It’s been a crippling spring for garden centres in Metro Vancouver. Rain, rain and more rain has kept gardeners indoors.
And exceptionally cold weather has put flowering times behind, some say by as much as a month. It is May, but it feels like early April.
Garden centres have had the worst April sales in years.
Last year, it was the opposite. April was a bumper month with soaring sales breaking records. April 2016 was warm and dry and everyone wanted to get out and garden. It was one of the best springs ever.
Alfred Kwan, of Western Independent Greenhouses in Burnaby, a popular destination garden centre for many plant experts, says April has been a disaster across the board for everyone in the garden business.
“I know pretty much everyone in the business and they are all telling me the same thing – April has been a rotten month with sales down dramatically,” he says.
“But, hey, it’s a game of swings and roundabouts. We had a bad April, so we are likely to have a great May and June. It usually all evens out.
“Last year, April was fantastic. Everything was booming. This year, sales are as flat as a pancake. But I really think we are going to see some hectic times in the coming weeks.”
In Calgary, the window for buying plants is traditionally a short period of six weeks from the end of April through to June. Staff at garden centres there deal with a torrent of gardeners sweeping in to buy everything they need in one big shopping spree.
Garden centres here in British Columbia are expecting to see the same kind of phenomena – with a sudden and rapid increase in sales the moment the weather changes and the sun comes out and a mad rush by gardeners seizing the opportunity to get planting.
“I’ve been in this business for more than 30 years, ” says Kwan. “I’ve seen good years and bad years. There is no point getting anxious about it. It all turns out okay in the end. You just have to make sure you have good, quality product available when the rush begins.”
