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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:               Debra Prinzing
206-769-8211
debra@debraprinzing.com

SLOWFLOWERS.COM LAUNCHES AMERICAN FLOWERS WEEK
Set for June 29-July 4, 2015, Debra Prinzing’s SLOWFLOWERS.COM kicks off inaugural campaign to promote American flowers and foliage

SEATTLE, WA (June 25, 2015) – Slowflowers.com, the comprehensive online resource that connects consumers with local, seasonal and sustainable flowers, announced today the first “American Flowers Week.”

Slowflowers.com creator Debra Prinzing has organized a week-long celebration of domestic flowers to raise consumer awareness and unite America’s flower farmers with the U.S. floral industry.

“At a time when 80 percent of the flowers sold in the U.S. are imported, I believe the moment is right to focus attention on the beauty, quality, sustainability and economic impact of American-grown flowers,” she said.

Prinzing announced the project’s launch on June 24, 2015, during the one-hundredth episode of the “Slow Flowers Podcast,” which she produces and hosts. She credited as her inspiration the successful “British Flowers Week,” a similar campaign launched by London’s New Covent Garden Flower Market in 2013.

“The goal of American Flowers Week is to engage the public, policymakers and the media in a conversation about the origins of our flowers,” Prinzing said. “This advocacy effort is intentionally timed to coincide with America’s Independence Day on July 4^th, 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 a newly-launched web site – americanflowersweek.com. Downloadable fact sheets, infographics and the 2015 American Flowers Week logo are available for growers and florists to use for their own marketing and promotion efforts.

Prinzing has also created a Flickr Gallery of photography that showcases “50 States of American Grown Flowers.” Slowflowers.com member farms and florists are invited to join the group in order to upload and share images of the flowers grow and design. The group can be found at: https://www.flickr.com/groups/50statesofamericanflowers/

Participants are encouraged to use the social media hash-tag #Americanflowersweek to help spread the word about this campaign across all platforms.

“I want American Flowers Week to be accessible and inclusive for everyone in the American floral industry – for those growing and designing from Alabama to Wyoming and every state in between,” Prinzing said. “The campaign highlights the amazing diversity of domestic flowers available to the trade, to retailers and to the consumer.”

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About Debra Prinzing: Slowflowers.com founder Debra Prinzing is a Seattle-based outdoor-living expert who writes and lectures on gardens and home design. She is the leading advocate for a sustainable and local approach to floral design and is credited with popularizing the term “Slow Flowers.” Debra is the author of 10 books including Slow Flowers and The 50 Mile Bouquet (both by St. Lynn’s Press) and she is the producer/host of the weekly “Slow Flowers Podcast with Debra Prinzing,” found on ITunes and debraprinzing.com.