Fun 'N Sun 2017 - A Celebration

 

This year’s Fun ‘N Sun event was held in Carlsbad, CA (San Diego County) at the Park Hyatt Aviara Resort, a five-diamond property.  Everything about our time in San Diego was first rate, including the weather!

Fun ‘N Sun is an every-other-year event and truly unique among the U.S. floral conventions and conferences.  In addition to a great locale and abundance of old friends and new friends, this event has a flower fair with the largest display of California floral products found anywhere, farm tours, and educational programming.  This year Fun ‘N Sun featured a history of California’s floral industry from its beginning in the 1870s to the present and delivered its report of the impact of legalized cannabis on the California floral industry.

Farm Tours

This year’s tours were hosted by Dramm & Echter Inc., Mellano & Company, and Kendall Farms.  Each tour was so interesting and informative it’s hard to give each their due here.  On sum visitors experienced three flower farms deploying innovative techniques across the range of operations from a GPS system to optimize planting (Mellano & Co.), water conservation at all three and to the point where one farm is completely water-self sufficient (Kendall Farms – they are completely energy self-sufficient too).  In the case of Dramm & Echter, they've instituted some post harvesting practices that have improved working conditions and increased productivity. 

California flower farming has to be innovative to remain competitive and we saw excellent examples of some of the techniques employed across the state to supply the market with more than 600 varieties of commercial cut flowers.

Education Sessions

California Floral Industry History

This year CalFlowers departed from tradition and did not give a Distinguished Service Award to an individual from the industry.  This year they wanted to celebrate the organization’s 75th anniversary by recognizing all who have contributed to the industry’s success.  This took the form of a series of display boards featuring the California floral industry history from its spontaneous beginnings in Northern and Southern California in the 1870s to the present.  Milestones of “firsts” were displayed across three distinct eras:  1870s – 1941; 1942 – 1993; and 1994 to the present.  Many long-time industry participants commented that they learned things reviewing the display boards.  Perhaps the most interesting take-away is “recent history.”  One half of California flower grower members of CalFlowers started their operations since 1994.  Could there be a stronger sign that the California cut flower industry is strong and robust than to have attracted so many new flower farm operations beginning the year after imports began to dominate U.S. market share?  Read the entire history display beginning here...

Fun 'N Sun 2017 Photo Gallery

Below are some staff favorites...

 
What a great way to kick off a floral convention -- a round of golf on a beautiful course!

More than 50 members and guests played at the Aviara golf course on Wednesday, August 9th


Caroline Viger Uu of FedEx teeing off, with Pat Dahlson, Mayesh CEO and CalFlowers board member in the gallery...

 



Our designers did a wonderful job arranging stunning designs for all events throughout the 2017 convention.  Above is the "All California Floral Display".  
Click Here to meet the designers.


Our guests enjoyed dining under the perfect California summer evening skies - above is Wednesday's dinner.

 



Thursday evening's dinner was a Black & White theme to celebrate
CalFlowers' 75th Anniversary and the floral industry in California since its inception in the late 1870's.  Display boards dotted the center courtyard providing a chronicle of the floral industry in California.
Read the floral history here...



This year's Flower Fair was once again a popular event at the Fun 'N Sun Convention and this year exhibitors reported very successful engagements with attendees and were very pleased with their results.

 
 

Fun 'N Sun Sponsors:

  • Accent Décor, Inc.
  • Armelini Logistics
  • California Flower Shippers, Inc.
  • California Pajarosa Floral
  • California State Floral Association
  • CallaCo
  • CalMex Wholesale Growers & Shippers,
    Inc.
  • CamFlor Inc.
  • Central California Flower Growers Inc.
  • Continental Floral Greens
  • Dramm & Echter, Inc.
  • DVFlora
  • Eufloria Flowers
  • Ever-Bloom Inc.
  • FedEx
  • Fiorebella Inc.
  • Florabundance Inc.
  • Floral Computer Systems
  • Floral Trade Distributors, LLC
  • Floral Supply Syndicate
  • Francis Biddle International
  • Glad-A-Way Gardens Inc.
  • Golden State Overnight (GSO)
  • Green Valley Floral
  • Hilltop Flowers Inc.
  • Holland America Flowers LLC
  • J. Fisher Farms
  • Joseph & Sons, Inc.
  • Kendall Farms
  • Kim's Flower Network Inc.
  • Kitayama Brothers Inc.
  • K's Refrigerated Transport
  • KT Orchids and Tropicals Wholesale
  • Maximum Nursery Inc.
  • Mayesh Wholesale Florist, Inc.
  • Mellano & Company
  • Myriad Flowers International Inc.
  • Nature's Finest Floral Distributor
  • Oasis Floral and Floralife, a division of Smithers-Oasis Company
  • Ocean Breeze International
  • Ocean View Flowers
  • OnTrac
  • Pagter Innovations
  • Paseo Flowers Inc.
  • Priority 1 Floral International, Inc.
  • Pyramid Flowers Inc.
  • Rainbow Protea
  • Regional Farms Inc.
  • Resend Brothers Protea Growers LLC
  • San Francisco Flower Mart, LLC
  • San Martin Roses
  • Skyline Flower Growers & Shippers
  • Smithers-Oasis
  • South Pacific Orchid Inc.
  • The Sun Valley Group
  • Twins Flower Growers & Shippers
  • Valley Flowers Inc.
  • WAFEX USA, LLC
  • World Floral Exposition