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Memorial Day Flowers 2018
CalFlowers will once again sponsor this important event that pays tribute to America's veterans who have sacrificed so much, along with the sacrifices their families have made over many generations.
Along with TD Bank and Asocolflores, CalFlowers is a Platinum Sponsor at Arlington National Cemetery. At the Welcome Center, 25,000 visitors will receive a Californian focal flower to place at the gravesite of a loved one. Holland America Flowers is also donating 700 bouquets for the T.A.P.S. children.
CalFlowers is the event organizer at Miramar and San Francisco National Cemeteries. At SFNC, Mt. Eden is supplying logistic support, and Recology has sponsored the placement of 26,404 flowers - every headstone at SFNC! Recology has invited employees from LinkedIn and Facebook to help place flowers and welcomes all those wishing to pay tribute on Memorial Day.
At Miramar, Boy Scouts of America, San Diego Imperial Council, will make sure all 12,000+ headstones will be honored with flowers.
CalFlowers' sponsorship will also support the following cemeteries, providing a total of 14,000 focal flowers:
- Alabama National Cemetery
- Oregon Trail Veterans Cemetery (Wyoming)
- Ft. Logan National Cemetery (Colorado)
- Ft. Snelling National Cemetery (Minnesota)
- Houston National Cemetery
- Sacramento Valley National Cemetery
- Greenwood Cemetery (Florida)
- National Memorial Cemetery (Arizona)
CalFlowers Welcomes New Marketing Director
We’d like to welcome Deborah Erickson to our CalFlowers team. Deborah (Deb) joined us April 2 and will serve as Marketing Director, responsible for the overall marketing and communications strategy and initiatives for the association and its membership.
She is a seasoned marketing leader in both corporate and non-profit organizations, bringing more than 25 years of non-profit experience that includes strategic marketing planning, branding, website development and maintenance, social media and media relations. She holds a BA from the University of Minnesota School of Journalism. Although she resides in St. Paul, Minnesota, she has close ties to family who live in Sonoma valley and has visited often. As an avid gardener, Deb is excited to continue to learn more from association members.
If you would like to personally welcome Deb to the CalFlowers team you can reach her via email - [email protected].
Congressional Action Days
While many CalFlowers members have been active over the years in Congressional Action Days (CAD) through their affiliations with other floral industry associations, like SAF, last month's Congressional Action Days in Washington, D.C. was the first such event CalFlowers co-sponsored and sent representatives to support SAF's 35-year commitment to keeping our Congressional delegates informed about floral industry priorities.
 CalFlowers' board leadership, represented by Mike Mooney (right), Immediate Past President, and Ben Dobbe (below), Board President, went rogue as only they could do. They literally walked the halls of Congress after their scheduled meetings and walked past the office of Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Virginia-6). While Goodlatte's district is 3,000 miles away from their districts, Mooney and Dobbe recognized that Goodlatte, in addition to being Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, was also the legislator who authored key pieces of immigration-related legislation. Immigration reform was one of the top three CAD issues this year.
 After a couple of hours, Mooney and Dobbe emerged from the Congressman's office following significant discussions with the legislator's senior staffers who had drafted the legislation. Mooney credits the excellent education and preparation provided by SAF that allowed them to have a direct impact on legislators. Mooney and Dobbe also remarked at how open and eager the legislative staff was to learning about the floral industry and how they can help.
We learned shortly after CAD from SAF's Senior Director for Governmental Relations that Congress's FY 2018 Omnibus spending bill includes $1 million in funding for the Floriculture and Nursery Research Initiative (FNRI). In addition,SAF’s advocacy efforts to continue the publication of the Floriculture Crops report have been well received thus far. We’ll share further updates soon.
In addition to Dobbe and Mooney, also representing CalFlowers at CAD were Board Directors: Joost Bongaerts, Pat Dahlson, and Robert Kitayama. CEO Michael LoBue also attended CAD.
CalFlowers Membership Dues Renewal Notifications Emailed
 A reminder to check your email as membership dues renewal notifications were sent out on April 1.
Make payment before June 1 to retain your member benefits, which include discounted transportation rates from FedEx, GSO, and OnTrac; your company being listed in our online member directory; notification of our biennial Fun 'N Sun convention; networking opportunities within the floral community; and much more.
Look for your membership renewal email that provides you with a convenient link at the bottom of the email with instructions on how to pay your dues invoice using your credit card. DO NOT LOG INTO THE CALFLOWERS WEBSITE TO PAY YOUR INVOICE - YOU MUST USE THE LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE EMAIL THAT WAS SENT TO YOU.
If you have not received your dues renewal email or have any questions or concerns, please contact Linda Long, CalFlowers Membership Manager, at (831) 479-4912 or via email at [email protected].
(Note: To ensure that you receive the dues renewal notification emails from CalFlowers, you can whitelist [email protected] by adding it to your list of Safe Senders. If you are not sure how to do this, please contact your company's technical support team.)
2018 World Floral Expo A Success
CalFlowers and some of its' members along with FedEx exhibited at WFE 2018 in Rosemont, IL, March 20 – 22. The show was very well attended with lots of buyers walking the show floor and interacting with exhibitors.
We would like to thank the following CalFlower members for exhibiting in the CalFlowers Pavilion: Alaska Peony Broker, Arctic Alaska Peonies, Francis Biddle International, Inc., Kennicott Kuts, South Pacific Orchid Inc., and Star Valley Flowers, Inc.
 CalFlowers gave away one GoPro camera each day for the three days of the show. The winners of the GoPro’s were: Penny Kennicott, Johanna Neumann and Lily Tovar.
HPP Exhibitions, the show's organizers, held hands-on floral design demonstrations that featured California flowers donated by CalFlowers members. Attendees were able to choose from a variety of demonstration classes such as wedding and funeral designs and season and holiday designs.
In addition to the hands-on classes at WFE, J Schwanke of u-Bloom was in attendance again this year and did two presentations, "Flower Trends of Today" and a great social media piece, “Let’s Get Social – Best Practices for Promoting Flowers on Social Media”.
Events like WFE 2018 help grow U.S. consumption patterns through information and knowledge sharing and through meeting and collaborating with individuals and companies working to nurture a robust and competitive floral industry in the U.S.
Featured New Members of the Month
Messick Company LLC
Messick Company LLC is focused on providing top quality bulbs and young plants to wholesale growers. Bringing “New and different” plants to the country’s top growers has always been, and continues to be, a main focus of the Messick Company. They have been in business for 38+ years.
 The Messick Company supplies professional growers throughout the United States. All Messick Company salespeople have many years of growing experience in wholesale plant production. This small but, highly trained sales force of industry veterans, always focuses on providing customers with extensive plant cultural support.
Pictured above: Messick Sales Team
Their main office strategically located in the San Francisco Bay Area near many of the nation’s leading plant/bulb producers enables Messick Company to easily work closely with many of its major suppliers. In addition, Messick Company personnel travel world wide to locate the finest sources of innovative plant products.
Click Here to learn more about the Messick Company.
Heaven Scent Flower Company
Heaven Scent Flower Company is nestled among the rural country roads of Loomis, California providing fresh floral designs to the many surrounding communities found in Placer County. In an effort to provide their customers with quality California grown flowers, Heaven Scent Flower Company harvests many seasonal flowers and greens from its own garden. Hydrangea, Scabiosa, Privet, Honeysuckle, Jasmine and Rosemary are some of the well-established plants.
 Recently, many new plant materials and flowers have been installed and they look forward to harvesting from them as well. There are many local flower farmers and nurseries that also provide flowers for their country-inspired designs.
Owner, Jewel Ann Cusack, started her cottage industry floral shop after the death of her husband eight years ago. She is opened seven days a week and currently has three amazing and talented women working with her.
Click Here to learn more about Heaven Scent Flower Company.
Transportation
As a reminder, new shipping rates and program information for 2018 can be found on the CalFlowers website. Rates for FedEx, GSO and OnTrac are also included. Members can use their log-ins to access this information anytime. For questions or comments about any of our programs, please contact Chris Johnson for assistance – [email protected] or by phone (760) 533-5580.
FedEx:
With Mother’s Day quickly approaching, FedEx has made plans for the holiday rush of flowers. For members expecting 20 boxes over your their usual count, we strongly recommend contacting FedEx with their volume predictions. Members can call 1-800-Go FedEx or their local station. Shippers who do not communicate their expected holiday volumes run the risk of having shipments left behind. If you have any questions on this recommendation, please contact Chris Johnson - [email protected].
GSO:
Now Available: Text Notifications for your shipment status updates.
Staying updated on your shipments has never been easier. With GSO, you can opt to receive your shipment updates via text message, so the status of your deliveries will be at your fingertips. When you prepare a shipment, you may select the types of notifications you’d like to receive, along with your preferred method of delivery (email or text), so you can stay in the know wherever you go.
A reminder that GSO services seven Western States. Whether the destination is Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Nevada, Arizona or New Mexico, GSO can get it there. Many transit times are overnight, depending of course, on your location.
For more specific information on transit time, visit the GSO website for this handy tool: www.gso.com/shipping/transitmaps. If you have any questions, please contact Chris Johnson directly at [email protected].
OnTrac:
 OnTrac has improved its tracking system to provide shippers more up-to-date information and visibility. To learn more about these improvements, visit www.ontrac.com/servicesTracking.asp for all the details.
NOTE: Transportation Rate information and documents are viewable/downloadable (as PDFs) on the CalFlowers Members Only site. Please note that these documents are considered sensitive material and are available to the primary contacts for Ag Buddy, Associate Floral, Associate Grower, and Floral members only.
To access the Members Only site, simply login using the Member Login button in the top-right corner of our website.
Click here if you don't know or don't remember your username and/or password. This document will help you login.
New Members
In March 2018, we were pleased to welcome the following new CalFlowers members:
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Associate Floral
Mathiston Wholesale, LLC
Mathiston, MS
The Gardener's Center and Florist, Inc.
Darien, CT
Associate Service
Centra Freight Services, Inc.
Inglewood, CA
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Floral
Evergreen Floral Inc.
Vista, CA
Heaven Scent Flower Co.
Loomis, CA
J'Adore Les Fleurs
Glendale, CA
Jory's Flowers
Concord, CA
Messick Company LLC
Campbell, CA
Petalfox, LLC
El Segundo, CA
Project Fleur
San Jose, CA
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