The Society of American Florists is now curating educational training, created by the industry's trainers, teachers, and floral pros, in one central location — its Career Connection learning hub. The first five courses dive into fundamental topics that have a bottom-line impact on shop operations, including setting new hires up for success, reducing shrink, getting new hires on the design bench faster and cross-training current employees.

“I managed a flower shop for more than 20 years and I was always hungry for educational content that would enhance my skills and improve shop operations,”

Westerlay Orchids of Carpinteria, CA, is taking action to reduce its carbon footprint by positively impacting the climate and the community. While its principal focus is on growing and distributing 4 million vibrant phalaenopsis orchids per year throughout the western United States, as part of its long-term vision, the company is focused on sustainability through continuous reduction of its carbon footprint.

“We are starting to feel like we have a lot of momentum as a company and are really making a lot of progress,” said Westerlay President Toine Overgaag. Solar panels, energy curtains, and

Flower Power- we’ve had it all along!

The Tide has turned, and what a difference it makes when we lead with flowers! This global pandemic has provided many ups and downs — especially when it comes to the flower industry, but the good news firmly outweighs the bad.

Good News: People are buying flowers like never before! It’s a fact and it’s welcome. For years — as flower professionals — we have wished for flower consumption like our friends in Europe where people feel the need, want and desire to have flowers in their homes all the time!

People quickly recognized that in times of

Eugene Loudon Brunk Jr., a passionate floral industry leader and mentor for more than 45 years, died at his home on May 4 due to complications from COVID-19. Born in Detroit in 1955, Mr. Brunk began his floral career in sales at DWF Wholesale Florist in Flint, MI, where he spent nearly 15 years. In 1990, he went to work at Koehler & Dramm Wholesale Florist in Minneapolis, both as a salesman and a greens buyer, eventually becoming its general manager.

“Eugene has been a steadfast and reliable fixture at Koehler for over 30 years, and he will be greatly missed by all who had the honor and the

Mellano & Co., a Southern California farm and wholesale company, is filling the set of HBO's Full Bloom, an award-winning floral competition series, with beautiful florals and greens.

Launched on Thursday, June 10 and running through July 1 on HBO Max, the floral design competition show features 10 talented florists from across the nation for its second season. Each challenge will feature floral and greens sourced either from the Mellano farms or through its wholesale department, bringing in products worldwide.

Viewers of the show will see sweeping views of beautiful flowers and greens

For the second year in a row, the American Floral Endowment’s annual fundraising event will be held virtually in order to assure the safety and health of the floral community. "While we know many are ready to travel this fall to in-person events, many still are not," AFE said in a statement. "Since our annual fundraising dinner also serves as a donor recognition event, we plan to have a large in-person celebration in 2022 to honor our industry champions over the past two years. As donors, you can continue to support the industry from home and spare any unnecessary travel."
 
In honor of AFE's