In July , it ’s hot and humid in Virginia where our berth is located . It does n’t feel like I ’ve left Miami , where I was last calendar month for the 2019 International Floriculture Expo . I was there for my first trade show experience and turn out to be even grander than I could have ever expected .
by Ashley Alexander , Communications Manager at AFE
But first , I experienced a little flake of Miami importer business . After landing at Miami International Airport , I was taken from the rider side to see the consignment side from afar . Here is where bloom are flown in from all over the world . Their journeying to sales event in America had just set out .
They were drop from the aeroplane too soon in the morning , so they faced the least Dominicus and heat exposure as potential . Then , they are transported into refrigerated depot , where they must be unclutter by custom and then regularise until their allocator brings them to the next deftness . We followed their journeys to two different mental process : Sunshine Bouquet and USA Bouquet . Both operation spell , cook up and stagger fresh - edit heyday .
This was my first fourth dimension at an mathematical process like this . Having been in the industry for a year , I had read and heard all about the procedure , but seeing it first - manus was so different . We walked through the vast refrigerated rooms with our lender winter coats ( I packed for 90 - academic degree weather , not for 36 - degree ice chest ! ) and saw where each pace of the physical process took place . Receiving , inspecting , arrange , etc . The nerveless part for me at both of these operation was watch how automated everything is . I was in veneration as I watched how expeditiously each posy is made and how each order is deal with huge tending .
Each pose the perspective on the industriousness from their respective regions . They talk about the recent crop statistic , come out markets , growth chance , environmental terror , fare update , new product style and more .
That evening , the fun continued as we take IFE to sea ! We board a racing yacht in the rain cats and dogs rain , thankful to see the sky clear as we cruised along the bay .
I was able to walk through my very first trade show on Wednesday thanks to IFE . Boy … is that overwhelming ! I would n’t have recognize how to even began to harness the rows and row of shower if it were n’t for having our Research Coordinator , Dr. Nell , by my side .
Walking around going from exhibitor to exhibitor was like being in a shopping mall mixed with a museum . Each booth was like a very diminished version of a storefront with the most beautiful display of flowers . There were friendly faces everywhere we went and it seemed ( as it often does , ) that everyone knew one another . In every booth we stopped in , we were welcomed as we rent everyone hump about the research we are funding that will facilitate agriculturalist like them . This always - welcoming industry made the four hour we spend walking the floors find unretentive .
The last mean solar day , we host a session where two of our AFE - fund researchers presented update on what they ’ve uncover as far as thrips and Botrytis go . These investigator are fund through a extra AFE research campaign “ Thrips & Botrytis , ” where the sketch are focused on these two specific takings . Dr. Jim Faust of Clemson University demo on Botrytis and Dr. Margaret Skinner of the University of Vermont divvy up her cognition on thrips .
My time at IFE 2019 gave me peck of peeks behind - the - scenes of the flowered manufacture … who knew this was the journeying of a flower !
For more informationAmerican Floral EndowmentT : +1 ( 703 ) 838-5211www.endowment.org
