2020 National Floriculture Forum

The American Floral Endowment had the opportunity to partner with the 2020 National Floriculture Forum held in Charlotte, NC from February 28th through March 1st. This weekend was filled with an incredible depth of knowledge shared amongst peers and the industry. The National Floriculture Forum (NFF) is an annual educational meeting of stakeholders from academic institutions, governmental agencies, and the greenhouse industry. The timing of the NFF overlapped with AFE’s Board Meetings to create an impactful and engaging weekend for our industry. The weekend consisted of a number of meetings and presentations that included topics on the impact of hemp on the floriculture industry, how to develop effective collaborations, effective outreach to the floriculture industry, and other topics. The forum discussed how we…

Scholar Ignite Competition at ASHS 2019 Annual Conference

By Yiyun Lin, YPC Member This July, at the annual conference of American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS), 60 graduate students participated at the Scholar Ignite Competition. This competition was a great opportunity for graduate students to talk about their research to a general audience that shared an interest in horticulture. In the competition, the students were given three minutes to present with a single slide. The students were judged by five different judges based on their communication styles, the comprehension of their talks, their inspiration/engagement/outreach ability, the impact of their research, and the slide content. The competition presented us with a collection of current horticulture research and was hosted on a nice evening in Las Vegas. As much as…

SAF, AFE Partner Up to Advance Floral Industry Research Priorities

ALEXANDRIA, VA — A groundbreaking research fund that has supported scientific innovation in the floral industry for nearly three decades is getting a boost in its effort to provide high quality, cutting-edge research today and into the future, thanks to a strategic new agreement between two longtime industry groups.Effective Aug. 1, the Society of American Florists will continue to support the Floriculture and Nursery Research Initiative (FNRI) through key administrative functions, including lobbying for additional funding and communicating with members of Congress so that they are aware of the importance of FNRI research to the floral industry and their constituents.Meanwhile, the American Floral Endowment will assume the role of floral industry liaison with the U.S. Department of Agriculture for FNRI,…

AFE 2019 Altman Family Scholars

AFE’s 2019 Altman Family Scholars: Paul Cockson, Yiyun Lin, and David TorkThe Altman Family Scholarship was created in 2015 by Ken and Deena Altman—owners of Altman Plants—as one of the numerous efforts supported by the couple to improve education and research for the industry. The scholarship provides $5,000 to assist in funding the education of full-time graduate students (MS or Ph.D.) who will become leading floricultural scientists and educators. Ken Altman has been actively involved in AFE’s Education and Scholarship Committees and has served on the AFE Board for more than a decade, currently in an Emeritus status.This year, the Altman Fund is supporting three graduate students currently enrolled in masters programs at leading institutions. All three not only are already engaged in…

Indoor Lighting for the Production of Floriculture Transplants

Erik Runkle, Michigan State UniversityAn exciting new way to produce floriculture crop seedlings and rooted cuttings (transplants) is indoors, where the environment can be controlled to produce uniform plants on demand. This growing technique enables control of the light spectrum using light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to produce plants with desired attributes such as compact growth and early or late flowering, whichever is desired. We are currently in the second year of our project supported by the American Floral Endowment.Our team of students and research technicians is performing experiments in the Controlled Environment Lighting Laboratory (CELL). We are pleased to share our results to date through a five-part series of articles in GrowerTalks magazine. Below is a list of the article topics,…

My First Experience with the NFF

By YPC Member, Yiyun Lin My first time at NFF was a fantastic experience. The meeting began with a tour of the Chicago Botanic Garden, showing us its unique landscape, incredible design, newly renovated greenhouse space, as well as a first look at their seasonal orchid show that included around 50 different species. It was an educational experience to learn about the garden’s history, their ongoing research projects, and the breeding programs that contribute to both the garden and the industry. Following the tour, the meeting began with talks focusing on future and young faculty. Attendees from various backgrounds shared valuable advice and experiences, providing me with knowledge that will assist in my future career. As graduate students, we were…

New Study Identifies Consumer Preferences in Floral Design

New Study Identifies Consumer Preferences in Floral Design“Using Biometric Technology to Better Understand Floral Consumers”January 29, 2019, Alexandria, VA – Floral designers have long been taught that the most important attributes of a design are its elements: line, color, texture, pattern, form, space, and size. Yet, these attributes have not been proven to be perfect indicators of consumer purchase behavior.In a new study currently being conducted jointly by the American Floral Endowment (AFE) and the Produce Marketing Association (PMA), funded through the Floral Marketing Research Fund (FMRF), researchers will determine which of these attributes are truly important to consumers and drive their purchase behavior. The study results can be used by florists, suppliers, retailers, and bouquet makers to increase sales.Using the latest…

YPC Member Receives Second-Place at ASHS

Nathan NordstedtGraduate Research AssociateThe Ohio State UniversityCollege of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental SciencesDepartment of Horticulture and Crop SciencesReport by Nathan NordstedtYoung Professionals Council, AFEThanks to the generous support of the American Floral Endowment and the Gus Poesch Fund, I had the opportunity to present my research at the 2018 American Society of Horticultural Science Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. I am extremely grateful for the opportunities this meeting has provided to my developing professional career.I began my time at the meeting by attending the ASHS Strategic Career Planning seminar. This seminar provided beneficial insights from academic and industry leaders to my own professional development. Throughout the meeting, I was presented with a multitude of networking opportunities, engaged in conversations about research…

AFE and e-Gro Partner on Webinars

We have partnered with e-Gro to present webinars focusing on new findings from AFE-funded research projects. The webinars are free. They aim to better communicate the results to growers and to share how to best implement the findings. They also allow for a greater number of managers and staff to hear this information first-hand.The new AFE/e-Gro webinars will be one hour in length with time for participants to ask specific questions of the researchers. They will complement the successful webinars that e-Gro is already conducting and provide greater resources for growers.The first webinar, “New Daily Light Integral Maps and Advances in Supplemental Lighting for Ornamentals” is slated for November 2nd from Noon – 1:00 p.m. Eastern.Presenters Jim Faust, Clemson University…

AFE-Funded Researchers Go Face to Face with Thrips

Sound scientific research has guided many of the flower crop production and postharvest handling practices used by growers, wholesalers, supermarkets and retail outlets today. AFE realizes that research you support must have direct value to each of you and to your companies.Assuring that research is relevant to flower production begins with making sure that researchers are familiar and see first-hand the conditions upon which their results will be used. During the first week of October, three accomplished thrips researchers accompanied me to Medellin, Colombia to visit flower farms. These researchers included JC Chong of Clemson University and Margaret Skinner and Bruce Parker of the University of Vermont.In late 2016, we also took AFE-funded Botrytis researchers to flower farms. The following…

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