Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

For the past two years, I’ve shared special Holiday Music episodes, which seems festive and fitting for this season when we all need a break from work and responsibilities.

In 2015, musician-songwriter-flower farmer Dennis Westphall of Jello Mold Farm in Mt. Vernon, Washington, was my guest for Episode 225.

And in 2016, Ellen Zachos, vocalist, author, former Broadway singer-dancer, and foraged cocktails expert, sang botanical broadway show tunes for us on Episode 276.

Today, I’m delighted to present the third annual Slow Flowers’ Holiday Music Special, with EarthShine, the duo featuring Scott Prinzing and Kristen Rickels Prinzing, my brother and sister-in-law, who are based in Billings, Montana.

Scott and Kris and I met up this past September at the Rocky Mountain Gardening Live Conference, produced by Dan and Andra Spurr at Chico Hot Springs in Pray, Montana. It was so much fun for me to spend an extended bit of time with Scott and Kris, and I planned ahead and asked them to record this podcast in anticipation of our holiday special.

Here’s a little more about this dynamic couple:

Kris is a songwriter and player of acoustic guitar and flute! She grew up spending every summer in the Beartooth Mountains of south central Montana and spent school years in Minnesota. She has roots connecting her to Montana that date back to her great uncle Kent Moats’ 1913 homestead. In the early 50’s, her then very young father purchased property in the mountains of southeastern Montana, and as a result Kris has spent every summer of her life at this special place. In 1990 she and Scott were married there, and a few years later they relocated to Montana permanently, joining Kris’s parents and other family. Montana’s wild and beautiful landscape is responsible for her intense passion for the environment, which has led her to professional, academic and volunteer work in conservation.
Kris has also nurtured a lifelong interest in music and the arts. During college, after several years of flute, voice, classical dance and some piano, Kris made an effort to pursue singing as a career. She recorded a demo tape and sang lead on some sessions for a local jazz producer. In 1990 Kris married Scott Prinzing, who is also a musician, though it was not until 1997 that they began to collaborate and pursue music together. In 1999 Kris began playing the guitar seriously, and soon after began to write songs.

Scott Prinzing sings and plays bass, mandolin and more. He was born in Connecticut, moving a number of times during his childhood, ending up in Portland, Oregon at age 11. Scott took up the acoustic guitar in 5th grade and then the bass guitar in 7th grade. He formed his first band in the 8th grade. At church, in school singing groups and in the bands he sang and played in, Scott developed a strong baritone voice. In 1982 and 1988 he played and sang on studio recordings with his band Glacier. Throughout high school and college, Scott played in a total of six different bands (some concurrently.) Over the years Scott has learned to play several other instruments competently but continues to concentrate on the bass guitar. During college Scott became involved peace and justice issues, multicultural student activities and political campaigns. Scott majored in Sociology/Cross-cultural Studies in the small private college where he began his education and had the opportunity to travel and study in Israel, the Philippines, Rome, Mexico and elsewhere. His interest in politics and social justice also gave new depth to his life-long interest in the environment.

After marrying Kris Rickels in 1990, Scott transferred to the University of Minnesota to complete his college education and there chose to major in American Indian Studies – another life-long interest. In 1997, Scott and Kris finally began to work on music together, culminating in the collaborative efforts that have created the music they now perform together.

In 2003, Scott and Kris formed the MusEco Media and Education Project, an educational non-profit. They perform all around Billings and elsewhere in Montana with their duo, EarthShine, and they have produced three CDs featuring some of the music you’ll hear today.

I wish you a wonderful holiday, happy Solstice, Merry Christmas and Seasons Greetings — please enjoy my musical gift to you! Here are more ways you can listen and follow Scott and Kris:

See more GREEN MAN and MuseEco Videos here.

MusEco Media and Education Project:  www.MusEco.org

Earthshine   www.EarthshineMontana.com

Green Man’s site  www.GreenManTV.org

Listen & Buy more of EarthShine’s Music:

SoundCloud 

CD Baby

Follow Earthshine on Facebook

Thanks so much for joining us today! The Slow Flowers Podcast has been downloaded more than 264,000 times by listeners like you. Thank you to each one of you for downloading, listening, commenting and sharing. It means so much.

Next week, during the final episode of 2017, I will share our Year in Review. The Slow Flowers Movement and you, the community, have achieved and accomplished so much goodness this year and it’s time to celebrate our successes. Please Join me on Wednesday, December 27th for this special tribute to 2017.

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:

And thank you to our lead sponsor for 2017: 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.

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 longfield-gardens.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.

Music Credits:

EarthShine:
(c) Season’s Greetings 2000

(c) Kubota Garden 2002

(c) Blooms of Clover 2007

(c) Whirling Earth 2014

(c) Jack in the Green 2015

Lovely, by Tryad

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

As more people ask “where is my food grown” and increasingly “where are my flowers grown?” issues of access to available land where food and flowers can be produced are increasingly important — especially in urban areas.

My guest today, Brian Sellers-Petersen, is working at the heart of food justice and turning underused land into productive, inclusive mini-farms.

An avid gardener, beekeeper and chicken rancher, Brian is author of a new book, Harvesting Abundance: Local Initiatives of Food and Faith, which tells the stories of mostly Episcopal congregations around the country that are stewarding their land in new ways, sharing produce that’s grown on parcels once carpeted by green lawns.

He has recently started consulting after 16 years with Episcopal Relief & Development and he holds the unique title of Cathedral Apiarist or beekeeper at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle.

He writes:

“One reason to have a garden on the church’s front lawn or most visible site is that it will receive lots of foot traffic. You might not initially get many fans from those who are used to lovely ornamental landscaping, but with some care and thought, you can win them over with a carefully designed array of purple basil, rainbow chard, intercropped flowers, fruit, trees and fill in the blank. . . . It’s going to communicate to members, neighbors, and visitors your values and how people of faith are committed to gathering together around a table to eat.”

Brian maintains that everything you really need to know about the Creator you can learn in a garden.” I love that sentiment and the meaning behind it.

We go back two decades to when we worked together at a large Christian NGO, and I’ve always found myself encouraged by Brian’s progressive ideas and by the way he walks the talk in his own life.

He’s been involved in Seattle’s Food & Faith Network, bringing together congregations of many faiths to learn how to start community and teaching gardens and other agricultural projects to grow healthy local food and flowers, build community, care for the earth and bring justice to neighbors and people they serve.

Find Brian at his blog, “Faithful Tilth”

Follow Brian on Facebook

Thanks so much for joining us today!  The Slow Flowers Podcast has been downloaded more than 262,000 times by listeners like you. Thank you to each one of you for downloading, listening, commenting and sharing. It means so much.

I have a special treat in store for you next week, with our third annual Slow Flowers Holiday Music Special.

You’ll meet my guests, Scott & Kris Prinzing, yes, my brother and sister-in-law, musicians, educators, environmental activists and an uber creative duo behind EarthShine.

You’ll hear their story as passionate creatives and they will share five original songs that relate to gardens, seasons and the environment. It gave me great pleasure to invite them to appear on the Slow Flowers Podcast and I’m eager to share their story and songs with you.

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:

And thank you to our lead sponsor for 2017: 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.

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 longfield-gardens.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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

Photo credit: Jaclyn Simpson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

Last month I traveled to Portland for a wonderful day hosted by Mayesh Wholesale, one of a series of design workshops featuring their 2017 Design Star, Christy Hulsey.

Christy is the owner and creative director of Colonial House of Flowers in Statesboro, Georgia, outside Savannah, and she was selected by Mayesh to be this year’s design muse. In the past, as I understand it, the creative inspiration and instruction of each year’s Mayesh Design Star program has mostly been video-based. This year was incredibly ambitious, with Christy signing on for a coast-to-coast tour of workshops and events.

As you’ll hear in our conversation, recorded after the all-day, hands-on workshop that she and her team presented, Christy and I met in 2014 at the Chapel Designers New York Conference, where Holly Chapple graciously asked me to speak about Slow Flowers. Later, Christy’s Colonial House of Flowers joined Slowflowers.com, inspired at some level, to honor Christy’s grandmother’s love of gardening and designing with seasonal flowers.

In fact, she mentions her grandmother’s influence often. When Christy joined the Design Star program, Mayesh posted a lovely Q&A with her for their blog. You’ll want to follow the link I share in the show notes to find that, but here are a few favorite excerpts:

In 2012, I assumed ownership of a little nearly 50-year-old landmark flower boutique that was in my family, called the Colonial House of Flowers. I believe the spirit of my grandmother’s creativity and ability to resourcefully create something sophisticated flutters through everything I do. In 2014, Amanda Currier, my sister, joined the Colonial House of Flowers team. Seasonally relevant flowers, branches, and fruit, are the true medium of my art. I’m ever thankful for my grandmother who always sent me into the garden, who brought me a found plant as a gift, and taught me to dig bulbs, grow cuttings, and stop at random roadside stands on family travels.  am really excited about the gaining momentum of American Grown Flowers. Slow flowers speak to me. I am excited the movement is finally coming to the Southeastern United States.

Last December, I interviewed Christy for an Americanflowersweek.com story about the 8-by-12-foot three -dimensional American flag that she and a team created using only domestic flowers. The project was commissioned by Certified American Grown and it was on display at the Wholesale Florist & Floral Supplier Association conference in Miami.

Christy has had a whirlwind year and you’ll love hearing more about the Mayesh Design Star experience, which is coming to a close next month. She has taught workshops all around the country, sharing her design philosophy with professional peers, aspiring designers and floral enthusiasts eager for inspiration. In conjunction, she has also taught a number of succulent design workshops at Pottery Barn stores located in Mayesh cities. And she’s filmed numerous design videos. You can see a few of those here:

As an added bonus, Mayesh CEO Patrick Dahlson sat down with me to record a conversation, which you’ll hear after the Christy interview. This was a rare chance for me to hear more about the Mayesh story and to ask Pat to weigh in on the Slow Flowers movement to promote a greater level of local and seasonal flowers in the conventional wholesale floral channels. I wasn’t disappointed and I’m so glad you can sit in on our give-and-take.

Here’s a bit more about Pat Dahlson:

As one of nine children, all who are shareholders in Mayesh Wholesale Florist, Patrick has been the CEO of the company since 1985.  A natural born leader, Patrick has been a member of Vistage – an international CEO leadership organization – for 21 years. He is past president of Child Share, which helps place foster children in homes; Past President WF&FSA; Board member Southern California Flower Growers Association; and Past President Oakmont Country Club. Passionate about flowers, leadership and mentoring, Pat is also an avid golfer who enjoys yoga and Pilates workouts along with traveling with his three daughters, Alison, Kirstin and Desiree.

I also want to give you a head’s up about a couple things on the calendar where you can meet Christy Hulsey and Pat Dahlson:

On December 4-6th, Christy will host a Master Class At Musgrove Plantation on St. Simon Island, Georgia, with Susan McLeary of Passionflower.

Susan has been a guest of the Slow Flowers Podcast twice in the past and she is a good friend to the Slow Flowers community.

This two-day design intensive looks fantastic and I encourage you to check out the details, which include intimate design instruction with Christy and Sue, a focus on  foam-free, wire-free cascade bouquets PLUS living jewelry such as wrist corsages, shoulder corsages and Sue’s famous “floral tattoo.

You’ll also be part of a styled photo shoot by Lindsey Nowak and a portfolio of your photos by Corbin Gurkin. Click here for more information and to register!

On March 7-9th, 2018, floral business coach Kelly Perry hosts the first Team Flower Conference in Orlando, which features, among other speakers, Pat Dahlson and Christy Hulsey.

The conference is designed to help you take your floral business to the next level, and includes a presentation by Kelly pricing, ordering and cultivating creativity.

Christy will share the story of how she transitioned a small-town flower shop in rural Georgia to a nationwide brand, and Pat will cover the latest sourcing news and tips for working with your salesperson on substitutions, and he’ll share his passion for teamwork success in the floral industry. Click here for more information and to register!

Wow, wish I could be part of both of those amazing events!

 

The Slow Flowers Podcast has been downloaded more than 255,000 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 longfield-gardens.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.

Music Credits:

Earlier this week I had the immense pleasure of collaborating with three Slow Flowers members to present a 2-part workshop at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix.

“Artisanal Flowers” invited gardeners, florists and flower enthusiasts to spend two evenings with Morgan Anderson of TheFlori.Culture, Anne J. of Anne ES Garden Fresh and Shanti Rade of Whipstone Farm.

The four of us reunited after our fantastic meet-up earlier this year when a number of Slow Flowers members visited Shanti and Corey Rade’s farm in Paulden, Arizona. You can read more about that event here and listen to my past Slow Flowers Podcast episodes with Shanti and Morgan.

Our dream for this workshop was to introduce the Slow Flowers, Arizona-grown message to students at the state’s largest public garden.

And early November is actually a good time to talk about local flowers and floral design because (as Anne explained during her portion of the presentation) fall in Arizona is basically a “second spring.”

We started off on Monday evening with a Slow Flowers overview in which I shared the story of our movement as well as my personal experience growing and arranging with flowers and foliage in all four seasons.

Shanti followed with an engaging presentation about Whipstone Farm and her journey from growing food to growing flowers for many outlets. It was exciting to watch the expressions on all nine students’ faces as it slowly dawned on them that there’s a new paradigm for what’s considered “desert florals.” From ranunculus to sweet peas to peonies and dahlias, well, Shanti not only blew people away, she raised their expectations for what is possible here in Arizona.

The following night, we returned ready to design! Morgan took the lead as design coach and instructor, discussing the art principles of floral design and sharing tips on both contemporary and garden-inspired styles. She taught everyone how to cut and use cacti as well as how to correctly wire succulents for arranging.

Anne introduced the botanicals from her farm and from two other local growers – herbs, edible flowers, purple hyacinth bean pods and other lovelies from Emily Heller at Et Tu Frute Garden and seasonal millet and lavish scarlet hibiscus pods from Anne Kerr at Black Kerr Farm.

Someone provided vibrant zinnias and no one was shortchanged on their design elements. Because Shanti had to leave for Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers’ board meeting duties back east, I jumped in and introduced her crazy-beautiful palette of vintage-looking mums, as well as a generous array of lisianthus, scented geranium foliage and more!

Designing was a blast, aided by the chance to use American-made glass vases supplied by Syndicate Sales – and the gold and rose-gold cylinders struck a perfect seasonal note for the tawny floral palette. You can see more of the students’ and instructors arrangements here:

Karen LeDonne’s yummy design.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

As many of you know, my journalistic background includes working as a home and garden writer for the past two decades.

During that journey, I invested many years — the past 15 in fact — in the Garden Writers Association, including two years serving as its president. Many of my closest professional and personal friendships come from time spent serving on committees, as regional and national director and then, as an officer and member of GWA’s leadership.

And even though writing about flower farming and floral design has occupied my professional energy during the past nearly 10 years, I still consider myself a Garden Writer. After all, flowers are certainly an extension of the garden, right?

Today I am delighted to introduce two longtime professional friends who I originally met through GWA. They are Suzi McCoy and Katie Dubow of Garden Media Group.

Based outside Philadelphia, Garden Media Group was one of the very first marketing and communications firms to position itself in the “green” category. For many years, Garden Media Group has released an annual Garden Trends Report, which has become a must-have reference for writers, practitioners and companies in the gardening industry.

I love reading this report and to be honest, it has served as a template for my much younger Slow Flowers Floral Insights and Industry Forecast, which I started compiling annually four years ago.

Suzie and Katie agreed to talk with me about the Garden Trends Report for 2018 and share their graphics. Click the link to download your own PDF copy of the report.

Here are a few slides of the “trends” we discuss on today’s episode:

Find Garden Media Group on Facebook

Follow Garden Media Group on Twitter

See Garden Media Group on Pinterest

Watch Garden Media Group on Instagram

READ MORE…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

We all have our flower crushes and those we admire from afar, never expecting to actually meet. So the chance to not only meet and spend time with Robbie Honey, world floral traveler, proud son of Zimbabwe, curious accidental botanist and amazing designer . . . well, it was a certainly a highlight of 2017!

Robbie and I met at Holly Chapple’s Flowerstock, the two-day design and creativity fest held for the second year at Hope Flower Farm, the historic compound she owns with husband Evan Chapple – in Waterford, Virginia, not to far from the nation’s capitol.

Holly and Robbie have collaborated on many occasions as instructors, but this was my first experience seeing Robbie up close and personal. Prior to this, my knowledge of him has been mostly by watching his Instagram feed.

Robbie is the creative director at the design company bearing his name Robbie Honey, based in London.

Robbie Honey has been immersed in botanical pursuits since he was a young boy roaming the wild grasslands of Zimbabwe. These adventures developed his already keen visual and olfactory senses and instilled in him a lifelong fascination with flowers and their scents.

By the age of seventeen, he was studying horticulture and went on to work in the floriculture trade in Holland and Kenya. Honing his creative sensibilities further, he studied interior design and photography at art school in Cape Town. Moving to London he trained with floral designer Ming Veevers Carter and gained a thorough grounding in event floristry. Incidentally, we posted a story about Ming’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show’s Gold Medal design for New Covent Garden Flower Market earlier this year. Check it out here.

Setting out on his own at twenty-five, Hermès was his first fashion client, followed by Dior and Armani, establishing Robbie Honey as an in-demand florist within the fashion industry.

With this rare combination of expertise: in botany, floristry and the visual arts, he started lecturing around the world on floristry and writing for the Wall Street Journal.

Robbie Honey’s first range of scented candles is inspired by individual white flowers, the scents of which have long beguiled him.

It was a delight to not only learn more about what inspires and motivates this talented human as an artist, but a joy to watch him design with American-grown flowers, including many grown at Hope Farm and donated by others, including Harmony Harvest Farm, both Slowflowers.com members — as well as to play with branches and blooms that Robbie foraged with fellow instructors Ariella Chezar and Holly herself.

READ MORE…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

Whenever I travel, even for pleasure, I’m likely to add three things to my itinerary:

First, I visit Slow Flowers’ members to see their places of business — flower farms, floral studios and retail florists locations.

Next, I team up with one or more of those generous folks to schedule a Slow Flowers meet-up.

And third, I turn on the digital recorder to interview at least one of these folks for a Slow Flowers Podcast episode.

Yes, I do travel quite a bit, the “non-slowness” of which is a bit ironic, as my friends and family have pointed out.

But I’m so passionate about getting out “on-location,” so to speak, to capture your stories.

Sharing the stories of American flowers and the people who grow and design with them is at the heart of the Slow Flowers mission.

Last month, you benefitted from my interviews in Montana. This month, it’s Connecticut and Virginia. Next month, it will be Massachusetts and Arizona. And then, maybe I’ll stay home for the holidays!

So enough of that. Let me introduce you to Michael Russo, a farmer-florist and gifted artist who co-owns Trout Lily Farm in Guilford, Connecticut. He and his husband, Raymond Lennox, who works in the health care industry when he’s not co-farming, purchased Trout Lily about 13 years ago. The farm is located on picturesque Lake Quonnipaug in North Guilford, where Michael and Raymond grow and sell organic edibles and seasonal cut flowers for the table, weddings and events.

I’ve been wanting to visit Trout Lily Farm ever since I first met Michael in the fall of 2014 at a floral design workshop I taught in Rhode Island at the wonderful estate home and garden called Blithewold Mansion.

My friend Ellen Hoverkamp of My Neighbor’s Garden, an botanical artist and photographer who is a previous guest of this podcast, came from her home in New Haven, Connecticut and brought Michael along. I was so enchanted with their long friendship dating back to high school and college, as artists and former public school art teachers, both of whom both took early retirements to pursue new creative ventures.

READ MORE…