Photo credit: Lloyd Fox/The Sun

To paraphrase something from the Clinton campaign war room, "It's the weather, stupid. Not the economy."

If retail garden centers are having a tough time this spring, it is probably because the weather has been cold and rainy and the weekends have been lousy.

The predictions for this year's gardening season were dire. No one thought that there would be any spare cash for spending on silly things like plants.

"I kept saying," said Steve Castorani, owner of North Creek Nurseries, a plant breeder, and the Gateway Garden Center in Delaware, "what we really need to have is good weather in the spring, especially on the weekends in the Northeast.

"And we didn't have a stellar spring. All the rain was good if you are a grower, but if you are counting on pleasant weekends to bring in customers who want to start their garden work, March and April and the beginning of May weren't good."

Castorani's optimism was shared by those who believed that 1) people might not have money for vacations but they will find money to fix up their back yards and 2) flowers might be like alcohol. In bad times, they can lighten the mood.

It is still early. Plenty of time to get your gardens up to snuff before July 4th. And last weekend was a beauty. As this photo from Valley View Farms by Lloyd Fox suggestions, people are buying. That's good news for garden centers.