SLOW FLOWERS ANNOUNCES 2021 AMERICAN FLOWERS WEEK: The seventh annual celebration of domestic cut flowers
28 Friday May 2021
Written by Debra Prinzing in 50 States of American Grown Flowers, American Flowers Week 2021
Slow Flowers Society announces details for the 2021 American Flowers Week campaign, the annual celebration to promote domestic flower farming and sustainable floristry that takes place June 28-July 4, 2021.
In conjunction with the campaign, Slow Flowers Society and its publishing partner, BLOOM Imprint, will release a special digital issue of Slow Flowers Journal, available for free download on June 1st. The publication features this year’s inventive and innovative botanical couture collection of one dozen wearable floral ensembles designed with iconic American-grown botanicals.
Since 2015, Prinzing has staged a week-long celebration of domestic flowers to raise consumer awareness and unite America’s flower farmers within the U.S. floral industry, generating more than 14.5 million social media impressions on Twitter and Instagram through the power of images, ideas and values promoting American flowers.
“I created American Flowers Week in 2015 as a community-focused floral holiday that encourages participation from everyone in the floral marketplace — from flower seed and bulb producers to growers; from designers to retailers; from cutting garden enthusiasts to artists,” Prinzing explains. “It’s the original, American-grown floral holiday that stimulates interest in beauty, seasonality, local agriculture and sustainable floral design.”
Slow Flowers has again commissioned a dynamic lineup of design teams: flower farmers and florists who partnered over the course of the past year to create botanical garments.
“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,” Prinzing says. “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.”
Each look in the American Flowers Week Collection is unique to the location and season where it was produced and photographed, with design narratives that elevate flowers and foliages as works of art.
Participating Slow Flowers designer teams include:
CALIFORNIA
- Niesha Blancas, Fetching Social Media (design), with flowers provided by CamFlor Inc. (Watsonville, California)
- Jenny M. Diaz, Jenny M. Diaz Design (design), with flowers provided by CamFlor Inc. (Watsonville, California)
- Margaret Lloyd, Margaret Joan Florals (design), with flowers provided by Kilcoyne Lilac Farm (Acton, California)
- Kelly Shore, Petals by the Shore (design), with flowers provided by Resendiz Brothers Protea Growers (Fallbrook, California)
- Talia Boone, Postal Petals; Kit Wertz and Casey Schwartz, Flower Duet (design), with flowers provided by Slow Flowers Society and Flowers Without Borders (Los Angeles, California)
MAINE
- Hillary Alger, Johnny’s Selected Seeds (design), with flowers provided by Johnny’s Selected Seeds (Winslow, Maine)
NEW HAMPSHIRE
- April Holmes, April Showers Flowers (design), with foraged woodland material provided by April Showers Flowers (Candia, New Hampshire)
NEW JERSEY
- Jennifer Reed, Jennifer Designs (design), with flowers sourced from Jig-Bee Flower Farm (Kensington, Pennsylvania) and Platt’s Farm Market (Clarksboro, New Jersey)
OREGON
- Kathleen Barber, Erika’s Fresh Flowers (design), with flowers provided by Erika’s Fresh Flowers (Warrenton, Oregon)
WASHINGTON
- Carolyn Kulb, Folk Art Flowers (design), with flowers provided by PoppyStarts Inc. (Mount Vernon, Washington)
- Tammy Myers, LORA Bloom (lead designer), with flowers provided by Slow Flowers Society (Seattle, Washington) and participating florists, Anne Bradfield, Analog Floral; Maura Whalen, Casablanca Floral; Sharlet Driggs, Sharlet Floral; Lori Poliski, Flori; Sophie Strongman, The Old Soul Flower Co. and Kristal Hancock, Sublime Stems
WISCONSIN
- Erin Schneider, Hilltop Community Farm (design), with flowers provided by Hilltop Community Farm (La Valle, Wisconsin)
Images and credits for all of these looks are available at American Flowers Week Press Page (americanflowersweek.com)
MORE ABOUT AMERICAN FLOWERS WEEK
American Flowers Week 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 receives sponsorship from Farmgirl Flowers, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Longfield Gardens, Mayesh Wholesale Florist, the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers, Rooted Farmers, Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, The Gardener’s Workshop, Flowerfarm.com, FTD and BLOOM Imprint.
American Flowers Week supporters can find more information and resources at americanflowersweek.com. Downloadable fact sheets, infographics and 2021 American Flowers Week logo 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.