Floral Creativity in the Canadian Rockies
The 2024 Slow Flowers Summit travels to Banff, Alberta, for our seventh annual conference
The 2024 Slow Flowers Summit took place in the breathtaking setting of the Canadian Rockies at Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, a conference venue where our attendees gathered for education, inspiration, connections, and professional and personal development -- June 23-25. As our seventh annual conference, this was a huge first for Slow Flowers Society because we embraced the energy, ideas, and innovation of the Canadian Slow Flowers community in showcasing speakers and topics.
Attendees hailed from five Canadian provinces, 17 U.S. states, AND, we were treated to the presence of one guest who traveled to Banff from Melbourne, Australia! Truly international!
Informed by the many values outlined in the Slow Flowers manifesto, we developed programming to highlight a diversity of speakers – all Canadian Slow Flowers members and horticulture experts – with topics rooted in our commitment to sustainability.
Mimi Doughery (Wildrose and Thyme), third-time attendee, with Alicia Houston (Healer's Harvest), first-time attendee.
From left: Summit producer Debra Prinzing with two past Slow Flowers Summit speakers, Theresa Sabankaya and Dee Hall (Mermaid City Flowers).
The conference kicked off with a welcome reception on Sunday evening, June 23rd, when attendees reunited with friends from past Slow Flowers Summits, mixed-and-mingled with speakers, and put names to faces with people only previously known through their social media handles.
A gathering of participants during the "Floral Pigments for Textiles" session. From left: Michelle Townsend, Lexi Richards, Beth Warren, Nikki Wiart, and Toni Reale.
The reception took place in Banff’s Cenovus Great Hall, a space with ceiling-to-floor glass views of the Canadian Rocky Mountains in the distance. This imposing and beautiful backdrop of the natural scenery was ever present during the following two days of the Summit.
Design ingredients for hands-on learning (left); and note-taking while learning from the lectures (right).
As with all of our Slow Flowers programming, we designed the educational presentations to appeal to flower farmers, floral designers, and farmer-florists alike. There is always an artistic thread of topics for our design-focused attendees, and we put more attention on flower-growing subjects for gardeners and farmers alike. Throughout, of course, is the emphasis on the importance of leaving a light footprint on the planet through sustainability.
MEET THE FARMER-FLORIST
Day One on Monday opened with two back-to-back presentations under the theme of “Meet the Farmer-Florist,” and our speakers delivered huge doses of inspiration. Melanie Harrington of Dahlia May Flower Farm (above), and Janis Harris of Harris Flower Farm (next photo) brought their personal stories to the room. Both women have been flower farmers for more than a decade, and they shared how they have developed their floral enterprises through crop choices, market development, customer engagement, and personal branding.
Melanie treated us to a mini-course on how she is expanding beyond a social media platform to newsletters and a customer mailing list over which she has more control – and that prompted everyone to begin rethinking how much effort and value they place on platforms like Instagram and Facebook.
Janis discussed growing an impressive weddings and events emphasis at Harris Flower Farm, ending her talk with a beautiful floral demonstration of a hand-tied wedding bouquet featuring all Alberta-grown flowers.
FLORAL IMMERSION
Alberta flower farmers, many of whom were responsible for the abundance of locally-grown flowers we enjoyed, from left: Kathy Lowther (Petal and Pollen); Haley West-Chow (Little Hill Farm and Flowers); Nikki Wiart (Lady's Hat Farm); Kristen Primrose (Primrose Lane Farm); and Moira MacKinnon (Love and Fantasy Flowers).
There has been a tradition in recent years to stage a “floral takeover” during the Slow Flowers Summit, and these take shape in different ways determined by the venue and availability of local flowers. For this conference, we were blessed with the beauty of local, Alberta-grown flowers. Most were provided by our Slow Flowers Summit partner, the Cooperative Flower Network of Edmonton. But some attendees surprised us with the donation of buckets of flowers from their Alberta farms. Check out the donation page to learn more about these generous floral gifts.
Alberta-grown blooms (above), for our speakers and attendees to experience.
We wanted to do something creative that showcased three expert instructors and three distinct approaches to designing with local flowers. That led to our Floral Immersion, an afternoon filled with sessions led by Hitomi Gilliam, Heather Henson, and Lourdes Still. Each attendees chose to participate in one of the in-depth, hands-on sessions and everyone created a take-home project to reflect what he or she learned.
ARTFUL MECHANICS
Hitomi Gilliam, AIFD, is a world-class floral educator based in British Columbia. A good friend to the Slow Flowers Movement, we were so happy to welcome Hitomi, who brought her talents to the Summit. Her students were treated to a session on building artful and sustainable mechanics – from headpieces to freestanding arrangements to hand-tied bouquets. Hitomi introduced participants to the idea of building mechanics with easy-to-source, organic materials – and taught how to utilize the armatures over and over again. When fresh flowers are combined with the pieces, there are inventive and innovative results.
Above: Sydney Fee, Krisanna Barbernell, and Janneke Dyck explore new methods of floral design in Hitomi's session.
Gina Lett-Shrewsberry designs a hand-tied piece using Hitomi's armature technique
DRIED FLORALS
With Heather Henson of Boreal Blooms, the focus on designing a hand-tied bouquet with dried florals gave participants a new understanding of selecting, growing, harvesting/processing, and designing. The Slow Flowers community has learned from Heather in the past, during virtual sessions and articles, but the chance to learn from her in person was a bonus. Heather shared her expertise and stimulated a new confidence in how a focus on dried florals can benefit both growing and design businesses.
Kathy Lowther (left) and Sophie Wuthrich (right), selecting the dried floral ingredients for their hand-tied designs.
The workshop was obviusly a success with each participant -- as each presents a completed bouquet!
DYE PLANTS AND TEXTILES
Lourdes leads a conversation with attendees gathered in a circle to begin the floral immersion session.
The topic of dye plants and floral pigments for textiles was led by Lourdes Still of Masagana Flower Farm & Studio. Lourdes treated students to a condensed version of her on-farm Tinta Experience workshops. She introduced specific floral varieties to grow and use in dying projects, and led participants through the process of bundle-dying for natural fibers. Students chose from a wide selection of flowers and petals to scatter in beautiful patterns across their pieces of silk. They rolled and tied the fabric pieces into bundles, adding them to a huge pot of steaming water; together, the heat and moisture transferred plant pigment to the silk’s surface. The session ended as participants gathered with Lourdes on the lawn to unfurl their scarves, scattering the leftover petals back to the earth as the breeze picked up the silk panels like colorful banners reflecting a special moment in time.
Using dried blooms as part of the "bundle-dye" method during Lourdes's session
Above: Toni Reale reveals her beautiful amethyst-dyed scarf (with Beth Warren filming and Susan Appleget-Hurst at left)
Above: Michelle Townsend lets the breeze capture her silk project
Above: Nora Kazda shows the joy she's experienced through the botanical dye project
DIVE INTO NATIVE PLANTS
What a beautiful morning immersed in the natural beauty of the Canadian Rockies!
On Tuesday, Latifa Pelletier-Ahmed of ALCLA Native Plants led a morning wildflower walk for a good number of participants who rose early for time in nature, learning from Latifa about native plants of Alberta, as well as her insights about restoring native habitats for the benefit of pollinators and people alike. It was so gratifying to spend time with her in the mountain setting, a beautiful start to Day Two!
Lessons that began during Latifa’s wildflower walk led to her presentation , “Dive into Native Plants,” a fabulous exploration of the ways that flower farmers and floral designers can and should be elevating native plants into their work. As a specialist in growing native Alberta and Canadian prairie plants, Latifa shared an approach that encouraged our attendees to bring home her ideas to apply in their own regions.
TABLESCAPING & FLORAL-VASE PAIRINGS
Cynthia demonstrates floral and vase pairings to illustrate her approach to design.
Tablescaping with Cynthia
A detail from Cynthia's tabletop design
Next up, Cynthia Zamaria treated attendees to the unique way she designs home interiors with the flowers she grows, including how she has developed a collection of vases and vessels by shapes and materials, including many that are thrifted or repurposed. As the author of House + Flower, Cynthia demonstrated the simple shifts that take place when using the same bunch of tulips in three different types of vases. And she illustrated her aesthetic with a beautiful tabletop design session featuring vintage, thrifted, and collected pieces. The concept of “layers, levels, and repetition,” came to life before our eyes, as Cynthia designed a summery, garden-themed tabletop. The final design illustrated how she uses linens, dishes, stemware, flatware, candles, bud vases, teacups, and flowers. Sublime and certainly something everyone planned to take home and try with their own collections.
COLLECTIVE SELLING
Jaime (left) and Moira (right) designed signature arrangements after presenting about collective selling of locally-grown flowers in both Ontario and Alberta, respectively
The afternoon panel “Collective Selling” covered flower cooperatives and collectives with two speakers whose regional flower hubs are changing how Canadian florists are sourcing local botanicals. Jaimie Reeves (whose floral studio is called InScape), co-founder of The Local Flower Collective in Toronto, shared highlights of the wholesale hub’s growth from its 2018 founding, touching on lessons learned when florists and flower farmers share a belief in their interdependency and mutual success. Moira MacKinnon (whose floral studio is called Love & Fantasy Flowers), past president of Edmonton’s Cooperative Flower Network founded in 2013, introduced the story of how the flower farming community came together to launch a new hub in Alberta’s capital city.
Both Moira and Jaimie concluded their presentations by sharing their approaches to floral design with locally-grown flowers.
CAPSTONE WITH HITOMI
Our capstone presentation brought together the conversations that two full days of time together had explored, with Hitomi Gilliam’s discussion of sustainability in floral design, and her approach to reduce, reuse, and repurpose in order to change the conventional approaches to floristry. We were treated to a slide show at the top of her session, followed by a dazzling presentation of eight completed floral designs to feature how Hitomi integrates locally-grown flowers with her artful mechanics.
Details of two of Hitomi's floral pieces reveal how she integrates florals and sustainable mechanics.
THANKS TO ALL!
Excitement and energy filled the room as the Summit came to a close. We felt the collegiality of warm friendships, a distinct sense of professional admiration for our peers, and a true sense of an inclusive community of like-minded creatives.
These are the values of the Slow Flowers Movement, as we bid one another good-bye, those values will continue in our individual paths – until next we gather!
Photography credits: Niesha Blancas and Tonneli Gruetter
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