“For people who want immigration reform, the U.S. Senate bill is the train. Get on it,” urged Craig Regelbruge, vice president for government relations at the American Nursery & Landscape Association and cochairman of the Agriculture Committee for Immigration Reform.

The bill contains a guest worker provision important to the floral industry.

For the first time ever, California's Fresno County grape production surpassed $1.1 billion — the first billion-dollar crop in the county's history. Overall, agricultural production in Fresno County totaled more than $6.58 billion, showing a 3.9 percent decrease from 2011's $6.89 billion, according to the Fresno County Department of Agriculture 2012 Agricultural Crop & Livestock Report.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel presented an agreement with Chicago Perishable Center Inc. to the Chicago City Council on June 5 for the development of a perishables cargo center at O’Hare International Airport. The lease was too be reviewed by a council committee in a meeting June 24 and, if approved, go to the full council for ratification.

WALTERBORO, SC — A crowd of about 80 staff and guests lounged on the lawn outside the Floralife headquarters in Walterboro, SC, on a sunny day late in May, gathered to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the world’s first commercial flower food for cut flowers.

MIAMI BEACH, FL — More than 300 exhibitors in some 700 booths with 66,000 square feet of exhibit space overall; about 700 buyers from close to 100 supermarket chains including major ones like A&P, Ahold, Albertsons, Hy-Vee, Kroger, Piggly Wiggly, Safeway, Wegmans and Whole Foods; 16 education sessions; 52 new products on display; and about 1,750 attendees. Those were the key numbers as the International Floriculture Expo opened here on June 18.

Floral fashion is ever-changing, and we have a forecast for you in this issue with fashion trends linked to “floral take-aways” with tips on how to use them.

And a growing Memorial Day Flowers project hearkens back to the days when this holiday used to be the prime floral day of the year. The 2013 project used 240,000 donated roses at 208 cemeteries and commemorative events in 27 states. (See story, page 80).