Books in sync with nature.
Books in sync with nature.
Pittsburgh, PA (February 1, 2013) – Following the popularity of The 50 Mile Bouquet: Seasonal, Local and Sustainable Flowers (St. Lynn’s Press, April 2012), garden/lifestyle/design writer Debra Prinzing has created her personal sequel with Slow Flowers: Four Seasons of Locally Grown Bouquets from the Garden, Meadow and Farm (St Lynn’s Press, February 2013).
The book follows Prinzing through 52 consecutive weeks during which she challenged herself to pick, arrange and photograph a seasonal bouquet using only local ingredients. She sourced flowers, leaves, branches and seedpods from her own garden, from friends’ gardens, and from the meadows and fields of her favorite flower farms. Like an easy-to-use cookbook, Slow Flowers features vivid images of each finished bouquet, a thorough ingredient list and step-by-step design instructions. Special “takeaway tips” share expert flower growing advice and eco-design techniques.
“After being immersed in the ‘slow flower’ movement and documenting the dramatic transformation in how cut flowers are grown, designed and used, my own relationship with flowers – and floral design – changed,” Prinzing says. “Gardeners and flower lovers have so many exciting botanical options to collect for their vases. Slow Flowers demonstrates that living in the moment – each season – is just as rewarding for flower lovers as it is for foodies who cook seasonally-inspired menus.”
In her richly-photographed book, Debra celebrates each season’s unique character — with fresh blooms, ornamental twigs, colorful foliage, gorgeous vines and many other gifts from nature. Each of the arrangements begins with a design “muse,” be it a beloved antique rose, a new variety of seed or a family heirloom vase. Debra photographed her bouquets in and around her home, close to the garden where many of her ingredients were sourced.
It was in her own backyard where the idea for Slow Flowers emerged. “One September day as I was making a bouquet out of burnished autumn leaves, green millet seed heads and the last dahlias of the fading summer, I had a brainstorm that led to the birth of this book. I jotted down some ideas, including this one:
There’s a common misconception that it’s impossible, or at least tricky, to find enough beautiful ingredients in one’s own garden or region during certain times of the year for creating interesting seasonal floral arrangements. Taking the Do-it-Yourself designer’s point of view, I want to disprove that notion by making bouquet-a-week – all year long. My goal is to inspire others to create personal bouquets with what’s at hand, if only they begin to see what’s around them with new eyes.
I launched the project then and there, and continued it for 52 weeks. As each season unfolded, so, too, did my passion for floral design. My experiment turned into a season-by-season, week-by-week collection ideas and inspiration for gardeners and DIY floral designers.”
Slow Flowers (the concept and the book) is about the artisanal, anti-mass-market approach to celebrations, festivities and floral gifts of love. Debra values her local sources, whether clipped from her own shrubs and cutting garden or procured from a nearby flower farm. “I want to know where the flowers and greenery I use were grown, and who grew them. Having a relationship with the people who planted and nurtured each flower is nothing short of magical. I call so many flower farmers around the country my friends. They are the unsung heroes – the faces behind the flowers we love.”
Organized around four seasons of the year, Slow Flowers is a guidebook for the gardener and flower lover in search of ideas and inspiration. “Gardeners are especially qualified in the art of floral design,” Debra says. “After all, we have an intimate relationship with our plants, their bloom cycle, their natural form and character – and their seasonality. We also know what colors and textures we like when combined in the landscape. A vase can be a little garden, its contents gathered and arranged to please the eye.”
“Debra Prinzing inspires us to slow down and smell the flowers, especially those grown in our own backyards or by local flower farmers.”
-Lara Spencer, ABC’s Good Morning America lifestyle anchor and New York Times best-selling author of I Brake For Yard Sales.
“Debra . . . challenged herself to create floral bouquets with locally grow flowers and foraged foliage for each of the 52 weeks of the year. It’s a feat perhaps as daunting as cooking every single recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, as recorded in the popular book and movie Julie & Julia.”
-The Garden Conservancy
Slow Flowers: Four Seasons of Locally Grown Bouquets from the Garden, Meadow and Farm
ISBN-13: 978-0-9832726-8-7
$16.95 US/$18.50 CAN
Hardback, 144 pages
Full color photography throughout