ORLANDO, USA, May 24, 2013: Each year, the Florida Nursery, Growers and Landscape Association (FNGLA) honors a distinct group of individuals who contribute time and energy into enhancing, protecting and serving Florida’s nursery and landscape industry through the FNGLA Industry Awards Program. This year’s winners will be honored during FNGLA’s annual convention in Weston (near Ft. Lauderdale) on Saturday, June 15. FNGLA’s Industry Awards Program acknowledges both FNGLA and industry service - with varying criteria geared for each award. Nominations are accepted from the industry-at-large and winners are selected by a committee of industry peers.
The Wendell Butler Award and the FNGLA Hall of Fame are recognized as the most prestigious awards given by FNGLA. The Wendell Butler Award is presented for service to FNGLA and the FNGLA Hall of Fame Award is a lifetime achievement award. Nominations are accepted from the industry at large.
FNGLA Hall of Fame Inductee:
Irv Betrock
Betrock Information Systems (Hollywood, FL)
Wendell E. Butler Award: Nancy G. McDonald
N.G.M. Productions, Inc. (Mt. Dora, FL)
Farm Credit / FNGLA Young Nursery Professional: Jenn Helms-Shelley
Railroad Nursery, Inc. (Homestead, FL)
FNGLA Outstanding Volunteer:
Mary Schneider
FNGLA Dade County Chapter Office (Homestead, FL)
FNGLA Outstanding Educators:
Keri Milligan
Oakleaf High School (Orange Park, FL)
Carl Wallack
South Plantation High School (Plantation, FL)
FNGLA Friend of the Industry:
Commissioner Adam Putnam
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (Tallahassee, FL)
For more information about FNGLA’s Industry Awards, please contact FNGLA at (800) 375-3642, or visit the FNGLA web site. www.fngla.org
West Sussex landscaper flies to Moscow
THEALE, UK, May 22, 2013: Caspian Robertson, director and founder of APL member Surrey Gardens, based in West Sussex is on his way to Moscow as one of just two British garden designers invited to exhibit at the Moscow Flower Show in June.
Caspian’s innovative ‘A la Mode Dining’ garden caught the attention of the Russian delegation at last year’s Malvern Autumn Show, where it won an RHS Gold and Best in Show.
Caspian’s design features edible planting with a dining theme, and could be built in a rural or a city setting. A leading Moscow restaurant has shown an interest in purchasing the garden after the show.
The only other British designer to be invited to exhibit is TV garden designer Chris Beardshaw.
Caspian said; “The show organisers offered to ship the garden over in kit form for me to rebuild over there, I will have just a week and a half in Moscow to build it before the Show opens. It’s a huge honour to be one of two British garden designers to be invited. I have always dreamed of building gardens across the world. This is a fantastic opportunity and a dream come true.”
On his return from Moscow, Caspian will have barely two weeks to prepare his new garden, ‘Bugs in Boots’, an ecological garden, for the APL ‘Low Cost, High Impact’ category at the prestigious RHS Hampton Court Flower Show in July. This design qualified Caspian as a finalist in the Royal Horticultural Society's 2013 Young Designer of the Year.
Spectrum Technologies wins prestigious AE50 Gold Award
AURORA, USA, May 22, 2013: Spectrum Technologies, Inc. has been honored with the prestigious AE50 Gold Award from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE). The AE50 awards recognize leadership in technological innovation, with the Gold Award highlighting the best of the best among new products. A leading manufacturer of weather stations, data loggers, and handheld measurement devices, Spectrum was recently recognized as a Gold Award winner for the FieldScout GreenIndex+.
The GreenIndex+ provides a better, more affordable way to manage the nitrogen needs of crops. Taking advantage of the latest advancements in technology, the GreenIndex+ App conveniently captures and processes images from a smartphone and instantly computes the DGCI (Dark Green Color Index) of plant leaves. By offering a digital image analysis of the leaves, the GreenIndex+ provides growers with an accurate, low-cost method for managing in-season fertility, and helps deliver improved yield, lower nitrogen costs, and increase profits. All data is logged and geo-referenced, and can be emailed to a personal computer for further analysis.
Gerry Remus, Spectrum’s VP of sales and marketing, commented, “Traditional methods for gathering this type of data can come at a significant cost to farmers. Not only is the GreenIndex+ App a better, more affordable way to make decisions regarding nitrogen management, it can also save growers money on the back end by helping limit over-fertilization.”
The esteemed AE50 Gold Award recognizes the most outstanding technologies within the top 50 innovative new products produced throughout the world for the agricultural, food, and biological systems industries. Recipients of the award have developed technologies that are expected to save producers time, costs, and labor while improving user safety. Spectrum’s President & CEO, Mike Thurow, along with Mike Dunning, Director of Technology, were on hand to receive the award the ASABE conference.
“Spectrum is honored to receive the highly-respected Gold Award and to be included in the same company as other pioneers in the industry like ACGO Corporation, DuPont Crop Protection, and John Deere. This is a tremendous acknowledgment for the creativity, hard work, and cutting edge technology that goes into developing products that improve productivity and yield for growers around the world,” Thurow stated.
Spectrum Technologies, Inc. manufactures and supplies affordable weather and plant measurement technologies that help growers make better decisions on crop inputs. To receive a free catalog complete with hundreds of climate, soil, and plant health monitoring devices, contact Spectrum Technologies, Inc., 3600 Thayer Court, Aurora, IL 60504 (800) 248-8873, (815) 436-4440, fax (815) 436-4460, or at www.specmeters.com
5th Cool Logistics Global Conference to include FloraHolland flower auction tour
ROTTERDAM, the Netherlands, May 20, 2013: The 5th edition of Cool Logistics Global - the only conference dedicated to global perishables trade - moves to Rotterdam, the Netherlands for the first time in 2013.
Few other ports have a better claim than Rotterdam to be a magnet for handling, distributing and channelling perishable trades. Cool Logistics Global comes to the port at a significant point in its history, in the midst of the Maasvlakte 2 construction – one of the biggest container port developments in the world – and following the recent announcement of the Cool Port project, aiming to consolidate the traditionally diverse conventional and container reefer transport disciplines into a single perishables hub.
Once again, Cool Logistics Global 2013 will bring together perishable logistics and transport professionals from around the world for 360o debate on the most pressing issues of the day. Join us for a unique chance to step back, see the perishables world from diverse perspectives, and spark fresh solutions to common challenges.
In a new format, this year’s event kicks off with optional site visits on Monday 23 September, including a chance to go behind-the-scenes at the world's largest flower trading centre, FloraHolland and to see the world the Maasvlakte 2 development first hand, followed by the traditional Icebreaker Welcome Reception.
Running from 24-25 September, and including the annual Networking Reception on the evening of 24 September, the 2-day Cool Logistics Global business conference will explore key macro-economic, trade and supply chain trends worldwide, as well as new niche opportunities. The event concludes on 26 September with the new-look Reefer Operations day, featuring practical case studies, technology innovation forum and round-table brainstorming sessions.
Register now> www.coollogisticsconference.com
New book gives comprehensive overview of ornamental geophytes
by Dr. Henk Gude
(PPO Bloembollen, Boomkwekerij & Fruit, Wageningen UR) WAGENINGEN, the Netherlands, May 16, 2013: As a an applied researcher working for more than 25 years in flower bulb research, I only realized how welcome the book ‘Ornamental Geophytes’ was when it was published: it had been 20 years since the last treatise on flower bulbs (The Physiology of Flower Bulbs, by LeNard and De Hertogh, 1993) was published.
The editors, who rather use the scientifically correct term ornamental geophytes to cover the various bulbous, tuberous and corm producing ornamental crops, have selected today’s most relevant topics in flower bulb research and have invited the leading scientists in the various disciplines to write their contributions.
The result is a comprehensive treatise that presents not only the latest advances in the traditional scientific disciplines, but also describes state of the art production methods of flower bulbs and bulbous flowers, advances in sustainable production and the latest developments in the globalization of flower bulb production and chains. The book is, therefore, of interest to a much wider reader public than only researchers. Anyone involved in the industry, from growers to breeders, people working in the production chain, as well as staff members of growers organizations or ministries will benefit from the information presented in this book.
A number of chapters review the progress made in the more basic scientific disciplines: taxonomy and phylogeny by A.W. Meerow, the biodiversity of geophytes by R. Kamenetsky, breeding and genetics by J. van Tuyl et al., biotechnology for the modification of horticultural traits by K. Kamo et al., florogenesis by R. Kamenetsky et al. and dormancy by H. Okubo.
As an applied scentist, my interest was inspired particularly by the chapters with a more practical character: botanical and horticultural aspects by H. Okubo and D. Sochacki; propagation by A. Bach and D. Sochacki; production chain, forcing physiology and flower production systems by W. B. Miller and postharvest by M. Reid and C.-Z. Jiang.
The chapter on sustainable production and integrated management by G. Chastaigner et al. is of special significance. The international group of authors provides an excellent overview of the problems and challenges that industry and scientists face in meeting society’s requirements for sustainable and environment-friendly bulb production.
The editors’ vision becomes apparent in a remarkable number of chapters dedicated to globalization: in seven chapters globalization, in general, is described, and specific crops, production methods and chains in southern hemisphere countries and warmer climate regions are discussed. The combination of these chapters and the more technical chapters takes the globalization of flower bulbs to a higher level: the bulb industry in the traditional production areas benefits from the knowledge on specific crops and production chains from the ‘new’ producing areas, while the latter can adopt the latest developments on sustainable and environment-friendly bulb production from the traditional bulb producing countries. In the final chapter R. Kamenetsky, G. Chastaigner and H. Okubo present their own vision on the employment of new scientific tools and techniques, sustainable production systems, the role of applied research, knowledge transfer and research-industry interactions, globalization, the conservation of natural resources and education. The subtitle of the book perfectly reflects the content: from basic science to sustainable production.
Ornamental Geophytes: From Basic Science to Sustainable Production, Rina Kamenetsky and Hiroshi Okubo
Publisher: CRCPress 2012, ISBN-978-1-4398-4924-8/€ 119
The book can be ordered through the site www.crcpress.com , www.bol.com, www.amazon.com
120x240(flash).gif)
 Logo with text.jpg "FCI associations & organisations")
 Logo-blue.jpg "FCI associations & organisations")
.jpg "FCI associations & organisations")
