Our beautiful Barbera Brooks and Nelson Hiltner of member Floral Rush, LA during a recent SoCal visit.  Love the tilandsia wall!

Limes are used for nutrition, as medicine, and, for aesthetically pleasing accents.  But, have you noticed?  Limes have all but disappeared from your local grocer, corner store and flower markets.  Where have all the limes gone!

A case of limes used to cost as little as $30; prices have shot up to as high as $200. And the limes are smaller — golf-ball-size fruit that doesn’t produce much juice.

Mexico is now the world’s largest producer and exporter of limes, and provides some 95 percent of United States supplies. Generally, the lime harvest is smaller and prices are higher from January through March, but in November and December severe rains knocked the blossoms off lime trees in many areas, reducing lime exports to the United States by two-thirds. California, with just 373 acres, is now the largest domestic lime source — but it produces less than 1 percent of national consumption, and its season is late summer and fall, so it’s no help right now.

Other factors may also be squeezing the lime market. Since 2009 a bacterial disease that kills citrus trees, huanglongbing (HLB, also known as “greening”), has spread across many of Mexico’s lime-growing districts.

As a result of high prices and rampant lawlessness in some Mexican regions, criminals who may be linked to drug gangs are plundering fruit from groves and hijacking trucks being used for export.

All of this suggests an uncertain fate for limes, a fruit we’ve taken for granted for so long. This time the crisis is likely to be temporary. As new crops mature, prices should be back down near $30 by June, and there should be plenty of limes this summer.

Sources are NY Times and NY Post magazines.

Oleg Oprisco is a brilliantly talented photographer from Lviv, Ukraine, who creates stunning surreal images of elegant women in fairy-tale or dream-like settings.

There’s one significant difference, however, that sets him apart from other artists who create similar work – Oprisco shoots using old-school film photography.

And, he does it all with an old $50 film camera.

A chance encounter one rainy afternoon between Carla Bassi of Che Bella Fiori and LaVonne Crawford of Adorations Botanical Artistry blossomed into mutual respect and friendship, and, has now become an exciting new business partnership.

Sometimes when it rains it pours!

B|Brooks Fine Flowers member Garden Style European Flower Market in Tyler, TX, will pick a lucky winner from those who LIKE and Share their Facebook page this Mother’s Day.  Pay it Forward!

Kim Foren of Geranium Lake, OR, a long time B|Brooks member florist, shares some star-studded photos and fun news about a recent event hosted by Grace Hightower and Coffees of Rwanda. This company supports the farmers of Rwanda by buying their coffee, allowing them  to create sustainable businesses.  The event was also sponsored by Robert De Niro’s new VDKA 6100.

Florals by Green Bouquet Floral Design,  CA

 SUNDAY, MAY 11TH

Send early for Mother’s Day!

Juno, an 11-year-old beluga whale at Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Conn., perfectly timed this snapshot behind newlyweds Amanda and Patrick Leigh.

The happy couple, who are self-proclaimed animal lovers, didn’t plan the whale’s amazingly executed photobomb, but sure are glad he was in the right place at the right time to capture his smile on camera.

“That was just a lucky photo,” Amanda Leigh, 27, of West Haven, Conn., told GoodMorningAmerica.com. “We were down in front of the aquarium taking pictures. We paused to fix the dress and the whale happened to come over. My husband and I looked behind us and he was right there, like, ‘Hello.’”

“We never in a million years thought this would be anything,” she explained. “But we used it as our Christmas card and everyone loves it.”

Florals by B|Brooks member Fiore of Pensacola, FL.

Earth Day is an annual event, celebrated on April 22, on which events are held worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection.

Numerous communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues.

The Earth Day Network works with over 22,000 partners in 192 countries to broaden, diversify and mobilize the environmental movement.  More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world.

Fox photo by Sweetmart.

Other images, photographer unknown.