Slow Flowers Journal FALL 2022

C E L E B R AT I N G T H E S E A S O N

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FALL 2022

IN THIS ISSUE

THE HOLIDAY HOME

PORTRAIT OF A FLOWER FARMER

SEASONAL RITUALS WHERE WE BLOOM

FLORI COGNOSCENTI

HANG A WREATH

FESTIVE DESIGN STUDIOS

HARVEST + HOLIDAYS

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Debra Prinzing CREATIVE DIRECTOR Robin Avni COPY EDITOR Brenda Silva IMAGE EDITOR Heather Marino CONTRIBUTORS Alison Ellis, Sarah Kuenzi, Debby Mittelman, Beth Syphers, Cynthia Zamaria, Pilar Zuniga PHOTOGRAPHERS Lauren Edith Anderson, Alex Brooks, Niesha Blancas, Emma May Dixon, Debby Mittelman, Adam O'Neal, Eric Neurath, Ann Nguyen, Missy Palacol, Sarah Statham, Cynthia Zamaria ON THE COVER PepperHarrow Farm's rainbow wreath is a botanical unicorn. For the past two holiday seasons, when Jennifer and Adam O'Neal post images of this colorful handmade wreath design, made with conifers, dried flowers, and dried fruit, it's an instant sellout.

It is featured in their book Small Farm,

Big Dreams. pepperharrowfarm.com @pepperharrow_ COVER PHOTOGRAPER Adam O'Neal

'tis the season.

The stories, voices, and images contained in this fall edition are inspired by the harvest, hearth, and holiday gatherings of our community.

This is the season of homesteading, making, baking, and reflecting on the past year and where it has taken us. Journeys may have been literal or filled our imaginations, prompted by a single memento, a rediscovered family heirloom, a time-honored recipe, or a favorite bloom.

The Slow Flowers Movement and its values permeate these pages.

We introduce you to pioneering flower farmer Joan Thorndike, whose Southwest Oregon crops are produced for floral designers and individuals who want safe and seasonal blooms.

We visit retail and studio spaces, learn more about natural pigments, discover how flowers translate to interior spaces, attend a few workshops and conferences, meet new friends, and expand our horizons.

Like our gardens, we have entered an quieter phase. In the fields, things may have gone fallow, freeing time to feather our nests. But the

COVER MODEL Jennifer O'Neal ©2022 by SLOW FLOWERS JOURNAL and BLOOM Imprint. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher.

enterprise of growing and selling flowers moves ahead and we're grateful for guidance from our business columnist Alison Ellis and from Pilar Zuniga's important essay, "Finding Flower Friends of Color in the Feed."

We'd love to learn how you are wrapping up this year, what was important, and what inspiration you're carrying with you into the next.

Happiest of Holidays,

Debra + Robin SLOW FLOWERS JOURNAL

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CONTRIBUTORS

fall.

SARAH KEUNZI + BETH SYPHERS are sisters and coauthors of Furrow & Flour, Inspirations from the Garden and for the Home. A farmer-florist, Beth owns Crowley House Flower Farm with her husband, Jayson Syphers. A cook and chef, Beth and her family live on a grass seed farm in Silverton, Oregon, not far from where the sisters and their family of twelve siblings were raised. furrowandflour.com

DEBBY MITTELMAN is a floral designer, photographer, and owner of Phoenix-based MiViva Designs. She has earned her AzMF designation as an Arizona Certified Master Florist, she is a member of the Slow Flower Society, the Arizona State Florists Association, and the first Arizona member of Chapel Designers. mivivadesigns.com

PILAR ZUNIGA is owner and lead designer of Gorgeous and Green, an Oakland-based design studio, founded in 2008. Her studio is committed to local and seasonal flower sourcing, sustainable design, and other green practices.

Pilar is an ambassador of the Sustainable Floristry Network and the creator of Instagram's Florists of Color. gorgeousandgreen.com

CYNTHIA ZAMARIA is a Toronto-based home and garden creative who believes that every residence is a beautiful work in progress. She is the author of House + Flower, published by BLOOM Imprint in 2022. Recognized as a County Home Magazine Style Maker, Cynthia’s work has been featured in Domino, Apartment Therapy, Country Living, Homes & Gardens, House & House, and Style at Home. cynthiazamaria.com

ALISON ELLIS is a Vermont-based floral designer and author of Falling into Flowers: A Step-by-Step Guide to Today's Modern Wedding Business (Wildflower Media, 2020).

She founded realflowerbusiness.com to share step-by-step business training that helps build long-term success, including "Flower Math," which teaches florists how to maximize profit margins. realflowerbusiness.com

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departments.

features.

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FLORI COGNOSCENTI

hang a wreath.

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'TIS THE SEASON

make the holiday yours.

While home is the tactile imprint of our

SLOW FLOWERS HEROES

souls, as curious and creative creatures,

joan thorndike.

we crave advice and inspiration for betterment. Cynthia Zamaria shares ideas for winter style-making indoors

FLORAL RETREAT

and outdoors, drawing from her desire

into the woods.

to find the potential in what we have on hand or discover on the hunt.

FROM THE HEART

seasonal rituals.

FLORA CULTURE

flower friends of color.

THE BUSINESS OF FLOWERS

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FOREVER FLOWERS

beyond the vase.

Meet Julie Beeler of Bloom & Dye to learn how she coaxes pigments and paints from flowers, herbs, and mushrooms for her textile and fiber artwork.

floral business check-in.

SLOW FLOWERS JOURNAL

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FLORI COGNOSCENTI

how do you put a twist on the traditional holiday wreath?

sandy figel VERBENA FLORAL SEATTLE WOODINVILLE, WASHINGTON

verbenafloralseattle.com @verbenafloralseattle

I’m always looking for natural elements to add interest and texture. Fruits, berries, dried florals, pussy willows, pods, twigs, rose hips, seeds, leaves and branches can all be utilized.

I look for these materials in my yard, the grocery store,

julio freitas THE FLOWER HAT | BOZEMAN, MONTANA

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floral markets, the beach, the woods, even on the side of the road. There’s inspiration everywhere! I use a variety of mechanics depending on the

theflowerhat.com

materials. I avoid using floral

@theflowerhat

foam or plastics. Instead, I’m

We built this 7-foot wreath for a corporate event.

able to utilize materials such

Large boughs and branches from a copper beech tree

as twig frames, willow frames,

festoon a handmade frame of curly willow branches.

wire frames, moss, twine, and/

Human added for scale!

or bind wire.

FALL 2022

SANDY FIGEL

THE FLOWER HAT

farmers' market, wholesale

KELLY GREGORY

kelly gregory FIDDLIN FROG FLOWERS | MARYSVILLE, CALIFORNIA

fiddlinfrogflowers.com, @fiddlinfrogflowers

Mother Nature offers so many charming botanical gifts, which is why I love foraging the fields and creating seasonal wreaths for my clients. I find inspiration in florals that transform with the season, and I enjoy mixing dried materials with fresh-cut flowers. My style could be described as modern folk, whimsical, primitive with lots of texture and earth tones — similar to a crazy quilt pattern.

Unexpected materials like chicory, curly dock, shredded cattail greens, eucalyptus bark, wild vervain, and bullrush are favorite elements. For this design, I used a weathered silver dollar eucalyptus branch as the base and created a wreath with dried lisianthus, sedum, mace reed, dried wheat, amaranth, wild vervain, curly dock, shredded cattail, dried misty white, and weathered dusty miller blooms.

SLOW FLOWERS JOURNAL

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FLORI COGNOSCENTI

how do you put a twist on the traditional holiday wreath? dustin saunders LITTLE HOLLOW FLOWERS BERTHOUD, COLORADO

littlehollowflowers.com, @littlehollowflowers

We save and dry blooms throughout the season, and collect interesting botanic items like wasp nests and mossy

CARRIE WILCOX

branches. What remains are beautiful skeletal elements. Seed heads, pods, and wispy stems bring in the seasonal element as

carrie wilcox

we enter the quiet, short days

CARRIE WILCOX FLORAL DESIGN | MILFORD, CONNECTICUT

of winter. The whimsical and

carriewilcoxfloraldesign.com, @cwfloraldesign

Most wreaths are machine-made or mass-produced,

textural aesthetic of our wreaths

so anything not from a box store stands out. I like to

have a lot of relevance to our

create my wreaths with seasonally unique ingredients,

landscape here in Colorado.

like ornamental grasses and other dried botanicals.

For this spooky, fall- inspired design, I used the last of the dusty miller foliage from my garden, harvested just before frost. I harvested bittersweet vines from the roadside (invasive in my state, so I know I won't get in trouble!). I clipped blooms from my garden's mum plants, and used the leftover sunflower centers design is, "the more unnatural something looks, the more natural it appears — no polka dots in nature!"

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: DUSTIN SAUNDERS

from another project. My thought process when I

debbie bosworth DANDELION HOUSE FLOWER FARM AND FLORAL DESIGN PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS

dandelionhousefloraldesign.com @dandelion_house

When I'm designing for clients, I find out what colors they love to live with, and whether they like a wild,

alexandra richards TWIGGAGE & BLOOM | MISSION, BRITISH COLUMBIA

twiggageandbloom.com, @twiggageandbloom

"Wreathing. To wreath." It's a real verb! We curate the

more contained and modern.

What's great about this color scheme is that it's not limited to any one particular season.

I used material from my collection of dried flowers, and also purchased ingredients

loveliest ingredients for fresh and dried seasonal wreaths,

from a local wholesaler who

adding simple twists to the standard evergreen form.

keeps a fully stocked dried-

My wreath design philosophy is that ingredients are

and-preserved section.

DEBBIE BOSWORTH

ALEXANDRA RICHARDS

textured design or something

practical, safe, reusable, recyclable and/or compostable, and highlight the unique beauty of natural elements. I built this wreath with conifer boughs and pine cones on a metal frame, I chose to feature the suede-like underside of the southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) leaves. To match the color and weight of the wreath, I chose a $1 topstitched, brass-buckled, brown belt, sourced from a thrift store. Not only does the leather stand up to the outdoor elements, it evokes a hint of horse-drawn sleighs and jingle bells. If cared for, the belt can be reused year after year.

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SLOW FLOWERS HEROES BY DEBRA PRINZING PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANN NGUYEN

joan thorndike. le mera gardens | talent, oregon met Joan Thorndike, a gifted flower-farmer based in Oregon's

ADVICE FROM A FLOWER FARMER

agriculturally rich Rogue Valley. I featured her in a chapter called

GROW LOTS OF FLOWERS

In 2012, with the publication of The 50 Mile Bouquet, readers

"Grower Wisdom," and introduced Le Mera Gardens, one of the state's first certified organic flower farms.

Le Mera Gardens grows about 150 seasonal, specialty cut flowers and botanical varieties sold in bulk to florists, DIY weddings and special events, private clients, restaurants, hospitality venues, and local charities in southwest Oregon and northern California.

Despite demand for it, Le Mera Gardens does not ship flowers, reflecting Slow Flowers' value of a small transportation footprint.

The agricultural enterprise spreads across a number of urban parcels in southwest Oregon, from Medford to Ashland, with a propagation house, 12 hoop houses, a double-shade house for hydrangeas, and approximately five acres of open fields. With increasingly hot summers and too many seasons of watching their plants burn, Joan says in all seriousness that she and Steve and Suzi Fry, owners of parent farm Fry Family Farm, dream of shading their open fields to stay in business.

"There's something wonderful about florists."

Over the decades, selling wholesale flowers to area florists

: "In order for me to offer more diversity and better flowers, I need to grow more of them," Joan says. "I learned through the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers (ASCFG) that seeds are cheap compared to everything else, and that abundance pays off. Growing abundance demands I constantly look for new markets and ways to sell the very best of my flowers."

VALUE ORGANIC Le Mera Garden's tagline is "Oregon's Organic Flower Farm," which prompts conversations with clients. Joan welcomes them, explaining, "The question is not whether you eat my flowers. Rather, it's whether I can have my children and your children and my workers and myself out in the field if it's not organically managed, if we don't follow practices that feel safe.

Do I want you to handle a flower or bury your nose in a bunch of flowers that I know is covered in pesticides? No, I don't want that.

It was very, very clear to me I should be an organic grower."

remains Le Mera Gardens' top priority -- representing at least 50

STUDY THE EXPERTS

percent of annual sales. "I've always sold to florists from the very

Joan credits two seminal books for inspiring her to treat flower farming as a profession rather than a hobby: Specialty Cut Flowers by Allan Armitage and Judy Laushman (2nd edition is now available) and Flowers, Flowers!, by Paula Pryke.

beginning; they are my primary buyers," Joan explains. "There's something really wonderful about working with florists. They are my very best teachers. About 10 years ago, there was a lot of talk about (retail) florists closing and going out of business, but that hasn't been our experience. One or two of my customers have changed ownership, but the flower shops are still there, and even a new one has emerged."

LEARN MORE lemerafarm.com @lemeragardens

SLOW FLOWERS JOURNAL

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SLOW FLOWERS HEROES

What has changed over the years are florists coming to Le Mera Gardens from further afield — from communities like Klamath Falls, Oregon, and Mt. Shasta, California. Also, more recently, studio designers are becoming a significant share of business, as are farmer-florists who treat Le Mera Gardens as their "backup farm." Joan values new additions to her customer base, a sign that locally grown and seasonal flowers are loved and established in her community.

Joan texts and emails her core customers each week, in addition to maintaining her website's harvest and availability calendar, which aids in their ordering. She recently upgraded Le Mera Gardens' website and plans to spend this coming off-season to build an online wholesale shop. In addition to her primary wholesale channels (farm-to-florist), Joan has always sold direct to consumers, primarily DIY flower lovers. She consciously differentiates each channel through pricing and product offerings.

The farm also produces huge quantities of mixed bouquets sold at area farmers' markets, locally owned or managed grocery stores, Portland-based New Seasons Market, and at the Fry Family Farm Store. All direct-to-consumer retail bouquets are labeled Fry Family Farm.

After decades operating Le Mera Gardens out of a refrigerated box truck as a mobile flower shop for florists and DIY clients, things changed dramatically in 2020. "When COVID came, I couldn't figure out how to place a customer and myself in my truck's small enclosed space, no matter how many masks and hand sanitizer we had. It was impractical," Joan says.

"As of 2020, I set up a 'flower market' inside our farm's warehouse. Every Tuesday and Thursday during our long growing season, I welcome florists, designers, farmer-florists, wedding and event DIY clients, and the community to shop from the market, by appointment. Several of our florists prefer placing weekly orders and have their drivers pick up flowers. Watching how carefully and deftly drivers handle sometimes unwieldy buckets of flowers, greens, and grasses has taught me how very important drivers are to their flower shops. I rather think they enjoy witnessing the “guts” of our farm, and I know they love the

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treats we send back to the shop with them — in-season fruits and vegetables from Fry Family Farm, and sometimes even a fresh pie from our farm's commercial kitchen."

The DIY program appeals to destination-wedding couples who are attracted by the Rogue Valley's proliferation of wineries, ranches, farms, and other romantic venues, not to mention the region's natural beauty and Ashland's famous theatres. Many embrace the unique character of place by choosing locally grown flowers for their nuptials. When they contact Le Mera Gardens, Joan encourages them to reference her seasonal flower availability calendar for planning. She asks them to "paint a picture" for her of their dream wedding, to describe quantities and state a budget, guiding them through their choices.

"It used to be that people would give me a mile-long list and ask if a $200 budget was enough! But now, it's rare that people don't get it, which tells me two things: There is a much greater appreciation of fresh flowers now, and people appreciate the value of floral diversity that we grow. People who come to us already have mentally made the choice that they want the diversity of seasonal flowers grown on a local farm." Joan sees this positive shift as tangible measures of success for the Slow Flowers Movement.

THE 50 MILE BOUQUET Seasonal, Local and Sustainable Flowers 2012, St. Lynn's Press

By Debra Prinzing | Photography by David E. Perry Foreword by Amy Stewart, author of Flower Confidential When it was published in 2012, The 50 Mile Bouquet was the first book to spotlight a major cultural shift and a transformation around how cutflowers are grown, designed and consumed, closely mirroring the culinary world's locavore/slow food revolution. One decade ago, the floral industry was just beginning to ask for changes, seeking alternatives to imported, mass-produced and chemical-laden flowers. The 50 Mile Bouquet introduced some of the innovative voices of the dynamic new Slow Flower Movement: the organic flower-farmers, the sustainably motivated floral designers . . . and the flower enthusiasts who were increasingly asking, 'Where and how were my flowers grown, and who grew them?'

The Book's documentary-feature reporting and photograpy takes readers into the farms and design studios of Slow Flowers practitioners.

Its relevance today is more important than ever, considering issues around climate change, supply-chain limitations, and equity in the marketplace.

SLOW FLOWERS JOURNAL

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FLORAL RETREAT PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIC NEURATH

into the woods.

How do you entice internationally renowned floral artist Françoise Weeks to travel to Washington's Olympic Peninsula to teach a four-day botanical couture and woodland workshop?

For farmer-florist Sid Anna Sherwood of Annie's Flower Farm and

THE WORKSHOP

Sweet Annie's Floral Design, it began by describing to Françoise

Participants learned how Françoise creates botanical headpieces, purses, and jewelry, as well as woodland centerpieces, and then spent each afternoon making their own pieces.

Françoise covered how to compose with cones, dried mushrooms, seeds, succulents, and other ingredients without using a water source or foam.

"I have really altered the way I design my woodland pieces. When I use water tubes, I cover them with moss or bark so they become part of the design. I also use Agra Wool rather than floral foam," she said.

how she could harvest unique floral ingredients from her farm in Sequim, Washington, as well as forage for moss, lichen, twigs, cones, and other design elements on her partner Ron Munro's 40-acre forest on nearby Hood Canal. "It was so special to teach this workshop at Sid Anna's, because we were able to harvest in the field and in the woods," Françoise recalls.

In August 2021, the women offered a four-day floral retreat in the maritime town of Port Townsend, Washington. Students gathered at the 416-acre Fort Worden State Park, and stayed in century-old restored officer's quarters, with the beach of the Salish Sea and

CHECK OUT

hiking trails just steps away.

UPCOMING WEEKS' WORKSHOPS

In addition to gleaning from the private forest that flourishes with maple, cedar, hemlock, and fir trees, students chose from 300 specialty cut-flowers growing at Annie's Flower Farm.

"It was a treasure to have such a wonderful selection to pick from," Françoise adds. "The workshop was wonderful! Great students, a wonderful selection of local flowers, moss, lichen, branches, and amazing pieces of bark foraged on her property and driftwood at the beach! The weather cooperated 100%, and it was a delight to be able to teach outside for those three days."

For Sid Anna, this first-ever workshop was a dream come true.

“Françoise has such a following all over, and she draws artists,

FRANÇOISE WEEKS francoiseweeks.com, @francoiseweeks SID ANNA SHERWOOD anniesflowerfarm.com, @anniesflowerfarm, @anniesflowertours

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COLLEEN PATTISON DESIGN

florists and people who just want to be creative.”

SLOW FLOWERS JOURNAL

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ON THE ROAD BY DEBRA PRINZING PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARAH STATHAM

autumn in east neuk. cambo estate | scotland In early September, I journeyed to St. Andrews, Scotland, for a creative floral retreat. I began planning this visit in 2019; my delay probably sounds familiar to anyone whose international travel plans were sidelined by the pandemic for a few years.

Ultimately, I arrived at Cambo Estate, a beautiful location near the Fife village of Kingsbarns, a few miles outside of the university town of St. Andrews.

For years, I have wanted to participate in one of my friend Sarah Statham's workshops. We first met in 2015, when she hosted me at her centuries-old stone house in Yorkshire, England, as part of a tour organized by Flowers from the Farm, the U.K. growers organization. Three days spent in Sarah's beloved Yorkshire forever secured my affection for the breathtaking, pastoral landscape, with endless green pastures outlined by low stone walls.

Sarah owns Simply by Arrangement, a design studio and cutting garden in Yorkshire's village of Hebden Bridge. It's not far from the Brontë House in Haworth, which of course I also visited on that 2015 trip. Many of Sarah's workshops, courses, and one-onone floral design instruction take place at the charming studio cottage in her garden; she also teaches throughout the U.K. Workshops in Scotland, and specifically at the Cambo Estate and Gardens, are part of Simply by Arrangement's ongoing schedule.

There's something about that place that captured Sarah's heart when she first taught there in 2016. To me, it permeates one's senses with sea air, dewy light, and the way you feel transported to a few centuries earlier in time. The Georgian garden, entered through a low opening in a thick wall of golden stone, is an

SIMPLY BY ARRANGEMENT WORKSHOPS "Much tea will be drunk and lightness and laughter, as well as masses of flowers and good food, are the main ingredients for every class."

SARAH STATHAM Simply by Arrangement will return to Cambo Gardens September 4-6, 2023. Learn more at simplybyarrangement. co.ukworkshops

FOLLOW simplybyarrangement.co.uk @simplybyarrangement

SLOW FLOWERS JOURNAL

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A FLOWER FARM VISIT Sarah and Rachael organized a special outing to visit Sarah Hunter's Keeping the Plot, described as, "a meticulously run Scottish flower-farm." We met this unassuming talent and entered her beautiful place, two acres organized logically, with a gardener's eye for pleasing ornamentation.

Keeping the Plot rents land from the Balcaskie Estate in St. Monans, producing annuals, biennials, perennials, bulbs, herbs, and shrubs, with a special focus on the unique foliage of woody ornamentals.

Customers include local DIY designers and florists, who purchase through a wholesale program.

Keeping the Plot's dahlia beds drew me and the camera. With one ear on the conversation taking place between grower and designers, I snapped photos and labels to document everything that caught my eyes. Like all of my flower-farm visits, this one added depth and meaning to the creativity I would explore when I picked up clippers and began to make an arrangement, knowing the woman who grew each stem.

FOLLOW keepingtheplot.co.uk @keepingtheplotflowers

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informal mixed landscape of perennials, trees, shrubs, and grasses, connected by meandering interior paths, a few low footbridges, and a practical walkway around its perimeter. This is a horticultural paradise with origins dating to the early 1800s. My friend Marty Wingate, a mystery writer who has led many garden tours to the U.K., gasped and purred, "oh, Caaam-Bo," when I told her I was heading there.

The geographic area is called the East Neuk of Fife. I learned that "Neuk" is the Scots' word for nook or corner, which suggests a sense of wellbeing, and that's just what I felt during my time there. Victoria Mary Bell, my father's Scottish mother who was born in 1887, was ever on my mind.

Edinburgh-based architect and floral artist Rachael Scott of Hedgerow is Sarah's frequent collaborator. "Rachael introduced me to Cambo, and we have taught there together since 2017," Sarah says. The women based our design experience around the historic garden's late-summer plantings, greenhouse, orchard, and wilder places. They commissioned Edinburgh potter Borja Moronta to create small, footed stoneware bowls for each of us to use as vessels. His glazes reflect the colors of the Scottish landscape in pearl gray, misty blue, and moss green. A Kenzan nested inside our bowls as the design mechanic.

Their low-pressure teaching style helps students explore individual design goals. We entered a workroom populated with buckets of locally grown flowers, most of which were procured from a nearby flower farm (see sidebar). The day began with introductions over mugs of tea, as each was encouraged to speak about her relationship with flowers (I participated for two days, a special treat that introduced me to six new floral-artist friends).

I jotted down the vernacular, like "fettling," which growerflorist Carol Siddorn likened to "finishing off." Flower enthusiast Elizabeth Grundy introduced me to "faffing," which she uses for her Instagram account @faffing.with.flowers. Apparently "faffing" is like "fiddling," and I like the term very much.

An early morning stroll through Cambo's gardens, described by Sarah as, "at its quietest and most soulful time," was followed by pleasurable hours creating arrangements in bowls and urns. Rachael and Sarah like to start with a single "inspiration

SLOW FLOWERS JOURNAL

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ON THE ROAD

flower," placed in a bud vase at the head of our

are trying to create for our guests." Katy learned

workstation. Design advice arrived just when I

about the Cambo workshop through Sarah's

needed it, thanks to the instructors' unimposing

Instagram posts.

teaching styles. Rachael, with her architect's eye, encouraged me to extend the scale of a larger arrangement with branches and grasses.

She helped me add more depth, dimension, and texture, especially with a one-sided piece. Later, our cameras captured our pieces in places where the faint afternoon sun was just right.

and although it is miles from here, I felt I had to go," she shared in an email. "To spend time with a small group of like-minded flower-lovers, given free rein to explore that magical garden, surrounded by buckets of local flowers and foliage, gently encouraged to pick, to experiment

When she launched Simply by Arrangement in

and to create — it's hard to put into words what

2014, Sarah's original vision paired excellent

a special day it was," Katy wrote. "I can only say

food with seasonal flowers. Her friend Christie

that the glow it gave me is still burning bright,

Buchanan (aka Mrs. B.), prepared exquisite

and the feeling that I was in exactly the right place

menus for workshop guests, and when I met her,

persists."

I was smitten by both the woman and her handcrafted savory and sweet dishes. Now, Mrs. B. is busy with young grandbabies, so Sarah draws provisions from other cooks and chefs.

You will remember this day and this garden because of what you made, and the flowers you picked here.

This time, lunches and refreshments came from the Cambo Cafe, located in the former stable and courtyard, with vegetarian and vegan dishes to fortify florists and garden tourists alike.

The workshop promised, "a chance to truly unwind and discover what flowers and gardens mean." That language lured Katy Tyndall, who owns Number Fifty-Nine, a bed-and-breakfast

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"When Sarah wrote about Cambo, it sang to me,

Fiona Paterson is a gardener at Cambo, and she joined the workshop on one of her days off.

I felt so grateful for her presence, as she knows the garden and its plants so well. Learning more about floral arranging has changed her view of Cambo, she says. "Sarah and Rachael taught me that creating a floral design is like planting a border, using different heights and textures," she wrote in an email. "Now, when I'm working in the garden, I'm looking at what colors look good together, and always the different shapes and forms — I'm obsessed!"

My own experience echoes Rachael's and Sarah's belief that seasons and place are powerful markers of time. As Sarah noted, "You will remember this day and this garden because of what you made, and the flowers you picked here."

retreat in the garden of her 16th-century,

When I sit quietly with my treasured memories

thatched cottage outside of Cambridge, England.

of that brief time in Scotland, I know that the

She found herself growing flowers during the

flowers I held in my hands will help me cherish

pandemic, and she believes, "they contribute

the lessons, the people I met, and that place of

to the peaceful and restorative atmosphere we

great beauty.

FALL 2022

subscribe. advertise.

Slow Flowers Journal, a quarterly e-zine produced in collaboration

by BLOOM Imprint and Slow Flowers Society, is available as a FREE subscription to members of the Slow Flowers Society.

Beginning January 2023 (winter), non-members can purchase individual issues for $4.95 each or all four issues for $14.95 annually.

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST to learn more about subscribing.

Learn more about advertising in the Slow Flowers Journal HERE.

SLOW FLOWERS JOURNAL

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'TIS THE SEASON DESIGN, TEXT + PHOTOGRAPHY BY CYNTHIA ZAMARIA

HOME

FOR THE HOLIDAYS

GATHER YOUR GREENS Not only for your front door, a simple wreath of winterberries and curly willow branches is elevated with black silk ribbon, and brought inside to enjoy.

OPPOSITE: Collected together in terra cotta pots, forced paperwhites, ferns, and overwintering geraniums are a fresh take on traditional red and green.

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SLOW FLOWERS JOURNAL

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'TIS THE SEASON

Fill your home with

JOY.

EVERLASTING It’s so easy to dry citrus in the oven, and use the jewel-toned slices to bring a natural brightness to your holiday decor. Combined with other dried foliage, the arrangements will last and last. The clementine wreath is complemented with soft-green eucalyptus stems, magnolia leaves, and silver brunia berries.

OPPOSITE: A boxwood table runner is speckled with dried carnations, baby’s breath, and oranges.

SLOW FLOWERS JOURNAL

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SILVER SETTINGS It’s time to bring out your favorite silver and dinnerware pieces for the holiday table. An unexpected display of pink and red roses is elegant in its simplicity. Even the swiftest of arrangements becomes celebratory when placed in an heirloom silver rose bowl.

SLOW FLOWERS JOURNAL

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'TIS THE SEASON

Fill your home with

COLOR.

A TWIST ON TRADITION Softer-toned amaryllis blooms signal the festive season, while bringing a muted color palette to the party.

OPPOSITE: Supported by ranunculus, dusty miller, statice, brunia berries, and bittersweet, the peach-tinged amaryllis sets the tone for a wild and delightful winter display.

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'TIS THE SEASON

Fill your home with

LOVE.

UNLIMITED BLOOMS ’Tis the season to broaden your floral repertoire. Made with care and purpose, small floral moments, no matter the variety, are inviting gestures of beauty.

Leftovers from the garden, a bunch of dried crimson astilbes is charming.

OPPOSITE: In a simple, worn gold vase, sage and amaranths provide the framework for dusty roses, and lisianthus.

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FROM THE HEART BY BETH SYPHERS + SARAH KUENZI PHOTOGRAPHY BY EMMA MAY DIXON

seasonal rituals.

I take our children into the woods to gather fresh evergreens to bedeck our house. Christmas is just around the corner, and I'm feeling the pull of the world to keep up with its glitz and gluttony.

My mind wants to slow it down and keep life simpler, enjoying these little moments and holding the children close, knowing they will only be young for a short while. The need to impart these simple rituals of the season is paramount in my heart and mind.

The joy I seek is only felt tromping through the natural world.

With such a Norman Rockwell childhood comes the challenge of living up to its standard.

Yes, I realize I am remembering with my child’s brain, but the hurdle one makes into present-day reality is sometimes daunting.

This morning, the kiddos would have been more than happy to remain in rumpled pajamas until well past noon, devouring bowls of Panda Puffs and watching Saturday-morning cartoons. Instead, they grumble, pull on boots and jackets, and load into the backseat of the car, immediately starting to bicker over whose turn it was to pick the music. Bumping along the muddy-rutted firebreak that runs between fields, and down the twisting road that leads to the canyon, I am beginning to doubt that this was a rational decision.

Suddenly, somewhere between the tinny voices of Alvin and Theodore's rendition of "We’ve been good, but we can’t wait;

COMING IN APRIL This essay is excerpted from furrow + flour, which will be published by BLOOM Imprint in April 2023.

Sisters Beth Syphers and Sarah Kuenzi invite you on a journey through their gardens, homes, and family life. As young girls, they grew up in a family of 12 siblings and lived childhoods filled with imagination, whimsy, play, and chores. Now, they are mothers, wives, and creative entrepreneurs.

They embrace influences from the garden, a country life, good food shared with friends and family at kitchen table gatherings, homemaking, entertaining, havenmaking, and motherhood.

please Christmas, don’t be late," and Bing Crosby’s crooning, the mood shifts and settles. Eyes move to the pine trees towering over us like so many turrets of a mythical green castle, and the dense rough trunks become secret passageways leading from one land to the next.

They spring out of the car, and little booted feet hit the ground.

They listen for the voices of woodland fairies; they look in the

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FALL 2022

FURROW + FLOUR

Inspirations From the Garden and for the Home

PRE-ORDER AT BLOOMIMPRINT.COM

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dark shadows for elfin kings, and smell the scent of rain-drenched bark and pine. The crisp winter air is whistling about, ruffling their hair, reddening their soft cheeks.

I grab my gardening clippers and canvas bag and set to work. I use my fingernails to scrape moss off the north side of a tree, and snip low-hanging boughs. Bare twigs and spongy mushrooms are foraged and assembled in wicker baskets. They will be transformed into miniature woodland villages, wreaths, mantel decor, and cushions for delicate vintage baubles and bits. When all is loaded in the back of the car, I call the kids, who are now whooping wildly and running like deer through the underbrush in hot pursuit of some magical but elusive creature.

I must admire the fort made of spruce branches, then play a game of Poohsticks on the bridge spanning the overflowing Pudding River. Then I hoist myself over the metal gate, now slick with a thin sheen of ice, to view cows bedded down among the trees.

They are satisfied at last. We hike back to the car, and I drive us home.

Their heads are full of adventures, imagined and real, fingers are thawing, thanks to the blasting heater. The tunes of Sarah McLachlan wrap us in a blanket of warmth and serenity. There’s a pile of muddy coats and galoshes by the back door, and a trail of wet footprints leading from the bathtub to the bedrooms.Broccoli crowns on the counter wait to be transformed into a savory soup.

But first, I pop slices of white bread into the toaster. I scoop cocoa and sugar into a saucepan, and pour milk into a Pyrex measuring cup. Whisking cinnamon and sugar together, I liberally sprinkle crispy wedges with the sweet concoction, before piling it all on a plate. I make hot chocolate topped with marshmallow whip.

Following voices, I find them in the living room, surrounded by books: Wind in the Willows; A Door in the Wall; A Time to Keep;

The Sleepy Dormouse; and The Night Before Christmas.

As I make my way back towards the kitchen, I hear excited, but hushed tones as the children whisper secrets of gifts made in art class, and wishes of presents from Santa. I smile, knowing that snapshots in my head may be drastically different from theirs, but the vast feelings of comfort and joy must be the same.

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WHERE WE BLOOM PHOTOGRAPHY BY MISSY PALACOL

festive studios.

What is it about devoting square footage to contain our garden and floral passions? We've been intrigued by this concept for decades, and in Bloom Imprint's recent book, Where We Bloom,

we feature design ideas from 37 intimate, inventive, and artistic studio spaces owned by floral creatives around North America.

The romance of devoting space to the pursuit of one's art isn't lost on the flower-farmers, growers, florists and designers who shared their stories with me. Meet three of the floral entrepreneurs featured in the book, as they communicate holiday sentiments through the medium of flowers and nature. Because they own home-based businesses, their floral destinations receive special attention at the holidays.

MODERN HOMESTEAD Lori Poliski was a gardener long before 2017, when she formed Flori, her design studio based in a suburb of Seattle. She converted a 12-by-24-foot covered storage area at one end of a horse barn into an enclosed studio and outdoor patio covered by a striped awning. The space has two sets of white French doors, which look charming against the blue-gray shingle siding and crisp, white trim. Since much of Lori's two-acre property is wooded, there's plenty of evergreen material on hand for the studio's holiday transformation. "I didn't purchase anything," Lori says. "I cut a mix of cedar, cypress, fir, pine, and red ilex from the property."

Greenery fashioned into garlands and wreaths adorns an oversized hayloft and the French doors. More greenery and holly fill hanging baskets, while conifer stems and red roses fill a pewter pitcher.

And, of course, there's a fresh garland for Danny Boy, the family pony. Red ribbon finishes the classic and cheery studio where Lori meets with clients and teaches design workshops.

ABOUT THE BOOK Tour a fresh crop of beautiful plantand flower-filled settings created by Slow Flowers designers, farmer-florists, and growers. Each environment reflects the personality and aesthetic style of its owner, offering great ideas to inspire the design, organization, and functionality of a creative studio.

Readers are invited to step inside the places where flowers are planted, harvested, arranged, and brought to life as an artistic expression of their owners.

WHERE WE BLOOM

Thirty-Seven Intimate, Inventive, and Artistic Studio Spaces Where Floral Passions Find a Place to Blossom

ORDER AT

BLOOMIMPRINT.COM

flori.flowers.com @flori.flowers SLOW FLOWERS JOURNAL

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WHERE WE BLOOM

A PLACE FOR HER PETALS Teresa Rao is an avid gardener and flower-lover who owns Belle Pétale, a home-based design studio.

Teresa specializes in French-inspired designs created from flowers grown in the Pacific Northwest. She loves to weave sentiments from the language of flowers into clients' arrangements. So naturally, when decorating her home's front door and gate, Teresa chose floral ingredients that convey "Holiday Warm Wishes."

She ordered a traditional cedar wreath from Everyday Flowers, a favorite local flower farm, and embellished the traditional circle of greenery with dried florals in a neutral palette, paired with fresh holly sprigs. "I chose each ingredient for its meaning," she explains: Baby's Breath: festivity; Cedar: strength; Cotton: wellbeing, blessings; Dusty Miller: felicity; Holly Berries: Christmas joy; Hydrangea: haven; Peony: welcome.

Assisted by her daughter, Priya, Teresa selected long-lasting greens and mostly cream, silver and white dried botanical accents; this piece will look timeless all season long. @belle_petale_

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INDOOR-OUTDOOR Sandy Figel lives outside Seattle, where she opened Verbena Floral in 2015, as a design studio for weddings and events. Her three-acre cutting garden provides her with annuals, perennials, ornamental blooms, and greenery. Sandy yearned for a dedicated workshop, and asked her husband, Rudy, to create a "home base" for both production and teaching. The result of their collaboration is a 400-square-foot shelter with barn-style proportions, built with mostly salvaged and repurposed materials. An architectural focal point, the studio is perfectly placed to capture views of both the garden, and a natural greenbelt beyond.

To decorate for holiday gatherings, Sandy designed with foraged golden incense cypress, variegated cream-and-white boxwood, and variegated holly, adding touches of frosty lichen. Rather than using Christmas red, she accented the festive wreaths with dried pepperberry clusters, purchased from a farmers' market vendor.

The warm pink berries pop in contrast to the studio's natural wood siding, and vintage green metal-and-glass doors. Similar ingredients fill the trough-style planter, and echoing the wreaths. verbenaseattlefloral.com @verbenafloralseattle SLOW FLOWERS JOURNAL

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seasonal rituals.

I take our two children to the woods to gather fresh evergreens to bedeck our house. Christmas is just around the corner, and I'm feeling the pull of the world to keep up with its glitz and gluttony.

My mind wants to slow it down and keep life simpler, enjoying these little moments and holding the children close, as I know they will only be young for a short while. The need to impart these simple rituals of the season is paramount in my heart and mind. The joy I seek is often only felt while tromping through the natural world.

With such a Norman Rockwell childhood comes the challenge of living up to its standard.

Yes, I realize I am remembering with my child’s brain, but the hurdle one makes into present-day reality is sometimes daunting.

The kiddos this morning would have been more than happy to remain in rumpled pajamas until well past noon, devouring bowls of Panda Puffs and watching Saturday morning cartoons. Instead, they grumble, pull on boots and jackets and load into the back seat of the car, immediately starting to bicker over who’s turn it was to pick the music. Bumping along the muddy-rutted firebreak that runs between fields, and down the twisting road that leads to the canyon, I am beginning to doubt that this was a rational decision.

Suddenly, somewhere between the tinny voices of Alvin and Theodore's rendition of "We’ve been good, but we can’t wait; please Christmas, don’t be late,'' and Bing Crosby’s crooning, the mood shifts and settles. Eyes move to the pine trees towering over us like so many turrets of a mythical green castle, and the dense rough trunks become secret passageways leading from one land to the next.

They spring out of the car, and little booted feet hit the ground.

They listen for the voices of woodland fairies; they look in

40

FALL 2022

FLORA CULTURE BY PILAR ZUNIGA PHOTOGRAPHY BY LAUREN EDITH ANDERSON

flower friends of color. @floristsofcolor on instagram More than a year ago, I decided to start an Instagram account called Florists of Color (@floristsofcolor). Being a Latina who has worked for more than a decade in the flower industry, I’d felt this sort of vacancy throughout my career, a warning light that something was missing. When I started in 2008, I was one of the few sustainably minded florists, which meant I was working and sharing my voice in a predominately white arena. There were few florists talking about being eco-friendly in floristry then, so finding other People of Color (POC) florists doing the same was nearly impossible.

I still feel that vacancy in the event industry, even with my own clients. Occasionally, I have the Aha! moment of being seen and acknowledged and understood by another POC floral professional.

But generally, it’s almost like a piece of my story and my experience as a person with a different culture, ethnic heritage, and skin tone has been lost (Being a POC can be about skin tone, but is not dependent on skin tone). Instagram has magnified this vacancy.

So many of the people in my feed, the big leaders in the design and flower artistry, were white.

Instagram was selling me Latinx music, and even makeup and lingerie for, or by, POC artists and makers (shout out to Fenty), but when it came to designers, flower-farmers, or educators in

FOLLOW US @floristsofcolor Oakland-based floral designer and a sustainable floristry leader Pilar Zuniga established @floristsofcolor in 2021. She launched Gorgeous and Green as an event floral business in 2008, and later opened its doors as a Berkeley retail floral and gift store (2010-2016).

G&G is now a floral studio that serves East Bay customers with locally grown arrangements and designs wedding florals for sustainably minded couples.

the floral arena, there were few POC showing up in my feed.

So, I decided to start Florists of Color on Instagram. And here’s what I have figured out since doing so: 1. REPRESENT THE UNDER OR UN-REPRESENTED. The goal of the page was vague at first. I thought it would be a collective effort of every POC person in the floral field who wanted to share and gain inspiration, something that would grow quickly and virally.

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FLORA CULTURE

But what I’ve realized is, those of us hustling

have. Sharing in a community that accepts these

to start something new are busy. Those of us

truths, creates space for these truths, yearns to

hustling to keep our momentum going are busy,

learn from them and change the future was a good

and those of us who are growing by leaps and

reason to start a page like this.

bounds, are, you guessed it, busy. So I need to be the energy and driving force for now (maybe I can recruit some volunteers to help in the future), to share people’s work, their bounties, and their stories. I need to dig into the layers of Instagram to find the florist with 32 followers, the florist who's doing beautiful work needing a boost. And I need to keep pestering the POC leaders in the field to share their stories. I need to find the folks who are not seen or who don’t get the publicity that white counterparts are receiving. Not just Latinx or Black folks, but Pacific Islander groups, the voices of Native people, the Filipino florist up in Winnipeg. Regardless of their size, I believe that diverse groups of people with experiences and voices should be more widely seen and appreciated.

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3. BUT WHERE’S THE “SUSTAINABLE FLORISTRY VOICE”? I agree with groups like the Slow Flowers Society that have revised their definition of sustainability to address both “human sustainability, as well as plant and earth practices.” They are interlocked. When I feature folks in this page's posts and stories, I am drawn to designers and farmers/growers who work with natural elements, and avoid plastics/ paints/dyes/floral foam/glues. If someone uses those techniques or mechanics, rather than not sharing their work, I focus on the floral images without plastics or spray paint. I don’t hide my sustainability background. It seeps through my stories about sustainable floristry and farming, and I’m doing so more and more.

2. THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL (aka this page

4. RACIAL JUSTICE TAKES PRECEDENT. I don’t

is a conversation). I know that being a person

want to alienate or turn people off by not being

of color (and a woman of color) is an experience

considerate of their experiences. For so long,

that has historically meant having less power,

People of Color have been policed and educated

fewer rights, facing flat-out racism and violence,

differently, often unequally or unjustly. Whether

institutional negligence, and hardship. There is

it’s “Boarding Schools” for indigenous children

no way to separate my/our experience and those

who were stripped of their culture and identity, or

of our predecessors from our work with flowers.

communities who have been disproportionately

It informs it. Our creativity and experiences share

singled out by law enforcement, or lack of

space in the brain, with the neurons telling us

equitable health and reproductive care, the

how to design or plant flowers. If hurt happened

inability to own land or get financing, and many

long ago, it’s become a grief and sadness that we

more examples, the experiences of so many

carry. If it is still happening, we may be facing

reveals an unjust side of education, healthcare,

fear or disillusionment, anxiety, depression,

and many past and present government policies. I

anger, and many more feelings. When these

recognize that. To voice the need for sustainability

truths are shared amongst the images of people

in our practices, I repost a Native person’s story

doing tremendous work with flowers, plants, and

about the earth and our interconnectedness. Or, I

nature, conversations of joy and pain are easier to

repost a Black family with their hands in the soil,

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feeding themselves from their garden's bounty.

I’ve learned that when we take into consideration the whole person, it’s then that we can speak to them about sustainability and changing their practices. When people who are sustainable and eco-minded share their stories, I ask them to share their ideas on sustainability just as they might about their experience in business or as a POC. 5. TELL ME YOUR STORY. You don’t have to be a famous florist or have a giant flower farm to inspire other people, to share a little or a lot of knowledge or insight. Some of the best stories come from people whose floral lives are small, but joy-inducing, enriched with a few flowers from the grocery, designed in a vase or a small plot in the community garden. We can learn a lot from people who are making themselves happy with more flowers in their world.

Some might say that this point -- happiness -- is what it all comes down to. It's the real reason I started Florists of Color. I think of the account as a safe place (that is growing to be safer and more encompassing of our diverse experiences) that acknowledges who we are and where we come from, what’s on our minds or in our hearts, boasting of the beautiful things we create and grow. I believe this site inspires and gives greater meaning to the Instagram experience. Because flowers don’t grow in a vacuum.

GORGEOUS AND GREEN gorgeousandgreen.com @gorgeousandgreen

FLORISTS OF COLOR @floristsofcolor

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BRAD JOHNSON

FOREVER FLOWERS PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIE BEELER

bloom & dye. julie beeler | trout lake, washington We believe that flowers are nature's art supplies, providing a beautiful starting point for creative expression and application.

There are so many ways that flowers appear as artistic media. By exploring the character of flowers through color, texture, fiber, flavor, fragrance, and form, makers and artists give new life to a bloom. We call this approach "Forever Flowers."

Flowers used in uncommon and unique ways can extend the season, achieve zero waste, or simply reveal new botanical properties. We're inspired by farmers, florists, and makers who adopt the Forever Flowers approach to their own botanical art —

MICAH FISHER

beyond the vase. Read on for our Q&A with Julie Beeler of Bloom & Dye, whose work illustrates this practice.

q & a.

SFJ: How do you describe Bloom & Dye? JB: I grow specialty cut-flowers that we deliver as bouquets through weekly CSA subscriptions, April through September. I also grow dye plants that I sell dried and fresh, and I teach natural dye workshops at the Bloom & Dye Studio and at offsite locations.

SFJ: How did you start growing and using dye plants?

JB: I started the farm six years ago, but I've been working with natural dyes and textiles for the last eight or nine years, originally as a hobby and a passion.

SFJ: To what do you attribute this explosion that's happening as we rediscover the many uses for flowers?

JB: This question gives me a perfect segue to share a beautiful quote from the writer Ursula Le Guin. She wrote, "To use the world well, to be able to stop wasting it and our time in it, we need to relearn our being in it." I think that quote speaks to

ABOUT JULIE DESIGNER, ARTIST, EDUCATOR and native Oregonian, Julie Beeler grew up with a deep love and curiosity for the natural world.

She experiments with the unpredictability of plants by growing and harvesting, observing and foraging, and tethering herself to nature’s seasons. Julie holds a BFA in Graphic Desig & Art History from the University of the Pacific (Stockton, California). Along with her husband, Brad Johnson, she founded and led Second Story, an interactive design studio in Portland until 2012.

A Trout Lake, Washington, resident since 2014, she conceived and launched Bloom & Dye in 2018 to grow her work and passion to benefit what she values most: curiosity, education, creativity, collaboration, community, and the environment.

Bloom & Dye is situated on an 18-acre, WSDA-certified, organic property along the White Salmon River.

the resurgence of interest in nature. I'm interested in learning

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MEEREE RYALLS

MEEREE RYALLS

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FOREVER FLOWERS

how to use all parts of agriculture, and be more

about mushrooms ever since I was a young kid

sustainable and environmentally friendly. I want

playing at Mount St. Helens, curious about these

to help people to stop viewing the environment as

strange-looking organisms. Mushrooms are not

something to just take advantage of, and to value

a plant; they're not an animal. They are a distinct

and learn from it instead.

fungi kingdom. As a mycophile, I wanted to

SFJ: In recent memory, textile dyes were chemical-based. How did we move so far away from natural dyes?

JB: When you look back before the mid-1800s, all textile color was developed through natural processes. We are rediscovering those methods.

dye mushrooms and extracting colors from mushrooms for pigments.

SFJ: Your newest project, The Mushroom Color Atlas, debuted last November. Tell us about this amazing resource.

Whether it's through my crops of indigo, madder,

JB: I conceived of this idea of a mushroom color

or weld, or through specialty cut-flowers like

reference chart after all the interest from my

dahlias and scabiosa, I'm curious to find the color

workshop students. I wanted to put together

in plants, what I like to call a plant's "tinctoria,"

a resource of colors, and share it digitally as a

which relates to dyeing, coloring, or pigment

living study of color derived from dyeing with

properties. We can extract and coax color out of

mushrooms. The Atlas began as a study of 28

plants, and transform them into all sorts of dyes,

mushrooms that can produce more than 600

pigments, and paints. It is really exciting to grow

colors. This is a free, digital online tool found at

and experiment with them. It's possible to cook,

mushroomcoloratlas.com.

immerse, and bundle up plants, blooms, leaves, seeds, roots, berries, and bark.

If you click on any square of color, you see an illustration of the specific type of mushroom used

SFJ: What led to your study of mushrooms,

to create it. You can scroll down or click deeper

known as mycology?

into the Atlas, exploring the mushroom itself, or

JB: When I started flower-farming and growing dye plants, I also began to explore no-till farming, including looking at soil and its benefits. That's when I started to discover all these mushrooms growing in my soil. I realized that fungi are so intertwined with plants, living inside or outside the cell structure, and everything is connected through mycorrhizal networks in the soil.

SFJ: It sounds like you took a deep dive into mushrooms!

JB: Mushrooms have captured our imagination as a culture for millennia. I have been curious

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bring them into my work, and I started exploring

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find a color of interest and click on that. You can enlarge each swatch to see the treatments and mordants used on different fibers. The Atlas isn't a field guide that can help you identify a specific type of mushroom, but since it's organized by type, it works great in conjunction with a mushroom field guide for mushrooms your area.

SFJ: What else can users explore through the Atlas?

JB: They can start with my process page, where I walk through all the steps involved in creating the color studies. I discuss dried-versus-fresh mushrooms, and I cover synthetic-versus-natural

fibers, as well as how to treat fibers before they

JB: Hydnellum caeruleum, also called tooth

are dyed.

fungus, has very interesting characteristics

SFJ: Is it hard to source dye mushrooms?

for dyeing. The similarities to indigo are really amazing. Another mushroom I really love is

JB: There are very few dye mushrooms that are

Boletopsis grisea. It creates beautiful greens. The

actually being cultivated and farmed. Often, they

Western Jack O'Lantern, Omphalotus olivascens,

are wild and foraged. I foraged for all the wild

is a mushroom I've never found myself but it was

mushrooms used in the Atlas, except for a few

gifted to me. It grows in Northern California, and

that were gifted to me. Learning how to identify

glows in the dark. I have a sweater dyed in its

mushrooms and become a conscientious and

pigment.

thoughtful forager is critical. You will need to make sure you are foraging in approved areas, and that you are not trespassing on private property.

SFJ: Where do you want The Mushroom Color Atlas to take you?

You will need to ensure that you have the permits

JB: Mushrooms have an amazing ability to

required to remove wild mushrooms from the

connect people to nature. Mushrooms are like our

forest. As with any type of wild foraging, you

digital networks. I worked in digital media for 20

will want to be disciplined and economical, and

years, and the closer I worked in and with nature,

leave some mushrooms behind for the future.

I found so many relevant communications,

An experienced and sustainable forager will not

connections, and relationships. I hope the Atlas

disturb delicate environments, they will only

helps people think creatively about what comes

forage for samples to aid in the identification of

from nature, from plants, and flowers. Most

the mushroom. You will be surprised how few

importantly, understanding our impact on these

mushrooms you need to make dyes and pigments.

delicate networks and our role as stewards of

SFJ: What is the process of extracting pigment from the mushroom?

JB: Color is extracted into an insoluble pigment through a process called “laking,” as in, “to make a lake.” Think of it as steeping a tea bag in water to create a color dye bath. When that bath is warmed up, you can extract the color. I walk through the process of capturing the color to make pigments that can be transformed into

the land, can bring positive change to our local environments, and our planet. And there are a lot of dye mushrooms that I haven't gotten to yet, so there are more to come!

BLOOM & DYE bloomanddye.com @bloomanddye mushroomcoloratlas.com

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS

different kinds of paint. For The Mushroom Color Atlas, I made watercolor paint because they are simple and easy to work with. But you can also create oil paint and other varieties of paints.

SFJ: Can you give us an example of a few favorite mushrooms for creating pigment?

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BOTANICAL STYLE BY DEBRA PRINZING PHOTOGRAPHY BY FEDERICO PHOTOGRAPHY

cape lily home. sylvia lukach | tarrytown, new york Floral designer Sylvia Lukach and her young family had recently relocated from an apartment in Harlem to a house about 90 minutes north of the city in Tarrytown, New York, when the pandemic arrived in March 2020. Not surprisingly, her studiobased business took a hit. Cape Lily's weddings and events were cancelled or postponed, and Cape Lily Travel was forced to postpone several scheduled excursions, including to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London.

"I had a lot of bills to pay, and no income coming in for my floral business," Sylvia recalls. "We had started to decorate our house; we had one small child and one on the way, and I started thinking hard about, 'what else am I going to do around my business?'"

She found her answer by staring at a blank wall.

"I had decided to hang wallpaper up the stairs, something fun and different. I didn't really want flowers, because I was already inundating my family with them, but I would obviously pause every time I saw floral designs. W what I saw was not for me."

Most of the options she found were adapted from traditional, European floral prints reminiscent of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement, or artwork from the Dutch Masters.

"Moody, dark, and not our style," she notes. "Quite surprisingly, I found that there wasn't anything clean or contemporary."

With a design aesthetic that she calls "Afrobotanical," inspired by the indigenous flora of South Africa, Sylvia pictured some of her favorite blooms on her walls — varieties like King Protea, Blushing Bride, and amaryllis rendered in large-scale graphic patterns. Through research, she discovered a specialty niche in the wallpaper industry that produces small-batch, artisan panels.

"The company I ended up going with specializes in taking artists'

PRO TIPS HOW DO I MEASURE? All our wallpaper is sold by the linear yard, by the panel to reduce waste. Ensure you measure the full height and width of the area you are going to cover including doorways and windows.

Select a preferred height of 9, 12, or 15 feet.

The number of panels needed is determined by measuring your room's width divided by the width of the desired wallpaper panel.

WHAT IS THE PRICING? Pricing begins at $314 per panel.

IS THERE A MINIMUM ORDER? Yes, there is a minimum order size of 5 yards, and a $100 setup fee is charged for orders under 30 yards.

We highly recommend ordering a sample prior to making the full purchase.

WHAT IS THE STANDARD WALLPAPER PRODUCTION TIME? Our standard lead time is six weeks plus shipping time.

ORDER CAPE LILY WALLPAPER

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BOTANICAL STYLE work and translating it into patterns for wallpaper. They are a family-owned company located nearby, with their own line of grass cloth and sustainable sourcing."

Traditional wallpaper is typically sold in 27-inch widths, but Sylvia prefers producing large-scale images on 54-inch panels, suitable for feature or accent walls and murals. The Cape Lily Home collection is printed with water-based ink on non-woven fiber or Sisal grass cloth, featuring King Protea, Blushing Bride, Dahlia, and Amaryllis blends in an array of textures, soft and bold color palettes, and both fresh and dried botanicals.

She art-directed the photography, and worked closely with graphic designers to translate three-dimensional blooms into two-dimensional contemporary floral wallpaper. "I think there is a real art and skill to pattern creation and I found learning that was my biggest challenge," Sylvia notes. "I came to this project with a florist's eye, as someone who loves flowers, rather than as someone who specializes in textiles and wallpaper. There is a tension between graphic design and floristry — the florist wants to compose something natural, such as a flat-lay, and SYLVIA LUKACH

the graphic designer wants to manipulate individual images to create a pattern. You have to find a balance to make it work."

"My designs reflect a blend of my love of South African flora, paired with seasonal, slow flowers. I've always loved designing with one single variety, as a mono-botanical design. My future wallpaper styles will focus on what's fresh and beautiful in a specific season, a flower on its own, such as hydrangea, lilac or peony. My style is simple, and I don't see much else like it."

After more than a year of research while developing her first collection for Cape Lily Home, Sylvia launched direct-toconsumer sales through her online store. She's planning to translate the wallpaper artwork to printed fabric by the yard, a method already used in the interior design world.

"Now that I've figured out this process, I would like to provide

SYLVIA LUKACH

a platform to help other florists get their art into the wallpaper

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market, as part of my line. I think that option would appeal to people who have a beautiful eye and want to see their florals reinterpreted as wallpaper."

FEATURED IN

A Life in Flowers

by Holly Heider Chapple

Where We Bloom

by Debra Prinzing

HA HO PPY LID SA AYS LE

House + Flower

by Cynthia Zamaria

Growing Wonder

by Felicia Alvarez

Our award-winning boutique publishing company is wrapping up 2022 with a special holiday discount. To celebrate our beautiful and inspiring titles by and about Slow Flowers Society members, we're offering you a special 25% off your purchase. Use BLOOM25OFF with your order at BLOOMIMPRINT.COM OFFER EXPIRES 12/31/2022 Black Flora by Teresa J. Speight and Small Farm, Big Dreams by Jennifer and Adam O'Neal are out of stock and will be available as e-books in 2023.

SLOW FLOWERS JOURNAL

53

SLOW FLOWERS SUMMIT PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX BROOKS + NIESHA BLANCAS

finding our floral muse. tarrytown, new york Since its inaugural conference in 2017, the Slow Flowers Summit has given attendees a chance to learn from artists, innovators, and thought leaders whose commitment to domestic flowers is at the heart of the Slow Flowers Movement.

Progressive and sustainably minded floral professionals met in New York for the 2022 Slow Flowers Summit, which took place for three days in late June.

The fifth Slow Flowers Summit drew 125 attendees from 25 states and two Canadian provinces.

The Summit took place June 26-28, during American Flowers Week, as a live, in-person forum for florists, flower-farmers, retailers, wholesalers, floral educators, and members of the media. Two venues in Westchester County, which is about 35 minutes north of New York City, hosted the events.

Guests heard from seven presenters, and enjoyed a farm tour, five design demonstrations, an interactive day of hands-on design, and a immersive maker-artisan experience.

On Day One, attendees convened at The Red Barn at Maple Grove Farm in Bedford, New York, a private farm owned by local philanthropist, George Bianco. On Days Two and Three, the Summit moved to nearby Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture and its Arts & Ecology Lab, which develops sustainable uses for all that a farm produces.

Three Slow Flowers members presented their floral design techniques on Sunday, June 26, and all utilized locally grown and American-grown botanicals in their creations. Xenia D'Ambrosi, owner of Sweet Earth Co., based in Pound Ridge,

JOIN US NEXT YEAR The sixth Slow Flowers Summit returns to the west and will take place June 26-27, 2023, at Bellevue Botanical Garden in Bellevue, Washington (outside Seattle). The full schedule and conference details will be announced in December 2022. More information is available at slowflowerssummit.com

WHO ATTENDS? According to this year's post-event survey, attendees identified themselves as follows (respondents were invited to select multiple categories):

49%

Florist/Floral Designer

32%

Flower-Farmer/Farmer-Florist/ Grower

28%

Flower Enthusiast/Flower Gardener

11.5%

Retail Florist

9.5%

Educator

5.5%

Wholesaler

3.5%

New York, kicked off the day with a presentation on how her business incorporates cutting garden design services, and

SLOW FLOWERS JOURNAL

55

SPECIAL THANK YOUs

demonstrated a hand-tied bouquet. Xenia also served

A robust floral donation program supported the Slow Flowers Summit, and featured domestic flowers from Bloomcourt Farm, Connecticut Flower Collective, Garden State Flower Cooperative, Stone Barns Center for Food + Agriculture, Becky at Appleberry Farm, Charles Little & Co., Gather Flora (Menagerie Farm & Flower and Rose Story Farm), Grace Flowers Hawaii, Grateful Gardeners, Johnny's Selected Seeds Trial Gardens, Seed-on-Hudson, Sweet Earth Co., The Farm at Oxford, and Jersey Cut-Flower Market.

Cordier Botanical Art, based in Hawaii, demonstrated

as the Summit's local co-host. Nicole Cordier of a beautiful centerpiece blending tropical Hawaiigrown blooms with temperate perennials and annuals.

TJ McGrath of TJ McGrath Design, of Plainfield, New Jersey, led participants in creating a freestanding, foam-free botanical installation during the floral takeover, while other speakers and attendees designed centerpieces and hand-tied bouquets as part of the afternoon floral design sessions at The Red Barn at Maple Grove Farm. More than 1,000 floral stems enriched the creative experience, donated by 14 growers.

The Summit transitioned to the famed Stone Barns

OUR SPEAKERS Slow Flowers Summit speakers, pictured above are from left: Debra Prinzing, TJ McGrath, Xenia D'Ambrosi, Ronni Nicole Robinson, Nicole Cordier, Frances Palmer, Philippe Gouze and Shannon Algiere.

LEARN MORE slowflowerssummit.com @slowflowersummit

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Center for the following two days, with presentations focusing on "Flowers as Artist's Muse." Shannon Algiere and Philippe Gouze presented an introduction of Stone Barns Center's history and mission, and Philippe demonstrated a meadow-inspired floral piece using botanicals harvested from the Stone Barns flower fields, greenhouses, and wild spaces.

Keynote presentations by two prominent female artists followed, introducing audience members to their botanically inspired media. Ceramic artist

Frances Palmer and paper and plaster artist Ronnie

Floral, Osborne Quality Seeds, Longfield Gardens,

Nicole Robinson shared highly personal narratives

and EcoFresh Bouquet. In addition, Summit gift bags

about how the flowers they grow and gather inform

included support from Amour Vert, BLOOM Imprint,

their aesthetic. TJ McGrath closed the day with a

Farmgirl Flowers, Gather Flora, Olms Bamboo, Slow

design demonstration using Stone Barns Center-

Flowers Society, and True Client Pro.

grown flowers and foam-free mechanics.

What draws people to the Slow Flowers Summit?

Summit attendees enjoyed seasonal, farm-to-table

"Connecting with other attendees" (75%); "Learning

fare from the kitchen at Blue Hill at Stone Barns

about new resources" (74%); and, "Learning new

Center, the on-site restaurant, including an optional

skills" (70%) are the three top-cited benefits of

four-course dinner that attracted many attendees and

attending the Summit, according to responses.

their guests.

"I had the best time at the 2022 Slow Flower

The final day's programming offered a round-robin

Summit," says Karla Smith-Brown of OLIVEE Floral.

of five "Floral Immersion" sessions presented by

"It was incredible to have the unique opportunity to

local artisans and makers, as well as by Stone Barns

connect with like-minded floristry professionals, and

Center's staff members, including demonstrations

nerd out about all-things flowers and sustainability.

in botanical dyeing, papermaking, ceramics and clay,

Super grateful, can’t wait for next year."

seasonal tablescape design, and a guided tour of the

Floral journalist Jill Brooke, editorial director of

on-site flower farm.

Flower Power Daily, shared this observation: "When

This was the most ambitious schedule since the

you gather some of the most innovative and dedicated

Slow Flowers Summit began, made possible by

farmers, the collective soil stirs in unexpected special

support from generous sponsors, including premiere

ways. I witnessed a laboratory of ideas, which is

sponsor Mayesh; presenting sponsors CalFlowers

exactly what you want a Summit to be. I loved the

and Rooted Farmers; supporting sponsors Johnny's

sharing of ideas and learning what works and doesn’t

Selected Seeds and Red Twig Farms; with additional

work, as attendees discussed how to make the world a

sponsorship from Details Flowers Software, New Age

better place through sustainability."

SLOW FLOWERS JOURNAL

57

THE BUSINESS OF FLOWERS BY ALISON ELLIS

fall f loral biz check.

A change in season can present opportunities for your business if you keep your eyes open and know what to look for. Whether you’re transitioning from a slow season to a busy time of year, or putting flower beds to rest as you prepare for winter, there’s an energy shift as the season changes. If you’re the owner of your business, it’s also a great time for a fall floral business Check-In. It’s the fourth quarter of 2022, and I always look forward to fall here in Vermont. It’s an iconic time of year to be a New England resident, of course, and after a busy summer season in my own floral design business, I find that the fresh autumnal palettes of my fall weddings always seem to reinvigorate my creative flow.

Even when my schedule is full, I know that if I want to succeed in the future, I have to start now by moving along that path that gets me closer to my goals. That’s why a fall business plan Check-In should be part of your yearly routine. This intentional exercise helps you understand the current status of your enterprise, and set some future goals that actually work for you.

It’s important to note that there isn’t one “right-way” to define success in your business — that’s up to you! But the truth is, it’s

PUT IT IN WRITING Grab a notebook and a pen and answer these quick questions about your future objectives: What do you want to be known for?

Write it down in a sentence or two, following the prompt: In my life/business I want to be known for (fill in the blank).

What are your ultimate goals in

easier to create your own version of success when you define your

your business and your life?

destination! It’s like entering an address into your GPS instead of

What are you working towards?

just wandering around without any idea of where you’re headed.

List at least three goals. You can be totally realistic or dream big here!

Here are a few end-of-year planning prompts to help

Consider things like income or sales

you to celebrate your strengths and set new goals.

goals, or professional certification.

When you make the time to check in with your business, you'll soon appreciate your current successes. The Check-In also serves as a guide as you seek out opportunities that align with your future vision. When you know where you want to go, you can map out a path to get there.

goals, lifestyle goals, relationship

What would you like to do with your life and career in the next two to three years?

Think ahead to where you’d like to be in the near future. If you can only plan six months down the road, that’s fine, too.

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FALL 2022

CELEBRATE YOUR WINS

MAKE A PLAN

LOOK AHEAD

What have you already

What are your plans for sales and

Finally, as you look ahead to 2023,

accomplished that

promotions for the rest of the year?

consider the following:

Make sure you schedule time to do

What is your sales goal for 2023?

deserves recognition?

This can be something big or small.

It can be recent or something you achieved years ago. Give yourself some recognition using the prompt: I acknowledge myself for (fill in the blank).

Now, answer three questions about your current business situation: What are your SWOTs? These are your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats.: It’s critical to understand your SWOTs so that you can consider how to lean into your Strengths and Opportunities, while addressing your

the following: Create infographics/ads/videos.

How much revenue can you expect to make based on booked events and contracts?

Set prices and minimums.

Write the copy for social media,

How much more do you need to sell to reach your sales goal?

website, ads.

How will you capture that

Place holiday orders with

How many events, including

wholesalers to take advantage of the best prices and ensure availability.

additional income? weddings, weekly sales, holiday orders, subscriptions, and other streams of revenue do you need to book?

What new skills or knowledge will help you up your game in 2023 and beyond?

Weaknesses and Threats. Aim to

What are you willing to invest in to

identify at least one to three for each

help you reach your goals over the

category.

next 3-12 months?

A business coach, a course to gain new skills, a design workshop, a new hire, a vacation?

SLOW FLOWERS JOURNAL

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AIFD SYMPOSIUM REPORT TEXT + PHOTOGRAPHY BY DEBBY MITTELMAN

establishing roots.

I’ve been to Las Vegas many times, but I’ve never traveled to the casino capital of the world for flowers! This past July, I attended my first AIFD Symposium in Las Vegas. The opportunity to cover Symposium in July 2022 promised a new experience to immerse myself in innovative design from world class presenters.

From July 3 through July 9, ROOTS: Growing Forward Together transformed Caesars Palace Forum into a pantheon of floral design, attracting more than 900 creatives from around the globe — students, teachers, growers, wholesalers, suppliers, and business vendors. AIFD’s mission is to promote education, service, and leadership in the floral industry, to advance the art of professional floral design and to recognize the achievement of excellence in this art form.

Here is a sampling of the people and work contained within this year’s AIFD Symposium, excellently led by chair Ann Jordan AIFD. Future AIFD Symposiums are scheduled for Chicago in 2023 and Orlando in 2024.

I arrived at Caesars Palace a few days into Symposium, but fortunately the Main Stage floral pieces were still on display. After each ROOTS presentation, stage assistants moved finished designs to the Radicle Gallery space and hallways so that attendees could view creations at close range and take photographs. Among the many astounding displays, I loved the Neotropical team’s lush arches and bouquets featuring bright anthuriums, orchids, heliconia, gloriosa lilies, and other tropical elements. Brenna Quan AIFD designed an eye-catching red heart bouquet in a woody armature, showcasing new varieties of anthurium.

Denver-based florist Arthur Williams AIFD EMC designed the décor for the welcome reception and created a large installation piece for the opening gala that called “Temple.” Like others I met at ROOTS, Arthur's welcoming spirit was evident.

VOLUNTEERS IN ACTION As a non-profit organization, AIFD relies heavily on volunteers to deliver its educational programs. Hitomi Gilliam was the 2022 Program Chair and assisted by Ania Norwood and Aniko Kovacs. According to Gilliam, approximately one-third of the registered attendees also volunteered at Symposium this year. Volunteers, known as Ambassadors, pay for their own registration to attend Symposium and have a wide variety of volunteer opportunities. While filled with long days in the work room, the opportunity to support the featured designers is a fantastic, behind-the-scenes way to learn mechanics and other techniques from the pros.

Gina Thresher has volunteered with AIFD for years, serving as past president of the Northwest Regional chapter and the chair of the national Marketing Committee. In Las Vegas, Gina hosted ROOTS interviews on Facebook Live and Instagram Live, sharing Symposium highlights in real time.

Volunteers also support the Blooms Over program that donates as much material as possible at the end of Symposium to local community organizations. This year, hospice agencies in Las Vegas collected 200 wrapped bouquets.

MORE ABOUT THE AIFD

60 FALL 2022

Creative mechanics, demonstrated by students.

A Sue McLeary-designed tablescape in yellow hues.

Models wore and carried versatile floral pieces designed by Sue McLeary, including a blue agapanthus and delphinium shoulder piece that converted into a headpiece, and another accessory that converted into a modern cascade bouquet.

Yellow orchids pair with recycled denim as an unique mechanic in an inventive arrangement by Hee Joo AIFD.

Brenna Quan AIFD's dazzling red heart bouquet used a wood armature to highlight anthuriums.

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AIFD SYMPOSIUM REPORT

Sue McLeary used multimedia to weave together

floral wreath, they described the fringed base

her “Flower Forward” Main Stage presentation.

of pampas grass and added limonium, and

She based her designs on accessible, perhaps

subsequent layers of gloriosa lilies, craspedia,

even underappreciated, floral materials and said

orchids, and deconstructed bromeliad petals.

her aim was to share techniques on doing more

As they bantered on stage, Hanneke and Max

with less. Many of her creations resulted from her

demonstrated construction of frames with wires

experimentations during the pandemic, focused

and dried grasses, working in layers to create

on wonders of the ordinary. She limited herself to

meticulously-detailed arrangements of colorful

everyday blooms — calla lily, solidago, carnation,

elements including individual petals and berries

and agapanthus, among others — as her focal

in the composition. An elegant teardrop-shaped

elements, sharing design stories for each variety

wedding bouquet was based on thin spool wire

based on principles of simplicity and repetition.

with dense built-in layers but still remaining

Sue introduced four models in wearable designs that included her signature headpieces. She also introduced her new textile line as models wore garments constructed from fabric printed with photographs of her featured floral elements.

bouquet cascading from a piece of round pipe and another that included coiled wire as its prominent feature. By using technical solutions balanced with controlled design, their explosions of flowers were entirely engaging. The designers

In another piece, Sue incorporated tumbleweed

emphasized that frames can be reused and

from Arizona's Whipstone Farm as a natural

repurposed.

armature and stacked more tumbleweed on a rod as the base for a tower arrangement of solidago and complementary blooms. She designed a large urn with an external armature of dried solidago stems fastened into triangular shapes to support amaranthus, daisies, oncidium orchids and craspedia. Another installation piece featured draped loops of yellow calla lilies, linked together to create volume and dimension. The designer's artistry and inventive way she pushes

A message of sustainability and environmentallyfriendly materials was part of the City College of San Francisco's horticulture and floristry department's presentation. Emceed by department chair Steven Brown AIFD, former students presented designs that included compostable coconut shells, compostable twine and bamboo skewers, and Ikebana styles based on gourds and tall bamboo supports.

preconceived uses for botanical ingredients made

Some of the work used melted beeswax to seal

an impact on the audience, experienced and new

inside the gourds and terra cotta tubes as water

designers alike.

sources. Hee Joo AIFD used a mechanic made of

Collaborators Hanneke Frankema and Max van de Sluis wowed attendees with their Main Stage presentation called "Evolving Shapes in Design." Their variations on “round,”

62

airy and delicate. They made a floor-length

recycled denim that she stacked and gathered for a standing installation, with a coordinating large bouquet that used the gathered denim as a collar around the bright blooms.

including a bowl, a sphere, a teardrop, and an

Team Fleurvana (composed of Shawn Michael

open fan, were dazzling. Opening with a large

Foley AIFD, Ursula Gunther, Gina Thresher

FALL 2022

AIFD and Rebecca Raymond EMC) presented a workshop called “Blooming Beyond Your Brand” and also delivered a Main Stage social media presentation. “No Guts, No Glory!” featured personal stories of change and resilience as floral professionals responded to disruptions in 2020 and 2021. Common themes included re-evaluation of existing business models, rediscovering purpose, and reducing stress.

Speakers shared how they simplified product offerings, changed physical space to reduce overhead, and deepened in-person and online connections with customers. Several panelists discussed improving their websites for better customer engagement and easier sales, as well as learning to market themselves outside of their comfort zones, such as recording podcast interviews or posting Instagram live conversations. One designer wrote a book and others developed online education to reach new students.

Colin Gilliam drew laughter and applause when he said: “Trust me, Mom, this will work,” in his pitch to convince Hitomi Gilliam AIFD that she could successfully teach online. Amy Balsters of The Floral Coach spoke about pandemic supply problems that created a fundamental shift in her appreciation for locally grown flowers. She told the story of her move to Virginia and her connection to Grateful Gardeners, Slow Flowers members based in Maryland, as she witnessed their organic and aquaponic farming operation.

The messages reinforced the AIFD theme of valuing one's roots and relationships in an ever-changing industry, which members of Slow Flowers Society know, as well.

We Deliver Freshness dvflora.com | 800-676-1212

SLOW FLOWERS PODCAST HIGHLIGHTS

top five.

Slow Flowers Podcast Episodes (June-September 2022) EPISODE 561 Mindful decisions about creating a better floral marketplace, with Becky Feasby of Prairie Girl Flowers and IG’s Sustainability Sunday WATCH HERE

EPISODE 566 Hyper-local, certified-organic cut flowers grown on a Berkeley rooftop, with Joanna Letz of Berkeley’s Bluma Flower Farm WATCH HERE

EPISODE 570 A visit to Blossom & Branch, Briana Bosch’s Colorado Flower Farm WATCH HERE

EPISODE 571 Sustainable Everyday Flowers — how a retail studio honors its eco-values with Kelsey Ruhland of Foxbound Flowers WATCH HERE

EPISODE 578 Accidental flower-farmers share their roots, with Tracy Yang and Nick Songsangcharntara of JARN Company.

WATCH HERE

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