Released April 30, 2008

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- People will spend about $2 billion on flowers for mom this May, and retailers will grab a bigger piece of the pie if they price plants at, say $9.99 rather than $10.

Those are some of the messages offered through “Making Cents” a blog by Dr. Charlie Hall, an agricultural economist and holder of the Ellison Chair in International Floriculture in Texas A&M University’s department of horticultural sciences.

"Profit margins are getting tighter and tighter in the Green Industry due to market conditions becoming increasingly competitive. Therefore, a few cents per pot/plant can make a world of difference,” Hall said.

“While growers, landscape service providers, and retailers have several sources to obtain information for decision making, the purpose of this blog is to provide up-to-the-minute information regarding economic factors affecting green industry businesses and the strategic responses needed to enhance profitability."

Posts are at http://ellisonchair.blogspot.com/. People can also subscribe to the site to receive the posts by e-mail or RSS feeds.

Hall categorizes the responses so that viewers can target areas of interest more readily. Among the topics are: bidding and estimating; consumer confidence; drought effects; economic forecasts; flower trade; immigration reform; international trade; recession; sustainability; and weather impacts.

Users can also comment online to the posts and link the blog to other sites.

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http://agnews.tamu.edu/showstory.php?id=461

Contacts: Kathleen Phillips, (979) 845-2872, ka-phillips@tamu.edu

Dr. Charlie Hall, (979) 458-3277, c-hall@tamu.edu