History
The Gateway To The Americas International Floral Design Competition was founded in 1996 by Gus & Deborah De La Flor to promote the art of floral design, education and camaraderie within the floral community throughout the Americas.
After doing floral presentations and teaching in North, Central & South America, Gus & Deborah fell in love with the beautiful florists in these countries and knew they should do something to bring the floral industry together.
"After doing floral presentations and teaching in North, Central & South America we fell in love with the beautiful florists in these countries and knew we should do something to bring the floral industry together"
Today
The best and the brightest floral artists are selected for entry into this competition to represent their respective countries.
The competition runs over three days of intense competition covering 5 different categories of design. Each category/task is timed, all competitors must complete the design within a time frame.
The competitiors are judged on their extreme skill, creativity as well as all principles and elements of floral design. Gus & Deborah are extremely proud of all the great floral talents who have competed over the years in our gateway competition. Several winners have gone on to compete in the Interflora world cup, and become icons in the floral industry – Ivan Moreno Colombia, Tanus Saab Brazil, Deborah De La Flor AIFD USA (1999 FTD borrowed and ran the cup from Las Vegas, and I was able to enter), Jacob McCall AIFD USA, Leopoldo Gomez Mexico, Paul Jaras AIFD Canada. They hope to continue this trend.