Creativity is one of those anchors-to-windward in unsettled and worrisome times. So is a hands-on, creative project – with bonus points for working with organic materials (natural fibers, clay, or – flowers)!

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, and all the spring events cascading from there in the coming months, we’re joined this week by a woman who has artistry, creativity, and hands-on project inspiration in spades to share with us – Passionflower Sue is our guest – and her work might be the end of January inspiration and gift to yourself you didn’t know you needed – but I knew.

Passionflower Sue, aka Sue McLeary, is an artist. Very specifically an artist with flowers, and she thinks you probably are too. Whether you’re a professional florist, a friend helping friends with flowers, a parent helping a child (and all their friends) with their corsages and boutonnieres, or a gardener looking to have fun with flowers for your table or your hair, you’re going to enjoy meeting Sue in conversation this week.

With a long career in floristry, from designing to event management, to sustainable floristry advocacy and lots of teaching, Sue believes that floristry is an art form, and those of us engaged in it are artists!

She “aims to offer immediately useful and relevant educational information that equips and empowers florists- allowing them to express their creativity and make what they crave to see.”

She believes (and I am with her): “When we harness our creativity, we create more interesting, artful work that fills us and lifts us.”

Her goal is to empower the floristry artist. And it's her “passion to help push floristry forward!”

Having had the great pleasure of attending events and learning from Sue – it is my even greater pleasure to welcome her to Cultivating Place this week.

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We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow even more of these types of conversations. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes. To read more and for many more photos, please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.