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PANSIES! IT'S WHAT'S FOR SPRING! WITH BRENNA ESTRADA






Brenna Estrada is owner and founder of Three Brothers Blooms, a flower farm located on 2.5 acres of Camano Island in the Pacific Northwest. Brenna is also the author of "Pansies, How to Grow, Reimagine, and Create Beauty with Pansies and Violas", published by Timber Press just over a year ago. Brenna makes a compelling case for revisiting our relationship to pansies and her book was my own gateway to growing nearly 1,000 plants from seed in 2026.


Ben Futa's conversation today spans many topics, with pansies as a worthy and common thread. As happens often in this work, with this conversation we're reminded how this process of growing plants is just as much about cultivating ourselves as it is about cultivating our places.


Brenna’s lush property is home to a wide range of flora and fauna, from four dogs to two ducks for slug patrol, along with a wide range of wildlife. Her three sons lend a hand in all aspects of growing and harvesting, and her husband keeps the structural integrity of the farm at its best.


FROM BEN: Never have I ever grown pansies from seed before, and Brenna’s guidance made it a breeze. They’re already starting to bloom, and they sure are breathtaking.



Follow Brenna & Three Brothers Blooms online:

and on Instagram:


All photos courtesy of Brenna Estrada, Three Brothers Blooms. All rights reserved.


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JOIN US again next week, when Jennifer is conversation with Chicago-based public horticultuist Chris Felhaber. After many years in public horticulture, Chris believes in gardens as social infrastructure and in the importance of Community Gardeners - not just community gardens. That's right here, next week. Listen in!


Cultivating Place is made possible in part by listeners like you and by generous support

from

in honor of Bailey Shaw


supporting initiatives that empower women and help preserve the planet through the intersection of environmental advocacy, social justice, and creativity.






Thinking out loud this week...


Hey, it's Ben—


First, mark your calendar for Tuesday, April 21st at 6pm EST for the very first Cultivating Place Book Club. I’ll be welcoming Brenna to discuss Pansies at this live virtual gathering, and you can sign up now by heading to cultivatingplace.org/events. Even if you can’t attend, be sure to RSVP to receive the recording. You’re also welcome to send me questions you’d like me to ask Brenna during our chat: you can email your questions to ben@visitbotany.co


While we’re talking about save the dates, also add September 25 and 26

to your calendar. The CP team along with Botany & Co. are planning a

special two-day experience here in South Bend, and we’ll be sharing

more information soon about the Power of Gardeners symposium. Save

the date: September 25 & 26. More info and registration open by May 1st.


What strikes me in listening back to our conversation today, is how similar Brenna’s story of discovering Pansies is to my own – only, I have her book to thank for my amplified curiosity. She spent two and a half years doing the deep dive research and synthesis and community building – a true labor of love and legacy – to compose a celebration and guide to growing these plants that we often take for granted.


When Brenna said, “Why are pansies portrayed as something so different than what they can be?” That took my breath away. That moment of discovering something more, something surprising, something unexpected about plants we think we know – these are the moments I live for when it comes to gardening. It’s what draws me to collections like bearded iris, sanguisorba, heirloom chrysanthemums, and now, pansies. These moments challenge assumptions, make us ask questions, fuels curiosity and creativity, and shares seemingly endless joy. I urge you to remain open to these moments in your own life.


I’d love to tell you more about my own journey with pansies, only because part of cultivating place well, to me, includes understanding how the choices we made in the past influence our gardens of today and tomorrow.


I’m so grateful to Brenna for taking the time to share her love of Pansies

with all of us. They’ve been a revelation to me this year, in much the same way she described her own awakening when it comes to these underappreciated, misunderstood plants that are full of potential.


I LOVE following this groundswell of growers, like Brenna, who are

obsessed with the weird, wonderful, unique, and forgotten. Often they

are intrepid hobbyists turned preservationists, and their gardens become

a repository of natural and cultural commonwealth. They are stewarding,

preserving, sharing, and celebrating plants for gardeners today, and

tomorrow.


I encourage you to follow your own threads, remain open to where they

may take you, to get clear on your identity, and to align your intentions,

actions, effort, and movements with that identity. Powerful things can

happen as a result, whether you’re writing a book about Pansies or

preventing a particular plant from going extinct: each of us has a part to

play in preserving, protecting, and sharing the abundance of nature.


Happy gardening, plant lovers.



WAYS TO SUPPORT CULTIVATING PLACE

Cultivating Place is a co-production of North State Public Radio, licensed to Chico State Enterprises. Cultivating Place is made possible in part listeners just like you through the support button at the top right-hand corner of every page at Cultivating Place.org


The CP team includes producer and engineer Matt Fidler, with weekly tech and web support from Angel Huracha, weekly communications support by Sheila Stern and Carley Bruckner, and regular hosting by Founder, Jennifer Jewell, as well as Abra Lee in Atlanta, Georgia, and Ben Futa in South Bend, Indiana. We’re based on the traditional and present homelands of the Mechoopda Indian Tribe of the Chico Rancheria. Original theme music is by Ma Muse..


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