About Us

Seventy-six years ago, in the spring of 1944, florists from the 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 64 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.