Great news for two states, anyway: the governors of Michigan and Illinois have said that their states garden retailers may open up this spring. Hooray for them and for the growers and hardgoods companies that supply them!

The rulings are different. In Michigan, Governor Whitmer has not termed us “essential," however, she has said our garden stores and nurseries can reopen immediately, subject to enhanced social-distancing rules, which include:

- Barring gatherings of any size in which people cannot maintain 6 feet of distance from one another

- Limiting in-person interaction with clients and patrons to the maximum extent possible, and barring any such interaction in which people cannot maintain 6 feet of distance from one another

- Must establish lines to regulate entry … with markings for patrons to enable them to stand at least 6 feet apart from one another while waiting. Stores should also explore alternatives to lines, including by allowing customers to wait in their cars for a text message or phone call, to enable social distancing and to accommodate seniors and those with disabilities.

- Stores of less than 50,000 sq. ft. of customer floor space must limit the number of people in the store (including employees) to 25% of the total occupancy limits established by the State Fire Marshal or a local fire marshal

- Stores of more than 50,000 sq. ft. must limit the number of customers in the store at one time (excluding employees) to four people per 1,000 sq. ft. of customer floor space, and must create at least two hours per week of dedicated shopping time for vulnerable populations, which … are people over 60, pregnant women and those with chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes and lung disease

The updated rules include lawn care, landscape and pest control services, too. They have their own protocols to follow involving tool sharing, PPE and such.

In Illinois, Governor Pritzker has said that greenhouses, garden centers and nurseries are essential businesses, and that goes into effect May 1. The ruling requires that stores follow social distancing requirements, and that employees and customers must wear face coverings.

Also opening up: Outdoor recreation, including state parks, fishing and boating, and even golf courses (under strict safety guidelines).

Interestingly, animal grooming services were also named as essential. There must be some pretty funky dogs living with the decision-makers. Thankfully, my cat does her own grooming.

Overall, however, Illinois is remaining cautious. Everyone over the age of two must wear a face covering when in public indoor spaces and if they can’t maintain a 6-foot distance outdoors. And the overall stay-at-home order is extended to May 30.

Chances are very good you’d already heard that your trip to Columbus this summer for your 28th “Ohio” in a row has fallen victim to the pandemic.

That’s right—Cultivate’20 will not be held in the Columbus Convention Center in July. Instead, AmericanHort is taking the event online and dubbing it “Cultivate’20 Virtual.” That, of course, is due to the almost certain limits on large gatherings that will be in force this summer, along with folks’ hesitation or inability to travel. However, the virtual event will take place in the same time frame, starting the week of July 13 and running into the next. In fact, much of the event, most notably the educational sessions, will remain online long after the show ends—one bright side to the news, I reckon.

I emailed AmericanHort CEO Ken Fisher to get some insights into the decision-making process.

“Although I earlier put a May 11 target on the calendar to make the Cultivate’20 go/no-go decision (60 days out seemed reasonable at the time), the events of the past several weeks have further informed the decision,” he told me. “The public health emergency will not be adequately mitigated by July, our society won’t be back to normal travel, and public officials won’t likely be giving the ‘green light’ for 10,000-person events. It’s unfortunate, but based on the health risks, the right decision. I made the recommendation to our Board of Directors and they unanimously agreed that an in-person event in July was improbable.”

But knowing how important Cultivate is to our industry for education, commerce and networking, Ken and his team thought, “If we can’t convene in person, what’s the next best option?”

The virtual version of the Cultivate event will include a 3-D digital tradeshow where exhibitors and attendees can share information, view video presentations, chat live and make connections. More than 50 live educational sessions will be offered and attendees can even go to the HRI online Garden Party, an event to socialize and show appreciation for the work of HRI supporters and researchers. The town hall will still take place virtually, and there will be roundtable discussion groups and other opportunities for online networking.

Best of all, the Expo-Only pass will be free for everyone, and the All-Access Education Pass will be free to AmericanHort members and discounted for non-members.

“We’ve all had to learn to be innovative and adapt our business practices to this challenging environment,” says Susie Raker-Zimmerman, chairwoman of the AmericanHort board of directors and vice president of Raker-Roberta’s Young Plants. “I’m excited to be part of an online option that allows our industry to connect with peers and continue to maintain a sense of community.”

You can find out more at www.cultivatevirtual.org.

GrowerTalks/Green Profit will have a virtual tradeshow booth. How I’ll hang out in it and chat with my friends, well, we’ll have to see. Oh, our annual Young Grower/Young Retailer Award ceremony, normally held during the “Unplugged” session, will also be a part of the virtual festivities. We’re working out the details as you read this.

The biggest downside to the virtual event? No Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream. Then again, you can order online and eat it as you browse the trade show.

USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed the detection of Ralstonia solanacearum race 3 biovar 2 in the geranium cultivar Fantasia Pink Flare in a Michigan greenhouse. The plant that tested positive was shipped from breeder Ball FloraPlant’s geranium farm in Guatemala. APHIS is working closely with them and distributor Ball Seed to take immediate action to contain and eradicate the disease.

To learn more about the situation, I spoke with Ball FloraPlant President Mike Klopmeyer. Back in 2003-2004, Mike was instrumental in working with APHIS and all the other geranium breeding companies to develop the strict Ralstonia prevention protocols that are in place today.

Mike told me the Michigan operation in question received a total of 22,800 callused cuttings of Fantasia Pink Flare over a five-week period this winter. Once rooted and growing, about 400 of them, shipped in either Week 6 or Week 7, began to exhibit bacterial wilt symptoms.

Once tests revealed the cause to be the r3b2 strain of Ralstonia, Ball FloraPlant immediately notified APHIS and made the decision to destroy every Pink Flare shipped thus far—288,000 cuttings shipped to 288 greenhouses in the U.S. and 55 in Canada—whether or not they showed any symptoms. In addition, Ball FloraPlant and APHIS are asking those operations to dispose of any plants growing next to or under their Pink Flare plants, just in case they were exposed to the bacterium.

“Cut deep, cut hard” is how Mike described the effort to present any risk of disease spread. And thus far, only another 50 or so plants in a “handful” of operations have shown any symptoms.

“Our focus in the coming days is to support our affected customers as they work with APHIS-PPQ on eradication of infected geraniums and proper disposal,” Mike said. “In the coming weeks, we will focus on processes at our farm to be re-certified so we can resume shipping to the U.S. and Canada.”

Normally, offshore-borne plant diseases are handled between the seller and the greenhouse, without USDA involvement. In this case, this particular strain of Ralstonia is on a USDA quarantine list because it can cause a wilt disease in several important agricultural crops, including potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. If it became established here, it could wreak havoc with those food crops, which is why APHIS takes it so seriously.

This is the first confirmed case of Ralstonia r3b2 in a U.S. greenhouse since 2004. That was at the tail end of the first big outbreak of Ralstonia on geraniums, which came into Michigan on some Americana Dark Red geranium cuttings imported from Kenya. That eventually led to the temporary quarantine of more than 800 greenhouse operations. (You can read about that outbreak HERE.)

Unfortunately, at the time the industry didn't have any protocols in place for dealing with Ralstonia. They do now, which is why Ball FloraPlant was able to move so quickly with the help of APHIS to clamp down on the outbreak before it could spread.

While we want the virus curves around the country and the world to aim downard, we want OUR curve to head upwards—and that’s just what’s happening in the official, exclusive, virus-free GrowerTalks Weekend Sales Summary. The scores for this past weekend? 6.4 in the U.S. and 8.0 in Canada. That’s up from 6.0/5.3 for Easter, 5.7/3.8 April 4-5, and 5.7/3.0 March 28-29, the first weekend of the survey. A nice trend given the circumstances!

Here’s the map:
 

That’s based on 83 scores from 40 states and four provinces. You sent in 19 10s—23% of the scores!

I don’t want to read too much into this, of course. As of last weekend we were still in crisis mode in some part of the country like Michigan (where all the scores that came in were 0, except for one guy who ships south and gave it a 10, and another who’s selling gift certificates and gave it a 2), Pennsylvania (one score of 0—“still not allowed to open”) and the Northeast (New England scored a country-low 3.3 and the East was second-worst at 4.6). And up in supposedly stellar Canada, Ontario scored a measly 2.7 on the strength of a 5, a 1 and a 2.

So there are those who have zero business due to the shutdown, some who have a bit of business, but it’s inhibited by online/curbside selling restrictions, and some who've reduced business due to weather. In a normal season, we’d only have the last one to deal with. Given that, I think 6.4/8.0 is pretty good. And I can’t wait to see if Michigan rebounds on the news that their garden centers can open up this coming weekend (Illinois will have to wait for the first week of May).

No, not THOSE hot spots. I’ll leave that to the evening news. Hot plant-selling spots! Again, it was the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia scoring a whopping 9.5 average. BC scored two 10s and two 9s. One of those 9s would have been a 10, but the grower had run out of plants. “Customers are ordering May volumes while we are growing April-sized crops,” he stated.

Washington had only one score, but it was a perfect 10 … in fact, 10+. The comment attached to the score? “Wow—who would have ever guessed that sales would be so strong during all that’s going on in the world! We’re feeling so blessed—and exhausted. Setting records every day and the weekend was no exception. Actually hoping for some rainy days to slow things down a bit so we can play catch-up!”

Oregon came in with two 10s and two 8s for an average of 9. Said one of those 10 respondents: “We are one of the lucky ones who can remain open to customers (with extraordinary distancing and sanitizing strategies), while also doing online sales for in-store pickup. Triple the work. Customers have discovered gardening!”

Remember last time I gave you some information from John Derrick in British Columbia about the protocols BC was requiring him to do in order to remain open? John sent in a score of 10 and added this critical note:

“I can’t stress enough that you have to reduce customers and keep strict protocols in place or risk losing essential shopping status. There are people watching us all the time and want us closed down like a lot of other non-essential businesses.”

Good advice, John!

Another hot spot was California. It would have scored 9.7 on two 10s and a 9 … but then Butte College scored it a 1 because “seriously decreased capability for sales” ruined what they hoped would have been a BIG spring plant sale.

That didn’t seem to slow things at Green Hills Nursery in Fresno, where José Hernandez reports they are “following city guidance by marking high traffic areas to promote social distancing. Also using plenty of signs throughout the nursery, letting customers know that we couldn’t do one-on-one help. Parking lot was full to capacity. Broke out previous sales record by 50%.”

Same goes for Cal Color Growers in Morgan Hill. Owner Dave Vincent sent in his first 10 of the season, writing:

“A surprisingly good weekend in Northern California with sales similar to last year’s numbers. Vegetables and herbs combined continue to lead gross sales at 35% of total (down from 57% just three weeks ago). The good news is people are adding a higher percentage of perennials, premium annuals and annuals back into their carts.”

The Southwest did well, too. I got a 10++ from Tom Birt at Mesquite Valley Growers Nursery in Tucson, Arizona, who wrote, “Biggest week ever by 30%.” In New Mexico, Gary Guzman scored it a 9, saying, “The ‘No mask or face cover/no entry’ policy is working for us! Limited number of patrons at a time going well. Best spring weather that I can remember.”

Lastly, a Québécois scored the weekend a 10 saying, “Three times normal sales, customers in panic mode. They want to grow their own vegetables. They feel alone, so buy a houseplant.”

It’s always gratifying when a northern grower or retailer reports strong sales earlier than expected. Such as Idaho, where Davy Holley of Moss Greenhouses scored his weekend a 10. He wrote:

“What Shelter-in-Place order? The weather was great this past weekend, low 60s and sunshine, and that brought the shoppers out … Vegetables continue to lead the way in sales, and we have sold out pretty much of our first and second crops. It’s still a little early, but I am very hopeful of a good season.”

Debbie Foisy of Deb’s Greenhouse in Alberta, Canada, scored her weekend a 10, explaining, “We are normally not open yet, and have brought in over $50,000 online since we launched our online store less than two weeks ago.”

Quite a few of you commented on the continued boom in vegetable sales. For instance, Kathy Miller of Sedan Floral in Kansas said their vegetable sales are at an all-time high.

Mark Landa of Boulevard Flower Garden in Virginia wrote this long note on the topic:

Edibles are still leading the way as one of the top categories and new gardeners are showing up every day. Due to the pandemic and being forced to stay home, they see things that need to be done, and see their neighbors working and suddenly there’s a competition. More raised beds are being built. Some people are worried about the future and [are] raising their own food. Our sales have been off the chart because of marketing with curbside pick-up and delivery. Our entire inventory is live on our e-commerce website and it has made a tremendous difference in the way the customer shops and learns about new plants.”

Mark added that he has to give credit to his two daughters and their ability to use social media to great effect.

“We have spent no money on traditional advertising, print, radio or TV so far this year and sales are up over 60% and our main building is not open to the public. That says a lot when we are open 19 fewer hours a week. I just hope it continues!”

I haven’t signed up because I don’t have time to make use of it, but I think one of the best online learning tools is Masterclass. I say this based on the who's who of instructors they’ve attracted: Helen Mirren, Ron Howard, Carlos Santana, Wolfgang Puck, Thomas Keller, Serena Williams, Annie Liebovitz, Neil Degrasse Tyson and many more.

Joining these illustrious names is “Gangster Gardener” Ron Finley, teaching gardening. The South Central LA man got cited for gardening on public property, then fought the law and got it changed, starting an urban gardening revolution in the process.
 

The class couldn't come at a better time! But they didn’t slam this together to capitalize on the pandemic—their production is super slick and top-notch.

"Gardens to me represent freedom," Ron says. Check out the trailer HERE.

As for what class I’d take if I had the time? Aaron Franklin teaching Texas-style BBQ, of course.

My favorite note of all this week came from Beth Weidner in North Central Missouri:

“People are acting like they have snuck out of the house through the bedroom window because they’re grounded for breaking curfew. And they are bringing money. Cash … exact change?! Weird … one of the filthiest things in the world, but they don’t want us touching their plastic. I am grateful. Please Jesus, let them keep sneaking out with money.”