April 28, 2025 • 21 mins
Brenna Estrada is a United States Marine, turned 911 Operator turned Flower Farmer and now turned Author. She has been on a book tour promoting her recently released book, "Pansies".
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Art of improvement, and my guest today
Brenna Estrada.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
She's a United States Marine. Thank you for your service.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Brenna turned into a flower farmer, turned into an author.
She has written a book called Pansy's and as she
puts it, she feels like she is the ambassador of
overlook flowers. My conversation with Brenna Estrada is coming up
next on the Art of Improvement. Thank you so much
(00:32):
for joining the Art of Improvement. I have a special
guest on today and she is an author. Brenna Estrada
has just released a book called Pansy's.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Thank you so much for coming on today. Brenna, thank
you so much for having me. It's exciting.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Of course. Listen. When I read your bio, I was like,
wait a second, this does not all go together.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
It says that you are a United States Marine turned
nine to eleven operator, turned fl flower farmer, turned author.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Can you talk about that lineup a little.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
It's yeah, I feel like my life has had quite
a few chapters already, and one very different from the next. Yeah.
I did five years in the United States Marine Corps
after high school, and once I was done with that.
I initially thought I was going to go into vetinary medicine,
but made a career switch into nine one one call
taking and dispatching. So I was there for sixteen years.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Wow, yeah it was. It was amazing.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
I really really loved the job. I loved the work,
but once I had children, it kind of changed my
views on handling calls and just kind of dismissing the
heartache and working with people in their darkest moments. It
kind of stuck with me more. I wasn't able to
release it like I needed to. So that's when I
realized I needed kind of a career change, and just
(01:55):
through doors opening and kindness of friends, I found my
way into flower.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Well that's that sounds incredible. It sounds like a dream
come true for me. But how does that even happen?
When it says you turned into a flower farmer? Where
did you do it? Who are your friends? What made
you say okay, marine to flowers? I mean it seems
like a very very you know, a very large change.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
It is. It's a very large change, but I found,
you know, it's interesting the more I connect with Marines,
even outside the Marine Corps and later in life, I
find that a lot of them turned to gardening. I
think a lot of the very stressful, very intense professions
that have a lot of you know, anxiety and darkness
and sorrow, a lot of those people have been turning
(02:44):
to nature, into gardening and having your hands in the
dirt and cultivating something beautiful. And so it's it's really
just kind of a more peaceable way of life.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
And it's so much sense, and it makes absolute sense.
Does Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
I live in the Pacific Northwest and it's kind of
flower farmer haven up here where I am. Florette flower
Farm is here, and Aaron Benza Kyne's a very well
known farmer and author. She's really paved the way for
the cut flower movement and the local flower movement in
the United States, and so that's where that's where I
got my start. I was able to get a job
at Florett and learn from Aaron and be there with
(03:22):
the crew, and it sent me down the pansy rabbit hole.
And once I got to a point where my boys
were older teenagers that really really needed me, that's when
I resigned from Florett and now just do my own
flowers and write books.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So when you said you worked there, What exactly did
you do?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
I was hired on initially at the very beginning, just
this seasonal help. I helped with their big Steed launch,
and then I was offered a position to stay on
full time and I did the shop. So I answered
customer service emails in the shop, and I helped run
the shop, and you push out all the orders for
their eat and the books and all the good things
she had at the time.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Incredible.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
I mean, seriously, you have to admit that some people
would not have the courage to do something that was different,
and I totally get it. I love it because I
have often thought, you know, there has to come a
time in life when you say this is this is
not my priority anymore. But coming to that realization and
(04:27):
actually making the move, I adore that part.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I think that it takes me great courage and I'm
so proud of you.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
So then comes the book. You've got to talk about it,
Pansy's at the name of it. What made you stick
with this? Because I have to say, Pansy's are one
of my nightmare plans because they seem so easy, but
they're like my enemy.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
That and orchids.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
There is just something about them that you have to
have to me, you have to have that certain touch
because they're so delicate.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
It's you know, it's funny. I feel like pansies are
at the bread of the flower world. Where is it?
They're so simple, like breads, a simple thing. But then
to master it is so hard, and you think, how
can it be so hard with something so simple? But yeah, no,
And I you know, I appreciate what you're saying about
having the courage to make a big change, and I was.
I was forty one when I started for it. I
(05:24):
was not young when I made that career change. And
even getting into authoring a book. You know, at that time,
I was an unknown. You know, I've never authored a book.
I'm still, in my opinion, a very small scale flower farmer.
So that was a big leap of faith. And I
definitely couldn't have done it without, you know, my husband
being in support and shifting, you know, how things were
(05:46):
in our household, because it's a lot of time to
commit when you write a book, and then just the publishers,
you know, trying to find an agent and trying to
get a publisher that was willing to take a chance.
The pansy book there when I fell into the pansy
rabbit whole and was just voracious for information on where
did these varieties go and why are pansies not being
grown as cut flowers anymore? And I couldn't find any
(06:09):
modern books, and it was so disheartening. The last book
I could find, the most recent, was from the nineties
out of the United Kingdom, and before that it was
the fifties. Before that it was nineteen ten, and never
won in the US more than just the Gift Book.
And I thought, why the heck is there not a
book on pansy's And so I got every old book
I could find, and I just read them all and
took notes, and I thought, you know what, I'm going
(06:32):
to have to write this book like I'm in a place.
I have all this research, I have all these notes,
I've done all these trials. I just need to get
it out there. There has to be more than just
me curious about the pansy and curious about its journey
and why it fell from favor. So that really started it,
and I, you know, the publishers, it was hard. There
was a few publishers who said they were interested, but
(06:52):
it was such a risk. You know, I was an
unknown there'd never been a book on pansies. They really
couldn't compare it to any other book in them because
it was so different, and they had no idea how
it was going to do it. Is it going to
take off or is it going to completely fail? So
it was it was scary and it was hard. And yeah,
some people tell me that I had no business writing
a book. I have people tell me to stick to
(07:14):
my blogs, that people weren't interested in a book on
Pansy's and it's you know, it's one of those things.
I just I really felt there was a place for
this book. And I think that's my advice to people,
you know, when I was obviously even older when I
wrote my first book. That's just when you have a
passion and you have something that you know needs its
place in the world and has a place in the world,
(07:35):
just don't let people tell you otherwise. Just make it
a place.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
So Brenna Estrata is who I'm talking to right now,
and she has just released a book called Pansy's And
when you said you did a lot of research, did
that include traveling to different places? And I'm glad to
hear you say that I might not be the only
one that thinks that they're kind of a tough flower
to take care of.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Yeah, once you master it, once you figure out the
few key things for them, and it's really what I
have discovered is temperature. They have a very particular temperature
for germination that they like, and watering. Their watering needs
are very particular. And root care. And once you get
all that down, if you can get those few things down,
they're actually really easy flower to do. I didn't travel
(08:22):
too much during the writing of the book. That was
all research I did from just voracious searches through old
books and everything written on them and gardening books and
my own trials. But I did before the book released.
I went to Japan and Italy and met with the
hybridizers that are working in the pansies. Yeah, in Italy
and Japan, and the new new varieties that are up
(08:43):
and coming, and they're just.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Well, talk about them a little if you don't mind.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
No, of course, not so the Italian Pansies. We are
able to get here very slowly and surely. And I
went out and met with the family, the family there,
they're in Sarno, Italy and they've been doing seats eighteen
seventy and it was fascinating talking with them. It was
fascinating seeing how much they care for their business and
(09:07):
they have a very small team, and there's so much
pride and so much love, and their views on you know,
just growing and gardening and all of that was really
really amazing, So much more than I ever imagined I
would have taken away from that trip. So I'm really
excited that I'll be able to offer even more varieties
of Italian pansies this year, which is really exciting. But
(09:28):
the colors, you know, they are they're streaked and they're ruffled,
and they're so beautiful and they're fragrant. And all the
Italian varieties can be grown for cut flowers, which is
really nice. They all have kind of that old genetic
strain of the Vila that had the trailing variety, so
they do absolutely greate as cut flowers, and their germination
rates are really good too. And then Japan, I met
(09:51):
with a gentleman named mister Sato and he is breeding
these really extraordinary pansies there his art and just colors
that would absolutely blow your mind and very very very
heavily ruffled, and his are Just this year, three of
his varieties are now being released as plugs through ball
Seed for professional growers, and I'm hoping that that's kind
(10:12):
of the opening door to getting more of his varieties
here soon. But he will actually be coming to visit
me and make an appearance here in the Northwest and July,
so that's exciting.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
So, Brenna, can you tell people where can they find
your book? How can they buy it, and you know,
just anything that you can.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Yeah. Absolutely, I think that's the biggest thing and the
biggest hope with my book was really just to get
people to stop and reconsider what they think the pansy
is capable of, to realize that there's so much more
to this flower than people never really realized lately because
it's been so categorized for the past seven decades. Is
just a tiny, little landscaping flower. And although it's great
(10:55):
is that, you know, it's fantastic that way, but it
also has this completely other side. In the floor stree
world for seeds, you know, seeds are hard to find.
There's the seeds that are popular are the very characteristic
you know, red, yellow, purple with the blotch, and so
finding these unique varieties is still at this point rather difficult.
But I'm hoping the book changes that, and I'm hoping,
(11:16):
you know, the demand changes that. I am Silence Seeds
now so people can buy seeds through my website three
Brothers blooms dot com. I do two to three large
seed sales each year. But pansy seeds are good for
easily two to three years, if not longer. You just
want to store them and tup aware or a plastic
bag and your fridge are cooler at forty degrees and
they last for years. I have TRET twenty eighteen that
(11:39):
are still germinating. Yeah, so even though you know you
may have to buy them at a not opportune time
of the year, just no, they will be good until
you're ready to plant them. So and some other good companies,
Oh go ahead.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
No no, no, no, go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Oh. I was going to say. Some other companies that
do have some great pansy seeds right now is Baker
Creek Airline Feeds and they shift throughout the nation. And
Johnny's Seeds has some really beautiful varieties. And I am
working to put together an international seed resource too. That's yeah,
and then the book is available everywhere that books are sold.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
So okay, so you're in the Pacific Northwest, and I
really have not traveled that part of the country, but
I know that when I was younger, I lived in
on the East Coast and the springtime, I just couldn't
believe the flowers. I couldn't believe how beautiful that the
(12:30):
blooms were. I couldn't believe that things actually grew. Because
I grew up in Texas, which there's a few things
that can survive the heat, but it's just a totally
different world.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
So when you talk about.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Pansies, and let's just say, for example Texas, when people
buy seeds through Three Brothers blooms, I mean, do you
give instructions and how do we know that we're going
to be able to succeed there?
Speaker 3 (12:57):
I do. I mean, there's basic instructions on the back
of the packets. I have a basic seed starting guide
on my website, and then of course there's more information
in the book. I actually lived in San Angelo for
a few years when I was in the military. I
was stationed at Goodfellow Air Force Base, so I know
the heat and the dryness, right, Yeah, San Angelo gets
pretty warm. But with pansy's, you know, it's one of
(13:17):
those things where even if you're in a climate where
you can't grow them all through the summer. For me here,
I'm in zone eight A bordering on eight B, and
I can grow pansy's from March all the way through
November and some even bloom and winter, depending on the variety.
And obviously not everybody can do that. I know on
the East Coast, it's not even necessarily the heat in
the summer, but the humidity. And even in Japan they've
(13:39):
had to drastically shift their growing season because their summers
are now almost tropical and they have so much hot
humidity coming in so early that they've shifted their pansy
growing season back to where their prime season is December
through April. Wow, or it used to be later in
the year. So for Texas, you know, it's you just
want to shift to. Obviously the cooler months they're going
(14:01):
to you know, not do as well in the extreme
extreme heat and any kind of humidity, which I know
Texas is so big, it has like its own right,
five different climates dried within one stage, so right, it does.
It is very different than Dallas, but Dallas is somewhat
similar a little bit to our growing zone, you know,
San Antonio is a bit warmer. But I would say
(14:22):
just try them. I mean, that's the thing. You really
have nothing to lose, so just trial them out at
different times and just kind of find that sweet spot
to where they seem like they're just happiest and growing.
For me, my long stems don't even start until June,
really June to July, which are hot for us. We're
hitting eighty and ninety, you know, and that's when I'm
harvesting stems. So they can take some heat as long
(14:44):
as their roots are well cared for. And yeah, you
can always plant them. They do really well with companion plants.
So if you plant them with a plant that can
give them some afternoon shade, you know, that'll help expand
your growing season.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
That's that's interesting.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
So as an example, I mean, can you tell us
what we can plant next to them.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
There's a lot of roses that do really really well
in Texas, and roses are one of the best companion
plants for pansy. They will climb up within the rose
branches kind of use the rose is like a support
cage or trellis if you will, and they do fantastic there.
And then just other plants you know that take a
little more water, which obviously in Texas is a little hard.
But even if you have something like a shrub, you know,
(15:27):
or a tree that just an area in your yard
that provides a shade from that hot afternoon scorch, your
panties will probably do fairly well there.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
That's good.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
And just you know, shift your season again, growm and
you know, either fall and the winter or early spring,
depending on what part you're in. Sure.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Sure, So if you've just now started listening, this is
Brenna Estrata. She's author of a just released book called Pansies.
And it's funny because when we think about books, I mean,
we think about beautiful pictures and you know, all of that,
but this is also instructional.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Would you say, yeah, I mean I certainly hope. So
it's I wanted the book to be beautiful. You know,
they say, don't judge a book by its cover, But
if the cover's not beautiful, you're not going to pick
it up. And when you scan through it, if it's
not beautiful, you're not going to take it home to
read it. So the book obviously had to be very
beautiful and had to show the flowers that I'm talking
about and prove okay, here's the long stems, you can
(16:24):
get them, and this is how. But I honestly, I
really hope that the writing and the book and the
content surpasses even its photos and beauty. I want the
book to really resonate with people, and I want it
to be a book they turned to again and again,
a very hard working book that they that they always keep,
so hopefully as they pull that off.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Absolutely so when you actually did, you know, release your
book and started to get the attention of growers all
over the place, all over the world, really, I mean,
how did that make you feel? Was that affirmation that yes,
I know what I'm doing it, you know.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
It's it's hard. It did it? Really? It's shocked me. Honestly,
I'm a nim bit of awe with how well the
book has been received. And I really think it's in
part of just the pansy is such a sentimental flower.
It ties so many people to their childhood. It ties
them to family, to grandparents, to great aunts, to places
(17:19):
you know, to places they used to visit in the summer.
It's a very sentimental flower. And because there's never been
a book and the Pansy hasn't had the spotlight for
almost one hundred years, I think it just has kind
of been this like hidden love for people. So having
a book now and having it come into the spotlight
I think has really made people realize their love for it.
But yeah, it's I mean, it's doing amazing in New
(17:40):
Zealand and Australia and the United Kingdom and I've been
shipping books to Switzerland and Sweden and Germany and Italy
and it's all over, so it's it's just it feels
almost like a movement and I feel like a messenger
in it, you know. I hope my book was well written.
I hope that people are happy with it in that expectation,
but I really feel like I'm just kind of the
(18:01):
messenger and that it's just the Pansy's time, and it's
just finally me getting the lens on it, you know,
and people's eyes on it the way that it needed
to be seen so that it can really shine for itself,
if that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Of course. And I love that, I really do love that.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
I don't know if I told you this, but I
co host the Garden Show on the weekends, and there's
always there's always.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
That love for me.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
When we talk about I call them the old fashioned flowers,
and I really do believe pansies are one of those
old fashioned flowers that people they do have memories associated
with them. But another thing is people do have connections
to plants and flowers. And I think that if someone
is listening and thinks, maybe you know, I don't have
(18:49):
the green thumb, that it really is just a matter
of taking it into your own hands and saying, you know,
I'm going to learn how to do this. And sadly,
there are some casualties when it comes to plants, believe me,
I've had them. But the beauty and just the accomplished,
the feeling of accomplishment you get when you finally do
(19:11):
get it down. It can, it can a plant can
be in your life for a long long time.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Oh absolutely. And you're gonna I mean you're gonna fail.
Everyone fails. I fail every year. I have crop failures.
Some of them are, you know, due to just me
not being very diligent in my tasks, and others are
just I'll never know why, like why did everything right?
Why did that fail to thrive? And it's just part
of growing. And you know that's the thing. Just try it,
trial again and trial again, and you are you're going
(19:38):
to have more successes than you are failures. And it's
just such a beautiful thing, you know, having your hands
in the dirt and being out there in nature, especially nowadays,
you know, with all the everything that is behind the screen,
the social media, the very busy pace we have, even
if it's just for yourself, just this tiny little cutting
garden where you know, you just go out and your
hands are in the dirt a few hours and you're
you're cutting flowers and it's very manageable. It doesn't have
(20:01):
to be large. But I definitely encourage people to try
and if you fail, just try again because you're going
to get it matter if you know, there's so many
different zones, just finding where your particular garden, your particular
you know zone is happy.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
So well, I have to tell you this has been fantastic.
I cannot wait to see how great this does. And
as we wrap up here, we have Pansy's. Now, do
you have anything in mind for what's next.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
I actually am working on another project and I can't
announce it yet, but yes, there is a next. I
say that there is something next, and you know, it's funny.
I was in conversation with my publisher this must have
been back last fall, but it kind of shifted to
basically calling me the ambassador of overlooked flowers.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Oh love, I feel like.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
You know what, that is a role I am happy
to step into because I do feel like Pansy's has
been an overlooked flower, and there's a lot of other
really beautiful flowers that just I think because they were
so in fashion, you know, decades ago, that they've just
been so categorized this old fashioned. But there's movement in them,
and there's new colors, and there's work being done with
them that people aren't realizing. So if I can kind
(21:09):
of help bring some attention back to those in the
next few years, I think that'll be a really good
way to spend my time.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Absolutely how fantastic. Brenna Estrada is the author of a
just released book called Pansies, And as Brenna told me earlier,
you can buy it just about anywhere, So go out
and get a look at it, Pansy's and hopefully you'll
be able to come back on and tell us about
your new book too. I really appreciate you coming on today.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Thank you. I would love to come back anytime you'll
have me and just count me in. Yeah, thank you
very much.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Thanks
This is the Art of improvement, and my guest today
Brenna Estrada.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
She's a United States Marine. Thank you for your service.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Brenna turned into a flower farmer, turned into an author.
She has written a book called Pansy's and as she
puts it, she feels like she is the ambassador of
overlook flowers. My conversation with Brenna Estrada is coming up
next on the Art of Improvement. Thank you so much
(00:32):
for joining the Art of Improvement. I have a special
guest on today and she is an author. Brenna Estrada
has just released a book called Pansy's.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Thank you so much for coming on today. Brenna, thank
you so much for having me. It's exciting.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Of course. Listen. When I read your bio, I was like,
wait a second, this does not all go together.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
It says that you are a United States Marine turned
nine to eleven operator, turned fl flower farmer, turned author.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Can you talk about that lineup a little.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
It's yeah, I feel like my life has had quite
a few chapters already, and one very different from the next. Yeah.
I did five years in the United States Marine Corps
after high school, and once I was done with that.
I initially thought I was going to go into vetinary medicine,
but made a career switch into nine one one call
taking and dispatching. So I was there for sixteen years.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Wow, yeah it was. It was amazing.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
I really really loved the job. I loved the work,
but once I had children, it kind of changed my
views on handling calls and just kind of dismissing the
heartache and working with people in their darkest moments. It
kind of stuck with me more. I wasn't able to
release it like I needed to. So that's when I
realized I needed kind of a career change, and just
(01:55):
through doors opening and kindness of friends, I found my
way into flower.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Well that's that sounds incredible. It sounds like a dream
come true for me. But how does that even happen?
When it says you turned into a flower farmer? Where
did you do it? Who are your friends? What made
you say okay, marine to flowers? I mean it seems
like a very very you know, a very large change.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
It is. It's a very large change, but I found,
you know, it's interesting the more I connect with Marines,
even outside the Marine Corps and later in life, I
find that a lot of them turned to gardening. I
think a lot of the very stressful, very intense professions
that have a lot of you know, anxiety and darkness
and sorrow, a lot of those people have been turning
(02:44):
to nature, into gardening and having your hands in the
dirt and cultivating something beautiful. And so it's it's really
just kind of a more peaceable way of life.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
And it's so much sense, and it makes absolute sense.
Does Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
I live in the Pacific Northwest and it's kind of
flower farmer haven up here where I am. Florette flower
Farm is here, and Aaron Benza Kyne's a very well
known farmer and author. She's really paved the way for
the cut flower movement and the local flower movement in
the United States, and so that's where that's where I
got my start. I was able to get a job
at Florett and learn from Aaron and be there with
(03:22):
the crew, and it sent me down the pansy rabbit hole.
And once I got to a point where my boys
were older teenagers that really really needed me, that's when
I resigned from Florett and now just do my own
flowers and write books.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So when you said you worked there, What exactly did
you do?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
I was hired on initially at the very beginning, just
this seasonal help. I helped with their big Steed launch,
and then I was offered a position to stay on
full time and I did the shop. So I answered
customer service emails in the shop, and I helped run
the shop, and you push out all the orders for
their eat and the books and all the good things
she had at the time.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Incredible.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
I mean, seriously, you have to admit that some people
would not have the courage to do something that was different,
and I totally get it. I love it because I
have often thought, you know, there has to come a
time in life when you say this is this is
not my priority anymore. But coming to that realization and
(04:27):
actually making the move, I adore that part.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I think that it takes me great courage and I'm
so proud of you.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
So then comes the book. You've got to talk about it,
Pansy's at the name of it. What made you stick
with this? Because I have to say, Pansy's are one
of my nightmare plans because they seem so easy, but
they're like my enemy.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
That and orchids.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
There is just something about them that you have to
have to me, you have to have that certain touch
because they're so delicate.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
It's you know, it's funny. I feel like pansies are
at the bread of the flower world. Where is it?
They're so simple, like breads, a simple thing. But then
to master it is so hard, and you think, how
can it be so hard with something so simple? But yeah, no,
And I you know, I appreciate what you're saying about
having the courage to make a big change, and I was.
I was forty one when I started for it. I
(05:24):
was not young when I made that career change. And
even getting into authoring a book. You know, at that time,
I was an unknown. You know, I've never authored a book.
I'm still, in my opinion, a very small scale flower farmer.
So that was a big leap of faith. And I
definitely couldn't have done it without, you know, my husband
being in support and shifting, you know, how things were
(05:46):
in our household, because it's a lot of time to
commit when you write a book, and then just the publishers,
you know, trying to find an agent and trying to
get a publisher that was willing to take a chance.
The pansy book there when I fell into the pansy
rabbit whole and was just voracious for information on where
did these varieties go and why are pansies not being
grown as cut flowers anymore? And I couldn't find any
(06:09):
modern books, and it was so disheartening. The last book
I could find, the most recent, was from the nineties
out of the United Kingdom, and before that it was
the fifties. Before that it was nineteen ten, and never
won in the US more than just the Gift Book.
And I thought, why the heck is there not a
book on pansy's And so I got every old book
I could find, and I just read them all and
took notes, and I thought, you know what, I'm going
(06:32):
to have to write this book like I'm in a place.
I have all this research, I have all these notes,
I've done all these trials. I just need to get
it out there. There has to be more than just
me curious about the pansy and curious about its journey
and why it fell from favor. So that really started it,
and I, you know, the publishers, it was hard. There
was a few publishers who said they were interested, but
(06:52):
it was such a risk. You know, I was an
unknown there'd never been a book on pansies. They really
couldn't compare it to any other book in them because
it was so different, and they had no idea how
it was going to do it. Is it going to
take off or is it going to completely fail? So
it was it was scary and it was hard. And yeah,
some people tell me that I had no business writing
a book. I have people tell me to stick to
(07:14):
my blogs, that people weren't interested in a book on
Pansy's and it's you know, it's one of those things.
I just I really felt there was a place for
this book. And I think that's my advice to people,
you know, when I was obviously even older when I
wrote my first book. That's just when you have a
passion and you have something that you know needs its
place in the world and has a place in the world,
(07:35):
just don't let people tell you otherwise. Just make it
a place.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
So Brenna Estrata is who I'm talking to right now,
and she has just released a book called Pansy's And
when you said you did a lot of research, did
that include traveling to different places? And I'm glad to
hear you say that I might not be the only
one that thinks that they're kind of a tough flower
to take care of.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Yeah, once you master it, once you figure out the
few key things for them, and it's really what I
have discovered is temperature. They have a very particular temperature
for germination that they like, and watering. Their watering needs
are very particular. And root care. And once you get
all that down, if you can get those few things down,
they're actually really easy flower to do. I didn't travel
(08:22):
too much during the writing of the book. That was
all research I did from just voracious searches through old
books and everything written on them and gardening books and
my own trials. But I did before the book released.
I went to Japan and Italy and met with the
hybridizers that are working in the pansies. Yeah, in Italy
and Japan, and the new new varieties that are up
(08:43):
and coming, and they're just.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Well, talk about them a little if you don't mind.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
No, of course, not so the Italian Pansies. We are
able to get here very slowly and surely. And I
went out and met with the family, the family there,
they're in Sarno, Italy and they've been doing seats eighteen
seventy and it was fascinating talking with them. It was
fascinating seeing how much they care for their business and
(09:07):
they have a very small team, and there's so much
pride and so much love, and their views on you know,
just growing and gardening and all of that was really
really amazing, So much more than I ever imagined I
would have taken away from that trip. So I'm really
excited that I'll be able to offer even more varieties
of Italian pansies this year, which is really exciting. But
(09:28):
the colors, you know, they are they're streaked and they're ruffled,
and they're so beautiful and they're fragrant. And all the
Italian varieties can be grown for cut flowers, which is
really nice. They all have kind of that old genetic
strain of the Vila that had the trailing variety, so
they do absolutely greate as cut flowers, and their germination
rates are really good too. And then Japan, I met
(09:51):
with a gentleman named mister Sato and he is breeding
these really extraordinary pansies there his art and just colors
that would absolutely blow your mind and very very very
heavily ruffled, and his are Just this year, three of
his varieties are now being released as plugs through ball
Seed for professional growers, and I'm hoping that that's kind
(10:12):
of the opening door to getting more of his varieties
here soon. But he will actually be coming to visit
me and make an appearance here in the Northwest and July,
so that's exciting.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
So, Brenna, can you tell people where can they find
your book? How can they buy it, and you know,
just anything that you can.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Yeah. Absolutely, I think that's the biggest thing and the
biggest hope with my book was really just to get
people to stop and reconsider what they think the pansy
is capable of, to realize that there's so much more
to this flower than people never really realized lately because
it's been so categorized for the past seven decades. Is
just a tiny, little landscaping flower. And although it's great
(10:55):
is that, you know, it's fantastic that way, but it
also has this completely other side. In the floor stree
world for seeds, you know, seeds are hard to find.
There's the seeds that are popular are the very characteristic
you know, red, yellow, purple with the blotch, and so
finding these unique varieties is still at this point rather difficult.
But I'm hoping the book changes that, and I'm hoping,
(11:16):
you know, the demand changes that. I am Silence Seeds
now so people can buy seeds through my website three
Brothers blooms dot com. I do two to three large
seed sales each year. But pansy seeds are good for
easily two to three years, if not longer. You just
want to store them and tup aware or a plastic
bag and your fridge are cooler at forty degrees and
they last for years. I have TRET twenty eighteen that
(11:39):
are still germinating. Yeah, so even though you know you
may have to buy them at a not opportune time
of the year, just no, they will be good until
you're ready to plant them. So and some other good companies,
Oh go ahead.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
No no, no, no, go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Oh. I was going to say. Some other companies that
do have some great pansy seeds right now is Baker
Creek Airline Feeds and they shift throughout the nation. And
Johnny's Seeds has some really beautiful varieties. And I am
working to put together an international seed resource too. That's yeah,
and then the book is available everywhere that books are sold.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
So okay, so you're in the Pacific Northwest, and I
really have not traveled that part of the country, but
I know that when I was younger, I lived in
on the East Coast and the springtime, I just couldn't
believe the flowers. I couldn't believe how beautiful that the
(12:30):
blooms were. I couldn't believe that things actually grew. Because
I grew up in Texas, which there's a few things
that can survive the heat, but it's just a totally
different world.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
So when you talk about.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Pansies, and let's just say, for example Texas, when people
buy seeds through Three Brothers blooms, I mean, do you
give instructions and how do we know that we're going
to be able to succeed there?
Speaker 3 (12:57):
I do. I mean, there's basic instructions on the back
of the packets. I have a basic seed starting guide
on my website, and then of course there's more information
in the book. I actually lived in San Angelo for
a few years when I was in the military. I
was stationed at Goodfellow Air Force Base, so I know
the heat and the dryness, right, Yeah, San Angelo gets
pretty warm. But with pansy's, you know, it's one of
(13:17):
those things where even if you're in a climate where
you can't grow them all through the summer. For me here,
I'm in zone eight A bordering on eight B, and
I can grow pansy's from March all the way through
November and some even bloom and winter, depending on the variety.
And obviously not everybody can do that. I know on
the East Coast, it's not even necessarily the heat in
the summer, but the humidity. And even in Japan they've
(13:39):
had to drastically shift their growing season because their summers
are now almost tropical and they have so much hot
humidity coming in so early that they've shifted their pansy
growing season back to where their prime season is December
through April. Wow, or it used to be later in
the year. So for Texas, you know, it's you just
want to shift to. Obviously the cooler months they're going
(14:01):
to you know, not do as well in the extreme
extreme heat and any kind of humidity, which I know
Texas is so big, it has like its own right,
five different climates dried within one stage, so right, it does.
It is very different than Dallas, but Dallas is somewhat
similar a little bit to our growing zone, you know,
San Antonio is a bit warmer. But I would say
(14:22):
just try them. I mean, that's the thing. You really
have nothing to lose, so just trial them out at
different times and just kind of find that sweet spot
to where they seem like they're just happiest and growing.
For me, my long stems don't even start until June,
really June to July, which are hot for us. We're
hitting eighty and ninety, you know, and that's when I'm
harvesting stems. So they can take some heat as long
(14:44):
as their roots are well cared for. And yeah, you
can always plant them. They do really well with companion plants.
So if you plant them with a plant that can
give them some afternoon shade, you know, that'll help expand
your growing season.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
That's that's interesting.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
So as an example, I mean, can you tell us
what we can plant next to them.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
There's a lot of roses that do really really well
in Texas, and roses are one of the best companion
plants for pansy. They will climb up within the rose
branches kind of use the rose is like a support
cage or trellis if you will, and they do fantastic there.
And then just other plants you know that take a
little more water, which obviously in Texas is a little hard.
But even if you have something like a shrub, you know,
(15:27):
or a tree that just an area in your yard
that provides a shade from that hot afternoon scorch, your
panties will probably do fairly well there.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
That's good.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
And just you know, shift your season again, growm and
you know, either fall and the winter or early spring,
depending on what part you're in. Sure.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Sure, So if you've just now started listening, this is
Brenna Estrata. She's author of a just released book called Pansies.
And it's funny because when we think about books, I mean,
we think about beautiful pictures and you know, all of that,
but this is also instructional.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Would you say, yeah, I mean I certainly hope. So
it's I wanted the book to be beautiful. You know,
they say, don't judge a book by its cover, But
if the cover's not beautiful, you're not going to pick
it up. And when you scan through it, if it's
not beautiful, you're not going to take it home to
read it. So the book obviously had to be very
beautiful and had to show the flowers that I'm talking
about and prove okay, here's the long stems, you can
(16:24):
get them, and this is how. But I honestly, I
really hope that the writing and the book and the
content surpasses even its photos and beauty. I want the
book to really resonate with people, and I want it
to be a book they turned to again and again,
a very hard working book that they that they always keep,
so hopefully as they pull that off.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Absolutely so when you actually did, you know, release your
book and started to get the attention of growers all
over the place, all over the world, really, I mean,
how did that make you feel? Was that affirmation that yes,
I know what I'm doing it, you know.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
It's it's hard. It did it? Really? It's shocked me. Honestly,
I'm a nim bit of awe with how well the
book has been received. And I really think it's in
part of just the pansy is such a sentimental flower.
It ties so many people to their childhood. It ties
them to family, to grandparents, to great aunts, to places
(17:19):
you know, to places they used to visit in the summer.
It's a very sentimental flower. And because there's never been
a book and the Pansy hasn't had the spotlight for
almost one hundred years, I think it just has kind
of been this like hidden love for people. So having
a book now and having it come into the spotlight
I think has really made people realize their love for it.
But yeah, it's I mean, it's doing amazing in New
(17:40):
Zealand and Australia and the United Kingdom and I've been
shipping books to Switzerland and Sweden and Germany and Italy
and it's all over, so it's it's just it feels
almost like a movement and I feel like a messenger
in it, you know. I hope my book was well written.
I hope that people are happy with it in that expectation,
but I really feel like I'm just kind of the
(18:01):
messenger and that it's just the Pansy's time, and it's
just finally me getting the lens on it, you know,
and people's eyes on it the way that it needed
to be seen so that it can really shine for itself,
if that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Of course. And I love that, I really do love that.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
I don't know if I told you this, but I
co host the Garden Show on the weekends, and there's
always there's always.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
That love for me.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
When we talk about I call them the old fashioned flowers,
and I really do believe pansies are one of those
old fashioned flowers that people they do have memories associated
with them. But another thing is people do have connections
to plants and flowers. And I think that if someone
is listening and thinks, maybe you know, I don't have
(18:49):
the green thumb, that it really is just a matter
of taking it into your own hands and saying, you know,
I'm going to learn how to do this. And sadly,
there are some casualties when it comes to plants, believe me,
I've had them. But the beauty and just the accomplished,
the feeling of accomplishment you get when you finally do
(19:11):
get it down. It can, it can a plant can
be in your life for a long long time.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Oh absolutely. And you're gonna I mean you're gonna fail.
Everyone fails. I fail every year. I have crop failures.
Some of them are, you know, due to just me
not being very diligent in my tasks, and others are
just I'll never know why, like why did everything right?
Why did that fail to thrive? And it's just part
of growing. And you know that's the thing. Just try it,
trial again and trial again, and you are you're going
(19:38):
to have more successes than you are failures. And it's
just such a beautiful thing, you know, having your hands
in the dirt and being out there in nature, especially nowadays,
you know, with all the everything that is behind the screen,
the social media, the very busy pace we have, even
if it's just for yourself, just this tiny little cutting
garden where you know, you just go out and your
hands are in the dirt a few hours and you're
you're cutting flowers and it's very manageable. It doesn't have
(20:01):
to be large. But I definitely encourage people to try
and if you fail, just try again because you're going
to get it matter if you know, there's so many
different zones, just finding where your particular garden, your particular
you know zone is happy.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
So well, I have to tell you this has been fantastic.
I cannot wait to see how great this does. And
as we wrap up here, we have Pansy's. Now, do
you have anything in mind for what's next.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
I actually am working on another project and I can't
announce it yet, but yes, there is a next. I
say that there is something next, and you know, it's funny.
I was in conversation with my publisher this must have
been back last fall, but it kind of shifted to
basically calling me the ambassador of overlooked flowers.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Oh love, I feel like.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
You know what, that is a role I am happy
to step into because I do feel like Pansy's has
been an overlooked flower, and there's a lot of other
really beautiful flowers that just I think because they were
so in fashion, you know, decades ago, that they've just
been so categorized this old fashioned. But there's movement in them,
and there's new colors, and there's work being done with
them that people aren't realizing. So if I can kind
(21:09):
of help bring some attention back to those in the
next few years, I think that'll be a really good
way to spend my time.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Absolutely how fantastic. Brenna Estrada is the author of a
just released book called Pansies, And as Brenna told me earlier,
you can buy it just about anywhere, So go out
and get a look at it, Pansy's and hopefully you'll
be able to come back on and tell us about
your new book too. I really appreciate you coming on today.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Thank you. I would love to come back anytime you'll
have me and just count me in. Yeah, thank you
very much.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Thanks
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