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I love it when I can host a Slow Flowers member on a Seattle visit, and now that travel is again opening up, I have a feeling 2022 will be a busy one. 

Last month, Andrea K. Grist, a long-time Slow Flowers Society member and friend, spent a few days visiting Seattle. She is a past guest of the Slow Flowers Podcast and a wedding and event florist based in the Kansas City metro area. Five years ago, Andrea assumed the management of Florasource KC, a locally-owned independent flower wholesaler based in Overland Park, Kansas. And last year, Andrea opened KC Bloom Hub, a dedicated studio space within Florasource KC, available to florists for one-day rentals for design and production, workshops and other events.

Andrea came to Seattle on a research trip — she hopes to put a greater emphasis on KC-grown flowers through her wholesale outlet — and she wanted to learn from what’s happening here. Of course, we visited the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, now in its 11th year as a successful farmer-own floral wholesale hub. It was early April and I let Andrea loose there to shop for local and domestic botanicals. Back in my dining room, she created a gorgeous, large-scale arrangement with her seasonal selections, which she designed during our  conversation.

Ingredient List for Andrea’s floral arrangement, sourced from the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market
Fritillaria meleagris (Snakehead checkerboard fritillaria) and Leucojum ‘Summer Snowflake’, grown by Choice Bulb Farms
Chocolate Anthriscus foliage and ‘Hybrid Red’ Hellebores, grown by Jello Mold Farm
Butterfly Ranunculus ‘Charis’ and Maidenhair fern, grown by Peterkort Roses
Tulip ‘Double Brownie’, grown by Ojeda Farms
Spiraea and Manzanita, grown by Oregon Flower Growers
California grown selections: Scabiosa ‘Fama White’, Stock, single tulips, fruiting Kumquat branches, and Grevillea

Find and follow Andrea K. Grist:
Andrea K. Grist on Facebook and Instagram
Florasource KC on Facebook and Instagram
KC Bloom Hub on Instagram

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News of the Week!

It’s May already and there’s lots of great Slow Flowers news to share! Please check out our May Newsletter, packed with details about the upcoming American Flowers Week promotions, our new Slow Flowers Journal digital magazine (launching as a quarterly in June), links to all the recent press about Slow Flowers, and other membership resources.

You will also find the signup link to our May 13th Slow Flowers member meet-up, featuring two of the designers presenting at the upcoming Slow Flowers Summit!

And a program note: Congratulations to the winners of our book giveaway from a few weeks ago. Thanks to Abrams and Lorene Edwards Forkner, for 2 copies of Color in and out of the Garden, going to: Cathy Rocca and Karen Faulkner — we’ll be in touch to arrange mailing details!

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Thank you to our Sponsors!

This show is brought to you by Slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 880 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, returning for 2022, Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers delivers iconic burlap-wrapped bouquets and lush, abundant arrangements to customers across the U.S., supporting U.S. flower farms by purchasing more than $10 million dollars of U.S.-grown fresh and seasonal flowers and foliage annually. Discover more at farmgirlflowers.com. 

Thank you to the 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. Visit them at seattlewholesalegrowersmarket.com.

Thank you 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 to Red Twig Farms. Based in Johnstown, Ohio, Red Twig Farms is a family-owned farm specializing in peonies, daffodils, tulips and branches, a popular peony-bouquet-by-mail program and their Spread the Hope Campaign where customers purchase 10 tulip stems for essential workers and others in their community. Learn more at redtwigfarms.com.

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Thanks so much for joining us today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 844,000 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 and consider making a donation to sustain Slow Flowers’ ongoing advocacy, education and outreach activities. You can find the donate button in the right column of our home page.

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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. 

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Music credits:
Low Coal Camper; Turning on the Lights; Gaena
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

Put a twist on the ubiquitous carved pumpkin, cornucopia filled with gourds, or poinsettia plants wrapped in plastic and take inspiration from America’s flower farms, fields and meadows when you design for harvest, home and holiday, say members of Slowflowers.com.

 

NOTE: This is the first of six Editorial Packages that Slowflowers.com will produce in the 2016-2017 season.

Instead of predictable designs or palettes of the past, creative flower farmers and florists suggest fresh and unique seasonal options such as adding hot peppers or ornamental kale to autumn centerpieces or “planting” pumpkins with succulents for harvest tables.

Come December, Slowflowers.com designers say “Season’s Greetings” is best communicated with updated florals, including snowy white palettes or traditional red-and-green bouquets containing elegant lilies.

Transform the holiday table, front porch or fireplace mantel with local and seasonal flowers. Nothing is fresher or more long-lasting than just-picked botanicals.The best harvest, home and holiday florals begin with the source, says Debra Prinzing, founder and creative director of Slowflowers.com, which promotes American grown flowers.

READ MORE…

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Before I introduce you to today’s inspiring guest, Megan McGuire of Red Daisy Farm outside Denver, I want to share more details about the upcoming Slow Flowers Creative Workshop that I’ll be co-teaching with Dundee Butcher of Russian River Flower School in Sonoma’s wine country — Monday, October 17th and Tuesday, October 18th.

This valuable workshop experience is designed to help you clarify, document and communicate your personal aesthetic message as a floral professional – in both written and visual formats suitable for your web site, social media and mobile platforms.

In a safe, supportive and intimate setting, our small group will focus on YOU! We’ll go deep into Slow Flowers “brand building” as each participant finds his or her own voice as a floral storyteller. If you’ve been thinking about investing in your businesses’ future, now is the time to sign up.

Now, I’m so pleased to return, at least in my memory, to Colorado. I spent several days in the Rocky Mountain State during the month of August, visiting flower farms, meeting talented designers and seeing their work, and recording several interviews.

Today’s conversation is the third in my Colorado series, so if you missed the interview with Denver floral designer Robyn Rissman and her collaborator Alicia Schwede — the design team that created the Field to Vase Dinner flowers at The Fresh Herb Co., or if you missed the recent interview with Don Lareau and Daphne Yannakakis of Zephyros Farm and Garden, here are the links to those episodes:

Episode 260: Blooming in Colorado with Robyn Rissman of BareRoot Flora and Alicia Schwede of Bella Fiori Floral Design and Flirty Fleurs

Episode 262: Luxury flowers on Colorado’s Western Slope with Daphne Yannakakis and Don Lareau of Zephyros Farm & Garden

For years, Megan McGuire and her husband Terry Baumann had their eyes on a charming early 20th century farmhouse in Brighton, Colorado, just outside Denver. By the time that they finally became the owners, it seems as if the Red Daisy Farmhouse possesses them – but in a good way, a very good way.

Meg is a Slowflowers.com member and we’ve corresponded for nearly a year about my wanting to visit her if I returned to Colorado.

READ MORE…

Slowflowers.com Kicks Off American Flowers Week 2016, a National Campaign to Showcase U.S. Flower Farms, Florists and Flower Gardens

American Flowers Week is an advocacy effort timed to coincide with America’s Independence Day on July 4th, providing florists, retailers, wholesalers and flower farmers a patriotic opportunity
to promote American grown flowers.

Seattle, Washington (PRWEB) June 29, 2016

All across the nation, from Alabama to Wyoming, Oregon to Maine, locally grown flowers will be highlighted and celebrated during American Flowers Week, a weeklong campaign inviting U.S. flower farmers and florists to showcase American-grown red, white and blue blooms on social media platforms (using #americanflowersweek) and in their own communities.

American Flowers Week is the advocacy, education and outreach campaign co-produced by the Slow Flowers Podcast with Debra Prinzing and Slowflowers.com, the nationwide, online directory to American Flowers and the people who grow and design with them.

In its second year, American Flowers Week highlights the homegrown talents of more than 700 member floral businesses listed on Slowflowers.com, including Susan McLeary of Passionflower Events in Ann Arbor, Michigan, designer of the iconic “Flower ‘Fro” depicted in the 2016 campaign poster. To create the majestic headpiece, the designer incorporated flowers donated by seven American flower farms in three states.

American Flowers Week Activities and Events
Participation in American Flowers Week involves all facets of the floral distribution channel, from flower farmers and wholesaler florists to grocery stores, floral designers, flower shops and online sellers.

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Today’s podcast conversation took its time arriving here. I believe I first met Missouri flower farmer Mimo Davis of Urban Buds in 2012 at the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers annual meeting in Tacoma, where I was a speaker.

We have corresponded over the years and followed what each other was doing. Mimo even once asked me when I might come to St. Louis to speak and visit.

Well, earlier this month, finally, that happened, thanks to the good people at the St. Louis Art Museum who invited me to be a featured speaker for their annual spring extravaganza called Bouquets to Art.

Bouquets to Art is a celebration of springtime, art and floral design, a tradition found in a number of top art museums across the country.

I was excited to attend and speak during the weekend of activities beginning with a gala opening dinner on March 11th, and followed by lectures, demonstrations and exhibitions from March 12^th to 14th, with ticketed events seating audience members in a luxurious theatre with plush chairs and a huge stage and screen.

It was an event complete with a celebrity speaker – this year it was Carolyne Roehme, a native Missouri daughter, fashion industry icon and author of numerous lifestyle books.

I followed Ms. Roehme and presented on the same stage, with  150-or-so floral enthusiasts learning about the Slow Flowers Movement as I created several arrangements.

I was definitely concerned about sourcing local flowers for my floral demonstration because of the time of year.

And fortunately, I had two Missouri sources from which to shop: Urban Buds, owned by Mimo Davis and Miranda Duschack – today’s guests; and Vicki Lander and Jack Oglander of Flower Hill Farm in Beaufort, Missouri.

READ MORE…

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I have another great conversation to share with you this week, one that is both unique to this guest’s personal story while also thoroughly symbolic of so many who have embraced the Slow Flowers Movement.

Andrea K. Grist is a wedding and event florist and owner of Lee Summit, Missouri, based studio, Andrea K. Grist Floral Art, which serves the Kansas City metro area. Andrea and I met through a Facebook conversation, which is similar to many of our social media/floral connections.

Earlier this year, Andrea reached out and told me she had been listening to the Slow Flowers Podcast and that she also had been reading my books.

That was a flattering connection, of course, but what impressed me since then, over the course of the past six or eight months, is that Andrea shared with me links to one of her blog posts discussing her visits to Missouri flower farms and featuring her designs and styled photo shoots using locally grown and American grown flowers.

Eventually we set up a phone date to talk further and I asked Andrea to share her story on this podcast.

Andrea has had a successful career for more than 20 years, but in recent years, she wanted to stretch herself as a designer and as a small business owner.

She started seeking out what was going on in her profession and landed on the Slow Flowers Movement.

Even though most florists in her area weren’t asking for local flowers, Andrea began to do so.

One vase, one bouquet at a time, her work is changing the conversation in her community and for her customers.

Andrea is also a member of the Chapel Designers, and she recently self-published Gatherings in Bloom-Table Art for All Occasions with images by Freeland Photography.

The book is filled with beautiful images of table decor, floral design, and hometown stories about her inspirations and floral passions.

Meet and follow Andrea K. Grist here:

Read Andrea’s Blog Here

Andrea on Facebook 

Andrea on Twitter

Preview and order Gatherings in Bloom here

Before we sign off, I have an announcement to share.

There is an abundance of holiday floral design and wreathmaking workshops going on right now, but one scheduled for next week promises to be unlike any other workshop I’ve heard about.

On November 17th, New York-based Slow Flowers member Elena Seegers of Le Fleuriste will be teaching a fall centerpiece how-to with branches fruits and berries.

Here’s the fun twist: The workshop will be held at Fluent City and include French conversation and vocabulary.

As Elena explained it to me Fluent City is a cool language start up where you learn and converse in different languages through social gatherings and workshops.

“Students will learn how to choose and use branches and berries for their table designs, taught in a mixture of French and English.” I don’t know about you, but I would simply love to be part of this evening, which is affordably priced. [note: in the Podcast introduction I inaccurately stated a workshop price of $65. The actual price is $80 per student]

Thanks to the Slow Flowers Tribe, this podcast has been downloaded more than 71,000 times. Whether you’ve just discovered this Podcast or whether you’re a longtime listener, don’t forget that we’ve archived all of the past episodes at Debraprinzing.com – more than two years of conversations with American flower farmers and floral designers – leading voices in the progressive, American-grown community.

Until next week please 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 Wheatley and Hannah Holtgeerts. Learn more about their work at shellandtree.com.