Specialty cut-flower growers, many of whom sell their products at farmers markets around the country, are taking the “buy local” movement seriously. The group is holding its national conference and trade show Nov. 12-14 in Tacoma, WA.

Debra Prinzing, author of The 50-Mile Bouquet, shown here at an event in California earlier this year.Linda Twining, managing director at the association’s offices in Oberlin, OH, told The Produce News in a Sept. 19 interview that about 200 members from across the country are expected to attend. The group was formed in 1988 by field and greenhouse cut-flower growers. It has more than 600 members across the United States, in Canada, the Netherlands and Northern Ireland, she said.

A special celebration at the November national conference will mark the publication of The 50 Mile Bouquet, which features many ASCFG members and friends. Author Debra Prinzing and photographer David Perry will share the story of their book’s creation (it was published April 1 of this year) and discuss the rise of the local flower movement.

A related daylong visit to Seattle will explore another dimension of the buy local movement with a tour of the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, made up of 19 flower farms from Washington, Oregon and Alaska and born of a brainstorm at the ASCFG 2010 Regional Meeting, according to Ms. Twining.

She said the co-op is the first wholesale flower growers market to open in the United States in seven decades. It sells local crops three days a week to professional floral buyers. Fall products include decorative kale, bittersweet, Peterkort roses and curly willow.

The theme of the show is Learning to Grow Together. Other sessions will cover Alaska’s peony industry, grant programs, funding for marketing, marketing locally, sustainably grown products, certification, pest management, high-tunnel growing and post-harvest handling. Among the speakers on the locally grown topic will be Kasey Cronquist, executive director of the California Cut Flower Commission.

As always, the show will offer its popular Growers School and ASCFG Trials Report, and will investigate exciting new varieties of cut flowers. A workshop will focus on producing and designing with succulents.