George Staby said he hoped the Chain of Life Network website and related resources would be taken over by a consortium of three universities and a floral trade group in the next month. Final negotiations are under way now, he said in a recent interview.

“Hotel rooms are sold out, we’ve already got 225 registered with more than a month to go, the sign-ups for the grower tours are already near capacity, and we have more than 40 exhibitors lined up.” With those words by Monnaie Castillo on June 11, it sounds like the 2013 NORCAL Sun ‘N Fun Weekend is in full bloom.

About 250 exhibitors, using all available floor space, an expected crowd of 1,200 attendees, the 2013 Floral Achievement Award, a floral design contest and a keynote address by Joe Theismann, former star quarterback in the National Football League-these are on tap for the Southern California Expo in Anaheim, CA, July 16, the year’s biggest event for the Fresh Produce & Floral Council.

More glow-in-the-dark plants are on the way, and roses may be next. Among projects seeking funding on the Internet in June was a plant-engineering idea which uses synthetic biology to endow a small, leafy plant with green-blue light via genetic circuitry from fire-flies. Thale cress, or “mouse ear cress,” is a small flowering plant native to Europe, Asia and Africa.

The Glowing Plant project seeks to breed a variety of Thale cress which would emit weak, green-blue light. Funders would get seeds to plant the hardy weed wherever they wish.

Buyers from 27 countries, including the United States, attended the International Flower Trade Expo in Nairobi, Kenya, June 5-7. The organizers of this second annual show in Kenya, HPP Exhibitions, stated in a news release that in addition to the largest and most important buyers from Russia and Ukraine, buyers were also present from such far-flung nations as Australia, Germany and Holland.

“For people who want immigration reform, the U.S. Senate bill is the train. Get on it,” urged Craig Regelbruge, vice president for government relations at the American Nursery & Landscape Association and cochairman of the Agriculture Committee for Immigration Reform.

The bill contains a guest worker provision important to the floral industry.