Episode 707: Cassie Plummer of Vermont’s Jig-Bee Flower Farm on diversifying with open-pollinated, non-GMO treated, sustainably-grown flower seeds

https://youtu.be/XJdj0U5NqC4?si=irqk_FX_GQ_qLe-j If you’re interested in what flower farming’s “chapter two” might look like, today’s guest shares one version of that narrative. After 8 years of intensive urban flower farming and floral design in Philadelphia, Cassie Plummer of Jig-Bee Flower Farm pulled up roots and moved to northeastern Vermont to be closer to family and to establish a simpler and quieter life. She calls it the Jig-Bee sequel, and the cinematic narrative is fitting because the rural town of Corinth, Vermont, where she settled, is also where the movie Beetlejuice was filmed. Today, Jig-Bee specializes in growing flowers for breeding and seed production and delivering fresh flowers to floral designers via two wholesale distributors in Woodstock and Brooklyn. I sat down with Cassie recently to learn how this all happened. Cassie Plummer, Jig-Bee Flower Farm I recorded a wonderful conversation last week with longtime Slow Flowers member Cassie Plummer of Jig-Bee Flower Farm. We first met years ago when I was in her backyard to speak at the Philadelphia Flower Show – Cassie gathered together a group of flower farmers and florists to meet and have lunch during my visit there. Cassie Plummer and the field-grown annuals at Jig-Bee Flower Farm A few years later, I featured Cassie and some of those same floral friends in a March 2019 Florists Review story about Fishtown Floral Crawl, a collaborative project in which florists transformed facades and interiors of several businesses, including restaurants and retail spaces, with beautiful and seasonal installations to showcase their art and shine a light on locally-grown flowers. READ MORE: Flowers and Community_TDFDownload Back then, amazingly, Cassie managed florist sales, a flower farm collective, a flower CSA program, full service and DIY weddings and events, grocery sales, farmers’ markets, pop-ups, and eventually a flower market style brick and mortar store with flowers grown on ½-acre urban land. She was far too busy to pay attention to what she called the "unicorn blooms" that occasionally caught her eye. Scabiosa 'Misty Mountain', bred by Jig-Bee Flower Farm Those UNICORNS are flowers with one-of-a-kind colors that show up in your garden or flower field. They can be a volunteer plant or something unique found growing from a seed packet -- standard color or mix -- that you grow every year. She says she amassed seeds of a unique, bronze-crested celosia, an ombre cream-to-pink zinnia, and so many other dried flower heads and captured them in organza bags and tucked into the back of the seed stash over the years. But, until Cassie changed her business model and moved to Vermont for a simpler and quieter life, she had never found time to experiment and trial those potentially new and exciting flowers. Coreopsis 'Romance', a Jig-Bee Flower Farm selection Things have changed, and it’s inspiring to hear more about that major transition to growing cut flowers for wholesale channels and selecting flower varieties to introduce new varieties to the market. She is intensively farming about ½-acre of the 8-acre farm, as well as planting pollinator strips for neighbors and other local farms. Strawflower 'Berry Bowl', a Jig-Bee Flower Farm selection Cassie is focused on growing and selecting for: High-yield flowers that are popular with florists and folks who enjoy growing a cutting garden Hardy annuals with increased resilience And new colors of coreopsis, scabiosa, rudbeckia and amaranth Let’s jump right in and learn more about this fascinating chapter two of Jig-Bee Flower Farm, and meet Cassie Plummer, the woman behind the flowers. Cassie offers about 50 different varieties/colors as fresh flowers and seed sales. Find and follow Jig Bee Flower Farm on Instagram and sign up for Jig Bee's newsletterJig Bee Seed Collection News of the Week Nicole Wright of The Pink Peony and author, Returning Home In Slow Flowers Member News, you’re invited to join us this Friday, March 14th at the March Slow Flowers Virtual Meet-Up, 9 am Pacific/Noon Eastern. Our topic is Reconceptualized Sympathy Flowers and our expert member guest is Nicole Wright of The Pink Peony. She is the author of a new book called “Returning Home,” a guide to show families and funeral professionals the array of flowers and foliage available in the season of their beloved's passing. Each arrangement featured in "Returning Home" was designed with local and American grown flowers and foliage. Nicole will share her experience bringing change to the non-sustainable funeral industry and answer your questions about doing so through your floral enterprise. You must pre-register to attend. Hope to see you there! Click to Pre-Register for the March 14th Slow Flowers Member Meet-Up Thank you to our Sponsors! This show is brought to you by slowflowers.com, the free, online directory to more than 750 florists, shops, and studios who design with local, seasonal and sustainable flowers and to the farms that grow those blooms. It’s the conscious choice for buying and sending flowers. Thank you to our lead sponsor, Flowerbulb.eu and their U.S. lily bulb vendors. One of the most recognizable flowers in the world, the lily is a top-selling cut flower, offering long-lasting blooms, year-round availability, and a dazzling petal palette. Flowerbulb.eu has partnered with Slow Flowers to provide beautiful lily inspiration and farming resources to help growers and florists connect their customers with more lilies. Learn more at Flowerbulb.eu. Thank you to new sponsor, Charles Little and Company, which supplies our industry with some of the most beautiful and sustainably-grown design ingredients, available nationwide through their website at charleslittleandcompany.com. Based in Eugene, Oregon, the farmers at Charles Little & Company have been growing and drying flowers since 1986. New products and dried flower collections are added to their website at the first of each month. Check it out at charleslittleandcompany.com. And thank you to Red Twig Farms. Based in New Albany, Ohio, Red Twig Farms is a family-owned farm specializing in peonies, daffodils, tulips and branches, a popular peony-bouquet-by-mail program and their Spread the Hope Campaign where customers purchase 10 tulip stems for essential workers and others in their community. Learn more at redtwigfarms.com. Thank you for joining me today! The Slow Flowers Podcast is a member-supported endeavor, downloaded more than one million times by listeners like you. Thank you for listening, commenting and sharing – it means so much. As our movement gains more supporters and more passionate participants who believe in the importance of our domestic cut flower industry, the momentum is contagious. I know you feel it, too. If you’re new to our weekly Show and our long-running Podcast, check out all of our resources at SlowFlowersSociety.com. Thank you for listening! Sending love, from my cutting garden to you! (c) Missy Palacol Photography I'm Debra Prinzing, host and producer of the Slow Flowers Show & Podcast. The Slow Flowers Podcast is engineered and edited by Andrew Brenlan. The content and opinions expressed here are either mine alone or those of my guests alone, independent of any podcast sponsor or other person, company or organization. Next week, you're invited to join me in putting more Slow Flowers on the table, one stem, one vase at a time. Thanks so much for joining us today and I'll see you next week! Music Credits:Drone Pine; Waterbourne;Turning on the Lights; Gaenaby Blue Dot Sessionshttp://www.sessions.blue Lovelyby Tryad http://tryad.bandcamp.com/album/instrumentalshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ In The Fieldaudionautix.com