Episode 760: “The Beginner’s Cut Flower Garden,” with author Elizabeth Brown of Foxglove Farmhouse

https://youtu.be/eZ8rhWdiXGI?si=dpx4iDhOEBb3420T Foxglove Farmhouse is a small, regenerative flower garden in coastal Maine. If you follow the tidal York River from the sea, up along the winding salt marshes to the west side of town, there you will find owner Elizabeth Brown and her flowers. Her purpose is a simple one -- to grow sustainable local flowers, and to encourage others to do the same. Elizabeth believes flowers have the power to heal, connect, and bring joy, especially when we need it most. Through her community-based Foxglove Garden Club for home gardeners, and through her role as Resident Gardener at Cliff House Maine, Elizabeth shares her belief that the best flowers are those grown with your own two hands. Join me today as Elizabeth and I discuss her story and her new book, “The Beginner’s Cut Flower Garden.” Elizabeth Brown (c) Lindsay Fairchild Today’s interview is the final in our series of four conversations filmed in February at the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival in Seattle, where Slow Flowers has long been involved producing floral education and programming. In her gorgeous new book, The Beginner's Cut Flower Garden, certified therapeutic horticulturist and cut-flower expert Elizabeth Brown, reveals how growing your own show-stopping bouquet does not require abundant yard space, gardening expertise, or an overwhelming time commitment, just an eagerness to start. Introducing gardeners of all skill level to the vibrant world of floral gardening, The Beginner's Cut Flower Garden offers step-by-step seasonal advice, easy-to-grow bloom profiles, flower arranging tips, floral crafting activities, and more.  Flizabeth at her Foxglove Farmhouse garden (c) Lindsay Fairchild Beyond just teaching how to nurture florals, Brown reminds why we should, inviting all to enjoy the healing, connection, and delight derived from a hand-grown bouquet. We featured Elizabeth, a longtime Slow Flowers member and owner of Foxglove Farmhouse, in the fall 2023 issue of Slow Flowers Journal, in a beautiful story about her role growing cut flowers and providing floral experiences at Cliff House, a coastal Maine resort. You can read that story here (see pages 25-29). It was no surprise to me that a book project soon followed after we featured Elizabeth. She had already been working with photographer Lindsay Fairchild and they shared some lovely images to illustrate that story, too. Floral experiences at Cliff House Maine with Elizabeth Brown of Foxglove Farmhouse (c) Lindsay Fairchild Here’s a bit more about Elizabeth: She is a certified therapeutic horticulturist and Maine Master Gardener Volunteer. After growing and gifting hundreds of blooms to essential workers in her community during the pandemic, Elizabeth created Foxglove Farmhouse, a quarter-acre cut flower garden in her backyard. This garden’s mix of annual and perennial blooms are cultivated without chemicals and pesticides, providing sustainable local flowers to florists and markets. Elizabeth regularly gives workshops on cut flower garden design, floral arrangements, and seed sowing and created the Foxglove Garden Club, a year-long virtual subscription-based garden education program for beginner gardeners. Brown also works as the Resident Gardener of Cliff House Maine. In 2023, she released a curated 100% organic cut flower seed line, highlighted in the Boston Globe and Down East Magazine’s seasonal gift coverage.  Table of Contents by Season Flowers for Cutting Favorite Harvest Tools I’m delighted that we were able to sit down and record an episode for our special event, Slow Flowers Podcast LIVE. Thanks to everyone who attended – it was our best-attended session and we loved the interaction with friends and peers in the audience. Find and follow Foxglove Farmhouse on Instagram Thank you to our Sponsors This show is brought to you by slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 700 florists, shops, and studios who design with local, seasonal and sustainable flowers and to the farms that grow those blooms. It’s the conscious choice for buying and sending flowers. Thank you to our lead sponsor, Flowerbulb.eu and their U.S. lily bulb vendors. One of the most recognizable flowers in the world, the lily is a top-selling cut flower, offering long-lasting blooms, year-round availability, and a dazzling petal palette. Flowerbulb.eu has partnered with Slow Flowers to provide beautiful lily inspiration and farming resources to help growers and florists connect their customers with more lilies. Learn more at Flowerbulb.eu. Thank you to My Patio Tree - Expertly Grown Plants, Perfectly Designed to Elevate Your Garden. This second-generation family tree farm has curated the best-performing, cutting-edge, multi-zone varieties to enhance your garden, patio or special event. Every tree purchased supports Plant With Purpose, a nonprofit organization that restores hope by reversing global poverty and environmental damage. Learn more at mypatiotree.com. Thank you to the Seattle Growers Market, a farmer-owned cooperative committed to providing the very best the Pacific Northwest has to offer in cut flowers, foliage and plants. The Growers Market’s mission is to foster a vibrant marketplace that sustains local flower farms and provides top-quality products and service to the local floral industry. Visit them at seattlegrowersmarket.com. Thank you for joining me today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than 1.5 million times by listeners like you. Thank you for listening, commenting and sharing – it means so much. As our movement gains more supporters and more passionate participants who believe in the importance of our domestic cut flower industry, the momentum is contagious. I know you feel it, too. If you’re new to our weekly Show and our long-running Podcast, check out all of our resources at SlowFlowersSociety.com. Thank you for listening! Sending love, from my cutting garden to you! (c) Missy Palacol Photography I'm Debra Prinzing, host and producer of the Slow Flowers Show & Podcast. The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization. Next week, you're invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one stem, one vase at a time. Thanks so much for joining us today and I'll see you next week! Music credits: Drone Pine; Gaena; Tripoliby Blue Dot Sessionshttp://www.sessions.blue Lovelyby Tryad http://tryad.bandcamp.com/album/instrumentalshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ In The Fieldaudionautix.com