Flower News: Octobers’s Articles and Blogs of Interest from Around the World

October Tree of the Month: Fire-Wheel Tree

“Fire-wheel Tree” may seem like a strange name for a tree, until you see its fiery-red, circular-shaped, flower clusters (called umbels), which look like flaming bicycle wheels!

3-inch long flowers are the “spokes” of each wheel (6 to 20 flowers per umbel); these radiate out from the umbel’s central “hub” and bear at their ends (at the “rim”) globular yellow tips where the floral organs are located. The flowering time is usually in autumn but can occur sporadically at other times of the year. The nectar is wonderfully sweet - attracting hungry moths for pollination.

Read more here.
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Cal Poly students begin harvesting flowers
to decorate school’s 2019 Rose Parade float

Construction on the Cal Poly Rose Parade float is well underway. But this past week, work got started on another — perhaps more subtle — aspect of the float: harvesting the flowers that will decorate this year’s entry.

Students grow and harvest a portion of the plants from the on-campus Rose Float flower fields. These include marigolds, strawflower and statice, which will be used as colorful decorations.

Read more here.
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7 Must-Try Floral Techniques to add Beauty
with Branches

Autumn is awesome with possibilities for adding seasonal materials to your floral arrangements.

But there’s more to creating captivating fall flower designs than just incorporating the colors and textures of the season.

Adding a linear element like branches allows you to expand the space of a floral composition. You’re adding dimension while creating a visual connection to the outdoors.

Here are seven techniques (plus a twig-tree project from Smithers-Oasis Floral Design Director Kevin Ylvisaker AIFD, PFCI you can try) that will enable you to turn twigs and branches into seasonal beauty your customers will want to bring indoors.

Read more here.
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Rose Parade efforts in full swing

Plans for the first two Certified CA Grown entries at the 2019 Tournament of Roses Parade are already underway, and the ramp up to the New Year’s Day tradition has begun.

The entries from Cal Poly Universities and FTD Companies Inc. – the first to announce so far – will both feature CA Grown flowers and foliage. Additional CA Grown entries will be announced in coming weeks, including a number of equine entries.

Read more here.

Kicking off 2017 California Grown

A crisp and cool New Year’s Day set the perfect scene for kicking off 2017 in Pasadena and acknowledging the Rose Parade float teams who made it a priority to feature California Grown Flowers. These special certifications recognize those teams who worked to ensure that over 85 percent of the flowers on their floats were sourced from California. Being able to present each team with a Pennant is one of the perks of being chair of the California Cut Flower Commission (CCFC), and I say perk because I can’t imagine a more wonderful honor than to be at these ceremonies representing over 250 flower farms from throughout the state.

This year's festivities were the best-ever thanks to Cal Poly Universities, Miracle-Gro, the California Milk Advisory Board (our dairy farmers) and FTD for their continued commitment to California Grown Flowers.

Cal Poly Universities’ float, A New Leaf, took home the “Founders Trophy” for most beautiful float decorated by volunteers of a community organization (1500 volunteers total). There were over 60,000 stems of CA Grown flowers used on the float covering over 2,255 sq. ft. This was Cal Poly’s sixth year Certified.

Miracle-Gro’s float, Everything is Coming Up Roses, won the coveted “Queens Trophy” for best use of roses. Miracle-Gro sourced over 32,000 roses this year, celebrating the California Grown rose as part of their design. This was Miracle-Gro's second year certified.

The California Milk Advisory Board’s float, Legacy of Generations, represented more than 1,300 dairy farm families, 1.7 million California dairy cows and 200+ years of rich heritage that make California the No. 1 dairy state. Making this a fabulous partnership, since flowers and cheese top my list of favorite things. This was the CMAB’s second year certified.

FTD’s most visible contributions to the Rose Parade were the beautiful floral décor on the 11 antique cars and carriages that transported parade VIPs down the historic parade route. Keith White AIFD and his team worked tirelessly to adorn the 11 VIP vehicles with 10,000 California grown flowers. This was FTD’s 3rd year certified.

Congratulations to all the teams on another successful and beautiful start to the year!

Inspirational Floral News:

Amazing It Was The Best Year Ever
For CA Grown Certified Rose Parade Floats

I can remember vividly the conversation with flower farmer and CCFC Commissioner June VanWingerden over seven years ago about how the Commission needed to make an effort to be a part of the Rose Parade again. She felt that the Rose Parade was a natural place for us to raise the profile of our farms during the biggest one day floral focused event in the country, that just so happened to be in our own backyard.

So, with promotion committee’s blessing, we went to work.

Read the rest of this article at Field Position.

Floral News: Inspirational Stories of the Week

US: Rose Parade to promote Californian grown cut flowers

This year's Rose Parade will feature three CA Grown floats, which are being sponsored by Cal Poly, California Milk Advisory Board, FTD and Miracle Gro. The 127th Rose Parade presented by Honda and themed “Find Your Adventure,” will take place Friday, January 1, 2016, followed by the 102nd Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual. Read the rest of this article at floral daily