Flower News: December’s Stories of Interest from Around the World

Mel Resendiz: A Protea Evangelist

The Resendiz Brothers Protea Growers supply the fresh blossoms sold at the “Festival of Trees” at the San Diego Floral Association’s December Nights celebration, in Room 101 of the Casa del Prado. Ismael “Mel” Resendiz began his career in agriculture as a young man picking cotton and harvesting sugar cane in the hot, dirt of Sinaloa, Mexico. He and his brothers, Profirio, Raul and Ramon farmed in various regions of Mexico until Mel stumbled upon an opportunity to work temporarily at Zorro Protea Farm in Vista in March 1978. The farm was growing protea from seed on 40 acres in the hills east of Rancho Santa Fe.

Read more here.
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Petals on Parade

Floral growers have a national stage to show off their best blooms.

June and her husband, Rene now own Ocean Breeze Farms in Carpinteria on California’s central coast. They grow gerbera daisies in greenhouses on 27 acres, and field-grown mums, avocados and cucumber on a few more. About an hour away, their son grows for Ocean Breeze on another 12 acres in Nipomo.

Read more here.
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North County farm grows exotic proteas

To get to the very top parcels of land in Rainbow owned by Ismael “Mel” Resendiz, you have to drive up a long, narrow road, much of it paved, some — oy — not, with more hairpin curves than the Grand Corniche above Monte Carlo. If Resendiz, who owns Resendiz Brothers Protea Growers and makes this drive up and down the mountain multiple times in the course of a day, is taking you up in his pickup truck, you’ll do it at a brisk speed that will swipe your breath away. Unconsciously, you’ll be clenching the seat and armrest while averting your eyes from the steep drop just below your window.

Read more here.
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Waratah: 4 things you didn’t know
about the iconic flower

THE WARATAH is one of Australia’s most iconic flowers, and while it comes in many different forms, Telopea speciosissima, more commonly known as the New South Wales waratah, is the most well-recognisable. With its bulbous, crimson flower head, green, razored leaves and long stem, it’s possible the waratah has adorned more Australian paraphernalia than any other flower: from stamps, all the way through to tea towels and belts.

Read more here.

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

From flowers to festivals — Judges picked to evaluate
2019 Rose Parade floats have unique backgrounds

The trio that will decide which floats are best in this year’s Rose Parade consists of a celebrity wedding planner, the Kentucky Derby Festival CEO and a florist who used to design floats herself.

The Tournament of Roses each year selects several people to judge the 45-or-so floats based on criteria including design, floral craftsmanship, animation, thematic interpretation and color presentation. This year’s theme is “The Melody of Life.”

Read more here.
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US: California Grown Flowers Shine at State Fair

For 17 days this summer, California Grown Flowers were center stage at the California State Floral Association’s (CSFA) booth at the California State Fair. This year’s theme was “Back to the Floral Future

The fair’s run was kicked off at the California State Fair Gala on June 21 that featured flowers and foliage donated by California Pajarosa, Dramm & Echter, Glad-A-Way, Holland America Flowers, Joseph & Sons, Mellano & Company, Myriad Flowers International, Resendiz Brothers Protea Growers and Sun Valley Floral Farms.

Read more here.
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Cal Poly Universities’ Rose Parade entry
will be ‘out of this world’

Cal Poly Rose Float announced the 2019 Cal Poly Universities entry in the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade will feature a pair of astronauts and a handful of aliens on another planet communicating through music.

The premise is that astronauts landing on a distant planet are unable to communicate with its inhabitants through language, so they use musical instruments to share a message of goodwill.

Read more here.
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Cal Poly Float Certified CA Grown

Before the Cal Poly Universities’ float made its debut down Colorado Boulevard, California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross, in partnership with the Buy California Marketing Agreement (BCMA), recognized the students and advisors in a special ceremony for sourcing exclusively California grown flowers and foliage. To earn this special certification, a float must be decorated with more than 85 percent of its flowers and greens from California, and ‘kudos’ to this year’s Cal Poly Float for being nearly 97 percent. This is the seventh year that the university has received this certification.

Named “Dreams Take Flight,” the float was designed to inspire the audience to join the young animals’ journey to take flight, in much the same way that Cal Poly students journey through college. The diversity of the animals represents the diversity of the Cal Poly Rose Float team. The team consists of students from both Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly, Pomona who travel over 200 miles to come together to design, build, and decorate a float.

This year not only was the Cal Poly Float Certified CA Grown, it was recognized with the Past President’s award for their innovative use of the floral – Congratulations Cal Poly Universities!

Farm Tour: Cal Poly Rose Parade Float Team

The 129th Rose Parade is over four months away and the Cal Poly Float Team is out touring farms and meeting the farmers “Making a Difference” – the 2018 parade’s theme. A theme chosen to honor and celebrate all of the people in our communities, who quietly and without desire for reward or recognition, act in selfless, generous and kind ways to aid or benefit others.

This year Cal Poly is once again committed to source at least 85 percent of their float décor from California flower farms and be recognized as "California-Grown Certified". During the last few years this project and the 'Learning by Doing' has expand beyond the campuses. Students and administrators tour farms that donate the fresh cut flowers and greens in order to see where and how they are grown.

Float construction work has already begun on both campuses. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo students are expected to move their half of the float to Cal Poly Pomona in mid-to-late October. Construction typically continues until right before Christmas. Students and volunteers then spend the week between Christmas and New Year decorating the float with flowers and foliage.

A big ‘Thank You’ to this year’s Cal Poly Float Team for visiting us this week. We enjoyed getting to know these enthusiastic designers and sharing a little of our 'Flower World' with them. Looking forward to seeing another beautiful "California-Grown Certified" float on New Year’s Day!

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!

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.

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.

2016 Farm-to-Float Campaign

With a full-on salute to California Grown (#CAGROWN) flowers and nature's pollinators, the 2016 Miracle-Gro® Tournament of Roses Parade float is already being called a show-stopping stunner.

Life Starts Here 

For about as long as there's been a Rose Parade providing California-style relief to the winter-weary, there's been Miracle-Gro®, helping gardeners everywhere grow beautiful backyard blooms. This year is no exception. 

Miracle-Gro, now in its fourth year as The Official Rose and Flower Care Company of the Rose Parade, anticipates that its 2016 Rose Parade float, Life Starts Here, will inspire people everywhere to dig in and discover their own piece of the earth - a goal befitting the 2016 Parade theme, Find Your Adventure. 

Certified CA GROWN

Life Starts HereAnd because almost nothing is more inspiring to gardeners and flower lovers everywhere than stunning, sustainable flowers, Miracle-Gro's 2016 Rose Parade float is an all-out salute to California's high-quality flowers and the Golden State farmers who grow them. Read the rest of this article at RoseParada.Miracle-Gro.