Vivian Larson (left), grower and owner of Everyday Flowers in Stanwood, Washington, and Debra Prinzing, admire heirloom chrysanthemums in Larson’s high tunnel. Prinzing is the author of “Slow Flowers” and an advocate for domestically grown flowers. Photo by Missy Palacol Photograph.
The Society of American Florists’ membership includes all segments of the industry — and that community is the heart of SAF. This bi-weekly feature will spotlight SAF members sharing inspirational stories, professional insights, and the opportunity to form new industry connections.
Debra Prinzing, PFCI, an award-winning author, speaker, and a leading advocate for American-grown flowers, often wonders why “the flower bug bit so hard.”
She was business reporter until 1998, when her second child was born, and she decided to seek work writing home, garden, and lifestyle feature articles. While writing for a garden center she took dozens of classes on landscaping and horticulture at a community college. She soon became editor of the Northwest Horticultural Society’s newsletter and wrote regularly for a variety of local and national publications, including Better Homes & Gardens. It was her business reporting background that helped her see a bigger story — one in which small, sustainable flower farms were struggling to compete in the marketplace.
That topic sparked the idea to publish, “The 50 Mile Bouquet,” a book that documented the renaissance of American cut flowers and floral design. Prinzing has since published 9 more books, including “Slow Flowers,” where she challenged herself to create one bouquet a week for a year using botanical ingredients from her Seattle, Washington, backyard and flowers, greens, branches and flowering bulbs purchased from local flower farmers. “Slow Flowers” was published in 2013 and received a Silver Medal from the Garden Writers Association in 2014. After publication, Prinzing began giving workshops and lectures and speaking with bloggers and writers about the idea of using seasonal flowers.
She was often asked, “How do I find flowers that I know are local? How do I find farmers and florists who supply them?” These questions led to the launch of SlowFlowers.com, a free, online directory of florists, studio designers, wedding and event planners, mass market flower departments and flower farmers who use domestically grown flowers.
“The Slow Flowers Movement plays an important role in giving American flowers a voice — connecting flower farmers with florists and their customers, anyone who wants to signify or commemorate a life event, or just have beauty and nature in their lives,” Prinzing says.
Best Business Advice. Jim Peterson, publisher and owner of Garden Design magazine, mentored Prinzing and helped her broaden her brand.
Photo by Missy Palacol Photograph.
“When I was struggling with growing Slowflowers.com, Jim encouraged me to shift away from simply hosting an online directory and expand my concept of Slow Flowers to create a membership-based organization,” Prinzing says. “This inspired me to rebrand as Slow Flowers Society, an online community, multimedia content publisher, and a branding platform for sustainably minded flower farmers and floral designers. That shift in thinking was pivotal for what I envisioned creating.”
Key to Success. Prinzing credits her success to four things: optimism, relationships, connections and seeing the future. She says she bounces back from disappointments and moves on; invests in people she believes in and wants to collaborate with; connects people around her with each other; and tries to anticipate the future so she can forecast what the Slow Flowers community needs to know.
What excites her. Prinzing’s work managing an organization with a mission to inspire the floral industry and its consumers to embrace seasonal, local and sustainable flowers excites her the most.
“I am continually inspired by our members, many of whom reinvent their lives by getting involved with local flowers,” Prinzing says.
Why SAF? Prinzing joined SAF in 2017 to connect with more floral professionals and to get access to more business resources, research, and other valuable content. Her favorite part of being an SAF member so far has being applying for and being inducted into Professional Floral Communicators – International (PFCI) in 2019.
Prinzing was recently featured on SAF’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Do you know a member who should have a chance in the spotlight? Email Stephanie Brady, communications and event coordinator for SAF.
Stephanie Brady is the project manager for the Society of American Florists.