american flowers week ~ June 28 to July 4 ~ Celebrating American Grown Flowers in all 50 States

The American States Quilt Block Series, a hand-painted collection

Slow Flowers Society has relied on the creative talents of Jenny Diaz since 2016. Her contributions to our visual brand have been essential for building the Slow Flowers Movement. Jenny has an uncanny ability to listen closely, interpret inventively, and express ideas in highly effective ways. We are always eager to see how she takes the “wish list” of what we want visuals to achieve, because they far exceed expectations.

Since creating the logo art for American Flowers Week in 2016, Jenny’s influence on this national floral promotional campaign have been everywhere.

In 2016 and 2017, she hand-illustrated our USA Map and 50 States of Local Flowers coloring artwork, still used each year by our members to promote their own American Flowers Week efforts.

Jenny has also designed four botanical couture looks over the years. She’s not a florist or a flower farmer, but she’s so intimately connected to the goals and values of American Flowers Week that her creativity has prompted her “floral fashionista” to conceptualize, fabricate, style, and photograph a range of wearable looks – inspired by her love of local florals.

For American Flowers Week 2025, we invited Jenny to be our featured artist. And of course, she had ideas! The project is so expansive that it’s still in progress, but Jenny joined Debra Prinzing recently to talk about it and give us a sneak peek! The project involves 50 original watercolors of state-by-state quilt blocks, recaptured into 8-by-8-inch paintings. Here’s a bit more:

AFW: Have you painted in watercolor much, Jenny?

JD: It’s always been my favorite medium to work with, just because in most of my other design work everything is so precise. Watercolor gives me a chance to let things flow more organically.

AFW: What type of watercolor paint are you using?

JD: I was using Winsor & Newton, but I also have a travel set of koi watercolors from Sakura. I’ve been watercoloring outside when my husband and son do archery in the evenings. I also need this travel set of watercolors because my son, Dylan, has baseball practice and Ninja practice. I’ve got to take him everywhere, so the painting goes with me!

AFW: How are you able to make the paintings resemble fabric quilt squares?

JD: I noticed that a lot of quilters like to use fabric that almost has a watercolor feel to it, so I’ve added variations to some of the pieces, allowing different tones to come through.

AFW: Tell us about your path as an artist!

JD: I’ve always been creative since I was little. My mom has always been creative and she has painted with watercolors; my grandma used to make quilts and do paintings.

AFW: Did you study art in college?

JD: I went to Fresno State University to become an environmental toxicologist. I love biology. I love bugs and animals. What I intended to do as a career path was study plants, insects, animals to determine if those species are safe or endangered. But, I was still doodling and doing more art in my classes than actually paying attention to the subject. So I changed to an emphasis in graphic design because it seemed that’s where art was going. I went more digital in my design career. Lately, I’ve gravited to working with people who love flowers; who love plants, so it’s kind of my full circle moment as a creative.

AWF: Tell us how you came up with the 50 States Quilt Square Project for American Flowers Week.

JD: I love challenges! I was thinking of traditional Americana; something that might be considered old-timey, but still carries through to today. My brain just started doing tumbleweeds and I thought, “We’ve done state flowers. I know there are state animals. I wonder if there are state quilt blocks?” I did some research and discovered that – yes – there are state quilt blocks. There are some variations, but I actually found a book from the 1970s, “The United States Patchwork Pattern Book — 50 Quilt Blocks for 50 States.”

AFW: What do you know about the story of each quilt?

JD: Some are an obvious reference to the state. For example, New Mexico has more of a Santa Fe look and Texas has a big star. For other quilt squares, I haven’t been able to find any story about the origins of a design. I’m hoping somebody who sees our project will tell us more stories after reading about it!

AFW: How are you transforming photographs of vintage quilt pieces into watercolor art?

JD: I’m trying to stay as true to each state as I can. I’ve been scanning the image of each quilt piece and then converting it to an 8-inch square (and there are some round patches). Once I print it onto paper, I put the design on my lightboard and I lightly trace the pattern. Then, I paint the watercolors freehand.

AFW: We can’t wait to see all 50 of these paintings assembled together as a quilt!

JD: It’s so refreshing to be able to sit down and say, “What state am I going to visit today?!”

AFW: By the way, Jenny, you have created four American Flowers Week botanical couture looks. We’re guessing you don’t have time to design a floral fashion this year, what with all the painting you’ve been doing!

JD: I have a surprise for you, because I’m planning something! The dress I created last year looked like it had floral embroidery, so this year, I want to create a plaid skirt with flowers in the squares where the plaid intersects. And the model will wear a denim jacket with a floral quilt square on the back.

---

FOLLOW Jenny on Instagram

---

A collective of Seattle area florists reimagines judicial collars with botanicals

            Tammy Myers, founder of Seattle-based LORA Bloom, designed a stunning dahlia quilt for American Flowers Week’s Botanical Couture collection in 2019 to honor the Karuk Tribe and her grandfather’s Native American heritage. See below American Flowers Week 2019 (c) Missy Palacol.

            This year, Tammy is honoring a contemporary influence, the U.S. Supreme Court’s late Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Tammy has long viewed Justice Ginsburg as both a fashion icon and a female role model. “Ginsburg frequently wore jabots over her judicial robes, something we also see Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor doing. I have often wondered how her neckwear collection might appear as flowers instead of lace or beadwork. In my research, I learned Ginsburg had favorite pieces that communicated subtle messages of the Court’s decisions. We know flowers can speak in similar ways.”

            A Time Magazine feature on Ginsburg’s collars and jabots (images shown above) further captured Tammy’s imagination. Author Tessa Berensen wrote in November 2020, “over time, Ginsburg’s collars came to symbolize more than just a long-overdue feminine energy on the Supreme Court. To her, each one developed a special significance. The style of the collar sometimes reflected the substance of her work; perhaps most famously, the liberal Ginsburg often wore a bejeweled collar that looked like armor on days she dissented.”

Read more about THE COLLARS OF RBG: A Portrait of Justice, by Elinor Carucci and Sara Bader

Order your copy here

            Tammy saw an opportunity to celebrate Ginsburg’s feminine energy for American Flowers Week. She turned to the floral artists who are part of her LORA Bloom platform, an online, direct-to-consumer e-commerce site for locally-grown flowers. “This project is quite ambitious for a variety of reasons. Because LORA Bloom represents a collective of local florists, we asked six florists to design a floral replica from RBG’s collar collection,” she says. Four Slow Flowers members, Anne Bradfield of Analog Floral, Maura Whalen of Casablanca Floral, Sharlet Driggs of Sharlet Floral, and Lori Poliski of Flori participated as designers, as well as Sophie Strongman of The Old Soul Flower Co. and Kristal Hancock of Sublime Stems.

            Tammy tapped her friend Riva Juarez, a model, lifestyle blogger, and designer who covers DIY beauty and fashion as @rivaladiva to construct the “base garment” to showcase the floral collars. Riva transformed a boxy, black judicial robe into a stylish garment. The resulting piece, which Riva modeled for the series, is a modern take on the classic courtroom robe. Riva gathered the sleeves into dramatic cuffs; she tucked volumes of fabric into a flattering empire-style waistline, and shortened the hem to a flirty length, completing the look with black tights and heels.

            To embellish the robe, Tammy searched for as many “black” or “almost black” botanical elements as she could find. She cleverly deconstructed the leaves of a plum-black leucadendron to adorn the bands enclosing the robe’s front zipper and created a gorgeous crown of blooms on the back of the garment using anthurium, scabiosa, calla lilies, and other deeply-hued botanicals as focal detail. There is beautiful contrast in the shapes, forms and textures in all dark petals as they catch the light and add interest to the otherwise generic black cloth. One indulgence: Tammy added feathery fern accents as a fluffy “skirt” detail. “It’s business in the front and party in the back,” she jokes.

Ginsburg frequently wore jabots over her judicial robes, something we also see Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor doing. I have often wondered how her neckwear collection might appear as flowers instead of lace or beadwork. In my research, I learned Ginsburg had favorite pieces that communicated subtle messages of the Court’s decisions. We know flowers can speak in similar ways.

tammy myers, lora bloom

            Each botanical collar is highly inventive, influenced by the beading, lace, and fine metalwork of Ginsburg’s judicial collars. By reimagining materials grown and gathered from nature, pairing them with embroidery, crochet, and jewelry-making techniques, the designers show an evident affection for their subject. “Undeniably, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was one of the most distinguished, respected, and educated women in modern history,” Tammy observes. “She manifested beauty inside and out. She walked where few women have. Perhaps we can express our gratitude for the path she forged so we can achieve ours through the language of flowers.”

Creative Team:
Floral Palette: Domestic U.S.-grown botanicals from Washington, Oregon and California
Creative Concept/Creative Direction: Tammy Myers, LORA Bloom, lorabloom.com, @lorabloom.flowers
Model: Riva Juarez, rivaladiva.com, @rivaladiva
Hair/Makeup: Riva Juarez
Photography: Missy Palacol, Missy Palacol Photography, missypalacol.com, @missy.palacol
Collaborating Slow Flowers Society florists: Tammy Myers; Anne Bradfield, Analog Floral, @analog_floral; Maura Whalen, Casablanca Floral, @casablancafloral; Sharlet Driggs, Sharlet Floral, @sharletfloral; and Lori Poliski, Flori, @flori.flowers
Other florists: Sophie Strongman, The Old Soul Flower Co., @theoldsoulflowerco and Kristal Hancock, Sublime Stems, @sublimestems
Location: University of Washington Campus, Seattle, Washington

2024 Botanical Couture Look Five: A trailing skirt “grows” from the garden

Linda created the full-length skirt from a base of chicken wire, attached to a waistband. Openings in the metal mesh accommodate hundreds of water picks to keep flowers fresh and hydrated. “I spent days putting the water picks into the skirt,” Linda admitted. Each tube held clusters of flowers in place.
 
Photographed in late spring, the verdant train takes its inspiration from a cutting garden, with peonies, bearded irises, alliums, sweet William, baptisia, hellebores, lamb’s ear foliage, and nepeta “in bloom” against the background of hosta foliage and other greenery. “I wanted my garment to be fresh and seasonal,” Linda pointed out. “I didn’t want to use anything that wasn’t growing at that moment.”
 
White statice accentuates the skirt’s front openings, emulating ruffle trim, while threaded craspedia (Billy ball) drapes across the model’s torso as strands of oversized beads. Rhubarb leaves, harvested from the garden of Nan Matteson of Queen City Flower Farm—Linda’s past botanical couture collaborator—line the underskirt to provide a soft finish that protects the model’s legs from scratchy chicken wire. 

The garment is styled with Linda’s take on “slow jewelry,” a necklace created from willow saplings and foraged bark and feathers, with honeycomb pieces contributed from a local beekeeper. For the photo shoot, a task assigned to Linda’s son Zachary, the “prop” is a planted Victorian parlor chair. Where tufted velvet once cushioned the seat, there’s now a planting of moss, herbs, and spring perennials. “It’s definitely a growing chair,” she joked.
 
Linda sees herself as a “maker” for whom the garden and flower fields are her favorite art supplies. “There’s something about the natural world, and this botanical couture garment is a way for me to be in the natural world and be creative.”
 
Later this summer, when customers visit In the Garden Flower Farm to harvest from Linda’s you-pick field, she will put the planted chair on display. “It will be adorable and perfect for photo ops!”

---

DESIGN + CONCEPT: Linda Spradlin, In the Garden Flower Farm, @inthegardenflowerfarm
DESIGN ASSISTANT: Nan Matteson, Queen City Flower Farm, @queencityflowerfarm
FLORAL CONTRIBUTIONS: In the Garden Flower Farm, Queen City Flower Farm, City Farm Studio, CCS Blooms, The Flower Lady OTR, Maygical Garden
CamFlor Inc., Watsonville, California, camflor.com | @camflorinc
MODEL: Ericka Leighton-Spradlin
PHOTOGRAPHY: Zachary Spradlin
VENUE: In the Garden Flower Farm, Seven Mile, Ohio

Share! #americanflowersweek

Right-click above or download all of our American Flowers Week graphics featuring this beautiful look!

2024 Botanical Couture Look Four: Feminine Power Suit

Niesha Blancas has been an essential partner in the promotion of American Flowers Week since our early days. Beginning in 2021, she joined the ranks of creators whose botanical couture looks elevate local and seasonal flowers with avante garde garments that have told narratives ranging from 1990s pop culture to the Bridgerton phenomenon to her family’s Mexican-American roots.

“Unwritten,” Niesha’s fifth botanical couture design, is her most personal project yet. This year, not only does Niesha get in front of the camera as the garment’s model, she uses the medium of flowers to tell a personal story of healing.

Her ensemble includes a bralette, a tailored jacket, and high-waisted pants, fully cloaked in vivid green foliage with accents in red, pink, purple, lavender, and blue flowers. She continues earlier themes, including opera gloves as her preferred fashion accessory, with the addition of a floral pillbox hat. Leaves from spotted laurel (Aucuba japonica), have factored prominently in the four prior looks Niesha has designed. But this year, when she visited CamFlor Inc., in Watsonville, California, to select her botanical ingredients, she was unable to find Aucuba.

“I have included this leaf every single year, and I couldn’t not have it this year,” she insisted. Fortunately, her mother, Cathy Blancas, found the plant at a local garden center, so Niesha plucked a single gold-flecked leaf and used it as her jacket’s “pocket handkerchief.”

Niesha clipped hundreds of individual pink and green ornamental kale leaves and shiny green Israeli ruscus foliage to attach to her base garments, using florist cold glue to cloak the pants and jacket with overlapping layers of greenery. There’s a pleasing contrast between the rounded kale edges and the pointed ruscus tips, as the varied leaf shapes create a pattern of their own. The foliages cover olive green vintage pants and jacket, which Niesha found months ago on her many thrifting excursions.

“I thought it would be smart to use green pieces,” she noted. Any hint of fabric disappears from view because of the predominance of foliage.

Niesha selected a mix of florals for the jacket’s color-blocked details that appear on shoulders, sleeves, and cuffs. Anemone, cornflower, dahlia, delphinium, dianthus, kangaroo paw, statice, pincushion protea, peony, ranunculus, and sweet pea create mini tapestries that relate to many of the headpiece blooms. For Niesha, this year’s botanical couture project represents a year of personal growth, as she experienced trauma that came with the loss of a close relative.

“I have been on a journey of inner healing, and I wanted to put something beautiful out into the world that told my story,” she explained. “Each picture showcases a different form of support and how much it has meant to me.”

The image with four gloved hands reaching toward her reminds Niesha of the power of an inner circle, friends and family members. “Each hand symbolizes the love and support of my inner circle as they left—and continue to leave—a lasting imprint throughout this journey of mine,” she explained.

The portrait in which Niesha holds her beloved cat “Rami” (who wears a kitty harness completely covered in botanicals) symbolizes the emotional support that pets can give. “Out of my four little ones, Rami was chosen. Just like his brother cats, he possesses one of the purest of souls and knows his way around a photoshoot just so he can load up on treats,” she jokes.

There’s also a photo of Niesha’s green-gloved hand reaching for another’s purple-gloved hand, which is symbolism for welcoming vulnerability and seeking support in therapy. As she continues her symbolism through the accessories, Niesha expressed another idea with the pillbox hat. Covered completely with botanicals, the hat is a nod to positive mental health.

“The idea is to remind ourselves to focus on the common goal of protecting our peace, maintaining a healthy mind, and always striving to carry beautiful thoughts,” she said.

As she modeled the garment, Niesha relied on her friend Ana Quinata to capture these storytelling moments. “It was reassuring to keep in my mind that I’ve done this creative process before—but with my muses. This time was special, because I was my own muse and shared my emotions . . . that’s pretty cool.”

Her ensemble is styled beautifully. Edgy, romantic, and original . . . 100 percent Niesha.

---

DESIGN + CONCEPT: Niesha Blancas, Fetching Social, @fetchingsocial
DESIGN ASSISTANT: Ana Quinata
FLORAL SOURCE: CamFlor Inc., Watsonville, California, camflor.com | @camflorinc
MODELS: Niesha Blancas, Rami Blancas
PHOTOGRAPHY + EDITING: Ana Quinata + Niesha Blancas

Share! #americanflowersweek

Right-click above or download all of our American Flowers Week graphics featuring this beautiful look!

2024 Botanical Couture Look Three: Summer Romance

Last summer, Alanna Messner-Scholl expressed her fashionista talents in an Instagram post featuring a feminine and ferny party frock on a dressmaker’s form, photographed in the garden. Of course, we reached out to learn more and discovered that the Pennsylvania-based farmer florist once studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.

Experience in fashion, plus a subsequent career in healthcare, led to Alanna eventually establishing a flower farm called Waverly Flower Co. After finishing her post-doctoral fellowship, Alanna stepped back from the healthcare industry during the height of COVID to focus on raising her two children, now toddlers.

Today, Alanna has expanded Waverly Flower Co. into a bustling wedding and events studio with 32 weddings on the books for 2024. Alanna’s most recent creation for American Flowers Week transforms greenery and blooms into botanical couture worn by a human model.

The endeavor drew inspiration from her muse, model Lindsey Gerstlauer, a floral designer who frequently freelances for Waverly Flower Co., and the photography venue, Life’s Patina at Willowbrook Farm, the historic farm where Ashley Meier photographed the finished look. “Little Figgie,” the vintage roadster and iconic prop, played an important supporting role.

Past and Present features a lush, two-piece garment—a fitted bodice and a petticoat skirt. The design is based on a layer of greenery to which roses and other flowers are added. With an uneven hemline falling just below the knee, the tea-length gown is admittedly foliage-heavy, which is what Alanna wanted.

“To me, ‘garden-inspired’ also means a healthy proportion of greens, because that’s typically what we see in the garden,” she said, adding that she sourced entirely from her garden and flower fields. Knowing that large quantities of foliage would be required to cover the skirt and top, she trialed 30 different leaf types to determine the best varieties to last out of water for several hours.

“The vast majority did not hold well or retain their shapes,” she noted. “I was open-minded in the sense that I didn’t have to have particularly long stems, but the greenery choices were limited.” She found that the best options were magnolia, pieris, and wisteria foliage, and together, a cascade of these elements provided dimension and detail for the flirty skirt. Alanna wired the leaves to an overskirt made from soft window screening (the type that comes on a roll at the hardware store), which draped over the fabric petticoat.

A proliferation of garden roses, harvested at their peak, frames the neckline, crossing the torso to the hemline in a diagonal arrangement. ‘Desdemona’, ‘Earth Angel’, and ‘Wollerton Old Hall’ roses are accented by creamy white blooms of goatsbeard (Aruncus dioicus) and allium flowers.

Life’s Patina at Willowbrook Farm is one of Alanna’s favorite local event venues and Waverly Flower Co. was an invited floral vendor and florist in residence over Mother’s Day weekend. The dreamy landscape, old-world stone barn, garden paths, arbors, and rustic fencing provided authentic character as setting for the photography.

To continue her narrative, Alanna procured the use of a stylish roadster called “Little Figgie.” The car is often rented for weddings and events, appearing at prior Life’s Patina events as well. Manufactured as a retro concept car by Nissan in 1991, the Figaro model is now a favorite of collectors. Alanna considered the cool blue-gray hue a perfect match for her blue-eyed model.

---

DESIGN + CONCEPT: Alanna Messner-Scholl, Waverly Flower Co., waverlyflowerco.com, @waverlyflowerco
FLOWER SOURCES: Waverly Flower Co., Schwenksville, Pennsylvania
PHOTOGRAPHER: Ashley Meier, ashleymeierphotography.com, @ashleymeier26
MODEL: Lindsey Gerstlauer, @lindseygerstlauer
VENUE: Life’s Patina at Willowbrook Farm, lifespatina.com, @lifes.patina_willowbrookfarm
MAKEUP: Ashley Novak, Glam on Demand, glamondemand.com, @glamondemand
VINTAGE CAR: Little Figgie, @littlefiggie

Share! #americanflowersweek

Right-click above or download all of our American Flowers Week graphics featuring this beautiful look!

2024 Botanical Couture Look Two: Designing with Dried Flowers

In her new book, “Designing with Dried Flowers” (Clarkson Potter, 2024), farmer florist Hannah Muller of Wreath Room and Full Belly Farm shares unique methods to naturally dry flowers that hold their color and delicacy. Her book teaches readers how to design small arrangements for every day, wreaths for all seasons, and celebration showstoppers that will look gorgeous in the moment and for months to come.

Hannah calls one of her favorite projects in the book “Billy Button Strands,” which elevates the spherical Craspedia globosa, a tender perennial from Australia that produces one-inch-sized “flowers” that resemble tiny gumdrops. This flower offers the ideal jumping-off point for home décor. Yes, these flowers can be used in vase arrangements, but when the stems are removed, they can be threaded onto strands for garlands and strands, she said.

“Their spherical shape and cheerful yellow color make them modern and perfect for small, simple designs.”

In the book, Hannah demonstrates using a needle with clear fishing line to make craspedia strands. For her garment, she opted to use gold bullion wire as “thread.” She explained, “That’s how I got a little bit more shape to the design, because the wire helps to keep the bodice pieces in place.”

Turning festive strands of flower heads into a wearable garment took some creative engineering. Designed, fabricated, and modeled by Hannah, the golden dress takes its inspiration from an extravagant Schiaparelli gown made from strands of 50,000 pearls, which celebrity Kim Kardashian wore to the 2023 Met Gala.

“Instead of dressing up in strands of pearls, I created the floral version of her look with strands of Billy buttons,” Hannah laughed.

Threaded lengths of craspedia drape around Hannah’s neck and shoulders; they encircle her waist and cascade from her hips; and as spirals, they form dramatic bust detailing. Hannah wore a strapless bra and a mini-skirt in natural-muslin fabric as the base layer against her skin.

“I just loved the idea of taking something dried and making it wearable,” she continued. “This flower is so small, you might not consider it a great option for a botanical outfit, but I really love the intricacy of their size in this design.”

A gradation of yellow hues adds interest to Hannah’s garment. Varying shades can occur in craspedia blooms, depending on harvest stage and whether they have begun to dry, she noted, adding that it’s easier to thread a needle when working with fresh product.

Hannah tapped her husband Elliot Schoenig, a botanist who often photographs nature subjects, to capture the finished look on camera. Her styling adds just the right amount of whimsy, with the addition of ranunculus “lashes” on her face, cheeky sunglasses—and an image of her blowing a huge bubble from yellow chewing gum.

---

DESIGN + CONCEPT: Hannah Muller, Full Belly Farm, @wreathroom, @farmerhands
PHOTOGRAPHY: Elliot Schoenig
FLOWER SOURCES: Full Belly Farm, @full_belly_farm
MODEL: Hannah Muller
VENUE: Full Belly Farm, Guinda, California

Share! #americanflowersweek

Right-click above or download all of our American Flowers Week graphics featuring this beautiful look!

2024 Botanical Couture Look One: A Poppy State of Mind

The California poppy (Eschscholzia californica), also called golden poppy, has long been depicted by illustrators and artisans who work in pottery, stained glass, surface design, and other media. Poppies often appear in the Art Nouveau style of the early 1900s, entwined with graceful curves and natural forms.

Jenny Diaz was inspired by the work of Art Nouveau painter and illustrator, Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939), known for his illustrations of women with flowing hair, diaphanous gowns, and lots of flowers, including poppies. In planning her fourth floral fashion for American Flowers Week, Jenny turned to Mucha’s style, interpreting it for her own.

“His work is whimsical, but feminine and elegant,” Jenny explained. “The vibe I wanted was whimsical, but also playful and ethereal.” You can just imagine her model looking at home in the California of the 1960s—barefoot and carefree.

Jenny is credited with designing many American Flowers Week and Slow Flowers Society projects—including our original AFW logo in 2016 and two popular coloring sheets, including one depicting all 50 state flowers on a map of the U.S., which features the state of California surrounded by poppies, perhaps giving Jenny a Poppy State of Mind for this year’s project.

For the photography location, a meadow near Shaver Lake in the Sierra National Forest, Jenny fashioned a trio of larger-than-life poppy flowers to appear as props. A true maker, she researched how to fabricate giant flowers by watching YouTube tutorials, picking up all the needed supplies to turn PVC pipe, construction paper, and pipe cleaners into imaginative, oversized blooms. The flowers frame model Kara Trukki, as she portrays a turn-of-the-century woman—straight from Mucha’s canvas.

The bodice of a long, flowing dress is covered with the foliage and blooms of amaranth, with shoulder details that include safflower, amaranth, bunny tail grass, and other blooms. The green amaranth foliage gives the bodice a pavé surface that extends to the deep V-neckline and a waistband patterned with safflower (in bloom and bud), dahlia heads, and clusters of statice. To emphasize the drape of the gown’s skirt, Jenny layered a delicate tracing of stems and petals as “botanical embroidery,” letting blooms trail downward from the waistline and creating a meadow across the hemline.

The photography echoes Mucha’s preference for pastoral scenes like this one, with a picnic basket and fruit continuing the narrative. It’s a perfect narrative for celebrating California’s iconic state flower.

---

DESIGN + CONCEPT: Jenny M. Diaz, Jenny M. Diaz Design, @jennymdiaz
PHOTOGRAPHY + EDITING: Jenny M. Diaz
FLOWER SOURCES: CamFlor Inc., Watsonville, California, camflor.com | @camflorinc
MODEL: Kara Trukki, @luckytrukk1
VENUE: Shaver Lake, California

Share! #americanflowersweek

Right-click above or download all of our American Flowers Week graphics featuring this beautiful look!

Celebrating American Flowers Week’s 10th Anniversary

American Flowers Week encourages flower farmers, floral designers, flower enthusiasts, and gardeners alike to promote their blooms across social media with the hashtag: #americanflowersweek.

The campaign debuted in 2015 and has continued for a full decade as the original domestic flower promotion holiday.

The relevance and importance of local, seasonal, and sustainably grown flowers continues to influence the professional floral marketplace, as well as passionate consumers. By designating a single week to our promotion, Slow Flowers Society elevates awareness and highlights the many reasons to support local flowers, and those who grow and design with them.

During this week — June 28-July 4 — we will be sharing our beautiful botanical couture collection with you, including details about the designers and floral ingredients included in this creative project. Enjoy locally-grown, American-grown blooms as wearable art!

This year’s American Flowers Week botanical couture collection is uniique to the location and season where it was produced and photographed, with design narratives that elevate and reimagine flowers and foliage as botanical couture.

Read more about Lesley Goren, our American Flowers Week 2024 featured artist (see her illustration above). Download AFW social media resources here.

You’re invited to download and share these beautiful graphic badges for social media. Please right-click to download. Tag the designer, flower farmer and photographer (see credits that follow each item in the collection).

Use @slowflowerssociety and #americanflowersweek tags!

Poppy State of Mind

DESIGN + CONCEPT:
Jenny M. Diaz, Jenny M. Diaz Design, @jennymdiaz
PHOTOGRAPHY + EDITING: Jenny M. Diaz
FLOWER SOURCES:
CamFlor Inc., Watsonville, California, camflor.com | @camflorinc
MODEL: Kara Trukki, @luckytrukk1
VENUE: Shaver Lake, California

---

Past and Present

DESIGN + CONCEPT:
Alanna Messner-Scholl, Waverly Flower Co., waverlyflowerco.com, @waverlyflowerco
FLOWER SOURCES: Waverly Flower Co., Schwenksville, Pennsylvania
PHOTOGRAPHER: Ashley Meier, ashleymeierphotography.com, @ashleymeier26
MODEL: Lindsey Gerstlauer, @lindseygerstlauer
VENUE: Life’s Patina at Willowbrook Farm, lifespatina.com, @lifes.patina_willowbrookfarm
MAKEUP: Ashley Novak, Glam on Demand, glamondemand.com, @glamondemand
VINTAGE CAR: Little Figgie, @littlefiggie

---

Strands of Gold

DESIGN + CONCEPT:
Hannah Muller, Full Belly Farm, @wreathroom, @farmerhands
PHOTOGRAPHY: Elliot Schoenig
FLOWER SOURCES:
Full Belly Farm, @full_belly_farm
MODEL: Hannah Muller
VENUE: Full Belly Farm, Guinda, California

---

Unwritten

DESIGN + CONCEPT: Niesha Blancas, Fetching Social, @fetchingsocial
DESIGN ASSISTANT: Ana Quinata
FLORAL SOURCE: CamFlor Inc., Watsonville, California, camflor.com | @camflorinc
MODELS: Niesha Blancas, Rami Blancas
PHOTOGRAPHY + EDITING: Ana Quinata + Niesha Blancas

---

Masquerade

DESIGN + CONCEPT: Linda Spradlin, In the Garden Flower Farm, @inthegardenflowerfarm
DESIGN ASSISTANT: Nan Matteson, Queen City Flower Farm, @queencityflowerfarm
FLORAL CONTRIBUTIONS: In The Garden Flower Farm, Queen City Flower Farm, City Farm Studio,            CCS Blooms, The Flower Lady OTR, Maygical Garden
CamFlor Inc., Watsonville, California, camflor.com | @camflorinc
MODEL: Ericka Leighton-Spradlin
PHOTOGRAPHY: Zachary Spradlin
VENUE: In The Garden Flower Farm, Seven Mile, Ohio

---

We’re so excited to share this just-released story from CA Grown, the agricultural marketing and branding agency that promotes California’s crops — including cut flowers! It tells the story of Jenny M. Diaz, our Slow Flowers Society graphic designer, who also provides design services to CA Grown.

Jenny has designed four botanical couture looks for American Flowers Week – she’s a multi-media artist who fell in love with our campaign years ago and who has contributed some incredibly beautiful floral fashions over the years. This year, her friends at CA Grown asked to join in the fun. In addition to their story, the agency will also share social media posts during American Flowers Week (June 28-July 1). You can follow CA Grown here.