The Cut Foliage Business: Challenges and Opportunities with David Register from FernTrust
When back-to-back hurricanes tear through Central Florida, what does that mean for the greenery in your cooler? This week Vonda and Lori welcome David Register, Executive Vice President of FernTrust, Inc. — a cut-foliage cooperative of family farms in Seville, Florida. Between running FernTrust, his own fernery operation, and a small cattle company, David rarely sits still, but he sat down with the hosts to talk hurricane recovery, holiday supply, and the labor-saving products more shops should know about.
What "FernCool" and "ColorFresh" actually mean
FernTrust's tagline is "the growing leader," and David explained the innovation behind it. FernCool is their patented freshness system: cut foliage gets a proprietary dip treatment, then goes straight into an unbroken cold chain — pre-cooled, packed and stored under refrigeration, and loaded onto refrigerated trucks bound for markets around the world. Delicate asparagus varieties get their own gentler treatment than sturdy leatherleaf. ColorFresh grew out of their preserved-foliage days: a paint system applied directly to fresh greenery in every color — including metallics and sparkle — that also helps the product last longer. David admits it was a hard sell at first ("everybody thought it was tacky"), but it's now one of their major sellers. Designers asked for thornless options too, and they exist: a thornless sprengeri and tree fern are both on the menu.
Hurricanes, shade houses, and no insurance
Milton did the most damage this year. Helene brought winds and downed a few trees, but Milton delivered gusts over 90 miles per hour — which, as David put it, don't mix well with shade cloth or oak-tree shade. Waking up after the storm, he expected everything to be gone; instead, roughly 65 to 75 percent of their perennials came through undamaged, though 25 to 30 acres of shade house took a substantial hit.
The sobering part: this is the first year the farms carried no insurance on the shade houses. Carriers have either pulled out of the market entirely or priced coverage so high there'd be zero profit left. Hurricanes also hit in strips — some neighboring growers fared far worse, and whether all of them rebuild remains to be seen. Between storm cleanup, a tight labor market, and harvest season for Christmas and Valentine's Day arriving at the same time, repairs will be slow, and some damaged acreage may never come back into production.
What it means for your shop
The headline for retail florists: there should be enough fern in the marketplace to cover most orders through Valentine's Day, though asparagus varieties may run tighter than normal because of tree debris in the naturally shaded growing areas. Expect minor price increases on specialty items — but David notes that inflation and Florida's rising labor costs are as big a price driver as the storms. And the best way to help the growers recover? Keep buying.
David is also thinking generationally. With daughter Victoria after him and granddaughter Charlotte — the company's current social media star — coming up behind her, he refuses to sell below cost just to chase volume: keep reinvesting in the business, he says, because "they call it depreciation for a reason."
The IKEA of flowers: bouquets, garlands, and wreaths
The conversation turned to FernTrust's fabulous foliage bouquets — pre-made greenery bundles from "just add flowers" size up to ultimate. Vonda shared a member's story: the shop had dropped the bouquets as too expensive, then ran the numbers and discovered the pre-made version cost less than buying each foliage individually — before even counting labor. Better yet, wholesalers can have them custom-built to your recipe and size. As David explained, when a designer stops walking back and forth to the cooler for five different greens, the labor savings are real — and the bundles let less-experienced staff produce consistent work. "We can be the IKEA of flowers," he joked. The same custom approach applies to garlands and wreaths, which FernTrust's machines turn out far more efficiently than any shop can by hand — drop in a few fresh flowers or painted foliage and they're event-ready.
An industry that shows up
FernTrust's story goes back five generations — David's grandfather planted twelve acres of leatherleaf under the oaks in 1960, and after a freeze wiped out the family's orange groves in the mid-1980s, three family farms pooled acreage to fill one ocean container a week for the Dutch auctions, launching FernTrust in 1986. Today the focus is North America, though shipments still reach New Zealand and Saudi Arabia.
The episode closes on the hurricanes' human side: shops flooded in North Carolina and on Florida's west coast, and an industry that rallied — members offering trucks and drop-off points, SAF and AIFD organizing relief. FernTrust even shipped a load of vinegar to northwest Florida for disinfectant. As David said, this is an industry of feelings, people, and connections — they don't call it the floral family for nothing.
Key takeaways
- Foliage supply should hold through Valentine's Day, but order asparagus varieties early and expect minor specialty price bumps.
- Run the real numbers on pre-made foliage bouquets — including your designer's time — before assuming they cost more.
- Ask your wholesaler for custom recipes: FernTrust will build bouquets, garlands, and wreaths to your size and contents.
- Pre-made bundles let newer or less-experienced staff produce consistent arrangements — a real answer to the designer shortage.
- Support the growers the way it counts most: keep buying, especially in a recovery year.