The biggest floral day of all, Mother’s Day, awaits, and summer trade shows abound. The floral industry breathes a sigh of relief following the frenzy of Mother’s Day, and thoughts turn to trade shows.

The IFE show in June is one of the larger supermarket floral shows of the year. It is followed by a pair of California events — the Southern California Expo of the Fresh Produce & Floral Council in Anaheim and, hard on its heels, the biennial NORCAL Sun ‘N Fun Weekend. Be there or be square, as they used to say.

The Jackson family stands tall on the North Carolina landscape as one of the state’s premiere grower-packer-shippers of quality fruits and vegetables. The Jackson Farming Co. is located in Fayetteville, NC, and was founded by Brent and Debbie Jackson. Their sons are actively involved in the business today, and they look forward to the day when the third generation of Jacksons will take their places in the family business.

Known best for its bell peppers, Prime Time International in Coachella, CA, also grows, packs and ships other produce commodities, and one of those is watermelons, which the company has been doing for 20 years, according to Mike Aiton, marketing manager for Prime Time Sales LLC, the exclusive marketing agent for Prime Time International.

“We are a seasonal watermelon player. We only have watermelon in the Coachella Valley here in the spring,” Mr. Aiton said. “We grow primarily seedless, but we do have seeded watermelon as well.”

Santa Maria, CA-based grower/shipper Babé Farms, a leader in specialty vegetables and gourmet salad blends for more than 25 years, is settling into adulthood with a new 75,000-square-foot processing and shipping facility that should keep it young at heart for years to come.

Founded in 1986 to grow, pack and ship gourmet baby veggies with plate appeal, Babé has stayed the course by currently offering a stunning array of specialty produce items, both leafy and root vegetables, that have maintained its gourmet cachet for professional and amateur chefs.

Growers and shippers of California tree fruit agreed that weather to date has been just about ideal for the 2013 crop -- in contrast to some recent years when freezing temperatures, hailstorms and other weather disruptions have caused problems.

The Georgia Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association is sponsoring a web seminar to help cantaloupe growers prepare for inspections from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration in the wake of new safety regulations that came about following deadly foodborne illness outbreaks traced to cantaloupe in 2011 and 2012.

The webinar will show growers and shippers how to prepare for and what to expect during an FDA visit.