HRI Receives $30,000 From Florikan ESA Corp.
The Horticultural Research Institute (HRI) and its Endowment Fund has created the $30,000 Silver Circle Level – Ed and Betty Rosenthal Florikan Endowment Fund. The Rosenthals have established this fund as a way to “give back” to the industry they love, according to ANLA. The fund was established to improve the marketing of environmentally friendlier horticulture and research that supports environmentally sustainable horticulture and landscape practices.
Florikan is also the recipient of the 2004 ANLA Allied Associate Award and National Most Innovative New Product of the Year for the United States Award in the small business category by The National Society of Professional Engineers. The winning products – Florikan’s Staged Nutrient Release and 3-Stage controlled-release fertilizers – combine pure scientific innovation with attention to the concerns that affect growers most: time, money and a successful growing year. In 1981, Rosenthal created Florikan with his wife and business partner, Betty. Florikan employs 50 people and maintains distribution warehouses in Sarasota and Apopka, Fla., Semmes, Ala., and Forest Hills, La. Florikan also operates a fertilizer blending and manufacturing plant in Sarasota and a blow mold plastic nursery pot manufacturing plant.
“We are very proud that due to continuous introduction of innovative new products to our industry, the name Florikan has become synonymous with the idea that positive change could happen when an individual decided to become educated in technology to produce crops more efficiently, while reducing impact on the environment” said Ed Rosenthal, Florikan E.S.A. president and CEO.
Founded in 1962, HRI has directed more than $4 million of industry funds to research projects covering the full range of production, environmental and business issues important to the trade. HRI distributed $205,000 in grants for 2004 scholarships and research projects ranging from research evaluating marketing and production trends in the nursery industry to plant pathogen management.
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