With over 85 million moms in the United States, chances of having a successful Mother’s Day are on your side. With advanced planning and flawless execution, this high-pressure holiday can easily bring optimum sales.

According to the National Federation of Retailers, Mother’s Day accounts for about one-fourth of yearly holiday floral sales. In 2014 it said 66.6 percent of those celebrating Mother’s Day bought mom flowers, spending a total of $2.3 billion.  

The Memorial Day Flowers Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, unites the flower industry to place roses and other flowers on the graves of fallen veterans for Memorial Day. Since 2011, it has been honoring the nation’s war dead in Arlington National Cemetery and in hundreds of communities across the country.

Produce executives at supermarkets are responding to the rapid growth of branded apples by rethinking shelf and distribution strategies. Scan data reports for U.S. supermarkets indicate that while supermarkets are generally maintaining displays of mainline apple varieties, many of the legacy and niche varieties are losing space to the emerging apple brands.

With greenhouses in California and British Columbia nearing peak production — and significant expansion on the horizon — SunSelect Produce has strengthened its team with the expertise of industry veteran Mike Reed.

Robert Dasher knows a thing or two about growing Vidalia onions. He brought his first crop to market 53 years ago. Sure, it was just a single acre. Then again, he was only 10 years old.

The Dasher family has been farming in the Vidalia region since 1945. Robert and his brother, the late Gerald Dasher, followed in their father’s footsteps and partnered up as G&R Farms in Glennville, GA, in the 1960s. In 2013, Gerald was inducted posthumously into the Vidalia Onion Hall of Fame.

This past year has been a challenging one to say the least, according to Albert Perez, managing partner of Coconut Grove, FL-based Continental Fresh LLC.

“The repeated attack of winter storms has impeded us from generating the sales that we are accustomed to on the East Coast,” he told The Produce News in early March.

Despite the challenges, Perez remained optimistic, noting that the winter weather hasn’t resulted in all bad news.