In This Issue ...

1. CalFlowers Joins Other U.S. Floral Associations at Proflora
2. CalFlowers Board of Directors Ballots Sent
3. Directory Data Updates Due November 1
4. DV Flora Celebrates 60 Years in Business
5. Signing Up for FedEx Office Just Got Easier
6. Transportation
7. New Members 

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Check in now and then for news, upcoming events, photos, and topical items.  

CaliFlora 2019
November 2 - 3, 2019
The Original Los Angeles Flower Market
Los Angeles, CA

Floral Distribution Conference
November 5 - 7, 2019
Miami Airport Convention Center (MACC)
Miami, FL

 Flowers Of The Month:

Marigolds & Cosmos

Marigolds (pictured above) traditionally symbolized despair and grief over a loved one.  It may be surprising that such a cheerful flower is associated with the dead. 

However, for many cultures, it's those neon-bright orange and yellow hues that represent the sunrays or light paths that guide their dearly departed. 

The bright orange and yellow hues representing the beauty and warmth of the rising Sun, and its power to resurrect. 

Today, we often focus more on sunny colors of the marigold, representing optimism and prosperity.

For Members Only Access

Past CalFlowers Newsletters

Click Here to view past CalFlowers Newsletters, now available on our website.

CalFlowers News

CalFlowers Joins Other U.S. Floral Associations at Proflora

Led by floral industry trade associations, the U.S. floral industry is making progress toward collaboration to benefit the entire floral industry.  Earlier this month, six of the leading industry associations shared an exhibit booth at the Proflora show in Bogotá, Colombia.  The associations sharing in this welcoming position were:  Association of Floral Importers of Florida (AFIF), the American Floral Endowment (AFE), CalFlowers, Produce Marketing Association (PMA), Society of American Florists (SAF), and the Wholesale Florists and Florist Supplier Association (WF&FSA).

From left to right:  Dr. Terril Nell (AFE), Christine Boldt (AFIF), Dwight Larimer (AFE & Floral Marketing Research Fund), Debi Chedester (AFE), Michael LoBue (CalFlowers), Molly Mullins (WF&FSA), Sheila Santiago (SAF), Chris Drummond (SAF), and Kate Penn (SAF)

During the Proflora show, our host, Augusto Solano of Asocolflores, provided a conference room where 17 leaders from eight of the ten floral associations comprising the Flower Summit held a meeting. 

The Flower Summit is an informal collection of the six organizations that participated in the COLLABORATE booth, plus Asocolflores, Expoflores, American Institute of Floral Designers (AIFD), and the California Cut Flower Commission (CCFC).  The Flower Summit participating organizations have committed to meeting at least twice a year to work collaboratively in exploring efficient and effective ways to benefit the entire U.S. floral industry.

CalFlowers Board of Directors Ballots Sent

Ballots for the CalFlowers Board elections have been emailed to all Floral Members' “voting representative" on file.  If there was no “voting representative” on file, the ballot was sent to your company’s primary email, which is usually the billing email address on file.  Only members in California will be receiving a ballot. Out-of-state members do not vote in Board elections. 

Emailed or faxed ballots must be received by 5:00 PM on Friday, November 1st.  Ballots returned by surface mail must be postmarked no later than Wednesday, October 30th.

If you have questions about your company’s primary representative of record, please call the office at (831) 479-4912, option 4 or email Ben Dinglasan - [email protected].

In preparation for the 2020 CalFlowers Directory printing, an email was sent between September 19 - 25 from Ben Dinglasan, Membership Coordinator, asking for verification of your company information.  Your company listing in the CalFlowers directory may need no changes.  However, if it does, please send any updates to Ben by Friday, November 1 via email at [email protected] or by fax to (831) 479-4914.  

If you need to verify your current company info on file, you can either log into the Members Only area of the website and access your Organizational Information, or you can contact Ben via email (above) or at (831) 479-4912, option 4.  He will send out another verification email.

Also, please watch for Directory Advertising Information coming out in the near future.  That will be announced in the November Newsletter as well.

DV Flora Celebrates 60 Years in Business

On Sunday, September 22, 2019, DVFlora celebrated its 60th year in business. What started as Delaware Valley Wholesale Florist in 1959 actually has roots much deeper than that. 12 years earlier, Bob Sr. and Doris Wilkins operated a small retail flower business and grew their own flowers and plants in a small greenhouse not too far from the Headquarters in Sewell, NJ. 

Click Here to read more.

Signing Up For FedEx Office Just Got Easier 

You’ll recall that we made the FedEx Office discount program available to members several months ago. Because the signup process took quite a bit of members’ time, we decided to streamline the process by having our new membership coordinator, Ben Dinglasan, help. 

Click Here to learn more about the FedEx Office program.  

Ben is standing by to sign up any members who have not already made use of the special CalFlowers FedEx Office print discounts. To learn more about our benefits and our membership, contact Ben at (831) 479-4912, option 4 or via email at [email protected].

Transportation

As a reminder, current shipping rates and program information is up on the CalFlowers Members' Only website.  Members using their log-ins can access this information anytime.  Rates on FedEx, GSO|GLS, OnTrac, and airlines can all be found, as well as other handy information. For questions or comments on any of our programs, please contact Chris Johnson for assistance at (760) 533-5580 or [email protected].

For members shipping FedEx, please note that due to the yearly Holiday shipping season, FedEx Money Back Guarantee (MBG) will be suspended from November 3 to December 24 2019.  After this time, the Money Back Guarantee will be reinstated to all FedEx customers.

And in other Money Back Guarantee news, new guidelines have been issued by FedEx regarding the MBG.  Beginning immediately, shippers requesting a MBG on a shipment must make the request no longer than 15 days from the invoice date.  Requests after the 15-day time period will not be honored.

What’s in a name?  Well GSO is now officially GLS!  The latest in the GSO / GLS merger is that the new corporate name and logo has now officially been released as “GLS”.

The GLS Group is excited to combine their decades of experience and expertise as a top-rated European parcel delivery provider. You will see the new GLS name and logo on its website, supplies, vehicles, communications, uniforms, and facilities.  Click Here to learn more about GLS.

We are also working on our new agreement for 2020 and beyond and members should expect more details coming in the next few weeks.

The CalFlowers GLS program is one of our most value-priced offerings. GLS provides door-to-door services to CA, AZ, NV, OR, WA, NM, and ID.  Members who want to ship on GLS must sign up in advance. It’s easy and just takes a few minutes.  Please contact Chris Johnson for more details at (760) 533-5580 or [email protected].    

We know that OnTrac got their start in California and services every ZIP code in California, but did you know OnTrac also services seven other Western States?  OnTrac has 2-day service into WA, OR, ID, NV, UT, AZ, and CO.  And to help understand the service parameters, OnTrac has a very nice “Time and Transit Map” under Zip Tools on their website.  This handy map loaded from YOUR zip code helps you understand OnTrac’s overnight commitment areas.  To download your map, please visit: 
https://www.ontrac.com/servicesareas.asp.

Airlines:

If you haven’t yet heard about the new CalFlowers/Alaska Airlines shipping program, this exclusive offer is now available for CalFlowers members.  The new Priority Rates are the best we have seen in years and with the Virgin merger completed, Alaska Airlines has an extensive network servicing major popular destinations all across the U.S. Our program works outbound and inbound out of SAN, LAX, and SFO.  Click Here to download the handy link outlining Alaska Airlines INBOUND service to the west coast.  To take advantage of this exceptional program, interested members must sign up.  Please contact Chris Johnson to get started at (760) 533-5580 or [email protected].

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.

New Members

We are pleased to welcome the following new CalFlowers members:

781 Beach Street, Suite 302, San Francisco, CA 94109 | www.cafgs.org 

Ph. 831-479-4912 | Fax 831-479-4914