But with all the resulting dead trees, shrubs and lawns, she was setting up lawn companies for a stunning spring sales season.
And then she struck again.
The April rains and first measurable May snow in more than a hundred years have pushed back the outdoor planting season several weeks. Now that nicer weather is becoming the norm, lawn and garden retailers and landscapers are scrambling to make their sales goals in a much shorter period and before summer’s soaring temperatures.
“We do 60 percent of our sales for the year in a six-week period in mid-April to May,” said Matt Stueck, vice president of Suburban Lawn Garden, with retail locations in south Kansas City, Lenexa and Overland Park. But sales were down 43 percent from February to April compared to 2012, he added.
Sales have turned around in the last week at the south Kansas City location, which sold three truck semitruck-loads of bedding plants on the Saturday before Mother’s Day alone. That was a record day. And the store almost did it again on Mother’s Day.
“We won’t make it up in May. We will have to make it up in June — if we have a mild summer. If we don’t, we won’t,” Stueck said.
Landscapers also are fielding calls as homeowners are realizing some of their trees and shrubs won’t be budding again. But before taking new clients, they are trying to finish current contracts, some that should have been knocked off their list weeks ago.
Early 2012 weather was mostly so mellow that landscapers at Rosehill Gardens could clean up clients’ yards in February and March and head right on into spring planting in April. But now, in mid-May, they are still finishing winter cleanup and scrambling to get spring flowers planted before an early Memorial Day.
“We are a full month behind and booked up deeper than quite a while,” said Steve Heichel, landscape designer at Rosehill Gardens. “We’ve brought on two crews to try to manage the load and we are working Saturdays.”
Along with six more landscape workers, Rosehill has hired additional workers in maintenance and irrigation, as well as plant pulling at its farm just south of Kansas City. It now has about 20 more employees, or a 10 percent increase from the 2012 season.
“We all rely on each other to get through the crunch,” Heichel said. “If we can get the flowers in by Memorial Day and the landscaping by June and early July, then it depends on how hot it gets.”
After putting in a geothermal heating and cooling system that took a toll on their lawn last year, the Forman family of Prairie Village planned to have their yard nearly back in shape by now.
“We were going to transplant some hedges, put some new greenery in, replace a Japanese maple and reseed some major bare spots,” said Mary Forman. “I’m trying to be patient about it. We have a contract, so I guess (the landscaper) will get to it when they can.”
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