Prairie Girl Flowers

It’s Canadian Flowers Week and we are going all-out this year with some incredible prizes packages. Thanks to generous donations from some incredible Canadians, we are looking forward to celebrating your beautiful creations using home-grown, seasonal flowers. We have 10 fabulous prize bundles for submissions and winners will be drawn at random on August 22. We also have an incredible grand prize for an immersive flower experience/installation that will be showcased in your community.

10 prize packages:
1. 10 dahlia tubers () + Sakagen flower scissors, small kenzan and tin o’twine (). Value: $267
2. Flower seeds () + botanically dyed silk scarf () + Sakagen flower scissors, small kenzan and tin o’twine (). Value: $217
3. Gift card () + Sakagen flower scissors, small kenzan and tin o’twine (). Value: $192
4. Snips + flower seeds (). Value: $150
5. Botanically dyed silk ribbons () + botanically dyed silk scarf (). Value: $135
6. Flower seeds () + botanically dyed silk ribbons (). Value: $115
7. Flower seeds () + botanically dyed silk scarf (). Value: $100
8. 200 tulip bulbs. Value: $100
9. 200 tulip bulbs. Value: $100
10. Flower seeds () + hand embroidered hat (). Value: $90.

GRAND PRIZE
20x30 art print ()
Grower’s Essentials pack of specialty hand tools ()
Over $1,000 worth of Groot & Groot peony roots ()
Total Value: $2,500
Rules for grand prize submissions: our sustainability commitments require that no plastic, no foam, or single use non-recyclable materials be used.

For submission rules and more information, please go to .
Questions? Feel free to shoot me a DM or drop them here in the comments.

We can’t wait to see all the beauty you create with locally grown flowers!! 🌸🇨🇦❤️

As Rebecca Solnit so wisely stated: “Personal virtue is an eternally seductive goal in progressive movements”. And certainly when it comes to solving the climate crisis, private individual actions will never increase at a rate sufficient to affect the problem in time. Collective action seeking changes in policy and law can, as can lobbying efforts at the government level. But does that mean we should still abandon individual efforts to affect change? Certainly not.

In the case of invasive plant species, there is often a lot of finger pointing - trying to figure out who is to blame for the problem of their continued spread and negative ecological, social, and economic effects. The ornamental horticulture industry will blame ineffective trade regulations. Import agencies will blame lax regulations from exporting countries. Soil experts will suggest that degraded soil conditions are to blame for their spread. And florists? Many florists seem to want to be left entirely out of the discussion: how could their work with flowers and foliage used to beautify our lives possibly contribute to the problem?

Invasive species are surprisingly common in floristry. They are grown and/or foraged by flower farmers and wholesale growers; sold and promoted by wholesalers; and used by florists. Clients love what the florists create, florists need more of (insert whatever here - oriental bittersweet, Autumn Olive …) and the cycle continues and gets bigger.

So - what to do? We should be discussing these issues with local invasive species organizations and government regulatory bodies to eliminate the growing, harvesting, and selling of invasive species. But if you do not have the time or appetite for that (which is fair!), then you know what you can do? Stop using it! That is a simple action that you can control.

Shoutout to the American florist and instructor who just transported a giant garbage bag full of Eleagnus to Tampa, Florida for a workshop. It is invasive in Florida and in her home state. So yes, dear readers, florists are a problem when it comes to invasive species.

So pleased to celebrate the last day of with some of the cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers that I work with . Today we created gorgeous garden-inspired arrangements using flowers from Sheila , some BC grown mums (brought by one of our participants), and some random bits and bobs from my gardens. No floral foam (obvi) and the group had a fun time using chicken wire and interesting vessels they brought from home.

Horticultural therapy is something that has been part of my work since 2008. And - in addition to offering that offers cognitive, physical, and emotional benefits for patients - it also fills me with tremendous joy.

Here’s to local, seasonal flowers and all the power they have to create beauty, support healing, and provide a respite from what feels like such a complicated world some days.

SUSTAINABILITY SUNDAY
Midway through Canadian Flowers Week has me thinking about not only the importance of slowing down, but also the climate significance of making slow choices when it comes to our flowers.

Trite as it may sound, we live in a fast-paced world where we have pretty much everything we could ever want at our fingertips. One quick click of the mouse and we can have anything our heart desires delivered straight to our door (sometimes in record speed). Often, these kind of choices make sense. Places like Amazon can be a lifeline for rural communities, for example. But the costs associated with our demand for whatever we want (whenever we want it) are grave. Carbon emissions, depletion of natural resources, and waterborne and solid wastes associated with manufacturing all have adverse effects on the environment. And the social costs associated with mass production and shipping can adversely affect individuals and communities throughout the supply chains.

In the case of flowers, we see these adverse consequences of mass consumption play out on a global scale.

One thing is for certain: choosing locally grown, seasonal flowers helps to alleviate the environmental burden associated with floristry. And this is a choice that so many of us can make. It just requires us to rethink the way we do business. The way we respond to requests. And the way we think about flowers. Lofty? Perhaps. But totally doable.

SUSTAINABILITY SUNDAY

Canadian Flowers Week starts later this week - the perfect time to contemplate the significance of local and seasonal flowers.

For me, seasonality transcends “current” or relevant botanicals. It provides a way to ground us in the present and creates a way to relate to our surroundings that is biologically and culturally meaningful.

When I used to work as a horticultural therapist at our local children’s hospital, seasonality was an important part of my work. Not only did seasonality in the garden provide a way to ground patients with, for example, a brain injury in time and place, but it also provided a way to connect cognitive tasks to specific time periods.

Research has shown that seasons correspond to annual environmental fluctuations to which humans have adapted. Accordingly, our brains have adapted as well. Besides temperature and hours of daylight, some of the most significant seasonal cues for humans come from our botanical environment: what is blooming at any given time.

Seasonality helps to ground us in the present. And relate to our environment in ways that can provide sustenance, beauty, and clues as to what might lie ahead.

Seasonal flowers do just this for us: they ground us in time and place. They provide a meaningful and ecologically relevant way to engage with our environment. Stated more simply: they just make sense.

This week and every week - let us celebrate seasonal flowers that we can grow where we are.

Canadian Flowers Week runs from August 10-16 and we invite you to showcase what you are growing across this beautiful country. Snap a pic or video of your creation, and post it to instagram adding as a collaborator OR simply DM us the photo with a little caption for us to post in our feed. Please identify the flowers you included and your location including province or territory.
And prepare to be staggered by the bounty of our badass land!

WE'RE TRANSFORMING OUR GRID INTO A CANADIAN FLOWER FIELD 💐 August 10-16th 💐 We want to flood the insta flower feed with locally grown-flowers from across our big, beautiful country. Join our takeover!

Throughout the week we invite you to celebrate Canadian Flowers Week and help us share a bird's eye view of high summer's flower fields across Canada:

1. Growers: make a bouquet that features flowers from your field/greenhouse. Florists: make a bouquet from whatever locally grown product you have in your fridge.
2. Snap a pic or video of your creation, and post it to instagram adding as a collaborator* OR simply DM us the photo with a little caption for us to post in our feed. Please identify the flowers you included and your location including province or territory.
3. Prepared to be staggered by the bounty of our badass land!

That's it! Super simple.

*To add as a collaborator, on the final screen before adding a post, there is an option below "tag people" to "add a collaborator". Adding this account will let us easily share your post!

NOTE: If you are hosting an event or making an installation or have something special planned, make sure to tag CFW in your posts and stories so that we can reshare them. And we love hashtags, here are some you can use:

Pictured here: a mix of dahlia, hydrangea, yarrow, Sanguisorba, Astrantia, allium, begonia, and Baptista foliage.