My guest today is Ngoc Minh Ngo, a photographer and author based in New York City.  Her work is an immersive exploration of the beauty of plants and nature, enveloping and other worldly.  I always feel I am being drawn into a more three-dimensional space. It is an almost tactile experience as the garden wraps around you and where you can disappear into the page.  No matter what she captures, it often seems as though I am looking at my own memory of a space or plant, whether or not I have...

Can you name a garden dweller who is ecologically obsessed, a little punk rock, and creates spaces for plants, pollinators and people in equal measure? Why that would be the next guest on the Garden People podcast, Rebecca McMackin! Link to listen in the bio or find us wherever you catch your podcasts. Rebecca @oroeoboeococoao is an ecological gardener, a Loeb Fellow with the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and former Director of Horticulture for Brooklyn Bridge Park (BBP) in New York....

My guest is Lucy Hunter, a multi-hyphenate if there ever was one: creative director, garden designer, floral artist, stylist, photographer, teacher, author, botanical dyer…the list goes on. Based in North Wales in the UK, Lucy is, at root, a restless creative who is always adding to her list of projects and modes of expression. She shows us how useless labels can be in a creative life, and how generous our output becomes when we do away with them. Her book, The Flower Hunter: Seasonal...

My guest today is Jennifer Jewell, gardener, author, and the host of Cultivating Place, a co-production and podcast of North State Public Radio, which is syndicated across the United States and available as a podcast worldwide. For listeners of a garden podcast in North America, much less one produced in Northern California on indigenous land, Jennifer probably needs no introduction. In many ways she has shaped a corner of garden culture and literacy, introducing listeners to gardeners...

Today I welcome Amanda Luu and Mia Westphal of Studio Mondine, a floral design studio based in San Francisco, California, to the Garden People podcast. Mondine’s work is multifaceted and always a reflection of the group’s deep appreciation of the natural world. Whether it’s finding inspiration for a bridal bouquet in the weeds growing around the wedding venue or puzzling through ways to make travel to that venue the most environmentally sustainable, the team works with admirable care and...

Today I welcome floral artist and flower friend and mentor, Sarah Statham of Simply by Arrangement. Whether writing from her corner of Yorkshire, England, or gardens farther afield, she is forever seeking light and the perfect pebble, and always celebrating color, form, and seasonality. Her role as an educator extends beyond the vase, providing invaluable business advice through one to one conversations with numerous flower fettlers, both seasoned and new. As much as I rely on her rock...

My guest is Jane Scotter, a biodynamic farmer and author and the force behind Fern Verrow in Herefordshire in the West Midlands of England. Jane has been a huge inspiration for me and countless growers and gardeners. Her passion, drive, and love for her land are evident in each crate of castelfranco. In addition to her cookbook, Jane’s relationship with Skye Gyngell and Spring restaurant shows the wonderful partnership between plot and plate, and the artistry involved in the growing and...

My guest is Marryn Mathis, a flower farmer and educator running a small family flower farm in Stanwood Washington. A few years ago Marryn left her corporate job for a life of flowers and has never looked back. To hear Marryn’s approach, it seems like she can always do more, whether that’s planting 13,000 sweet peas to 10,000 sunflowers. This past spring she also fielded 46,000 online visitors to her dahlia tuber sale. It speaks to her boundless energy and enthusiasm for what she does, and...

My guest today is Bex Partridge, the floral artist and gardener Botanical Tales based in Devon, England. Bex creates sustainable designs, displays and installations using dried flowers, also known as everlastings. Her work celebrates nature and the shifts of the seasons, drawing attention to flowers in each stage of their existence. Her ethereal displays and designs create a sense of wonder in the observer, and bespeak certain magic. Learning from her – whether through her workshops,...

My guest today is the incredible Melissa Goldstein, a ceramic artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work – hand thrown and painted with a cobalt stain and the occasional metallic splatter – is inspired by 17th century German and Japanese botanical illustration, and draws on numerical calligraphy, botanical drawings, and ornithology. Every piece is absolutely exquisite: from platter to vase, the flowers seem to grow, the birds careen midflight. The details speak to a life of close...

My guest is Cel Robertson, author and owner of Forever Green Flower Co. an artisan flower farm in North Norfolk, England, growing garden gathered blooms for sale to florists and flower lovers. Cel’s commitment to sustainability and her steadfast conviction in the power of collective actions to create necessary change make her a persuasive champion of locally grown flowers. As an educator she manages to twine the beauty of the field to the necessity of spreadsheets, ensuring that growing...

It is a pleasure to welcome Lauren Elizabeth Palmer, Founder and Principal Designer at The Wild Mother Creative Studio. Lauren, along with her sisters Leah and Callie, are based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where they offer incredible floral design as well as in-person and online education. Their art is informed by their Afro-indigenous heritage, and reflects their reverence for the natural world, drawing together the threads of the past and present, beauty and activism, to tell the stories...

My guest is Clare Foster, the Garden Editor at House and Garden magazine in the UK. Clare is the author of numerous books, including the gorgeous Winter Gardens with photographer Andrew Montgomery. Clare’s writing is such a pleasure to read and she has brought me closer to some of my favorite plants and gardens. Join us to hear about Clare’s career as a garden writer and her development as a gardener, as well as some of the principles at play in her own garden, which is an inspiring...

My guest is Amanda Vidmar, floral artist of Amanda Vidmar Designs, and co-owner/designer at Francis and Frances in San Francisco, California. Amanda’s appreciation of place and the unique connection between a flower and its land are a through line in her arrangements, which draw from the stories of her clients and the surrounding environment. To hear her tell the story of her work, each step has, in retrospect, been the right one. As if the road has risen up to meet her, matching her own...

My guest is Alison Jenkins of Damson Farm in Somerset, England. Alison trained as a garden designer before making her small holding of Damson Farm into a resource for learning about the interrelationship of gardens and the natural world. The workshops that she offers at the farm focus on observing and supporting natural ecosystems, creating gardens which function ecologically and look beautiful, too. The garden is often a place of solace in difficult times. I think Alison’s work shows us...

My guest this week is Joanna Game, a grower and floral artist based in Devon, England. Joanna’s arrangements have a sort of cultivated wildness, reflecting both her garden and her forages from the surrounding countryside. She discusses her development as an artist, her next steps after pulling back from wedding design, and how she blurs the boundary between nature and maker. Garden People podcast, from https://www.instagram.com/violetear_studio/ (@violetear_studio) L I S T E N...

This week I welcome Tiffany Jones of Blomma Flower Farm (@blommaflowerfarm) to the show. Tiffany is a grower in San Clemente, California and is building new farm in Nevada where she’ll be focusing on her passion, Zinnia breeding and seed development. We talk about her journey to flower farming, zinnia breeding, and her new book. A self-described plant nerd, Tiffany has poured her enviable energy and enthusiasm into researching and writing this publication, and I know you’ll join me in...

We welcome Emily Avenson of Fleuropean to the show! Originally from California, Emily grew into her role as a floral artist and instructor after her move to Belgium, where she lives and works today. Her arrangements are always exciting, with movement and use of color. She grows all the flowers used in her on-site classes and online workshop, and the delight she takes in the growing process is visible in each stem. Enjoy! Garden People podcast, from...

This week we welcome Philippa Stewart, of Justdahlias, located in Cheshire, England. Philippa’s passion for Dahlias is infectious. She is an enthusiast first and foremost and turned her personal Dahlia obsession into a thriving business where she provides incredible blooms, both cut and dried, to florists and Dahlia lovers in the UK. Her commitment to supporting the natural ecosystems around her flowers is especially inspiring, producing gorgeous blooms in a way that is best for the bees...

Today we welcome Hannah Brannan of Gather Flora in the San Francisco Bay Area. Guided by the Slow Flower movement, Hannah created the Gather Flora web platform to connect local florists with regional growers. The site streamlines hundreds of orders between consumers and farmers, allowing for clear visibility into the seasonality, origins, and cultivations of each bloom. Her passion for flowers is the driving force behind the site, and her appreciation of the demands placed on farmers and...

We speak with Jane Slattery of @thewildpotager about her garden world in Newcastle in the north of England. Jane shares her pictures and words — poems really — on Instagram. She discusses favorite flowers, the ways she extends her season, planning for the bees, and what the garden has meant to her. She also shares her exciting new project, offering some lovely potager-infused items in her online shop. Photos: @thewildpotager Art: @altavistastudio L I S T E N...

Garden writer, lecturer, and designer, Page Dickey, joins us from Connecticut to discuss her gardens past and present, the place where her children could always find her, and what she looks for in a garden. S H O W N O T E S: https://www.instagram.com/pagedickey/ (@pagedickey) http://www.pagedickey.com...

Welcome to Garden People, hosted by Jill Sowards of Violetear Studio. Join us each season as we speak with your favorite garden people -- designers, florists, growers, naturalists, chefs, artists and more -- about how gardens have shaped their lives and inform their work today. With seasonal tips, expert recommendations, and lots and lots of plants. To learn more, go to our website at violetearstudio.com. You’ll find episode information, our seasonal journal, class list, and seed...