By Charlene Tebbutt

Storm causes damage at popular nursery

Jul 5, 2018 | 2:00 PM

Severe weather this week has caused damage to a popular visitor stop near Shellbrook.

The Honeywood (Dr. A.J. Porter) Heritage Nursery near Shellbrook has suffered some losses following rain and hail in the area earlier this week. The nursery’s vegetable garden is “toast” and some 300 lillies have been damaged, said Lorna Mattock with the nursery.

“It rained for an hour and a half,” she told paNOW. “Started at 12, it was over at 1:30 (p.m.), and in that hour and a half, it hailed for half an hour.”

The storm happened just a week before the nursery’s annual Lillies in Bloom festival, set for July 15. Mattock said the annual event will still go ahead, but with a reduced inventory of plants and flowers to sell.

“It’s kind of sad because everything was coming along really nice,” she said. “But, you know what, it’s not totalled … it’s disappointing, but at the same time, we still have to be thankful there is still stuff to look at.”

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Mattock said nursery staff and volunteers will be out in the gardens over the next few days cleaning up broken leaves and blossoms from the Tuesday storm. She said anyone who wants to help out is welcome to join.

Meanwhile, residents in St. Louis, south of Prince Albert also saw some severe weather this week. The community’s mayor, Marc Caron, told paNOW that rain and hail earlier this week pounded the community Tuesday.

Caron lost a gazebo, but he said he hasn’t heard about any serious damage from the storm.

“It was quite a fierce storm, it went for probably about an hour straight, with hail, rain and hail again,” Caron said.

“It looked like little rivers going down the street … But our drainage is very good and I haven’t heard of any damage.”

Charlene.tebbutt@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @CharleneTebbutt