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.

For the first time ever, California's Fresno County grape production surpassed $1.1 billion — the first billion-dollar crop in the county's history. Overall, agricultural production in Fresno County totaled more than $6.58 billion, showing a 3.9 percent decrease from 2011's $6.89 billion, according to the Fresno County Department of Agriculture 2012 Agricultural Crop & Livestock Report.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel presented an agreement with Chicago Perishable Center Inc. to the Chicago City Council on June 5 for the development of a perishables cargo center at O’Hare International Airport. The lease was too be reviewed by a council committee in a meeting June 24 and, if approved, go to the full council for ratification.