Slowflowers.com kicks off American Flowers Week

All across the nation, from Alabama to Wyoming, Oregon to Maine, locally grown flowers will be highlighted and celebrated during American Flowers Week, a weeklong campaign inviting U.S. flower farmers and florists to showcase American-grown red, white and blue blooms on social media platforms (using #americanflowersweek) and in their own communities.

American Flowers Week is the advocacy, education and outreach campaign co-produced by the Slow Flowers Podcast with Debra Prinzing and Slowflowers.com, the nationwide, online directory to American Flowers and the people who grow and design with them.

In its second year, American Flowers Week highlights the homegrown talents of more than 700 member floral businesses listed on Slowflowers.com, including Susan McLeary of Passionflower Events in Ann Arbor, Michigan, designer of the iconic "Flower 'Fro" depicted in the 2016 campaign poster. To create the headpiece, the designer incorporated flowers donated by seven American flower farms in three states.

Participation in American Flowers Week involves all facets of the floral distribution channel, from flower farmers and wholesaler florists to grocery stores, floral designers, flower shops and online sellers.

Flower farms
Dozens of farmers across the country are featuring "American Flowers Week" labels on bouquets and bunches delivered to farmers' market and CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) customers during American Flowers Week. In Portland, the Oregon Flower Growers Association hosts its first Design Invitational. Emerging and established florists are welcome to create a red-white-and-blue arrangement showcasing their skills using unique, Oregon-grown flowers and foliage available to the marketplace. In Greenville, South Carolina, the newly-formed SC Upstate Flower Growers kicks off its first season as a collective of nine flower farmers dedicated to bringing fresh, local flowers to the region's upstate area.

Floral designers
Andrea K. Grist of Andrea K. Grist Floral Design in Lees Summit, Missouri teams with The Bloom Academy as guest instructor of an American Flowers Week design workshop using Missouri-grown flowers. In Portland, Oregon, LauraLee Symes of Sellwood Flower Co., teaches an American Flowers Week centerpiece design workshop on Sunday, July 3rd (Noon to 1 p.m.) Preregistration is required.

Flower shops
Teresa Sabankaya of Bonny Doon Garden Co. in Santa Cruz, California, offers a "Quintessentially American" arrangement using only local flowers, designed in a mercury glass compote for $95 plus delivery and 10% off the store's popular weekly "bucket bouquet" collection. Libby Francis of The Modest Florist in Baltimore, Maryland, turns to her Instagram feed to post photos of her favorite Maryland flower farmers and their blooms, as well as red-white-and-blue bouquets on offer at her retail shop.

Online sellers
Farmgirl Flowers is back for a second year with a "Firecracker" bouquet featuring 12 stems of all-American grown flowers delivered overnight anywhere in the U.S. The burlap-wrapped, red-white-and-blue arrangement is paired with an artisan chocolate bar to commemorate the country's birthday, $55 plus shipping. Bonny Doon Garden Co. and Sellwood Flower Co., two Slowflowers.com member florists, design special American Flowers Week arrangements with locally-grown, domestic flowers to sell through Bloom Nation, the online community marketplace for independent florists.

Grocery stores
Two regional grocery chains adopt American Flowers Week as a vehicle to market locally-grown flowers during the Independence Day holiday week. Town & Country Markets Inc., a regional, locally-owned and operated independent grocery company founded in 1957 and based in the Seattle area, is participating with American Flowers Week signage and bouquets throughout its six-store chain. New Seasons Market, a Portland-based West Coast neighborhood grocery with 18 stores in three states, is showcasing flower bunches, bouquets and mason jar arrangements from Northwest and California farms. Both chains are using the unique American Flowers Week label to alert their consumers to the origin of the flowers.

Wholesale florists
Los Angeles-based Mayesh Wholesale promotes American Flowers Week in all 17 of its branches across nine states, with programs tailored to each region's professional florist customer base. Included in the activities are special in-branch displays, company blog features about American flower farms and localized floral availability sheets developed for each market.

For more information:
americanflowersweek.com