the farm as a backdrop for the mini-sessions she films and posts to Sweet Earth Co.’s YouTube channel. These have led to her signature online course, The Eco-Friendly Cutting Garden, created for avid gardeners and beginning flower growers. The six-module course connects Xenia with people all around the country, as she teaches how to plan, plant, harvest, and maintain a productive cutting garden that supplies a steady supply of bouquets.

Xenia recently appeared as our April Slow Flowers Member Meet-Up expert as she shared with others in the Slow Flowers community the background behind creating her online course. With an MBA and a background in business and marketing, it’s fascinating to learn how she evaluated Sweet Earth Co.’s assets and created a digital product to help scale her expertise. I’m sure you’ll find yourself asking, “what expertise do I have that could be packaged into an educational product or experience?” There are so many fantastic takeaways from Xenia’s session, so be sure to take notes!

Find and follow Sweet Earth Co. on Instagram and Facebook
Register for The Eco-Friendly Cutting Garden, Xenia’s online course. $100-off course discount: SLOWFLOWERS

Thank you to our Sponsors

This show is brought to you by slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 700 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.

Thank you to our lead sponsor, Flowerbulb.eu and their U.S. lily bulb vendors. One of the most recognizable flowers in the world, the lily is a top-selling cut flower, offering long-lasting blooms, year-round availability, and a dazzling petal palette. Flowerbulb.eu has partnered with Slow Flowers to provide beautiful lily inspiration and farming resources to help growers and florists connect their customers with more lilies. Learn more at Flowerbulb.eu.

Thank you 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.

Thank you 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 for joining me today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 1.5 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; Come On Over
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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

Megan Homewood is the owner, lead designer, and grower at House Flowers. She combines a diverse design experience and a passion for sustainable floristry to inform her seasonal, romantic design style. Inspired by the transient beauty of seasonal flowers and the dynamic landscape of the Pacific Northwest, she loves growing and designing with unique elements to create events that embody a particular place and time. Prior to settling in Shelton, a town at the gateway to Washington’s Olympic National Forest and known for its famous oysters and logging industries, Megan worked as the lead florist at a show garden in Alaska and managed floral installation projects for large events at some of Chicago’s most iconic venues. Her background as a studio manager and lead designer have given her the experience needed to produce stunning events in any environment. I recently made the lovely spring drive to visit Shelton and spent time interviewing and filming Megan in her jewel box-sized flower shop at 211 West Cota Street.

As I described at the top of this show, I recently took a drive about 65 miles to the south of me, towards Washington’s Highway 101 to the town of Shelton. It was such a delight to step inside House Flowers, a tiny little flower shop owned by Megan Homewood, a Slow Flowers member, farmer-florist, and small business entrepreneur.

Megan and I met in person last fall during an event for The Flower Farmers and there she introduced me to her friend Isa Radojcic, owner of Marmo Cafe, a neighboring Shelton business described as an alternative arts organization with a caffè and shop. Marmo was one of Megan’s CSA floral pickup locations, and it was Isa who urged Megan to “open a flower shop” in the tiny storefront just two doors down from Marmo. I love the passion that these two bring to their little street. They’re the impetus for helping attract other businesses, including a few nearby eateries. They collaborate with others to produce an annual summer Arts Walk and are working to establish Shelton as a Certified Creative District, a program that helps Washington state communities into arts and culture destinations.

This is the life of solo creatives, and I thoroughly enjoyed visiting both House Flowers and stopping by Marmo before I left for my drive home. I will be back to spend more time – and If you come to the Seattle-Tacoma area, remember to plan a trip. As Megan points out, Shelton is filled with tourists in the summer months, when people from around the globe to the famed Olympic National Forest pass through the town.

Shelton Resources:
The beautiful mural with an elegant, oversized fritillaria that you see behind Megan in the video interview was painted by her friend Molly Wheat Baker, a PNW illustrator and painter. You can follow her at @mollywheatbaker.

When in Shelton, please visit Caffè Marmo, the cafe, gallery, and shop on Cota Street – owned by Megan’s friend Isa. Follow Marmo here.

Find and follow House Flowers on Instagram and Facebook.

Thank you to our Sponsors

This show is brought to you by slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 700 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.

Thank you to our lead sponsor, Flowerbulb.eu and their U.S. lily bulb vendors. One of the most recognizable flowers in the world, the lily is a top-selling cut flower, offering long-lasting blooms, year-round availability, and a dazzling petal palette. Flowerbulb.eu has partnered with Slow Flowers to provide beautiful lily inspiration and farming resources to help growers and florists connect their customers with more lilies. Learn more at Flowerbulb.eu.

Thank you to the Seattle 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. Visit them at seattlegrowersmarket.com.

Our next sponsor thanks goes to Longfield Gardens, which 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. Check out the full catalog at Longfield Gardens at longfield-gardens.com.

Thank you for joining me today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 1.5 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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

Collective flower selling is on the rise and we continue to see numerous models across the continent and even abroad. The origin comes from traditional farmers’ markets and has since diversified to include cooperatives, co-marketing ventures and solo-run farmer-to-florist hubs. The structures reflect the desires and business objectives of their founders, and today you’ll hear from Colleen McCoole Payne, co-founder and chief administrator of the Kansas City Flower Farmers Wholesale Market. The KC Flower Farmers Wholesale Market is a mouthful, but was intentionally named to distinguish this venture in the local market. Colleen owns FarmStrong Flowers, a regenerative specialty cut flower farm in Bucyrus, Kansas. I recently spoke with her about the market model she and 21 fellow growers have developed, which she describes to florists as similar to shopping a farmers market and paying for the product from each farm that they buy from. The Market has a new lease and a new location, and as Colleen says, “it’s still a work in progress and we are evolving to make it work better!” 

More than 20 flower farmers in Kansas City, Missouri, and in Kansas City, Kansas, and beyond are part of the KC Flower Farmers Wholesale Market, now in its fourth year as a wholesale collective serving approximately 200 floral customers from operations on both side of the Missouri-Kansas state line. The woman behind this endeavor, Colleen McCoole Payne, a Kansas grower and owner of FarmStrong Flowers, joined me recently to record today’s interview.

The group has signed a lease to move into a permanent location, a cause for celebration after numerous temporary and pop-up sites in past seasons. Colleen and I dive right into discussing the unique model developed for this specific flower hub. And you’ll have thoughts, I’m sure – especially if you’re part of a collective or cooperative yourself.

Here’s a bit of the narrative, as was posted on the market’s Instagram account: “Every year we searched high and low for that perfect landing spot. So much gratitude goes out to the locations we placed our buckets in prior to finding our dream space. We truly were bootstrapping it those first three years.

We could not have come this far selling our locally-grown flowers wholesale without our fabulous buyers. So many of you have embraced our products and encouraged us to keep growing. We hope to become your one-stop shop for quality, locally-grown flowers. In other news, the market has open hours two days per week —  Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 AM to 1 PM. Also added: what they believe is the first-ever VIP buyer option for 24-hour self-serve access to “Shopping the Cooler” for local flowers and foliage.
The new venue also accommodates floral design work space and cooler space for rent.

Participating Flower Growers:

• Bee & Co. 
• C-Us-Bloom
• Castle Hill Farm
• FarmStrong Flowers
• Fern’s Farmette
• Julie Pal Peonies
• Laura’s Flower Farm
• Long Acre Farm
• Mainstream Meadows
• Morningstar Flower Farm
• Nurturing with Nature 
• Oskaloosa Flower Farm
• Patina Meadows
• Red Barn Blossoms
• Ruthie Mae Blooms
• Shelti Farms
• Soul of Soil Farm
• St. Clair Stems 
• Triple S Homestead
• Whistle Stop Peonies
• Wild Thistle-Flowers
• Wyld Heart Flower Farm 

Find and follow Kansas City Flower Farmers Wholesale Market on Instagram and Facebook
Find and follow FarmStrong Flowers on Instagram (as @laylasmarket) and Facebook

You’re Invited to Join Us: April 10th Member Meet-Up

And head’s up, our April Slow Flowers Member Meet-Up is right around the corner on Friday, April 10^th at 9 am Pacific/Noon Eastern.

You’ll meet farmer-florist Xenia D’Ambrosi of Sweet Earth Co. Xenia will share how she developed an online course, The Eco-Friendly Cutting Garden, to teach students how to plant a backyard flower garden that benefits the environment. The course evolved from a series of in-person , on-farm workshops, adapted to an online format to serve a wider population of cutting garden students. Xenia will discuss how she developed the course, the demographic of her students, and the ways this course reinforces her brand as a sustainable cut flower grower and designer. This meet-up is free to attend, but you must pre-register. Join us to discover new, creative ways to teach home gardeners and share your expertise with a new population of customers. The signup link can be found in the linktree bio on our @slowflowerssociety page on Instagram. Or, click below to RSVP:

Thank you to our Sponsors

This show is brought to you by slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 700 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.

Thank you to our lead sponsor, Flowerbulb.eu and their U.S. lily bulb vendors. One of the most recognizable flowers in the world, the lily is a top-selling cut flower, offering long-lasting blooms, year-round availability, and a dazzling petal palette. Flowerbulb.eu has partnered with Slow Flowers to provide beautiful lily inspiration and farming resources to help growers and florists connect their customers with more lilies. Learn more at Flowerbulb.eu.

Thank you to My Patio Tree: Expertly Grown Plants, Perfectly Designed to Elevate Your Garden. This 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.

Thank you to the Association of Specialty Cut Flowers. The ASCFG is a gathering place for specialty cut flower growers of all levels of experience. It is a hub of knowledge, where seasoned experts and budding enthusiasts come together to learn, share, and support one another. The ASCFG is dedicated to empowering its members with the knowledge and resources needed to thrive in the world of cut flower farming. From educational workshops and conferences to online resources and publications, they provide a wealth of information and support for all things related to growing exceptional cut flowers. Learn more about the ASCFG and how to be a part of it at www.ascfg.org!

Thank you for joining me today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 1.5 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; Come On Over
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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

After several years of farming in an urban space – including on the paved driveway, sidewalk strip, and backyard at her Seattle home – Sarah Nayani has carved out a niche teaching gardeners how to grow a bounty of cut flowers, herbs, and foliages in residential environments. The founder of Grow Girl Seattle, Sarah encourages workshop students to create a thriving home cutting garden by focusing on sustainable techniques and small space growing. She shares the rewards of connecting with the seasons’ rhythms and how flower-growing helps people appreciate the role of pollinators up close. My conversation with Sarah includes the numerous ways her business has transitioned to fit her lifestyle, how she focuses on the parts of farming and floristry that give her the most joy, and income-generating tips for the farmer-florist side hustle.

We have been focused on an inspiring theme here at the Slow Flowers Podcast! For the early weeks of 2026 we’ve been highlighting members who serve not only the professional floral market, but the home gardener in search of cut flowers, flower seedlings, education, and inspiration. Capturing the attention of this often-overlooked population is not hard these days. Home gardeners and flower lovers are avid followers of social media’s influential growers and designers. They are the principal buyers of books about cut flower gardening and about growing specific types of flowers, as well as the shoppers who eagerly line up to buy cutting garden plants at retail prices not always seen at garden centers.

Since the first of the year, we’ve highlighted the voices and stories of a number of people tapping into this major consumer shift. In March alone, we featured Growing Flower Seedlings for Profit, with Kate Skelton of Gratitude Flowers, Carol Wetzel of The Little Farm on Olga Road, and Fawn Rueckert of Sego Lily Flower Farm and Snuck Flowers; and The Beginner’s Cut Flower Garden,” with author Elizabeth Brown of Foxglove Farmhouse.

Our upcoming April 10^th member meetup will feature Xenia D’Ambrosi of Sweet Earth Co., on how she has developed a course called “The Eco-Friendly Cutting Garden,” and you’ve all heard me promote the upcoming May 3^rd Ultimate Cutting Garden Plant Sale, scheduled to take place in partnership with the Seattle Growers Market.

Today’s guest is situated at the convergence of all these topics, as well. I was delighted to recently sit down with Sarah Nayani of Grow Girl Seattle. She is an urban farmer-florist who teaches home gardeners, including members of local garden clubs and horticulture societies, all about starting flowers from seeds and planning their cutting gardens. Sarah enhances the workshop experience by offering her seedlings of hard-to-find, hard-to-grow, and uncommon cool and warm-season annuals. These revenue streams help fund her garden expenses and these events keep Sarah connected with her community.

I joined the audience at Sarah’s fantastic recent workshop sponsored by the Northwest Horticultural Society and held at Seattle’s Dunn Gardens, an exquisite garden whose origins date to 1915 as one of the unique Olmsted-designed landscapes in the Pacific Northwest. Thank you to both organizations for permitting me to attend and use the Dunn Gardens classroom for our recording.

Thanks so much for joining me today. You’ll want to watch the replay video of this session under Episode 762 at slowflowerspodcast.com or on our YouTube channel. If you’re interested in learning more, register for future email notices about events and classes, including how to register for Sarah’s May 30^th workshop at the University of Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture called “Grow a Cut Flower Garden at Home.”

Find and follow Grow Girl Seattle on Instagram

Slow Flowers NEWS

And don’t forget to RSVP to attend our May 3^rd event — the Ultimate Cutting Garden Plant Sale, produced in partnership with the Seattle Growers Market. This is a free event – just bring your wagon and boxes to transport your purchases.

Thank you to our Sponsors

This show is brought to you by slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 700 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.

Thank you to our lead sponsor, Flowerbulb.eu and their U.S. lily bulb vendors. One of the most recognizable flowers in the world, the lily is a top-selling cut flower, offering long-lasting blooms, year-round availability, and a dazzling petal palette. Flowerbulb.eu has partnered with Slow Flowers to provide beautiful lily inspiration and farming resources to help growers and florists connect their customers with more lilies. Learn more at Flowerbulb.eu.

Thank you 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.

Thank you for joining me today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 1.5 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; Town Market
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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

Foxglove Farmhouse is a small, regenerative flower garden in coastal Maine. If you follow the tidal York River from the sea, up along the winding salt marshes to the west side of town, there you will find owner Elizabeth Brown and her flowers. Her purpose is a simple one — to grow sustainable local flowers, and to encourage others to do the same. Elizabeth believes flowers have the power to heal, connect, and bring joy, especially when we need it most. Through her community-based Foxglove Garden Club for home gardeners, and through her role as Resident Gardener at Cliff House Maine, Elizabeth shares her belief that the best flowers are those grown with your own two hands. Join me today as Elizabeth and I discuss her story and her new book, “The Beginner’s Cut Flower Garden.”

Today’s interview is the final in our series of four conversations filmed in February at the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival in Seattle, where Slow Flowers has long been involved producing floral education and programming.

In her gorgeous new book, The Beginner’s Cut Flower Garden, certified therapeutic horticulturist and cut-flower expert Elizabeth Brown, reveals how growing your own show-stopping bouquet does not require abundant yard space, gardening expertise, or an overwhelming time commitment, just an eagerness to start. Introducing gardeners of all skill level to the vibrant world of floral gardening, The Beginner’s Cut Flower Garden offers step-by-step seasonal advice, easy-to-grow bloom profiles, flower arranging tips, floral crafting activities, and more. 

Beyond just teaching how to nurture florals, Brown reminds why we should, inviting all to enjoy the healing, connection, and delight derived from a hand-grown bouquet. We featured Elizabeth, a longtime Slow Flowers member and owner of Foxglove Farmhouse, in the fall 2023 issue of Slow Flowers Journal, in a beautiful story about her role growing cut flowers and providing floral experiences at Cliff House, a coastal Maine resort. You can read that story here (see pages 25-29). It was no surprise to me that a book project soon followed after we featured Elizabeth. She had already been working with photographer Lindsay Fairchild and they shared some lovely images to illustrate that story, too.

Here’s a bit more about Elizabeth:

She is a certified therapeutic horticulturist and Maine Master Gardener Volunteer. After growing and gifting hundreds of blooms to essential workers in her community during the pandemic, Elizabeth created Foxglove Farmhouse, a quarter-acre cut flower garden in her backyard. This garden’s mix of annual and perennial blooms are cultivated without chemicals and pesticides, providing sustainable local flowers to florists and markets. Elizabeth regularly gives workshops on cut flower garden design, floral arrangements, and seed sowing and created the Foxglove Garden Club, a year-long virtual subscription-based garden education program for beginner gardeners. Brown also works as the Resident Gardener of Cliff House Maine. In 2023, she released a curated 100% organic cut flower seed line, highlighted in the Boston Globe and Down East Magazine’s seasonal gift coverage. 

I’m delighted that we were able to sit down and record an episode for our special event, Slow Flowers Podcast LIVE. Thanks to everyone who attended – it was our best-attended session and we loved the interaction with friends and peers in the audience.

Find and follow Foxglove Farmhouse on Instagram

Thank you to our Sponsors

This show is brought to you by slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 700 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.

Thank you to our lead sponsor, Flowerbulb.eu and their U.S. lily bulb vendors. One of the most recognizable flowers in the world, the lily is a top-selling cut flower, offering long-lasting blooms, year-round availability, and a dazzling petal palette. Flowerbulb.eu has partnered with Slow Flowers to provide beautiful lily inspiration and farming resources to help growers and florists connect their customers with more lilies. Learn more at Flowerbulb.eu.

Thank you to My Patio Tree – Expertly Grown Plants, Perfectly Designed to Elevate Your Garden. This 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.

Thank you to the Seattle 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. Visit them at seattlegrowersmarket.com.

Thank you for joining me today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 1.5 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; Tripoli
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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

Teresa Sabankaya believes that today’s technology gives us endless ways to communicate, yet we are often left searching for words when faced with a declaration of love, the loss of someone dear, or the marking of a pivotal moment. For centuries, people have turned to the language of flowers to express their most heartfelt emotions. In Teresa’s new book, “Modern Floriography,” she honors this enduring tradition while inviting readers to discover fresh, creative forms of expression. Teresa recently joined our Slow Flowers Podcast LIVE series, held at the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival in Seattle where she spoke, taught, signed books, and met hundreds of fans. A longtime Slow Flowers member and pioneer of the slow flowers movement, Teresa shared generously with our live audience and with all of you today.

Today’s interview is the second in our series of four conversations filmed in February at the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival in Seattle, where Slow Flowers has long been involved producing floral education and programming.

I’m thrilled that Teresa Sabankaya brought her message of the language of flowers to this year’s festival, including at the Blooms & Bubbles workshop. Before we dive into the interview, here’s a bit more about Teresa:

Teresa’s floral career began in 1999 when she became a farmer-florist who designed flowers that she herself grew – a practice not widely known among consumers. She added retail floristry with Bonny Doon Garden Co. in Santa Cruz, California, in 2003.

One of the most innovative floral designers in the SF and Monterey Bay areas, Teresa has exhibited her floral art at museums and flower show, including Bouquets to Art at the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, the Monterey Museum of Art, and at Filoli Mansion and Gardens, where she teaches floral design regularly.

She was a speaker at our first Slow Flowers Summit in 2017 and is a past guest of the Slow Flowers Podcast. Her first book, The Posy Book, was published in 2019.

She was featured in Michael Pollen’s PBS documentary, The Botany of Desire and Amy Stewart profiled Teresa in her 2007 book, Flower Confidential. And so much more.

I know you’ll enjoy today’s wide-ranging conversation that begins with designing posy gardens and illustrating those gardens for her new book, and ends with my asking Teresa to reflect on the arc of her incredible career and journey through flowers.

Also, we have a giveaway copy of Modern Floriography, so if you’d like to add your name to the drawing, please comment here and share the meaning of your favorite flower. Or, comment on our IG account about this episode, @slowflowerssociety. We will draw the name of one lucky winner on Monday, March 9^th at midnight Pacific Time.

Thank you to our Sponsors

This show is brought to you by slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 700 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.

Thank you to our lead sponsor, Flowerbulb.eu and their U.S. lily bulb vendors. One of the most recognizable flowers in the world, the lily is a top-selling cut flower, offering long-lasting blooms, year-round availability, and a dazzling petal palette. Flowerbulb.eu has partnered with Slow Flowers to provide beautiful lily inspiration and farming resources to help growers and florists connect their customers with more lilies. Learn more at Flowerbulb.eu.

Thank you 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.

Thank you 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 for joining me today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 1.5 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; Game Hens
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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

Nestled in the heart of Somers, New York, about one hour north of Manhattan, Honeybee Grove is a cozy little flower farm offering cut-your-own flowers, small events, workshops, retail pop-ups, and more. As owner Sarah Coldwell enters her fifth season, she joined me to share her story and discuss the benefits of planning a full year of events while managing the flow of production, sales, and customers. In addition to flowering her community with local blooms, Sarah incubates other small, local creative businesses through her weekly summer farmers’ markets and seasonal holiday markets that bring out the public. The season kicks off soon – on April 26^th for Daffodil Day, a celebration that puts thousands of spring-flowering bulbs in the hands of her customers. And you’ll learn a thing or two about how to choose the best flowers for U-Pick programs and how to make your premium flowers more exclusive through a subscription program. She’s smitten with flowers so let’s join in and learn more.

For Sarah Coldwell, Honeybee Grove Flower Farm began as an inkling of an idea and rapidly grew into a frenzied obsession: “I must bring a cut-your-own flower farm to our small town!”

She could not get the dream out of my head after coming across a little roadside cutting spot in New York’s Finger Lakes area while vacationing with her family.

With a background in marketing, branding and graphic design, and as a lifelong gardener, Sarah wanted to share the joy that she feels when harvesting blooms that have been carefully nurtured from seeds or bulbs. Honeybee Grove Flower Farm occupies rented land that was once part of a larger working vegetable farm in Sarah’s village. When she felt the itch for a new adventure, while simultaneously obsessing over the idea of a cut-your-own flower farm, Honeybee Grove Flower Farm was born in 2021.

To Sarah, Honeybee Grove Flower Farm is about offering others an experience that they may not be able to create on their own – giving them the magical feeling of stepping into a field brimming with color and fragrance, that is buzzing with bees and butterflies. To slowly walk through rows of flowers to carefully select your own recipe for a bouquet. It is an experience that forces one to slow down, savor the natural beauty and harvest flowers with intention.  

We initially planned on talking about the upcoming season launch – Daffodil Day – but Sarah and I went further down the garden path to discuss farm dinners and popup sales events, retail versus wholesale, and the allure of U-Pick. I learned so much and I can’t wait for you to hear today’s episode, so let’s jump right in and get started.

Some parting thoughts from Sarah – that answer her “why” question: She writes: “I believe in bringing people together within a community. Our two larger artisan markets at the beginning and end of our season extend an opportunity to local artisans, artists and makers to sell their wares to the surrounding community.  With the success of our larger markets reaching a wider audience, I was eager to bring the town its own centrally-located Farmer’s Market. It gives our surrounding farms and food-product makers a weekly space to sell their crops and goods. It gives our community a chance to buy locally-raised meats, locally-grown produce and support small businesses from their own community.” What a beautiful mission!

Find and follow Honeybee Grove Flower Farm on Instagram and Facebook

Thank you to our Sponsors

This show is brought to you by slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 700 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.

Thank you to our lead sponsor, Flowerbulb.eu and their U.S. lily bulb vendors. One of the most recognizable flowers in the world, the lily is a top-selling cut flower, offering long-lasting blooms, year-round availability, and a dazzling petal palette. Flowerbulb.eu has partnered with Slow Flowers to provide beautiful lily inspiration and farming resources to help growers and florists connect their customers with more lilies. Learn more at Flowerbulb.eu.

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.

Thank you to the Association of Specialty Cut Flowers. The ASCFG is a gathering place for specialty cut flower growers of all levels of experience. It is a hub of knowledge, where seasoned experts and budding enthusiasts come together to learn, share, and support one another. The ASCFG is dedicated to empowering its members with the knowledge and resources needed to thrive in the world of cut flower farming. From educational workshops and conferences to online resources and publications, they provide a wealth of information and support for all things related to growing exceptional cut flowers. Learn more about the ASCFG and how to be a part of it at www.ascfg.org!

Thank you for joining me today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 1.5 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; Chicory Honey
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