Sixty four years ago, in the spring of 1944, florists from United States and Canada met socially to get to know one another
and discuss business,industry changes and wire services. Wholesalers,
Bankers and other industry people, became
very interested and they would
exchange meeting places of mutual consent on either side of the border.
As this group grew,
the wire service industry offered to facilitate,
by means of sponsoring guest speakers to help florists grow in their business.
F.T.D. was the leader in knowledge at that time and supported the group enormously.
As a result, it became known as
Niagara International Association of FTD Members
and has maintained the same for the past 62 yrs.
Faced with the diverse changes in the floral industry, the Board decided to change the
name to
Niagara International Association of Florists (NIA),
opening the door to all florists
regardless of what wire service
they
belonged to.
Floral Design Shows have diminished and NIA felt no florist should be excluded
because of membership affiliation.
Niagara International Association of Florists will continue its mandate to educate
the floral industry and involve our
Community College Floral Culture programs,
which is an integral part of NIA's continued success.
