I usually let Bossman Beytes ask for and broadcast the rundown of how weekend sales and traffic panned out over the U.S., Canada and farther afield. I’ll tell you directly how my Mother’s Day holiday weekend went: The weather was miserable!

Southern New England (where I spent the weekend on Prudence Island) and Long Island, where my own mom is, experienced some bizzarro weather, with wild whipping winds, lots of rain and an overall let’s-stay-indoors-and-do-puzzles feeling. In fact, as of this writing, the wild wind is going on Day 5 and the temperatures are just barely 50F. Weather folks promise better for the coming days. Let’s hope.

Unless you had a tornado or a spring snow squall or even just a ho-hum 60F spring weekend, you likely had a better sales weekend than folks up in my part of the world (I hear the Pacific Northwest is chillier than normal, too). Tell me about your weekend and how pleasant and busy or how damp, cold and wind-whipped it was. Drop me a note about it at ewells@ballpublishing.com.

If you’d rather learn how to use TikTok in a more hands-on manner, then head on over to Mavrck.co to download “The Ultimate Guide to Influencer Marketing on TikTok.” It gives you a platform overview, understanding of the algorithms involved, tips for activating influencers, the all-important dos and don’ts of the platform and a valuable campaign brief template.

And lastly, if you still need convincing that putting up short, vertical-format videos from Anytown USA will bring paying customers to your door, you need to read about these small food businesses who have met with success using TikTok as part of their marketing strategy.

Speaking of Gen Z—or at least the teen and pre-teen portion of that group—you can help them get educated, trained and hooked on gardening and the natural world by making a donation to KidsGardening’s Annual Fund Drive. KidsGardening is looking to raise $10,000 during the month of May to help them meet their annual fundraising goals.

About the “win” that I included in the headline, here’s what that’s about: Each week of May they will randomly select one donor to receive a $50 gift card to Gardener’s Supply. And here’s a way to play: Donate multiple times, and you’ll be entered in the drawing multiple times. I like those odds.

Here’s KidsGardening’s executive director Em Shipman with a compelling message that’ll gently twist your arm into donating.

It’s a great mission to support. Do so now by heading HERE. And do so multiple times to stuff that giveaway box with your name!

While my pansies and peas are still quite chilled this spring, I’m starting to get some summer annuals in sample boxes—and I’ll report on some of my faves throughout the summer. However, you may want to see some professionally grown summer trials for yourself. You can do that at the 2022 Summer Trials happening at Metrolina Greenhouses. The Huntersville, North Carolina-based grower is opening its trials gardens to members of the floriculture industry for an Open House on Thursday, June 9, from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Metrolina opens its trials every year as part of the Southern Garden Tour. The Tour includes stops at Young’s Plant Farm in Auburn, Alabama, on June 7 and the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, on June 8.

What’ll you see at Metrolina’s trial gardens? More than 2,000 items! Those’ll include 1,956 annuals, 418 perennials, 375 second-year perennials, 203 2-gal. combination hanging baskets and 126 planters. The company’s focus for their in-depth perennial genus trial this year is heuchera, so expect to see a lot of those, too. That trial should make for some lovely photography.

Oh, and by the way, Metrolina has been holding trials for the last 40 years—nearly from their beginning, which was way back in 1972. Happy 50^th anniversary!

Register for Metrolina’s Open House so they know you’re coming. You can do so HERE.

Maybe you can’t travel that week. Totally understand. Is August better? Good, because the Farwest Show is happening August 24-26 in Portland, Oregon. Registration for both attendees and exhibitors is now open for the popular three-day event that brings together the broad spectrum of hort industry pros—from retailers to growers, tree folks to perennials folks, suppliers to service providers, students to researchers. And if you sign up now, you’ll have access to some sweet discounts. More on that in a minute.

But first, let’s chat about what is available when you attend:

• Two all-day tours prior to the show opening
• Nearly 400 exhibitors
• The New Varieties and New Products Showcases
• More than 45 educational seminars including free mini-sessions and 6 hours of pesticide recertification
• Networking events such as Women in Horticulture, Happy Hour and a Pub Crawl
• Upwards of 5,000 of your closest industry peers!

Early bird registration is available until July 31, and comes with discount pricing on floor passes, the tours and educational seminar passes. You’ll find all the details at www.FarwestShow.com, and you’ll find lodging options HERE. And the show producers caution about giving your credit card to anyone claiming to be a Farwest travel agent—they have not engaged any such services. Be forewarned!

Here’s a request from colleague Jen Polanz.

We are hoping to get a better idea of how pricing has changed from last year to this year on the major live goods offerings. Please take a few minutes to take our survey on retail pricing. We combine all the answers and report on the overall figures, so don’t worry, your information will remain anonymous! Here’s the LINK.

I also heard in my travels recently that customers were nary blinking an eye at any raised prices before loading up their carts. Is that your experience, too? Email me at jpolanz@ballpublishing.com to let me know!

On the topic of pricing and inflation, Tom Contrisciano of the ICL Group wrote in to say that he has not seen a slowdown in the amount of money folks are spending, despite the threats of inflation. Here’s what he had to say:

“I may not represent the typical American shopper, but I am amazed, given inflation, at the amount of money Americans seem to still be spending on non-essentials. There doesn’t seem to be one less car on the road, the stores I visit seem very busy, (and mostly well-stocked) and people seem to be going about their almost-normal lives again. Just on my street, in the past two months there have been new wooden garden sheds delivered, new driveways installed, houses painted and garden plants installed. Paid lawn maintenance services are at their usual level. My niece is throwing her child a big “carnival” for her 7th birthday next month. (Please note in all instances I am referring to middle-class people and not upper middle class.) None of these expenditures are essential.”

And one last thing Tom mentioned about his visits to a few retailers and wholesale growers in Massachusetts and Maine this week. “The feedback I am getting is that the rising costs haven’t slowed sales (yet?). Mother’s Day Weekend was pretty good considering it was cool and windy.” Windy, indeed!

I am not sure why my mind decided to dislodge Baton Rouge from where it is firmly planted in Louisiana and plop it down in the state of Alabama. I may have used some Governor Gatling-like thinking (rouge means red, red tide, Roll Tide! = Alabama). I may have also mistakenly seen an “A” in front of Louisiana’s state abbreviation. In either case I was capitally incorrect. My apologies to the good Baton Rougers I may have offended.