Episode 434 Slow Flowers’ 2020 Floral Insights & Industry Forecast, plus our final state focus: Wyoming

Desert Collection, designed by Morgan Anderson, Ph.D., of The Flori.Culture (c) Macey Sierka

Happy New Year 2020! Last week's podcast commemorated the close of 2019 with an extensive Year in Review episode. And while I couldn't highlight and thank every single person who made last year a special one, I touched on many of the bright spots in our full year of Slow Flowers. Please go back and have a listen if you missed it.

I'm excited to share highlights from the sixth annual Slow Flowers' Floral Insights and Industry Forecast -- the 2020 edition, but before I do so, we have a special guest to welcome, Teresa Tibbets of Dandelion Floral, based in Lander, Wyoming.

All during 2019, our Fifty States of Slow Flowers series brought you a diverse range of voices and experiences from Slow Flowers members across the U.S. This ambitious series doubled the number of Slow Flowers Podcast guests we brought to you during the course of the year. 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, with links to the episode in which each appeared.

Teresa Tibbets with a bouquet of fall flowers (c) Kristy Cardinal Photography

Today, that series comes to a close today. Even though it's January 1st 2020, due to a few scheduling hiccups, I couldn't quite fit our final state - Wyoming - into 2019,  so today, please meet Teresa Tibbets of Dandelion Floral.

left: Teresa designing with her Wyoming-grown blooms (c) Kim Branagan Photography; right: this boutonniere is made with lisianthus, amaranth, and aspen (c) Teresa Tibbets

Teresa is a flower farmer and studio-based wedding and event florist who specializes in growing heirloom and ephemeral flowers. She also raises "xeric natives," such as yarrow, coneflower and rudbeckia; and she forages locally for Aspen, juniper and sage.

left: June Peony Bouquet (c) Blushing Crow Studio; right: a Dandelion Floral bridal bouquet, photographed at Karisa Mountain Lake. The anemone and ranunculus was grown on Teresa's farm in Lander, Wyoming (c) Apartment10

Teresa says: "My designs are inspired by nature's form and structure, embracing the whimsical and wild. The aesthetic of the Rocky Mountains is loose and light, balancing the soft with prickly; the fine with bold. We take our cues from the deserts and the mountains. An arrangement full of lush, shiny, deep green foliage looks artificial and contrived here, in my opinion. Instead, we embrace the blue-grays of sage and juniper; the delicate texture of golden grasses and twinkling yellow-green of Aspen."

A Dandelion Floral bouquet with lilac, tulips, and anemone, which Teresa calls "the harbingers of the beginning of the flower season."

Find and follow Dandelion Floral at these social places:

Dandelion Floral on Facebook

Dandelion Floral on Instagram

It has been

a privilege to feature this important series and I thank you for joining me. As

I mentioned last week, we missed a few -- namely Hawaii and Delaware -- but I'll

do my best to add voices from those states in the coming months.

Next up: I'm

excited to share highlights from the annual Slow Flowers' Floral Insights and Industry Forecast.

This Forecast began six years ago and I'm more inspir...