The Flower Podcast has been greatly honored to have featured a wonderful guest list of American flower farmers sharing their own floral journey with us. Let’s join in the celebration of our American Flower Growers/ Farmers, and showcase their endless labor of love. Family farms, sustainable organic farms, specialty flower farms, educational farms: the American Flower Farmer is vital to the floral industry. Thank you for your tireless efforts to spread the beauty of flowers across the country.
American Flowers Week is quickly approaching! You might ask what is American Flowers Week? Debra Prinzing of the Slow Flower Movement was inspired by British Flower Week and in 2015 launched American Flowers Week to celebrate and highlight American Flower Growers across the country. This year, American Flowers Week is June 28th through July 4th.
Also highlighting our growers is The Certified American Grown Council celebrating American Grown Flowers Month in July. “Certified American Grown is led by a council of American flower farmers and industry advisors. The members of the council are flower and greens farmers from throughout the United States who are committed to a unified promotional and advocacy effort that establishes an identifiable and iconic brand that communicates to the public the domestic origins as well as the high quality, freshness and consistency of American Grown Flowers.” (taken from Americangrownflowers.org)
3 Porch Farm
Steve and Mandy O’Shea
Steve and Mandy O’ Shea own and operate 3 Porch Farm, A Certified Naturally Grown flower and fruit farm. Solar powered and biofueled farm specializing in beautiful, local, seasonal flowers for farmers markets, wholesale to designers, weddings and events.Their approach to growing flowers organically and sustainably has truly set them apart. Steve and Mandy give us peak into their flower farm from under the trees at 3 Porch Farm.
Having grown up on a cattle and horse ranch outside of San Angelo, Texas, the love for the outdoors is deep for Georgia as she is now a 5th generation farmer in Texas. One grandfather, Bill Helwig, was a cotton farmer and gin manager for 30 years, and raised a small herd of Hereford Cattle. Her other Grandfather, Eddie Huckabee, was a wheat farmer with a small herd of Black Angus Cattle. Her dad, Todd Huckabee, had a cattle ranch and grew winter wheat for grazing, as well as rodeoed on the side, participating in team roping events, calf roping, and steer wrestling. Almost all generations had large gardens at one time or another and Georgia learned about landscaping from her parents who had beautiful properties landscaped by themselves.
Georgia was also very active in 4-H and FFA, participating on the Livestock Judging Team and showing market lambs and breeding ewes at various Texas Livestock Shows. After her high school graduation, Georgia studied nursing, graduating in 2010 and began working at a hospital as a Registered Nurse while her husband, Jordan, served in the Army in Killeen, TX. Around that same time, Georgia began learning about gardening and landscaping, which started her interest and passion for growing plants.
Erin is Floret’s founder, and is honored to be considered one of the nation’s leading “farmer-florists”—a term used to describe those who specialize in both growing and designing with seasonal flowers. Erin’s work has been featured widely in numerous books, magazines, and websites. Her first book, Floret Farm’s Cut Flower Garden: How to Grow, Harvest & Arrange Stunning Seasonal Blooms, was published by Chronicle Books in 2017 and won the American Horticulture Society’s 2018 Book Award.
A researcher at heart, Erin conducts extensive field trials on a wide selection of flowers and foliage, including many varieties that are highly fragrant, delicate, and not commonly available in the flower industry. She regularly shares her trial results plus growing tips and photos of her lush fields via Floret’s popular blog and social media channels. Erin also teaches a 6-week course on small scale flower production to other farmers, designers, and enthusiasts from around the globe through the Floret Online Workshop. Images by Chris Benzakein
What began with a few beautiful rose images shared on Instagram blossomed into a beautiful story! Gracie Poulson of Grace Rose Farm shares her floral journey this week on The Flower Podcast. From early childhood to dragging her rose pots into her New York apartment for the winter, Gracie has always had a soft spot for roses. Along with her husband Ryan, the two have grown her love of roses into a remarkable business specializing in organically grown old fashioned garden roses. Gracie shares her rose journey, business and rose advice, and pivoting during the effects of COVID-19.
Julio Freitas, owner of The Flower Hat shares his incredible journey from Brazil to starting his own floral studio. The beautiful mountains in Bozeman, Montana are home to Julio's romantic floral designs that are inspired by the movement of his selection of flowers. Julio chats about flower farming, floral mechanics, the addition of new workshops, favorite flowers like dahlias, and the story behind his signature style.
Diane Szukovathy with Jello Mold Farm, along with her husband, Dennis Westphall, have been farming for 11 years in the heart of the Skagit Valley in Washington State growing over 80 varieties of florals and foliage. Diane shares their flower story of creating a sustainable farm, respecting the lands and its wildlife inhabitants, and the importance of educating our flower clients and building community. As a founding member of the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, Diane gives us brief overview of this co-operative group of flower growers working together to provide beautiful locally sourced flowers to the Pacific Northwest.
The Alaska Peony Cooperative was formally established in the spring of 2015 as a way to bring together farmers and represent them as a unified voice in the specialty cut flower market. Our principles of responsibility, stewardship and cooperation allow us to achieve more collectively than as individual farms. We take great pride in helping our member-farmers succeed at growing the very best for our customers. We serve those needing only 20 stems to brighten their day, as well as florists, event planners and wholesales serving a larger market. It is our pleasure to present premium Alaska grown Peonies, on behalf of our farmers, to peony lovers across North America.
Carly Jenkins with her husband Jamie operate Killing Frost Farm in the Potomac Valley of Western Montana. Besides growing flowers and opening Westside Flower Market, she is passionate about responsible foraging. Realizing the impact on the environment and our native species, she is an advocate for educating yourself before cutting. Carly also values the relationships with their customers and has earned the respect of both sustainable flower growers and florists.
Andrea Gagnon owns LynnVale Studios with her husband Lou. Andrea combines her professional design education and experience with her expertise in floriculture to grow premium flowers and design unique arrangements that range from formal to fantastic. We talk about the history of the family farm, learning how to grow and over come challenges, being American Grown Certified, learning your market, and so much more
Image by Victoria Pearson
This week's guest is Danielle Dall'Armi and Bill Hahn of Rose Story Farm. Garden Roses are one of the highlights of any wedding and hearing the stories that brought Dani and Bill to this property, their journey and struggles growing them allows us to appreciate what goes into every Garden Rose you use. Dani shares her favorite varieties, growing tips, and the changing landscape of the farm.
Sarah Pabody founded Triple Wren Farms in 2012. She owns and operates the first generation family farm together with her husband Steve, where they share beauty by growing and selling amazing cut flowers and dahlia tubers, building gorgeous weddings, and mentoring new flower farmers. Sarah works closely with our field crew manager to handle harvesting, grocery bouquet production, field maintenance, and dahlia tuber shipping, and is the lead designer for our wedding crew. She can be caught inspecting the bark on the trees, and is thankful for a visionary partner.
Steve Mydelski owns Natchez Glen in Franklin, TN. Steve shares his background from the nursery industry to flower farmer. Steve specializes in growing Garden Roses and Dahlias in the south. Scott toured Steve’s gardens and chatted about the growing and marketing of specialty cut flowers and using his gardens as backdrops for weddings and photography backdrops. You can also find Steve with his own Nachez Glen Podcast Stories.
Although not an American Flower Growers, Nicole shares the same philosophy of growing organic flowers and sharing with local markets. Nicole Schenkel-Zureikat is the owner of Rox & Rose, an organic flower grower in Wolfstein, Germany. Nicole's floral journey began in 2013 when she began growing organic cut flowers on 3 acres in southwestern Germany. Joined by her husband, Samer, their cut flower farm is thriving and freshly cut organic flowers are cultivating their way throughout the markets of Germany.
I’m constantly amazed at how hard our domestic flower farmers work to supply us with both unusual and super delicate flowers. I don’t know what kind of flower community we would have without each and every one of them. It’s exciting to be able to celebrate our local flower farmers every week, but especially on American Flower Week. I can’t say how much I’m looking forward to broadening our collection of guests that share their passion, blood, sweat, and tears with us. I am forever grateful for all of them!
Thank you to all of our guests and each flower grower/farmer. We look forward to sharing more with you in our next season. Please continue to support your local farmers and wholesalers and together let’s spread our shared love of flowers with the world. Now more than ever, our industry needs to shine.
