Although actual 2002 year-end results won't be released until May, the USDA's forecasted floriculture and nursery crop sales still give an idea of what's to come. The USDA predicted sales of $14 billion, $9.2 billion in nursery crop sales and $4.8 billion in floriculture crop sales. The totals increased from $9.3 billion in 1992, a 50-percent leap in a decade. In that decade nursery crop sales rose 46 percent and floriculture crops 58 percent. The estimated sales correspond to $129 per U.S. household in floriculture and nursery sales, $85 in nursery sales and $44 in floriculture sales. Grower sales in each of the four U.S. regions were projected at $1.4 billion in the Northeast, $2.1 billion in the North-central states, $5.7 billion in the South and $4.7 billion in the West.

Source: USDA's Economic Research Service ( www.ers.usda.gov)