Karen Ruth Pool Carlson, a female trailblazer in California's produce industry, died April 7 following a long illness. She was 77.

Naturipe Farms LLC of Salinas, CA, will release new packaging featuring Disney Princess characters and a themed eBook, including recipes and activities for young consumers, this spring.

Over 390 floral professionals attended the 2014 Great Lakes Floral Expo March 7-9 at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids, MI. The annual expo included seven hands-on classes, seven workshops, 14 business sessions, a book fair, a silent auction, a design contest and a Find the Daisy Contest.

It’s an alluring flower that many people admire but very few know its name. Is it a rose? A peony? A tulip? A poppy? Although frequently mistaken for all of these, it’s actually lisianthus — commonly called “lizzy.” With its delicate, unfurling trumpets of either white, purple, cream, lavender, pink, peach, yellow or bi-colored blooms in single and double-petalled varieties, lizzy is capturing the hearts of flower customers and has been gaining in popularity over the last decade.

The Fresh Produce & Floral Council once again sold out its popular Northern California Expo April 9 at the Alameda Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, CA. There were 158 booths with representatives from over 200 companies and more than 1,300 attendees. About 40 percent of the booths showcased floral-related products.

The booth set up by Ocean View Flowers in Lompoc, CA, won the Best in Show award for the floral category.

Are you a confetti-loving, party type of person? Or do you feel more comfortable in a rustic grand lodge? How would a revival of the Gatsby era resonate with you? Does aquaculture transport you to a place of bliss? These are the four distinct categories of flower trends that Bill Schaffer and Kristine Kratt, co-owners of Schaffer Designs in Philadephia, forecast for 2014 weddings for International Floral Distributors, a consortium owned by 18 wholesale distributors with 53 locations across the United States, according to a news release.