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Our 12^th annual American Flowers Week is coming right up – June 28^th through July 4^th. To showcase this year’s Botanical Couture collection, I’m welcoming return guest Françoise Weeks to the Slow Flowers Podcast. A longtime Slow Flowers Member, her name is synonymous with botanical couture. As an educator, she has taught thousands of students around the globe, as well as from her Portland, Oregon-based studio, and online. Slow Flowers asked Françoise to create a lily-inspired floral fashion for this year’s American Flowers Week collection, an idea originally proposed by Flowerbulb.eu, a Slow Flowers sponsor that that promotes lilies grown from European bulbs for U.S. gardeners, flower farmers, and florists. Françoise designed and created two alluring styles to highlight lily petals and blooms. In addition to discussing this project, Françoise shares some of the techniques and mechanics she has developed for botanical couture – and you might want to add them to your floral tool kit!

American Flowers Week represents a unique intersection of passions – flower farmers and floral designers coming together to promote local, seasonal, and sustainable flowers. This truth is at the core of what distinguishes the Slow Flowers Movement from any other floral industry organization of initiative.
It underscores the shared values and celebrates the important, tandem paths of both professions, as well as the ones who call themselves farmer-florists.

This year, we are delighted to welcome Françoise Weeks, who has created two of American Flowers Week’sfour distinct looks, a collaboration with Sandra Laubenthal and Norman Peterkort, growers of superior Asiatic, oriental, and double lilies, and owners of Peterkort Roses.

Peterkort Roses supplied Françoise with hundreds of lily stems and accent flowers from their greenhouses outside Portland, Oregon. We’re calling the collection “Lily Luxe,” and when you see the way Françoise has reimagined lilies into wearable fashions – you’ll be as enchanted as I am.

Visit Americanflowersweek.com to download our free social media badges:
The Françoise Weeks-Peterkort looks

Flower-farm social media campaign by Amy Rice

And head’s up, today’s episode is the second of our three-part series, so join us on July 1st to meet Alanna Messner-Scholl of Waverly Flower Co., as we introduce her third consecutive botanical fashion created for American Flowers Week. Thanks for joining in and sharing the news about this special campaign!

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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.

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 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; Floating Whist
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

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We’ve been working closely this past year with lily bulb growers around the country, with the goal of providing more lily education to both farmers and florists. For today’s Lily Episode I wanted to learn more about what’s required to have a year-round lily program. I began my conversations with Jessica High of Flamingo Holland Bulbs, a Southern California-based vendor of Dutch-grown lily bulbs for specialty cut flower growers. That’s followed by a visit to Peterkort Roses, a longtime Slow Flowers member, known not only for growing beautiful roses, but also for Oriental, Asiatic, and LA Hybrid lilies around the year. I toured the lily greenhouse with Norman Peterkort, followed by a more extensive conversation with his sister, Sandra Laubenthal, who manages their lily program. What a great introduction to this beautiful and classic flower – I’m mesmerized and you’ll be, too.

I’m excited to bring you today’s conversation about the world of easy-to-grow lilies. If you’re a field farmer, or a garden grower like me, lilies are stars of the summer season. But, amazingly, lilies can be planted to bloom in succession, with  year-round availability. At Peterkort Roses, that means growing Oriental, Asiatic, and LA Hybrids undercover in their heritage greenhouses in Hillsboro, Oregon, outside Portland.

By planting lily bulbs in crates on a weekly succession of about 1,500 lilies per rotation, Peterkort ensurses that lilies are available for Portland and Seattle area florists who have standing orders for their coolers, and for event designers who need dazzling lilies for statement pieces and installations. For each floral holiday, from Christmas and Valentine’s Day to Easter and Mother’s Day, to the fall harvest table, the lily has a perennial presence in Peterkort’s lineup of local blooms.

As we discuss, innovations in lily breeding are pushing the envelope with double lilies, a wider palette of lilies, as well as fragrance and pollen-free varieties. And those features are attracting a new batch of customers, from the farmers’ market buyer to the client with a luxury vibe.

The episode introduces lily bulb vendor Jessica High, of Flamingo Holland, based in Southern California. Then we jump to Peterkort, which sources lily bulbs from a number of distributors, including Flamingo Holland.

Find and follow Peterkort Roses on Instagram and Facebook
Find and follow Flamingo Holland Bulbs on Instagram and Facebook

More Lily Resources from Flowerbulbdotcom, a Slow Flowers Podcast sponsor

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Free Download: Lily Master Class

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Slow Flowers WORLDWIDE Summit 2026 — Save $50 off Early Bird Tickets

In Slow Flowers Summit NEWS, this is the last week for grabbing your Early Bird Ticket to the 2026 Slow Flowers WORLDWIDE Summit, taking place online, January 30-31. Join Slow Flowers’ doers and thinkers for two days of progressive ideas, creative connections and business inspiration. You’ll learn from some inspiring floral experts covering must-know intel, from sustainable floral design and botanical couture, to growing gorgeous flowers for weddings, events, and the everyday market, to business advice for your future. Thirteen incredible presenters will are joining the two-day event at a great price.

Save $50 off Summit Registration through October 31st. Members pay only $189. Thank you to Dee Hall Goodwin of Black Flower Farmers for co-producing the Summit with us and creating two special presentations that she will moderate. You can see the entire lineup of topics and speakers in our show notes at slowflowerspodcast.com – We hope to see you there!

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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 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.

Our next sponsor thanks goes 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.

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Thank you for joining me today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 1.5 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; Feathersoft
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