The 2016 Season Summary

Chris Beytes

More than 100 of you have faithfully provided weekend ratings since March, representing every state except Hawaii (where it’s always spring) and almost every province except the Yukon and Northwestern Territories, Nunavut and Newfoundland/Labrador (where it’s either never spring or there are no growers or retailers or there’s no Internet connection).

So how was Spring 2016? Drum roll, please …

... 7.1 in the U.S. and 7.6 in Canada. Solid results and a definite improvement over the last two years, as you’ll see in a moment.

As I said, it’s an improvement and also a positive trend curve. Last year, the final score was 6.9 in the U.S. and 6.9 in Canada. And 2014 was even lower, at 6.7/6.5. So while the season might not have felt really good for you, it was better overall than it has been.

Six states—Florida, Washington, New Mexico, Tennessee, North Carolina and Mississippi—scored above 8 for the season. Florida was on top at 8.8, but that’s based on relatively few scores. The states with the most scores, and so the most “statistical” accuracy, would be North Carolina and Washington. Both scores were above 8 in March, April and May, only descending to “normal” levels in June (6.6 and 7.1, respectively).

In the bad news department, eight states scored 6.3 or lower. North Dakota was the only state in the Union to score in the fives (5.3). But to be fair, their season can’t begin in March and probably not even in April, which is why they scored 1.3 and 3.0, respectively, which dragged down their May (8.3) and June (6.3) scores. Plus, it’s another state where I don’t get many ratings each week to help average out the scores across multiple businesses. Same with Alaska, which scored 6.0. New York is probably the state with the most ratings and the lowest score (6.3). Month by month, they scored 4.8, 7.3, 6.0 and 8.2. In other words, a bad May really hurt them.

No one region did really well or really poorly. The South and the Northwest came out on top, at 7.6 each. The Plains (6.6), New England and the East (6.7 each) did the worst. Of those regions, it was the Eastern states that could have done better.

Canada scored 7.6 for the season, beating the U.S. by 0.5, and beating last year’s score by 0.6 and their 2014 performance by a full 1.1 points, so you guys and gals in the Great White North should be pleased!

The top-performing provinces? Alberta and British Columbia, both at 8.0. They started strong in March and stayed strong through June. Compare that to Ontario, the lowest-scoring province, which had a dismal March and April (4.4 and 5.8, respectively).

BC is coastal, of course, with temperate conditions much of the year. Like our Pacific Northwest, they often score well. As for Alberta, well, I’ll chalk it up to a few good garden centers that know how to draw a crowd even when it’s cold outside. GT