Debra Prinzing is the owner of Slow Flowers LLC & BLOOM Imprint LLC, which include her Slow Flowers-branded projects. She has been working in horticulture communications since the late 1990s, first as the events and marketing manager for a local independent garden center in the Seattle area, followed by numerous freelance writing positions for daily newspapers, national magazines and now, through my own media companies.
When we asked her about a mistake she made in her garden that turned into an unexpected learning experience, she said, “It’s all a learning experience! Our family joke is that my biggest mistake was asking my spouse to weed. One weeding session that resulted in his removal of young dahlia plants led to a new rule: Only Debra Can Weed! I am definitely paying that price for being a control freak.”
Debra has two distinct early garden memories. “My first-ever gardening memories came from childhood seeing the flowers that my maternal and paternal grandfathers grew in their Midwest gardens. My mother’s father, Daniel J. Ford, grew beautiful dahlias in Hammond, Indiana, and they were taller than I was, an indelible memory. My father’s father, Fred Prinzing, grew what he called “pee-oh-knees” (peonies) alongside rhubarb plants along the gravel driveway of his Villa Park, Illinois, backyard.”
The one piece of advice she would give to a new gardener is, “Lose yourself in the moment. The chores will always be there, but focus on the wonder.”
If you think there’s a book in you, but you don’t know how to get started, Debra and her co-presenters, Robin Avni and Teri Speight, have the checklist to help you launch. They are convinced that visual and verbal storytelling need to be integrated into any successful gardening book. Their presentation, “Growing the Verbal + Visual Narrative” is on Saturday, August 14 from 1 to 2 p.m.
Click here to learn more and register for the conference.
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