Business

<< Previous   of   Next >> Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald  (click to enlarge) Kathy Clark, from Mercer Island, picks out geraniums at Flower World in Maltby on Sunday. At top, Martha Washington geraniums bask in the filtered greenhouse light. Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald  (click to enlarge) Martha Washington geraniums bask in the filtered greenhouse light at Flower World. (click to enlarge) Daniel Wathne, 17 (left), helps his mother, Linda Criddle, pick out roses at Flower World.   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Mike Benbow, Business Editor benbow@heraldnet.com   Published: Sunday, June 28, 2009 After hard winter and sunny spring, we're spending more at Snohomish County nurseries By Sarah Jackson Herald Writer Everything's coming up roses at a number of locally owned garden centers, despite the down economy. Damaging winter weather, sunny spring weekends, interest in homegrown vegetables and more people staying home to spruce up their yards have spurred sales. John Christianson, who has owned Christianson's Nursery near La Conner with his wife, Toni, since 1990, said 2009 is set to be their best year ever. "April and May have been record months," he said. "Nurseries everywhere this spring have done exceedingly well. There are just more people gardening." It couldn't have come at a better time. Last year, sales were dramatically lower than usual for independent garden centers. Rain dampened every spring weekend in 2008, including Mother's Day weekend, the equivalent of Christmas among nurseries. "Until the weather turned in April, it was 16 months of disappointing sales," Christianson said. "If we had another year like last year, there would have been a lot of places out of business," said Steve Smith, owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville. "A rainy weekend is our recession." Seed sales, which are up dramatically nationwide, are part of the growth, Smith said, reporting an increase of at least 200 percent at his business. They go for only $2 a packet on average. It's the more expensive shrub and tree sales, however, that are really boosting Sunnyside's bottom line. So far this year, they're up more than 20 percent over 2008, thanks to many households replacing broadleaf evergreen plants killed in the particularly harsh winter. Such plants, including heavenly bamboo, viburnum and escallonia, sell for as much as $40 each when sold in 5-gallon pots. After suffering a loss last year, Smith is pleased. He wouldn't consider himself or other nursery owners wealthy, however. "There's not a lot of money to be made in this business," he said. "For most of us, it means we can pay off our line of credit." Emery's Garden general manager Amy Tullis attributes the increase in sales to a decrease in spending on travel and other big-ticket items. "We're being rediscovered," Tullis said. "I think people are nesting more and doing more at home." At Emery's, rosy 2009 revenues have extended into June, a month when sales typically taper off. Consumers clamped down on gardening spending last fall when winter and the recession settled over the country, Tullis said. "People are tired and want to have things again," Tullis said. "It might not be a new car and a big-screen TV, but they want that flowering shrub." Not every sector of the horticultural world is booming, however. Growers, wholesale nurseries and landscaping firms have been socked by the dramatic housing slump, said Melinda Anthony, who owns Puget Sound Nursery Services in Snohomish with her husband, John. Last year, because of the recession, they reduced their staff from six to four. "This year we're still down," said Melinda Anthony, whose business serves about 90 retail nurseries in the region plus wholesale nurseries and landscaping brokers. "They're not ordering as often and they're not reordering items," Anthony said of retail nurseries. "I think they're very cautious about the economy." John and Marijke Postema, who own Flower World near Maltby, fit that description. They grow 95 percent of the plants sold through their retail and wholesale operations. Though the Postemas' nursery sales are up over 2008's low figures, they aren't expecting a record 2009, thanks mostly to the poor real estate market, which equates to fewer new landscaping projects. That hits the wholesale side of their business the hardest. "All this bubble money was around, and people were spending it," John Postema said. "And it's not going to come back." Snohomish County's sagging housing market failed to affect Sorticulture, the city of Everett's free annual arts and garden festival. Featuring about 100 merchants, the three-day June event had a record year with about 14,000 visitors, up from 10,000 in 2008. "Our vendors had a very successful weekend of sales," said Mary Cutler, the city's cultural arts coordinator. "We attribute the nearly 50 percent increase in attendance this year to the growing popularity of gardening and the resurging interest in vegetable gardening, and in going green generally." How long that enthusiasm will last when the economy picks up, especially among beginner vegetable gardeners, is debatable. "Next year the seed sales and vegetable starts will even be bigger," Tullis with Emery's said. Tullis expects gardeners to discover the rewarding side of vegetable gardening. Postema, meanwhile, thinks the trend will be short-lived. Growing a large kitchen garden doesn't necessarily save money and requires regular watering, weeding and fertilizing, plus patience in dealing with pests, diseases and imperfect weather. "By the third year, they'll either succeed or they'll give up," he said. "A certain amount will stick with it." Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037, sjackson@heraldnet.com. READER COMMENTS Be the first to comment. 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