Las Vegas, NV – Certified American Grown was proud to be a sponsor and leader in providing America’s most talented designers with 2 of 3 surprise lots used in the “America’s Cup” competition hosted by FTD during the recent American Institute of Floral Design (AIFD) “Roots Symposium” held at Caesar’s Forum in Las Vegas in July 2022.
Certified American Grown, as a trade association, works to promote and represent the interests of America’s cut flower and foliage farming families. In doing so, this year’s top designers took the bounty of the United States, from Florida to Alaska and California to Maine and created intricate and unique deigns to battle it out and be named the winner of the 2022 America’s Cup. The winner of this year’s event will move onto Manchester, England for the Interflora’s World Cup on September 7-9, 2023, and represent the USA as the floral designer champion to beat!
“We are incredibly excited to have 10 designers from around the country work with American Grown product and for them see first-hand the incredible flowers and foliage grown right here in the USA 365 days a year,” said Camron King, CEO & Ambassador for Certified American Grown. “The FTD America’s Cup was the perfect competition for us to support – we are American Grown, and these are the leading designers from throughout the country. We were excited to have them working with our incredible flowers and foliage and enjoyed the inspired designs they created. We are proud and elated to see Jenny Thomasson from Jenny T Floristry in Dallas, Texas moving forward to represent the United States.
“Being part of the America’s Cup Competition was such an honor and an experience that tested myself in ways I couldn’t have imagined. Incredibly talented co-competitors elevated the playing field and ultimately forced each of us to bring out our A-game! With each task we were pushed beyond comfort levels and with the mindset to produce the most beautiful designs in a creative and technically successful way,” said floral design expert Jenny Thomasson of Jenny T’s Floristry. “The technician was each of us but the beauty part, that was all from the exceptional product we were blessed with the opportunity to pull from. To think that this was the Americas Cup it was significant that the flowers be American too and were they ever! Certified American Grown, an organization that supports American farmers growing flowers and foliage also supporting American Designers was quite the trifecta I was delighted to be a part of!”
In the event that Jenny Thomasson will not be able to fulfill her duties in 2023, Jenna Naylor Temple of Grayson, Georgia and “Blooms with Jenna” is the runner-up in the 2022 competition. The other contestants in this 2022 competition were: Samantha Bates, Pontchatoula, LA; Laura Daluga, Detoit, MI; Adam Havrilla, Chicago, IL; Shelly Huynh, Salt Lake City, UT; Sally Jablonski, Worcester, MA; Jenna Sleeman, Coral Gables, FL; and, Lynne Tischler, St. Paul, MN.
Certified American Grown cut flower and foliage farms that provided materials for the designers to work with include: Alaska Perfect Peony (Alaska), Albin Hagstrom & Son (Florida), Camflor (California), Fern Trust (Florida), Green Valley Floral (California), Mellano & Company (California), Ocean Breeze Farms (California), Resendiz Brothers (California), and Sun Valley Floral Farm (California).
