Stellar! The porches and patios of moms all across North America must look fantastic, judging from the weekend scores you growers and retailers sent in.

The final scores for the U.S. and Canada were 8.8 and 9.5, respectively. That’s by far the highest Mother’s Day score for the U.S. since I started this survey in 2011. (The next highest was 8.3, in 2012 and 2016). And this in spite of spotty regional rain!

Canada, meanwhile, isn’t waiting for their upcoming three-day Victoria Day Weekend to set records: 9.5 ties not only their best Mother’s Day, but  also their best weekend ever, which was in 2012. The next best was 9.4 for Mother’s Day 2015 and 9.3 for May 31-June 1, 2014. To put it in perspective, Canadians sent in 18 scores—12 of them were 10, two were 9.5, two were 9, one was 8 and one was 7. If there was a bad spot in Canada, I didn’t hear about it. I suspect even Alert, Nunavut, had an amazing Mother’s Day!

Here’s the map:

The data is based on 138 scores from 45 states and 7 provinces.

I keep track of perfect ratings and this week 63 of you (46%) gave your weekend a 10. I also checked for 9.5s and 9s; 37 of you (28%) sent in those scores. So combined, 74%—three-quarters of you—sent in scores of 9 or above for Mother’s Day. That’s pretty good, folks!

Now, that’s not to say there weren’t a few weak spots. A scan through the data reveals a few 4s and 5s, and even a 1. I’ll get to those in a minute. But first, a few sample comments about the killer weekend (scores, when not in the text, are in parentheses):

New Hampshire: “On the wholesale end, we were at a 10—we were up significantly over prior year and ahead of 2015, which was our best week ever heading into Mother’s Day. It’s funny how the nice weather makes everyone forget how dreadful it was less than a month ago!”—Andy Huntington, Pleasant View Gardens

Ohio: “Despite being cold and rainy much of Saturday, sales were up from last year. Set new records for the week and for Mother’s Day Saturday (we’re closed Sundays).”—Kim Grant, Strait Gate Greenhouses (9)

California: “This was our biggest week this year and 15% over plan. Needless to say, production suffered, lots of overtime and everyone is tired, but this is what we live for, after all!"—Dave Vincent, Cal Color Growers (10)

Washington: “Couldn’t have ordered better weather—and that makes all the difference in this business! Seventy-five degrees and sun with a gentle breeze makes for a record-breaking weekend!”—David Vos, Vander Giessen Nursery (10+)

Colorado: “Despite rain and mist on both Saturday and Sunday afternoon, they came to make mom happy. Only snow could have put a damper on sales.” —Gene Pielin, Gully Greenhouse (8).

North Pole (Alaska): “It was a 9. Lots of new faces, young families and happy people! It was a fun and profitable weekend.”—Angie Hawks, Hawks Greenhouse

Ohio: “Last year was our best weekend ever (we are closed on Sundays, so Friday/Saturday is my weekend). This year, we topped last year’s sales both days."—Chuck Lehotsky, Chuck’s Greenhouses (10+)

Ohio: "Third best Mother’s Day ever. The week leading up to Mother’s Day was the second-best ever. Woo-hoo!"—Kevin Wilson, Shademakers (10)

Oklahoma: “Absolutely AWESOME; three record weeks in a row. We are tired, but very happy.” Joe Ward, Southwood Nursery (10)

Where was it best? I’m going to say Ohio. You guys sent in more scores than any other state (12) and more 10s, too (9). The other three scores were 9, 9 and 8. I’ll put my former home state of New Hampshire in second place (three 10s and two 9s). Wisconsin was good, too (three 10s and an 8).

Pennsylvania, Oregon, Texas and Illinois seemed to have regional weather issues, which led to scores from 7 to 10. Montana scored two 10s and a 4. Michigan got a 9.5, two 9s and a 5. Connecticut scored 5, 6, 8 and 9,  Iowa ranged from 5 to 8.5.

I was pleasantly surprised to see my current home state of Illinois score 8.8 for the weekend, as I thought it was about a 7, based strictly on weather. I was outside Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and the first two days felt more like March or November—cold (40s) and damp. I thought it would keep all but the diehards at home. Sunday was better and my stop at a local DIY reflected that. But truly, sales aren't based just on rain and temperature; Trevor Woldhuis of Woldhois Farms in the far southern cornfields of Chicagoland said the rain stayed away and they had their second-best single day ever … beaten only by the previous Saturday!

One key to the high scores from some of you was a strong week leading up to Mother’s Day. Joked Ellen Egan of Egan Gardens in Oregon, “There was lots of retail traffic throughout the week, everyone saying they wanted to ‘get there before Mother’s Day.’ Too late, guys, it was Mother’s Day all week.”

A few of you mentioned heat (Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina), but added that it wasn’t oppressive and didn’t impact sales by much. We're on the downward slope in the South and heat could kill the end of the season, so let’s hope it stays mild … or at least not humid!

That’s the big question after a dismal April across most of the country that led to low sales and much-dumped product: Will a great May and June be enough to make the difference? As Abe Van Wingerden of Metrolina Greenhouses told me after the weekend of April 28-29, “We know we have 50 days to sell what we normally sell in 75 days.”

I asked that question of David Keeler of Jolly Farmer in New Brunswick, Canada. They sell across eastern Canada and into New England and New York, and David kindly provides weekly scores for the whole region. Replied David:

“Yes, I would say that it looks like the year will be a good year for us. The slow start to the season did not result in dumping product, only in delayed orders and the resulting headaches for production dealing with overfull greenhouses! But we’re starting to catch up somewhat, space is opening up and I’m optimistic about the season as a whole.”

What do you think? Can you still make your original Spring 2018 plan? And if so, what's it going to take? Or have you had to adjust your expectations? Click HERE to weigh in.

With readers in 66 countries, I never know where I’ll get a response from. This time it was South Africa, where they celebrate Mother’s Day on the same date as we do, even though it’s fall for them, not spring.

Wayne Stewart of Eckards Garden Pavilion near Johannesburg gave the weekend a 10 out of 10, writing: “We had one of the best trade Mothers Day's in years … living plants back in fashion! #Yay.”

I asked Wayne to tell me more and maybe send a few pictures, but he hasn’t gotten back to me yet. Hope he didn't get bit by a lion or something!

It’s always sad to report on the deaths of our friends, but it’s part of life and I’m sure you’d want to know.

Alpha Foliage’s Charles “Chuck” Buster passed away May 3 at the age of 78. He and business partner John DeMott of Redland Nursery joined forces to open Alpha Foliage and Omega Farms, both in Homestead, Florida. This note came from the nursery:

On behalf of the Buster and DeMott families, we are saddened to announce the passing of Chuck Buster on May 3, 2018. He has been a great husband, father, friend and mentor to many and will be missed by all who knew him. He was the most faithful of friends, and always willing to lend a hand and advice when needed.

The families would like to note that we appreciate each and every one of you that participated in making this wonderful man’s life complete.

He left us on his own terms, in good spirits and unwavering strength, able to express his love and appreciation to those he loved.

I’m sorry to say that I didn’t know Chuck, but Art Van Wingerden of Metrolina Greenhouses did, and told me of Chuck’s passing. He wrote:

“He has been growing ferns for us for about 10 to 11 years now. Always did a fantastic job with them. He grew close to a million ferns for us the past six to seven years. Two of his daughters, Jackie and Brenda, are taking over the day-to-day business operations and I think they will do a great job. Jackie runs the operations side of the business and I don’t see it missing a beat with her in charge.”

Tim Burns, who knew Chuck well, said he was a one-name sort of fellow.

“There was Fabian, Madonna and Chuck,” he quipped. Everyone knew who you were talking about.

Greg Soles of Darwin Perennials passed away unexpectedly on May 12. He was 65. A long-time horticulturist, Greg held many positions within the industry, most recently with Darwin, where he served as a Product Representative. He also spent time with Yoder Brothers and Conard Pyle/Star Roses, and before that he owned a nursery business with his wife, Rose.

Ironically, on Friday, I had just finished editing five videos that Jen Zurko shot of Greg for Darwin during Spring Trials, in which he discussed modern perennial breeding. They were posted to YouTube the day before he passed away. You can see them HERE.

John Friel, long time GrowerTalks/Green Profit columnist and Marketing Manager for Emerald Coast Growers, says everyone at Emerald Coast was shocked to hear the news.

“A good guy. He’s been our liaison with Star Roses & Plants and was due to visit us tomorrow with new varieties for our trial garden.”

Not that I like or even use the term—you know me, I’m old-fashioned and still try to keep “Pack Trials” alive—but it was a fun point to make when writing about a project by Canadian retailer Debbie Foisy.

I got an email a couple weeks ago that Debbie, owner of Deb’s Greenhouse in Morinville, Alberta, was hosting something called “New Blooms on July 5." The description said, “The goal of this event is to bring new varieties and programs to the independent growers and retailers in Western Canada.” She's partnered with High Q Greenhouses and they’ll have a container trial garden of future releases for visitors to evaluate.

Sounded to me like a California Spring Trials-like event, so I emailed Deb for some more details. Here’s her reply:

Well, it’s our opening week for the season right now, so it is a bit crazy to be thinking about the 2019-20 introductions already, but yes, we’re planning to launch our own condensed version of the California Spring Trials here for the Canadian independents.

The beginnings of this event started with me working with Westhoff to get a sneak peek on new varieties. I was sending photos of my trials out to my Facebook audience, as well as our own Google group of garden centers that we have up here, and was getting a lot of interest. We thought it would be fun to have an open day in the summer where some of the retailers could come by to see the trials. When I put this out there, the interest was fantastic! So we decided to make it a bit bigger and bring in several different breeding companies to launch the event.

I’m a smaller retailer, so we enlisted the help of Michiel at High Q Greenhouses to grow out many of the trial varieties for this summer. As of now, we’ll be showcasing more than 100 new varieties in large containers, so we can see the plants’ real performance for the consumer. The breeders we’re working with this year are Westhoff, PAC, Florist, PlantHaven, Floranova and Vegetalis. We also invited Dominik Neisser to come talk about plant culture. Dominik was the head grower at EuroAmerican for more than a decade and has grown the show plants at CAST for all the breeders that we have coming, so he has very applicable knowledge from young plant to finished plants for the products we’ll be showing.

The timing of the event is going to work out great for us because it will be after our busy season here and it is immediately following the European Flower Trials, so many of the breeders presenting will be able to give us the first looks at many of their 2020 selections.

Overall though, we have a very strong network between all the independent growers and retailers up here and this is going to be a great way to get us all together and see what’s going to be new so we can stay on the cutting edge for our consumers. I’m looking forward to hearing from the breeders, but also getting the feedback from all of my industry colleagues, as we share ideas and success stories with one another.

Wow! Sounds like a lot of work. But Deb, a self-described “do-er of things, out-of-box thinker, and mother of three dragons and one girl,” is just the person to take it on. Good luck, Deb, and send me some pix!

Off to Orlando for three days to attend the Florida Flower Trials, Epcot’s International Flower & Garden Festival, and a Tropical Plant International Expo committee planning meeting in preparation for the 2019 event (which will be January 16-18 in Ft. Lauderdale—mark your calendars!). If you’re there, say hello! If not, well, I’ll fill you in next time with all that I see, hear and learn.