Warm spell brings more customers looking for plants

The warm weather and feelings of an early spring mean plenty of people are already shopping for plants.

Scott Rutherford, assistant manager at Early’s Farm and Garden Centre in Saskatoon, said he’s noticed more customers in recent days.

“We’ve seen an increase, especially these last couple days, in our foot traffic for buying garden seeds,” said Rutherford. “The warm weather does kind of get people going on that.”

He said the increase in customers now makes the rest of the spring season more manageable for the store.

“It spreads out the buying season quite a bit,” said Rutherford.

“If it’s a long, cold winter, then it seems to be more condensed right before the growing season starts.”

This stretched-out buying season ensures that the store can stay ahead of sales, he explained, and have enough stock around at all times.

Rutherford added that they begin preparing for the spring season in the fall, so the warm weather hasn’t caused them to speed up any preparations.

Some crops and seeds have become more popular recently, although Rutherford said it is difficult to get some of them shipped. Potatoes in particular won’t be shipped until at least the end of March or early April.

“The producers of that product don’t really open their winter storage until the risk of frost is gone,” said Rutherford. “They don’t want to open that and have frost affect it and devastate them and wreck the product.”