Farm to Vase Workshop

Learning all about the Slow Flower Movement!

Last week, the very talented Morgan Anderson of The Flori.culture hosted her Farm to Vase Workshop at the Austin Community College floral lab.

This was a two-part workshop exploring the slow flower movement and an in-depth look at the many benefits to sourcing locally grown flowers and containers.

What is Slow Flowers? Slow Flowers is a movement to help people find the best U.S. floral designers who are committed to sourcing from American flower farms.  Local Flower Movement Champion and author, Debra Prinzing, joined the class via Skype to talk about the slow flower movement and her work as an advocate for a more sustainable flower industry.  She is a true inspiration!  You can read more about her here.  And be sure to check out her two beautiful books on this topic – The 50 Mile Bouquet and Slow Flowers.

And in the spirit of sourcing locally – Austin basket artist, Karen Hobbs of Maggie Lane Studio, hand crafted the most lovely little baskets for each student.  She presented her baskets and shared her weaving wisdom to the class.  

Austin based organic farmer, Erin Flynn of Green Gate Farms, provided the delicious florals to design with during week one of the workshop.  She also came to the class to present her sustainable farm practices and share her passion with us.

Texas Hill Country Arnosky Flower Farms provided the colorful flowers for week two.

Additionally, a new non toxic flower foam alternative called Floral Soil was also introduced to the class.  Morgan was able to obtain a few samples of this product, which is still in Beta testing, so it was extra exciting to try it out.

This photo displays the hand woven basket made by local artist, Karen Hobbs, and shows the water-with-chicken-wire method that was used.  A small plastic cup of water is place inside of the basket.  Then a ball of chicken wire is placed inside of the plastic cup.  A piece of floral tape is then secured over the top to hold the “mechanics” in place.  Once the flower arrangement is finished, the flowers hide all of these mechanics.

Then flower stems are placed through the chicken wire.  This holds your stems in place and there is no need for wet floral foam.

(photo from Floral Soil Solutions)

However, if wet floral foam is needed or desired in your arrangement, there is a new natural product in the works called Floral Soil.  Floral Soil™ is a foam composite derived from renewable coconut husk waste.  There are no added colorants, preservatives, or fossil fuel based chemical additives.  It is highly absorbent and allows for easy stem insertion.  You can read more about it here.

The Floral Soil held the flowers perfectly in place.  And outside of it being a completely natural product (which we LOVED), we also liked how natural it looked when you peeked through the flowers.

Here is Debra Prinzing joining the class via Skype.  She shared such a wealth of information to the class about the slow flower movement and her passion for the work.  You can listen to her slow flowers podcast here. Thanks Debra for shining the light on all the amazing american grown flower farmers out there!

And a big thank you to Erin of Green Gate Farms and Karen of Maggie Lane Studio for bringing their expertise live into the classroom, and inspiring us all!

Below are a few more pictures of all that participated in this enriching workshop.  Thank you to everyone for sharing your passion for flowers….and making the world a more beautiful place.