A Beautiful Floral Takeover

Slow Flowers Summit brings the best of seasonal flowers and sustainable design to the Bellevue Botanical Garden

Photography by Missy Palacol

Wagon filled with flowers at the Slow Flowers Summit 2023
Wagon filled with flowers at the Slow Flowers Summit 2023

We love floral takeovers! Like a flash dance mob that bursts into spontaneous choreography at an unexpected venue, more than 100 Slow Flowers Summit attendees came together to spontaneously “flower” locations throughout the Bellevue Botanical Garden. Their creativity, inventiveness, and design skills, not to mention collaboration, turned thousands of stems of local and seasonal blooms, branches, vines, and dried flowers and transformed them into works of art.

As at past Slow Flowers Summits, the “takeover” is site-specific, inspired by the location we ask attendees to work in small groups to embellish Bellevue Botanical Garden with donated blooms. In the past, our Summit guests have adorned everything from Filoli’s historic mansion to New York’s Red Barn at Maple Grove, demonstrating the best of sustainable design principles and mechanics.

We were delighted that James Gagliardi and Joseph Abken, Bellevue Botanical Garden director and society director, respectively, loved the idea of a floral takeover. Their support, as well as the behind-the-scenes assistance of a few key horticulture staff members, made it possible to “flash” decorate eight distinct areas of the garden.

Lori Poliski (left) and Tammy Myers (right)
Lori Poliski (left) and Tammy Myers (right)

A HUGE Bouquet of Thanks to Slow Flowers members who participated in the floral takeover and to our creative team leaders, Lori Poliski of Flori LLC and Tammy Myers of First & Bloom. These two women coordinated the locations, curated the floral collections, and put together “kits” of supplies, mechanics, and tools, for each team.

Mayuri Parikh experiments with Agrawool, chicken wire, and jute mechanics
Mayuri Parikh experiments with Agrawool, chicken wire, and jute mechanics

Another HUGE bouquet of thanks goes to our sponsors who generously donated their products for the floral takeover teams to use. Thank you to New Age Floral for donating Agrawool and Oshun Pouches; to EcoFresh Bouquet for donating compostable bouquet wraps; and to OLMS Bamboo Floral for donating compostable picks, both for the installations, and for each attendee to take samples home in our gift bags. Many of our attendees commented that they had never before tried some of these innovations, and were delighted to get these items in their hands and learn new techniques from fellow designers.

Thank you to the Members, Partners, Sponsors and Supporters for donating our “art supplies,” aka botanical ingredients that came together in the lovely floral installations. They include:

Alpenglow Gardens
Bloomz Flower Farm
Cake Flower Farm
CamFlor Inc.
Charles Little & Co.
Eda Creek Flower Farm
Feathers & Flowers
Green Valley Floral
Grow Girl Seattle
Laughing Goat Flower Farm
Mayesh Wholesale Florist
Salty Acres Flower Farm
Seattle Wholesale Growers Market
Sowing Joy Farm
SUOT Farm & Flowers
The Floral Source

Enjoy these designs. We’ve shared the final design, details, and some behind-the-scenes of the work in progress:

Arbor at the Entry Fountain

Arbor at BBG Entry
Arbor detail at the BBG Entry waterfall. Love the red-white-blue floral palette to commemorate American Flowers Week!
Floral arbor frames the waterfall wall at Bellevue Botanical Garden
Floral arbor frames the waterfall wall at Bellevue Botanical Garden
Floral Takeover team at entry garden
Floral Takeover team at entry garden

Arbor, Trellis and Bench by Waterwise Garden

Bench adorned with local and domestic flowers at Bellevue Botanical Garden
Bench adorned with local and domestic flowers at Bellevue Botanical Garden
Floral accents punctuate the installation with vibrant color and interesting textural details
Floral accents punctuate the installation with vibrant color and interesting textural details
Team in progress
Work in progress with our creative florists and flower farmers

Railing along entry path

A long railing embellished with garlands and flowers
A long railing embellished with garlands and flowers
Accent details along the railing
Color-blocking creates accent details along the railing
Team effort
Team effort! Love the creative collaboration!

Cedar tree with curved branch

In the shade of a majestic cedar tree, a flowered bench
In the shade of a majestic cedar tree, a flowered bench offers respite
Design details
Design details
Garden theatre: the design team attracted an audience!
Garden theatre: the design team attracted an audience!

Trash Can a la Lewis Miller

Trash Can a la Lewis Miller
Trash Can a la Lewis Miller, morphed into an octopus!
It's all in the details
The design is in the details as the floral octopus reached toward fencing, pathway and nearby bench
design team
BTS: Design team

Woodland Tree Stump

A woodland setting - perfect for this lush and subtle design
A woodland setting – perfect for this lush and subtle design
Views and details
Side view and delicate details
BTS: collaboration at its best
BTS: collaboration at its best

Hobbit Door

The Hobbit Door
Tucked away into the hillside, an older feature at the Bellevue Botanical Garden is affectionately called the Hobbit Door
Closeup of the door
Close up detail
Work in progress
Work in progress

Mimosa Falls

Mimosa Falls
Suspended from the mimosa tree’s lower branch, the all-white-and-green floral palette is perfect for this setting
Detail and final design
Detail (left) and finale design (right)

Creative Vase Station

Vase design
Seasonal vase design
Seasonal vase design 2
Seasonal vase designs decorated the welcome cocktail party!
Vase Design 3
Vase Design 3
Thuc Anh Le at the Creative Vase Station
Thuc Anh Le at the Creative Vase Station

Thank you to all of our participants, and especially to the team leaders whose energy and positive collaboration made this all come together with such joy and creativity!

Debra Prinzing

Debra Prinzing is a Seattle-based writer, speaker and leading advocate for American-grown flowers. Through her many Slow Flowers-branded projects, she has convened a national conversation that encourages consumers and professionals alike to make conscious choices about their floral purchases. Debra is the producer of SlowFlowers.com, the weekly "Slow Flowers Podcast" and the American Flowers Week (June 28-July 4) campaign. Debra is author of 11 books, including Slow Flowers (2013), The 50 Mile Bouquet (2012) and Slow Flowers Journal (2020). She is the co-founder of BLOOM Imprint, the boutique publishing arm of Slow Flowers.

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Slow Flowers Journal is brought to you by SlowFlowers.com. Slow Flowers is an award-winning online directory created to help consumers find florists, studio designers, wedding and event planners, supermarket flower departments and flower farmers that supply American grown flowers. Founded in 2014, the site has grown to 850 members across the U.S.

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For more information, please contact Debra Prinzing
at 206-769-8211 or 844-SLOWFLO (844-756-9356); debra(at)slowflowers.com.