Flower Friends

Latest Episodes:

Residential Landscape Design with Dorsey Kilbourn May 30, 2022

Show notes

Sarah kicks off the episode with her thoughts on what sustainability means for her business & garden practices (2:30), and will be covering sustainability on the floristry side next week. Listen to the flower fact trivia question (23:00), with the answer after the interview.
Today's guest is Dorsey Kilbourn from Blossom in Portland, Oregon, who stops by to talk about landscape design for homes (23:25). This episode will make you want to turn your unloved backyard into the outdoor space of your dreams! Think peaceful morning coffee space, outdoor dinners, swing 'portals', patio covers, children's play features, and creating different 'rooms'. She fills us in on some of her go-to design features, how to maximize space in urban landscapes, how she brainstorms and narrows down her designs, garden layers, what to expect if you work with a landscape design company, and how she got into this field.
Dorsey walks us through some of her favorite plants, recommendations for how to create garden borders, and answers some rapid-fire listener questions such as: drought tolerant plants, plants that are good for shade, and irrigation tips for resilient plants.
For design inspiration, Dorsey uses Pinterest and loves following Piet Oudolf, Charlotte Rowe Gardens, MCLD LLC, Sunset Magazine, Artisan Landscapes, and Lara Behr. For plant inspiration, Dorsey highly recommends looking through the Xera Plants website, especially if you're in the Pacific Northwest.
At the end of the ep, Sarah answers the trivia question (1:19:02) & the song of the week is Long Black Veil by Johnny Cash (1:20:05).
Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast, and with Sarah at @growgirlseattle.

Expand Your Growing Space with Kristin Ryzebol May 25, 2022

Show notes

Kristin Ryzebol really meant it when she named her business Neighborhood Flower Co. because she has expanded her growing space to her neighbor's yards and community spaces! Brilliant!
Kristin runs a small urban flower farm in Seattle, Washington where she has a flower stand and sells mixed bouquets. We chat about how she got hooked on local flowers when she was doing event design, and how her business grew organically from dabbling in gardening to using her Canadian charm to expand her growing space into the whole neighborhood! She tells us how she approached her neighbors to see if she could grow on some of their space, and how she set that up with them.
Then we blame Lisa Mason-Ziegler for our failed December lisianthus trial (lol!), talk about soil tests, Kristin's no-till dahlias, getting the most out of a small space, hot tips like getting your plant support done right the first time and skipping direct seeding, and how Kristin balances parenting & gardening. Follow along with Kristin @neighborhood.flower.co.
In the intro Sarah answers a listener question about soil and fertilizer recommendations, and turns Flower Facts into a trivia game with a question at the start and the answer at the end. Song of the week is I do by Cardi B. and SZA.
Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast, and with Sarah at @growgirlseattle.

Lisies, Cosmos, and Dried Flowers with Jess Wesley May 09, 2022

Show notes

I had so many laughs with my lovely guest and friend Jess Wesley from Curly Girl Gardens on today's episode of Flower Friends, where we talked about her business offerings, urban growing space, how she makes community connections by chatting with neighbors and other small business owners in-person and online, and how she came to gardening as a way to help manage anxiety. Her approach to growing flowers makes me smile, because it always helps me remember why I started doing this, and she encourages me to have more fun with it - I think you'll have nothing but fun as you listen in!
Jess loves experimenting with garden challenges, and this year grew lisianthus from seed, so of course I asked her approximately 1 million questions about it. She is also known as the cosmos queen in our little Flower Friends group, and she tells me how she fell in love with cosmos ("they thrive on neglect"), why they are so special to her, the varieties she's growing this year (including her saved cosmos seeds), and some of the crazy late cosmos blooms she's gotten in past years. We also talk about her dried and pressed flowers (including a microwaveable press, which I didn't even know was a thing), and some of her fave flowers to dry.
At one point Jess looked out the window and saw a squirrel going after her seedlings, so she sent her dog Pascal out there to tell the squirrel whose boss. I left the whole thing in because it made me laugh so much. I hope it will bring a smile to you too!
In the intro, I talk about how I skipped town and didn't sell any Mother's Day flowers (on purpose) to rest and recharge for the busy season ahead, and give an update on what's blooming in the garden. In the outro, listen in for a flower fact on transporting flowers, and for a list of some of my fave podcasts - flowery and non-flowery. The song of the week is Hard Place by H.E.R.
Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast for photos of some of the things we chat about here, and with Sarah at @growgirlseattle.

Wedding Florals with Paula Pritchard May 02, 2022

Show notes

On today's episode, listen into a lovely conversation with Paula from Paisley Petals, all about wedding florals. We talked about defining moments in her impressive twenty-two year career as a wedding florist, and the all-out pressure of owning your own business where you make art with perishable products for the most important day in someone's life!
I was super interested to hear more about the valuable information she's been sharing on her Instagram - about how to select a floral designer for your wedding, pricing information, and what to expect from your wedding florist. We talked about the value of the florist's time and the enormous amount of work that goes into planning for a wedding, even before touching the flowers, and the undervalued skill set of packing and driving with flowers!
I love Paula's focus on balance and family, and her advice about making your business work for what you want out of life - it was a super inspirational and uplifting conversation that I hope will be helpful to new floral designers or farmer/florists like me who are starting to take on small weddings.
Stay til the end for the flower fact and song of the week.
Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast and with Sarah at @growgirlseattle. Have a good week

Dahlias with Margaret Ullman-Hess Apr 25, 2022

Show notes

Our flower friend Margaret from Ballard Urban Flowers is back on today's episode to talk about dahlias! She fills us in on why dahlias are the backbone of her business, the criteria she uses to select varieties, how temperatures and soil health can influence flower color, the natural environment of dahlias, anatomy of a tuber, how she starts her dahlias (pre-potting indoors), conditions for planting out, the dreaded dahlia virus and more. We also each picked 3+ varieties we're super excited about growing this year - you'll have to listen to get our recs!
In the intro Sarah talks about a wedding she designed for this past weekend, and an Australian podcast she just found called Dish the Dirt. She also is looking for guest recommendations for season 2 of the podcast.
This week's flower facts both have to do with dahlias (tune in after the interview with Margaret), and the song of the week is Wildflowers by Dolly Parton.
Follow along with our Flower Friends instagram account to see some of the flowers mentioned on this week's episode & past & future eps. Thanks so much for listening, and we would super appreciate if you could rate & review the podcast, and share with a friend!

Seed Starting with Margaret Ullman-Hess Apr 18, 2022

Show notes

This week Sarah covers her latest haps - including making an elopement bouquet & sweet pea tunnel, plus a hot tip to germinate sweet peas at cooler temps, then chats with her friend Margaret Ullman-Hess from Ballard Urban Flowers all about seed starting! Margaret describes her seed starting set-up, gives tips for thinking about soil temperatures, light, acclimating & feeding seedlings, and other factors that will affect germination and plant health, and discusses some of the flower varieties she is growing in her urban garden.
Follow along with Margaret and Ballard Urban Flowers at @ballardurbanflowers.
To learn more, volunteer, or donate to Facing Homelessness, visit their website.
Here's the link for The Daily's Sunday Read: The Woman Who Made Van Gogh - an incredible article & podcast from 2021 that Sarah mentions - relating to her song of the week, Vincent by Don McClean. She also loves James Blake's version of the song.
Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast and with Sarah at @growgirlseattle.

Sheet Mulching with Janice Groves Apr 11, 2022

Show notes

Sarah gets into her bearded iris obsession & the latest garden haps before chatting with Janice Groves from Jay's Garden Journal about the benefits of sheet mulching, which you can use to quickly transform your lawn into garden beds - with just cardboard, water, some soil or compost, and mulch. This saves your back from digging, and brings earthworms in to do the aeration for you! Jay also talks tips for edging & growing in clay soil. Jay is a "hype woman" for beginning gardeners and makes gardening accessible through her Instagram and YouTube. She shares great tips on dividing and sharing flowers with your flower friends, and using what you can get easily - or dividing what you already have - to expand your space into a flower haven.
Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod, and follow along for podcast updates on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast and with Sarah at @growgirlseattle.
Podcast art by the super talented Abigail Towne from Portland Design Co.

Raised Garden Beds with Hilary Dahl Apr 04, 2022

Show notes

This week we're chatting with Hilary Dahl from Seattle Urban Farm Company, all about garden beds, building beds on impervious surfaces, favorite flowers to grow with veggies, edible flowers, and some of Hilary's tips to help beginning gardeners be successful. Sarah gives her garden & business updates in the intro, and kicks off "Flower Facts" and "Song of the Week" in the outro. For this week's Flower Fact, Sarah explains how to make sure cut daffodils don't kill your other flowers in the vase.
Check out Seattle Urban Farm Company's new YouTube series on building wooden raised beds, as well as their website where they have helpful blog posts, and where you can purchase their amazing books. Find Hilary and Seattle Urban Farm Co. on Instagram at @seattleurbanfarmco, and listen to their podcast Encyclopedia Botanica. Hilary has done some great podcast episodes on flowers, including episodes 29 & 30 on annual cut flower gardens (parts I & II), episode 98 on backyard cutting gardens, episode 100 on edible flowers, and more.
Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod, and follow along for podcast updates on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast and with Sarah at @growgirlseattle.
Podcast art by the super talented Abigail Towne from Portland Design Co.

Flower Friends Intro Apr 02, 2022

Show notes

For our very first Flower Friends ep, Sarah's husband Vikram guest-hosts to ask Sarah all about her garden, flower biz, and floral design inspiration. Titles are already being handed out - Monty Don of Gardener's World fame is crowned the patron saint of the pod, and Erin Benzakein of Floret Flowers is our high priestess. If you love flowers, this season we'll be chatting garden beds, sheet mulching, landscape design, seed starting, dahlias, growing in small spaces, and talking with some amazing farmer-florists and floral designers!
Subscribe to the pod, and follow along for podcast updates on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast and with Sarah at @growgirlseattle.

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