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.
_____________________________________________________________

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.
_____________________________________________________________

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.
_____________________________________________________________

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.

Kick off to Parade Season: Everything is Coming up Roses

There was no better way for us to help celebrate Miracle-Gro’s kick off to the 2017 Parade Season than by creating some beautiful centerpieces for guests to enjoy during Muir Ranch’s field-to-vase luncheon. Mel whipped up his own special recipe of roses, protea, leucospermum, leucadendron, grevillea and a sprig of serruria, and off to Pasadena we went.

The day greeted guests with blue skies and warm temperatures, making for a perfect afternoon to help to expand the farm's footprint. Throughout the morning volunteers kicked off parade season by helping students install 100 California grown rose bushes that will become part or Muir Ranch's new rose garden.

This is the third year Miracle-Gro has supported the program through their Tournament of Roses Partnership. Miracle-Gro representatives and Ty Pennington, Miracle-Gro’s spokesperson, were on-hand to help plant the rose bushes and reinforce their commitment to the community. As an added surprise, during the luncheon attendees were the first to see Miracle-Gro's 2017 Rose Parade float design.

'Everything's Coming Up Roses' is Miracle-Gro's Rose Parade salute to America's National flower and the most popular grown flower in backyard gardens. From tiny miniature roses to large vibrant blossoms, over 25,000 California grown roses will be featured throughout this beautiful float.

This year's parade theme: 'Echoes of Success' celebrates those people, organizations and institutions that have made an impact on someone's life. Miracle-Gro’s 2017 float will honor the very flower for which the Parade is named!

Special thanks go out to Harry Van Wingerden from Myriad Flowers International for providing the roses for the centerpieces and the bushes for the school’s new rose garden.

Rose Parade 2016: Behind the Scenes with the Miracle-Groers

While I’m usually content curling up on the couch to watch the Rose Parade on New Year’s morning, this year Miracle-Gro and their Miracle-Groers made the holiday an adventure! If you’re big on floats, flowers, farmers and gardeners, follow me to Pasadena, where the float Life Starts Here was unveiled. With a recipe calling for California grown flowers and foliage (plus 2 well-placed license plates), Miracle-Gro showcased California's awesome blossoms and "nature's pollinators" that keep the beauty of magnificent crops so abundant throughout the state. The float's sensational display of flowers represented all farming regions of California. I invite you not only to take another peek at this amazing float, but to glimpse behind the scenes as the Miracle-Groers prepared for their ride down Colorado Blvd.

Dubbed the "Miracle-Groers": school garden director, Mud Baron; flower farmer, Harry Van Wingerden; writer, Bonnie Jo Manion; blogger, Susan Phillips; TV host, Ty Pennington and our very own, Mel Resendiz arrived with flowers for the float.

A Welcoming Reception - Mel, Mud and Ty.

The Press Event: Float Decorating at Fiesta Float Barn. During this event, media was there to capture the Miracle-Groers arriving to the float barn with their flowers and then applying their own flowers to the Miracle-Gro parade float.

KTLA Live - Bring them on!

Not only a farmer – An artist as well!

Float Judging Day and CCFC Certification Ceremony

California Secretary of Food and Agriculture, Karen Ross, certifying the Miracle-Gro float "California Grown."

Ready for the ride of a Lifetime!

Miracle-Gro was awarded the prestigious "Governor's Trophy" for "Best Depiction of Life in California"

Click here to see the float being built.

That is how you build a parade float! With a full-on salute to California Grown flowers and nature's pollinators, the 2016 Miracle-Gro float was a real show-stopping stunner.

Kick off to the Rose Parade

There really was no better way to celebrate Miracle-Gro’s kick off to this year’s Tournament of Roses Festivities than enjoying a beautiful field-to-vase luncheon, while giving back to the Pasadena community.

At John Muir Ranch High School, the day greeted guests with blue skies and warm temperatures, making for a perfect afternoon to help support the Pasadena School Garden Program. This is the second year Miracle-Gro has supported the program through their Tournament of Roses Partnership. Miracle-Gro representatives and Ty Pennington, Miracle-Gro’s spokesperson, were on-hand to help work with the volunteers in the garden and reinforce their commitment to the community. This event was also a volunteer opportunity for members of the community to install a new pollinator garden (that includes Proteaceae and Australian wildflowers) at Muir Ranch and help distribute 100 Thanksgiving dinners.

Miracle-Gro is also the Official Rose and Flower Care Company of the Tournament of Roses for the fourth year in a row and this year their float with be certified as “California Grown”. This means more than 85% of the flowers and plants on the float will be grown here in California. We’re honored to have been chosen to contribute Protea to this year’s float. Miracle-Gro is the very first brand to invite flower farmers and customers to supply flowers for their float. In addition along with Ty Pennington and four other “Miracle-Groers”, Mel has been chosen as one of the California farmers to ride the float on New Year’s Day.

Looking forward to celebrating all things California Grown on New Year’s Day!