EcoTulips in Brightwood, VA, has become a supplier of certified organic flower bulbs in the United States, it announced in a March 23 news release. The import firm, owned by Jeroen and Keriann Koeman, has been granted organic certification from California Certified Organic Farmers, confirming that the company’s import, warehousing, and sales processes meet the standards of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program.

A new fumigation operation to streamline customs operations and expedite delivery of flowers, vegetables and other perishables has opened at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago under a license from the Chicago Department of Aviation.

The temperature-controlled facilitycan handle 16 pallets of flowers at a time. The final step in the opening was certification by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which came in mid-March.

High-tech greenhouse floriculture growers in Canada’s province of British Columbia will get $1.6 million from the provincial government in carbon tax relief, the Ministry of Agriculture announced April 3. It said the temporary tax refund to both vegetable and floral growers will allow them to maintain their competitive edge and build British Colubia’s half-billion-dollar-a-year greenhouse industry.

The water wars of the American West are old hat, but recent hikes in water rates are hurting flower growers in California. Another big flower-growing state, Florida, had water issues in 2011 when sinkholes developed after growers tapped wells to sprinkle crops to protect them from a killing freeze.

Summer can be dreadful for floral sales, but I do not dread the summer sales challenge. It actually always gets me thinking out of the box and keeps me on my toes. After looking through trendy garden magazines, hot nurseries and upscale florist shops, I have decided that this year we will push outdoor living.

The trade agreement between the United States and Colombia took a final step toward implementation April 15 at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, when President Obama and President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia each announced the nations’ separate agreement over labor rights in Colombia at a joint news conference.