OUR SPEAKERS
Leslie Bennett
pinehouseediblegardens
@pinehouseediblegardens
Owner & Founding Principal of Pine House Edible Gardens, Leslie Bennett is a landscape designer and writer based in Oakland, California, who creates gardens that help to nourish us and tell the story of who we are. The design firm creates culturally grounded gardens that provide as much visual inspiration as they do organic harvests of food, flowers and medicinal herbs.
Leslie is also the founder of the Black Sanctuary Gardens project and is co-author of Garden Wonderland (Ten Speed Press, 2024) and The Beautiful Edible Garden (Ten Speed Press, 2013). She is included on the Elle Decor A-List for 2023 and the two years preceding, was named a Top 50 Black Trailblazer by Oprah in 2022, and is a recipient of the American Horticultural Society’s Landscape Design Award.
Leslie's work as a principal at Pine House entails guiding the overall vision for the firm’s work and working collaboratively with the Pine House design and maintenance teams to create and care for aesthetic edible gardens and productive outdoor spaces around the SF Bay Area.
Leslie and the Pine House team’s work have been featured in Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, Martha Stewart Living, OprahDaily.com, Better Homes & Gardens, Sunset Magazine, Garden Design, C Magazine, American Gardener, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Gardenista.com. Raised in the Bay Area, Leslie holds degrees from Harvard University, Columbia Law School, and University College London in the fields of environmental justice, land use law, cultural property and preservation. She lives and gardens in Oakland with her two children.
Melissa Olson
Melissa Olson is the owner of Penflora, a floral design studio and beautifully curated shop in Burlingame, California, where sustainable floristry meets thoughtful design. Melissa founded the business in 2017.
Her journey began in a home where flowers and plants were always present (thanks to her mother’s love for garden blooms and her parents’ keen eye for design). Growing up surrounded by nature and parents who loved to entertain, Melissa developed a deep appreciation for how plants and flowers can transform a space, whether in a garden, a vase, or as part of a thoughtfully designed interior or table scape.
Penflora specializes in bespoke florals where nature meets design through sustainable floristry and curated items and gifts to enhance your everyday life. The boutique features a fabulous mix of vintage and contemporary items for gift giving and the home. Workshops and private parties are offered throughout the year.
Nichole Skalski
californiasister.com
@californiasister
Nichole Skalski first noticed the effects of time by observing her mother’s lilacs cycling through stages of bud, bloom, and dormancy. She worships at the altar of flowers, and reveres their color, form, scent, and effect to bring joy and connection. A Sonoma County native, supporting and maintaining its agricultural diversity is a mission close to her heart. California Sister is a full-service floral design company located in Sebastopol, that places a priority on sourcing local Sonoma County and California grown flowers. The studio’s designs are crafted to reflect the wild beauty of the area that Nichole calls home.
Offering full service wedding and event florals as well as any occasion floral delivery throughout Sonoma County, California Sister has been instrumental in promoting the use of and support for local flowers in her community.
Kristine Albrecht
In 2006, Kristine Albrecht reclaimed an urban quarter-acre in Santa Cruz, California, that had been weed-choked and fallow for years. She fed the soil and eventually planted over 3,000 dahlias. Kristine's passion has been hybridizing new dahlia varieties. She develops varieties for both exhibition and cut flowers. As of this writing, Kristine has introduced over fifty varieties to the market. All of her varieties start with her initials: KA's.
In addition to being an award-winning dahlia exhibitor, Kristine is a cut flower farmer working with florists and designers. She has an active Instagram account at @santacruzdahlias, a YouTube channel at Kristine Albrecht with over 150 educational videos, and a website at santacruzdahlias.com.
Kristine and her husband, Brion, authored the popular book Dahlia Breeding for the Farmer-Florist and the Home Gardener, considered the first and definitive book on dahlia hybridizing. The book DAHLIAS: Seed to Bloom followed in 2023 and covers dahlia care and culture.
Kristine was the president of the Monterey Bay Dahlia Society for 13 years and is currently leading the Dahlia Genome Project at the American Dahlia Society.
Kristine has won numerous American Dahlia Society awards for her hybridizing.
Kristine lives in Santa Cruz, California, with her husband. The couple has two grown children.
Jacqueline Pham
phamilypeonygarden.com
@phamilypeonygarden
Jacqueline Pham’s appreciation for flowers began quietly in her father’s garden, where she spent childhood afternoons exploring and learning about its blooms. That early curiosity shaped her creative path, leading her to study Fine Arts, develop an interest in psychology, and pursue Early Childhood Education. After college, she chose to teach and support families as a certified parent educator with Parents as Teachers.
Following the birth of her third child and the loss of her older brother in 2005, Jacqueline began nurturing a small garden. Over time, it grew into a half-acre flower field featuring hundreds of peony varieties.
In 2012, she studied floristry with Anne Patrick at Filoli Garden, began cultivating new hybrid peonies, and started designing arrangements for local fundraisers and celebrations. In 2023, Jacqueline launched Phamily Peony Garden, her online floristry business, offering floral delivery within seven miles of Los Altos hills. She also travels for pop-up events and teaches floristry classes at Gamble Garden in Palo Alto.
Today, Jacqueline grows specialty cut flowers that are rarely available to florists. When she is not caring for her family or tending her flower field, she volunteers with Blossom Buddies, the Foothills Auxiliary, and Gamble Garden. Through sustainable growing practices and thoughtfully designed arrangements featuring her homegrown flowers, Jacqueline hopes to bring beauty, comfort, and connection to her community.
Jennifer McClendon
@jenniflora.com
@jenniflorasonoma
Jennifer McClendon is the owner anad lead florist of JenniFlora. She owns and operates a five-acre flower farm located in Sebastopol (Sonoma County) specializing in sustainably grown garden roses.
Jennifer began her farming career nearly ten years ago, adding more roses to her collection each year. As a member of the Sonoma County Flower Market, she sells to florists, shops and grocery stores throughout the Bay Area, and she also uses her blooms in her own designs. Jennifer is a wedding and event florist, utilizing only locally grown ingredients in her natural, garden-inspired designs.
Hannah Rose Rivers Muller
fullbellyfarm.com
@full_belly_farm
Hannah Rose Rivers Muller is a farmer and florist in Northern California. She was born and raised on Full Belly Farm, which is located in the beautiful Capay Valley in Yolo County. Full Belly Farm grows more than three hundred fifty acres of certified organic fruits, vegetables, animals, and flowers.
Fifteen of those acres are devoted to cut flowers, which they sell at farmers’ markets, to wholesale buyers, and to local stores and restaurants. Hannah creates floral arrangements that mimic the surrounding landscape and uses the fresh fruits, vegetables, and flowers grown on Full Belly Farm to create unique and wild garden-style designs for weddings and events. She also makes wreaths and textural installations with the flowers they dry in Full Belly Farm’s Wreath Room and incorporates dried flowers into her other designs along with fresh flowers. Over the last decade, she has helped to pioneer the field-to-vase movement in Northern California, reminding supporters of local organic farming to not only eat local produce but enjoy locally grown flowers as well. She lives with her husband and dog in the rural town of Guinda and goes strolling in the flower fields almost every night.
Our Founder
DEBRA PRINZING
SLOW FLOWERS SOCIETY
@slowflowerssociety
Debra is the producer of SlowFlowers.com, the online directory to farms, florists, shops and studios who supply domestic and local flowers in the U.S. and Canada. Each Wednesday, approximately 2,500 listeners tune into Debra's "Slow Flowers Podcast," available for free downloads at her web site, slowflowerspodcast.com, or on iTunes and via other podcast services.
She is the creator of American Flowers Week, launched during the July 4th week in 2015 with more than 5.0 million social media impressions in 2017. Debra has authored more than 12 books, including Slow Flowers, The 50 Mile Bouquet, and The Flower Farmers (with Robin Avni).
