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American Flowers Week Rose Tutu by Teresa Sabankaya of Bonny Doon Garden Co.

27 Saturday Jan 2018

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California Pajarosa roses adorn the tutu, bodice and headpiece designed by Teresa Sabankaya for American Flowers Week 2017.

Floral Palette: California-grown hybrid tea roses, garden roses and spray roses and their seasonal companions
Designer: Teresa Sabankaya, Bonny Doon Garden Co., (Santa Cruz, CA)
www.bonnydoongardenco.com, @bonnydoongarden
Floral ingredients supplied by California Pajarosa, Watsonville, CA, and Bonny Doon Garden Co., Santa Cruz, CA

Teresa Sabankaya in the Bonny Doon Garden Co. cutting garden.

Teresa Sabankaya launched her floral business Bonny Doon Garden Co. by selling single stems, bunches and bouquets from a kiosk in downtown Santa Cruz, Calif. She often stocked the tiny shop with cuttings from her vast residential garden in the nearby hamlet of Bonny Doon, called Shangri-La by locals for its remote and stunning natural beauty.

As author Amy Stewart wrote in her groundbreaking book Flower Confidential, “Teresa Sabankaya has the kind of flower shop that you would dream about opening, if you are the kind of person who dreams of opening a flower shop . . . (it) fit with my idea of how floral commerce must work — you’d grow some flowers in your garden, you’d buy some from a farmer down the road, and you’d put them in buckets and sell them to your neighbors.”

A decade after being profiled by Stewart, Teresa is still designing and selling her signature garden-style florals throughout the greater Santa Cruz area, although today Bonny Doon Garden Co. is housed inside the coastal city’s New Leaf Community Market. As a Veriflora Certified Retail Florist, the shop assures customers the product they buy is grown in a sustainable manner, including from domestic flower farms.

“We source mainly from local organic and sustainable flower farms, thus assuring you a very fresh product,” Teresa explains on her web site’s home page. “We love to incorporate materials from our own cutting garden in Bonny Doon, too, while using the surrounding woods, meadows and vineyards as our inspiration.”

The 11-acre Sabankaya grounds are often home to styled shoots, attracting private design students and photographers alike. It serves as the ideal setting for Teresa’s American Flowers Week creation, a wearable rose tutu and headpiece to accompany her model’s pink satin corset.

With her model (and daughter) Antalia Sabankaya as her muse, Teresa selected an intense, fiesta-hued palette with roses dominating her design. The pristine hybrids, sprays and garden roses are more local than most, having been raised in sheltering greenhouses just miles away in Watsonville, where friend and flower farmer Paul Furman runs California Pajarosa Roses.

“I absolutely love his product,” Teresa raves. Her enthusiasm and commitment to green practices in her business are in alignment with the second-generation rose farmer’s decision to pursue Veriflora Certification for California Pajarosa.
“I am so impressed that Paul went through the process of switching from conventional growing to a sustainable method that allowed the farm to also become Veriflora Certified,” she says. “It can be an expensive process for growers and it’s not easy.”

While planning the rose-infused wearable floral fashion shoot for American Flowers Week, Teresa zeroed in on one of her favorites grown at Pajarosa: the ‘Alhambra’ rose. “That was my star rose,” she says. “It almost looks like a garden rose with its high petal count and the petals range from pinky peach to orange to fuchsia on the outer petals.”

Teresa wanted to design a flattering floral tutu that accentuated Antalia’s fitted pink satin corset. She researched magazines and Pinterest boards for inspiration and found a tutu made from silk flowers that got her thinking about constructing a tutu that wouldn’t collapse under the weight of real roses.

“While tulle fabric wouldn’t have worked, I found a gold mesh product from Oasis and began playing around with it,” Teresa says. She used 24-inch lengths of the mesh to shape “petals,” layering them to form a “flower” skirt. Matching gold Oasis flat wire woven through the mesh grid serves as a “belt” that fastens to Antalia’s waist.
The design begins with a tight pavé rose pattern to accentuate the tutu’s waistline. Teresa attached botanical elements with a combination of glue and gold wire, the tails of which are like little tendrils dangling from the skirt.

“The metal mesh itself isn’t that strong, but the wire edges of each petal hold their shape,” the designer explains. “As I folded the pieces, they formed a pouf here and a tip there to create the petal look I wanted.”

Teresa realized she didn’t want to complete cover the mesh with flowers, but instead allow the material to be the tulle-like element of her design. “I put something lacy toward the tips of each petal, pieris and jasmine from my garden that supplements Paul’s roses for a lacy, frilly look.”

The corresponding headpiece relates to the skirt with one distinct difference. “We had been cutting tree peonies from my garden to sell at the shop and the intense color was a perfect complement to Paul’s roses,” Teresa says. “I knew I had to add one to the headpiece.”

With the backdrop of her property’s Mediterranean-style architecture and its lush, secret garden to showcase her all-local floral couture, Teresa’s imagination plays out in the third dimension, made more special because she collaborated with family and longtime floral industry colleagues to celebrate American Flowers Week. “I want people to look at this picture, to look at those flowers, and feel the way I feel when I get to design with them,” she says.

Resources:

Model: Antalia Sabankaya
Makeup: Zachary Winer
Hair: Carly Vollers
Photography: John Kaemmerling Photography
Location: Sabankaya family garden, Bonny Doon, CA

Originally published in FLORISTS’ REVIEW | JUNE 2017 | floristsreview.com

AMERICAN-GROWN FLORAL FASHION

30 Friday Jun 2017

Posted by in American Flowers Week 2015, American Flowers Week 2016, American Flowers Week 2017, By the Numbers, Floral Design, News & Events, Resources for Farmers & Florists, Sponsors and Partners, Uncategorized

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In Year Three, American Flowers Week Salutes Iconic U.S.-Grown Flowers and Foliages with a Couture Approach

*Note: This essay originally published in Florists’ Review June 2017 edition.

Photography credits: Anna Peters, Mary Grace Long, Jillian and Ryan McGrath, John Kaemmerling

In 2015, while in London for the Chelsea Flower Show, I met with Helen Evans, one of the geniuses behind New Covent Garden Market’s successful British Flowers Week campaign (June 19-25, 2017).

The U.K.’s most important wholesale floral hub launched BFW in 2013 as a low-budget, social media-driven “annual celebration of seasonal, locally-grown flowers and foliage united the U.K. cut flower industry and sparking public and media interest in where our flowers come from.” It has become a popular and successful campaign to promote British flowers — and floral designers.

By the time we had finished sipping from our steaming mugs of tea in the Market’s employee break room, I was thinking to myself: “I should start American Flowers Week.”

Helen and her colleagues were immensely helpful and supportive. I returned to the U.S. in late May 2015 inspired by the BFW model, equipped with Helen’s suggestions and resources, and by the end of June, I introduced American Flowers Week.

The 2015 American Flowers Week Logo, designed by Jean Zaputil of Studio Z Design & Photography

It seems entirely fitting that our week coincides with Independence Day, July 4th. Not only do these dates provide a patriotic hook on which to hang AFW, the timing is perfect because there are local flowers growing on farms in all 50 U.S. states, Alaska included, in late June and early July. And, as one wholesale floral manager suggested: “It’s otherwise a down time in floral, so we love having a new event to help promote flowers.”

The initial grass-roots endeavor enjoyed 400,000 social media impressions during the 2015 campaign.

Susan McLeary of Passionflower Events created our red-white-and-blue floral ‘fro for 2016, with graphic design from Jenny Diaz

In 2016, we added beautiful collateral material, a free USA floral coloring map that participating florists and flower farmers could download and share with customers, and even red-white-and-blue stickers used by florists, flower farmers and retailers to label their AFW bouquets. Impressions on social media hit 1.3 million last year.

This year’s campaign graphic features Floral Fashion by Amy Kunkel-Patterson of Gather Design Co., photography by Anna Peters, and graphic design by Jenny Diaz — read the entire story tomorrow!

I can’t wait to see what we’ll reach for 2017. This is Day Two of American Flowers Week and we’ve already hit 2.0 million impressions on Twitter & Instagram alone! That’s radical! Love how the Slow Flowers Tribe is helping make American Flowers Week a *trending topic!

For 2017, I’ve borrowed yet another page from British Flowers Week. BFW selects five iconic U.K.-grown flowers and pairs each with a high-profile florist or design team to produce installations and vignettes. The press and online media devour these images — and of course, the publication of them creates a buzz about British flowers and the farmers and florists who supply them.

Slow Flowers, which presents AFW, has commissioned five floral-inspired fashion shoots depicting iconic American grown blooms. The designers who contributed their creativity and artistic talents teamed up with generous flower farms that donated stems straight from their fields and greenhouses.

The goal? To showcase domestic and seasonal flowers in a new and engaging way — and to show how inventiveness and ingenuity, along with American grown flowers, produce beautiful results.

These All-American floral looks would never have been possible without the support of Slow Flowers’ sponsors, including Certified American Grown, Arctic Alaska Peony Cooperative, Longfield Gardens, Syndicate Sales, Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, Johnny’s Selected Seeds and Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers.

Upcoming: For the next 5 days — through July 4th — I’ll post the story of each Floral Fashion, with insights from its designer, as well as flower farmers who provided the botanicals incorporated in each wearable style.

Healing strength from flowers, a Chapel Designer installation

07 Wednesday Jun 2017

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Parie Donaldson, floral warrior, in celebration of American Flowers Week (c) Abby Jiu Photography

Last fall, Holly Chapple was getting ready for the first Flowerstock, her festival of flowers and floral design held at Hope Flower Farm in Waterford, Virginia. We talked about the idea of her attendees coming together to design a wearable floral fashion in celebration for American Flowers Week.

Little did I realize how personal this project would become, for Holly and for the woman who served as both model and inspiration for so many of her friends and colleagues.

Holly knew I wanted to use the floral fashion project to showcase domestic flowers, the design talents of Slow Flowers members and America’s beautiful diversity in our model selection. At first, she had a particular model in mind; then she called and told me she wanted to have Parie Donaldson wear the floral creation.

Parie was diagnosed with breast cancer on July 19, 2016, and began her chemotherapy treatments about a month later. An uber-talented floral designer, owner of Amarillo, Texas-based Parie Designs, and a member of Chapel Designers, Parie had recently shared her scary news with that tight-knit community of wedding and event designers, including their founder, Holly.

Paire in her mythical pose (left); Chapel Designers adorned their friend with fresh, local, American grown flowers. (c) Abby Jiu Photography

Holly invited Parie to attend Flowerstock as her guest, and she wanted her friend to experience restorative time on the Virginia farm, surrounded by the supportive floral community. “We all knew she was coming to Flowerstock before returning to Amarillo for a double-mastectomy,” Holly told me. “And I knew you wanted to have unique models and real people, so it felt right to design with Parie as our model.”

By the time everyone arrived at Hope Flower Farm for Flowerstock (October 17-18, 2016), Holly had already imagined the theme of “rebirth,” picturing Parie emerging out of flames into flowers.

The huge stone fire pit at Hope seemed like the perfect setting for the undertaking. With several design instructors and attendees lending support, the team draped Parie in sheer, diaphanous fabric and began to “flower” her. She stood at the center of the fire pit, regal, mythical and strong, as new and old friends adorned her head, shoulders and body. She held a piece of foraged bark, which Holly says a few designers dragged back to Hope Farm from a nearby vineyard. It somehow morphed into a botanical scepter, part of the imaginary storyline of Parie as warrior-goddess.

“This was a gift to me from Holly, and it was pretty significant,” Parie recalls now. “The amount of physical support, monetary support . . . it’s the stuff that brings me to my knees. It was overwhelming.”

Filled with flame-hued dahlias and other blooms, the fire pit symbolized a rebirth for Parie. (c) Abby Jiu Photography

Dahlias, amaranth, roses and other flowers — from Hope Farm and farms across the U.S. — embellished Parie and her scepter. More were used to symbolize flames in the fire pit.

For her part, Parie remembers the emotions more than the actual experience. “I was really raw. My psyche was raw at that point; my hair was gone. I was about to lose my boobs. I was physically weak, mentally weak, mentally raw — it was very unlike how I usually am as a confident, take-charge leader.”

Going to Flowerstock and being surrounded by a supportive community was a positive act, Parie says. “It was oddly comforting that I could absolutely let go while I was there. It was very loving and comforting that these women and men were completely taking care of me. It was certainly physical; it felt like an age-old ritual of laying hands on me. Pretty powerful.”

Strength in community, with flowers as her muse, Parie Donaldson (c) Abby Jiu Photography

Holly had imagined Parie emerging, phoenix-like, from a fire. For her part, Parie held onto a similarly potent image during her cancer treatment. “My visual for working through this was a Joan of Arc type figure. I imagined I had a suit of armor and on each of the scales on that armor appeared the name of all the other women who had gone before me, especially those I knew through my past support of the Susan G. Komen Foundation in my community. I told Holly about it, and the visual of a warrior became real when everyone started grabbing flowers to place on my head and body.”

After finishing and photographing Parie, the group placed leftover flowers in the pit and built a campfire that burned for two days, through daytime and night. “We are a very close-knit group and for all of us to be part of that and to work on the installation was very healing,” Holly says

Nature comes full circle, with the charred Amaranth seeds re-sprouting in the same place where Parie once stood (c) Holly Chapple via Instagram

Fast-forward to June 2017 and the seeds of once-burned amaranth stalks have begun to re-sprout in that very fire pit, appropriately bringing new life to Hope Farm. Parie has gone through five surgeries and radiation treatment and is getting ready for her final breast reconstruction surgery later this month.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been happier doing what I’m doing in my life,” Parie says. “Cancer will change your life. It puts things into perspective, especially how you choose to spend your time and energy. Being in flowers has changed my life. It has always been a comfort zone for me, but it is more so now.”

Details:

Check out our story of how Parie Design celebrated American Flowers Week in 2016.

Check out all the details about the October 9-10, 2017 Flowerstock here. Slow Flowers will be participating with Debra Prinzing as a speaker.

Holly thanks the following flower farms and growers for their donations to this project: Hope Flower Farm, Harmony Harvest Farm, Green Stone Fields, Don’s Dahlias, Peterkort Roses, Delaware Valley Floral Group.

Waving the Flower Flag

20 Tuesday Dec 2016

Posted by in Floral Design, Promotional Ideas, Sponsors and Partners, Uncategorized

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Imagine: An 8-foot-tall by 12-foot-wide floral flag! All photos courtesy Certified American Grown.

Imagine: An 8-foot-tall by 12-foot-wide floral flag! All photos courtesy Certified American Grown.

Something pretty amazing took place a few months ago when the Wholesale Florist & Floral Supplier Association (also known as WFFSA) conference was held in Miami.

As attendees from around the world walked into the Miami Airport & Convention Center, they were greeted by an 8-by-12 foot “Stars and Stripes” flag fabricated out of approximately 10,000 stems of foliage and flowers.

Christy Hulsey, of Colonia House of Flowers, with her creation.

Christy Hulsey, of Colonia House of Flowers, with her creation, including red pine-cone ginger lilies from her grandmother’s garden in Georgia.

Designed by Slowflowers.com member Christy Hulsey of Colonial House of Flowers, the amazing, three-dimensional installation was impossible to ignore. “It stood proudly in the lobby of the conference registration area for all to see and it was a beautiful piece, enjoyed by many people who took their picture with it throughout the week,” says Kasey Cronquist, administrator of Certified American Grown Flowers, who envisioned the giant floral flag, invited Christy to produce it and recruited numerous flower farms to contribute thousands of flowers and foliage stems for its construction.

Details, Details, all 10,000 of them!

Details, Details, all 10,000 of them!

While this story has nothing specific to do with American Flowers Week, I want to share Christy’s story of passion, commitment to her family and community, and love of American flowers. This is a story of total sacrifice and it shouldn’t go unrecognized.

PLUS, I think you’ll draw inspiration as you plan your own over-the-top way to celebrate American Flowers Week 2017! You just might want to build your own FLORAL FLAG!

ALL AMERICAN INSPIRATION

There’s nothing more near and dear to me than American flowers,” Christy says. “It was such an honor to create this piece.

The larger-than-life botanical endeavor came together with ingenuity and sheer determination, the type of superhuman skills required of a designer like Christy who is used to executing large-scale weddings and events for her south Georgia-based floral business. “This project came together in less than four weeks. We had to build it on-site in a very short period of time.”

Keeping everything fresh and fantastic!

Keeping everything fresh and fantastic!

Christy credits fellow Chapel Designer Lisa Thorne of Thorne & Thistles in Auburn, Alabama, for helping her with the conceptual design. “Lisa created the original outline for the wall. She drew this! Out of the goodness of her heart. No compensation. No credit. She just did it! And she also created the flower recipe,” Christy says. “Without being asked, Lisa just took the ball and ran. She spent so many hours working on this project . . . and thank goodness.”
[Note: This help was so essential to Christy because at the time, her home town had been hit by a fall hurricane and she was without electricity and certainly didn’t have access to the Internet.]

Christy’s husband Brian Hulsey, who has extensive carpentry and electrical training, lent hours of his construction talents, as well as financial support for supplies. “It’s amazing that we were able to make this happen,” she says.

This side view gives a sense of the flag-wall's depth and dimension

This side view gives a sense of the flag-wall’s depth and dimension

The structure’s plywood base was constructed to look like a flag billowing in the wind. It was so large that once Brian finished, Christy had to rent a cargo van to transport it more than 500 miles to Miami. Erected on site, the base was stabilized with a pulley system attached to the back of the wall. Four buckets filled with 100-pound sandbags were hooked to the pulleys as counterweights.

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How to Throw a Farmer-Florist Party

04 Sunday Dec 2016

Posted by in American Flowers Week 2016, Floral Design, News & Events, Promotional Ideas, Resources for Farmers & Florists, Uncategorized

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Farmers and Florists in Greenville, South Carolina, came together to celebrate local flowers for American Flowers Week 2016 (c) Angela Zion Photography

Farmers and Florists in Greenville, South Carolina, came together to celebrate local flowers for American Flowers Week 2016 (c) Angela Zion Photography

If you’re like me, planning for 2017 is top-of-mind these days. And it’s not too early to begin your American Flowers Week 2017 promotional prep!

Here’s some inspiration to get you started. I’ve been wanting to share the story of SC Upstate Flowers, a group of creative and motivated flower farmers who are staking a claim for Slow Flowers in their community. They planned a fun, festive, floral — and affordable — promotional event that was a huge success.

Meet Melissa Smith, Fraylick Farm (c) Angela Zion

Meet Melissa Smith, Fraylick Farm (c) Angela Zion

The goal? To use the occasion of American Flowers Week to introduce themselves and their beautiful, local blooms to their hometown florists.

Flower farmer and Slowflowers.com member Melissa Smith of Fraylick Farm knew that American Flowers Week 2016 (June 28-July 4) was coming up after reading about it in Slowflowers.com newsletters.

“I thought, ‘we need to do something with this — this is a good opportunity,'” she explained. The idea of a “Farmer-Florist Party” took on a life of its own when Suzie Bunn of Statice Floral offered to hold the party in her Greenville studio.

Gorgeous, natural light fills The Station, where florist Suzie Bunn and her business Statice Floral are based.

Gorgeous, natural light fills The Station, where florist Suzie Bunn and her business Statice Floral are based.

“The Station,” where Suzie’s design studio is housed, is actually an old gas station converted into a multi-artist commercial space. In addition to a printmaker, two photographers work here, including Angela Zion, who offered to capture the Farmer-Florist Party on film. She has generously shared some of those images with us here.

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American Flowers Week inspires one designer’s styled shoot

29 Thursday Sep 2016

Posted by in American Flowers Week 2016, Floral Design, Promotional Ideas, Uncategorized

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Parie Design's all-American and local backyard farm-to-table dinner (c) Mallory Morgan Creative

Parie Design’s all-American and local backyard farm-to-table dinner (c) Mallory Morgan Creative

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Parie Donaldson, CEO of Parie Designs in Amarillo, Texas, learned about American Flowers Week from our social media posts and from her fellow Chapel Designer, Kansas City-based Andrea K. Grist of Andrea K. Grist Floral Design.

But rather than just posting a floral image on her Instagram feed, Parie and her team took American Flowers Week to new levels. They created a styled shoot, called “BACKYARD FARM TO TABLE DINNER PARTY,” and submitted the photos to a favorite style blog: Inspired by This.

As floral designers, this group of gals was excited to host a beautiful backyard farm to table dinner party. Not only did we find out about American Flowers Week, but also gathered such fresh and fun inspiration for parties of our own! It doesn’t get much better than farm fresh food and even fresher cut flowers. (The charcuterie board will make your mouth water!) Parie Designs put themselves in charge of planning (and styling) this soiree at a super cool venue – The Bowery Warehouse. They’re sharing their favorite parts with us here.

We were thrilled to have a small dinner party in honor of American Flowers Week just a few weeks ago! We get to spend so much time designing beautiful florals from Holland and other faraway places, which we love, but we jumped at the opportunity to cut some of our blooms from our own backyards and enjoy an evening together complete with yummy cocktails, delicious food and good company.

2upYou can see the entire story here.

I recently scheduled a phone date with Parie to learn about her charming American Flowers Week-styled shoot. Here’s an excerpt:

AFW: I’m curious about your “styled shoots”? Why do you invest time and resources to create them?

PD: We do four to six a year. I’m so lucky that we now have an amazing photographer on staff — Mallory Morgan Henderson. She’s our new floral designer, but she’s also a photographer. It seems like every shoot or wedding I’ve done with Mallory has been published. She’s smart, savvy and spectacular. Now we can say: “Let’s do a shoot,” and we can come up with the plan, thanks to Mallory.

gardenparty30of32AFW: What inspired the Backyard Farm to Table Dinner Party?

PD: I’ve been back in Amarillo for more than 20 years after living in and beginning my floral career in Seattle. In that time, I’ve literally only known of three farms that grow flowers. We’re surrounded here by farms where cattle, sourghum and corn are raised, but there’s nobody here growing flowers anymore. For some time, there was an amazing woman who had the most fabulous peonies growing on an acre or two — I would try to take every peony she had.

So instead, for this shoot, we sourced produce from the one local organic food farmer and then we cut everything out of my garden and our team member’s gardens (for the decor).

AFW: I love how casual and elegant you made things look. Very luxe and comfortable at the same time!

PD: Thanks! This became our employee photo shoot. We made the beautiful dinner ourselves, we imbibed, we ate, we enjoyed the evening, we took pictures.

AFW: How did you learn about American Flowers Week and decide to get involved?

PD: I knew about it because I’m a Chapel Designer. I’m watching everything go on — I’ve really been trying to get to one of those Field to Vase DInners, too.

AFW: Do you think you’ll ever grow your own flowers just to be able to design with more seasonal, local and American grown botanicals?

PD: You know, across from The Bowery, our event space, we own this huge lot. It’s mainly used for parking but I look at it every day and I find myself thinking: “How could I get water to it?” I’m sure there’s space to grow some flowers there.

AFW: Thank you, Parie! It has been great learning from you and I can’t wait to see what you come up with for American Flowers Week 2017!

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Favorite Moments: American Flowers Week 2016

16 Saturday Jul 2016

Posted by in 50 States of American Grown Flowers, American Flowers Week 2016, Floral Design, News & Events, Promotional Ideas, Resources for Farmers & Florists, Uncategorized

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SLOW FLOWERS SUCCESS!

American Flowers Week on display at Seattle's Ballard Market, part of the Town & Country Markets chain.

American Flowers Week on display at Seattle’s Ballard Market, part of the Town & Country Markets chain.

It’s no exaggeration to say that American Flowers Week was a big success.

Pisarcick

Beautiful! Pisarcik Greenhouse & Flower Farm in Pittsburg posted this red-white-and-blue floral image to celebrate American Flowers week

By one measure, the 2016 celebration exceeded last year’s by three times the engagement — from 410,000 impressions on Instagram and Twitter in 2015 to 1.3 million impressions for this year.

And that’s not counting the Facebook posts, the blogs and news articles, the promotions at grocery and the amazing support from the Slow Flowers Community.

TheFarmersFlorist2A fun #americanflowersweek campaign from The Farmer’s Florist and Confetti Queen in Nashville.

We couldn’t be happier: A simple, week-long celebration of domestic and local flowers may seem simple, but it brought alot of attention to the American-grown cause. 

FTD rediscovered its roots and gave #americanflowersweek a shoutout!

FTD rediscovered its roots and gave #americanflowersweek a shoutout!

Johnny's Seeds took to social media to promote #americanflowersweek

Johnny’s Seeds took to social media to promote #americanflowersweek

Thank you to everyone who participated:

Flower Farmers promoted their floral customers; Florists promoted their favorite farmers. Everyone benefitted by shining the light on the American Grown floral community.

LauraLee Symes of Sellwood Flower Co. in Portland posted this Instagram moment of her American Flowers Week workshop

LauraLee Symes of Sellwood Flower Co. in Portland posted this Instagram moment of her American Flowers Week workshop

Unbeknownst to us, at least one Whole Foods store in the Baltimore created their on American Flowers Week promotion

Unbeknown to us, at least one Whole Foods store in the Baltimore created their on American Flowers Week promotion

A sweet, fragrant and beautiful time was had by all! As the momentum grows for American Flowers Week, we’re already collecting ideas for 2017. Your suggestions and ideas are welcome! Email info@slowflowers.com to share yours.

Before I sign off, I have to post my FAVORITE Flower Farmer Moments from American Flowers Week. They are simply beyond compare and you’ll love them:

Slow Flowers member Hedda Brorstrom of Full Bloom Farm outside Sebastopol created the cutest American Flowers Week flower bra!

Slow Flowers member Hedda Brorstrom of Full Bloom Farm near Sebastopol created the cutest American Flowers Week flower bra!

Slow Flowers member Dennis Westphall, one half of Jello Mold Farm, took inspiration from the film "American Beauty," and posed 'au naturele' in a bath of his Cafe au Lait dahlias. Wow.

Slow Flowers member Dennis Westphall, one half of Jello Mold Farm, took inspiration from the film “American Beauty,” and posed ‘au naturele’ in a bath tub filled with Cafe au Lait dahlias. Wow.

The Pabody family created a fantastic Instagram mosaic to celebrate #americanflowersweek

The Pabody family of Triple Wren Farm created a fantastic Instagram mosaic to celebrate #americanflowersweek

00507_DP_Canada_Badge-01P.S. With Canada Day occurring each year on July 1st, we’d like to launch #canadianflowersweek to help our Slowflowers.com members in Canada promote domestic flowers.

Get in touch if you’re interesting in serving on a planning committee for that campaign.

American Flowers Week 2016 — By the Numbers

09 Saturday Jul 2016

Posted by in American Flowers Week 2016, By the Numbers, News & Events, Uncategorized

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Here's a 30-day snapshot of the #americanflowersweek activity on Instagram and Twitter alone.

Here’s a 30-day snapshot of the #americanflowersweek activity on Instagram and Twitter alone.

The excitement of American Flowers Week is starting to die down and yet we’re still collecting photographs and posts of engagement for the 2nd annual celebration of local and domestic flowers!

The numbers shown above are just part of the story because we can’t reliably track Facebook or conventional media mentions. However as a snapshot of activity, the Keyhole.co chart is significant when compared to the same period in 2015. One year ago, we had 410,000 potential impressions for #americanflowersweek. This year, the total potential is more than three times the prior year’s impressions. From 410k to 1.3 million!

Thank you to our four financial sponsors: Certified American Grown, Syndicate Sales, Longfield Gardens and Mayesh Wholesale.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to write a tweet, share a photo, add a sticker to a bouquet, create an unique display, compose blog posts, teach a workshop, send out a press release, appear on local media, author a column or new story, donate flowers and prizes, and generally get behind this wonderful campaign.

I’ll be posting more insights in the coming days, and introducing many of the active and influential #americanflowersweek participants.

And then . . . we’ll begin the planning for 2017! I’ll be surveying Slowflowers.com members for input and suggestions. There is so much potential and we’re just getting started!

American Flowers Week prizewinners

06 Wednesday Jul 2016

Posted by in 50 States of American Grown Flowers, American Flowers Week 2016, News & Events, Uncategorized

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That's a Wrap! Thank you to everyone who participated in American Flowers Week 2016!

That’s a Wrap! Thank you to everyone who participated in American Flowers Week 2016! (c) Amanda Dumouchelle

The 2nd annual American Flowers Week is a wrap, folks! So many of you participated this year and we’ve calculated a 250% increase in social media engagement over 2015. That’s seriously impressive!

Later this week I’ll post more on our “American Flowers Week by the Numbers,” but for today, I want to announce our winners and thank our sponsors.

We noted more than 1,080 #americanflowersweek posts on Instagram and that’s not counting shares and reposts! A total of 111 of you designed and posted American Flowers Week bouquets for our “50 States of American Flowers” gallery. Not every state was represented, but flower farmers and floral designers from 33 states did participate — that’s pretty awesome!

Here are the winners from our random drawing. You’ll be connected with the prize donor by email with more details:

From Mayesh Wholesale: Five $100 gift certificates for buying beautiful, local and American-grown Flowers!

The winners are: Maple Flower Farm of Vermont (Liz Kreig); Erika’s Fresh Flowers of Oregon (Kathleen Barber); Pot & Box of Michigan (Lisa Waud); Daniele Alion Strawn of California; and Flower Duet of California (Kit Wertz and Casey Schwartz) CONGRATULATIONS!!!

From Syndicate Sales: Three $100 shopping sprees for American Made glass vases and other accessories!

The winners are: Crowley House of Oregon (Beth Syphers), Wildcraft Flowers of Georgia (Carroll Candler) and The Flower Peddler of New Jersey (Bethany Bernard-Vohringer) CONGRATULATIONS!!!

From Longfield Gardens: Two $50 gift certificates for bulbs and plants!

The winners are: Bonny Doon Garden Co. of California (Dawn Mayer) and Ballard Market of Washington (Kristen Parris and staff) CONGRATULATIONS!!!

From Certified American Grown & Slowflowers.com: Five “Swag Bags” from the 2016 Field to Vase Dinner tour, which each American-made tote bag including a signed set of Debra Prinzing’s books, “The 50 Mile Bouquet” and “Slow Flowers.”

The winners are: Mountain Road Flower Farm of Massachusetts; Morningsong Farmer of Washington (Janelle McCrackin); Lollie Fleur of Washington (Kim Richards); Five Forks Farm of Massachusetts; and Emerald Petals of Oregon (Hilary Holmes) CONGRATULATIONS!!!

From Slow Flowers member Scenic Place Peonies: One box of 20 beautiful and fresh Alaska-grown peonies shipped to you! More details here.

The winner is: Full Bloom Farm of California (Hedda Brorstrom) CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Check out the entire gallery of bouquets and blooms here!

American Flowers Week teams with Grocery Store Floral Departments

04 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by in American Flowers Week 2016, Floral Design, News & Events, Promotional Ideas, Uncategorized

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Hand-lettered chalk signs announce American Flowers Week at New Seasons Market in Portland

Hand-lettered chalk signs announce American Flowers Week at New Seasons Market in Portland

Love the message: Loud and Clear!

Love the message: Loud and Clear!

Just inside the entrance, this display greets customers of New Seasons' Arbor Lodge store in Portland.

Just inside the entrance, this display greets customers of New Seasons’ Arbor Lodge store in Portland.

00536_AFW_Bouquet_Label_Colors-page-001Thanks to suggestions from my flower farmer friends who sell to two of the Pacific Northwest’s most popular grocery chains, American Flowers Week took center stage in this region’s floral departments at Town & Country Markets and New Seasons Markets. 

The chains adopted American Flowers Week as a vehicle to sell and promote locally-grown flowers during the Independence Day holiday week and incorporated our unique American Flowers Week label to alert their consumers about the origin of the flowers on display. In-store signage unique to each chain’s brand and staff members empowered to “own” the message with personality and creativity really paid off.

I hit the road early in the American Flowers Week campaign to see the creativity for myself and the “Buy Local Flowers” message at these stores came through strong and successful. Here are some of the highlights:

Town & Country Markets Inc. is a regional, locally-owned and operated independent grocery company founded in 1957 and based in the Seattle area and participated with American Flowers Week signage and bouquets throughout its six-store chain.

Town & Country on Bainbridge Island's gorgeous local flowers display for American Flowers Week

Town & Country on Bainbridge Island’s gorgeous local flowers display for American Flowers Week

Tags appear on bouquets large and small to alert customers about the origins of each flower.

Tags appear on Town & Country/Central Market bouquets large and small to alert customers about the origins of each flower.

New Seasons Market is a Portland-based West Coast neighborhood grocery with 18 stores in three states and showcased flower bunches, bouquets and mason jar arrangements from Northwest and California farms.

New Seasons’ floral manager Katie McConahay (right) with flower farmre Bethany Little (second from right) and team members Alaina and Guen (manager) at the Arbor Lodge neighborhood store in Portland.

New Seasons’ floral manager Katie McConahay (right) with flower farmer Bethany Little (second from right) and team members Alaina and Guen (manager) at the Arbor Lodge neighborhood store in Portland.

On Wednesday, June 29th, I headed to Portland bright and early to see the floral design entries for the Oregon Flower Growers Association’s American Flowers Week celebration (more on that cool program later this week).

There, I met up with flower farmer Bethany Little of Charles Little & Co., a Slowflowers.com member and a Certified American Grown farm. I love how they took the initiative to do something special and stimulate floral consumption during the week of July 4th! The idea has inspired me to work on similar efforts across the U.S. and has laid the groundwork for even more grocery promotions in 2017.

Katie McConahay (floral buyer) and Bethany Little of Charles Little & Co.

Katie McConahay (floral buyer) and Bethany Little of Charles Little & Co.

It was Bethany who called me about six weeks ago and suggested that I develop a bouquet label that flower farmers could use on their grocery and market bouquets. She and her husband Charles Little (past guest of the Slow Flowers Podcast) sparked the idea and also pitched it to Katie McConahay, New Seasons Market floral buyer.

Certified American Grown Red-white-and-blue mason jars on sale for $12.99 at New Seasons. The bouquet featured red and white dahlias and gerberas with blue delhiniums.

Certified American Grown Red-white-and-blue mason jars on sale for $12.99 at New Seasons. The bouquet featured red and white dahlias and gerberas with blue delhiniums.

We headed over to a nearby New Seasons Market in Portland’s Arbor Lodge neighborhood where buyer Katie and store floral manager Guen Armstrong showed off the signage, product selection and product labeling for American Flowers Week. Katie has a reputation for consistenly supporting Northwest and California flower farms throughout the year. She discussed this philosophy on a past episode of the Slow Flowers Podcast, which you can find here.

A huge variety of Northwest-grown mixed bouquets labeled with "American Flowers Week" at New Seasons Market.

A huge variety of Northwest-grown mixed bouquets labeled with “American Flowers Week” at New Seasons Market.

From the hand-lettered chalkboard signage to the adorable mason-jars filled with red-white-and-blue California flowers, to the abundant and lush mixed bouquets from farms like Charles Little & Co., Rain Drop Farms and other NW flower farms, the message was clear: We Love Local. New Seasons also promoted American Flowers Week it is weekly circular and online. Check out these photos of my visit — I was blown away by the way New Seasons highlighted American Flowers Week!

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