Bonus Episode: All About Filoli Historic House & Garden – our Venue for the 2020 Slow Flowers Summit

FILOLI: the recently-renovated "High Place" at Filoli in Woodside, Calif., destination for the Slow Flowers Summit 2020

Today I'm bringing you a special edition of the Slow Flowers Podcast! We're airing this segment on Monday, December 2, 2019, the day we open up Early Bird ticket sales for the 4th annual Slow Flowers Summit.

We have an incredible and inspiring lineup of speakers to introduce you to in the coming months, but first, to entice you further, I want to start with our Venue: Filoli.

Clockwise from top, left: Susan Mcleary, Kellee Matsushita-Tseng, Molly Culver, Lorene Edwards Forkner, Debra Prinzing, Jennifer Jewell, Pilar Zuniga and Emily Saeger

For 2020, the SUMMIT returns to the West Coast with a strategic partnership with Filoli Historic House and Garden in Woodside, Calif., outside San Francisco.

Register Now!!

The Garden House at Filoli

We are so excited for the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the beauty and legacy of this Bay Area cultural institution. Summit attendees, speakers, sponsors and guests will spend two full days experiencing the historic residence, as well as Filoli's legendary landscape and cutting gardens. We also will have unprecedented access to design a 'floral takeover' in 'The House,' California’s most triumphant example of the Georgian Revival tradition and one of the finest remaining country estates of the early 20th century.

Our two FILOLI guests today: Kara Newport (left) and Emily Saeger (right)

I'm thrilled today to introduce two Filoli voices to share more about what you can expect at this amazing venue. First, please meet Kara Newport, CEO and Executive Director. Next, I will speak with Emily Saeger, lead horticulturist and the go-to cut flower expert at Filoli.

Kara Newport became the Executive Director of Filoli Center in August 2016. Previously, she served as Executive Director for Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden, a developing public garden, from 2006 to August 2016. Before serving in this capacity, Kara’s career was focused on fundraising at organizations including Winterthur, Philadelphia Zoo, and Outward Bound. Kara has a BS in Botany and a graduate degree from the Longwood Program.

Emily Saegar's eight years of horticultural experience blend production agriculture, landscape maintenance, garden and floral design.  She has worked for several notable Bay Area farms including, Fifth Crow Farm, Bluma Farm and Hidden Villa; and as Lead Horticulturist at Filoli she looks after the rose garden, cutting garden and orchard.  Her design aesthetic is a blending of her work experience - foraged and cultivated, wild and formal - always designed with seasonality and senescence in mind.  A strong believer in the healing powers of nature, through her gardens and floral design she hopes to facilitate this connection for all.  

(c) Gretchine Nievarez

As you will hear in our conversation, Emily was the instigator behind Filoli's invitation to me to bring the Slow Flowers Summit to the Bay Area. We wanted to return to the West Coast and little did we know that she was working her influence and stirring up enthusiasm with Filoli's leadership behind the scenes.

Thanks so much for joining my conversations with Kara and Emily -- you'll have a chance to meet them both when you join me at the Slow Flowers Summit. As I mentioned, Emily will be one of our presenters at the Summit, joining Kellee Matsushita-Tseng as moderator and fellow panelist Molly Culver of Molly Oliver Flowers, on the Sustainable Farming x Floral Design panel.

Filoli's amazing Historic House,