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In the runup to our American Flowers Week’s annual Botanical Couture collection, I’m welcoming Caitlin Mathes to the Slow Flowers Podcast. A longtime Slow Flowers Member based in New York’s Finger Lakes Region, Caitlin has been cultivating the Tagetes species, also known as the marigold, since 2019. Her passion led to establishing The Marigold Gardens as a singular flower farm, specializing in more than 40 marigold varieties. When planning this year’s American Flowers Week floral fashions, we asked Caitlin if she would like to create a marigold garment – and she joined in the fun, growing, designing, fabricating, and modeling her playful look. Join me as we learn more about Caitlin’s floral enterprise, her love affair with marigolds, and her charming, Medieval-inspired garment fashioned with a multitude of colorful and uniquely-formed varieties. You, too, will fall in love with marigolds because Caitlin’s passion is contagious!
American Flowers Week was founded by Slow Flowers in 2015 as the original domestic flower promotion campaign. Each year, from June 28-through July 4, Slow Flowers members and flower lovers everywhere are invited to showcase their flowers. Some folks post their blooms across social media as red-white-and-blue creations; others use the American Flowers Week bouquet labels to adorn market wraps or to decorate take-home arrangements from events and workshops. But since 2016, the centerpiece of American Flowers Week has been the botanical couture runway, floral fashions grown, designed, and produced by flower farmers, farmer-florists, and floral designers, as well as creative fashionistas who just love the idea of dressing a model in blooms.
This year, we have four distinct looks to share in our celebration, and today, we kick things off with a magical marigold design from Caitlin Mathes, owner of The Marigold Gardens.
The Marigold Gardens is an emerging flower farm with only one crop . . . MARIGOLDS! As Caitlin puts it: “The marigold has given me so much joy and inspiration that I felt the need to become a grower, steward, advocate, and cheerleader for this wonderful flower. It is high time marigolds had their praises sung and I look forward to growing The Marigold Gardens into a beautiful destination for all things marigold.”
She calls herself a marigold monger, which is just one role this maker, performer, librarian, and agrarian represents. It was so much fun speaking with Caitlin about her marigold passion, one that inspires her to create and share in all types of ways. Let’s welcome Caitlin to the Slow Flowers Podcast and get ready for a deep dive into the world of marigolds.
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Flower-farming prints by Amy Rice
Caitlin Mathes’ Marigold Look
And head’s up, today’s episode is the first a three-part series, so join us on June 24th to learn from botanical artist and educator Françoise Weeks; followed by a conversation on July 1st with Alanna Messner-Scholl of Waverly Flower Co., as both will discuss their American Flowers week floral fashions. I can’t wait to share those wonderful conversations – and you’ll be inspired!
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 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.
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.
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.
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!
Music credits:
Drone Pine; Gaena; Talens Bal
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
