Flower Power- we’ve had it all along!

The Tide has turned, and what a difference it makes when we lead with flowers! This global pandemic has provided many ups and downs — especially when it comes to the flower industry, but the good news firmly outweighs the bad.

Eugene Loudon Brunk Jr., a passionate floral industry leader and mentor for more than 45 years, died at his home on May 4 due to complications from COVID-19. Born in Detroit in 1955, Mr. Brunk began his floral career in sales at DWF Wholesale Florist in Flint, MI, where he spent nearly 15 years. In 1990, he went to work at Koehler & Dramm Wholesale Florist in Minneapolis, both as a salesman and a greens buyer, eventually becoming its general manager.

Mellano & Co., a Southern California farm and wholesale company, is filling the set of HBO's Full Bloom, an award-winning floral competition series, with beautiful florals and greens.

For the second year in a row, the American Floral Endowment’s annual fundraising event will be held virtually in order to assure the safety and health of the floral community. "While we know many are ready to travel this fall to in-person events, many still are not," AFE said in a statement. "Since our annual fundraising dinner also serves as a donor recognition event, we plan to have a large in-person celebration in 2022 to honor our industry champions over the past two years. As donors, you can continue to support the industry from home and spare any unnecessary travel."

Members of the floral industry gathered for the annual WFFSA Floral Distribution Conference in Miami. The three day expo was well attended and showcased some of the best floral shippers in the industry. Among the many highlights, executive president of Asocoflores Augusto Solano was presented with the LTK Distinguished Service Award and Gabriel Becerra of Golden Flowers was elected as president of WFFSA.

With wedding season just around the corner, Albertsons Cos. is offering customers an easy, affordable and environmentally friendly online option for purchasing fresh, hand-cut wedding flowers.

The pre-designed “do it yourself” debi lilly design floral collections complement any color palette and the easy-to-use online site allows customers to choose between several flower types and colors from various themed collections.