Summary: Today’s awesome podcast guest is Emily Ellen Anderson, a landscape architect and sculptor-turned floral and event designer. Emily brings a fresh, remarkable, and out-of-the ordinary point of view to the work of her Seattle area-based studio, Lola Creative. I’ve been on the road for the past two weeks. Speaking about and promoting the Slow Flowers Movement has taken me to Rhode Island, Colorado and New Mexico. In addition to racking up a lot of valuable airline points, I’m so thrilled that in each destination, I’ve connected with America's flower farmers and the floral designers who value their unique, homegrown blooms, botanicals and foliage. A huge bouquet of gratitude goes to Julie Christina, Kris Greene and Gail Read of Blithewold Mansion in Bristol, Rhode Island, for inviting me to speak at their fundraising luncheon – and to teach a hands-on floral workshop on the grounds of this illustrious American architectural treasure. More thanks goes to Slowflowers.com members Polly and Mike Hutchison of Robin Hollow Farm in nearby Saunderstown, Rhode Island, for providing their gorgeous local flowers to augment Blithewold’s cuttings – our students loved your fall mums and more! Polly and Mike also hosted the Slow Flowers Potluck gathering, which drew member farmers and florists from as far away as Massachusetts and Connecticut, not to mention Rhode Island. I love connecting with each of you via the Web, but nothing compares to good old-fashioned face-to-face human contact, conversation, and camaraderie. P.S., this was the third Slowflowers.com regional gathering we’ve had, with previous events in Wilmington, Delaware, and Brooklyn, New York. In the coming months, wherever my travels take me, we’ll continue these member-only special events. I believe such gatherings underscore the power of our community, connecting flower farmers with designers, and ultimately, with consumers. After Rhode Island and 24 hours at home with my awesome family, I made my way to Colorado and New Mexico, where I met up with equally awesome flower farmers and recorded two upcoming podcasts. From Longmont, Colorado, you’ll soon hear from Chet and Kristy Anderson, veteran food and flower farmers and owners of The Fresh Herb Company. If their names sound familiar, it’s because you read their story in The 50 Mile Bouquet. Hearing their voices as they share the story of their flower-growing journey will add even more insights for listeners (and I thoroughly loved the delicious lunch and farm tour they shared with me). Then I spent a fab visit with Emily Calhoun of Floriography, an Albuquerque, New Mexico-based, farmer-florist whose story and commitment to American grown will inspire you, too. We spent a morning playing with cool foraged ingredients from her farm – so you’ll soon see some great photos of our purely New Mexico-grown bouquets. As you know, I never tire of hearing from others who “get” what this Slow Flowers Movement is all about. This week, I’d like to share a note I received from Ellen Hoverkamp, a gifted botanical artist and photographer from Connecticut. I’ve known Ellen for a few years, ever since her gorgeous plant images graced Natural Companions, a book by Ken Druse, which I wrote about for the Los Angeles Times. It was a total privilege to witness Ellen’s acceptance of the GOLD medal for book photography from the Garden Writers Association in 2013. Last week, she and her pal Michael Russo, himself a fantastic floral designer, surprised me at the Blithewold events (Ellen has done an artist-in-resident stint there and is a good friend of the public garden). The two got to hear my Slow Flowers mantra, and we spent some quality time together driving from place to place around Bristol, Rhode Island. Ellen and Michael also participated in the Slow Flowers Design Workshop at Blithewold and created major beauty in their vases.
