Episode 433: Our Year in Review – Slow Flowers’ 2019 Year in Review, Plus Our Wisconsin State Guest

Let's review 2 0 1 9 before we welcome the New Year!

Thank you for being part of the Slow Flowers Community and tuning into the Slow Flowers Podcast during 2019. I'm honored and humbled that you take time to join me each week -- especially in the midst of an ever-more-crowded and cluttered environment for information.

Listenership of this program has grown more sizeable than ever. Last year at this time, I told you the Slow Flowers Podcast had been dowloaded more than 390,000 times since this show launched in July 2013. Fast-forward to today and that number has climbed to 560k. With an average monthly count of more than 14k episode-downloads, I'm incredibly encouraged that this Podcast remains relevant and essential, as we deliver the voices, stories and information you crave and enjoy.

Every single week this year; in fact, every single week for the past 334 weeks, it has been my privilege to feature heroes from the Slow Flowers community. Unlike any other internet radio show in existence, the Slow Flowers Podcast is tailored to you and your interests, making its “must-listen” programming a weekly habit among flower farmers and floral designers alike.

In producing and hosting the Slow Flowers

Podcast, I seek out pioneers and personalities, style-makers and influencers —

as well as unsung or little-known heroes — who together are changing the floral

landscape, disrupting the status quo, and bringing flower sourcing and growing

practices, not to mention eco-conscious design methods, to the center of the

conversation.

A highlight of 2019 was our expansive and inclusive series: Fifty States of Slow Flowers! We've nearly made it through the entire alphabet -- from Alabama's Lisa Thorne of Thorne & Thistle to Wyoming's Teresa Tibbets of Dandelion Floral -- who you'll hear next week on New Year's Day.

This ambitious series doubled the number of Slow Flowers Podcast guests we brought to you in 2019. Thank you to each of our state guests for their willingness to share their personal floral narrative with listeners. Together their stories amplified the thriving message that our Slow Flowers Movement is taking place everywhere and anywhere that people, gardens, soil and sunshine exist.

Click here to find the full list of our Fifty States of Slow Flowers Guests

Click here to find our show archives dating back to the first episode, which aired on July 23, 2013.

Sally and Courtney, photographed just as they completed the upstairs kitchen at Flower House in 2015.

Today, we'll start the show by introducing you to Wisconsin's Sally Vander Wyst of The Milwaukee Flower Co.

Sally is a past guest of this podcast; you met her back in 2015 when I interviewed many of the floral artists who created botanical rooms for Flower House Detroit.

You can find that episode here, in which I spoke with several Flower House creators and teams.

Sally and her collaborator Courtney Stemberg discuss their design for the upstairs kitchen at Flower House, a beautiful botanical installation entitled: “Nature Takes Back.”

It's so hard to believe here we are four years later -- and Milwaukee Flower Co. has a lot of news to share!

Wisconsin's Slow Flowers Community has always been a strong one and I'm grateful for  growers and designers who are committed to seasonal and local blooms in the upper midwest -- including Sally Vander Wyst.

Sally Vander Wyst of Milwaukee Flower Co. -- harvesting zinnias in her mini-farm/cutting garden

I'm so happy I could catch up with Sally - you'...