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

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Tag Archives: Dennis Westphall

Red, White & Bloom: Flowers Fill the Stage at SWGMC

28 Friday Jun 2019

Posted by Debra Prinzing in American Flowers Week 2019, News & Events, Promotional Ideas, Sponsors and Partners, Uncategorized

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Camflor, Charmaine Butcher, Dennis Westphall, Emily Ellen Anderson, floral mural, Floral Stage, Floral Theatre, Flower Costumes, Jello Mold Farm, Josephine Rice, Katy Beene, Keita Horn, Laura Ridenour, Liz Gusarson, Lola Creative, Melanie Cherry, Mister Mold, Molly Sadowsky, Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, Smashing Petals, Suzanne Carson, Town & Country Markets, Washington Flowers Project, Washington State Farm Bureau, WSDA

Amerian Flowers Week Floral installation Seattle Wholesale Growers Market
Amerian Flowers Week Floral installation Seattle Wholesale Growers Market; this and all images (c) Missy Palacol Photography

The fifth annual American Flowers Week celebration kicks off today, June 28th and runs through July 4th. You’re invited to join the party and share your beautiful flowers — local, seasonal and grown close to home.

Here is some inspiration for you: Nine Ways to Participate in American Flowers Week.

designers
A few of our design volunteers posed with Debra Prinzing in front of their floral creation. From left: Sandy Figel, Francie Romano, Carolyn Kulb, Emily Ellen Anderson, Debra Prinzing and Suzann Carson

Speaking of closer to home, here at Slow Flowers headquarters in Seattle, we were motivated to create a large-scale floral installation to commemorate locally-grown Washington flowers.

Thanks to a fabulous group of volunteer designers and generous support from Washington State Farm Bureau, Seattle Wholesale Growers Market and Camflor, the week of local flowers took a theatrical turn worthy of the Broadway stage.

SWGMC’s Alana Roper shows her reaction to the beautiful floral draperies.

A group of talented floral designers, retail florists and farmer-florists joined together to produce the installation. We transformed the 10-by-10 foot loading dock at SWGMC into a theatrical floral stage, complete with lavish botanical draperies and a marquee banner reading “American Flowers Week” (more on that below).

On Tuesday afternoon volunteer Slow Flowers member designers threaded more than 2,000 flower heads onto 15-foot-long lei-like strands. A festive — “it takes a village” — spirit of collaboration filled the workroom as these women, many of whom had not previously met, each shared stories of their floral journey, as well as personal insights into finding balance as creatives and entrepreneurs. Gathered around a table while threading long needles through freshly-cut flower heads onto bullion wire . . . it felt like a modern-day quilting bee. Great connections while making something beautiful together.

Anne Bradfield of Floressence Designs (left) with Seattle mural artist Josie Rice. Josie not only embellished the exterior of SWGMC, she designed this year’s American Flowers Week campaign branding!

We loved the palette: white, cream, pink coral, lavender and maroon blooms, generously donated by the Market and its member growers. The color choice was a nod to red-and-white stripes of the U.S. flag while also blending nicely with the Josie Rice floral mural that covers the entire surface of the Market, including around the loading dock opening. Keita Horn of Smashing Petals designed two beautiful, tapestry-like floral tiebacks using nigella, scabiosa, delphinium and sea holly, among other blue-petaled options.

Suzanne Carson’s lapels say it all!

We also utilized several sections of greenery garlands, custom-made by Camflor, a California flower farm and Slow Flowers member. The texture and density of the eucalyptus and grevillea garlands added lots of volume and interest to the floral strands.

Early Wednesday morning, we installed the floral draperies from the lip of the roll-up loading dock door. S-hooks and zip-ties were perfect mechanics to engineer the scheme. A time crunch before the market opened to buyers at 6 a.m. kept everyone focused. As soon as the garlands and floral strands were in pace, Emily Ellen Anderson of Lola Creative her assistant Alana Crawley climbed ladders to install a fabulous bunting-style banner that spanned the opening of the loading dock declaring: AMERICAN FLOWERS WEEK.

The banner, designed by Emily Ellen Anderson of Lola Creative, features F L O W E R S spelled out in red buds and petals.

Our favorite part: the F L O W E R S part is spelled out in red spray roses, dianthus and other tiny flower heads.

Thank you to everyone who attended. For those of you who missed the festivities, please enjoy the party virtually, through Missy Palacol’s lens (thank YOU, Missy!).

Other thanks are as follows:

Charmaine (as dancing pansy) and Dennis aka Mister.Mold.

Dennis Westphall, Jello Mold Farm and @mister.mold, for sharing his music and his fun floral costumes!

Charmaine Butcher, SWGMC Marketing Coordinator, and Alana Ropper for performing and dancing to Dennis’s music while masquerading as a Pansy and Daffodil, respectively.

Molly Sadowsky, Katy Beene and Liz Gusarson of the SWGMC team for keeping us supplied with flowers, foliage, borrowed ladders, borrowed, tools, carts, storage space and so much more.

Designers:
Floral director Melanie Cherry and her team from Town & Country Markets, including Sarah Clark (Bainbridge Island T&C), Brenda King and Robin Alex (Central Market Shoreline).
Francie Romano, Francie Flower
Karen McIntosh, Flowers by Karen
Anne Bradfield, Floressence Design
Tammy Myers, First & Bloom and Lora Bloom
Carolyn Kulb, Folk Art Flowers
Keita Horn, Smashing Petals
Suzanne Carson, Washington Farm Bureau
Laura Ridenour, Washington State Department of Agriculture
Sandy Figel, Verbena Floral Seattle
Emily Ellen Anderson, Lola Creative
Alana Crawley, Lola Creative

More Thanks:
Lainie Kertesz, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, who brought flower seed giveaways and cut flower resources
Erin Murphy, Tilth Alliance, for sharing resources on organic farming and farm tours
Suzanne Carson and Laura Ridenour who just kicked off the Washington Flowers Project in conjunction with American Flowers Week and lent major support and enthusiasm for the installation and party.
Jessica Lutovsky, Must Love Frosting, for her fantastic and delicious cookie artistry

Promote Your Flowers This Summer with American Flowers Week

08 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by Debra Prinzing in American Flowers Week 2017, News & Events, Promotional Ideas, Resources for Farmers & Florists

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Andrew Mefferd, Christie Tarleton, Dennis Westphall, Fraylick Farm, Full Bloom Flower Farm, Growing for Market, Hedda Brorstrom, Hillary Alger, Hudson Valley Flower Growers Network, Jello Mold Farm, Johnny's Selected Seeds, Marybeth Wehrung, Melissa Smith, Sarah Pabody, SC Upstate Flowers, Stars of the Meadow, The Farmer's Florist, Triple Wren Farms

PDFJune2017Growing for Market is the leading publication for market farmers who grow food AND flowers to sell via retail and wholesale channels.

We’re so excited that editor/publisher Andrew Mefferd invited Slow Flowers’ Debra Prinzing to contribute a story about American Flowers Week in the current June issue.

We hope it inspires his readers to join this pro-local-flowers campaign!

The message:

Join this cost-effective social media campaign to promote your locally-grown blooms

The story begins this way:

American-grown flowers are worth celebrating, so I figured they needed their own holiday. It’s called American Flowers Week. And what better time of year than July 4th, Independence Day, to plan the festivities? For the third consecutive year, American Flowers Week (June 28-July 4) gives flower farmers and their customers endless good reasons for promoting homegrown botanicals.

I come from the world of media, and I know how important having an answer to the “why now?” question can be when persuading writers and editors that a story is timely or relevant. If the news generated by last year’s AFW campaign is any indication, there is indeed media interest in featuring American-grown flowers in newspapers, magazines and blogs, and even on television. Hey, it’s newsworthy!

Special thanks to everyone who shared their support and past experiences for the story, including:

Hillary Alger, Johnny’s Selected Seeds

Melissa Smith, Fraylick Farm and SC Upstate Flowers

Marybeth Wehrung, Stars of the Meadow and Hudson Valley Flower Growers Network

Christie Tarleton, The Farmer’s Florist

Dennis Westphall, Jello Mold Farm

Hedda Brorstrom, Full Bloom Flower Farm

Sarah Pabody, Triple Wren Farms

Click here to read a PDF of the Article/June 2017

Click here to subscribe to Growing for Market

Star-Spangled American Flowers

02 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by Debra Prinzing in American Flowers Week 2015, Uncategorized

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All My Thyme, blue hydrangeas, Dawn Severin, Dennis Westphall, Diane Szukovathy, feverfew, gooseneck loosestrife, Jean Zaputil, Jello Mold Farm, raspberry foliage, red yarrow Paprika, red-and-white ribbon

americanflowersweek_striped_ribbon

Love showing off my garden's best hydrangeas for American Flowers Week!

Love showing off my garden’s best hydrangeas for American Flowers Week!

July has arrived and American Flowers Week is in full swing! Hundreds of posts featuring the flowers and foliage grown here in the U.S.A. on domestic farms are appearing across social media — as so many proudly share their homegrown blooms.

We’ll compile a summary of these amazing “shares” at week’s end.

Suffice it to say, I’m overwhelmed with the level of participation for such a grassroots project.

From Farms to Wholesalers; from Design Studios to Grocery Floral Departments – it’s inspiring to see that so many fans of American Grown Flowers are taking photos of their local and seasonal blooms and tagging those images with #americanflowersweek to show allegiance to American Grown Flowers.

I’m waving the Thank You flag to each and every one of you!

A child's table, painted delphinium blue by a vintage dealer, is my perfect podium for this bouquet.

A child’s table, painted Delphinium blue by a vintage dealer, is my perfect podium for this bouquet.

Hydrangeas, light and dark blue; red yarrow; white feverfew; white gooseneck loosestrife; and green raspberry foliage add up to a star-spangled bouquet.

Hydrangeas, light and dark blue; red yarrow; white feverfew; white gooseneck loosestrife; and green raspberry foliage add up to a star-spangled bouquet.

Even though I had a major lens failure on my camera this week — the worst possible week to be without my camera — I was determined to share today’s bouquet with you.

Thankfully, between iPhone shots and a borrowed point-and-shoot, I captured the essence of a red-white-and-blue hand-tied bouquet that I created earlier today.

The dark and light blue-toned hydrangeas are straight from my Seattle garden.

I cut them late last night and left them outdoors in a bucket of water to cool off until dawn. It has been in the mid-80s this week, so hydrangeas aren’t wildly happy about the climate. But that overnight soak was ideal to revive these lovelies.

A couple of my local flower farmer friends grew the other patriotic-hued ingredients in this bouquet:

From All My Thyme (flower farmer Dawn Severin), red yarrow and white feverfew – both cheerfully yellow centered.

From Jello Mold Farm (flower farmers Diane Szukovathy and Dennis Westphall), the gooseneck loosestrife and the raspberry foliage.

The 2015 American Flowers Week Logo

The 2015 American Flowers Week Logo

Inspired by the “ribbon” motif that artist Jean Zaputil used to “tie” the charming bouquet on our American Flowers Week logo, I shopped for flag-themed ribbon at Packaging Specialty in Seattle. This bold red-and-white striped grosgrain caught my eye and yards of it finish off this bouquet.

There’s still three more days of American Flowers Week – and you’re invited to join in! Post your photos and share the #americanflowersweek tag.

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