Questionnaires were sent to members involved in growing, selling, or using perennials for commercial trade. This provides a margin of error of plus or minus five percent. Responses were distributed throughout six different regions of the U.S. and Canada. Sales by firm specialization was determined by categorizing firms by their primary source of revenue. This survey identified only 155 firms specializing in garden center sales.
Similar issues exist for landscape firms.
Regional differences were found in the percentage of respondents who reported that sales exceeded their expectations, Table 4. As observed a year ago, increased perennial sales were more frequent than any of the other five product categories. The most popular genus sold in the U.S. for 1993 was Hosta , Table 7. The top four selling genera of 1993 were also the top four sellers in 1992. Notable increases in popularity were observed for Herbs, Geum, and Heuchera.