Flower Friends

On today's episode, Liz Schreiner-Schmidt, President of Schreiner's Gardens in Salem, Oregon, stops by to discuss bearded iris! Iris are in all their glory at their display garden right now, which is open through May 31st. If you don't make it this year, put it on your calendar for next year! Liz answers all my questions about how to grow bearded iris - what conditions they like, how your iris will come packaged and what to do with them when they arrive, whether they can grow in pots, what to do in winter in spring to help iris succeed - as well as how to divide and what companion plants work well with bearded iris. We also discuss Schreiner's hybridizing program, some of Liz's favorite varieties, and some of their best sellers. We also discuss how her grandfather started the family business, how it's grown, and what their farm and display gardens are like. Liz is a wealth of information! In the intro, I continue the convo on the Chelsea Flower Show and discuss some of my favorite gardens and takeaways from the show, and some of the things I learned about garden design. If you don't already follow along with Schreiner's Gardens, find them on their website or Instagram. Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast and @growgirlseattle. And call in to our new Flower Friends hotline to leave a message that might get played on the pod: 7313-FLOWER, or 731-335-6937.

Sarah’s in London in garden & flower heaven, and recorded a quick lowdown of her visit so far - Kensington Gardens, Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, and the RHS Chelsea Flower Show!

Today we get to talk with Miranda from Wildrye Farm about the heirloom chrysanthemums she grows and sells plugs of, and about her amazing farm in Bellingham, Washington where she specializes in sustainable, exceptional quality cut flowers and foliage! I ask Miranda about her career in farming, how she evolved from growing veggies into cut flowers, where and how she sells those cut flowers, the layout of her farm spaces (which she has recently expanded!), about the plants she grows, and then we dive into chrysanthemums! Miranda answers all my questions on favorite varieties, where and how to grow mums, best time for harvest, overwintering, and taking cuttings. Listen in for all the info! Miranda's mum plug sale is ongoing - as new plugs become available she posts them for newsletter subscribers; to join her mum newsletter, send her an email at wildryefarm@gmail.com. She is also having an in-person plant sale with Free Range Flowers, where they'll have dahlia tubers, mum plugs, veggie starts, and coffee and pastries on April 29th. You can find out more info and updates on Wildrye Farm's instagram page. In the intro, I talk about a project I've been working on to clean up and plant woodies and shrubs in our rain garden, and get rid of pesky bindweed! This is the "last frontier" of places I can take over at our house to grow flowers. In the outro, I play the first voicemail from a caller to the Flower Friends hotline, Michelle from Kentucky, who called in to ask about the differences between hoop houses and other outdoor protective structures. I give a quick response - but this will be a great topic for a future season! If you'd like to call in, and get your flower-related question, story, or topic in, the Flower Friends hotline is: 7313-FLOWER, or 731-335-6937. Hope to hear from you and make the podcast more interactive! Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast and @growgirlseattle.

Season 4 is here, and we're kicking it off with a bang - Jason Delaney from PHS Daffodils stops by to chat about everything daffodils! Jason specializes in classic, historic, and novel varieties for garden & exhibition. I got to ask Jason about his background in flower growing - which started at a very young age in rural Illinois, and continued on into a long career with the Missouri Botanical Garden where he oversaw the flower bulb collection and travelled the world on plant collecting expeditions - to places like Siberia, Morocco, and the Republic of Georgia, looking for plants that are extremely endangered or threatened. Jason has had a life-long love of daffodils, the harbingers of spring. He grew his collection out on his family farm in Flora, Illinois, where he lifts, divides, and replants by hand every 3-5 years - it is a true labor of love. Jason shares amazing tips on planting and growing daffodils, including excellent companion plants, and discusses his breeding and growing program and his favorite daffodil characteristics. He is an absolute wealth of knowledge, with the best podcast voice imaginable, you guys are gonna love this one! Jason says that if you take nothing else from this episode, he wants you to PLANT YOUR DAFFODIL BULBS 6-8 INCHES DEEP! If planted this way, daffodils can live for hundreds of years. Plant for permanence! To purchase bulbs from PHS Daffodils, sign up for the newsletter on their website (at the bottom of the "Contact" page), and follow along on Instagram to see photos and get the up-to-date info on their plant sales - which will likely be in late May-early June this year. In addition to daffodils, Jason will also be offering day lilies from his vast collection. Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast and @growgirlseattle. And call in to our new Flower Friends hotline to leave a message that might get played on the pod: 7313-FLOWER, or 731-335-6937.

The seed starting episode is in! On this episode, I share how I start seeds here at grow Girl Seattle, both for indoor and outdoor sowing. I go through my timing, what my setup is like, cover the tools and supplies I use, how I get my seeds started, and share some tips and tricks I’ve picked up along the way. Today you'll also get some updates on Season 4, which is coming out shortly, and on our new Flower Friends Hotline! You can call in and leave a message or ask a question, and your voicemail might get played on the podcast. Call 7313-FLOWER, or 731-335-6937 to leave a voicemail! Today's rundown: 0:00 - intro 1:56 - podcast updates 12:50 - seed starting variables 21:50 - indoor sowing & timing 30:50 - seed starting setup 37:47 - seed trays, soil, sowing, heat mats, lids 50:42 - grow lights, fans, rotating, watering, fertilizer 57:58 - hardening off 1:05:45 - outdoor sowing 1:28:18 - more resources Links to products I love (not sponsored!): Grow Light Stand - Gardener's Supply Company Heat Mats - Vivosun 8-Outlet Surge Protector with Mechanical Timer - BN-Link Sticky Fly Traps for Fungus Gnats - GreenKeeper Seed Starting Trays (1020 size) - Bootstrap Farmer Six-cell Tray Inserts (72 plugs per 1020 tray) - Bootstrap Farmer Black Gold Seed Starting Mix - Sun Pro Organic Potting Mix - Peat Free - PittMoss Fans - Vivosun Liquid Fertilizer - Fox Farm Organic "Big Bloom" (diluted for seedlings) Mini Greenhouse "Zippy" - Topline For any plastic products, please reuse for many years! Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast and @growgirlseattle.

Let's continue our convo on signature flowers and seed starting, Flower Friends! In today's episode I take you through my personal brainstorm of my favorite flowers and foliage, and how I used the brainstorm list to narrow down what I'll be growing this year. I call this my "signature ingredients exercise". Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast and @growgirlseattle.

This week is all about signature flowers and seed starting! In this two part series, I’ll walk you through an exercise I decided to do before starting seeds this year, and give some updates on where I’m at with seed sowing. Part I covers what I’m calling my “signature ingredients exercise”, which is a brainstorm and narrowing process to get your seed-sowing list down to your favorite flowers and foliage. In this episode, I describe my general process, but don't give you the specifics from my list. That way if you’d like to use the process, you can safely listen to Part I without having my favorite flowers fresh on your brain or being influenced by any of my opinions. After you put your pen to paper, you may want to catalogue it in a spreadsheet, which I discuss on the episode. If you'd like to see the spreadsheet template I use, here's the link. Then in Part II (which will be released as a separate episode), I’ll walk you through my actual brainstorm, to really illustrate the exercise, give you the specific plant lists many of you have asked me for, and talk about some of my preferences, themes, and realizations in more detail. I'll also discuss my seed-starting set up and sowing plans. But as always, my biggest takeaway and advice is to connect with yourself and identify your priorities to make sure whatever you're doing aligns with you. Hope you'll give this exercise a try, and I'll be back soon with Part II! Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast and @growgirlseattle.

Come along on a walk through my January garden. When the rain let up and I saw some sun shining this morning, I thought it would be the perfect time to take stock of what's where in the garden, what space I have open, what projects I want to work on, and I thought you might like to join. Welcome to my garden! Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast and @growgirlseattle.

To kick off season 3, I share six mindset practices I've been working on to lay the foundation for the new year and help reduce Instagram stress and comparison: Fall has been a real time of reflection for me, and I'm hoping to use the things I've been working on for my mindset to fuel a flowery year that is connected to my priorities. Before diving into my boxes of seed packets, or buying any dahlia tubers, I wanted to take a step back and get my priorities straight first, and have everything else flow from there. We as flower growers and florists plan so far in advance that I didn't want to let this year rule me - but rather want to move with intention and confidence on a track that aligns with my personal and professional priorities. I walk through each of the six steps I took to try to get my mind right for the coming year, and would love to hear from you about what works best for you, and if you try any of these what came up for you. You can reach out by email to sarah@growgirlseattle.com, or message me on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast or @growgirlseattle. Wishing you a very happy new years, and will be back with more "Sarah Sessions" soon - with best-of lists, recommendations, and more. Thanks for listening!

Yasmine Mei from Yasmine Floral Design stops by the pod for our Season 2 finale, bringing all of her floral magic with her. Yasmine's designs are whimsical, romantic, and edgy, and we talk about the flowers and ingredients she celebrates in her work (including mushrooms!), using nature as inspiration, and a new and fun way she's been exploring the natural world. We also chat about how she maintains her voice and how she has built her business in an intentional way where her creations are thoughtful and individual. Yasmine shares some incredible advice for new designers, and for finding your voice in the floral world. What a treat. In the intro, I mention how I'm collecting and saving seeds, planting hardy annuals, and reviewing what ingredients I loved using this year to help guide what I grow next year. On the design side, I had the opportunity to freelance last weekend and recap that! Stay til the end for this week's trivia (about mushrooms), and the song of the week, which you can find on our Spotify Flower Friends Song of the Week playlist. Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast and @growgirlseattle.

Have you ever gotten a seed packet and wondered how those seeds made it to you? Or what an organic seed really is? Or what 'heirloom' means? Well today we get to learn all about seeds with THE Renee from Renee's Garden today. Her company offers flower, veggie, and herb seeds specifically for home gardeners, with a huge host of cool offerings that they test in their trial gardens in California and Vermont. I ask Renee all the questions about trialing, sourcing, and selling the seeds that so many gardeners grow from, what she's excited about in her trial garden this year, her recommendations for new growers, her favorite flowers she grows at home, and so much more. I loved hearing her advice after having been in the industry so long, and her perspective on how gardening connects us to different cultures and history. I learned so much from this conversation and hope you will too! Follow along with Renee's Garden on Instagram @reneesgardenseeds. In the intro, I get into some of the specific varieties of flowers I've sourced from Renee's Garden, and some recent updates from my garden and small floral design business. The Flower Friends Flower Fact is about hellebores this week, so listen in to learn something new! Stay til the end for the song of the week, which you can also find on the Spotify Flower Friends Song of the Week playlist. Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast, and with Sarah at @growgirlseattle. Thanks flower friends!

This week we're talking to Michelle Nathan from Little Free Flowery, a flower stand where Michelle shares her homegrown flowers with her neighbors and community. It's such a big hit! Michelle describes why and how she started the stand, how she sets it up, what it means to her, and about the connections she's made. Her idea has inspired other stands to open in her neighborhood and beyond, and I was so excited to hear more about what she's doing and share that with you! We also chat about some of her favorite flowers to grow. Follow along with Michelle & Little Free Flowery on Instagram @littlefreeflowery. In the intro, I talk about some garden clean-up and support I was working on for dahlias and chrysanthemums this weekend, and about co-planting mums and daffodils in perennial beds since they bloom at different times. I also give an update on a few things blooming in the garden right now: dahlias, zinnias, echinacea (the absolute star of my garden and arrangements - note to self: PLANT MORE ECHINACEA NEXT YEAR), Sahara rudbeckia, fata morgana scabiosa, toad lilies, and blooming soon - lisianthus and sunflowers. I’m looking for advice on how to get longer side stems on fata morgana scabies, and how to deal with lisianthus “wilt”. And I’m having fun experimenting with getting smaller (and more) sunflowers in lots of unique colors. The Flower Friends Flower Fact has three questions this week, so listen in to learn something new! Stay til the end for the song of the week, which you can also find on the Spotify Flower Friends Song of the Week playlist. Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast, and with Sarah at @growgirlseattle. Thanks flower friends!

It was such a pleasure to speak with floral designer and podcaster Rebecca Noble from LLB and Dish the Dirt podcast. Rebecca is located in Australia and designs with seasonal flowers grown by farmers in her area, who she has built wonderful relationships with, and in 2020 she started her podcast to share their stories and knowledge and connect florists with farmers. We talk about how she got into floral design, the struggles and successes of starting her business, the importance of placing a value on time, how she moved into using local flowers, how using local blooms supports farmers, community, and the environment, and provides access to some of the most special and inspiring flowers that come with the story of where they were grown. I ask about some of Rebecca's incredible design work and installations, her inspiration, and if using local flowers changed how she designs. Then we talk about her podcast and all of the amazing connections and sense of community that has evolved from it. I am in awe of Rebecca and her gorgeous design work, but most of all by how she has promoted the local flowers and farmers in her region with such passion, and worked to celebrate their hard work and beautiful blooms through her floral creations and through the connections her podcast has built and deepened in her community and country. Listening to Dish the Dirt has been one of the more heartwarming experiences of the last few months, and has helped build my confidence to emphasize that part of my own business even more, and to reach out to local growers to directly buy more of my flowers. I'm so thankful to Rebecca for joining Flower Friends to chat about all of this and more. Follow along with Rebecca on Instagram @llb_florals and @_dishthedirt_, and listen to Dish the Dirt wherever you get your podcasts. In this week's intro, I talk about what I'm going to do with some of flower beds now that their crops have stopped blooming (...to cover crop or grow one more round of fast-bloomers!?), and about making room for all of the flower bulbs that will be coming this fall & getting in last orders. The Flower Friends Flower Fact this week is about tulips, so listen in to learn something new! Stay til the end for the song of the week, which you can also find on the Spotify Flower Friends Song of the Week playlist. Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast, and with Sarah at @growgirlseattle. Thanks flower friends!

Brain-like cactus? A cactus that only blooms for one night? Slime mold? Hair ice!? Zebra succulents? How cool are these plants!?? Cactus CEO Meg Meyer from Propagate Positivity fills us in on all of the amazing plants in their collection and that they encounter in the wild! We first chat about Meg's habitat restoration work where they spend a lot of time outdoors removing invasive species and replacing them with native plants, the importance of homeowners knowing about invasive species (it turns out a lot of us home gardeners grow invasives in our gardens without even knowing it!), and some of the natives species that they are planting in their garden. Then we get into cacti - including species native to the Pacific Northwest (who knew!), the new cactus garden Meg built, how to propagate and grow cacti, and some of Meg's plant recommendations and faves in their collection. Last, I do a quick rundown of some of the amazing plants, fungi, and hard-to-categorize species Meg posts about on Instagram, and we get the scoop on carnivorous plants, Meg's backyard bog project, native orchids, slime mold, hair ice, and more! I'm fascinated. In the intro, I give updates from the week including attending the book launch for Flower Gardening for Beginners (congratulations to author Amy Barene from Capital Blooms!!!) and getting to meet many fellow flower growers, designing for two events in the heat, selecting and testing flowers that will be out of water, processing flowers and foliage (takes so much time! Hi baptisia), and all the time, thought, and prep that goes into what you buy from a florist. I've also been thinking a lot about what type of work is fulfilling and how to attract clients who place importance on local flowers and trust my aesthetic, rather than clients who micromanage and want to specify every flower type. The Flower Friends Flower Fact this week is about orchids, so listen in to learn something new! And in the outro I give a little roadmap of what's coming up for the podcast, and get back to embarrassing myself singing you out with the song of the week. If you like the song recs, you can listen to all of them on our new Spotify Flower Friends Song of the Week playlist. Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast, and with Sarah at @growgirlseattle. Thanks flower friends!

On this episode, we check back in with Margaret Ullman-Hess from Ballard Urban Flowers, Kristin Ryzebol from Neighborhood Flower Co., and Jess Wesley from Curly Girl Gardens, the OG flower friends who helped inspire this podcast! We talked about how spring and summer are going so far, the rainy season and some unexpected outcomes from that (longer seasons for some plants, and delayed seasons for others), highlights and lowlights of the year so far, what's blooming right now, some flower recommendations, lessons learned, and how we all want to be more like Margaret! On this episode we discuss dahlia seedlings, overwintering dahlias, new-to-us flower varieties, second-year stem lengths on rudbeckia, the importance of soil temps when planting, and so much more. I loved chatting about the different directions and interests we all have and am so thankful to these three for all of the flower chats and support. In the intro I discuss another field trip I took up to Stanwood, WA to see beautiful pitcher plants and experiment with them in arrangements, and if you love hearing about carnivorous and other super interesting plants you'll really enjoy the episode we have coming your way next week! The Flower Friends Flower Fact is about rosehips this week - stay tuned til the end to hear the answer and catch the song of the week. If you like the song recs, you can listen to all of them on our new Spotify Flower Friends Song of the Week playlist. Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast, and with Sarah at @growgirlseattle. Thanks flower friends!

Today we're talking dahlias with LeeAnn Huber from Coseytown Flowers! LeeAnn discusses her background in agriculture, how she got interested in dahlias, what her growing space is like, and then introduces us to some of her Coseytown dahlia varieties - and even gives a preview of a few breeding program beauties that might be on the horizon! LeeAnn's focus with Coseytown Flowers is to develop varieties with a strong plant habit that will grow well and produce beautiful flowers with lots of blooms (and tubers), so it was wonderful to hear her insights on breeding and developing dahlias that are built for strength and success. I got to ask LeeAnn about dahlia virus and the intensive research project she's been conducting on virus - she is full of information that is super helpful for anyone growing dahlias. If you're not already, follow along with Coseytown Flowers. In the intro I give some updates from the garden - on dahlias, snapdragons, bells of Ireland and more. I discuss the beauty of seed starting and trying new varieties and colors in a low cost and low risk way, as well the challenges of timing succession planting and crop rotation, especially in late spring when we get busy outside. The Flower Friends flower fact question is about dahlias this week - listen into the end for the answer. Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast, and with Sarah at @growgirlseattle. Thanks flower friends!

Today we are joined by Arielle Zamora from Small Yard Flowers to chat about her farm, flowers, and artful floral design. We talk about her growing spaces, what she grows there, her event and design work, the unmatched beauty of fresh local flowers, and then dive into roses. Arielle shares some of her favorite rose varieties to grow, tips on supporting them, and how to combat disease. She also offers tips on how to let fresh-from-the-garden flowers guide your designs. If you're not already following Arielle, go visit Small Yard Flowers' website and Instagram, and check out her videos on YouTube, including how to plant a bare root rose, and how to prune your roses! In the intro Sarah gives some garden updates and shares some of her failures from this season with a reminder that we're often sharing way more of our successes than our failures online! Stay til the end for a flower fact about top states for floriculture, and the newest addition to our song of the week - which we just created a Spotify playlist for! Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast, and with Sarah at @growgirlseattle. Thanks flower friends!

In this bonus episode, Sarah walks through her Athamma's (mother-in-law's) beautiful flower and vegetable garden. Usha Nayani grows several varieties of vegetables, herbs, and flowers at her home in Yorktown, Virginia. It was such a special visit, listen in to hear more about Usha's glow-in-the-dark feature, her painted tiles, recycled bottle pots, sunflowers, jasmine, special Indian vegetables, and more.

It's the start of season 2, and our first ever Flower Friends Field Trip to the Farmhouse Flower Farm in Stanwood, Washington! The intrepid Marryn Mathis walks us through her sweet pea tunnels, field grown sweet pea rows, her bearded iris and perennial beds, and dahlia fields, and we get to meet her pups, see her ponds, woods, and gorgeous 10-acre property, and then sit down in her farmstand to answer some listener questions. This episode is jam-packed with info, including Marryn's growing tips for sweet peas, how to get the best stem length, her favorite sweet pea varieties, some of her favorite perennial flowers and foliage, how she and her family found and transformed their farm, and so much more! Thank you Marryn! If you're not already following Marryn, go visit the Farmhouse Flower Farm website and Instagram. In the intro Sarah gives a little background about the pod for new listeners. Stay til the end for a really cool flower fact about honey bees, and the newest addition to our song of the week - which we just created a Spotify playlist for! Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast, and with Sarah at @growgirlseattle. Thank you, flower friends!

In the Season 1 finale of Flower Friends, Sarah sits down with Alyssa Lytle, whose floral design business Color Theory Design Co. and educational platform Flowering Minds have been hugely inspirational (14:35). Sarah asks how Alyssa got her start in the flower world, how she decided to start her own business, and what it was like to move that business to a new city (twice). This lived experience is pivotal to what Alyssa teaches on Flowering Minds, which covers how she creates florals, but also delves deeply into how she has established a profitable business. In our convo, Alyssa touches on something so important about her desire to start her own business - taking on projects that make sense financially and creatively for her life and her business, connecting with her ideal clients, and building space for family and the important moments in life. She discusses the importance of creating a portfolio in one clear voice - your voice - to attract the projects and clients that you want. A consistent portfolio also builds trust in communicating what your vision is and trust in what your clients will receive, which ultimately leads to more creative freedom and less micromanaging from clients. Sarah also asks about Alyssa’s favorite flowers to work with and where she draws inspiration. See her beautiful work on Instagram (@colortheorydesign.co, @floweringminds.education). In the intro, Sarah mentions some of the things she’s working on in terms of sustainability on the floristry side of her business (0:59) and asks the flower fact trivia question (14:12). Hear the answer at the end (57:22). Sarah is also looking for feedback on a few things: (1) What are you doing to be more sustainable in your garden or floral business? (2) Do you have ideas for how to better communicate with the Flower Friends community for Season 2 (like a forum or platform)? (3) What guests would you like on the pod for Season 2, and what topics do you want to hear about? Please send responses on Instagram (@flowerfriendspodcast) or by email (sarah@growgirlseattle.com)! Thanks so much for listening to our first season of the podcast, and we’ll be back in a few weeks to kick off Season 2! Subscribe to the Flower Friends pod wherever you get your podcasts, and follow along on Instagram at @flowerfriendspodcast, and with Sarah at @growgirlseattle. Thank you, flower friends!