Slow Flowers Show Episode 643V

Slow Flowers Floral Insights and Industry Forecast for 2024
We’re looking to the future with the Slow Flowers Floral Insights and Industry Forecast – Join Robin Avni and me as we discuss the key themes and ideas for you to embrace as your floral enterprise enters 2024?

This is the 10th year we’ve produced the Slow Flowers Floral Insights and Industry Forecast, which originated in 2015 as a series of media presentations that we also shared with members and listeners.

This episode is accompanied by two important, free resources. First, a video report that I recently recorded with Robin Avni, creative director of BLOOM Imprint, our Slow Flowers publishing venture. This is the video companion to today’s podcast. We have also produced a 38-page digital magazine-style report, filled with deeper analysis of each of our 2024 insights. That link is also available in today’s show notes for Episode 643 at slowflowerspodcast.com.

Here’s a bit more about Robin Avni. She is a creative veteran in the media and high-tech industries whose experience includes 15-plus years in the publishing industry and eight years at Microsoft in design and creative management. Robin has successfully managed innovative, award-winning design teams and high-profile projects and she has received numerous national design and photography editing awards for her own work. Robin has produced more than 15 books, including seven titles created for the BLOOM Imprint catalog. In 2004, following Microsoft, she founded bricolage*, a consultancy specializing in creative strategy, content development, and trend analysis focused on the home and garden. She has worked with Fortune 500 companies, national advertising agencies and award-winning media properties, applying timely actionable insights to their businesses.

Let’s jump right in and embrace 2024 – we’re calling it the Year of Simplicity! I can’t wait for you to learn about each of the insights and the people who have influenced and inspired us to identify them.

Hello again and welcome back to the slow flowers show this is episode 643 and I’m Deborah prinzing we’ve just turned the calendar page to 2024 and today we’re presenting the annual slow flowers floral insights and Industry forecast I’m so pleased today to be joined by my partner Robin Anne of Bloom imprint hi

Robin hi everybody Robin is creative director of Bloom imprint our publishing Venture and we’ve been personal and professional friends for years or more and I’m so glad that she’s joined me today since 2015 Sil flowers has published an annual forecast with insights and predictions of emerging themes and topics informing cultural

Shifts in the floral Marketplace this is the fourth year that bloom imprint and slow flowers have partner to produce the forecast which you’ll see in the slides today and also in our 38 page digital product it’s like a little flip book and we will release that on January

1st thanks Deborah I’m really happy to join you as we present our insights for the key themes and notable topics on the horizon for 2024 our analysis has become an important gauge for our members as well as for the greater floral Marketplace and Business Media we evaluate prevailing cultural shifts

Notable changes and breakout ideas influencing not only the general culture but flower farming floral design and consumer attitudes about flowers We Gather insights from our interviews we turn to Market Research we scour export resources to inform our predictions around emerging cultural and lifestyle changes and knowing about these shifts

Will assist you in preparing for the year ahead just so you know to prepare this package Deborah and I fill our ideas folder over the course of the whole year we start last January and to begin to this year we collect links to articles and interviews we share

Screenshots shs back and forth with each other of did you see this Instagram post we read PDFs of books we’ve been sent to review and we discuss our lived experiences season by season so to this Treasure Trove of ideas we have drawn from the firstperson conversations As We Gather our Impressions about lifestyle

Themes that are moving to the Forefront of our awareness and general awareness to our 2024 SLO flowers forecast we want to share seven key insights that we’ve identified for you to explore evaluate and consider your floral Enterprise so for each Insight we’re will’ll review the influence of the larger culture our

Slow flowers community and what it means for your business it’s exciting let’s go okay go what are we gonna call it uh we’re calling 2024 the year of Simplicity after recently spending time with famed British floral designer Shane Connelly who was here in Seattle on a lecture tour we can’t stop thinking

About a lesson he shared Shane drew our attention to the idea of the the abundance of less which is based on a book by Andy couturier as Shane applied his concept of cherishing The Season’s best floral choices to his practices he urged us to appreciate the blooms and

Stems that the garden offers and to design with attention and intention these ideas seem entirely fitting as guiding principles for this year’s forecast at the heart of it this topic is values driven yes it means making seasonality and sustainability more Central to your floral Enterprise but in the larger cultural context we believe

That increasingly seeking less is a reaction to the reality of the times so here we go our first Insight we’re calling Native Floral so paying closer attention to our ecosystems most of us are recognizing um you know indigenous floral and valuing its benefits to Wildlife soil health and providing

Uncommon Beauty In Bloom leaf and pod basically sometimes it’s not even it’s more like not even looking past her own backyard it’s right there so interest in native plants aligns with with awareness that small actions can help address climate change as flower Farmers add native plant species to their crop mixes

They Inspire florists seeking inspiration for naturalistic designs that highlight the native Flor we touched on Native perennials as a source of Floral Design inspiration and last year’s non-f floral florals Insight in which we noted the work of flower farmer Alexandra kiari of an arbor based cely Farm who has spent two years

Evaluating native perennials as cut flowers her work has influenced several slow flowers members who are now exploring native plants as potential Floral Design Elements for the long-term according to our most recent slow flowers survey 87% of our members are growing native perennials annuals grasses and ornamental shrubs as part of

Their crop mix We believe that incorporating native plants into your farmer Garden means learning a new floral language and we highlighted what two of our members are doing in this area uh what you see here is a wonderful Prairie wedding designed by uh Holly Lucas suit of uh District 2 Floral

Studio was a late summer wedding with Native Prairie flowers that she made for clients who were interested in bees and pollinators another one of our members Deborah Majerus of Iron Butterfly farm renovated a landscape at her guest house by replacing a a grass lawn with Native flowers and grasses her property is now

A demonstration garden that helps combat climate change we love this quote from Deborah which is part of her essay on growing native plants to combat climate change contributed to the forecast it captures a sentiment of our native Flora Insight Farmers love the land I think

Farmers are going to be some of the real heroes of climate change as we know better and do better in many ways we are going back to the way things were done years ago so the takeaway is that Flower Farms that propagate native varieties may discover potentially new sustainable

Sources of revenue and likewise as florist increase their awareness of native habitats they’ll embrace the seasonality of native perennial floral crops thanks Deborah our next Insight we call the garden eclectic acknowledging the ways our cultivated Garden environments influence preferences and choices in Floral Design we know this because many

Of our members refer to Garden inspired nature inspired or Cottage Garden style among other poetic themes to describe their Aesthetics so translating the garden for a floral customer is entirely subjective we know and we we knowe that the sensory stimulations scent palette texture and flavor are the attributes

That connect people with nature when it comes to color we’ve long been moving beyond beige and blush note our first FL slow flowers FAL industry insights in 2015 where everybody was doing beige and blush and when it comes to scent we celebrate the move away from a hybridized unscented flower to the the

Natural perfume a garden offers the garden eclectic celebrates sensory Pleasures particularly color palette and fragrance on the topic of color we report that after years when there was no obvious winning color preference among slow flowers members it was all over the place there’s a clear choice

That has emerged in 2024 33% of our respondents indicated a top preference for warm and saturated pallets and those pallets are up 7% from last year which is significant so just when we’re celebrating this news that slow flowers members s a warm and saturated petal Hues is the top of the spectrum Along

Comes A sweet surprise panel’s color of the Year 2024 is peach vuz it’s a fitting companion to darker palettes and we know that the flower farmers and Flores can deliver Peach is a personal player in weddings um fashion Beauty Home Interiors Landscapes so we’re all in get your Peach foes

Going I’m so glad it’s a color that actually comes in in flowers um the garden eclectic Insight is also as we said a tribute to fragrance and its intoxicating influence is fragrance important in flowers yes says one of our members Stephanie Bitner a owner of Homestead design Collective

Based in Northern California she’s the co-author of a forthcoming book called The fragrant flower garden growing arranging and preserving natural scents which will be out this spring she co-authored this book with althia hermolis and features photography by David Fenton which you see in this Insight Stephanie says creating and

Maintaining a fragrant Garden requires no more time or effort than just gardening and um she sees that the Bounty and blessings are multiplied resulting in a landscape that’s both uh beautiful and wondrously fragrant when you bring your flower Harvest indoors you’re further rewarded with fragrance and Beauty inside your home so this

Takeaway leading with fragrance to engage customers emotional memories with the scent of the flower that maybe a flower from their past a flower that brings back memories that’s a way to connect and uh as a bonus in this Insight when you read the report we’ve highlighted our member’s top 12 fragrant

Flower choices so that might get you uh give you a good start on what to plant next year thanks debah we call our third Insight florist hack attacks so bottomup Innovation occurs during economic downtimes um we all know that we’re trying to to be creative with what we

Have and while saving money is one motivation for homemade remedies the other is clearly a desire to avoid using single-use Plastics and packaging and to eliminate chemical and petroleum based floral items in the studio so this momentum began with the ground swell of #o free sentiments and continued onto

The use of plant-based dyes to transform ribbons and table Linens there seems to be no limit to what florists wanting to formulate non-top materials can achieve in design Solutions Every Day offers something new on Instagram and there are several people out there who are really pushing the envelope so this

Anti-consumption is permeating all sectors yet the floral industry has been really lagging a little bit in this shift sustainably-minded creatives have voiced their needs however when suppliers and manufacturers are non-responsive to changing um attitudes floral artists have stepped in to fill that void and to find Solutions and

What’s most inspiring is how generous they become with sharing the results of what they find they’re not keeping it to themselves they’re innovating they’re seeking new approaches to their work by way of DUI or hack approach and in recent the always experimental Susan McClary introduced her flowers to dried

Gourds that she uses as raw materials for stem mechanics and natural water water vesses and natural water vessels these this Arrangement right here that you see on the screen actually has at its very center in that white vessel a gourd and all these flowers are arranged within that gourd I love it

Thank you Susan McClary for that image and those those tips um the takeaway for this Insight is that sustainably-minded creatives have voiced their needs um when suppliers and manufacturers are non-responsive floral artists step into the void to find Solutions in our report we highlighted two other floral designers whose Innovations are solving

Obvious needs for chemical free applications for both adhesives and flower color paint color for flowers first is law shared her allnatural rice glue recipe for flowers and other materials like cardboard her lit she literally cooked up her kitchen recipe with Pantry ingredients and memories of her mother using a cooked grain of rice

To seal money envelopes for Chinese New Year so you can find that recipe in our report and thank you Suzanne we also report on sustainable color as an alternative to aerosol paint for altering Botanicals and that’s with with tin can Studios ingred kosi ingred has been researching whether there is a safe

Way to paint foliage that’s less environmentally harmful than synthetic aerosol paint which also is plastic based she says I prefer not to paint anything but there are times every now and then when we find it might be necessary to use a small amount of painted material and you see a design of

Hers on the right she said for example I might have a client that I’ve signed off with and then the design Direction changes and they need a teal colored accent and this is one of the things that ingred has done and she shares the resources in our um report uh for

Water-based and safe color pigments for flowers so you’ll want to check out that report uh you’ll also find links to Summa clar’s resource for gourds and as I said ing’s resources for paint and Suzanne’s recipe great so our next Insight invasive plant Alternatives so we know

That invasive plants are in the news um you know which means there’s a greater awareness of among consumers and it’s beginning to permeate the market as native plants and their benefits move to the Forefront the problems surrounding aggressive or invasive plants is undeniable so it’s interesting from the headlines about how invasive grasses

Fueled Maui’s devastating fires in 2023 to the humorous Geico Insurance commercial that spoofs invasive weeds taking over the house and the yard awareness of the harm caused by plants classified as invasive is moving into the mainstream people know what you’re talking about when you say invasive

Species in the slow member survey 51% of respondents say I educated myself about plants that are listed on my state Province my state or province’s invasive species list 21% say I do not grow invasive species but I forage items that may or may not be known to be invasive

And 18% I’m actively rep Placing plant varieties of invasive species with non-invasive or native plants as Alternatives while the nursery trade and cut flower Growers have far to go in terms of self-education and self-regulation it’s up to proactive consumers and floral professionals to raise the alarm and make change our

Thinking is influenced by Becky feby of prairie girl flowers whose white paper Flores invasive species and protecting the natural world outlines the floral industry’s challenge around preferred Botanicals that are in fact invasive or environmentally harmful Becky uh goes on to outline six ways that flower Farmers floral designers and wholesalers can

Address invasive plant species you’ll want to check out those tips in the report as well as a link to her white paper in the coming year we’ll see more flower farmers and florists address invasives and seek non-invasive and native plants as alternative Design Elements to replace previous options one

Such example is Illustrated here from Rachel acrian of Blue Sky flower farm in Minnesota she’s growing American Bittersweet a non-invasive cultivar of a native plant which does not spread like Oriental bit Bittersweet with her experience in Horticulture and working in the nursery industry Rachel’s aware of properly identifying working with and

Promoting only non-invasive plant species and when you read the report you’ll see specific descriptions about the um the color of the berries and the casing around the berries and how to identify American Bittersweet uh as possibly a plant you could grow or ask your your Farmers to grow in your region

That does not spread like Oriental Bittersweet so more on that to come but we are tracking native um plant alternatives to invasive species and we’re hope encourage you to do that in your area thanks Deborah so to go along with all the Innovations that we see among

Our florist and our farmers and in tandem with florist hack attacks our next Insight magnifies the importance of homemade solutions from flower Farmers so whether the motivation is budget savings or just reducing Reliance on conventional AG agricultural practices we knowe that a gradual simpler more sustainable and circular approach to

Farming is underway so slow flower members Can Begin by making small or large steps word climate conscious growing practices says Brianna Bosch of Blossom and Branch Farm in Lakewood col Colorado who you see here in the picture she is the author of a forthcoming book about regenerative gardening practices

And often shares sustainable techniques on her Farm’s YouTube channel such as making plant bled fertilizers for seed starting says it’s all about switching up the mindset to lessen outside inputs and asking how can I use what I have and make it more affordable she explains to reinforce the importance of this

Shift we look at the biodiversity farming practices from slow flowers annual member survey including 91% of respondents have reduced or eliminated use of systemic pesticides and our har and our herbicides that’s a staggering number that’s a staggering percentage 82% are planting pollinator friendly Gardens 71% on Farm compost production

62% use no till practices and 53% use cover crops and they plant cover crops these are all very very significant statistics and what is happening and beginning to happen and spread throughout the farmer Community your takeaway is encouraging and teaching your community about making mindful choices and using safer practices is an

Easy way to express the values of your floral Enterprise as Briana says a lot of people are following flower Farmers now because flower farming is having a moment it’s wise to help people learn and use what’s available to them what’s in proximity to their Garden another homemade solution taken straight from

Organic homesteading practices is comfrey compost tea from our friends at Crowley house flower farm in Rick Ral Oregon flower farmer best ciphers bruis the nutrient-rich liquid Amendment using all the parts of the comfrey plant a member of the borage family Beth explains that the comfrey plant has deep

Tap roots and those tap Roots draw nutrients and minerals from the soil that come into the plant so when she uses uh her Farm BRD solution with of comfrey she’s transmitting all of those minerals to her drenches and to her um her sprays that she applies to

Foliage so some of the instructions are in our report and you’ll see some photos but Beth advises that you can either soak the pieces of the comrey in buckets or bins of water and just let them kind of decompose over a few weeks be sure to stir frequently or if you have an

Electric compost tea Brewer um she speeds up the process a bit and uses that because the electric um uh machine will then cause the bubbles and irration in the liquid U anyway it’s one really cool recipe that is drawn from the past that is being re revitalized on farms

Both uh like what Brianna’s doing in Colorado and what Beth is doing in Oregon so we’re excited to hear about other natural home brw and solutions amendments and and um remedies for your farm so keep us posted on what you’re doing we are going to continue to report and share these insights during

2024 yeah leave it to Beth to come up with you know to make comfy look sexy I know and and to make it sounds so wonderful well I have to say Deborah I think both of you and I are really in love love with this next Insight called

Floral literacy which has just been inspired by the infusion of flowers into every facet of culture I mean we know it’s it’s been in in a lot of um products for years and certainly artists have painted flowers forever but Madison Avenue seems to have discovered uh flowers as an advertising icon and with

Many stores um using different flower flower and floral display as part of to launch a campaign or to align with a season um so you can’t miss the presence of flowers on runways flowers storefronts flowers and dining experiences florals are branding everything from beauty to technology

Which is wanting to put that human touch it seems like a bit of an oxymoron marketers leverage their refreshing wholesome and ecological appeal flowers lur us in the way delicious food lures us how can we have more flowers in our lives is what we’re all asking at the same time we’re

Feeling a general atmosphere of concern and caution about the economy and this translates to a a somewhat of a hesitation in consumer spending and a shift from wants to needs so as we can as this happens what we continue to see is a spike and Seed sales Nursery plants successfully merchandising around

Cutting Gardens for consumers and an interest in foraging these actions reflect two somewhat conflicting realities we love flowers but we want to have them in a sustainable way we know flower consumers are feeling empowered as garders and DIY florist they want to follow the seasons already a mainstream notion in The Culinary

World um but now very prevalent in what can I grow and what can I have year round then now the presence of florals enhance experiences it promotes Wellness it helps support local businesses and Farms there’s just a lot of goodness all the way around to that end we believe

It’s important to understand your customers and what they’re seeking people who want the FL who are floral literate fall into three different categories that we’ve identified we look at it as the home Gardener the acreage owner interested in generating a little bit of extra income with some raised beds or a quarter acre

And a professional grower so create a floral literate Avatar and develop events and product offerings tailored to the consumer Niche that bets fist your floral experience pick one project to offer in 2024 and see how it resonates with your consumers and your clients and your customers and one example that we we

Really focused on as you can see the the list of the uh avatars here um is uh the desire to ReDiscover pressing flowers and the the image that you just saw on the slide uh prior is from our friend Sue gets and um you can read more about

Her in our report um so our members are already down this road to embracing floral literacy uh we looked at three things that are happening in the floral Marketplace to illustrate uh floral lit literacy and to give you some ideas for what you can do in your Enterprise we

Look to retail expansion as I mentioned the art of press flowers and its Revival and the continued to desire for flower farm experiences in retail expansion we cite several Soul flowers members who opened new retail shops for the first time in 2023 contradicting the story that floral retail is declining these destinations

Attract floral literate Shoppers uh one of our members Sydney Garvey of flowers by by Garvey Gardens said our storefront allows us to support additional local Growers and to get more local flowers into the community Susan chambers of the shop at Bloom and Couture in San Francisco um has expanded Floral Design to bespoked

Gifting all of which has some kind of connection to the Garden to Botanicals to flowers she says uh We’ve chosen the most perfect gifts wrapped beautifully and we focus on small brands that we personally love so really reflects her aesthetic and Floral design and now she’s moving into gifts um the

Fascination with flower pressing checks all the boxes for consumers it’s a form of art it’s a way to preserve and dry flowers and it’s an experience a hands-on experience we love the work of author and designer uh sueet of creative Gardener whose work I just mentioned she combines pressed flowers and herbs with

Ephemera to make art Sarah daen and Tom pre of grateful gardeners in poolsville Maryland recently hosted a pressed flower workshop and they say that the floral crafting practice is accessible to all ages incomes and skill levels I love what Sarah said I love to think about dried and pressed flowers as a

Mechanism to freeze time it’s a lost art rediscovered Brooklyn artist Lacy pora of frame florals is known for very expensive one-of-a-kind wedding flower preservation now people can experience her art for $1 literally four quarters that you put into this flower press flow vending machine you see the photo here

Um it’s on display at stems Brooklyn which is one of our members in uh Brooklyn New York Lacy says I’d like to think of it as a fortune machine because you put four quarters into the slot and receive a little floral inspiration in return and you can get a little pressed

Flower a sticker or a a temporary tattoo all Botanical we also identified floral tourism originally in 2017 as one of our insights and that is continuing on for 2024 flower Focus experiences have shifted to widespread cultural popularity this photo is from all doed up flower farm in Palmer Alaska where

Misty Vander wheel offers on-farm experiences and events that invite customers to engage with the natural beauty of the 49th state what’s happening though is her farm- totable dinners on a flower farm are tourism experiences that’s getting support from her community and her State tourism agencies when I started flower farming

Commercially and hosting our first dinners and tours I knew my flower far flower farm had something unique to offer alaskans and my surrounding Community but now it reaches a broader audience of instate and out of state customers and consumers and professionals alike and it’s just been really gratifying to see this grow for

All doet up so let’s before we move on let’s add seed literacy uh to this insight as we celebrate uh the not worthy new book how we SE by our friend Jennifer juwel who uh writes about a tribute to the importance um and the essential role of seed preservation seed

Saving and Seed Justice in the LIF lifestyle life cycle of people plants and the planet uh so seed literacy is a subtext to Floral literacy from seed to bloom that’s right what we do yes okay so we’re excited to share the final Insight which is called creative Sisterhood you’ve seen it

You’ve heard it or perhaps you’ve even participated in it thanks to three field female economic forces who permeated our Collective Consciousness in the summer of 2023 yes we’re talking about Beyonce Taylor and Barbie they have personally helped transform our economy their box office breaking and life affirming cultural

Events became a mustbe ad experience for women of all ages um not to mention a boost in friendship bracelet sales and but their their girl magic continues to inspire it hasn’t gone away and as the boundaries break down all kinds of new friendships are being made Sisterhood are truly empowering and the reality

That women together can change the conversation of our time is inspiring and we all want to be a part of it women want to move Beyond siping clip parties and trans deeper con and transcend into deeper connections through the pandemic ongoing social interest and the need to

Provide care to our families you know we’re shouldering a lot these days so finding a way to fill up with a community of women with your girlfriends with one Sisterhood is essential and energizing let’s be honest more than ever New farmers entering the agricultural world are most likely female solopreneurs they naturally find

One another even others who might have once been considered competition we believe the model of collaboration and Collective energy a model that makes the world a better place and could be highly compatible with floral activities and events that you could host and expand and share and create Community form

Collectives and cooperatives the efforts of female floral entrepreneurs reflect new opportunities for Market local flowers flower people may be competitors but the vast majority are supportive of one another which is why we are witnessing the explosion of regional wholesale flower hubs as most mostly female Growers and designers seek to

Make an economic impact for themselves that’s right and this photo that you had by the way is two groups uh in our area Robin who came together The Gig Harbor flower uh Collective and the new West soundflower Exchange um they had a a coffee and Pie event that I got to

Attend and it was really really uplifting all right well 68% of our members say that connecting with like-minded floral professionals is one of the reasons they value their participation in the sow flowers uh Society we know that when we break down the barriers through shared interests we

They there can be more of a authentic deeper connection and of course we can do business too the creative Sisterhood is reflected across the soul flowers movement and in our Insight we shared a wonderful story about how women connect uh through slow flowers especially at the slowl flower Summit uh you’ll want

To read more in the report uh and the link uh to that report will be shared in our show notes for this episode at sflow podcast.com uh in fact I wanted to share this uh this screenshot of women leading change because it’s the theme of last week’s sflow podcast episode

Underscoring the economic power of creative women whose Collective talents Inspire changes that benefit The Wider floral Marketplace we highlighted Jamie Reeves slow flowers member and co-founder of the local flower collective in Toronto she’s the subject of a new documentary series called women leading change the series includes video

Profiles celebrating the role that women entrepreneurs and Grassroots organizers are playing in building sustainable food and farming systems uh in communities across Canada so let’s continue the momentum and embrace female leadership in 2024 I’m in y you me me too thank you so much for joining us as

We shared our insights and forecasts for 2024 we’re incred inly inspired by the passion and talents of the slow flowers Community as the intentional choices that you bring to your floral Enterprise help shape the future of the slow flowers movement Deborah and I are profoundly moved by the many ways you

Meld your values with the love of flowers as you bring your creativity into the floral Marketplace you are not losing sight of sustainability and community and all facets of your work and for that we salute you so we hope you have a beautiful peaceful and prosperous 2024 you can find us at slow

Flower society.com or Bloom imprint.com and throughout this year in the pages of our EAS slow flowers Journal you’ll find content that informs your place in the floral landscape and as we wrap up I must extend my deepest gratitude to Robin Anne for all that she has done to

Elevate and polish this forecast uh we’re so proud of it and we see a lot of forecasts and we think this one is just spoton for our Community Deborah back you’re a valuable partner and I’m so glad to collaborate with you and as we mentioned the replay video of this presentation and the

Entire uh deck and link to our published report uh will be at sowp podcast.com look for episode 643 thank you thank you Happy New Year