Ariella Chezar is the godmother of seasonal floral design and has led the way for countless designers and farmer-florists to look to nature for inspiration and take their cues from the natural world. Her impact on the industry over the last 30 years is immeasurable. She was one of the first people to use local, seasonal material throughout their work and inspired an entire generation of designers along the way.

I’ve had the privilege of knowing Ariella since the beginning of my career and she has had such a significant impact on my flower journey. I remember the first time I wrote to her, I was just getting my start as a writer and wanted to interview her for a tiny little farming publication with an even smaller readership base.

My editor warned me to not get my hopes up since Ariella was essentially famous and I was essentially a nobody. But by some miracle, she responded to my overly enthusiastic email and agreed to the interview which was my first big break.

Over the years I have learned so much from Ariella both about flowers and about the power of sharing. Her generosity altered the course of my life and I have tried to pay it forward in every way that I can. 

Ariella has written four beautiful books now, and if I had to choose a favorite, it would be her newest, Home in Bloom, which comes out today. It’s hard to even begin to describe how magnificent this book is, you really have to experience it for yourself.

In it, we see Ariella in her element—transforming the most beautiful spaces into what she calls “floral fantasies,” embracing the best of what nature has to offer, including wilder elements such as weeds and brambles, combined with showstopping blooms. This book will change the way you think about flowers and offers an entirely new palette of possibilities to draw inspiration from.

It’s a pleasure to share this special interview with you, so without further ado, let’s dive in.

I’m so curious to know what inspired you to write Home in Bloom and why now?

One of my most favorite things is being invited to design flowers in someone’s house. To see what they love, what they’ve surrounded themselves with, and to make arrangements that reflect all of this. It feels very personal and as such, very special. 

I wanted the opportunity to interpret the feeling in a home with my flowers. Unlike a studio where props and environment are pulled in, designing in a home is much more creatively exciting. 

What was the process like for creating the arrangements and installations that grace the pages of your beautiful book? Would you take us on a day in the life of one of your big shoots, from gathering the flowers to creating the arrangements to styling, lighting, and making the photographs? Oh to be a fly on the wall! 

It was a little bit different each time, but for the most part, once a location was chosen I would go about assembling a diverse selection of flowers with a vague overall sense of what was going to go where. Working with Gemma and Andy Ingalls in the beginning and then Andrea Gentl and Marty Hyers thereafter was a joyful fast-paced dance. 

I am less of a planner, in fact, this proved frustrating for the photographers because I struggled to generate concise shot lists prior, not knowing which flowers I would have exactly nor what I wanted to shoot per se. The beauty of this book was that I was given permission to feel my way into each setup and each shot, to respond to a particular corner of a room or a surface and then the photographers just rolled with it. I loved this process very much.

(Photo above copyright © 2024 by Ingalls Photography.)

Creating a book is such a huge endeavor—so many details to coordinate and so many variables to maneuver, all while working against a strict set of deadlines. I’m amazed by how much traveling must have been involved in shooting Home in Bloom. Where did you go and what was that experience like?

Unlike my other books, this one was primarily focused closer to home with the exception of the house in Merida, Mexico with a few of the houses being literally right around the corner. It was really a joy to be able to incorporate the natural elements that I drive and walk by every day. 

I think it may be my favorite book thus far because I was allowed so much artistic freedom by my wonderful team at Ten Speed. As a creative, that kind of freedom inevitably allows for the best results.

This book provides a window into the most beautiful, elegant homes and spaces. The architecture and colors of the interiors paired with your exquisite flowers are almost too much to handle! Can you tell me a little about these special spaces and how you chose them?

Many of these spaces belong to close friends and because of this, I felt at ease and familiar in the way one does. The others, like Andrea and Marty’s incredible dream of a loft, the locations in Merida, and the abandoned Hudson, New York mansion were so rich on so many levels that it was so easy to dream my way into them and become deeply inspired. 

You have a very deep and powerful relationship with nature. How has it influenced your personal approach to floral design?

It is the single most important driver, this connection, because it is the natural world that binds me to all the things that I adore and treasure. Trees, flowers, grasses, weeds, the animals that live amongst them—they are my constant inspiration, my love. 

Their fragility and the precarious place that humanity has put them is a source of deep worry and fear, daily. In reminding people of this fragility my forever hope is that they will wake up—though I’m not especially optimistic. It frustrates and puzzles me that designers choose dyed and sprayed flowers when there is so much natural beauty to be found. Not to mention the stubborn pervasiveness of floral foam.

In your new book, you explore a much wilder side of nature than I have seen you do before. You say, “With each chapter, I stray just a little bit further into the meadow…” There’s something so magical about how you embrace weeds and brambles and elevate them in such an unexpected way. Can you talk a little about how your relationship with the “rough and tumble,” as you put it, has evolved over the years?

I have always felt connected to the humble elements, the quieter flowers, the weeds. As much as I have a near rabid appetite for sumptuous over-the-top blooms I adore the contrast of humble with lusciousness, delicate with showstopping. It is this contrast that for me creates interest and some tension. 

Anyone can put two dozen garden roses together and make a statement that way, and there is NOTHING wrong with that, but I’ve always found it more interesting when those two dozen garden roses are tangled with a clematis vine or interspersed with a less-than-perfect cluster of weeds. It’s not unlike a room. 

The ones that pull me in are the ones that contrast incredible pieces with quieter, simpler ones. I like when things are just a little off—and not quite so perfect. It allows for much more space to dream.

One of the things that has always struck me about your work is that it has such a strong sense of place. Your arrangements always look as if they are extensions of their surroundings and it’s hard to tell where they leave off and the rest of the space begins. When creating a bouquet or a floral installation, what are the important things to consider if one wants it to belong to its surroundings?

Season and place. Place and season. These are the two most important things. Pay attention to what’s happening outside the window, to what’s growing along the side of the road, to what’s available that week at the farmers market. It’s really just about paying attention and then finding those elements that are the stars of that particular moment. 

This can be a bit of an abstract goal if you live in a city, but because I live in the sticks I am always acutely aware of what is happening around me at any given time. The same goes for when I’m traveling. I notice what’s growing along the side of the highway, along the train tracks. In fact, I am ALWAYS taking in what’s happening on the side of the road. 

Color can be one of the most challenging aspects of floral design to master and so many of us struggle to have our arrangements look the way we want them to. Can you share any advice on working with color and how you personally approach it?

“Color is my daylong obsession, joy, and torment,” said Claude Monet, and I feel just the same. The first thing I want to know when a client approaches me for a job is the palette, and if it’s green and white I deflate just a little. I really, really love combining colors, playing with improbable combinations, experimenting. When people talk about staying “on brand” with a particular palette that they do over and over again I just can’t relate—I think I might die of boredom.

While I am drawn pretty reliably to oranges, apricots, and all the greens, I am equally riveted by all the yellows, blues, and reds and the muddy in-between tones. I find purples to be a little tricky and I have always joked that I’d rather eat glass than wear black. I do like white at times, and the drama when it contrasts with black, but there always has to be color somewhere. 

Combining colors has always been intuitive for me. I credit my painter mother with this, and I’m sure my Waldorf School upbringing gets a bunch of the credit too. As far as the struggle that some feel when approaching color I think the main mistake people make is putting too many different colors with too many different values together, and this always ends up looking like an argument, not a beautiful melody. The easiest way to combine colors is to layer them and to work tonally, something you do so beautifully. 

You have had such an incredible career, lived and worked on both coasts, traveled the world, taught in the most exotic places, and decorated hundreds if not thousands of weddings and events over the past 30 years. Looking back, is there a favorite chapter or experience that has left its mark on you? 

My greatest joy on this journey has been connecting with flower lovers from all over the world— and sharing that common thread, that beauty. Most of the time, this connection stretches into a deep love and respect for nature, and so many of these connections around our shared passion have developed into lifelong friendships. 

I really love teaching. I love connecting people to that tender, often unfamiliar place of creativity—the way flowers make accessing that place so easy, but no less profound. Whenever I am allowed to be creative, I am happy. There are many, many experiences I feel deeply grateful for, but it is the connections that stand out above all else. 

With each book that I’ve written, I’ve had an intention and hope for the reader. I’m curious to know if you feel the same way. What do you hope that readers will take away from this beautiful book? What is it that you want to linger with them after they’ve turned the last page? 

My hope is that they are stretched beyond the desire for cultivated flowers to the less spectacular and humbler specimens. Also, that they don’t hesitate to bring in what they find outside. To live with flowers as much as possible, and to marvel at their generous, ephemeral magic. 

Now that this beautiful book is out in the world, what are your plans for the coming season? Will you be hosting any workshops or making any exciting journeys? I’d love to hear what you have planned next. 

I have a bunch of book-related events beginning to fill my calendar, some of them lectures and demonstrations, but most of them classes and small workshops, including: 

March 21: Book signing at Beacon Hill Bookstore with Grace Lam of Five Forks Farm, Boston, MA (sold out)

April 6: Book signing at Behida Dolić Millinery, Hudson, NY

April 16–18: Spring Workshop with Max Gill, Oakland, CA

May 2–3: Spring Flower Workshop, Hudson, NY (sold out)

May 21: Floral Masterclass at The Garden Museum with Lucy Hunter and Shane Connolly, London, England

June 1: One-day floral class at Wildflower Farms, Gardiner, NY

June 10–12: Peony workshop with Nicolette Camille at Renaissance Farm, Brandon, VT

Ariella, thank you so much for taking the time to share about your incredible book—it’s a gift to the world. 

Thank you for this opportunity to connect with you and your readers, thank you so much.  

To celebrate the release of Ariella’s new book, Home in Bloom, we’re giving away five copies. For a chance to win, please share one of your favorite unexpected or wilder bouquet ingredients. If you don’t have one, tell us what about this interview inspired you the most. Winners will be announced on March 12. Please note: This giveaway is open to U.S. and Canadian residents only. 

UPDATE: A huge congratulations to our winners Jess, Hillary, Erin, Cynthia and Margaret.

To learn more and connect with Ariella, be sure to visit her website and sign up for her newsletter. You can also follow her on Instagram. Home In Bloom is available from Amazon, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, and your favorite local bookstore.

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Floret only lists companies and products that we love, use, and recommend. All opinions expressed here are our own and Floret does not offer sponsored content or accept money for editorial reviews. If you buy something using the retail links in this post, Floret may receive a small commission. Thank you for your support!

Except as noted, all photos copyright © 2024 by Gentl & Hyers. Reprinted with permission of Ten Speed Press, a division of Penguin Random House.

The post The Farmer & The {Florist} Interview: Ariella Chezar appeared first on Floret Flowers.

I immediately reached out to her, and if I remember it right, literally begged her to let me grow a few of her seeds the following year. To my delight, she sent me a little wax paper envelope with 25 precious seeds in it, which I carefully sowed and tended that season. The flowers that bloomed were even more beautiful than I had expected—Kori was really onto something.

Over the next few years, we swapped seeds, shared photos, compared notes, and talked over Zoom—cheering each other in our efforts. Breeding is typically a very isolated, solitary endeavor, and finding a kindred spirit was such a gift. 

This past summer, we finally got to meet in person, when Kori and her sweet family came to the farm for a visit. We toured the gardens and showed her all of the magical selections that I’ve been working on from the original seed she shared with me, and we admired the four beautiful Dawn Creek mixes that will be part of the Floret Originals release. Chris captured our time together and you can watch a wonderful little film about our collaboration here.

Kori also sat down for a special interview about her inspiration, her flowers, and her breeding work. Be sure to read all the way to the bottom because we’re hosting a special giveaway for some of her coveted seeds. 

Kori, I’m so happy you’re here! I’ve been waiting for the day that we could finally meet in person. For those who aren’t familiar with your work, could you tell Floret readers a little more about your background and your path to flowers? I know you also have two degrees in plant biology and studio arts. I’d love to know more. 

I grew up in a small rural community in the Santa Cruz mountains on the central California coast. My parents are lifelong artists and devoted gardeners, and my childhood unfurled in our family garden, which overflowed with flowers and food, amidst the surrounding redwood forest. 

Growing up, my dad taught resident apprentices in small-scale organic farming at the CASFS Farm and Garden, and my sister and I spent countless hours wandering the farm while my dad worked. 

Plants have, for as long as I can remember, called me into a relationship of refuge, protection, and quiet acceptance. When I left home for college, I found immediate comfort and a connection in my new environment through meeting and forming familiar relationships with the plants around campus and the surrounding watershed, and I began putting down roots in the community working at the UC Davis Student Farm (where I eventually met Toby, my partner in everything to come).

My art degree was actually devoted to oil painting, and it was interesting and challenging to attempt to pursue my deep love of plants, horticulture, and creative arts in tandem in the university setting, which in my personal experience at the time maintained a palpable underlying cultural and intellectual divide between the arts and the sciences. 

I followed my creative curiosity into fiber arts and plant-centered color after graduating, in large part because I felt disillusioned by my college experience and was working through a deep longing to rekindle the light of my creative process as connecting me intimately to the living world, which had struggled existentially in the institutional setting.

After college I worked growing vegetables and herbs on a local ranch, and began a textile and natural dye business on the side, spinning, weaving, and growing plants to discover their hidden colors. This evolved into a small online seed company, selling seeds gathered from the wide range of dye plants growing in my garden, along with a blog sharing instructions for growing, harvesting, use, and seed saving. 

At the time there was very little natural dye information available online, and hardly anything at all in regards to growing the plants themselves or saving their seeds. I took what I learned through reading and personal research and shared both my explorations and information on seed saving and dye plant cultivation. I also began my first forays into plant breeding, selecting open-pollinated strains of indigo (Persicaria tinctoria) for increased pigment potential. 

This work and other work I was doing with indigo processing led to collaborations and a scholarship through our local California Fibershed organization to attend classes with renowned cotton breeder Sally Fox in the Capay Valley. I was utterly inspired by Sally’s lifelong devotion to cotton, and it was my first chance seeing how breeding could become a life’s work. 

Toby and I got married in 2014, at which point my mom and I grew all the flowers for the wedding. This was the first time I included a large amount of flowers into a crop plan specifically for cutting, which was quite exciting. Soon after, we had the opportunity to purchase land ourselves in Rio Linda, California (just north of Sacramento). I left my ranch job, and we moved and began Dawn Creek Farm. 

The first growing season in our new home, it wasn’t clear yet what our main markets for supporting the farm would be. I split the crop plan between flowers, veggies, and dye plants and began exploring local channels. That year I taught natural dye classes through several schools while building up the farm infrastructure. It quickly became clear that there was an overwhelmingly unmet demand among local floral designers for locally grown specialty cut flowers, and as an artist, I truly enjoyed working in conversation with these local businesses to supply them with exquisite local blooms. 

With our farm’s small acreage and the incredible production capacity of cut flowers, everything fell into place. From that season onward, we turned the farm production entirely over to flowers and sold every stem directly to local floral designers.

You are located in Santa Cruz, California. What is your growing season like? Can you describe your garden space? 

We have relocated to the Santa Cruz mountains, where I grew up. Like much of coastal California, the growing season here is relatively long. While we occasionally get winter snow at our elevation, for the most part, winter is our rainy season. Spring comes early, and summers here in the mountains tend to be significantly warmer than directly on the coastline, with the weather fluctuating from foggy and cool mornings to more than 90°F summer through fall.

In 2020 in the midst of myriad personal and global challenges, a miraculous opportunity arose for Toby and I to purchase 2 ½ sunny acres just down the road from where I grew up. We left Rio Linda in late 2021 and are currently living and gardening on my parent’s land with our four-year-old while we wait for our permit approval to begin building a home and putting down literal and figurative roots. It’s looking hopeful that 2024 may be our first chance to move my breeding projects to our own beautiful sunny hillside.

Over the past several years you’ve changed your focus from grower to plant breeder. Can you talk about your evolution from strictly growing flowers to wanting to select and breed them?

Working directly with floral designers offered me an inspiring chance to draw on both my artistic and horticultural experience, and our farm thrived as a place where we could trial a wide range of unique plants unfamiliar to the local floral market. My background offered me the eye to recognize colors, shapes, and forms suited to our customers’ needs and translate that into successful crop plans, and I tuned into that early on. 

As it happened, our first season in Sacramento we grew a number of zinnia mixes, and in one of them, the most beautiful fluffy, double peach flower appeared. I was so taken by it and knew unequivocally it would be appreciated by our growing customer base. I had never seen anything like it before and vowed I would save the seeds to grow again the next year. In the hubbub of trying to get the farm up and running while also teaching classes that year, I didn’t get around to labeling the plant before things went to seed in the fall. 

Our zinnia field grew huge and untamed in the valley heat, over 5 ft tall, and at some point, a windstorm knocked everything into a wild tangled mess. By the time I finally got it together to gather the seeds, it was impossible to determine for sure which plant it had been. But I waded through the spent rows anyway and gathered seeds from everything growing around where I remembered it being.

I grew these seeds out the following year, and from these seeds, the parents of our current blush zinnias emerged. I was utterly smitten and spent my evenings after work that summer making selections from these seedlings, as well as a few other flower species we had growing that year. Still, the memory of the magical peach zinnia that had captured my heart the previous season hung in my mind. In the rows of seeds I had saved and planted, nothing resembled it …. I knew there might still be a chance for it to show up in future generations, but I couldn’t help feeling a nagging regret that my chance to confidently gather those seeds had slipped through my fingers. 

In late June, we planted our chrysanthemums in what had been the original zinnia field, and soon after discovered several volunteer zinnia seedlings coming up in the rows. I left them to bloom, hoping maybe, just maybe, something magical would happen … and it did.

Out of the handful of volunteer seedlings that bloomed that fall, a single one unfurled in luminous peach, almost exactly as I had remembered it. I had been gifted another chance, and this time I was so ready! 

In the years that followed I began sharing the beauty unfurling from these seeds with our floral design customers while devoting all the personal time I could to making selections, researching, and implementing more carefully coordinated crosses. It has offered the most fascinating array of opportunities to weave together the many facets of my skills, interests, and life experiences thus far.

Forming multigenerational relationships with the plants that I have been drawn to work with has been a highlight in my personal journey. From indigo to zinnias and many others in between, seed saving and pursuing thoughtful selections has carried me into incredible relationships and community connection, and perhaps most poignantly, through an immense extended personal health crisis in 2020/2021 and the subsequent relocation and necessary dissolving of our farm’s cut-flower production, and into this tender new chapter devoted more fully to breeding, where my heart and my family are finding roots again.

What are you looking for in the flowers you’re selecting? What do you view as desirable traits? 

Flower color, form, and texture, along with plant health, disease resistance, growth habit, productivity, vase life, climate tolerance, and niche in a chosen market, have all offered me a basic framework for making selections. The most essential thing I am looking for though—the thing that underpins everything for me personally—might not be summed up as a trait, but as an experience, or a feeling.

For me the process of selecting flowers and developing seed lines is at its heart a musical one … it is built upon some mysterious resonance. I am not sure I have found a better way of summing up my process and how it feels than this.

When a note is played in tune on a stringed instrument, any open string tuned to (and more subtlety in harmony with) that same note will also audibly resonate. Somehow it feels like this to me when I meet certain plants, and combinations of colors, forms, textures … that something in me responds and resonates with them.

While I can and do determine certain essential objective traits that would make a seed line worth pursuing, my true guiding light is selecting flowers to parent lineages that resonate palpably with something inside me, as their caretaker. I quite literally feel certain flowers and qualities singing inside my body and am drawn deep down to follow those songs. Whenever I have followed this personal inner resonance while selecting seed parents, utterly magical things have unfolded between myself and the plants in the following generations. Practicality and logistics must subsequently go hand in hand with this for me.

You are breeding and selecting many varieties of flowers, but your main focus is zinnias. What do you love most about this particular flower?

It’s quite mysterious really. I love that you ask this. I feel as though I stumbled into this soul relationship with zinnias right before I needed their support and guidance the most.

My relationships with all plants have always felt as much a mutual exchange of energy and goodwill as any of my human relationships. That is to say, in my experience of the world, every plant I encounter has its own palpable personality, and there are many, many, many different plants that I will say without hesitation are my dear friends. 

Working alongside zinnias now over these years of my life and so many generations of theirs, I sense they collectively radiate equanimity. They inspire curiosity, generosity, playfulness, and resilience in me. They have a sense of humor and a sparkle about them and feel ready and enthusiastic to be in a mutual relationship with humans. They feel like a very community-oriented flower. Specifically, I have always had a sense that the ones I have been drawn to have their own mysterious evolving plans, and that the magic lies in partnering together for as long as it feels mutually energizing for us all. 

The seed lineages I have been working with have also always very clearly communicated to me when and how they are ready to share their magic with the wider world, and my decisions to share seed from this evolving relationship have always culminated in response to this. When I became critically ill with a soil-borne illness in 2020 and our family and farm were forced to change course and relocate away from the source of my illness, my relationship with these seeds and the process of sharing them with other gardeners and inviting in community support through our first fundraiser carried our small family through the most intense and challenging years and uncertainties of my life, and ultimately allowed me to continue my work with seeds.

I understand that this way of speaking about plants may be strange or unfamiliar, even uncomfortable, for some people to read. I honor that, I am not here to try and change anyone’s perspective or experience. I am putting words the best I can to how I experience my time with plants and know that these words will resonate with some and not as much with others. 

If it helps anyone reading this to hear in more practical terms, here’s another way of explaining how amazing zinnias are: in the climates I have grown them in, zinnias are content to flourish with very little assistance in a wide range of soil types and growing conditions. They flower and set seed in abundance, and propagate quickly from both seeds and cuttings. They are incredible, long-lasting cut flowers perfect for local growers and local flower markets, because despite their stellar vase life they aren’t suited to commercial shipping methods. The genetic diversity they carry is absolutely astounding, and it feels to me as though the potential for exploring color and form combinations through thoughtful breeding is quite possibly limitless. If one were to find themselves drawn to begin their own seed-saving and breeding journey, zinnias are a supportive and encouraging place to begin.

Tell us a bit about your breeding efforts. What’s the process? Technically, how do you do it? 

The answer to this question easily fills an entire book! For anyone reading this who wants to dive into zinnia breeding in particular, my dear friend Tiffany Jones recently published her first book, The Zinnia Breeder’s Handbook. I had the immense honor of consulting and contributing to this treasure trove of information, and highly recommend it as an accessible resource for anyone who feels drawn to begin their own zinnia seed-saving or breeding journey with step-by-step instructions and a wealth of information. 

I will say that there are many ways to approach breeding open-pollinated seed varieties, and some significant variations in approach depending on whether the species you are working with is primarily outcrossing or incrossing in nature. That is, there are plant species (sweet peas, for example) that by design rely primarily on self-pollination, and have no notable issues with inbreeding depression. 

In contrast, outcrossing species such as zinnias thrive in an environment of genetic diversity and rely on cross-pollination via insects and wind to bolster vitality across generations. It is essential in the case of outcrossing species, that breeding be approached with a lens of maintaining as much genetic diversity within a seed line as possible, and extra care is taken to steward the seed population over generations to maintain this diversity (and thus vitality).

There are many species of zinnias, and all rely to a certain extent on outcrossing (some so heavily that individual plants will not produce seed unless pollinated by another individual with sufficient genetic differences). Zinnia elegans, which most gardeners think of first when they hear about zinnias, is generally considered outcrossing, though in my experience falls along a pretty wide spectrum of potential self-compatibility depending on the seed lineage.

I approach developing varieties of outcrossing species from many angles depending on the individuals at hand, from carefully controlled hand-pollinated crosses to larger collective winnowing of traits. I am committed to maintaining as much genetic diversity within a population as possible while honing in on cohesive colors, forms, vigor, and productivity within a population. The exact step-by-step how-to honestly feels like too much for me to distill down in the context of this interview (and again I will point to Tiffany’s book as she has a knack for explaining the essence of things in a very accessible way!), but I think of my own process in terms of three stages:

1. Gathering of desired phenotypic traits/qualities via careful observation and selection of parent plants, hand crosses, intuition, and guided insect pollination.

2. Winnowing of the established gene pool to approach a sufficiently homogenous population via five or more generations of progressive seed parent selections, using insect pollination chambers to guide pollination. Again, this stage is a balance between maintaining genetic diversity and reaching a stable and cohesive range of phenotypes and for me involves observing and listening to the seeds themselves each step of the way.

3. Stewardship/maintenance of seed lines. Once an outcrossing seed line has reached a notably stable and reliable place, it requires care and tending to continue forward for generations to come. This involves growing out large populations (ensuring maximum genetic diversity) for seed production while editing out individual seed parents that exhibit more nuanced undesirable/dominant traits. 

For example, in zinnias, the single flower form is dominant over the fully double form, and it is challenging (and in some cases undesirable) to prevent singles from emerging in populations over time. Because of this, the percentage of singles in a seed line will often increase over successive generations if the population isn’t maintained in a balance that supports the double trait.

What do you hope a person experiences when they look at and hold the flowers that you have bred? What is your hope for their future?

Above anything else, a sense of hope. I have grown intertwined together with these flowers through so much personal difficulty, and they have offered me the most incredible support and curiosity through their beauty, presence, infinite variation, and promise for the future. 

For me, spending time in friendship with them has time and again lifted the heaviness of the world from my heart and allowed me the space I needed to breathe and maintain an ember of hope even in the darkest stretches of my journey. I wish that anyone who is in need of encouragement, a quiet nurturing presence, or some other felt sense of support will find what they need in moments exchanged with these flowers.

My hope is to help our seeds reach the hands of people who will cherish them and enjoy being in a relationship with them. People who will plant them, nurture them, resonate with their beauty, adore them, and save their seeds to plant again and again. In this way, both the plants and the people that love them have hope for the future. 

Can you tell me what you’re excited to be offering for the 2024 growing season?

Well first of all, I am beyond excited that this will be the first year that the first four seed mixes of our zinnias will be introduced by Floret and available to purchase retail. I am also excited to be working on some opportunities to share more of my personal time/experience with those who resonate with my work and my voice. I have been contemplating ways to do this and have some sweet ideas that I’m still feeling out, but anyone who has been drawn to connect with me on a more personal level can sign up for our mailing list to receive upcoming announcements.

Do you have any other exciting projects in the works?

Breeding-wise, I am beyond excited about the direction of our in-progress zinnias …. I also have a number of ongoing seed projects in addition to zinnias that I am dancing with—yarrow, columbine, species gladiolus, Agrostemma, roses, and more that I am hoping to have energy to devote to in coming seasons. I began growing roses from seed in 2021 and am very excited to continue to witness the development of the last few years’ seedlings!

In terms of public-facing projects, there’s not really much more to report at this time. I have been in a pretty private cocoon …. My energy beyond working with plants is currently focused on raising a small human, navigating healing, and hopefully soon, getting the go-ahead from our county to start building a home and having the opportunity to put down roots on the land we purchased in 2020.

What is the best way for someone to place an order? Do you have particular growers that offer your varieties?

Cut flowers: Many cut flower farmers across the U.S. and a handful abroad are growing zinnias, Agrostemma, and Xeranthemum developed on our farm and offering them locally through their flower sales channels. For those looking to purchase cut flowers, I would recommend talking with local farmers and seeing if they are interested in and able to add Dawn Creek varieties to their crop plans. 

In my experience, having customers request specific varieties is a fantastic way to help spread awareness among local farms and increase opportunities for floral designers and farmers market customers alike to access them. With Floret releasing so many new varieties retail this winter, seed will finally be more widely accessible for the coming season.

Seeds: Floret is the only seed company that we have officially partnered with to sell our seeds at this time, and many who have followed our journey will be happy to know that a generous portion of every single sale of these seeds comes directly back to supporting our farm’s continued work. I have gotten inquiries from others who are interested in offering our seeds for sale, and I’m looking forward to making guidelines available for those who are interested in saving and selling our seeds consciously on a smaller scale to do so. 

As you and I have talked about, it feels meaningful to take care to share an example of how to do this in a way that supports breeders devoting themselves to developing and stewarding open-pollinated seed varieties in continuing to realistically fund their work, and that makes the immense time and energy needed to do this possible.

Do you have any upcoming important dates for shop launches, fundraisers, catalogs, or anything else people should know about? Also, where do you ship your seeds? 

In the past, we have opened up our annual fundraiser in February (shipping to the U.S. only) and updated our online seed shop with the seeds we have leftover to share from myriad projects at the same time. 

With Floret’s new introductions, I’m sensing that we will be changing some things up for 2024, though exactly how is still developing as of writing this. I would love to invite anyone interested in updates to join our farm’s mailing list via the form on our website!

Thank you so much, Kori! I am so happy that our paths crossed all those years ago and that I get to play a part in your breeding journey. I am so excited to release your special mixes and continue to support your work. 

To celebrate the upcoming release of the Dawn Creek varieties, we’re giving away 10 seed bundles. Each bundle will contain a packet of each of Kori’s mixes: Dawn Creek Blush, Dawn Creek Honey, Dawn Creek Pastels, and Dawn Creek Peach. 

For a chance to win, please leave a comment below answering one of the following questions. Winners will be announced on February 15. Please note: Because we can’t yet send the breeding varieties internationally, this giveaway is open to U.S. and Canadian residents only.

Update: A huge congratulations to our winners Rhonda Martin, Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Geri Olson, Craig, Jennifer Hockett,  Amy DeCastro, Amanda Reynolds, Amanda Chalkley, Sueze and Sara M.

1. When life is hardest, are there plants in your garden/ecosystem that you find yourself turning towards to help steady or buoy your spirits? What plants, if any, are your allies in hard times? 
2. If seed catalogs were to disappear tomorrow, what seeds would you save from your garden this year? What plants do you want to grow alongside forever? 

To learn more and connect with Kori, be sure to visit her website and follow her on Instagram.

Please note: If your comment doesn’t show up right away, sit tight; we have a spam filter that requires us to approve comments before they are published.

The post The {Farmer} & The Florist Interview: Kori Hargreaves appeared first on Floret Flowers.

When I first visited their blog (which also functions as their main catalog) I was a little bit skeptical, since there was nowhere to place an order. But I quickly learned that they are still doing things the old-fashioned way and you have to mail them a list of what you want, plus a few dollars for shipping and payment (either cash or check). A few weeks later your order will appear in the mailbox.

Last season I trialed all of their pea varieties that are part of their breeding program. I was incredibly impressed—they were all beautiful and delicious, and like nothing I’d ever grown before. If you’re looking for some fun and tasty additions to your garden, be sure to check them out!

While their whole offering is very interesting, their zinnia collections are especially worth pointing out. They’ve been working to breed some very diverse mixes that are incredibly unique and very different from anything on the market.

While I’m typically drawn to softer pastel shades, the bright, wild, boldly colored bicolor flowers from their mixes were both eye-catching and bizarrely beautiful. If you’re looking for some one-of-a-kind flowers to add to your garden, fields, or bouquets I especially loved the Day Glow Mix and ‘Rainbow Eyes’.

Peace Seedlings specializes in breeding for diversity rather than uniformity, so if you’re on the hunt for some unusual and unique new treasures, look no further. 

Dylana, I’m so happy I found out about your operation, and I’m really excited to introduce you to Floret readers. Can you share a little bit about the evolution of your seed company? From what I’ve read, the original Peace Seeds was founded in the 1970s by your parents, but more recently, you’ve renamed it Peace Seedlings. Can you talk about this transition and what you’re focusing on now?

We started helping with Peace Seeds, which was run by my parents “Mushroom” (Alan Kapuler) and Linda Kapuler, in 2007. My partner Mario DiBenedetto and I were inspired by the staggering legacy that they had created. Mushroom and Linda would talk about maybe “retiring,” but our involvement seemed to keep them inspired to keep truckin’ on.  

By 2009, Mushroom encouraged us to start our own seed company so we could get credit for our own work. So that fall, we launched Peace Seedlings. We wanted to keep some continuity of the legacy they had created and we figured we were the next generation of Peace Seeds, and thus we were the “Seedlings.” 

We were too young to think through how much we would confuse people who thought we sold seedlings, or why two different seed companies worked together on the same 3-acre piece of land that Mushroom and Linda had been leasing since the early ‘90s. 

The focus has always been on the preservation and dissemination of biodiversity,  growing organic food that keeps ourselves and the community nourished, and breeding new varieties for the public domain that make a valuable contribution to increased nutrition, architectural advances, and unique beauty.

You offer one of the most interesting and diverse ranges of seeds I’ve come across, and so many of the varieties in your catalog were bred on your farm. Can you share more about your breeding efforts and what you’re specializing in?

Thank you, it means a lot to hear that. Like I said, the legacy of my parents is staggering, so we have tried our best to honor their work and all of the amazing varieties that we have had access to. We have tried to see and grow as many different types of plants as we can so we can have deeper insight and more appreciation of the natural world. 

That leads to the next step, which is saving the seeds so you can be part of the whole cycle. Then once you grow those seeds, you might see a unique trait that you want to follow, and then you are doing your own level of adaptation and selection.

It is hard not to do this with everything we grow so after enough time, the hope is that we made a valuable contribution to as many varieties as possible.   

We’ve generally tried to be more diversified than specialized, but we have ended up being more attracted to certain plants for various reasons. We have done most of our breeding efforts in peas, corn, tomatoes, peppers, beans, marigolds, zinnias, sunflowers, and asters.

We have done some specializing in South American (Andean) crops. The Andean people are some of the oldest plant breeders and have made a lot of underutilized crops.

Many of them are very unknown for how much potential they have in gardens globally. One of which is Yacon (pictured above), which makes an edible tuber that is sweet and crunchy eaten raw or cooked, and is an amazing and adaptable plant in many climates.

This past season we trialed all of your zinnia mixes and were amazed by the uniqueness and diversity found in each collection. I’ve never seen anything like them before! Would you be willing to share a little more about how these varieties came to be, especially the Day Glow Mix?

We have both been artists our whole lives with many different mediums. Zinnias were one of the earliest breeding projects we started. So as artists, we decided to grow a huge spiral of two different species of zinnias that normally didn’t cross and see if growing them like that would encourage more intercrossing from all the pollinators.

We grew out as many seeds as we could from the zinnia spiral and ended up noticing one plant that had a unique color trait that we knew was a cross.

That is the start of many of our zinnias that have the “multi-tone”(multiple colors) trait. For the next decade, we would grow as many plants as we could manage and every year pick our favorites and save each one separately to see what happened. 

Simultaneously we grew out as many zinnias as we could find in the commercial market that had unique colors or morphology and were tall enough for cut flowers. 

Growing so many different types of zinnias and having a very diverse amount of pollinators created the possibility of anomalies to happen. A few years ago we noticed one plant that had a unique color trait that we named “multi-play.” We had never seen anything like it. The colors on the petals morphed over time so the old petals would be different from the newly emerging petals, which would create a glowing effect that we then named “Day Glow” (pictured above).

In addition to trialing your zinnias, I also grew all of your snow and snap pea varieties, including ‘Ruby Beauty’, ‘Blushing Beauty’, ‘Amethyst Beauty’ (pictured above), ‘Opal Beauty’, ‘Spring Rose’, ‘Magnolia Blossom’, and ‘Spring Blush’. I was blown away by the range of unique colors and exaggerated tendrils on many of the varieties. They were all incredibly delicious, too. Can you share a little bit more about your pea breeding efforts and a few of your favorites or new varieties that you’d recommend trying? 

It all started with the seed of inspiration to breed a rainbow of peas … My parents spent more than a decade trying to make the first edible purple pea pod. After some bitter failures and following many paths, some that led to other wonderful peas like ‘Green Beauty’, ‘Magnolia Blossom’, and ‘Spring Blush’, they succeeded and offered ‘Sugar Magnolia’, the first purple snap pea of its kind, which also had been selected for hyper-tendrils, a trait that was not readily available. A decade before that they bred ‘Opal Creek’, the first yellow snap pea. 

So, at the beginning of working in collaboration with my parents, it was natural to be inspired by all they had done and see the potential for what was now possible with all these new varieties they had bred.

The first pea we bred came from being enchanted by a pink-flowered New Zealand pea that a friend was growing and we knew we needed to use that as a parent. Using that pink-flowered pea crossed with ‘Green Beauty’ we made ‘Spring Rose’ (pictured above), which had the unique pink flower trait we were looking for. We hoped crossing yellow peas with purple peas would open up the possibilities of color and hopefully make a “red” pea. 

But first, we crossed ‘Green Beauty’ to ‘Opal Creek’, so we could make a golden snow. 

We then crossed the golden snow with ‘Sugar Magnolia’, hoping it would open up endless potentials since we crossed so many traits together. This work opened up Pandora’s box and it would take us about a decade to select almost a dozen new varieties of different colored snow and snap peas. 

New Peace Seedlings peas include ‘Opal Beauty’ (a golden snow vine pea; pictured above, top left), ‘Amethyst Beauty’ (a purple snow vine pea), and ‘Blushing Beauty’ (a purple splash over green snow pea); two beautiful magenta-colored varieties named ‘Ruby Beauty’ (a snow vine pea; pictured above, top right) and ‘Ruby Crescent’ (a snap vine pea); plus, ‘Opal Crescent’ (a yellow snap pea; pictured above, bottom left), ‘Purple Beauty’ (a dark purple snow pea; pictured above, bottom right), and ‘Sweet Rain’ (an XL green snap pea).

We’d recommend trying any of the ones we offer now—they create an awesome addition to any garden or market booth.

All of the varieties that you offer are open-pollinated and public domain. Can you explain a little more about what it means for a variety to be in the public domain, and why it’s important to you to offer these varieties?

We are inspired by my genius father who was raised in the science world and saw too much progress get stymied by privatization and ownership, which led him to dedicate his life to working for the public domain. Public domain is like “open source” software,  so it is free for the public to use. 

When a variety is offered in the public domain through a published format it cannot be patented since there is a precedent of it existing, so it is protected from control by a corporation. When a public domain variety is passed from one generation to the next, it becomes a heirloom variety, so we like to think we are creating our generation of heirlooms.

This is important because access to food is a human right, seeds are the foundation of our food system, and the more it is controlled the more we slowly lose the freedom to save seeds.

While you breed new varieties, you also focus on the preservation of heirloom varieties, which is wonderful to see. How did you become interested in preservation?

We have access to an amazing seed collection that my parents have been curating since the ‘70s. They had trialed many varieties over the decades, so when we started helping out there were many heirloom varieties we grew because they were just outstanding in terms of flavor and how they grew in our garden.

Varieties like ‘Palestinian Tomato’ (from Palestine, Ohio), ‘Aci Sivri Cayenne’ (from Turkey), and ‘Red Milan Onion’ (from Italy) have become staples in our food system at home. This is what gave us an initial appreciation for the preservation of many old varieties, but we have also gained a broader respect for the work our ancestors put in and want to honor them. 

With so many varieties disappearing in the last 50 years, it seems like we owe it to past and future generations to preserve what we can.

I have to say, I love that you’re still doing business in the old-school way with a simple listing of your offerings and requiring people to mail in a handwritten order along with their payment. It’s such a refreshing change from the fast-paced digital world that I’m used to. For readers who haven’t ordered from you before, can you walk us through the process of ordering your seeds?

Thanks, we are old-school and mostly have kept our presence simple on the internet because we do not want to spend too much of our life in front of a screen. We would rather be in the garden and spending time with family and friends. We are also multi-faceted people and one of our other passions is willow weaving, making baskets, hats, and furniture. We hope to offer some of the many varieties of willow that we grow soon, too.

We have been making a simple written seed list since 2009. We send the new seed list out every year in January to the people who ordered the year before. We also have a “blog website”, which is basically the written seed list with a few pictures.   

To order from either the internet or our written seed list, write or type your requests and send them with a check or money order for the cost of the seeds plus $7 USD for shipping to Peace Seedlings, 2385 SE Thompson St., Corvallis, OR 97333.

What are you most looking forward to in the upcoming growing season, and what’s the best way for our readers to learn about your 2024 offerings?

We are always looking forward to a new growing season. We have many new zinnias to grow out, some new red peas with pink flowers, and new bush peas we are working on, as well as an Aji pepper breeding project we are excited about, and also many others. Most of all, we are excited to watch our daughter Calypsa grow up in the garden and evolve; she will turn two on March 6.

The best way to find our offerings is to either go to our blog or you can request our paper seed list by emailing peaceseedlings@gmail.com.

Thank you, Dylana. I’m really looking forward to growing more of your zinnias this year. I appreciate you taking the time to share your story and more about your breeding work with Floret readers. 

To accompany this interview, we’re giving away five special seed bundles. Each bundle will contain Peace Seedlings special Day Glow Mix zinnias, ‘Spring Blush’ snap peas, and ‘Ruby Beauty’ snow peas.  

For a chance to win, simply post a comment below telling us about someone who has been influential to you as a gardener. Winners will be announced on January 16. Please note: This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. 

A huge congratulations to our winners: Emma, Elan Irving, Amber Harrison, Mel and Jessica Toloczko

To learn more and connect with Peace Seedlings, be sure to visit their blog. 

Please note: If your comment doesn’t show up right away, sit tight; we have a spam filter that requires us to approve comments before they are published.

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Owners and farmers, James and Guy have put a tremendous amount of work into their website—it’s super informative, filled with great photos, and I love their seed descriptions. All of the seeds I have ordered from them (which is a lot!) have done exceptionally well–their quality is top-notch.

Grand Prismatic is located in the mountain foothills of Utah, so the varieties that they offer can withstand the stresses of growing in a desert climate. They focus on plants that thrive in harsh conditions, including hot dry summers and cold snowy winters. If you’re a gardener in this type of climate, they are a wonderful resource!

James and Guy, I’m so happy to be able to interview you both for the blog and for more people to find out about what you’re up to. You each bring a unique perspective to Grand Prismatic Seed. James, you previously worked with Frank Morton at Wild Garden Seed in Oregon, and Guy, you have such wide-ranging experience, including ethnobotany and habitat restoration. Can you share a little more about each of your backgrounds and how they’ve influenced your business?

James: If you had asked me in my twenties what I would be doing in my thirties, I would never have predicted seed farming or owning a business! My background isn’t rooted in botany, horticulture, or agriculture. I studied Anthropology and International Studies in college. After graduation, I went on to work for the International Rescue Committee, first as a youth program coordinator, and later as a special needs case worker assisting refugee families being resettled in the Salt Lake Valley.

After Guy got a job that moved us from Salt Lake City to Corvallis, Oregon a string of serendipitous events landed me at Wild Garden Seed. It didn’t take long for Frank Morton’s extraordinary passion for seed farming and plant breeding to rub off on me. Within a few months on the job, I was hooked on the art and science of seed saving. My 5 years at Wild Garden Seed influenced Grand Prismatic in so many ways, from our method of precision winnowing to our brand loyalty toward the storage totes we buy.

Other factors of my background that have influenced Grand Prismatic are my love of fiber arts and dye plants (which we feature prominently in our catalog), and my capacity to enjoy extremely tedious tasks like hand-filling thousands of seed packets at a time, winnowing for days on end, and what can feel like endless weeding projects.

Guy: I have been involved in a variety of ethnobotanical projects through work, study, and my personal life, and experiencing communities with deep-rooted, thriving relationships with plants and ecosystems has been very impactful. This has inspired me to look more deeply at how I engage with plants and the received knowledge and perspectives gained from my own cultural upbringing and schooling.

The deep relationship with place and the intimate knowledge of how to live with your surroundings are constant messages in ethnobotany. Our modern lifeways and global economy have obscured and abstracted that sense of immediate connection with nature in many of our daily lives.

Through Grand Prismatic Seed, I hope to introduce people to plants and ways to interact with them that provide meaningful connections to the natural world.

My work in field botany, habitat restoration, and native plant and seed production has developed my knowledge of plant ecology of various regions in the western U.S. That knowledge gives me insight into underutilized plant species. I also learned many skills, techniques, and perspectives that are transferable to seed farming and provide additional avenues for us to explore, such as seed production for ecological restoration efforts.

Similarly, my current work in water conservation gardening at Red Butte Garden and Arboretum has exposed me to a huge diversity of plants used in many styles of gardening, especially plants that support sustainable gardening practices.

I believe that through my time spent in each of these disciplines, I have developed a holistic viewpoint that gives Grand Prismatic Seed a multi-faceted nature and the ability to offer customers the opportunity to explore and develop their gardens in exciting ways.

In the U.S., seed companies are often located on the west or east coast. What led you to start Grand Prismatic in Utah? 

We were both raised in Utah and when we decided to take the leap and start our own seed farm, the idea of being close to family again felt really grounding and comforting. After 5 years of living and farming in Oregon, we also missed the landscapes and flora of Utah, and the idea of offering many of our favorite Utah native plants alongside domesticated crops in our seed catalog was really exciting for us both.

The opportunity to make plant selections in an environment that has fewer seed growers and plant breeders also appealed to us. As climate change continues to make growing conditions less predictable, having adaptable seeds selected under diverse environmental pressures will become increasingly important. 

Compared to our mild climate here in the Pacific Northwest, the Intermountain West seems to experience more extreme temperatures and weather. How have those conditions impacted the varieties that you choose to grow, and has this changed over time?

The Intermountain West is definitely a harsh environment for seed production. The silver lining is that our plants end up having LOTS of selection pressures like intense hail storms in the spring, early and late frosts, and large thunderstorms with strong winds fueled by monsoon moisture in late summer. Over time these selection events will produce increasingly resilient plant seeds. 

Each season we grow a handful of varieties that we know are unlikely to produce seeds before frost, but we love pushing the envelope to see what we can and cannot grow here in the high desert. Sometimes it takes years of experimentation to get things to work just right, especially with how variable our growing season is year to year. 

An example of this longer-term experimentation with varieties is our time spent with Japanese indigo (pictured above). The first 2 years that we planted it were pretty demoralizing, and we questioned whether or not it was a viable seed crop in our region. The plants grew beautifully here, but they weren’t able to produce seeds before frosty autumn weather set in.

Instead of throwing in the towel, we saved seeds from the few individuals that bloomed a tad earlier and were slightly more frost hardy, and then we grew those seeds out with a mix of other Japanese indigo varieties with a similar leaf shape.

The result of this mixture of genetics and lots of natural selection via extreme Utah weather events has been a beautiful population of robust plants that are a very reliable dye and seed crop for us year after year.  

I would say that our method for selecting varieties hasn’t changed too much over time, but the harsh conditions of our climate have definitely brought us more respect for the rugged native plants that we grow.  

In the early years of Floret, I rented land from a neighbor and I was interested to read that you also lease some of your growing area. Can you tell us a little more about how you came to find your current location?

After losing our original leased land to the expansion of a nearby highway in 2019, we were having a difficult time finding more land to grow on. Luckily, Rikki Longino, who is now a dear friend, came across a post we had on Instagram regarding our land search and reached out to us about extra growing space that they had available at the Mobile Moon Co-op (MMC). We’ve now been growing crops at the MMC for four seasons and love working alongside them.  

In addition to land leased at the MMC, we plant high-maintenance seed crops in the yard of the house we rent and have an ever-growing diversity of seed crops at Top Crops farm in downtown Salt Lake City. Having three different growing locations can be a lot to juggle, but this allows us to have multiple isolation plots for plants of the same species. 

There are definitely constraints that come with leasing land, and in many cases, like our first lease, you may end up losing all the work you have invested, but the financial commitment of leasing property is far less burdensome than having large land debts. 

Most farmland being sold in our area is priced for future subdivisions and not agriculture, which has prevented us from being able to afford a permanent home for Grand Prismatic Seed. We love our current growing locations but look forward to the security that would come from a future forever farm. (If you are reading this, and happen to have any leads on a little house in Utah with land priced for agriculture, send us an e-mail!) 

Your online shop features an extensive collection of varieties that can be used for natural dyeing. What drew you to this special group of plants, and how do you go about selecting the seeds that you offer?

James: I became interested in dye plants as a teenager shortly after my sister and grandma taught me to knit. Knitting exposed me to a whole new world of fiber arts, and natural dyeing quickly caught my attention. After getting my first books on natural dyes, I became completely mesmerized by the process of coaxing color from plants. My fascination with this process has only grown as I’ve become a more experienced dyer. 

When we started selecting the first dye plants we wanted to grow for our catalog, we were surprised by how difficult it was to source seeds, and even more surprised by the extremely low seed counts (and germination rates) of the varieties that were on the market.

An example would be Japanese indigo where many packets offered in the U.S. contain as few as 10 to 25 seeds per packet, and most of those seeds aren’t viable. (Japanese indigo seed doesn’t have a very long shelf life.) 

Through a lot of research, tedious seed sourcing, plant trialing, dye experiments, and crop successes and failures, we’ve been able to curate a beautiful lineup of seeds for dye plants, and we add varieties to that list each season. We are also happy to be offering seed counts that give customers a greater chance of success with their dye gardens. 

Many of the varieties you grow at Grand Prismatic are open-pollinated. Can you tell our readers a little more about what distinguishes open-pollinated plants from other varieties and why you’ve chosen to focus on them?

We believe a cornerstone of food sovereignty is the ability of farmers and gardeners to save their own seed and adapt varieties to meet the needs of their environment and community. Because of this core tenet, we grow open-pollinated varieties that will produce true-to-type seeds when saved by their new stewards.

Open-pollinated plants are allowed to naturally pollinate within their variety, while hybrids are created by controlling the pollination of two inbred lines to produce a new uniform variety with specific attributes. If you save seeds from hybrid parents, it’s unlikely that their progeny will have the traits you originally desired. Because of this, gardeners and farmers relying on hybrid varieties must return to the hybrid growers year after year to buy more seeds.

You talk a lot about the importance of farmers and gardeners being able to save their own seeds, which is something I’m passionate about as well. Do you have any advice or tips for those of our readers who haven’t tried their hand at seed saving yet?

Definitely! We have two main tips:

First off, we recommend that readers interested in seed saving start by saving seeds from large-seeded domesticated crops like sunflowers, safflower, peas, and beans. Many generations of people across the world have spent thousands of years building relationships with these plants, and that’s resulted in traits that make their seed harvest and cultivation intuitive and straightforward. 

Large-seeded domesticated crops no longer have intricate seed dispersal mechanisms that can make the seeds difficult to collect (like milkweed seeds floating away in the wind, or lupine pods exploding to propel seeds). Many of these plants have also lost their built-in dormancy, which allows them to germinate more quickly, easily, and uniformly when we plant them. 

The seeds of many non-domesticated plants retain innate physical and chemical mechanisms that prevent the seeds from germinating all at once or without special environmental signals that are tied to survival in the plant’s natural surroundings. These signals are often connected to patterns of temperature, moisture, decomposition, wildfire, or other phenomena of the natural world that the plants have evolved with and adapted to. Because of this, undomesticated crops can be quite frustrating for beginning gardeners or seed savers. 

Domesticated plants with large seeds are also much easier to clean without professional tools. A box fan or heavy breeze can easily remove much of the chaff, and when the seeds are clean of debris, the large size makes them easy to inspect for maturity and health.  

By saving seeds from large-seeded domesticated plants, you get to benefit from the brilliance of our ancestors’ work who have made the job so much easier, while also joining a chain of seed savers that will connect you to the next generation of growers.

Our second recommendation is to focus on plants that are self-fertile, meaning that their own flowers can pollinate themselves. With self-fertile plants, you are more likely to end up saving seed for a plant that will produce the vegetables, flowers, etc. that you expect. With outcrossing plants, you’ll need to be much more aware of nearby plants of the same species that may cross with your crop. 

Winter or summer squash are examples of commonly grown plants that can take special care to maintain the characteristics desired by the seed saver. This is due to the fact that one of their main pollinators is a very widespread native bee species that can cover significant distances while pollinating almost exclusively squash plants. What can result is a seed carrying very different genetics than what you are expecting. 

As you get more familiar with seed saving and seed cleaning, smaller seeded crops and native plants will quickly become more approachable!   

I’m impressed by the number of unique and hard-to-find varieties that are included in your catalog. What criteria do you use when selecting the seeds that you offer each year?

Thank you! We hope to inspire people to explore plants by catering to a wide diversity of gardening interests and goals, including food, medicine, dye, natives, habitat enrichment, soil building, and beauty. Some selections come down to personal preference for flavor, aesthetics, and other traits.

We generally try not to use our limited growing spaces for plants that can be sourced easily from large producers unless it is something we have worked to adapt to our local growing conditions, and we always aim to identify plants that we can grow well and that will produce healthy seed crops.

Many heirloom varieties have fallen out of cultivation or have gone extinct. When we identify an heirloom variety that we want to steward, we like to get those seeds out to people and practice conservation through dissemination.

Another goal for our selections is to highlight less commonly known and grown native flora from different regions. We want to provide plants that offer something special to gardeners, whether it is a chance to enhance/support the local ecology by including local wildflowers in their growing space, propagate uncommon wild food and medicine plants, or to incorporate tough, adaptable plants in their garden that create beauty while using fewer resources.

Lastly but importantly, we strive to avoid plants that are known to become invasive and do damage to ecosystems in different areas. If we grow a plant with this kind of potential, we do our best to warn people of the risk and always encourage customers to consult their local state noxious weed lists before ordering seeds.

Last year you offered a few varieties that were part of the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI). Can you tell us a little more about OSSI and its benefits?  

OSSI was developed to provide plant breeders with a way to identify their varieties as “open source” and protect them from future patents. The goal of this is to expand and maintain access to germplasm at a time when farmers worldwide are increasingly dependent on patented seeds that they can’t legally save or share. 

After a plant breeder has submitted a variety to OSSI, seeds of that variety are then sold with the following pledge on each packet:

OSSI PLEDGE: You have the freedom to use these OSSI-Pledged seeds in any way you choose. In return, you pledge not to restrict others’ use of these seeds or their derivatives by patents or other means, and to include this Pledge with any transfer of these seeds or their derivatives.

OSSI also lays out four seed freedoms, which helps to summarize their stance on what an “open source” seed is:

1. The freedom to save or grow seed for replanting or for any other purpose. 
2. The freedom to share, trade, or sell seed to others.
3. The freedom to trial and study seed and to share or publish information about it.
4. The freedom to select or adapt the seed, make crosses with it, or use it to breed new lines and varieties.

What are you most excited about for the upcoming growing season, and what is the best way for people to stay up to date with your current offerings? 

We are excited about all the new varieties coming to our 2024 catalog, but two that we’re most enthusiastic about are ‘Prairie Sun’ Rudbeckia which is a stunning cut flower and dye plant, and a bicolor Coreopsis that will be the fourth variety of dyer’s Coreopsis that we have available. We’ll also have fresh Japanese indigo back in stock! 

One of the things that surprises us and delights us most each season is seeing customer photos on Instagram or sent to our email that show their happy plants or incredible dye projects featuring plants grown from Grand Prismatic Seed. People are SO creative! 

We are also pretty excited about a handful of educational blog posts that we have in the pipeline for 2024. 

The best way to stay up to date with our offerings is to sign up for our newsletter.

Thank you both so much for taking the time to tell Floret readers about Grand Prismatic. I’m really excited to grow more of your offerings this year. 

Grand Prismatic is offering a generous giveaway of five $100 gift cards to their online shop. For a chance to win, simply post a comment below telling us about your favorite dye plant, or one that you’re interested in trying. Winners will be announced on January 16. Please note: This giveaway is open to U.S. and Canadian residents only.

Update: A huge congratulations to our winners Rebecca, Alina, Alex, Sarah Aumsbaugh and Julianna.

To learn more and connect with Grand Prismatic Seed, be sure to visit their website and follow them on Instagram.

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The post The {Farmer} & The Florist Interview: Grand Prismatic Seed appeared first on Floret Flowers.

Alla, her husband Vitaliy, and her family live in the eastern part of Ukraine, about 20 miles south of the Russia-Ukraine border. When the war started in February of 2022, Alla was unable to leave the country due to Vitaliy’s severe health issues and being the primary caregiver for her elderly grandmother and mother-in-law. 

After learning about Alla and continuing to follow her journey, I realized just how special her story was and knew it needed to be shared with the world. Over the past few months, Alla sat for numerous interviews, shared hundreds of photographs, filmed nearly 200 videos with her old iPhone, and we even found a talented local cinematographer to spend a few days with her in the garden. It’s a bit of a miracle that it all came together like it did, and it feels very much meant to be. 

All of this footage came together in the most beautiful and poignant documentary film called Gardening in a War Zone. I highly encourage you to set aside some time in the next few days to watch this special story rooted in beauty, inspiration, and hope. 

For more of the backstory on how I came to know Alla, her passion for sharing beauty, and why this project matters so much, be sure to watch this special First Look. I recommend starting with this video first before watching the full film. 

We also had the opportunity to interview Alla (which you can read below) about her garden, her love of clematis, and her new book, Clematis, which dives deep into this special group of plants. At the bottom of this interview, you’ll find all the ways to support Alla and enter a wonderful giveaway to win a copy of her book and some of her magical clematis seeds.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

 Alla, thank you so much for taking the time to share more about your flower journey. You live in Kharkiv in the Eastern part of Ukraine, and your garden is located in the heart of the city. Can you tell us what it’s like? What kind of plants do you grow? 

My garden is my lifelong love. 

It’s imperfect, but I’m constantly thinking whether I really would like it to be perfect and I think the answer is no. 

When you enter through the very old wooden gate made by my great-grandfather 50 years ago you will see the first half of the garden. It is divided into two almost equal parts. The first part is somewhat lower and has standing water in the spring. As a result, it can be dangerous for many rare plants. So, in this space, I grow easy-care plants that will withstand the conditions. 

In the place where the water doesn’t reach, I made a big peony flower bed. There are lots of modern varieties which I managed to get from other gardeners, and old varieties which were planted by my great grandmother! They are the biggest treasures for me. The bushes were old and weak, so I divided them and took care of them and now they are covered with big double, scented flowers every year—what a joy!

Walking along the house you enter the second part of the garden which is much more exquisite. I tried to follow a natural planting style so my clematis are often vining over the bushes and up into the trees, and there are rare perennials growing under several old apple trees that were planted by my great-grandfather. I’m especially proud of the pine trees which I grew from seed and now they are twice as tall as me! I can say that my garden is a paradise for me. It’s an oasis of serenity and positive emotions in a desert of hostilities and missile attacks. When I work in the garden and there are no terrible air alert sounds, I forget for a while all the horrors of the war in which we live.

You have so many rare and interesting plants growing in your garden, but your specialty is clematis. What do you love about these plants in particular?

Oh, clematis is my special love! This is no ordinary flower; it is a vast and intricate genus comprised of lots of species from all over the world! Of course, it is composed of mostly vigorous, woody, climbing vines. But some varieties like Clematis integrifolia are shrubby, like an herbaceous perennial.

The sizes vary tremendously as well, starting from dwarfs such as creeping Clematis marmoraria or Clematis columbiana var. tenuiloba ‘Ylva’ and finishing with the gigantic vines such as Clematis montana or Clematis armandii, which easily reach 7 m (23 ft) high or more! 

If you plant species and cultivars of various groups, you will receive continuous clematis flowering from mid-spring up until frosts, which is really impressive!

Another fascinating aspect is the intricate dance of colors and shapes that clematis exhibit. The flowers range from delicate bells to impressive big starbursts, and the color palette spans the entire spectrum. It’s a living kaleidoscope that transforms the garden into a captivating work of art. I am absolutely amazed by the versatility and adaptability of clematis.

There are nearly 400 unique species of clematis but as I understand from your book, they fall into three main groups. Can you talk a bit more about the different groups, their bloom time, and their pruning needs? 

Clematis are subdivided into three main groups which have similar characteristics and requirements, so when you buy your clematis you should pay attention to what botanical group it belongs to. By knowing the group, you will be able to determine the conditions the plant needs, including planting and growing tips, and you will be able to determine its habit and approximate height.

There are three main groups—Group 1, Group 2, and Group 3—and each one is pruned differently: 

Group 1: No Pruning or Light Pruning. This group includes early-flowering clematis varieties that bloom on the previous season’s growth and typically flower in spring. Pruning needs are minimal, usually limited to the removal of dead or damaged wood and light shaping. The primary objective is to maintain the plant’s natural form and remove any unwanted growth. Pruning is typically done after flowering, around late spring or early summer.

Group 2: Light Pruning. This group consists of large-flowered hybrids that bloom both on the previous season’s growth and on new growth. These clematis produce an initial flush of flowers in late spring or early summer on old wood, followed by a second flush in summer on new growth. Usually, if the variety is double, the first flowering on old wood will be double while the second wave of flowering on new growth will be single. Pruning in this group involves removing dead or weak stems, controlling size, and shaping the plant. The best time to prune is in late winter or early spring before new growth starts, but you can also do light pruning after the first flush of flowers to encourage more blooms later.

Group 3: Hard Pruning. This group is comprised of late-flowering clematis that bloom exclusively on new growth. These clematis varieties flower from mid- to late summer. Pruning for Group 3 clematis involves more drastic measures to stimulate vigorous growth and abundant flowering. In late winter or early spring, cut all the stems back to a pair of strong buds around 30 cm (12 in) above ground level. This severe pruning promotes new growth and ensures the best display of flowers during the summer. The shoots of some varieties may die down to their base during winter, in this case, you can completely remove them in early spring. 

If people are interested in growing clematis, what do they need to know? Are there any varieties that you’d recommend for beginners? 

First of all, gardeners shouldn’t be anxious about planting clematis because there are lots of varieties that will grow with little care. The most common mistake many new gardeners make is planting large-flowered varieties from Group 2. I have very few of these varieties in the garden because they are difficult and inclined to wilt. 

If you plant varieties from Group 1 and Group 3, you will be able to enjoy your plants without struggling with them constantly. I just adore the bell-shaped varieties, which have turned out to be very stable in the garden. 

I also highly recommend all Clematis integrifolia varieties and deriving hybrids (‘Fascination’, ‘Jan Fopma’ [pictured above], ‘Josie’s Midnight Blue’, and many others), and bushy clematis such as Clematis stans, Clematis heracleifolia, and their hybrids. Atragene is my early spring love which I just can’t imagine my garden without!

Until very recently, I was unaware that so many clematis varieties could be started from seed. Can you share more about this process? 

My favourite way of sowing clematis seeds is the natural way. I do not like sowing in pots because it requires too much time and additional care, and you need to constantly check if they are too wet or too dry. Since I do not live where the garden is located, sticking to all these procedures is next to impossible, so I normally sow them directly into the garden. Of course, in this way, they take longer to germinate, but for me, this method remains the most effective.

You can also start seeds in small pots using a stimulant called gibberellic acid (GA3). This acid is a natural growth hormone, and since it promotes seed germination, it is used to increase the percentage of germination. Here are instructions on how to sow clematis seeds using gibberellic acid:

1. Place the seeds in a tea bag. 
2. Optional: Treat the seeds with a fungicide for 24 hours (I use Bayer, Syngenta, etc.). 
3. Rinse the seeds with water 3 to 4 times. 
4. Soak the seeds in water for 1 to 2 days. 
5. Carefully peel off the outer hard shell of the seeds (you can use, for example, nail scissors). Treat the seeds with a solution of 125–250 ppm gibberellic acid (I found that 1 ppm = 1 mg/kg). If you use a concentration of 250 ppm treat them for 6 hours or if you use a concentration of 125 ppm treat them for 12 hours at room temperature. 
6. Wrap the seeds in a damp paper tea towel and place them in a ziplock bag.
7. Store the bag at room temperature from 2 weeks to 2 months.
8. Check the contents of the package every 3 days.
9. As soon as you notice the appearance of the root, plant the seeds in pots or a small container. 
10. Do not forget to water the planted seeds regularly. Shoots in pots will appear approximately 2 months after planting. The percentage of seed germination when using gibberellic acid ranges from 40 to 100%.
11. Once the seedlings have developed several true leaves, they can be transplanted into larger containers. Be sure to handle the seedlings carefully to avoid damaging the delicate roots. 
12. Clematis vines need a support structure to climb on from the very beginning of their life, so be sure to provide a trellis or other support for the seedlings as they grow. 

You have a huge offering of seeds that you grow and also sell. How many varieties of clematis do you currently have in your garden, and can you share some favorites? 

You know, I never counted the exact number of the clematis I grow, but my collection continues to expand because I sow more and more seeds every year. I definitely have more than 80 clematis varieties in the garden now.

Naming my favourite varieties is a really challenging task, as I love them all! If we talk about vining clematis, I just adore all the bell-shaped varieties. Clematis ‘Princess Red’ (pictured above, top left), which has a pleasant fragrance, Clematis glaucophylla (pictured above, top right), Clematis viorna, Clematis viorna ‘Liviana’, Clematis pitcheri, Clematis versicolor, Clematis ‘Peveril Peach’ (also known as ‘Sonnette’), Clematis ‘Fascination’, Clematis ‘Jan Fopma’, Clematis ‘Josie’s Midnight Blue’, Clematis crispa, Clematis crispa ‘Titipu’ … I just can’t stop listing them. The main thing is that all of these varieties flower throughout the summer, and some even bloom up until the first frosts. 

If we talk about non-vining, bushy varieties, I just adore Clematis stans and Clematis ‘I am Stanislaus’. Both of them flower abundantly in autumn with blue flowers. They are extremely easy to grow—you just plant them and forget, but in autumn you have all this beauty!

Clematis ‘Sundance’ (pictured above, bottom) is also my autumn favorite! It’s so abundant, but the main beauty is its seed heads, which are just extra gorgeous.

I love incorporating clematis vines into arrangements, especially larger statement pieces. What are your favorite varieties for arranging with? Do you have any tricks for maximizing vase life? 

I just adore garden arrangements and I make them all the time as soon as the first flowers start blooming in the garden! The only thing I do to prolong the vase life is regularly changing the water. 

Using clematis as a cut flower is a very interesting topic! Bell-shaped clematis are among the best for arranging as they have a very good vase life. Clematis versicolor, Clematis texensis, Clematis viorna, Clematis viorna ‘Liviana’, and Clematis ‘Kaiu’ are all good performers as cut flowers.

It may be surprising, but I love using clematis seed heads in my arrangements. They always add a touch of elegance and look so good with other flowers!

When incorporating clematis seed heads into floral designs, it is important to consider their placement and complementing elements. Their delicate nature requires careful handling to prevent damage, and they should be positioned in a way that highlights their unique forms and textures. Pairing them with other dried elements, such as branches, berries, or dried flowers, can create a harmonious composition that evokes a sense of timeless beauty.

By the way, the most beautiful seed heads are on Clematis ‘Sundance’ (pictured above, bottom), they are just amazing and a staple in any arrangement!

You are such a talented photographer and clearly have a passion for this work. How did you get your start?

It all started in childhood with my father’s old Zenith camera. I wanted to take a picture of every flower and every grass, but due to the limitations that the film imposed, I had to take only family shots. It was an old Soviet camera and all the settings were manual, so it was really difficult to use and I didn’t always get beautiful photos.

I will never forget the delight that I experienced when my friend brought back from her internship in the U.S. the first digital camera with an LCD and an unlimited ability to shoot anything and everything—and even instantly see the result on the screen—just miraculously wonderful and unbelievable! 

And soon such a camera was gifted to me by my father. Though it was a cheap point-and-shoot camera, it was an extremely expensive purchase for our family and my happiness had no limits! I was inspired so much! 

At the same time, I had started gardening and someone told me about Facebook, and I started sharing my flower photos there and received many warm comments. Then I learned about Instagram and immediately liked it, photography was at its core. I started posting photos there and received more and more wonderful comments.

Because of this, my husband Vitaliy (pictured above) encouraged me to buy a better camera. I was against it for a long time as the purchase was too expensive for us and would make a hole in our budget, but finally, we took a loan and bought a Nikon D750 with a 105mm macro lens. Oh those wonderful peaceful times before the war when you could take a loan for a camera! 

The new camera was difficult for me to use because it was really heavy and it had lots of settings which I didn’t understand easily. But when I saw the results and the photos were of such amazing quality, I decided I would learn how to take photos with this camera, and eventually, I succeeded! You can do anything when you have a strict aim and are inspired!

My Instagram followers ask me all the time to make a course on flower photography. So right now I’m working on a series of workshops dedicated to flower photography for those eager to take beautiful flower photos. As soon as I’m ready, I will make an announcement on my Instagram account. 

Ukraine is a very young country when it comes to gardening and has only recently been influenced by the Western world. What do you see for the future of Ukrainian gardens? 

I believe that the evolution and the future of Ukrainian gardening will be marked by a harmonious blend of both local traditions and influences from Western gardening culture. 

When I started growing rare plants, I was among the first Ukrainian gardeners to explore and introduce new species. I’m sure that rare plants and beautiful landscape design will develop as soon as the war finishes and people are able to live in peace and enjoy gardening again. 

Many foreign gardeners just adore sowing seeds while my compatriots weren’t even aware that such a possibility existed until recently! I think the trend of growing plants from seeds will definitely become stronger. Growing from seeds is a journey that involves patience and care, and there is so much joy in witnessing life unfold. It adds a whole new dimension to the gardening experience, helps to preserve rare endangered species, and makes gardening more cost-effective, as seeds are generally more affordable than buying mature plants.

Thank you Alla for sharing your story and love for clematis with us. I am so excited for people to learn about your important work and sow your beautiful seeds in their gardens. 

To honor Alla’s story and encourage more gardeners to try their hand at growing clematis from seed, we’re giving away 12 special collections that we ordered from her. Each collection includes seeds from seven of her favorite varieties, a note from Alla, and a copy of her wonderful new e-book, Clematis. 

For a chance to win, please share what part of Alla’s story impacted you the most. Winners will be announced on Thursday, December 21. Please note: This giveaway is open to residents in the U.S. and Canada only. 

Update: A huge congratulations to our winners: Katrina Scala, Kate Hollander, Joanna Glud, Erin Jenkins, Mary Holowach, Katherine Ball, Suzanne H.,  Kim Finger, Colleen Martin, Katelyn Wissinger, April Whiston and Debra

If you’re interested in learning more about Alla and supporting her work, here are all of the important details: 

Purchase a copy of Alla’s book

If you want to learn all about clematis, Alla wrote a wonderful e-book all about them. This 124-page book includes her beautiful photography, growing advice based on her personal experience, plus her favorite varieties (organized by bloom time), and instructions on how to propagate clematis through cuttings and layering, and from seed. 

We’ve just added Alla’s new e-book all about clematis to the Floret Shop if you would like to order a copy. Since it is a digital product, it will be delivered by email right away. 100% of the proceeds from Alla’s book sales through our shop will go directly to her—purchase your copy here.

Make a donation 

If you’re not interested in seeds or a book and would like another way to help, you can simply send money. The exchange rate is very much in Alla’s favor, and what might seem like a small amount will go a long way for her and her family. 

Funds can be sent via PayPal to standwithkharkiv@gmail.com. All donations go directly to Alla, and if you enter HUMANITARIAN AID into the “What’s this payment for” field, fees and taxes will be waived.

Subscribe to Patreon

Alla just started a Patreon account with three monthly subscription levels: snowdrop ($5 USD/month) clematis ($10 USD/month), and peony ($25 USD/month). These subscriptions will allow Alla to continue her seed-saving efforts and will support her family during the upcoming winter months. For more information, click here.

Order seeds

Please note: Alla is currently sold out of seeds because of your incredible support. After she processes all of the orders, she may be able to restock a few varieties. She will be posting updates on her Instagram account. 

Alla sells seeds for clematis, peonies, phlox, and rare plants and ships worldwide. To place an order, visit her online catalogs here and here.

Follow Alla on social media

Alla has a wonderful Instagram account where she shares beautiful pictures from the garden, interesting videos of her work, and updates from Ukraine. She also has a Facebook page that you can follow and a YouTube channel that you can subscribe to. Be sure to leave her a comment and some encouraging words.

Please note: If your comment doesn’t show up right away, sit tight; we have a spam filter that requires us to approve comments before they are published.

The post The {Farmer} & the Florist Interview: Alla Olkhovska appeared first on Floret Flowers.

Sara has just written her first book, Farm & Folk Quilt Alchemy: A High-Country Guide to Natural Dyeing and Making Heirloom Quilts from Scratch, which introduces the processes of natural dyeing and quilting, and with its beautiful photography it is a piece of art in its own right.

On her website, Sara says, “Farm & Folk is a fusion of my work as both an organic farmer and folk artist. The colors in my quilts are born through the alchemical processes of seeds + soil, sunlight, moonlight + water. Through this alchemy, the seeds are transformed to become fibers and dyestuffs, some of which are grown and harvested here on Ancient Future Farm. My fascination and passion for transferring natural color to natural fibers continues to grow stronger as the years roll by.” To me, this is pure magic!

I was delighted when Sara agreed to create a commissioned quilt to help me commemorate filming season 2 of Growing Floret. I was so excited to collaborate with her using the pattern I had felt such a connection to, called the Folk Garden Quilt, and to incorporate flowers and colors from one of my much-loved paintings by Morgan Allender.

Sara’s timeless quilts are made using ethically and responsibly sourced materials, organically grown ingredients, and a slow and intentional process that authentically represents her values and her relationship with nature. She actually grows the flowers she uses to dye, she hand-dyes the fabric, and then every single stitch is made by her hands! There’s such an incredible amount of care in the entire process, and in the end you have a keepsake that will last many generations.

Sara is such a talented artist and an incredible photographer, and following her on Instagram is a must. Farm & Folk Quilt Alchemy will be released on September 26 and is available now for pre-order. I am thrilled to share it with you here today and hope you’ll be as inspired as I am.

Sara, I’m so happy to welcome you to the blog. Please tell our readers a little bit about yourself and the evolution of your business, Farm & Folk.

Thank you, Erin, I’m really grateful to be here! I’m an organic farmer, natural dyer, and folk artist rooted in the Colorado high desert. Farm & Folk began as a vision I had in 2015 to manifest a sustainable way in which I could balance my work as both a farmer and an artist—the two things that feed my soul. In autumn of 2017, I launched my website as a place to sell my naturally dyed, hand-stitched quilts and to share some blog posts about natural dyes and quilt making. I had the folk aspect of my work figured out, but wasn’t yet sure how I could weave in the farm aspect.

I made quilts very slowly in those first years, sometimes only two or three a year, between homeschooling my children and my work as a farmer. I was feeling creatively stifled at that time, like I might burst if I couldn’t find a way to make the art that was inside me. I knew I needed to prioritize quilts, so I began taking the steps that were required to evolve.

I began accepting the opportunities that came my way, including writing a book and taking on custom orders. Then, in winter of 2022, I had an epiphany that I should grow dye flowers as the farm aspect of my offerings. This created a way I could share my passion for transferring homegrown, natural color to fiber. I’m excited to see how this aspect of my work continues to unfurl. 

I am so excited about the release of your first book. This beautiful work pieces together the passions you’ve been pursuing for years: organic farming, natural dyeing, folk art, and quilting. What inspired you to write a book and what was that process like for you?

Thank you so much, Erin! My biggest inspiration for writing this book came from the hundreds of questions I’ve received from folks over the years about natural dyes and quilt making. A lot of people had the same questions, and I couldn’t keep answering them one by one. I started thinking about how I might answer them and it came down to a book. I love books! I’ve learned just about everything I know about farming and natural dyes and quilt making through books, so I wanted to give back in that way. I especially like that books are an accessible form of education.

The process was a definite challenge for me! I put all my other work aside and spent 13 months focusing exclusively on the book. It’s really two books in one. The first half is all about natural dyes, with 20 color formulas specifically for cotton, linen, and hemp fabrics intended for quilt making. I spent 6 months testing my formulas and writing about my natural dye methods and processes.

Then I spent 7 months writing the second half, which is all about making quilts. I put a lot of thought into the patterns and presented them in a skill-building fashion. I designed and made seven quilts in 6 months, which is so much for me, but the experience completely opened my eyes to what I was capable of.

It was a real hustle and a bit of a grind to finish the book in one year, but the irony was that it also completely forced me to stop and form words around not only how I do things, but why. I learned a lot about myself in that process. 

The book’s title is Farm & Folk Quilt Alchemy. Tell our readers why you chose the word alchemy and how it relates not only to the time-honored practices of farming and growing things, but also to the arts of natural dyeing and quilting.

Alchemy means transformation. When I was pondering a title, the word alchemy felt like it was a good fit for all the sections. All the aspects of my work are transformative, from planting seeds that sprout to life from dark soil to transforming fibers with mordant and dyes to the transformation of cutting up dyed fabrics into hundreds of small pieces and sewing them back together again. They’re all such beautiful alchemical processes.

I like that the word alchemy makes folks stop and think, and that’s a big part of my intention for this book: to inspire folks to stop and think about some very basic things that have been a fundamental part of human existence since the beginning, like seeds and fiber and the art of making beautiful things with our hands. 

I have always been fascinated by the art of natural dyeing and growing flowers specifically for this purpose, but knowing where to begin can be intimidating. For someone completely new to this, how would you suggest they get started? 

I have talked today about taking small steps that lead to big ones, but sometimes it’s best to just go ahead and dive in! When I first discovered natural dyes in 2002 at a workshop I attended at my son’s Waldorf preschool, I was enamored by the concept of plants as color! I came home from that workshop and immediately ordered the book Wild Colour by Jenny Dean. The internet wasn’t much of a thing back then, so I learned mostly through experimentation and trial and error.

Then, when I planted my first big dye garden a couple years ago, I had never grown flowers before. I did a little bit of research about which flowers are good for dyes, I ordered the seeds, and when spring came along, I planted them. Once the seeds were planted, I was committed. I began harvesting them, which forced me to figure out how to dry and cure them. Then I began experimenting with them in the dye pots. I totally just figured everything out as I went. 

My best suggestion for someone trying anything completely new is to just go for it. Do some research, read some books, take a class or a workshop if you’re able—but just begin and problem-solve as you go. A lot of questions will come up, but you will find the answers because information is pretty easy to come by in this internet era. You will have some epic failures, but failures are what lead to epic successes. You don’t have to wait for the most perfect and ideal situation—just begin and revel in the experience of being an amateur. Just begin!

Creating natural dyes requires lots of experimentation, trial and error, failure, and trying again, all while knowing that we are working with nature and the end result may be out of our hands! How do you approach the process knowing that your hard work might not produce the outcome you’re hoping for?

Being a farmer sure helps with this! The farm is the ultimate teacher of patience and perseverance. We’ve had crops decimated by hail, 10-year-old fruit trees eaten by goats, frost in the last week of June that takes out a whole crop. With natural dyes there are so many variables that can affect the outcome. It’s nearly impossible to produce the exact same color each and every time. This lack of control is actually appealing to me. It keeps me humble and forces me to let go of expectations and to see things from a different perspective. Besides beautiful, life-enriching colors, the soul medicines that natural dyes provide are acceptance and adaptability. 

How did you fall in love with quilting and what is the inspiration for your designs? Do you plan out each quilt before you begin or do some evolve as you go?

Quilting was something I always knew I would do, but I thought it would happen later in life. I began sewing when my first child was born. A decade later, my sewing scrap basket was overflowing with remnants of the fabrics I used to make clothes for my children over the years. The scraps felt too special to discard, so I made my first patchwork quilt with them. I instantly fell in love with quilt making and the ability it offered to express myself through shapes and pieces, colors and stitches, and I haven’t stopped yet.

Each next quilt still feels like an opportunity to expand off the previous one. My inspiration has always been traditional quilt blocks and designs, but more recently I’ve evolved into what I think of as traditional hybrid quilts. I enjoy adding modern aspects to traditional designs. I’ve also really been enjoying making appliqué-style story quilts as a way to tell the stories of my heart. Some quilts are planned before I begin, especially commissioned pieces, but others I figure out as I go along. Even when I have a plan, I often find that the plan will evolve as the piece comes together. 

In addition to offering one-of-a-kind quilts on your website, you also take on a number of commissioned quilts each year. I was lucky enough to go through this process with you recently and it was so eye-opening. Would you take our readers through how a custom piece like mine comes to life?

Yes! Commission pieces used to kind of freak me out. It’s a different process than just going to the studio and making something. The process is a collaboration of sorts, which is pretty sweet. It begins with an email inquiry. Sometimes folks know exactly what they want as far as colors, fibers, and design, and other times we have to go back and forth a great deal, honing in on the options. It takes about a month, give or take, for me to make a custom quilt, depending on the time of year. During the farming season it can take much longer! I send my clients regular progress updates and ask for feedback to ensure I’m staying on the right track as far as their vision for the piece. It’s always super exciting to make that last hand stitch and send the finished quilt out into the world. 

I know you’re planning to offer a few workshops this autumn and winter. Can you tell us more about those, and is there anything else in the works for you?

Workshops are a completely new offering and experience for me. Last month I traveled to New York to teach my first-ever workshop with my friend Katrina Rodabaugh at her home studio. I was pretty nervous about it, but I had so much fun and it was enriching to connect with Katrina, a fellow author/artist friend, and all the students. I’m teaching a natural dye workshop in Portland, Oregon, for the Portland Modern Quilt Guild in a few days. We will be dyeing a specific autumn-inspired palette and I’m looking forward to seeing how Portland’s alchemy translates the colors.

Then in October I’m teaching a fleece-spinning and natural dye workshop with my friend Stella Maria Baer of Moon Horse Ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I began my adventures in fiber arts by spinning wool from my sheep, so I’m really excited to get back to my roots and share this passion with others. There are still tickets available for that one, so please join us for what is sure to be an auspicious solar eclipse fiber weekend in the October desert!

As far as what’s in the works, I will be offering two dye flower kits in my online shop the first week of October. The first is a beginner dye kit for folks who want to try natural dyeing for the first time. It comes with two organic cotton bandanas from my friends at Maiwa, two of my homegrown organic dye flower varieties, and all the other supplies needed, along with a booklet containing detailed instructions.

The other kit combines natural dyeing and quilting. It comes with one pack of dye flowers and all the other supplies needed to make a plant-dyed quilt block, including needles and thread and a thimble for folks who don’t have a sewing machine. The detailed instructional booklet explains how to make a star block design. The single quilt block can be sewn onto the back of a jacket or shirt, and I’ve created a blog post to explain that. I love putting these kits out into the world and seeing folks get excited to try something new and then to see them feel proud of what they made. It’s so special! 

For a couple years I’ve been contemplating a late-summer workshop on my farm when all the dye plants are in bloom. The vegetable gardens would be in full production as well, so we could eat off the land. Perhaps it’s time to make that vision happen!

I love that you have come to where you are by following your heart and living gently. What advice would you give to others who are trying to shift to a more intentional and regenerative lifestyle?

I was born with a stubborn gene, which has made following my heart rather easy. My husband Tom and I became farmers because we fell in love with the magic that is seeds and soil, but the actual catalyst was that we unequivocally did not want to spend our lives working any semblance of what we thought of as mainstream careers. When we planted our first garden, we had no idea what we were doing. We both grew up in midwestern suburbs, with no exposure to agricultural ways.

Gardening became our passion, which we turned into our livelihood. As the years and decades pass, we have never been afraid to evolve when things feel like they’re weighing us down. The weight of something that isn’t feeding our souls feels a lot heavier to us than taking the risky leaps of faith that are required to evolve.

We basically unintentionally ended up living an intentional regenerative lifestyle. It all unfolded organically and with a lot of grit and hard work as we forged our way to each next step. Everyone’s situation is going to be different, but the best advice I can offer is don’t be afraid to evolve when your heart is telling you it’s time. This will require making a lot of sacrifices.

Set a goal and then begin taking steps, no matter how small they may seem. Small steps over time become big steps. If your goal is something completely new and different to you, remember that every single person who has become great at something began as an amateur. It takes years of focus and dedication, triumphs and defeats, to become skilled at something. 

Prioritizing what makes you happy and letting go of the things that are not serving your soul is revolutionary not only on a personal level, but on a collective level. If we can work toward collectively following our hearts, then the outcome will reshape the world—and the world desperately needs reshaping. 

Sara, thank you so much for sharing your business and your beautiful new book with our readers here today. I know the book is going to be such an inspiration to people who would like to try working with natural dyes or creating handmade heirloom pieces of their own.

To celebrate the release of Sara’s new book, Farm & Folk Quilt Alchemy: A High-Country Guide to Natural Dyeing and Making Heirloom Quilts from Scratch, we’re giving away four copies, plus one lucky reader will win a copy of the book and a handmade wall hanging that matches my own quilt! For a chance to win, simply post a comment below telling us about a cherished heirloom from your own family. Winners will be announced on September 26. 

A huge congratulations to our winners: Juliana, Keren Tsaushu, Lisandre St-Cyr Lamothe, Claudia Casebolt and Damita Becknell.

To learn more and connect with Sara, be sure to visit her website to sign up for her newsletter and follow her on Instagram. Farm & Folk Quilt Alchemy is available from Amazon, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, and your favorite local bookstore.

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Floret only lists companies and products that we love, use, and recommend. All opinions expressed here are our own and Floret does not offer sponsored content or accept money for editorial reviews. If you buy something using the retail links in this post, Floret may receive a small commission. Thank you for your support!

The post The {Farmer} & The Florist Interview: Sara Larson Buscaglia appeared first on Floret Flowers.

When we visited England four years ago we got to see Rachel’s beautiful farm, and Chris and I both came away so inspired by what she and her partner Ash have created.

I’m excited to welcome Rachel back to the blog (you can read our 2015 interview here), this time to discuss her newest book, all about perennials and shrubs. 

Rachel, I’m so happy to have you back on the blog for a new interview. Can you please tell readers a bit about yourself and your wonderful business? 

Thanks, Erin, I am delighted to be back. The idea of Green and Gorgeous developed in 2002 when I began work in a walled garden on a country estate growing cut flowers for the big house. 

Over 6 years I immersed myself in floriculture and how to arrange in a natural style. I was convinced that these garden-grown beauties needed to be shared with a wider public. So when the opportunity came to rent a 2-acre organic market garden I decided to take a leap of faith. 

My aim was to grow everything I needed to create border-to-vase arrangements guided by the seasons and the growth habit of plants. I wanted my flowers to “leave an indelible memory of their fleeting beauty.” 

Fifteen years on and my garden-led approach is still at the heart of how we grow and sell our flowers. We have grown to 5 acres and now have a team of ten growers and florists producing thousands of stems from March through November for our weddings, shop, and courses.

When you first started Green and Gorgeous, the slow food movement was on the rise and sustainable floristry was still a novel concept. Can you share a little more about the evolution of the local flower movement in the United Kingdom and where you think it’s headed?

The shift has been huge. Local, seasonal flowers did not really exist, and the idea of calling myself a flower farmer would not have even occurred to me. We now have hundreds, if not thousands, of growers out there, and many florists are keen to buy British. 

Hopefully, the future is bright but with climate change, there are many challenges ahead and I think a shift towards growing the more weather-tolerant plant groups—perennials and woody plants—will be necessary.

The Cut Flower Sourcebook is one of the most beautiful and practical books I’ve read in such a long time. It’s precisely what gardeners and farmer-florists have been asking for for ages. Can you share what inspired you to write it? 

I am so pleased you like the book and I think it has come along at the right time. I had been thinking about writing on this subject since around 2018 when I started to make the switch from predominantly annuals to perennials and woody plants. 

They have always been plant groups that I am very comfortable with because of my background in garden design, in fact, they were the first plants I put in when we were setting up the farm in 2007. I think they translate really well to both the hobbyist cutting from their garden, where perennials and shrubs are a natural fit, and to the flower farmer who might find the only way to scale up labour-wise is to go with low-maintenance plants.

Writing a book is no small feat. Can you share a little bit about the experience of creating it? 

As I am sure you know, writing a book is a daunting prospect and initially, I struggled with self-doubt. Thankfully my publisher Anna Mumford of Filbert Press offered a calm and steady hand, guiding me through the process with plenty of positivity and encouragement. 

The part I really enjoyed was the photography. I focused on capturing all the plants in the directory whilst Eva Nemeth worked her magic on the arrangements, garden, and working shots. 

In the introduction, you share “Working in a garden every day, particularly a productive one, makes you appreciate that there are actually more than four seasons. The ancient Japanese were onto something when they developed 72 micro seasons, each just five days long.” I love the idea of celebrating these micro seasons. Do you have a favorite? 

My favourite micro season would have to be April 5 through 9, Tsubame kitaru—Swallows return. We have a pair of swallows that return at this time every spring to nest in our floral studio/shop. It is always a very special moment when they come swooping in. 

Their arrival heralds the beginning of the season. All of our flowery hustle and bustle is accompanied by their chatter as they busy themselves with nest-making and raising their young.

One of the things that stood out to me most while reading The Cut Flower Sourcebook was the images of your arrangements. What do you love the most about arranging flowers and what advice would you give someone who wants to step outside their comfort zone and create something that pushes past what they would normally make?

I tend not to have any preconceived ideas of what my arrangements will look like. I let the garden take the lead, by choosing a peaceful moment to go for a wander and see what captures my imagination. This is usually first thing in the morning when I am accompanied by birdsong and my whippet Jesse, it feels like quite a meditative process. 

I start by searching for the flower that really inspires me at that moment, which always seems to be something different. I then use this to guide me on what else to pick. I am generally drawn to harmonious colours and contrasting forms and textures.  

To ensure my designs are well balanced and to give me some parameters, I try to include plant material from the four elements of an arrangement, which I outline in my book—framework, supporting, focal, and the final accent. 

These building blocks will not only help to create an engaging design but also make it easier to put together.

The Plant Directory section of your book includes 128 of your favorite bulbs, perennials, climbers, grasses, trees, and shrubs. I think it might just be my favorite part and is something that gardeners all over the world will find incredibly useful. How hard was it to narrow down this section and decide what made the cut? 

As a plant addict, it was hard to narrow down the plant selection for the directory. It helped to focus on the tried-and-tested varieties we grow here on the farm. It is by no means a comprehensive list on the subject—my intention is to highlight the attributes readers should look for in a plant that makes it a good candidate for cutting. 

Everyone will have different growing conditions and floristry styles so hopefully, this directory will act as a springboard to finding their own trusty performers with a relaxed attitude and natural style. 

In addition to growing cut flowers, you also have a specialty seed line, teach workshops, and open your farm to the public. Can you share a little more about these offerings?

We are open every Saturday from April through October for our farm gate sales. 

Our workshops range from growing for business and pleasure to arranging with garden flowers. 

I have a couple of new offerings this year which focus on the subject of the book. One is a growing day and the other is about using perennials and woody plants predominantly in arrangements. 

Our seed shop will be reopening in early autumn with fresh stocks and hopefully some new lines that I am trialing this season.

I am working on an online flower farming series with Garden Masterclass, which is being filmed throughout the year.

Thank you so much, Rachel, for taking the time to share about your beautiful new book with Floret readers. It is such a helpful resource for gardeners all over the world. 

To celebrate the release of Rachel’s new book, The Cut Flower Sourcebook: Exceptional Perennials and Woody Plants for Cutting, we’re giving away five copies. For a chance to win, post a comment below telling us about one of your favorite shrubs or perennials. 

This giveaway is open to everyone, regardless of where you live, and winners will be announced on June 27. 

Update: A huge congratulations to our winners Linda, Margaret Donovan, Wendy Dietz, Ioria Morton and Angela Redden.

To learn more about Rachel, be sure to visit her website. You can also follow her on Instagram and Facebook. The Cut Flower Sourcebook is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org.

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Floret only lists companies and products that we love, use, and recommend. All opinions expressed here are our own and Floret does not offer sponsored content or accept money for editorial reviews. If you buy something using the retail links in this post, Floret may receive a small commission. Thank you for your support!

The post The {Farmer} & The Florist Interview: Rachel Siegfried appeared first on Floret Flowers.

I am so thankful to have gotten a chance to know her and am so inspired by how fully and generously she lived her life. 

You’ve had a very full career and an even fuller life—first as a botanist, then a teacher, then a sailor, a general contractor, and then a rosarian and a writer. Can you tell me a little bit more about your very diverse life path?

I have had a very full life and while much is owed to the length of my life, my longevity, likewise, probably benefited from having a full, diverse life. Life-long learning and growing keeps one engaged. 

It would probably surprise many of your readers to know that I used to consider myself a prisoner in my mother’s garden. We lived in Morro Bay on a high bluff. As a young child of three, maybe four, I used to run away—down the trail, that certainly wasn’t made for children, as fast as I could go down to the water. I’d get down there in the sand and there would be crabs and herons that would be fishing—so many wonderful things to see.

My mother would come screaming down after me, drag me back, and tell me to stay in the garden. The water is where I wanted to be and I managed to sneak out often until my mother put up THE fence.  My mother had a wonderful garden considering those times and her means. It was always about nature though. My appreciation of flowers came later.

My life could have played out very differently if not for losing my first husband in World War II. He was such an amazing man—very handsome, very good to me, and talented. I ran away from home to be with him and get married. He entered the military and became a fighter pilot in the 1st Air Commando group under Colonel Cochran, with the mission of flying behind Japanese lines to supply and evacuate troops and materials as well as provide fire.

My husband completed the ‘Thursday’ mission but died shortly after because of his airplane’s mechanical failure. This left me as a 19-year-old widow and new mother who had to find her own way in life. If not for this tragedy, I would have most likely had more children and settled down into a role very different from the many I’ve had since that time.

One thing that isn’t mentioned above, but is very dear to me, are the numerous volunteer and board positions I’ve held, especially co-creator of NOAH, the Northwest Organization for Animal Help, in Stanwood, Washington, which is dedicated to ending euthanasia of healthy, adoptable, and treatable homeless dogs and cats. Our humble beginnings consisted of volunteering once a week to answer phones and match the people who had lost their animals to those who had found animals on the Island.

As a result of the ever-growing need to save more animals and serve the community, we expanded adoption and a transfer/low-cost spaying and neutering program. In coordination with over 50 other shelters, NOAH transfers animals at risk of euthanasia to continue to work on giving them a second chance. I was on the board until my husband Max needed more care to stay in our home at the end of his life. However, I still donate to this important cause and others that lessen the suffering of animals, both domestic and wild, and work to conserve biodiversity on our planet. Much more work needs to be done in these areas.

In the introduction to Ramblers & Other Rose Species Hybrids, you say that “fortunate circumstances” led you to start a small rose garden. That small rose garden evolved into 5 acres of nearly 1,000 unique varieties (which eventually became the largest private collection in North America). Can you tell Floret readers a little bit more about this fortunate circumstance? What was it about roses in particular that put you under their spell? 

I just love them so. I’m a very visual person and the beauty that roses bring into my world gives me great joy. The “fortunate circumstances” I referred to in my book on ramblers was that I read an advertisement about a nursery in Oregon that was going out of business and having a big sale.

The ramblers were a really good price, and I came back with a truckload of them which I put on the fences around the property. I also put some into trees by building trellises to help support their growth. There was something wonderfully mysterious about roses growing up the trellises and into the trees to make the tree look as though it was blooming.

You’ve written five books on roses, but have a deep love of rambling roses. What do you wish others knew about this amazing group of plants and why they should consider growing them in their garden?

Ramblers are easy to grow. Once they are established, they need little care. They grow tall and are excellent for covering fences and arbors, and for growing into trees. They provide a quick and easy way to add color to the garden.   

You’ve scoured the globe for rare rose varieties. What are some of your favorite specialty nurseries? And besides your own wonderful books, do you have any other books or resources that you’d recommend for beginning and experienced rose growers?

While I have traveled the world, I like to support local, small business owners as much as possible. Their work is hard, and we have lost many nurseries, especially those that focus on old roses. Vintage Roses used to be the best but went out of business. I enjoy going to Christianson’s Nursery & Greenhouse in Mount Vernon, Washington. Two others are Hortico in Canada and Rogue Valley Roses in Oregon.

As for books, Classic Roses by Peter Beales is a very important reference book if you are serious about roses. Another one that was very helpful to me in the beginning was David Austin’s English Roses by David Austin and Michael Marriott. 

I always hate it when people ask me what my favorite flower is because there are too many treasures to choose from, but if you could only grow five roses in your garden, what would they be? 

I really don’t have a favorite. All of them are so unique and bring something special with them. If I must choose one, I think it would have to be Hybrid R. Moyesii ‘Geranium’. In my book, Ramblers and Other Rose Species Hybrids, I mention that mine had grown to 10 feet (3 meters). That was in 2016. It is now running way up into the trees and spills over in a striking cascade of scarlet red in early summer. It fills the view from my dressing room window.  

Pictured above: Anne visiting our rose garden this past summer

Your passion for roses started much later in life. Do you have any advice for someone who feels like it’s too late to pursue their dreams?

I remember when I turned 60. I thought 60 was so old. That was almost 37 years ago, well over one-third of my lifetime so far.

At almost 97 years old, it doesn’t seem that my passion for roses started all that late in life. It’s been over 30 years since I began this journey—longer than the careers of many. I pursued many dreams after turning 60, including starting my own contracting company and building over 25 (mostly Victorian style) houses, traveling the world, and my study of the older roses. It is never too late to act on your goals and dreams. 

My advice is to keep moving, stay out of bed, go out to lunch and visit with friends and family (don’t isolate yourself), read and stay up to date with current events, be open to new ideas, and commit yourself to life-long learning and skill development.  

In fact, I am about to launch my own website and blog. I’ve always wanted my own website and I don’t think it’s too late to do this. I bought my own domain last week.

In your book, A Voyage of Determination, which chronicles your incredible adventure sailing your beloved boat from New Zealand to California, you share your formula for achieving any difficult goal, which I found incredibly inspiring as a woman who has big dreams. You write: 

“When I was alone I spent much of my time thinking about the fantastic trip I had been privileged to experience. It was of great value to me in a way that was quite separate from getting the boat back. I had learned that I was capable of accomplishing very difficult goals. I was able to face considerable hardships and even extreme danger when it was necessary to achieve those goals. Without being quite aware of it I had developed a formula for greatly improving the chances of achieving any difficult goal. It consisted of three main parts.

First, don’t let being a woman stop you from doing what is traditionally seen as a man’s job unless you really need a constant supply of testosterone to achieve your goal. Ask yourself if the activity requires big biceps and a beard. If not, go ahead with your dreams and fight the prejudice where you find it. Look carefully for the same prejudice in yourself. It could be lurking there without you realizing it and could cause you to not believe in yourself and to restrict you from following a difficult goal. If you are a man you are not apt to encounter prejudice in life’s goals because of your gender, but if you do don’t let it stop you. 

Next, you should try to know yourself, your talents, and limitations, but be careful to not underestimate what you are capable of doing. Becoming a rocket scientist will be a difficult goal if you struggle with math, but maybe some remedial instruction in math would help you overcome the problem. I learned to navigate the old-fashioned way with a sextant even though I didn’t learn my number combinations when I was a child because of constant moving and now I compute manually with difficulty.

On the other hand, you might want to pick something that comes to you more naturally. A passion for a particular hobby might be an indication of a special talent that could be pursued and turned into a rewarding career. Then, be willing to spend some time and energy preparing for what you want to do. I owe much of my success to this one.”

I put some things in the Voyage of Determination, and you have to do all of them. Determine what it is you want to do and then acquire any skills or knowledge that you are going to need, get the books, take the classes. I bought three books when I decided to build the house on Camano Island; how to frame a house, how to wire it, and how to do the plumbing. You need to study and become an apprentice.  

You can do anything a man can do except those things that require a lot of strength…I think I said ‘big biceps’ in there. However, you can even figure out how to use mechanical means to overcome that. For example, I bought and used a wall jack on a house I was building to lift the walls into place all by myself.  

You can meet and exceed your goals if you prepare yourself over time. You can’t become a rocket scientist without a great deal of study, and neither can anyone else. 

You have so generously shared what you’ve learned with so many and I would love to know how myself and Floret readers can support your work into the future. How do we ensure that these rare and heirloom rose varieties live on? How can we pick up the torch and help carry your legacy forward?

Keep them watered, fertilized, and in a place with lots of sunshine. Roses, especially the old roses, are very easy to grow. However, inviting people into your gardens and sharing is perhaps most important. Don’t be stingy. To inspire and introduce people to the beauty of old roses and sending cuttings of roses into their home gardens, is an act of love … of friendship. This is the greatest legacy.  

Max and I used to have people over all the time to enjoy the property, and many friendships as lovely as the roses developed. I couldn’t do that for a while, but now that my son and his wife are restoring the gardens, we have been able to do this again on a very limited basis (and keeping public health recommendations in mind). It’s such a joy to see old friends again, such as you, Erin. I believe you were a young lady when I first met you. So many memories tie us all together.

I have given many roses away over the years—to individuals, nurseries, and to other special collections and demonstration gardens. Recently I was notified by Claude Graves, curator of the Chambersville rose garden in Texas and the Anne Belovich Rambler Garden there, that the American Rose Center Committee voted to begin the process of replicating my entire rambler collection in Chambersville into a new garden to be constructed at America’s Rose Garden at the ARS Headquarters in Shreveport.

It is a comfort and honor knowing that my rambler collection will be duplicated and conserved in a permanent internationally-acclaimed garden. I am grateful to Dean and Carol Oswald and Claude Graves for their dedication to and hard work on this large project. I am also grateful to my friends who have watered, fertilized, and put one of my rose cuttings in a place with lots of sunshine and continue to share cuttings with their friends, both old and new, and younger family members.

In addition, consider organizing volunteer efforts to help out in rose gardens that need extra hands. What we consider older roses now can be found in many home gardens that were started by people in their younger years. The work of weeding, fertilizing, and pruning can be satisfying but enriched by stories, expertise, cuttings, and new friendships. We will have our first pruning party in February with area-old garden rose enthusiasts and garden clubs. Consider these kinds of events in your local community.

You can learn more about Anne on her website, where her family has begun publishing blog posts that she wrote before her passing. 

I had the opportunity to interview Anne’s daughter-in-law Teddie Mower who is now caring for her extensive collection of ramblers alongside her husband Rick, Anne’s son. In the interview, she gives an update on Anne’s roses, information for those interested in visiting the property, and how we can all help carry on Anne’s legacy. 

If Anne’s story has moved you, please consider adding one of her books to your library. Proceeds from the sales of her books will help support the preservation of her rambling rose collection.

Gallica Roses by Anne Belovich

Large-Flowered Climbing Roses by Anne Belovich

The Little Book of Alba Roses by Anne Belovich

Moss Roses by Anne Belovich and Harald Enders

Ramblers and Other Rose Species Hybrids by Anne Belovich

A Voyage of Determination by Anne Belovich

I thought it would be fun to give away Anne’s complete library of books to three lucky readers. To enter to win, please share what part of her interview inspired you the most. This giveaway is open to both U.S. and international readers. Winners will be announced here on May 30.

Update: A huge congratulations to our winners: Michelle, Pam Blinten and Carrie K.

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Floret only lists companies and products that we love, use, and recommend. All opinions expressed here are our own and Floret does not offer sponsored content or accept money for editorial reviews. If you buy something using the retail links in this post, Floret may receive a small commission. Thank you for your support!

The post A Rose Story Part 4: An Interview with Anne Belovich appeared first on Floret Flowers.

Through the process of researching, I came across the inspiring work of Gregg Lowery. 

In the early 1980s, Gregg Lowery and his friend Phillip Robinson started collecting roses and over time they created one of the largest and most complete collections of old roses in the world.

From there, Gregg started a nursery and eventually established The Friends of Vintage Roses, a nonprofit organization devoted to the preservation and sharing of endangered rose species. 

I have been lucky enough to visit Gregg’s beautiful, rose-filled property and recently adopted a large collection of Old European roses through his curator program, which he explains below. 

Gregg is one of the most knowledgeable rosarians I’ve ever met and his dedication to these treasured plants is incredibly inspiring. Plus, he’s one of the most beautiful writers I know. I’m thrilled to be able to share his work, and words, with Floret readers. 

Thank you Gregg for taking the time to answer my questions. Can you share the mission behind your nonprofit The Friends of Vintage Roses and how it came to be? 

The mission of The Friends of Vintage Roses is to preserve a specific collection of historic roses, a collection created by me and Phillip Robinson over some thirty years of growing roses. The rose collection grew during a period of interest in old roses (ca. 1970 to 2000) by a small but passionate network of gardeners, here in America and abroad.

And the collection grew through a communal search for the history of these roses—so many of which we found surviving in old cemeteries and waysides, flowering in obscurity, and surviving untended.

More than 5,000 rose varieties passed through our collection. Some were our foundlings, many were gifts from others, and still more were gleaned from the shrinking pages of rose catalogues here and in Europe.

At the foundation of our nonprofit, some 3,600 varieties remained.

The collection became the basis of my nursery, Vintage Gardens. Many were planted in my garden in Sebastopol, California in a design that offered a pathway through the history of the rose.

Visitors to the garden established an informal working group that helped maintain the roses. They called themselves The Friends of Vintage Gardens. 

It was this volunteer group who urged me to work with them to preserve the collection when in 2013 I announced the closing of Vintage Gardens.

I credit “The Friends” as the reason that preserving the roses became our mission. They taught me that beauty cannot be owned, but it can be shared. We don’t preserve for the sake of the roses, but for people.

Many people don’t realize just how dire the situation is for heirloom roses and how fragile their fate really is. Can you talk more about the current situation and what’s at stake?

First, we must understand that the institutions that publicly hold and display plants—especially unusual garden plants like old roses—are not governed by mission statements that put preservation first. Botanical gardens follow missions based on educating the public, and very few include preservation as a primary goal.

So, keeping any particular collection of plants alive, or even ensuring that those cultivars are shared and duplicated will not happen.

This struck me as very odd as I researched national plants collections schemes that are popular in Europe. Billed as plant preservation initiatives, they are largely top-down institutions that grant status on gardens that can be revoked, and that do little or nothing to seed those gardens with plant collections.

Passionate plant people build collections that they often give to these institutions at the ends of their lives, with no reciprocal commitments to preserve.

Historical rose collections open to the public have seen a great shrinking in the past several years. Those that survive, thrive only because of dedicated volunteer groups who care.

The Sacramento Historic Rose Garden in the old City Cemetery (pictured above) was home to a 25-year volunteer effort that created and maintained a great collection of historic roses in a beautiful setting, echoing what the pioneers created with the planting of hundreds of roses.

That collection has been cut to the ground recently and the volunteers evicted from the cemetery.

Getting to visit your garden last summer was a life highlight. Would you please tell us more about your place? Is it open to the public and can people come to tour the gardens?

Our garden is on a hillside near the town of Sebastopol in rural Sonoma County, with misty views of the geothermal Mayacamas Mountains to the north. It’s about 3 acres and was begun in 1986. The soil is sandy and has absorbed thousands of yards of manure and compost over the years in an effort to make a rose garden.

Several hundred roses still survive in the old garden alongside more than 4,000 mother plants in nursery pots.

We are slowly restoring the garden section by section with an eye to opening the garden to the public starting in 2024. The focus of our nonprofit is not the garden. Rather it is to share the roses with individual curators, nurseries, and public gardens.

Sharing and building a preservation community fulfills our mission.

You started a rose curator program through The Friends of Vintage Roses to help preserve your extensive rare and heirloom rose collection. Can you talk more about the program and how people can get involved? 

Before our nonprofit existed, it was clear that the size of our collection had outgrown the 3 acres. In about 2004, I asked Pamela and Michael Temple of Mendocino County if they would adopt our Rambler collection of about 350 varieties.

Their large acreage on a wild mountainside (pictured above) had room, and they could grow them naturally, without extensive pruning or training. The Temples became the first “curators” that were recognized when the nonprofit began. Since 2004, the Temples and I worked jointly with Anne Belovich to share and preserve the ramblers.

The Friends considered various ways in which we could enlist more curators, and as our fundraising built up steam, we were able to develop a propagation space and begin to provide plants and cuttings to subsequent curators, like Susan Feichtmeir, whose hilltop garden in Santa Rosa, California (pictured above) now holds our Modern Shrub Rose collection along with the early 20th-century group of compact shrubs, the Polyanthas.

Our curatorship program is based on the notion that passionate people stay faithful to their commitments. We have no written agreements, but rather a “Common Understanding” with each other, which grows from our belief that it is from the bottom up that good things are cherished and preserved.

We enjoy hearing from those who are interested in joining our mission and becoming curators. Underwriting our efforts makes it possible to propagate and share with curators. 

From the final statement in our Common Understanding:

“Our own experience with trying to maintain a very large collection has reminded us that gardening is an individual sport and that each of us want to follow our pathway. How we garden, how we maintain these collections will vary dramatically. And we all age and finally leave our gardens behind. So the curated collections must pass through many hands to arrive in a future place. Often we hear friends say that they wished that there was someone to adopt their roses when they go. Alas, sometimes that is too late for an adoption to take place. We aim to change the game, so that it becomes commonplace to make those connections in time, and to find younger gardeners who can carry forward the passions!”

During our time together, we discussed how critical it is that more people become curators. You said that when someone adopts an entire class or collection of roses, they become the gardener for the world and help move those roses through time, helping to preserve them for future generations. What would you say is the most important thing someone can do to help in this effort, even in the smallest of ways?  

Human beings cannot survive on our planet without plants. Though our human population continues to grow, green things vanish rapidly. Everyone can grow a plant. That is the start and the smallest of ways that we preserve the beauty of plants, and save our own species, humanity.

If your passion leads you to bigger commitments to preserve, then start by helping someone you admire who is growing lots of roses. You’ll grow your knowledge quickly and test the depth of your passion.

You may want then to curate something bigger!

And if you are sure of your path and the roses call you, take stock of what you can manage, and then take on a big chunk, as our curators do, and make a home for them while you also begin to find others to share the work with you. Yes, you have become a gardener for the world.

You can’t imagine how that expands the joy of being a gardener for yourself.

Even though the old roses are so special, why have they fallen out of favor? Why should gardeners consider adding them to their gardens? 

Sadly, we are being told every day that old varieties have been surpassed by new ones. It is the interest of large companies to convince us to see all things as disposable and outdated.

I think that the rose rustlers of my generation questioned this in our search for what we valued. Without a doubt, rose hybridizers continue to fill the world with new visions of beauty, but those creations don’t take the place of others.

In my perspective, all roses are historical. Time goes by.

We have readers from all over the world who’d love to get started growing roses but don’t know where to begin. Do you have some varieties, or classes, that you recommend? I know people would love to hear some of your top picks specifically for very cold climates and hot/humid climates.

Every climate that people thrive in will have roses that will thrive. No rose variety will thrive in all climates. A good rule of thumb for all gardeners is to open your eyes. You run across roses in your town, in your county. Some of them strike you as particularly lovely.

So, take a cutting!

1. Make sure it is the flowering stem, in bloom or out, with 3 or 4 leaves or leaf points.
2. Cut just below (1/8 in [3.2 mm] below) where the bottom leaf is attached to the stem. 
3. Dip the cut end in rooting hormone, stick it into a pot of clean soil or sand, and water in. 
4. Make a tent with a clear plastic bag or water/juice bottle to cover the cutting and pot.
5. Keep it in bright light with very little direct sunlight. 
6. Lift the cover daily and keep it moist.
7. If at first you don’t succeed … you can order a truckload of roses and lose most of them, but the one you find thriving in your neighborhood is almost certain to thrive. And solving the mystery of where it came from and what it might be, that’s better than a truckload of Agatha Christie mysteries.

However, nurseries are wonderful resources and our American climates have a few climate extremes that tend to favor some groups of roses. 

Northerly climates have longer, colder winters. A few historical groups are excellent including the old Gallicas, Centifolias, Mosses, and the Albas, which grow in northern Sweden and have survived centuries. Consider, too, the hybrids of Rosa rugosa from Japan, which have long bloom seasons. Drying winds can be challenging, so consider offering shelter screens. Hybrid Perpetual and many Bourbon roses typically do well in colder North American climates, down to USDA zone 6.

Pictured from left to right, top to bottom: ‘Commandant Beaurepaire’, ‘Grandmother’s Hat’, ‘Sappho’, ‘Sarah Van Fleet’, ‘William Lobb’

Pictured from left to right: ‘Rosa Mundi’, ‘Centifolia Major’

Some of my favorites include:

‘Commandant Beaurepaire’—Bourbon
‘Grandmother’s Hat’—Hybrid Perpetual
‘Rosa Mundi’—Gallica
‘Sappho’—Alba
‘Sarah Van Fleet’—Rugosa
‘Centifolia Major’—Centifolia
‘William Lobb’—Moss

Pictured from left to right, top to bottom: ‘Cramoisi Supérieur’, ‘Baronne Henriette Snoy’, ‘Desprez á Fleur Jaune’, Santa Clara University #10

Southern climates have very long bloom seasons and make the most of the ancient Chinese rose groups known as the Teas and Chinas and their offspring. Created in the Song Dynasty in Southern China about 1,000 years ago, these roses never stop blooming in mild climates. They also resist most rose diseases in humid conditions. They are difficult in USDA zone 6 and below.

These are high on my list of favorites:

‘Cramoisi Supérieur’—China
‘Baronne Henriette Snoy’—Tea
‘Desprez á Fleur Jaune’—Tea-Noisette
Santa Clara University #10—Gigantea 

Where can people buy your roses or some of the roses that you recommend? 

Our collection is full of roses that were not so long ago acquired from many small nurseries in the U.S., but which are no longer in commerce worldwide. Although we have fundraising sales each year we cannot ship. We recommend that you seek out and order from small nurseries.

The online free encyclopedia of roses, HelpMeFind.com/roses is an invaluable source for all roses. It lists any known sources of a particular variety that exists today in the world. No nursery is perfect, or able to carry more than a limited number of varieties, so be open-minded, support the little people, and you’ll help to support rose preservation!

A few sources that I turn to again and again to try to locate long-lost roses include:

Antique Rose Emporium, Brenham, Texas
Angel Gardens, Alachua, Florida
Der Rosenmeister, Ithaca, New York
Freedom Gardens, Freedom Township, Ohio
Greenmantle Nursery, Garberville, California
High Country Roses, Broomfield, Colorado
Rogue Valley Roses, Medford, Oregon
Rose Petals Nursery, Newberry, Florida
Roses Unlimited, Laurens, South Carolina

And California Coastal Rose Society, a nonprofit in Oceanside, California, holds one or two rare rose auctions each year. This group is dedicated to providing access to the world’s rarest roses through their rose sales and they reinvest their revenues into seeking out and propagating roses that are unobtainable otherwise.

Do you have any favorite books or resources on rose growing and care that you would recommend for beginning gardeners?

A garden library is your best friend. Go online now. Go while print books are still abundant and inexpensive. The works of Englishman Graham Stuart Thomas will provide superb background on the old roses, climbing roses, and shrub roses and are written beautifully. Seek out the works of Gertrude Jekyll, the late 19th-century garden maker, who offers a vision of how roses work in gardens. And read Vita Sackville-West’s Garden Book, a compilation of her weekly columns in The Observer from 1947 to 1961, and perhaps the most engaging book about growing plants and creating a garden ever written in the English language.

For early and midcentury rose portraits, find J. Horace McFarland’s Roses of the World in Color. For postwar roses, Jack Harkness is the great storyteller. Gordon Edwards in the 1960s and Eléonore Cruse in the new century each paint compelling portraits of the old European roses, and make us understand why wild roses must never be forgotten. Roger Phillips and Martin Rix set the modern standard of rose portraiture with hundreds of comparative photos with botanical details.

Old roses as painted in the 19th century open a door to the past, from the many reprints of Redoutè’s early-century portraits and Henry Curtis’ midcentury portraits in a unique reprint from Sweetbriar Press. And a century later in the 1950s, New Zealand rose lover Nancy Steen told a story of old roses brought round the world from Europe to colonize the isolated islands. Steen’s book hooked me on old roses in 1976. Brent Dickerson’s monumental works of research and translation of writings contemporary to the roses will await you at the end of your exploration to answer all the questions you will have pondered while reading the others.

And lastly, if you are fortunate to speak another language, the whole rest of the world of roses is still to explore in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese. Readers of Chinese should quickly find the works of Wang Guoliang of Nanjing, China, who now has three bestsellers on the rose in history—all 3,000 years of the Chinese story. And in Japanese, look for Yuki Mikanagi’s recent works on the wild roses of Japan.

If people want to learn more about your place, and your program, what should they do? Is your catalog still available and if so, where can people find it?

The 2006 Vintage Gardens Book of Roses, which served as the master catalogue of my nursery, now belongs to our nonprofit and we have incorporated nearly all of the pages into our website. We do not have copies to sell, but used copies can still be found online.

I encourage folks to explore our website where they can learn about our mission and our work. Pages are devoted to the mother collection, our curators, our volunteer opportunities, and the sales we hold throughout the year.

You can also download all of our past newsletters going back to 2016. These will provide a story of our decade as a nonprofit, the struggles we have faced, and the solutions we have forged.

Gregg, I’m so happy to be able to share about the important work and the wonderful team at The Friends of Vintage Roses. It’s such a gift to the world. 

To learn more about The Friends of Vintage Roses, its curator program, and how you can support its mission, visit their website. You can also follow them on Facebook. 

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The post The {Farmer} & The Florist Interview: Gregg Lowery appeared first on Floret Flowers.

In April 2020, at 8 months pregnant, Danielle planted her very first cutting garden. Two weeks later she went into labor and upon her daughter’s birth learned that she had Down syndrome. 

Surprised by the lack of resources provided by the hospital where her daughter Sammie was born ultimately led Danielle and her husband Matt to start a nonprofit called Rising Kites. Their organization provides education and support for new parents who have recently learned that their child has a Down syndrome diagnosis. Danielle’s cutting garden helps fund the nonprofit through bouquet sales, subscriptions, and workshops.

When filming season 2 of Growing Floret, we asked Danielle and her family if they would be willing to have us come out to capture their story. To our delight, they agreed and members of the Blue Chalk team headed out to Michigan.

Danielle’s story is featured in episode 3 of the show and we knew Floret readers would be interested in learning more about her story. If you’re in need of some inspiration, this interview is a must-read.

Danielle, thank you so much for joining me for this interview. I’m thrilled to help share your story. Please introduce yourself, let readers know where you are located and what fills your days, and how you first learned about Floret. 

I’m Danielle, the co-founder and director of Rising Kites. My husband Matt and I have two children, Louis and Sammie, and we live in Bridgman, Michigan, which is a small town located along the southern part of Lake Michigan about an hour and a half from Chicago, Illinois.

Caring for our two young children fills the majority of my days, so currently that means lots of school drop-offs, therapy appointments, and lego building. But when I’m not in full mom mode I’m taking part in all sorts of nonprofit work, from building and shipping Rising Kites bags to communicating with other families in the Down syndrome community to working in our garden and delivering flowers. 

I learned about Floret back in the spring of 2020, as I was pregnant with Sammie and planning my first cut flower garden. I started researching how to grow flowers and came across your blog. I poured over your blog posts and watched every free video workshop you put out to learn what I could about growing flowers. 

We’ve absolutely loved having you as part of the Floret Online Workshop alumni community. How has winning a scholarship impacted your life and your business?

I’m so incredibly grateful to have been able to participate in the workshop! It benefited us greatly as we continue to expand our nonprofit on both the flower side and the outreach side.

Having your and Jill’s endless wisdom helped me better utilize the small space we have available in our backyard so we are able to make a larger impact—one I’m certain I would not have been able to do without your knowledge. I was also able to take a lot of your advice on goal setting and carry it over into other areas of our nonprofit—allowing me to have a better focus and drive for the work we are doing. 

What advice would you give someone who’s thinking about taking the Online Workshop and/or applying for a scholarship?

First off, do it! Never in a million years would I have thought I’d be given the opportunities I’ve been given as a result of applying. But here I am.

Secondly, if you’re applying, be brave and share your dreams boldly. Writing out my dreams for our nonprofit scared me but voicing them made them a reality. And the workshop has provided me with steps to work towards those goals.

What once felt impossible actually feels doable now! Still scary, but doable. 

Please tell us about Rising Kites. What inspired you to start this project?

Matt and I had always wanted to start a nonprofit; we just had no idea what it would be. But then came our daughter Sammie, or “Flower,” as my son called her throughout our pregnancy. Sammie was born with Down syndrome and her at-birth diagnosis rocked our world.

The hospital she was born in cared for us wonderfully, but we left feeling completely lost as the only information they provided us with was a Google printout telling us what Down syndrome was. We spent the beginning weeks and months of our daughter’s life searching for answers to tons of questions. When looking back, we wish we would have been able to enjoy her more. 

As we started to make connections with other families in the Down syndrome community it became clear that many others also left the prenatal clinic or hospital feeling lost and overwhelmed after receiving a diagnosis. We also spoke with a number of doctors and nurses who told us that they often feel ill-equipped to provide adequate resources and avenues of support to families receiving this news.

As a result, we were inspired to start Rising Kites. 

Rising Kites provides bags of resources, education, and encouragement to hospitals, birthing centers, and prenatal clinics that can be distributed immediately to parents who are just learning that their child was diagnosed with Down syndrome.

It is our hope that by providing bags directly to these facilities, families who are new to the Down syndrome community will receive immediate education, resources, and encouragement as they navigate a new and unexpected road. 

Flowers soon became a large part of the nonprofit the summer after we launched as I found they were a great way to spread our mission and fundraise for the bags.

As I said, I started my first garden when I was pregnant with Sammie. It was in that garden that I found a lot of healing as I processed her diagnosis and because of the garden I was able to see the beauty that exists in differences—each flower is unique and beautiful, just like each individual in this world.

Through these flowers, I now get to share Sammie’s story with others while also getting to share the lesson I learned: That there is beauty in being different. 

Since starting Rising Kites, what has been your biggest challenge and also the most rewarding part of creating this incredible nonprofit? 

I absolutely love what I’m doing—honestly more than any other job I’ve ever had—but I quickly learned after we launched that I can’t wear all of the hats. I was doing administrative stuff, building and shipping bags, locating resources, contacting health facilities, running social media, planting a garden, delivering flowers, running workshops—ALL THE THINGS.

So the challenge has been to find people who can take on the roles and tasks that I don’t have the capacity for and also to be comfortable with people taking those roles on. Thankfully, my sister-in-law and sister, who have amazing hearts and are incredibly gifted in the areas I’m not, have taken on some of those tasks that were more difficult for me. 

Another challenge has been getting our bags into these facilities. Thankfully we’ve been able to supply our bags to over 60 healthcare facilities across the United States thus far, but finding the right person to get them in the doors and then into the hands of families has been difficult.

What we’ve found is that facilities want these bags but we only know so many people and can’t always find the right person to make this happen. With that said, we are always looking for social workers, nurses, and doctors who work directly with these families so we can make these connections and ensure families are getting the care they need when they receive a diagnosis.

Without a doubt, the most rewarding part of our work is getting to know the families who receive these bags, hearing their stories, and watching them fall in love with their little ones. Growing this community and bearing witness to the ways Sammie’s life has impacted so many is a gift that just never ends. It is truly a joy.

If people would like to learn more about Rising Kites, what should they do? What are some of the ways people can help or be a part of what you’re doing?

You can learn more about our work at Rising Kites and read our full story on our website.

We also have several ways people can help support our work, from simply making a donation to helping us get connected with their local hospital and/or OB/GYN. To see all the ways to get involved, I’d encourage people to check out our “Get Involved” page.

What are you currently working on and what are you excited about for this coming year?

I’m always shipping out bags. Thankfully that work never ends. This year we intend to send out 1,000 bags to families new to the Down syndrome community, which is a little mind-blowing but so stinking exciting.

I’m also really excited about a couple of fundraising projects we will have this spring and summer. One is our Rising Kites Garden Kits, which are intended for new flower growers who have no experience but want to give growing flowers a try. In them, I share a bit of our story about Sammie and how flowers helped me to embrace her differences. It also contains an initiative to share flowers with others, which will hopefully continue to spread our mission.

I’ve been working really hard on this project and I’m excited to see people all over the country growing their own Rising Kites gardens and shedding light on how differences bring beauty into this world.

I’m also planning a floral workshop that is focused on being disability-inclusive. It’ll be an event where kids can come and learn how to make their own floral arrangements and plant their own flowers, as well as spend time with individuals with disabilities and learn about their differences and how these differences bring beauty into the world.

This is in the beginning stages but if it’s anything like what I have in my head it’s going to be a really sweet event. 

Is there anything else you’d like to share with us? 

I just want to say thank you again. You and your team have gone over the top to provide us with more than we ever could have imagined when I first pushed ‘submit’ to apply for your scholarship.

I don’t know that we could have had the vision and drive that we have had without your encouragement and teaching, and I’m hopeful that our work will continue to pay it forward. 

Thank you so much for joining me for this interview. You’re making a huge difference in the lives of so many people and you’re such an inspiration to me and all of us here at Floret. 

You can learn more about Rising Kites and how to support its mission by visiting its website.

You can also follow their story on Instagram and Facebook.

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The post The {Farmer} & The Florist Interview: Danielle Grandholm appeared first on Floret Flowers.