People in the news

New positions
Lance Lawson to sales representative for Mountain States territory, McConkey Co., Sumner, Wash.
 
Jaye Hamel to senior account executive; Maria C. Shepherd to account executive-retail sales specialist, Hortica Insurance and Employee Benefits, Edwardsville, Ill.
 
Tony Brown to national sales manager, KIOTI, Wendell, N.C.
 
Duane Sinning to commercial director for the americas, Floranova, United Kingdom. 
 
David Armstrong to President and CEO; Jerry Reimer to Vice President; Kazuyuki Matsuoka to CFO, Sakata Seed America, Morgan Hill, Calif.
 
Eric McGourty to Director of Finance/Controller, Weston Nurseries, Hopkinton, Mass.

Associations
Robert Milks, Van Wingerden International, Mills River, N.C.; PJ Ellison, Ellison’s Greenhouses, Brenham, Texas, and Donald Snow, Goldsmith Seeds, Gilroy, Calif., to Growers Council
 
Kathy Dudley, The Bloomery, Butcher, Pa.; Ian Prosser, Botanica International Florist, Tampa, Fla., and Wayne DeBey, The Flower Nook, Salina, Kan., to Retailers Council

Paul Fowle, Delaware Valley Floral Group, Sewell, N.J., Mark Berglund, Washington Floral Services, Tacoma, Wash., and Mike Romanisk, FloraCraft Corp., Ludington, Mich., to Wholesalers Council, SAF Board of Directors.

Business changes
Contech Enterprises, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, has acquired Tanglefoot, Grand Rapids, Mich.
 
T.O. Plastics has launched a new website, www.toplastics.com.

Honors
The Capitol Christmas tree, an 80 foot blue spruce tree from Arizona’s Apache Sitgreaves National Forest, will be sprayed with GSI Horticultural’s Moisturin Anti-transpirant twice before it is cut. 
 
Johnson’s Garden Center, Macon, Ga., celebrated its 50th anniversary in October.
 
Lin Schmale, SAF, Alexandria, Va., received the 2009 Achievement Award for Research Teams at the SAF annual convention in Phoenix.
 
Briggs Nursery, Elma, Wash., has been accepted into the United States Nursery Certification Program.
 
Ragin’ Cajun, a Southern Living plant, has been awarded the FlameProof award by the Dallas Arboretum Trial program. The award is based on superior heat- and humidity-tolerance and uniqueness after rigorous testing.
 
Jim Leider was inducted into the Floriculture Hall of Fame; Marvin Miller, Ball Horticultural Company, West Chicago, Ill., received the Paul Ecke Jr. Award; Rick Salvaggio, Teleflora, Los Angeles, received the Tommy Bright Award; Jan van der Wereld was posthumously honored with the 2009 SAF Gold Medal Award; DuVal “Butch” Johnston, Johnston’s Quality Flowers, Fort Smith, Ark., received the John H. Walker Award at the 2009 SAF Phoenix Convention.
 
Tristan Cleveland, Hampstead, Md., received the 2009 Carville M. Akehurst Memorial Scholarship; Benjamin Madeiras, Amherst, Mass., received the 2009 Timothy S. and Palmer W. Bigelow Jr. Nursery Scholarship; Sam Bookhardt, Acrata, Calif., received the 2009 Muggets Scholarship and the 2009 Spring Meadow Scholarship; Emily Duyst, San Luis, Obispo, received the 2009 Ursey Family Memorial Scholarship from The Horticultural Research Institute, Washington, D.C. 
 
Thomas Sparks, Dow AgroSciences, Indianapolis, has been named Scientist of the Year by R&D Magazine.

Events

January 2010
6-8, Northern Green Expo, Minneapolis; www.NorthernGreenExpo.org
8-9, Oklahoma and Arkansas Horticulture Industries Show, Tulsa; www.hortia.okstate.edu/his.htm
12-13, Mid-States Horticultural Expo, Louisville, Ky.; www.mshe.org
15-16, Texas Nursery & Landscape Association Management Workshop, Galveston, Texas; www.tnlaonline.org
20-22, Mid-America Horticultural Trade Show, Chicago; www.midam.org
25-27, CENTS 2010, Columbus, OH; www.onla.org/cents
Jan. 31-Feb. 3, ANLA Management Clinic, Louisville, Ky.; www.anla.org

February 2010
3-4, Chesapeake Green Horticulture Symposium, Linthicum, Md.; www.chesapeakegreen.org
3-5, New England Grows, Boston, Mass.; www.newenglandgrows.org
8-10, ProGreen Expo, Denver, Colo.; www.progreenexpo.com
9-12, Southern Nursery Association Forum 2010, Atlanta; www.sna.org