Landscape Architect Articles

Florikan Aids Victims of Worst Hurricane Season in Decades01-01-05 | News

Florikan Aids Victims of Worst
Hurricane Season in Decades

Ed Rosenthal, president and CEO of Florikan, and his employees, delivered supplies to growers throughout the southeast.

Florikan E.S.A. (Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture), a Sarasota, Florida-based company founded in 1982 that provides horticultural products for growers throughout the Southeast, executed a regional industry hurricane assistance plan. With four major hurricanes hitting the southeastern United States within five weeks, company leaders launched efforts to help affected nurseries.

Ed Rosenthal kicked-off the relief campaign by personally hand-delivering ice, water, and supplies to growers spanning the region. Other donated items included generators, ladders, cable cutters and large quantities of Florikan poly film.

One employee, Lee Padgett, drove 1,200 miles roundtrip to purchase and provide six generators for a nursery on Florida’s East Coast. Padgett and Danny Brook, another employee, formed a plan to transport the generators from points north to the Georgia-Florida state line, and then to the southern part of storm-battered Florida. Still others on the Florikan team, like Dyke Holly, became Red Cross volunteers and drove vehicles to deliver food and water to distressed areas. They also established an Emergency Relief Depot at a damaged nursery where 300 people were housed.

“Everything is put into clear perspective when something such as a devastating hurricane brings destruction and harm to so many people in the industry,” observed Eric Rosenthal, the company marketing director. “We considered it our duty and privilege to provide aid to our grower-partners across the region.”

The American Nursery and Landscape Association (ANLA) selected Florian for its 2004 Allied Associate of the Year Award, recognizing the company’s efforts to help nurseries find better methods to grow ornamental plants and be environmentally conscientious. For more information, visit www.florikan.com

Super Honored for Fundraising Efforts

The Oakes and Blanche Ames’ Borderland mansion, Easton, Mass., and its 1,500 acres make up Borderland State Park.

The Easton, Mass. Historical Commission honored Mansfield resident Bob Babineau with the Chaffin award, recognizing his fundraising efforts to preserve Easton’s history. The award is named after Minister William Chaffin, author of History of Easton.

Babineau, a superintendent of Borderland State Park for 23 years who retired in October 2003, coordinated the efforts of park staff, the state agency that oversees the park, and the Friends of Borderland to assist the park in public programming and to raise money for the restoration of the historical contents of the Ames Mansion.

Blanche Ames (1878-1969) was an artist and women’s rights activist. Her husband, Oakes Ames (unrelated), was a botany instructor at Harvard. In 1906, the couple bought 1,500 acres of farm land on the border of Sharon and Easton, Mass., which they dubbed “Boarderland.” They designed and constructed a three-storey stone mansion of 20 rooms in 1910, furnishing it with many of Blanche’s paintings. Blanche did oil portraiture, drawings of orchids for her husbands scholarly works, and political cartoons.

In 1969, Blanche died. In 1971, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts acquired the mansion and estate and opened Borderland State Park. Today the public enjoys the hiking trails, horseback riding, fishing and canoeing in the ponds, and ice-skating and sledding in the winter.

Though the mansion belongs to the state it does not fund restoration of the historical contents. While at Borderland, Babineau raised at least $150,000 to restore the mansion’s historical contents by selling a ton of hot dogs and t-shirts.

“It absolutely was a team effort with people on the park staff and the Friends of Borderland,” Babineau told the Mansfield News.

Babineau recently took a position as director of the Natural Resources Trust of Easton.