Choices may be limited for people planting gardens this year.
Marilyn Boyer is the manager at Garden of Dreams Greenhouses. She said the industry is dealing with a seed shortage.
“Some of the popular tomato seeds are unavailable this year and it’s due to crop failures … and a few of the cucumbers,” she said.
With the shortage Boyer said customers are still looking for those high-demand vegetables but they aren’t able to be as selective as they normally could be.
“They just try something different because when the seed companies have run out of the seeds they give you a comparable type of tomato or cucumber that’s similar and that has the same growing habits as the others so they try to accommodate you,” she said.
Greenhouse businesses have been dealing with a few challenges because of the weather in recent years.
Boyer said there has been a slow start over the last couple of years and this year so far has been about the same.
“The springs have been cold,” Boyer said adding customer traffic can be predicted by weather.
“When the sun shines, people are here. When it’s cloudy or cool and raining they’re not.”
Still Boyer said they have started to get busier especially with the recent Mother’s Day crowd.
She estimates they saw around 200 customers on the day.
sfroese@panow.com
