Floral

Somebody out there must have a combined love of flowers and vintage rock and roll. How else would you get a hydrangea named Twist and Shout? …

Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, famed for its top-flight hotels, has agreed to skimp on some of its signature features, bowing to pressures by some financially strapped owners of properties that bear its name. …

The California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers (CANGC) announced today that combined impacts of the homebuilding collapse, recession, drought, and other factors hit hard in 2008-2009 to reduce annual farm-gate sales of nursery products by California nurseries by $688,000,000 to $3.3 billion compared to $4.0 billion in 2007-2008, down 17.5%, according to Hoy Carman, an agricultural economist at University of CaliforniaDavis. …

Sidi Limehouse has collected hydrangeas since digging up some from his grandmother’s yard 20 years ago. In two decades, he has collected more than 3,000 plants. He hesitates when asked to choose a favorite, simply saying that he likes them all. …

The 2009 wholesale value of floriculture crops is down 7 percent from the revised 2008 valuation. The total crop value at wholesale for the 15-state program for all growers with $10,000 or more in sales is estimated at $3.83 billion for 2009, compared with $4.11 billion for 2008. …