Wow, what an amazing month of September! Winning the Floral Management's 2018 Marketer of the Year award seems like the pinnacle of what Diana and I have been hoping to achieve over the last 17 years. It's quite an honor to be recognized and rewarded for doing something we love and are so passionate about. Proteas have become our life and it has been our dream to make them a part of yours as well. Since the beginning, our 'Protea Goals' have been to create awareness, influence trends and increase sales... something we have managed to accomplish.  

 

However, this accomplishment is not solely due to our own efforts, it's a blending of so much more. It's you, our friends and customers throughout the years who have embraced the protea flowers and foliage we grow and made them a part of your daily inventory. It's the designers and artists who have eagerly and enthusiastically used proteas to flower their structures and designs bringing them to life in unique and special ways. "A protea can be like a big café' au lait dahlia. These are 'traffic light' focals, as they say in Italy. This is a very good trend." said Gregor Lersch during the Trend Summit Vancouver 2018. It's also organizations like SAF, Certified American Grown, State Floral Associations, Horticulture Societies, Farm Bureau and many more who have provided us with a platform to share our proteas and educate their members. And finally, we owe a debt of gratitude to the many publications and writers who have helped us tell our story and share our flowers over the years and have done it so very eloquently. It is truly all of this and more that has made this September one of our best months ever and we couldn't be more pumped about it!

 

As you can see from this newsletter, receiving the 2018 Marketer of the Year award wasn't the only highlight at this year's Society of American Florists (SAF) Convention... there was a lot more. The Outstanding Varieties Competition is a 'flower lovers heaven' and truly the best of the best are on display. My hats off to our fellow California flower farms, Eufloria, Sun Valley and Green Valley Floral, for winning Best in Class ribbons. In addition, Certified American Grown hosted a fabulous Field to Vase Dinner which featured flowers from across the county including Alaska and they were gorgeous. It was a beautiful evening and the comments and reviews we've seen so far are over the top! On Saturday morning, Certified American Grown and several of America's Flower Farmers gathered on stage as SAF recognized the Field to Vase Dinner Tour as the 2017 Marketer of the Year recipient (due to last year's convention cancellation). Finally, the Sylvia Cup... what a fun event. The PFCI designers that coordinate the competition are amazing and very talented, it actually felt like you were in Oz. My hats off to the 19 designers who created some awesome wands and designs with all American Grown Flowers!

 

We're all back on the farm. Last weekend we held our first wreath making workshop of the season and it was a huge success. We reconnected with some old friends (several of last year's workshop participants) and made some new friends as well. Yesterday, we received a card from Carolyn, who thanked us for getting her out of the house for the first time since Easter due to an illness and is planning to come back again and again in the future. That's the best part of these workshops and it makes them so worthwhile. Now, we're on to the next event... next week's San Diego Grown Dinner. We'll be creating the reception décor with plenty of protea, of course and manning a Boutonniere Bar to ensure guests have blooming accessories for this alfresco Farm to Table Dinner or maybe I should say, 'Table to Farm Event'. Hope to see you there!