Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

If you’ve been following along for a while, you have noticed that 2022 is the 10-year celebration of the publication of The 50 Mile Bouquet, a book that, to be honest, started me along the journey that became the Slow Flowers Movement.

In a tribute to this small but mighty book, I’m spending this year circling back to interview as many people featured in its pages as possible. The 50 Mile Bouquet was photographed by David Perry, designed by James Forkner, and brought to market by St. Lynn’s Press publisher Paul Kelly.

The opening chapter of The 50 Mile Bouquet includes profiles of several of the flower farmers who shaped the story and influenced my understanding of domestic floral agriculture. These are people who grew specialty cut flowers long before the term Slow Flowers was coined. They are the OG’s the originals, who have quietly practiced their craft as artisan growers, supplying their customers, both flower lovers and florists, with superior quality heirloom blooms.

So, today, you will meet Charles and Bethany Little of Eugene, Oregon-based Charles Little & Co. Their story appears in a section called Growers’ Wisdom in which we introduce these inspiring growers.

Charles Little has tended to ornamental crops in the verdant Willamette Valley since 1986 and I value his perspective and insights about how flower farmers have navigated the past decade and more. You met Bethany Little earlier this year when I featured her as a guest during her appearance as a NWFGS instructor, and so this is a bonus interview.

Listen to Bethany: Episode 349: Finding a Market for Your Flowers with Bethany Little of Charles Little & Co.
Listen to Charles: Grower Wisdom with Flower Farmer Charles Little (Episode 207)

Here’s how to find and follow Charles Little & Co.:

Charles Little & Co. on Facebook

Charles Little & Co. on Instagram

Read: “Heart of the Country,” my first interview with Charles and Bethany, that appears in The 50 Mile Bouquet.

---

Thank you to our Sponsors

This show is brought to you by Slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 850 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, 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 Gardener’s Workshop, which offers a full curriculum of online education for flower farmers and farmer-florists. Online education is more important this year than ever, and you’ll want to check out the course offerings at thegardenersworkshop.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 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 johnnysseeds.com.

---

I want to announce the winner of our special giveaway of The Flower School book by Joseph Massie, last week’s Podcast guest. We asked listeners to like and follow our @slowflowerssociety IG post and also like and follow Joseph Massie, as well as share a comment with the name or names of their favorite focal flowers. Thanks so much to all who entered our random drawing for this fantastic new book! Our winner is Whitney Muncy of Emerald Design in Evansville, Indiana! Congratulations, Whitney! We’ll get that book off in the mail to you soon.

---

Thanks so much for joining us today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 881,000 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 at slowflowerspodcast.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. 

---

Music credits:

American
by Crowander
www.crowander.com

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

Song title by Crowander (www.crowander.com)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

Before I turn to today’s awesome guest, Bethany Little of Charles Little & Co., I want to share two big news items.

First, this week marks the 250^th consecutive episode of the Slow Flowers Podcast, a major milestone in Podcastland where the average podcast only lasts 7 episodes.

In total, since airing my first episode on July 23, 2013, which for some reason I decided to assign as number 100 (thus the odd synch-up of today’s episode 349), I have hosted and have produced an original Slow Flowers Podcast episode every week for 250 weeks.

That is pretty awesome, folks.

And I thank you so much for loyally joining the conversation. In fact, this podcast has been downloaded more than 317,000 times by listeners like you! It is an honor and a humbling experience know you’re listening in each week – our listeners are an essential part of the conversation!

Here’s to the next 250 episodes! We know there are many more voices to hear and stories to tell and I want to bring them to you right here at the Slow Flowers Podcast with Debra Prinzing.

Our second piece of Big News involves the online directory – slowflowers.com. Four years ago this week, on May 12, 2014, I announced the debut of Slowflowers.com.

I said this at the time: “Slowflowers.com is a sister project to this podcast — a free, online directory of American-grown flowers and the designers, shops, studios and farms who source those blooms.”

I continued:

“The mission of Slowflowers.com is simply this:

To promote American-grown flowers, to make it easy for flower consumers to connect with florists, shops, studios and farms who provide American-grown flowers, and to encourage truthful and transparent country-of-origin labeling in the floral industry. 

My goal with this project is that when someone wishes to purchase or send flowers, they stop and ask themselves: Can those flowers be American grown? Slowflowers.com provides that answer.”

The directory began with 250 domestic floral resources listed. Today, that list has grown to 725 members — and my goal with your help, continues to be growing that list to one thousand!

Perfectly timed to coincide with the 4^th birthday of Slowflowers.com, this week I am unveiling a brand new Slowflowers.com 2.0 – a visually updated and more user-friendly web site for those who visit the consumer-facing side; and a more functional machine for members who interact with the admin and database side to manage your content.

I have invested considerable time and finances to create Slowflowers.com 2.0, with a fresh, new aesthetic and easy-to-navigate user experience. Look for it soon!!

And finally, if you have always considered yourself a “supporter of Slow Flowers,” but have never joined, now is the time to put your values into an actionable gesture and do so. We welcome you to our growing and vibrant community of kindred spirits – flower farmers, floral designers, farmer florists, wholesalers, retailers and consumers of flowers.

I’ll have much more news to share with you as we continue to improve all the facets of Slowflowers.com.

I definitely want to thank Bob Meador of Metric Media for his ongoing involvement in the creation, maintenance and caretaking of this digital project.

As I find myself so often saying . . . I’m a journalist, not a business person. My path to creating the Slow Flowers community and content channels has been passion-driven more than entrepreneurial. With continual improvement in the platform, we’re creating a dynamic brand with which floral consumers and the floral industry wants to engage – and I’m stretching my business know-how in doing so.

It’s fitting to share today’s conversation with my guest Bethany Little because she and her husband Charles Little are veteran flower farmers and huge supporters of the Slow Flowers cause.

This episode was recorded last month when Bethany and I spent a few days together at the Whidbey Flower Workshop hosted by Tobey Nelson.

I was there to teach creative writing during the workshop’s opening session after which Tobey graciously invited me to stay with the group of instructors and students for two consecutive days.

Bethany was there as both a student and sponsor, bringing hundreds of beautiful flowering branches from hers and other Oregon flower farms to be employed by Joseph Massie and his students for a few breathtaking, large-scale installations.

You may recall that Bethany’s husband, the one and only Charles Little, appeared on this show a few years back.

I was in Eugene, Oregon, visiting friends and lined up a stop at the Charles Little HQ on Seavey Loop Rd. Bethany was out of town that weekend, so I zeroed in on Charles’s story –a wonderful narrative of a sustainable agriculture pioneer whose 30 years of flower farming set the stage for so much of which is happening today in our slow flowers world. Follow this link to that episode from August 2015, called “Grower Wisdom,” for part one of this story.

Now, you’ll hear part two of the story – Bethany’s insights on flower farming and on creating a viable marketplace for those flowers.

Here’s more about Charles and Bethany’s philosophy, from their web site:

We have lived and worked on 35 acres of the very best river-bottom soil along the Coast Fork of the Willamette River in Oregon for nearly a quarter-century. The crops we raise include flowers and foliage of all kinds; ornamental herbs, grasses and grains, and unique sticks, pods and berries. We send in-season floral materials year-round to wholesalers throughout the United States. Our product is excellent and our service is responsive, friendly and direct. We have been growing specialty cut flowers for more than a quarter-century, and we approach our work with passion and keen observation. We are always trying something new to add to our extensive crops, bringing inspiration to our fields and to our customers.  

Here’s how to find and follow Charles Little & Co.:

Charles Little & Co. on Facebook

Charles Little & Co. on Instagram

Thank you so much for joining me today as we heard Bethany Little’s story!

I am in awe of all you – intrepid and gifted flower farmers and floral designers who together define the Slow Flowers Movement. As our cause gains more supporters and more passionate participants who believe in the importance of the American cut flower industry, the momentum is contagious. I know you feel it, too.

I value your support and invite you to show your thanks and with a donation to support my ongoing advocacy, education and outreach activities. You can find the donate button in the right column.

I want to remind you about the Dream Designer Package — a ticket promotion that runs through Sunday, May 20th. All May registrants for the Slow Flowers Summit will be entered into a drawing for one spot to join me on Sunday evening, July 1st at an exclusive gathering with Laura Dowling, author and former White House Florist.

This private event benefits the AIFD Foundation and I’m going to bring one of you with me to attend and enjoy a dazzling and unforgettable evening. So if you’ve been thinking about attending the Slow Flowers Summit, this promotion might just be your incentive! The Summit promises to be a fantastic day of networking, inspiration and personal growth. I can’t wait to see you there!

As I mentioned at the top of this show, the Slow Flowers Podcast has been downloaded 317,000 times and we’ve just hit our 250^th episode of this program.

Five years ago, my book “Slow Flowers” was published.

Four years ago, I started the ambitious endeavor to publish and maintain an online directory called Slowflowers.com, which is a free resource to help connect consumers with American grown flowers and the people who grow and design with them.

Three years ago, American Flowers Week debuted, and the fourth annual week-long event American Flowers Week 2018 is almost here. Mark the dates June 28-July 4^th on your calendar.

Last year, in 2017, Slow Flowers Journal launched as an online magazine, and soon became a permanent feature in the pages of Florists’ Review each month.

I also launched the Slow Flowers Summit, a one-day mind-meld and gathering for floral progressives. Our second annual Summit is set for June 29^th – just around the corner.

What an incredible and rewarding ride it has been — especially to connect with kindred spirits in this journey we’re all taking! The journey to rescue, restore and revive domestic floral agriculture and a floral community focused on transparency and conscious sourcing practices.

Thank you to our sponsors who have supported Slow Flowers and all of our programs.

Our lead sponsor for 2018 is Florists’ Review magazine. I’m delighted to serve as Contributing Editor for Slow Flowers Journal, found in the pages of Florists’ Review. It’s the leading trade magazine in the floral industry and the only independent periodical for the retail, wholesale and supplier market. Take advantage of the special subscription offer for members of the Slow Flowers Community

Arctic Alaska Peonies, a cooperative of passionate family farms in the heart of Alaska providing bigger, better 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.

Mayesh Wholesale Florist. Family-owned since 1978, Mayesh is the premier wedding and event supplier in the U.S. and we’re thrilled to partner with Mayesh to promote local and domestic flowers, which they source from farms large and small around the U.S. Learn more at mayesh.com.

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 soundbodymovement.com.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Podcast Index | RSS | More

I first met today’s guest, Charles Little, on a sunny day in June 2010, at a gathering of about 60 growers and floral designers who came to the bucolic fields of Charles Little & Co.’s farm on Seavey Loop Road outside Eugene, Oregon.

We were there for a regional meeting of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers.

The full day of farming discussions, a fabulous barbecue and connecting with friends, new and old, ended with a conversation that led to the establishment of the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market the following year. My presence there also gave me a chance to witness the character and generosity of Charles and Bethany Little, our hosts. Later, I wrote these opening lines about the Charles Little & Co. farm, in a section of The 50 Mile Bouquet called “Grower Wisdom.”

“As farmland matures and evolves, so do those who steward it. Just ask Charles Little, who has been tending to ornamental crops in the verdant Willamette Valley since 1986. He describes the 40 abundant acres at the foot of Oregon’s Mount Pisgah, where he and his wife Bethany grow 250 varieties of fresh flowers, fillers, wildflowers, herbs, ornamental grains and grasses, seasonal berries, pods and branches, as a “horticultural paradise with its own thriving ecosystem.” 

“I was one of those young men who wanted to create a hippy commune and be a farmer,” Charles says of his early years. “I’ve always wanted to live and make my living on the land.” More than 25 years after planting his first flower crops, he maintains that “farming is a lifestyle, a stewardship and commitment to the land and a generous consideration of all life around you, from the beneficial microorganisms and insects, to the birds and snakes.”

The farm at Charles Little & Co. consists of acres of the very best river-bottom soil along the Coast Fork of the Willamette River in Oregon.

Crops raised here include flowers and foliages of all kinds; ornamental herbs, grasses and grains, and unique sticks, pods and berries. In-season floral materials are available year round to wholesalers throughout the U.S. And they are in a word, excellent!

Charles and Bethany prefer to work in tandem with the seasons, rather than using heated greenhouses or hoop houses to jump-start or extend their harvest. “The southern Willamette Valley has a growing climate that’s hard to beat, so I cooperate with mother nature,” Charles says.

I visited Eugene on two occasions this summer, and I stopped at Charles Little & Co. farm both times. In late June, I joined a small farm tour and lunch hosted by Bethany.

She invited some floral customers and two employees who market Charles Little’s crops at the Portland Flower Market.

Bethany generously allowed a few of us to clip annuals, herbs, perennials and foliage to make a bouquet while there. It was days before I planned on launching American Flowers Week, so I was excited to create a red-white-and -blue-themed arrangement. Bethany is a gifted floral designer, so with her help, it turned out beautifull.

Charles wasn’t at the farm; he was off on an extended, once-in-a-lifetime fishing excursion. Bethany wanted me to get Charles in on the podcast interview. So I promised to record them when I knew I was going to come back through Eugene on my way to a photo shoot in Southern Oregon. But that time, Bethany was away, at a summer music festival on the Oregon coast. So I convinced Charles to let me turn on the recorder for what is a fantastic and longer-than-usual conversation.

What I realized, and what Charles and Bethany later confirmed, is that for farming couples, it’s almost impossible for both to travel or take a break from the farm TOGETHER. Someone has to feel the sheep and chickens; someone has to make sure the crops are harvested, processed, bunched or made into bouquets, loaded into buckets and delivered to the customer, right?

That’s what I witnessed during both of my visits. So today, you will hear from Charles. And I promise that sometime in the future, hopefully before the end of this year, we’ll bring Bethany on as a follow-up guest.

I know you will enjoy our conversation. It took place at the cozy kitchen table inside the hand-crafted farmhouse that’s just steps from the magnificent barn we discuss in our interview.

The flowers harvested from Charles Little & Co.’s fields satisfy demand for nearly every color, form and type of plant ingredient used by wedding, floral and event designers.

There’s always an eye-popping, seasonal assortment to choose from: flowering shrubs, colorful tree branches, evergreen boughs, and yes, a small percentage of dried flowers.

Since not all of you can visit the farm in person, as a special bonus, I’ve added a downloadable about them that appears in The 50 Mile Bouquet. Click here for the file: Grower Wisdom.

 

Before I close, I wanted to give a shout-out and thank you to the fabulous students of Austin Community College’s floral design program who asked me to be a guest speaker (virtually- through the power of Skype) this week.

Their topic: Slow Flowers! The seminar was developed by instructor Morgan Anderson, a PhD candidate in floral design at Texas A&M University (yes, you heard me right) and the owner of The Flori.Culture, a design studio and Slowflowers.com member.

In addition to the Q&A with me, the students have been learning about sourcing local ingredients, specifically focusing on and using botanicals from Texas Specialty Cut Flowers, Pamela and Frank Arnosky’s famous flower farm. They are also evaluating Floral Soil and they promised to send photos of their designs for me to post in the future.

I applaud Morgan because she is leading the way to educate the next generation of floral designers in an entirely different model than most conventional floristry education programs. The enthusiasm I felt from this amazing group of students was so encouraging – and I wish them all great success in their career paths.

 

 

This week was a highlight in another way, too. We broke the record with our 60,000th podcast download. THANK YOU to each and every one of you for downloading, listening, commenting and sharing. It means so much.

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

Here’s the sign that welcomed me as I arrived at the regional meeting for the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers in Eugene last Monday. Fields and fields of beautiful blooms grow here at Charles Little & Co., a 35-acre flower farm.

I flew to Eugene last week to spend a day attending the ASCFG regional meeting, where I met up with photographer David Perry. We were excited to participate for the first time as members. An association of 450-plus flower producers across the country, ASCFG brings together specialty growers who raise all sorts of floral ingredients, including annuals, perennials, flowering ornamental shrubs, vines, edibles and grasses.

This was a chance for us to hear from a diverse cross-section of growers. Each small business is carving out its own niche in the marketplace, from the grower with just one acre who sells most of her blooms at a local farmer’s market to a couple whose cutting garden has become a popular place for weddings (complete with fresh-cut blooms for the bridal bouquet).

Then there is a young, hardworking farmer who delivers his Oregon calla lilies and hydrangeas by the truckload, direct to the Los Angeles Flower Market and a floral designer who has decided to diversify by growing her own floral ingredients in her parents’ small acreage. We listened and learned and soaked it all up.

It was a treat to meet so many awesome, passionate individuals who work on the land and who want to connect with each customer who buys and enjoys the flowers they grow. We got caught up in the passion and the stories – stories we will continue to document with photography, video and the written word.

We are well along on this journey, but there is so much more to document for you as we create A Fresh Bouquet: Seasonal, Local and Sustainable Flowers. As David has written, please ” . . . follow along on this unfolding ‘cut-flower’ book project . . . as we continue to build it.” 

Here are some photos of the day’s highlights: