GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Costa Farms will donate 200 orchids for the University of Florida Agriculture and Gardening Day during the Homecoming football game on Nov. 7. UF Athletics and UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences are hosting the event that revolves around the game between the Gators and the Vanderbilt Commodores, which kicks off at noon.
Costa Farms is a third-generation, family-owned group of companies headquartered in Miami, Florida. The company sprouted in 1961 when its founder, Jose Costa Sr., purchased 30 acres south of Miami to grow fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes in the winter and calamondin citrus in the summer. That soon morphed into houseplants, and the Costa Farms family started innovating and introduced new houseplants such as the canela tree and Cecilia Aglaonema.
The UF/IFAS Tropical Research and Education Center, located in South Florida, supports the orchid industry by offering a full semester online course on orchid biology and culture, in addition to research conducted on orchid production and conservation using biotechnology.
Families who come for the festivities can enjoy tours of the community garden and bat house, plus games, giveaways and special gardens. And a lucky few will get a Costa Farm orchid.
UF/IFAS is the largest entity on campus, comprised of 18 schools and departments with about 5,400 students and 3,000 employees. It is a federal-state-county partnership dedicated to developing knowledge in agriculture, human and natural resources, and the life sciences, and enhancing and sustaining the quality of human life by making that information accessible.
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By: Beverly James, 352-273-3566, beverlymjames@ufl.edu
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