"The best design in the world is no good unless you teach it to someone else." Fitting words, spoken by the individual who was given the design community's highest honor for, among other things, his seemingly unlimited capacity for teaching and mentoring other designers.

Richard Salvaggio, AIFD, accepted the American Institute of Floral Designers' (AIFD) Award of Distinguished Service to AIFD, Saturday, July 5, during the AIFD Symposium, held in Chicago. Bestowed upon AIFD members who have demonstrated outstanding service to the Institute, recipients are known as "Fellows of AIFD" and are granted life membership. Salvaggio, Teleflora's vice president of industry relations, becomes the 27th individual to be honored with this award.

Since his induction into the organization in 1987, Salvaggio has served as president, symposium chair and is again on the AIFD Board of Directors serving as treasurer. Upon accepting the surprise award, Salvaggio acknowledged his two most recent employers, Teleflora, where he's been for 12 years, most recently as publisher of Flowers&; and Redbook: "Two companies that so totally believe in education and understand what it does for the floral industry," he said.

Also honored during the ceremonies was Talmage McLaurin, AIFD, with the Award of Distinguished Service to the Floral Industry. A second generation floral professional, McLaurin has served the industry in many roles, including those of floral designer, educator, communicator, writer and editor. He's currently publisher of Florists Review. In accepting the award, McLaurin noted two forces in his early years who shaped him as a designer: his mother, a florist, who "taught me the rules" of design, and his grandmother, who he said believed "flowers should do what nature made them do."

For their work in the greening of Chicago and promotional programs marketing the city's florists, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and First Lady Maggie Daley were recognized with the AIFD Award of Merit - NonIndustry. Accepting the award on behalf of the Daley's, Sadhu Johnston, Chicago's chief environmental officer, said, "Since AIFD is a mighty force, we'll count on you to continue greening the planet." Past honorees for this award include Lady Bird Johnson, the NBC "Today" Show and Martha Stewart.

To see samples of designs from the symposium click on http://www.aifd.org/2008symposiumgallery.htm

The overuse of "In lieu of flowers" in obituaries made local news recently in a Texas newspaper.

The Beaumont Enterprise in Beaumont, Texas, featured an article on July 2 in its local section called "'In lieu of flowers' trend makes floral business wilt." The article profiled industry members, including designers at Forever Yours Flower Shop in Beaumont who were working on several funeral arrangements. While the piece states that "the growing trend [of using the phrase] hasn't had a profound impact on flower shop businesses locally," it points out the concern local florists have about the increasing use of the phrase.

"Sometimes, it does hurt business, but it's what the family wants," Walter McCloney, owner of McCloney's Florist in Beaumont, explained in the article.

Clay Atchison, owner of McAdams Floral in Victoria, Texas, and a member of the Texas State Florists' Association's Technology Committee, has taken a proactive approach by creating a Web site to address the issue. The site, www.inlieuofflowers.info, offers consumers information on the history of sympathy flowers and alternative phrases such as: "Memorials may be made to the charity of your choice," and "Remembrances may be made in the form desired by friends."

"When you go to a service and there are only one or two flower arrangements or no flower arrangements at all, it feels a little barren," Atchison told the paper. "Flowers create a background of warmth and beauty."

The article also mentions a form letter, created by the Allied Florists of Houston, that gives florists a starting point to reach out to local funeral directors. 

"As great as this ad is in creating top-of-mind awareness among funeral directors nationwide, success at the local level comes when florists supplement the ad with personal outreach," says Jennifer Sparks, SAF's vice president of marketing.

Some thought the new double Oriental lily showcased at the Keukenhof Lily Show held in May was just too good to be true.

The new lily variety, bred by Onings Holland Inc. won an innovation award at the Netherlands show, and Henk Onings says he's not surprised: "We had to move the flowers away from the aisles as many people were touching it to make sure they were real."

What makes this lily so irresistible? Onings explains that a typical oriental lily features six petals; the not-yet-named double lily features 18 petals.

"Even in closed stage, the flowers of this variety present very nicely and do not show 'parrot-beaks,'" Onings says.  "This variety, along with new varieties/colors that will be released shortly, all open double."

The company is unsure when the variety will be introduced to the market. Onings says it might take a while to build up the planting stock of the double lily and might not be available to growers until 2010.

Cut-flower imports from Colombia surpassed $507 million in 2007, outpacing the values from the next four major sources combined. Of the collective $831.4 million of cut-flowers imported by the United States, Colombia accounted for 60 percent. Colombia and Ecuador accounted for 80 percent of the total value.