American Flowers Week: Celebrating American Grown Flowers
“The Slow Flowers Movement puts a priority on sourcing domestic flowers. In a way, this also means that we are redefining beauty.”
~ Debra Prinzing
Celebrate American Grown Flowers with Us
It’s American Flowers Week and, as members of the Slow Flowers Society, we are celebrating American grown flowers this week (June 28th - July4th) and we’d love for you to join us in the conversation about the importance of seasonal, locally-grown flowers in the American floral industry.
American Flowers Week is an annual campaign organized by Debra Prinzing and SlowFlowers.com to engage the public, policymakers, and the media in a conversation about where their flowers come from and to raise awareness on the importance of seasonal, locally-grown flowers and the farmers who grow them in the floral industry.
American Flowers Week is celebrated annually during the week leading up to the 4th of July, offering floral professionals, floral retailers & wholesalers, and flower farmers across the U.S. a patriotic opportunity to promote American grown flowers.
American Flowers Week 2023 artwork: Flower Farmers Together Across the Nation by April Lemly.
What are Slow Flowers?
SlowFlowers.com, created by Debra Prinzing, is an award-winning online directory that unites florists, floral designers, wedding & event planners, reatail floral departments, and flower farmers in the United States who are committed to using American-grown flowers in their designs.
Debra Prinzing has spearheaded the Slow Flowers Movement, a campaign in which supporters are committed to the use of sustainable practices to grow flowers, supporting the local economy and reducing consumer exposure to chemicals through the purchase of domestic and ethically grown flowers. The Movement aims to recognize flower farming as a relevant and respected branch of domestic agriculture, putting a human face of the flower farmer and floral designer behind each bouquet or floral arrangement. Prinzing is a a writer, speaker, outdoor living expert and advocate for American flower farming.
“Slow Flowers is about the artisanal, anti-mass-market approach to celebrations, festivities and floral gifts of love. […] I want to know where the flowers and greenery were grown, and who grew them. Having a relationship with the grower who planted and nurtured each flower is nothing short of magical.”
~ Debra Prinzing, Slow Flowers Podcast
Why Are American Grown Flowers so important?
Over the last year and a half, I have learned so much about growing flowers, but I’ve also learned a lot about the floral industry itself. Earlier this year, I shared about the environmental impacts of the global floral industry and the importance of bringing local flowers to market in my blog post Slow Flowers: Why Locally Grown Flowers are Better. As a result, we have shifted the focus of our business to providing wholesale flowers to local florists and floral designers in the Greater Sacramento area.
American Flag with dried Craspedia, Larkspur and Feverfew by Diana Boyle.
This year, I’ve focused on building relationships with local floral designers and I am excited to share that we have joined the Sacramento Valley Flower Collective, a local wholesale flower market made up of 12+ Northern California farms. Through the Collective, we are able to offer our locally grown flowers to local designers, along with those of 11 other farms, providing a central hub for local flowers, and it has been so fun to see our flowers ‘in the wild’ in local designs.
“The inspiration for Slow Flowers begins in gardens, meadows, orchards and fields, where the timeless act of cutting or harvesting botanicals season by season is part of the natural cycle of a year.”
~ Debra Prinzing, A Slow Flowers Manifesto
How You Can Participate
Anyone can participate in American Flowers Week! This week, share your love of local flowers, and your designs using local flowers, on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag #americanflowersweek to help us highlight domestic, local American-grown flowers. You can also download a beautiful USA Floral Coloring Map and share yours, too!
When you buy American grown flowers, you support your local economy, your flowers have a smaller carbon footprint, you help to preserve farmland in the U.S., you know where your flowers come from and you get to know the face behind your flowers (Hi, that's me!), and you promote sustainable growing practices.
Our 2022 Red, White & Bloom arrangement (left), the face behind the flowers, me, (middle), and our 2023 Red, White & Bloom arrangement (right).
