The next opportunity to tour through a local flower farm is just around the corner! I encourage all of those who are interested in an exclusive opportunity to see exactly where America’s best source of flowers come from, to attend this year’s Monterey Bay Greenhouse Growers Open House.
Visit their freshly designed website for more details!
Visit www.montereybayfarmtours.org!
Approximately 1200 attendees enjoyed the beautiful bounty they found at the 4th Annual Carpinteria Greenhouse & Nursery Tour.
This week we announced that an estimated 1200 guests toured through Carpinteria’s cut flower farms during the 4th Annual Carpinteria Greenhouse & Nursery Tour.
The annual tour welcomes the community to come see what’s growing inside these local greenhouses and learn about the sustainable growing practices employed by our flower
The local community took time to "stop and smell the roses" at this year's Carpinteria Greenhouse and Nursery Tour
farms. With a purposeful outreach effort and beautiful weather on Saturday, this year’s attendance over doubled the previous year’s attendance, helping to further educate people on why California’s Flowers are America’s Flowers! Of the 468 surveys we collected 100% told us that they would be ASKING for CA Grown Flowers the next time they are buying flowers.
Missed the Carpinteria Flower Farm Tour? Join us in Monterey! See related blog post: June 16th! Monterey Bay Greenhouse Growers Open House
April Issue of SAF's Floral Management
Did you get your April issue of Floral Management?
Check out CCFC’s Chairman Lane DeVries’ Viewpoint article.
CCFC’s Chairman Lane DeVries of Sun Valley Floral Farms took an opportunity in this month’s Floral Management magazine to address the specific issues and concerns regarding the effect federal trade policies have had on the flower farmers of California. Titled, “America’s Flowers: Worth Fighting For,” Chairman DeVries’ highlights that California’s flower farmers’ issues and concerns have little to nothing to do with begrudging the success of Colombian flower growers, but rather a frustration with U.S. Government’s trade policies.
“California flower farmers, by and large, don’t begrudge the success of Colombian flower growers. As a matter of fact, many good friends in the flower business are growers in Colombia and other South American countries.”
Chairman DeVries’ article was, in part, a response to February’s Viewpoint article written by SAF’s Chairman Leo Roozen titled, “Colombia: Don’t Begrudge Their Success.” Roozen’s February Viewpoint was inspired by his recent experience visiting Colombia’s growing operations. Chairman DeVries highlights that it is the specific U.S. trade policy concerns that have left domestic (not just California) farmers at a disadvantage, rather than frustrations with Colombia’s success and growth in the U.S. market.
Additionally, “Letters to the Editor,” from California flower farmers responding to Roozen’s Viewpoint, were sent in from David Clark of Kendall Farms and Rene VanWingerden of Ocean Breeze Floral Farms who also shared their thoughts on the fairness of the “playing field.” (pg.8).
Lane ends his Viewpoint article highlighting his hope and vision for the future ahead for California’s flower farms, saying:
“I can see a future where consumers request local flowers from local florists, and that’s a future worth fighting for.”
With the release of her new book, “The 50 Mile Bouquet,” Debra Prinzing takes her “local flowers” message to the New York Times.
The Q&A with Michael Tortorello is a must read.
I will be writing more about this piece, so stay tuned! In the meantime, grab a coffee, the NY Times and don’t forget to pick up the book and read for yourself.
The newly designed cover for the 2012 California Flower Farm Guide
I think a few years ago I was asking the same question. We had just recently completed a beautiful redesign of the CCFC’s website and I was extremely pleased with what functionality and opportunity there was for customers, florists, wholesalers, retailers and consumers could find about California’s flower farmers.
It wasn’t too much longer into the job that I realized something important to know about the floral industry; Print is not Dead.
Nope. I can recall a conversation with a florist asking when we were going to put out another flower guide because it really helped her with design ideas when ordering. I remember another florist telling me that she still has one of the Commission’s past print pieces on her desk as reference.
So, when in 2010 the promotion committee started discussing how to drive cost-efficient marketing opportunities for our flower farms, the California Flower Farm Guide was born.
Focus your dollars on a publication that lasts all year long!
There are no secrets here, this is an age old co-op strategy by which farms that compete work together to get more exposure than they would alone. Case in point, the cost to sponsor a full page in the 2012 Farm Guide is approximately the same price as a full page ad in any of the monthly floral magazine’s in our industry.
What made this publication different is that we focused on our farmers and not just their flowers. Flower farmers are not known for wanting to draw attention to themselves. That’s generally a rule for most farmers I’ve ever met. They like to farm, not PR and marketing. However, we have had to work hard to explain to them that people not only care about the quality of the flowers they grow, but they want to know their farmer! So, you’ll noticed that we’ve made a deliberate effort in this publication to make it a Farm Guide, focused on the family farms producing these flowers, as much as we want people to see and appreciate what they are growing.
Bottom-line, the response to the first edition of the Farm Guide in 2011 was a hit. Florists, Designers, Universities, Wholesalers, Mass Market retailers – they all called for more copies. We saw great distribution and received reports of new business coming to our farms. Great, great results.
So, yesterday I put together a short video that highlights the benefits I see from this Commission publication, which are:
CCFCNews (CACutFlowerCommish) : REMINDER: Dinner with Debra #caflowers #cagrown http://t.co/Sh4TH0ut - Posted @ 14 May 2012, 12:01 pm
