The Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity in Banff, Alberta, Canada, will host the 2024 Slow Flowers Summit on June 23 – 25. Our Slow Flowers Summit 2024 theme is “Sustainable Success,” highlighting the commitments that our Slow Flowers member growers and designers are making to build our community — from seed to bouquet — while supporting a marketplace centered around safe, seasonal, and sustainable flowers. Through our presentations and the connections you’ll make with fellow attendees, you will gain inspiration and develop a deeper relationship with flowers in your own growing and design practice.

Eleven Canadian floral experts will speak, including Hitomi Gilliam,  a Japanese Canadian Flower Artist.  She has guest-designed and taught extensively throughout North America and around the world – England, Northern Ireland, Belgium, Italy, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Australia, New Zealand, Oman, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico. Hitomi began her career in the Green Profession as a farmer-florist. She currently works with her son, Colin Gilliam, in an Education-based business, DESIGN358, founded in 2008.  They currently host design workshops and educational events, and video education through Hitomi’s YouTube channel and her Patreon page.

Cynthia Zamaria will discuss Flowers for the Home and Table. With an infectious, optimistic spirit and a belief that we all need more beautiful in our lives, Cynthia shares home and garden inspiration as a writer, photographer, stylist and presenter.  Cynthia is known for her accessible approach to character-filled spaces, carefree flower displays, and an appreciation for antique and artisanal objects. Recognized as a Country Home Magazine Style Maker, Cynthia is regularly featured in leading international lifestyle media and is the author of House + Flower: Reviving Forgotten Homes and Gardens published by Bloom Imprint. 

In a Meet the Farmer-Florist presentation, Melanie Harrington will speak. She is the owner of Dahlia May Flower Farm, founded in 2014. From beginning eight years ago selling her flowers off a single pallet in her driveway, Dahlia May Flower Farm has gone on to be featured in Chatelaine magazine, Better Homes and Gardens, Canadian Florist Magazine, The Toronto Star; on CBC television and radio; and by PayPal, Google, and more.  Melanie was awarded “Young Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2018 by the Quinte Business Achievement Awards, and Dahlia May was named “Agri-Business of the Year” by the same in 2019. Dahlia May specializes in growing and providing cut flowers on Melanie’s family’s third generation farmstead. She combines her background in horticulture with her willingness to share her own story into her hard work; through her ability to persist and to risk, Melanie continues to build community while making her rural property a destination for flower-lovers and a hub for those seeking locally grown blooms.

Janis Harris of Harris Flower Farm is embarking on her 16th growing season. Janis continues to cultivate not just flowers but a legacy of natural beauty at Harris Flower Farm in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada. Janis grew up around flowers and vegetable farming, first pursuing a career as an optician until flowers and a desire to grow them called her back. Janis is now a full-time flower farmer with help from her husband, parents, children and flower farm team. As a farmer-florist, Janis approaches each season with a blend of experience and an ever-renewed sense of wonder.  Harris Flower Farm markets its flowers at various local farmer’s markets, via on-farm retail and delivery services, and provides wedding design and event design. In the fertile fields of South Western Ontario, Harris Flower Farm stands as a living testament to Janis and her family’s commitment to excellence, dedication to growing and sharing the seasonal beauty of local flowers.

Dive into Native Plants with an optional early morning wildflower walk. Speaker Latifa Pelletier-Ahmed is a botanist, herbalist, educator, and artist, and is co-owner of ALCLA Native Plants a native plant nursery based in Treaty 7 Territory, near Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She holds a BSc in Botany from the University of Calgary and an MSc in Herbal Medicine from Middlesex University, London, UK. She has been working with native plants for 15 years and her expertise includes identification, sustainable collection, cultivation, and ethnobotany. In 2016 she founded Latifa’s Herbs, which primarily serves to educate the public on the edible and medicinal uses of wild plant species in both Alberta and British Columbia. She is a former faculty member at Pacific Rim College in Victoria, BC where she taught Botany and Horticulture in addition to Wild Plant Nutrition.

Floral Immersion: Growing & Designing with Dried Flowers is another offering. Heather Henson is a floral artist who grows specialty cut flowers, designs for weddings, and sells retail bouquets as owner/operator of Boreal Blooms, based in Cold Lake, Alberta. Established in 2013, Boreal Blooms specializes in direct-to-consumer bouquets through local markets and a long-running bouquet share program. “Dried flowers are my passion, and I love creating dried flower weddings for brides who want local flowers that last,” she says. Heather is a wife and mother to four mostly-grown children. She also works as a doula and is the co-host of The Sustainable Flowers Podcast.

Lourdes Still will present Floral Immersion: Plant-based Pigments for Textiles. Growing joy and creating magic is right at our fingertips: a mantra Lourdes keeps close to her heart. She hopes to inspire others with her work at Masagana Flower Farm & Studio by interacting with plants and flowers as natural dye sources. She juggles the roles of a flower grower, a natural dyer, and an experiential tourism guide at her farm in southeast Manitoba. In her flagship offering, the Tinta Experience, 
Lourdes started as a self-taught flower grower, natural dyer, and tourism operator but has since learned and trained from industry leaders. Her curiosity continues to lead her entrepreneurial journey. It has expanded her work outside the farming community to explore ways to diversify her farm operations in the short growing season of Manitoba. Her farm may be seasonal, but her floral-dyed projects are year-round. She is in the first year of having a new studio-in-the-woods at the farm. She is currently exploring all the programming possibilities she can implement in her dream space to show others that growing joy through flowers and creating magic through plant dyes are right at our fingertips!

There will also be panels and opportunities to connect with top flower people. For registration and complete details visit https://www.slowflowerssummit.com