Unseasonably cold weather puts a damper on flower industry

A wet April and below seasonal temperatures have pushed the gardening season back two to three weeks and it has meant a huge loss for the flower industry which thrives for the eight weeks between mid-April to mid-June. 

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"Because it has been so cold, nobody has been buying," said Hedy Dyck, executive director of the B.C. Landscape and Nursery Association. 

Dyck said the slow start to the season has meant growers have lost about a third of their sales. 

"They can't stop plants from growing in the greenhouse. If they get too tall and leggy and it starts to stress the plant, the plant becomes unhealthy and unsellable,"

"Some growers been throwing out plants and starting new batches," she said. 

CBC senior metrologist Johanna Wagstaffe said we've seen unseasonable temperatures and weather.

"We've seen record snow and below seasonable temperatures from December to March. We were almost two degrees below seasonal on average," she said. 

Nurseries have taken measures to guard plants against the cold by covering them up, but batches of plants have gone unsold.  

"We should have sold tons of [pansies] between February and now, and it didn't really move as much. We did move a few of them, but now we are going from pansies season to annuals," said Shelley Levis, retail manager at Art's Nursery in Surrey, B.C. 

If the cold weather wasn't tough enough on plants, a rainy month has made working the garden difficult. 

"Your yard is pretty much all mud. It's not really nice to work at right now," said Levis. 

According to Wagstaffe, 130 millimetres of rain has fallen in Vancouver on average this month. 

"Averages are around 88 millimetres, so we are not quite double, but it has been very wet," said Wagstaffe. 

Levis said while sales are down significantly compared to last year, she is hopeful that once the sun peeks through, the customers will come out in droves.

The forecast seems to finally be turning in favour of the gardners.

"In the next couple of weeks, we finally see some spring weather, the long range forecast for early May is sunny and mild, so I think we are going to get what we are deserving very soon," said Wagstaffe.