This month in Washington, D.C., on June 29th, 2018 Flower Duet will join fabulous floral designers and farmers to educate, inspire and help connect each other through the love of locally grown flowers!
What is American Flowers Week?
Debra Prinzing, Slow Flowers founder and creative director, announced details for the 2018 American Flowers Week campaign and unveiled five floral fashion looks featuring iconic American-grown botanicals. American Flowers Week is produced by Prinzing’s Slowflowers.com, the comprehensive online resource that connects consumers with local, seasonal and sustainable flowers. Since 2015, Prinzing has staged a week-long celebration of domestic flowers to raise consumer awareness and unite America’s flower farmers with the U.S. floral industry. Last year, that effort generated more than 5.2 million social media impressions on Twitter and Instagram in a single month, demonstrating the power of images, ideas and values that promote American Grown Flowers.
“What began as a grassroots effort to promote domestic floral agriculture has gained significant momentum, with more farmers and floral designers embracing American Flowers Week as a platform to showcase their businesses. At the same time, consumers are inspired to learn more about the people who grow and design with the flowers they love,” Prinzing said. “The Slow Flowers Community is dynamic and diverse — and participants understand that theirs is an unique story that resonates with flower buyers seeking relevance and sustainable options. It’s fitting that American Flowers Week raises awareness and celebrates local and domestic flowers during a new floral holiday that coincides with Independence Day.”
One way you can participate in American Flowers Week is to attend The Slow Flowers Summit in D. C. with us! But if you cannot attend, here are 9 ways you can celebrate flowers grown in your own backyard!
American Flowers Week receives sponsorship from Syndicate Sales, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Longfield Gardens, Mayesh Wholesale Florist, Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers, Florists’ Review magazine and Arctic Alaska Peonies. American Flowers Week supporters can find more information and resources at americanflowersweek.com. Downloadable fact sheets, infographics and 2018 American Flowers Week logo and social media badges are available for growers and florists to use for marketing and promotion efforts. Participants are encouraged to use the social media tag #Americanflowersweek to help spread the word about this campaign across all platforms.
For the 2018 festivities, Slow Flowers has again commissioned five teams of flower farmers and floral designers to create botanical
wearables as a centerpiece of American Flowers Week. Each look is unique to the location and season where it was produced and photographed, with design narratives that elevate flowers and foliages as works of art. Florists’ Review magazine, for which Prinzing is a Contributing Editor, will publish highlights of the 2018 collection in its June issue after which more images will be published at AmericanFlowersWeek.com. Participating Slow Flowers designers include Kelly Shore of Petals by the Shore (Damascus, Md.), Hedda
Brorstrom of Full Bloom Farm (Sebastopol, Calif.), Carly Jenkins of Killing Frost Farm (Missoula, Mont.), Alison Grace Higgins and Nicole Cordier of Grace Flowers Hawaii (Honoka’a, Hawaii) and Faye Zierer Krause of Flora Organica Designs (Arcata, Calif.).
The American-grown floral looks feature flowers and foliages donated by Scenic Place Peonies (Homer, Alaska), Aztec Dahlias (Petaluma, Calif.), Full Bloom Farm (Sebastopol, Calif.), Killing Frost Farm (Missoula, Mont.), the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market (Seattle, Wash.), Sun Valley Floral Farms (Arcata, Calif.) and six farms on the Big Island of Hawaii, including J & D Farms, Pacific Floral Exchange, Hawaii Isle Flowers, The Orchid People, ESP Nurseries and High Country Farms.
