Mother’s Day is almost here. How’s it shaping up in your world?

I just stumbled across this article in USA Today that’s talking about projected spending at florists for Mother’s Day. Teleflora has pulled out all the stops in its quest to grab market share. The company began airing a TV ad last week and paid programming on cable's HSN on Tuesday. The three 30-minute segments on HSN, which reaches 90 million homes, feature a Teleflora florist. Meanwhile, FTD has unveiled a new Web site and line of premium, high-end flower arrangements.

I hope these ventures pay off for everyone involved. The National Retail Federation is projecting that spending for Mother’s Day will drop 10 percent to $14 billion this year. But the organization also predicts flowers and plants will be popular.

How are things looking in your world? Are you expecting good crowds at your store for Mother’s Day?

-- Sarah

Comments

[greg draiss]

Jan-Mar was excellent. April up and down because of erratic weather. Should be able to blow away last May's numbers.

Very busy in pack seeds and annuals thus far.

[Doug Stott (Redmond Greenhouse)]

The weather was just GREAT and so was the traffic. Lots of flowers went out the door plus an unusual amount of of herbs in a variety of containers. We had created our own version of the upsidedown tomatoe planter. We took a 12" "pulp" hanging basket, carved a 3" hole in the bottom (for the tomatoe) then filled with soil and planted the top with the likes of strawberries, nasturtums, trailing herbs, plus lettuce and rainbow swiss chard..... to much fun and what a great hit with our local community. Our sales have been up every month so far this year.......... We hope the weather will continue to treat us well. We can deal and cope with the economy but we struggle with controlling the weather and the effects it casts! The classes we present to our local area have never been so large. Over 100 attended out last class.... that is about a 100% jump over last years classes. My 2 hour radio show is the most listened to show every Saturday over about 9 other stations (talk and music). Optimisum begins in the garden and this is "The Year of the Garden".

[mother's day flowers]

I just sent some bouquet of flowers and mother's day card.I think she like it.

-Aubrey