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The 2027 Slow Flowers Summit will take place live and in-person on the grounds of Filoli Historic House and Garden, the famed cultural destination in the San Francisco Bay Area. Late last month, I traveled there for a site visit and planning session, meeting up with several of Filoli’s horticulture and floriculture team members, including Jackie Salas, today’s guest. The weather was glorious and Jackie led Niesha Blancas, our social media manager, and me on a walk through Filoli’s cutting garden while we filmed and recorded content. While introducing us to the vast perennial and annual beds and borders, Jackie clipped and gathered some of her favorite blooms, foliages, and texture elements for an arrangement she subsequently designed. This was a delightful education for a flower-lover like me, as Jackie shared about the character of California gardens, the history of cut flower growing and design at this renowned estate garden, and how she favors plants with two or three uses – both in the landscape and the vase. Filoli plays a leading role in horticulture and gardening education, with an emphasis on sustainability and design, and we know you and other Slow Flowers Summit attendees will be enriched by your time there next June. Today’s conversation is a beautiful preview – as we are gearing up to open Early Bird ticket sales on November 1st.

You may have heard that we’re celebrating our 10^th Slow Flowers Summit next year. The dates are set for June 20^th to 22nd, 2027 and you’re invited to join the Slow Flowers community as we highlight new ideas and leading voices in floral design, flower farming, and sustainability topics. The big news is that the Summit will take place in the San Francisco Bay Area at Filoli Historic House & Garden. This might sound familiar, and it is – because Filoli’s leadership has invited us to return after our successful 2021 conference there.

I’m so excited that we’ll again experience a full immersion of the gardens, landscape, and natural areas at Filoli, as we learn from expert Slow Flowers instructors, including from Filoli’s horticulture and floriculture teams.

Today’s guest is Jackie Bergquist Salas, Horticulture Production Manager at Filoli. Here’s more about Jackie. She is a San Francisco Bay Area native who has always had a passion for petals. As a child growing up in the East Bay, she thought it normal to harvest backyard roses for Thanksgiving centerpieces, and large bouquets of fresh Calla Lilies from her yard long into May. She took this passion to UC Davis, where in 2005 she earned a B.S. in Environmental Horticulture with specializations in Landscape/Turf Management and Nursery Production/Floriculture. While at Davis she also worked in the university’s Floriculture Labs. Continuing her florific journey, Jackie she obtained a M.S. in Public Horticulture from the University of Delaware and the Longwood Garden’s Graduate Program in 2009. She picked up floral arranging skills at a private estate after college, and honed her growing skills at Children’s Fairyland in downtown Oakland, California. These experiences led her to her dream job at Filoli Gardens and Estate, where she manages the Horticultural Production spaces and staff.

As I mentioned, Niesha and I spent a few hours recently, touring the cutting gardens as Jackie introduced us to the late summer-early autumn plantings. After meeting the plants where they grow, we followed her into the floral arranging room in Filoli’s mansion, a special place where all the vase collections are stored, flowers are dried, and design supplies are stocked for staff to easily create close to 20 arrangements weekly for the public and administrative areas. I encourage you to watch the replay video of my conversation with Jackie as we toured the gorgeous Filoli Cutting Gardens and as she designed a seasonal arrangement. You’ll find it at slowflowerspodcast.com or on our YouTube channel for Episode 790. By the way, Filoli Horticulture is a member of the Slow Flowers Society and we’re so grateful for their involvement as both a host venue and fellow members.

One more series of thank you’s I want to share. During our few days in the Bay Area, Niesha and I were joined by several Slow Flowers members, including some of our Summit speakers and designers. We had a great time on a walk-through of the Filoli mansion, and later visited in the Café at Filoli for networking and good friendship. A special thank you to our Filoli counterparts, including Jim Salyards, Brendan Dellerba, Sonia Capitant, Aimee Sanders and Marlene(a) Delgado for all their input and guidance – you showed us a magnificent time and it’s a preview of what’s to come.

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Thank you to speakers who joined us, including Kristine Albrecht (and her husband Brion Sprinsock) of Santa Cruz Dahlias, Jacqueline Pham of Pham Peony Gardens, and Melissa Olson of Penflora Designs. We also welcomed Teresa Sabankaya, who has agreed to serve as the Creative Director for the Floral Takeover at the Filoli mansion. Sarah Reyes and Laura Sasso of Wildflower and Fern in Oakland also joined us. What a treat to connect in person as we all began to imagine the many ways we can deliver a fantastic, inspiring, and idea-filled 2027 Slow Flowers Summit.

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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.

And thank you to our lead sponsor, My Patio Tree: Expertly Grown Plants, Perfectly Designed to Elevate Your Garden. Their 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 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 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.

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The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 1.6 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; Speaker Joy
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

Over the past year, you’ve heard from many of the panelists and personalities scheduled to present at the upcoming Slow Flowers Summit, scheduled for June 28-30, which is right around the corner. And today, I’m bringing you straight to our Summit destination, Filoli Historic House & Garden based in Woodside, California, where we will gather for the first two days of the conference.

I am so excited for the opportunity Summit attendees, speakers, sponsors and guests will enjoy as we immerse ourselves in the beauty and legacy of this Bay Area cultural institution. We will spend two full days experiencing the historic property, including Filoli’s legendary landscape and cutting gardens, which you’ll learn more about today. We also will have unprecedented access to design a ‘floral takeover’ in ‘The House,’ California’s most triumphant example of the Georgian Revival tradition and one of the finest remaining country estates of the early 20th century.

For now, I’d love to introduce you to the horticulture team at Filoli, because they are the ones whose involvement in the Slow Flowers Summit will ensure a thoroughly immersive plant and floral experience.

Today, join me in a conversation with Jim Salyards, Kate Nowell and Haley O’Connor.

Jim Salyards is the director of horticulture, a 26-year veteran of Filoli!

Kate Nowell is the horticulture production manager, with about one decade at Filoli, and Haley O’Connor is Filoli’s new formal garden manager who joined about six months ago.

Let’s jump right in and take an audio (virtual) botanical tour with three talented plants people.

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Thank you so much for joining our conversation today! There are still a few spaces left to attend the Slow Flowers Summit and you can find all those details at slowflowerssummit.com. We are so excited to welcome our attendees to a safe, in-person, COVID-compliant and mostly outdoor setting at Filoli Historic House and Garden. The countdown begins!

And by the way, if you’re not attending the Summit, watch Slow Flowers Society on Facebook, Slow Flowers Society and Slow Flowers Summit on Instagram for live feeds coming to you from the Slow Flowers Summit, including a behind-the-scenes tour that I will lead on setup day, Sunday, June 28th.

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Something really fun happened this past week as I traded places at the microphone and answered questions posed to me rather than being the person asking those questions. Our good friend Jennifer Jewell, producer and host of Cultivating Place, an award-winning public radio program and podcast, invited me to join her to discuss all things Slow Flowers. I’ll share the link to that episode in today’s show notes. You’ve heard Jennifer here as a past guest and you may already subscribe to Cultivating Place. If not, please check out her amazing, inclusive and expansive weekly radio program about plants, people, place and other conversations about natural history and the human urge to garden. Jennifer is coming to the Slow Flowers Summit as our capstone speaker on day two — and I’m so honored that she shared our story – your story – the story of Slow Flowers – on her terrific show.

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As you know, in the buildup to American Flowers Week, June 28-July 4, there is much to celebrate. This Friday, you’re invited to join our Slow Flowers Member Virtual Meet-Up, June 11th at 9 am Pacific/Noon Eastern. The topic: Botanical Couture for American Flowers Week 2021 Collection. The guests? Several of the creatives responsible for this year’s expansive and flourishing fashion collection! Get a peek at the behind the scenes and hear from the creatives — Slow Flowers member farmers, designers and floral artists who rose to the open call for floral wearables. We have one-dozen looks in all this year — a feat of talent, ingenuity and inventiveness! Can’t wait for you to join us — all the details and the link to log in are available in today’s show notes. See you there!

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Thank you to our Sponsors

This podcast 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 for 2021, Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers delivers iconic burlap-wrapped bouquets and lush, abundant arrangements to customers across the U.S., supporting more than 20 U.S. flower farms by purchasing more than $9 million dollars of U.S.-grown fresh and seasonal flowers and foliage annually, and providing competitive salaries and benefits to team members based in Watsonville, California and Miami, Florida. Discover more at farmgirlflowers.com.

For each Podcast episode this year, we thank three of our Major Sponsors.

Flowerfarm.com, is a leading wholesale flower distributor that sources from carefully-selected growers to offer high-performing fresh flowers sent directly from the farm straight to you. You can shop by flower and by country of origin at flowerfarm.com. Find flowers and foliage from California, Florida, Oregon and Washington by using the “Origin” selection tool in your search. It’s smarter sourcing. Learn more at flowerfarm.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. Find the full catalog of flower seeds and bulbs at johnnysseeds.com.

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.

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Thanks so much for joining us today! The Slow Flowers Podcast has been downloaded more than 734,000 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.

I value your support and invite you to show your thanks to support Slow Flowers’ ongoing advocacy, education and outreach activities. You can find the donate button in the column to the right at debraprinzing.com

I’m Debra Prinzing, host and producer of the Slow Flowers Podcast. Next week, you’re invited to join me in putting more Slow 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. 

Music Credits:

Flattered; 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