David Austin's new rose, Vanessa Bell, is a free-flowering variety, bearing large clusters of soft yellow blooms, with medium strength green tea fragrance with aspects of lemon.

Current economic conditions have significantly altered the dynamics of flower sales and marketing strategies world-wide. These conditions have created opportunities for Ecuadorian flower growers to re-think strategies for marketing flowers around the world.

The Board of Directors of the Fair Flowers Fair Plants foundation has concluded that there are no substantial future possibilities and that the participants' financial contributions are too small to develop Fair Flowers Fair Plants into a mainstream brand. Therefore, the board has decided to withdraw the label from the market after the year 2017 and to cancel the foundation at the end of this year.

For the first time, the government of the Republic of Ecuador, represented by the Pro Ecuador Commercial Office of Ecuador in Shanghai, is supporting eight flower Ecuadorian exporters to attend the Hortiflorexpo fair as an Ecuadorian Pavilion. The products exhibited at the fair are roses and gypsophilas transported from Ecuador.

What if the momentum and opportunity for Certified American Grown Flowers extended past the borders of the United States? Would the Certified American Grown program have value in another country? What countries might want to selectively promote the high-quality, sustainably produced and unique variety of flowers that America’s flower farmers grow? How could American Grown Flowers compete with domestically grown and the other flowers already being imported? All good questions that a small delegation of America’s flower farmers recently headed to China to answer.