National Wreaths Across America Day set for Dec. 12
Over 40,000 volunteers will lay fresh evergreen remembrance wreaths on 230,000 headstones in all 82 sections at Arlington National Cemetery Dec. 12 during National Wreaths Across America Day. Wreaths Across America’s mission — Remember, Honor, Teach — has expanded to more than 1,000 cemeteries across the nation that will also place wreaths on veterans’ graves to emulate the Arlington program. Over 80 volunteer trucking companies and drivers help deliver the wreaths.
Three new poinsettias may help extend traditional season for the holiday plant
Three new poinsettia offerings developed by Ecke Ranch and available in 2015 may inspire new uses of poinsettias during the holidays and help extend the traditional poinsettia season.
Autumn Leaves is a warm-colored, peachy yellow and it resembles what its name implies. It has speckled bracts and is perfect for early fall sales.
Halloween spending by the numbers
According to the 2014 Halloween survey from the National Retail Federation, over 25 percent of consumers turn to supermarkets for Halloween-related purchases, totaling more than $1.8 billion in sales. And 162 million people in America are expected to celebrate Halloween this year, spending an average of $78 each, with costumes being the top spending category, followed closely by decorations, candy and greeting cards.
Sunkist's director of export marketing retires
After more than 30 years in the citrus industry and nearly 11 years at Sunkist, Dave Pott, Sunkist director of export sales, will retire at the end of this year. Pott’s position will be assumed by Ray Mizutani, who joined Sunkist in 2011 and has worked in the export department focusing on the Korean market.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month brings out the pink
For over 20 years October has been designated as Breast Cancer Awareness Month and as a call to action. The United States has the highest rate of breast cancer in the world and statistically, one out of eight women born in the U.S. today will suffer from breast cancer at some point in their lives.
Colombian grower converts waste flowerbed cuttings into flower shipping boxes
Flores Funza, a flower farm in Bogota, Colombia, and part of Riverdale Farms in Miami, takes environmental stewardship and social responsibility seriously. Seeing the 250-plus tons of organic waste that went into landfills every year from Funza’s farm alone, it approached cardboard and paper maker Smurfit Kappa with the idea to convert stem and flower clippings, plus other organic waste from the flowerbeds, into pulp to make the farm’s flower shipping boxes.
Controlling shrink, not sales, of your bouquets
In the world of supermarket retail, the mere mention of the word “shrink” causes store managers and department heads to break out in a sweat. The fact is, the sooner we accept shrink as a tool to measure success and a cost of doing business, the sooner we can increase sales, lower shrink exposure and rest easy.
The best way to sell more is to educate consumers
One of the biggest things that separates the floral industry from many other industries is the lack of serious education, for both our floral personnel and our consumers.
California consumer bunches deliver plenty of ‘wow’ moments
“Whoa — are those real? Those colors are unbelievable — let’s buy ‘em.” California consumer bunches — especially sunflowers — create “wow” moments like this in grocery store floral departments around the country every day. Clients tell us that floral customers are always attracted to and crave the new and the different.