SARASOTA, Fla. — The drought across Tampa Bay is leaving more than just brown lawns.
Workers at local plant shops said that sales are slower as customers hold off on buying new greenery until the rain returns.
James Vowels at Your Farm & Garden said the weather is definitely having an impact on plants and customers right now.
“It’s never the same,” he said of his love of working with plants. “I love plants, making people happy, and teaching it, teaching how to take care of them because plants aren’t that hard. They’re like people.”
He’s worked at Your Farm & Garden since 1999, and he’s learned it’s all about presentation.
“We make it look fresh just like a grocery store,” he said.
The store has more than 3,000 types of plants, but lately sales have decreased, and he credits that partly to the current drought.
“This time of year, people lay off purchasing plants for the fact that they’re hoping the rain comes,” Vowels said. “Typically spring, early summer, you don’t get a lot of rain.”
And that concern carries over to customers who say they’ve had to tend to their gardens more because of the drought.
“So, I’m hand-watering a lot before eight in the morning and after six at night,” said customer Polly Curran. “When the sun is not at its height and the roots of the plants can absorb the water.”
Curran said she’s worried about her garden and hopes a shift in weather will come soon.
“You just have to hope for Mother Nature to give us something,” she said.
Vowels said he is confident the weather will change soon.
“As soon as the rain starts again, you’ll see people because they want that,” he said. “They don’t want to have to be watering. A plant needs water at first, and then it kind of acclimates where it doesn’t need to be babied a lot. So they wait for that assistance from nature, and they go and purchase.”