Articles by Staff Reporter, Florint

Plant Names, Global Challenges” is the title of the conference that the Royal Dutch Bulb Growers Association (KAVB) announced just days ago. The title highlights the issues that the organization hopes to address there: the floral industry’s need for appropriate nomenclature and cultivar registration, as well as ways of developing and enforcing systematic rights registration and trademarks. …

Despite the down economy, California still leads the nation in exports like technology, fruit, and dairy. The state is also the country’s number one exporter of cut flowers. But don’t let that ranking fool you – today, almost 80 percent of the cut flowers sold in the US are imported. That has California flower growers struggling to compete. …

FTD will celebrate its 100-year anniversary on August 18, 2010. Founded in 1910 by 15 visionary florists who banded together in order to give customers the ability to send flowers nationwide, FTD has become one of the world’s best known brands, with the Mercury Man logo displayed in over 40,000 floral shops worldwide. …

Local flower producers have stepped up the branding of their produce, raising the stakes in their long running bid to wrestle control of the multi-million export industry from the financially muscled Dutch auctions. The branding drive seeks to leverage the unique qualities of Kenyas naturally nurtured flowers in the hope of creating direct linkages to new markets such as US, Russia, Japan and Middle East. …