Slow Flowers Journal wins 2022 GardenComm Media Awards Silver Medal of Achievement
[August 9, 2022] – Slow Flowers Society and BLOOM Imprint received the 2022 Media Awards Silver Medal of Achievement for Slow Flowers Journal: Botanical Couture 2021, presented by GardenComm: Garden Communicators International.
This national award recognizes individuals and companies who achieve the highest levels of talent and professionalism in garden communications. The 2022 competition had more than 165 entries in 67 categories. Recipients of the Silver Medal represent the best in their category and will now compete for Gold Medals in their category.
Slow Flowers Society founder and BLOOM Imprint Editorial Director Debra Prinzing and its Creative Director Robin Avni received the Silver Medal of Achievement for their digital project, Slow Flowers Journal: Botanical Couture, in the Trade: Special Projectcategory. The e-zine was published in June 2021 via Americanflowersweek.com and features the cover fashion and photography of Niesha Blancas of Fetching Social Media and model Jada Cruz.
“The GardenComm Media Awards showcase writers, photographers, editors, videographers, social media managers, publishers, and trade companies that have demonstrated excellence in garden communications in print or electronic communications,” says Maria Zampini, president of GardenComm.
In conjunction with American Flowers Week 2021, Slow Flowers Society and publishing partner, BLOOM Imprint, released a special digital issue of Slow Flowers Journal, available for free download. The publication features one dozen wearable floral ensembles designed with iconic American-grown botanicals.
Since the early 1980s, the GardenComm Media Awards program has recognized outstanding writing, photography, graphic design and illustration for books, newspaper stories, magazine articles and other works focused on gardening.
GardenComm, Garden Communicators International, is an organization of professional communicators in the green and garden industry including book authors, bloggers, staff editors, syndicated columnists, free-lance writers, photographers, speakers, landscape designers, television and radio personalities, consultants, publishers, extension service agents and more. No other organization in the industry has as much contact with the buying public as GardenComm members. Learn more at www.gardencomm.org.
We have created Social Media badges for you to download and share for American Flowers Week Click on the link below to find the images in 4 formats (for FB/IG post and stories).
Please use the hashtags: #americanflowersweek @slowflowerssociety
For each Botanical Couture floral fashion, we’ve added the creative and photography credits for you to add to your posts.
The 2022 American Flowers Week artwork was created exclusively for Slow Flowers Society by Shelley Aldrich, a painter and illustrator based in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
Like some of our past commissions, we discovered Shelley on Instagram, drawn to her whimsical and lyrical painting technique that depicts botanical patterns, flowers and gardens, wildlife, and people. Shelley brainstormed several concepts for an original American Flowers Week illustration — and the final concept became an utterly charming USA map with red, white, and blue blooms. The flowers are intended to be playful and familiar, while not literally replicated.
Shelley is a self-taught artist who began painting four years ago. She studied Business Administration at the University of Southern California and worked as a financial professional for two decades in the entertainment, technology and auto industries. In 2014, she quit the corporate world to spend more time at home with her two daughters.
Shelley says she has always enjoyed creative hobbies, but her decision to become self-employed allowed her to study and practice painting. She started with The 100 Day Project in 2018 and has not stopped. Her joyful and playful painting style is still evolving but is always inspired by the natural world. We recently caught up with Shelley for a conversation shared here:
Q. How do you describe yourself and your art? A. I would say my art is playful, bright and imperfect. Without formal training, I paint and draw using my instinct vs learned techniques. So I it think it has a childlike simplicity.
Q. How did you develop your unique style and aesthetic? A. Initially, I wanted to illustrate children’s books. If you look at some of my earlier work, you’ll see I drew characters. Last November, I started drawing patterns, which felt more natural for me. It was a whole different way of thinking to switch from illustrating a children’s story to making surface patterns. It was almost a relief for me to just draw freely and not think about getting a character and environment just right.
Q. When you draw florals, do you work from your imagination? A. I almost always work from a reference photograph when I draw landscapes and florals. When I was drawing children’s book illustrations, I often worked from my imagination, but flowers are a lot different. I like the way the illustrations come out when I draw what I see.
Q. What is your drawing process? A. It has changed over time. I used to always start with a tiny thumbnail sketch to test composition and color before a final painting. But this year I discovered Procreate on the iPad Pro. I never thought I would go digital but it’s immensely easier, especially when it comes to surface patterns. It saves me from having to paint an image over and over when a client needs a change. Although, when I paint for myself, I still start with a tiny sketch on Procreate and then paint traditionally.
“Plant Lady,” Painted Paper Collage and Gouache by Shelley Aldrich
Q. What other media do you use? A. When I draw landscapes, I like to work with acrylic gouache. It has a beautiful opaque, matte finish to it and the layers dry quickly so I can paint colors on top of each other without having them blend together. It allows me to achieve landscapes with a graphic kind of feeling that I like. I also love the look of Caran d’ache Neocolor II crayons.
Q. What size are your paintings? A. When painting, I work smaller, probably smaller than most artists — usually 5 by 7 inches. On the iPad Pro, I generally work on a 10×10 square. It’s easier to work larger on the iPad Pro, because you can zoom in and zoom out and work with one little square area at a time. It doesn’t feel overwhelming that way.
Q. How did you approach the American Flowers Week illustration? A. I began with a shape of the United States and did a watercolor wash over it. And then over that, I started adding the flowers, one at a time.
Q. How did art and drawing “sneak up” on you? A. I always loved doodling and making crafts, but I took a more traditional route, studying business in college. I worked in finance for 22 years — from Paramount Studios, to startups to Toyota Financial Services. While I was working, I would find moments to be creative like teaching art at my daughters’ school, scrapbooking for magazines, and even starting a handmade party goods business called Pipsqueak & Bean. I never fully committed to art most likely out of fear. It wasn’t until 2018, almost exactly a year after losing my mom, that I finally decided I was going to learn to paint. I guess you could say art has been slowly sneaking up on me for many years.
Q. When did you transition to doing illustration only? A. At the beginning of this year I put away my sewing machine and closed down the Etsy shop. I cleared out all of my felts and tissue paper from the party goods business and replaced it all with my art supplies. I work in a little nook in my kitchen, which is probably where we should eat breakfast. It’s a tiny space, but I have a table and all my art supplies around me.
Q. What kind of commissions are you receiving? A. My illustrations are being used for journals, cards, phone cases, fabrics, scarves, some clothing.
Q. Are you surprised at the response to your illustrations? A. It is crazy because things are starting to take off for me. All of a sudden I’m hearing from clients and getting commissions from people who like my style. I always remind myself about Julia Child and Grandma Moses, women who started careers even when they were told it was too late for their age. Finally, it feels like the right time to start my art career, a new adventure.
Our 2021 Botanical Couture Collection was the largest one to date!
Slow Flowers Society will commission at least FIVE Floral Couture Looks for our 2022 American Flowers Week Collection.
If you’ve been thinking about contributing, NOW is the time to commit! There are just two months left for collecting photography of your creative pieces.
Here are some great resources for you to use in planning your floral fashion!
1. Watch Botanical Couture Tips & Techniques from American Flowers Week
Sign up to watch the FREE Webinar featuring 12 past Creators, Slow Flowers Members, Farmer-Florists, Growers, and Designers whose talents and Botanical Couture fashions have been showcased since 2015.
We’re soliciting proposals from farmer-florist creative teams for this campaign. Those submitting must be active Slow Flowers members. Consideration will be made for new regions and botanical elements not previously featured. We have a special focus on inclusion and representation!
3. New for 2022: Flower Sponsors Are Ready to Help
We have just named two new American Flowers Week sponsors who are here to help you with your Botanical Couture planning and execution!
After your proposal has been accepted, in addition to your own procurement efforts, we will connect you with flower expert Carlos Cardoza of CamFlor Inc., based in Watsonville, California. CamFlor is generously providing a donation of flowers and foliage for your American Flowers Week 2022 floral fashion look. In addition, Carlos will assist you in estimating and selecting the ingredients you need for your designs — approximately 500 stems of seasonal, California-grown flowers and foliage.
Mayesh Wholesale Florists will provide logistics and shipping to assist in this process! If you are located near a Mayesh Branch, you’ll be able pick up your blooms there. If you don’t have a Mayesh branch nearby, no worries! Mayesh will facilitate the shipping of those blooms in support of American Flowers Week!
4. Get Published! Photography for all 2022 Looks Must be Available by June 1, 2022.
The selected Botanical Couture fashions will be published in our 2022 special issue of Slow Flowers Journal.
Get ready for American Flowers Week, June 28-July 4, 2022!
We’re thrilled to reveal the 2022 American Flowers Week branding, created exclusively for Slow Flowers Society by Shelley Aldrich, a painter and illustrator based in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
We were drawn to her whimsical painting technique in depicting botanical patterns, flowers and gardens, wildlife, and people! Visit her work here and shop her Etsy store here.
After discovering and contacting Shelley, we brainstormed three concepts for an original American Flowers Week illustration for 2022. What you see above is the final piece, and we think the USA map with red, white, and blue blooms is utterly charming! Hope you do, too! The flowers are intended to be playful and familiar, while not literally replicated.
Meet Shelley Aldrich
Artist and painter Shelley Aldrich
Shelley is a self-taught artist that began painting four years ago. She studied Business Administration at the University of Southern California and worked 20 years in the entertainment, tech and auto industries. In 2014, she quit the corporate world to spend more time at home with her young girls.
While Shelley has always enjoyed creative hobbies, it was during this time that she began focusing on learning to paint. She started with a 100 Day Project in 2018 and has not stopped since.
Her painting style is still evolving but is almost always joyful and whimsical and inspired by the natural world and an interesting story.
When she is not creating, she can be found at home with her family, hiking, playing, or keeping their home life tidy.
Let’s get ready for American Flowers Week
Here are some inspiring stories from past years to help you plan for your 2022 promotions:
Writer Jennifer Polanz asked Carolyn Kulb of Folk Art Flowers to walk her through the steps of creating this magnificent hellebore dress . . . and we hope it inspires nurseries and garden centers to fashion something from their own imaginations with these tips.
Kudos to our entire team for supporting Carolyn’s gorgeous design for the 2021 American Flowers Week campaign!
They include: Designer: Carolyn Kulb, Folk Art Flowers, folkartflowers.com, @folkartflowers Production support: Pamela Youngsman, PoppyStarts,poppystarts.com, @poppystarts Model: Tasia Baldwin @_tasiajb Hair/Makeup: DeLeana Guerrero, Luxe Artistry Seattle @guerrerodelavida_artistry and @luxeartistryseattle Photography: Missy Palacol, missypalacolphotography.com, @missy.palacol Location: Hyak Sno-Park, Snoqualmie Pass, Washington
Local flower promotions sizzle during American Flowers Week
American Flowers Week branding on jars of locally-grown flowers as part of Emerald Design’s pop-up coffee shop event in Evansville, Indiana (c) Patton Photography
NOTE: A version of this story appears in the August 2021 issue of Growing for Market magazine
Slow Flowers Society launched American Flowers Week in 2015 as a community-focused floral holiday, encouraging everyone in the floral marketplace to participate — from flower seed and bulb producers to cut flower growers; from designers to retailers; from cutting garden enthusiasts to artists.
As the original American-grown floral holiday, the campaign’s goal is to stimulate interest in beauty, seasonality, local agriculture and sustainable floral design.
The timely importance of promoting seasonal and locally-grown flowers is at its peak, especially given new findings around consumer behavior and attitudes relating to cut flower purchases, based on the 2021 National Gardening Survey (published in April 2021). The omnibus survey of nearly 2,500 U.S. households found that 57 percent of respondents say it is very or somewhat important that the flowers they purchase are American-grown, while 58 percent of respondents say buying locally-grown flowers is very or somewhat important.
58% of Americans say buying local flowers is very or somewhat important”
2021 National Gardening survey
The survey, sponsored in part by Slow Flowers Society, found that four in 10 U.S. adults (41 percent, 104.6 million) reported spending some amount of money on cut flowers in 2020, with an average household expenditure of $62.63, or an estimated $6.55 billion spent by U.S. households last year.
So how do flower farmers leverage the marketing and branding opportunities during a patriotic “buy local” campaign, which runs June 28-July 4 each year? Creative ideas include retail and farmers’ market displays. direct-to-consumer and CSA programs, hands-on design workshops and artful collaborations with florists. Here is an overview of some of the inventive projects that took place earlier this year:
CSA Bouquets Slow Flowers’ red-white-and-blue American Flowers Week bouquet labels are sold as a member benefit, giving farmers and florists a low-cost way to elevate their branding. Sage Devlin of Far Bungalow Farm in Leesburg, Virginia, used the labels as packaging for the farm’s June CSA bouquets and bulk flower bucket program.
American Flowers Week branding at Far Bungalow Farm
Far Bungalow Farm’s flowers move through a number of channels, including the Summer Bouquet Share program, sold for $225 for 14 weeks of bouquets and the $350 bucket program, which provides 50 stems weekly for 14 weeks. The farm also supplies a weekly flower share add-on to a large vegetable CSA and markets blooms through Old Dominion Flower Cooperative, an emerging wholesale collective of Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia flower farms that sells to florists and consumers.
Sage Devlin of Far Bungalow Farm
Using the American Flowers Week bouquet labels “is kind of a brilliant marketing scheme,” Devlin says. “People see red, white and blue during this time of year – and ‘American’ – and they can get behind it.” It’s not important that the flowers are patriotic in color, Devlin says. “We do add a bunch of frosted explosion grass to suggest fireworks, though.”
Farm to Grocery Partnerships The 10-year-old Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, a farmer-owned hub for local and domestic flowers, added the American Flowers Week branding to wrapped bouquets and bunches sold through local grocery outlets during most of June, up to July 4th.
Locally-grown blooms at Central Market Poulsbo (c) Joshua Hessler
“We feature flowers in our mixed bouquets from multiple member farms,” says Brad Siebe, general manager. Other farms use the labeling on their own bouquets and bunches supplied through SWGMC. The collaboration elevates awareness for high quality, locally-grown flowers, he explains. Among its regional grocery customers, SWGMC sells to Town & Country Markets, a family-owned neighborhood chain with six stores in the Seattle area.
T&C Markets has participated in American Flowers Week for several years, spearheaded by floral category manager Melanie Cherry. Each years since 2017, Cherry has commissioned special in-store signage for American Flowers Week and designed sales promotions, giving staff members and customers a great reason to highlight locally-grown flowers.
Illustration by Hillary Husted of Town & Country Markets/Central Market
She encourages floral department managers to build special American Flowers Week displays, with creative results. For 2021, Melanie asked the company’s graphic artist to reinterpret a USA state map (found as a free downloadable coloring sheet at americanflowersweek.com) into a full-color poster. Hillary Husted, the staff designer, rendered a beautiful map depicting each state flower as a botanical illustration, with the tagline “Celebrate American Farmers and Washington Flowers.”
Floral department display ideas at Central Market Poulsbo (c) Joshua Hessler
In past years, T&C Markets has featured a “big board” sales special on local peonies and local sunflowers. “This year, we ran an in-store special on the SWGMC bouquets for $5 off, so we promoted $20 bouquets for $14.98 during American Flowers Week,” Cherry says. “Our sales doubled the amount we sold from last year and I consider it a success seeing local flowers in our customers’ hands. I believe that this promotion will help flower sales all year long.”
Cherry and her department managers view the annual promotion as a success, one they also measure in sales data. “It’s amazing how this has made the floral department relevant during the 4th of July week when everyone is here buying their barbeque supplies.”
Consumer-Direct DIY flowers
Flower farmers from Old Dominion Flower Cooperative, along with Kelly Shore of Petals by the Shore (third from right)
The flower farmers ofOld Dominion Flower Cooperative, including aforementioned Sage Devlin of Far Bungalow Farm, teamed up with one of their florist customers, Kelly Shore of Maryland-based The Floral Source, to package a curated flower box during American Flowers Week.
“This project gave ODFC and our growers an incredible opportunity to showcase what is growing here in the DC Region,” says Megan Wakefield, director of operations. “We have so many incredible growers who are passionate about producing sustainably- and lovingly-grown blooms for local designers and the flower shops who purchase from our cooperative. The American Flowers Week project was our first foray into shipping our blooms and we couldn’t have done it without the support and guidance of an industry leader like Kelly.”
As a drop-ship, farm-to-florist wholesaler, Shore works with growers across the U.S. to help them sell direct to florists. Her unique program originally was developed as a COVID-pandemic “pivot,” and has since blossomed into a popular service with farmer-florists, DIY floral designers and retail florists who have trouble sourcing domestic flowers from conventional floral wholesalers.
Flowers from Old Dominion Flower Cooperative featured in The Floral Source’s “American Grown at Home” offerings
Shore’s special American Grown at Home box of 50 summer blooms and greenery featured seasonal stems harvested from all of Old Dominion Flower Cooperative’s 22 member farms. The box sold for $150 (including overnight shipping) and included a decorative metal vase that customers used during The Floral Source’s July 1st virtual workshop.
It’s vitally important in the Slow Flowers Movement to know who is growing your flowers and have the reliance that the seasonal flora they grow will meet florists’ needs. That strengthens the story behind the flowers, the farmers and gives our work deeper purpose.”
kelly shore, the floral source
“As an advocate for local and American flowers and now a drop-ship wholesaler, it’s a privilege and honor to bring national awareness and accessibility to the growers in my own backyard,” Shore says. “Having the opportunity to highlight Old Dominion Flower Cooperative, such a progressive and passionate group of small growers, allows me to empower them and build confidence in my designer community. It’s vitally important in the Slow Flowers Movement to know who is growing your flowers and have the reliance that the seasonal flora they grow will meet florists’ needs. That strengthens the story behind the flowers, the farmers and gives our work deeper purpose.”
Coffee Store Pop-Up
An American Flowers Week pop-up flower bar presented by farmer-florist Whitney Muncy of Emerald Design in Evansville, Indiana (c) Patton Photography
Farmer-florist Whitney Muncy of Evansville, Indiana-based Emerald Design, honored American Flowers Week by hosting a flower bar at White Swan Coffee Lab, a favorite neighborhood hang-out with excellent coffee and free Wi-Fi. She promoted the event on social media with the message: “Support two local small businesses by purchasing coffee and flowers together.”
The event took place 9-11 a.m., Friday, July 2nd, an ideal time for locals to stop by for coffee drinks. “We had a table filled with locally-grown flowers,” Muncy says. “We invited people to arrange their own bouquets or ask me to design for them. Plus, we had grab-and-go vase arrangements, jars, and hand-tied bouquets for purchase.”
The just-picked blooms reflect the American Flowers Week bounty from Emerald Design (c) Patton Photography
In planning her first floral pop-up, Muncy decided it was less about profitability and more about marketing her upcoming summer CSA subscriptions to raise awareness about local, Indiana-grown flowers. But she actually achieved all those goals. “We had an amazing response to our flower bar,” she says. “My employee and I designed non-stop until the flowers were gone. I had no expectations going into it, but I know that we will be doing this again.”
Instagram Giveaway To celebrate American Flowers Week in the Philadelphia area, Cassie Plummer, a farmer-florist from Jig-Bee Flower Farm in Philadelphia, ran an Instagram contest with flower giveaways for five winners.
A flower bundle giveaway, promoted through Jig-Bee Flower Farm’s Instagram account
“To enter, people had to like our post, follow our Instagram account (@jig-bee) and our market account (@americanstreetflowermarket), comment on the post naming their favorite flower and finally, tag a friend who might be interested in local flowers,” she explains. People who aren’t active on Instagram were asked to enter by responding to Jig-Bee’s newsletter with an email entry.
“The giveaways were actually a full bucket of flowers with a mix of focal blooms, accent flowers and foliages,” Plummer explains. “American Flowers Week is actually a slower sales week for us because it’s right before the 4th of July holiday when everyone goes to the shore, so it was fun to put together the mixes of flowers for the winners — and we gained new information by reading the comments and learning our customers’ favorite flowers.”
Hands-On Workshops
Bouquets from Titus Creek Flower Farm in LaPlata, Missouri (c) Theresa Eads
Jill Stidham of Titus Creek Flower Farm in La Plata, Missouri, grows more than 80 varieties of specialty cut flowers on a 1/2-acre parcel of her six-acre farm. She markets beautiful rose lilies that wow wholesale florists and also sells through two area farmers’ markets as well as through Titus Creek’s online shop.
Jill Stidham of Titus Creek Flower Farm incorporated the AFW theme into her first-ever design workshop, held at a local wine bar (c) Theresa Eads
In addition to using the American Flowers Week branding on wrapped market bouquets during the holiday, Jill incorporated the theme into her first design workshop, held June 29th at a local wine bar. It was her first collaboration with Sip Downtown in Kirksville and she called the workshop “Flight and Farm Fresh Florals.” Both businesses promoted the workshop through their respective newsletters. The evening included a wine flight tasting, plus hands-on design instruction, including Titus Creek’s just-picked blooms – priced at $55 per person. “This was our first time, so we capped the event at 10 people, just so I could easily instruct them,” Stidham explains. “But the shop can accommodate 80 people at a time, so there’s room to grow floral events in the future.”
Students gathered at a local wine bar where they enjoyed tastings and American Flowers Week bouquets (c) Theresa Eads
The American Flowers Week promotion gives Stidham another reason to talk with both wholesale and retail customers about where flowers come from. “People in my area did not understand that flowers were coming from South America or Israel or Africa or wherever, transported in airplane cargo holds out of water. They never gave much of a thought to it.” Stidham knows that when people experience her locally-grown flowers, they begin to notice the difference. She has plans create more local flower experiences for those customers, with the addition of 1/2-acre of lavender fields this summer for future agritourism. “When I’ve been designing what our farm is to become, I want to bring in as many different avenues as I can possibly manage.”
Botanical Couture Collaboration
Erin Schneider’s contribution to this year’s Botanical Couture series for American Flowers Week (c) Patricia Espedal, Tree People Photography
American Flowers Week’s most visible promotion opportunity requires advance planning on the part of farmer-designer teams who collaborate in the annual botanical couture collection. Since 2016, Slow Flowers has invited member-teams to showcase iconic U.S.-grown blooms, fabricated into a garment, worn by a human model and photographed as if for a fashion magazine layout.
To date, the series has included 25 ensembles featuring locally-grown flowers from Alaska and Hawaii to the central U.S. states of South Dakota and Wisconsin to Maine and New Hampshire in the northeast to South Carolina and Florida in the southeast.
By presenting flowers as fashion, photographed with editorial styling to tell a story, the American Flowers Week campaign shines a light on the talented growers and designers who are part of the Slow Flowers Movement.
Moreover, it changes what we think of flowers. No longer just a perishable item to capture a sentiment in time, perhaps the flowers, foliage, foraged botanicals, and natural elements you see in these pages will shift and expand your thinking. With flowers transformed as art or sculpture, as fashion and beauty, as a symbol of the human desire to connect with nature, there is much more to each bloom than one might imagine.
You can read about one dozen of this year’s floral fashions in Slow Flowers Journal, a digital flipbook. One of the garments began its life at Erin Schneider and Rob McClure ‘s 60-acre Hilltop Community Farm in La Valle, Wisconsin. Schneider provides her wedding and event customers a wide range of blooms, including many familiar perennials and annuals, but she is most passionate about prairie and pollinator plants, as well as native varieties not often considered for floral design.
Pollinators and native perennials inspired Erin’s design (c) Patricia Espedal, Tree People Photography
For American Flowers Week, she designed a botanical couture garment with Midwest prairie flowers and grasses, to encourage more of her customers and the florists to share a similar appreciation.
“The native plants I use in floral design and pollinator-friendly flowers are alluring to me,” Erin explains. The whimsical dress used 39 species from the farm in swirl patterns that suggest a dragonfly’s flight path and composite flower shapes: Peak-of-summer ingredients like goldenrod, Queen Anne’s Lace, native sunflower, amaranth, Joe Pye weed, wild quinine (Parthenium integrifolium), rattlesnake master, vervain, celosia, and strawflowers. Aronia and Viburnum berries, plus other pods, were used as jewelry along the neckline.
“Above all, I hoped to shed light on the value of local, sustainably-grown flowers and the resulting collaboration between land and plants, flower farm, florist, and design team to offer beauty, style, and truly unique designs for our clients and customers — all while supporting the other life forms making these flowers possible,” she says.
American Flowers Week (June 28-July 4) is an all-inclusive, virtual promotion campaign designed to engage the public, policymakers and the media in a conversation about the origins of their flowers. As an advocacy effort, the campaign coincides with America’s Independence Day on July 4th, providing florists, retailers, wholesalers and flower farmers a patriotic opportunity to promote American grown flowers.
American Flowers Week supporters can find more information and resources at americanflowersweek.com. Downloadable fact sheets, infographics, logos and social media badges are available for growers and florists to use for marketing and promotion efforts. Participants are encouraged to use the social media tag #Americanflowersweek to help spread the word about this campaign across all platforms.
One woman’s flight of imagination began by searching the New Hampshire woods for design ingredients
April Holmes is a small-scale grower, floral artist, and lifelong crafter who found herself in need of a creative distraction from chronic illness and pain. After designing smaller wearables, April was inspired to create a head-to-toe botanical ensemble for American Flowers Week. Her resulting design elevates saplings, peeled birch bark, and an abundance of faded leaves into a whimsical fantasy narrative.
Owner of April Showers Flowers, April grows her flowers on a seven-acre farm in rural Candia, outside Manchester, New Hampshire, the state’s largest city. She supplies CSA subscribers through her “Blossoming Buds Flower Club,” and creates Mandala-styled floral art, which she photographs, prints on canvas, and sells through her Etsy shop. In 2021, April plans to open a flower shack in her community to sell arrangements and her artwork, as well as gifts and herbal body products. Growing flowers to sell as art is one thing, but April also “loves to push the boundaries of creativity when working with flora,” she says.
“I started with smaller pieces like flower crowns. Then, I slowly moved to more ideas and larger concepts finding inspiration from Susan McLeary and her book The Art of Wearable Flowers,” she says. Last winter, stuck at home in New England for months on end, April was pulled by the creative muse of nature. The inspiration for her evocative woodland couture came from the forest floor: large sheets of birch bark, the edges curling back to reveal a lighter contrast to the cinnamon-colored sections.
I’ve always been attracted to birch bark. You see it on the ground; you see it peels and curls in all different shades.”
april holmes, april showers flowers
After trying a number of techniques to fashion a corset, the designer glued felt to the back of the birch panel so it wouldn’t scratch her model. Ever inventive, she used a heat gun to warm the material so the curled edge at the top of the corset would take shape. Enchanted by the shapes, faded colors, and translucence of birch and beech leaves, many still attached to the dormant trees in New England’s deciduous forest, April envisioned a flowing skirt. When she started working with the leaves, though, they quickly shattered. “I remembered seeing someone use glycerin and water to soften eucalyptus, so I tried boiling a batch of leaves in water and glycerin, and — success! — they became supple and soft.”
Once treated, the leaves were “a dream to work with,” April describes. “It made the whole process easier because I was able to chip away at the garment over a couple of months instead of working in a two-day window with fresh flowers.” Starting at the hem, she attached individual leaves, one at a time, row after row, overlapping layers of foliage to resemble oversized sequins of 1920s flapper dresses. Cold glue didn’t work as well as Fabri-Tac. “It’s clear, it holds quickly, and it stays a little bit pliable instead of getting hard like some glue,” she says. She collaborated with her frequent model, Winter Morrissey, who sewed a long, white slip dress as the base garment. Winter also stitched an overskirt to which the leaves were glued. The skirt wraps around the waist and ties in front, over the slip dress.
The incredible headpiece modeled by Winter coordinates perfectly with the all-organic vibe of a bark corset and floor-length leaf skirt. April had access to a neighboring property with thousands of birch saplings. “I harvested them to form the hair-like headpiece,” April explains. She crafted the headpiece from Warbla, a product used by cosplay artists to make armor and other contoured pieces. She attached to it a separate piece made from structural wire covered in air-dry clay into which she poked the saplings to create a hair-like mane. “Toward the top, where I wanted the ‘hair’ to fold over, I actually boiled the branches and then bent them and tied them for a few days to make the shape.” The entire look is a flight of one woman’s imagination — and it draws attention to the beauty of nature in an entirely new way. “There is so much beauty already here around us,” April says. “If you’re stuck at home, go outside and look for it. If you’re stuck in a city, go for a walk into nature. It’s so healing and even if you’re not physically healed, nature can heal emotionally.”
Creative Team: Floral Palette: Foraged and gathered woodland elements from a forest in central New Hampshire Designer: April Holmes, April Showers Flowers, aprilshowersflowersnh.com, @aprilshowers_flowers Seamstress: Winter Morrissey, @bintterr Model: Winter Morrissey Hair/Makeup: Winter Morrissey Photography: Jay Curtis, @jay.c.photo Location: Candia, New Hampshire
A farmer-florist tells the story of early spring through her camera’s lens
Owner of Warrenton, Oregon-based Erika’s Fresh Flowers, Kathleen Barber grows many of her own floral design ingredients. She also is an award-winning fine art photographer and member of the Professional Photographers Association. “I wanted to tell a story about the Pacific Northwest in early spring,” she explains. “My character is a hunter-gatherer wearing his woodsman’s apron. Daffodils are the first sign of spring here along the Oregon coast, so I used them, along with bay leaves, moss, eucalyptus bark, Douglas fir branches, and pine cones — all gathered from my garden.”
With dark green felt as the apron base, Kathleen attached her botanical ingredients with Oasis cold glue, working from the hem toward the bib. Fir branches create the apron’s “fringe.” The midsection is formed by bands of eucalyptus bark, moss dotted with tete-a-tete narcissus and overlapping bay leaves. Vibrant golden double-daffodils, around 200 in all, decorate the bib. The heirloom blooms originated from clumps Kathleen’s father dug and transplanted decades ago from spots along old Oregon logging roads.
My character is a hunter-gatherer wearing his woodsman’s apron. Daffodils are the first sign of spring here along the Oregon coast, so I used them, along with bay leaves, moss, eucalyptus bark, Douglas fir branches, and pine cones — all gathered from my garden.”
kathleen barber, erika’s fresh flowers
Kathleen’s son Robert Barber, a college student studying electrical engineering, became her willing model. She imagines that his character has returned from fishing in a mythical stream. The scene is earthy, almost Hobbit-like, styled with old-world props including a deer skull, a cleaver, reference books, and weathered candlesticks. The apron coordinates with Robert’s peasant shirt finished with durable leather cuffs and a wool cape he brought home from a trip to Germany. When Robert donned the hood, Kathleen knew her floral narrative was complete — a forest character come alive straight from the pages of a Tolkien story or a Brothers Grimm tale.
Creative Credits: Floral Palette: Daffodils and foraged woodland ingredients from Erika’s Fresh Flowers, a cutting garden in coastal Oregon Designer: Kathleen Barber, Erika’s Fresh Flowers, @erikasfreshflowers Model: Robert Barber Photographer: Kathleen Barber, Kathleen Barber Photography, kathleenbarberphoto.com, @kathleenbarberphoto Venue: Warrenton, Oregon
A luxe gown, fashioned from Johnny’s Selected Seeds’ cut flower trial grounds
For the third year, the floral team at Johnny’s Selected Seeds in Winslow, Maine, is fully embracing the spirit of American Flowers Week by sponsoring a floral fashion for our annual botanical couture collection. Hillary Alger, floral and herb product manager, and Joy Longfellow, manager of the floral trial program, have supported Slow Flowers designers in previous years, helping with the harvest and providing production. For 2020, the two floral experts were inspired to create their own floral gown.
Hillary relied on her fine arts training, and together with Joy, the duo tapped their extensive knowledge of the Zinnia genus. “We took your urging seriously, Debra — to feature one type of flower,” Hillary said. “Zinnias are Johnny’s second-most important flower crop after sunflowers and we always have a big trial plot. Not only do we love them, but we have them in abundance — enough to make something extravagant like floral fashion.”
The women spent much of last summer brainstorming. “We kept asking each other, ‘Can we do this?’ ‘Can we make it happen?’,” Hillary says. “At one point, we decided we were ‘in,’ and then Joy and I walked the fields to figure out what appealed to us. We loved the eucalyptus and Mahogany Splendor hibiscus leaves combined with zinnias for a bold, grand palette.”
Zinnias are Johnny’s second-most important flower crop after sunflowers and we always have a big trial plot. Not only do we love them, but we have them in abundance — enough to make something extravagant like floral fashion.”
hillary alger, johnny’s selected seeds
Their project began with a foundation: a bridesmaid’s dress in Joy’s closet, one that fit her well, but was unlikely to be worn again. Hillary sketched a body-flattering concept incorporating the shape of Joy’s dress and added a decadent floral bustle to trail behind. She constructed the dress in two parts, first using a fusible webbing to attach the wine-colored hibiscus and sage-green eucalyptus foliage to cloth panels for the bodice. “We needed to keep the leaves wet so they wouldn’t curl off the fabric, so we spritzed the panels and layered them between wet paper towels until it was time to attach to the dress,” Hillary explains. Volumes of fine-mesh window screening and layers of tulle netting were gathered to form the bustle — the canvas for thousands of zinnias.
After picking buckets and buckets of flowers, the Johnny’s team, including volunteer co-workers, convened at Hillary’s home to clip and glue flowers in an array of red, scarlet, rose, purple, wine and coral petals. There are 39 zinnia varieties and seed mixes in the Johnny’s catalog, with many of them represented in this luscious garment. The finished train, covered in a floral pavé, suggests draped tapestry. The team hit a snag when attaching the piece around Joy’s waist, though. “The bustle was so heavy and the skirt structure wasn’t strong enough to stay secure on Joy’s hips,” Hillary recalls. “My husband, Jon Hill, came home after work to find a shop full of flowers as we tried to solve the problem. Luckily, he is both a mechanical engineer and excellent sewer. He fashioned an industrial-strength belt-corset that fit around Joy’s waist — and it was perfect.”
Joy is more likely found wearing her favorite plaid shirt and jeans as she records and evaluates quantitative data in the flower fields. Dressing up in a zinnia gown and wearing makeup isn’t her typical “look.” “Thankfully, I have a friend who is a professional opera singer, and she was excited to give me pointers and a bunch of her makeup supplies,” Joy adds. Johnny’s staff photographer Kristen Earley documented the beautiful dress in the zinnia fields during a pre-dusk golden hour session late last summer. She captured a perfect moment to savor, when the colorful multi-petaled flowers are at their peak. For Hillary, this was much more than a project to showcase zinnias and other cut flower varieties in Johnny’s catalog. “Making a flower dress was extra special; for a lot of us at Johnny’s it was the first time we actually had done anything together since March of 2020. It was this really magical, joyful moment that only comes from doing something communal. A few people stayed on through the photo shoot, just to help and watch. They couldn’t pull themselves away. We were all on Cloud Nine.”
Creative Team:
Floral Palette: Maine-grown annual flowers and foliages from Johnny’s Selected Seeds, johnnyseeds.com, @johnnys_seeds Designer: Hillary Alger, Johnny’s Seeds Model: Joy Longfellow, Johnny’s Seeds Hair/Makeup: Joy Longfellow Photography: Kristen Earley, Johnny’s Seeds Location: Johnny’s Trial Gardens, Winslow, Maine
