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The Flower Farmers has been in the works for two years, as my co-author and the book’s creative director Robin Avni and I have poured our storytelling passion into the narratives and imagery that portray 29 North American growers. The book was released on May 6^th by Abrams, and we’ve been in major celebration mode ever since. Today’s episode brings you  to the lecture that Robin and I recently presented for the Northwest Horticultural Society, as we introduced the flower farming lifestyle and encouraged the audience to “garden like a flower farmer.” In the second part of this episode, you’ll hear a fabulous conversation I recorded with Daniel Sparler, Seattle-based horticulturalist and expert on botanical Latin, who served as The Flower Farmers’ horticulture consultant.

Here’s the pitch for The Flower Farmers book: “Twenty–nine of today’s most inspiring flower farmers present stories, how–to–cultivate expertise, and favorite new varieties in a lushly photographed guide to feed your every floral fantasy.

“Flower farmers are the garden world’s lifestyle influencers these days, with dedicated social media channels and hundreds of thousands of avid fans who dream about having a lush and vibrant cutting garden of their own. Today’s gardeners follow celebrity growers to gather ideas and expert advice regarding planting techniques and the best varieties and seasonal plants to choose. The Flower Farmers book presents a curated group of favorite growers, from industry leaders to pioneering newcomers. Each grower shares their specialty knowledge and seasonal practices, so that readers will be able to create a similar relationship with flowers and discover sustainable techniques for their own gardens. Dedicated sidebars dig deeper, with information on everything from raising a unique cultivar to the best floral varieties for long-lasting arrangements. Gorgeous photography illustrates each farmer’s profile, highlighting the beauty of their farms, floral passions, and the flowers themselves.”

Regular listeners know all about me, and so I’ll re-introduce Robin Avni, past guest of the Slow Flowers Podcast. Robin is a creative director and experienced designer in the media + high-tech industries. Her specialties include creative management of award-winning teams and content development for high-profile projects. She has produced 18 floral and lifestyle books, including eight in collaboration with me, and together we love showcasing the floral lifestyle of creatives and entrepreneurs.

Click below to view: Robin and Debra’s lecture slides

Whether you’re a plant geek or a beginning plant parent, you’ll love hearing from Daniel Sparler about botanical Latin and how it has evolved. We are so grateful that Daniel shared his expertise with us to ensure that The Flower Farmers’ plant content is correctly identified, accurate and up to date.

Jump to my conversation with Daniel here

Click for more resources from Daniel Sparler

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Join us on tour!

The Flower Farmers JUNE Book Tour — Virginia, Pennsylvania, Connecticut & New York
Sun., June 8th (4-6 p.m.), WATERFORD, Virginia
Book Launch party and signing with Debra Prinzing and Holly Heider Chapple of Hope Flower Farm. Enjoy the afternoon at Hope Flower Farm, featured in the pages of The Flower Farmers. Books will be available for purchase and signing, and you’ll want to visit the Hope Flower Farm Winery, too!
Free; Event Details Here. NOTE: Correct time is 4-6 p.m.

Tues., June 10th (6-7:30 p.m.)
KENNETT SQUARE, Pennsylvania
Longwood Gardens hosts Robin Avni and Debra Prinzing for a lecture and book-signing about The Flower Farmers. They’ll be joined by Marly Surena-Llorens of Fenimore & Rutland (Allentown, Pennsylvania) will join as their special farmer guest.
Free; pre-registration is required; Event Details Here.

Wed., June 11th (4-6 p.m.)
MIDDLETOWN, Connecticut
The Connecticut Flower Collective is hosting Debra Prinzing from the Slow Flower Society and Robin Avni to share their latest book, “The Flower Farmers.” Enjoy light snacks and refreshments while listening to a reading followed by a Q&A from 4-5PM, and a book signing from 5-6PM. Books will be available for purchase at CTFC, as well as a late flower market where you can shop the floor during the event.
Free; Pre-Register Here

Thur., June 12th (6-8 p.m.)
BROOKLYN (Williamsburg), New York
Join Debra and Robin at Flower Aggregate, the exciting new hub for local flowers. Enjoy networking and refreshments, and meet some of the flower farmers featured in The Flower Farmers! Books will be available for purchase and signing.
Free. More Details Here.

Fri., June 13th (4-6 p.m.)
MILLBROOK, New York
Orangerie Garden + Home is hosting Robin and Debra, along with three flower farmers who are featured in The Flower Farmers. Enjoy design demonstrations of their local flowers along with refreshments. Books will be available for purchase and signing.
Free. More Details Here.

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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 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.

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

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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. Thanks so much for joining us today and I’ll see you next week!

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Music credits:

Drone Pine; Gaena; Cast in Wicker
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

Join Debra’s fabulous conversation with Daniel Sparler, Seattle-based horticulturalist and expert on botanical Latin, who served as The Flower Farmers’ horticulture consultant. Note: this bonus interview also appears as part two of Slow Flowers Podcast Episode 718.

READ MORE about Azara serrata in an article by Daniel Sparler, “Azaras in Abundance”

I have a special interview to share! Whether you’re a self-described plant geek or a beginning plant parent, you’ll love hearing from Daniel Sparler about botanical Latin and how it has evolved. We are so grateful that Daniel shared his expertise with us to ensure that The Flower Farmers’ plant content was correctly identified, accurate and up to date. In celebration of the release of The Flower Farmers, I asked Daniel to chat with me about language, plants, and how they come together in botanical Latin. This interview was recorded on May 10, 2025, in the garden Daniel shares with his husband Jeff Schouten.

MORE about Daniel: Daniel Sparler thought he had left gardening behind when he washed up on Seattle’s shores in 1981 after his first two decades of life in agrarian Arkansas. But 11 years later, having acquired a Seward Park house surrounded by a long neglected, sprawling lot, he quickly succumbed to floral and foliar fever, which soon progressed to a full-blown and likely terminal case of CPC – compulsive plant collecting. Within a few years he and his long-suffering husband Jeffrey had cobbled together a notorious but much-photographed garden brimming over with thousands of distinct taxa of plants from all corners of the globe. Daniel has taught botanical Latin classes for the last 15 years in addition to writing the popular “Horticulturally Yours” column for the Northwest Horticultural Society. Otherwise, when not up to his knees in compost, Daniel enjoys reading Spanish literature, preparing vegan cuisine, and visiting the world’s most alluring botanical gardens.

More from Daniel: Papaver was the Latin word for poppy; in Greek it was Mecon. Hence “Meconopsis” (-opsis being a Greek suffix meaning “looking like”). Oreo is Greek for mountain, thus Oreomecon, the “new” genus for Iceland poppy, means (from the Greek) “mountain poppy”.  The genus Papaver is still alive and well, and contains more than 70 species, although the “Iceland poppy” has been moved out of it.

Here are the resources we discussed as “unassailable sources” for botanical Latin:

World Flora Online, https://wfoplantlist.org/

Plants of the World Online (Royal Botanic Gardens Kew): https://powo.science.kew.org/

Botanical Gardens that maintain up-to-date plant information:
Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh
Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University
Missouri Botanical Garden

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