Cold Spring Means a Slow Start for Roseville Gardeners, Nurseries

At the community garden at Oasis Park in Roseville, spring planting has been lagging. 

“It seems people are getting a slower start because of the long winter and this April was much colder,”’said Tom McKusick, one of Oasis Park’s community gardeners and publisher of Northern Gardener at the Minnesota State Horticultural Society in Roseville. 

Then, there’s been rain—so much of it that people are having a difficult time getting out to plant root vegetables like potatoes, according to Eleanor Swenson, another Oasis Park gardener and customer service representative for the city Parks and Recreation Department. (The Oasis Park garden, administered by the , is about 38,000 square feet and last year served about 90 gardeners, Swenson said.)  

The largely dismal weather also has affected business for the retailers that serve gardeners—nurseries and garden centers.

“This cold, wet weather has been detrimental to business, and compared to last year, the time table for plant producers is lagging behind by two to three weeks or more,” said Jon Horsman, communications director the Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Association in Roseville. He noted the green industry—garden centers, landscaping, tree care, garden services, landscape management and other related segments—is very weather-dependant.

At Linder’s Garden Center, whose St. Paul location at 270 West Larpenteur Ave. is a draw for Rosevile residents, business has been steady but still down from a year ago, according to assistant retail manager and greenhouse grower Mark Armstead. 

“It has been a struggle” with the weather, Armstead said. “Our plant materials are three to three and a half weeks behind schedule. Mother Nature has thrown us a twist.”

Armstead said that Linder’s sales in April lagged behind those of the prior record-breaking April in 2010. But he added, “We are slowly making up sales,” calling his overall business “steady.”

Still, Horsman believes some warm weather could quickly turn things around.  “Some sunshine in the next month will definitely help get our members back on track,” he said.