SEATTLE, WA – Debra Prinzing, Slow Flowers founder and creative director, announced details for the 2019 American Flowers Week campaign and unveiled this year’s botanical couture collection featuring nine floral fashion looks designed with 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 4.0 million social media impressions on Twitter and Instagram, demonstrating the power of images, ideas and values that promote American flowers.
“I created American Flowers Week in 2015 as a community-focused floral holiday that encourages participation from everyone in the floral marketplace — from flower seed and bulb producers to growers; from designers to retailers; from cutting garden enthusiasts to artists,” Prinzing explains. “It’s the original, American-grown floral holiday that stimulates interest in beauty, seasonality, local agriculture and sustainable floral design.”
Slow Flowers has again commissioned a dynamic lineup of design teams: flower farmers and florists who partnered over the course of the past year to create botanical wearables. “For 2019, we have an unprecedented nine looks, representing the incredible diversity of flora rooted in U.S. soil,” Prinzing says.
Each look in the American Flowers Week Collection 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 2019 collection in its June issue, out this week. More images will be published at AmericanFlowersWeek.com.
Participating Slow Flowers designer teams include:
- ALASKA: Kim Herning, Northern Lights Peonies (floral design and flowers)
- CALIFORNIA: Jenny Diaz, Jenny M. Diaz (floral design), with flowers provided by Dramm & Echter
- FLORIDA: Eileen Tongson, FarmGal Flowers (floral design), with ferns and foliage provided by Jana Register of Fern Trust
- MAINE: Rayne Grace Hoke, Flora’s Muse (floral design), with flowers provided by Johnny’s Selected Seeds’ trial gardens
- MICHIGAN: Heather Grit, Glamour and Grit Floral (floral design), with plants and greenery provided by Speyer Greenhouse and Hart Tree Farm
- MISSOURI: Andrea K. Grist, Andrea K. Grist Floral Art (floral design), with flowers provided by Beth and Joel Fortin of Little Green Garden LLC
- OREGON: Beth Syphers, Crowley House Flower Farm (floral design), with flowers provided by Bethany and Charles Little, Charles Little & Co. SOUTH CAROLINA: Toni Reale, Roadside Blooms (floral design), with flowers provided by Laura Mewbourn, Feast & Flora Farm WASHINGTON: Tammy Myers, First & Bloom (floral design), with flowers supplied by Amy Brown, Laughing Goat Farm and Seattle Wholesale Growers Market
Images for all of these looks and links to the creative teams are available at American Flowers Week Press Page (americanflowersweek.com)
MORE ABOUT AMERICAN FLOWERS WEEK
Held in the heart of American Flowers Week, the third annual Slow Flowers Summit takes place on July 1 and 2, 2019, at the Paikka Event Space in St. Paul, Minnesota. Developed to stimulate new, sustainable practices in floral design and growing, the Summit and features flower farm tours, a farm-to-table dinner on a flower farm, presentations on floral design, best business practices, industry innovations and an interactive floral installation for all participants. Details are available at SlowFlowersSummit.com.
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, and Florists’ Review magazine.
American Flowers Week supporters can find more information and resources at americanflowersweek.com. Downloadable fact sheets, infographics and 2019 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.
###
About American Flowers Week: American Flowers Week is designed to engage the public, policymakers and the media in a conversation about the origins of their flowers. As an advocacy effort, the campaign coincides with America’s Independence Day on July 4th, providing florists, retailers, wholesalers and flower farmers a patriotic opportunity to promote American grown flowers.
About Debra Prinzing: Debra Prinzing is a Seattle-based writer, speaker and leading advocate for American Grown Flowers. Through her many Slow Flowers-branded projects, she has convened a national conversation that stimulates consumers and professionals alike to make conscious choices about their floral purchases.
Debra is the producer of SlowFlowers.com, the online directory to American grown farms, florists, shops and studios who supply domestic and local flowers. Each Wednesday, approximately 2,500 listeners tune into Debra’s “Slow Flowers Podcast,” available for free downloads at her web site, debraprinzing.com, or on iTunes and via other podcast services. She is the author of 10 books, including Slow Flowers and The 50 Mile Bouquet.
