Date: Fri 17-May-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

weather-gardens-cool

Full Text:

Weather Has A Chilling Effect On Local Gardeners

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

"A cold, wet May, a barn full of hay," or so the adage goes.

While the prospects may be good for hay this year, the record-setting cold

weather is having a chilling effect on backyard gardeners and area farmers.

"I've been here 23 years, and this probably is the worst season I can remember

because of the cold," said Tom Johnson, manager of Lexington Gardens. "One

night this week I even lost plants that were covered."

Mr Johnson grows 400 varieties of annuals and vegetables at the garden center

on Church Hill Road. He said the cold has meant an enormous increase in the

amount of labor involved in an already labor-intensive business.

"We've got to give the plants a lot more attention," he said. "We've had to

bring them in at night and put them in the aisles. We've had to cut back some

plants that are growing too big because people aren't buying."

The season is already at least a week to 10 days behind schedule which might

not sound like much but it is a significant delay for growers.

"It definitely has affected store traffic here," Mr Johnson said. "People are

putting off buying and some have lost plants because they put them in too

early."

While the backup might not be obvious to shoppers at Lexington Gardens, the

quality of plants at chain stores in the Danbury area has really suffered, he

said.

"Things are kind of a mess," he said. "The growers plan on multiple plantings

to reach the stores at specific weeks. This really has backed up anticipated

sales. Usually this week is our biggest week of the season. Now we anticipate

it will be next week."

This may mean a shortage of available plants in about two weeks, he predicted,

because it takes about a month to grow seedlings to the point they are ready

to sell.

Linda Hufner, who with her husband, Frank, operates Cedar Hill Farm, said it

has been a very troublesome spring for retailers.

"It's been so unpredictable," she said. "It doesn't need to get down to 32

degrees to damage plants. Anything in the 30s isn't good."

The Hufners decided not to put big displays of plants outside their store on

South Main Street because the cold nights have forced them to bring everything

back inside.

"It's one thing if you have a few petunia plants, but if you have 500 flats

you can't take a chance," she said.

Mrs Hufner said she has been trying to convince customers that they can't

plant just because this may be the date they usually put the plants in the

ground.

"One woman bought a hanging basket of New Guinea impatiens and put it

outside," she said. "I warned her that she should bring it in at night but she

forgot and it froze."

Some years plants can be put out as early as May 2 and survive. A few years

ago there was a frost on May 25, she recalled.

Temperatures dipped to 30 degrees in the Danbury area Tuesday morning,

breaking the record of 32 which was set in 1987.

"But that wasn't the lowest in the state by any means," said Chris Wasserback,

forecaster at the weather center at Western Connecticut State Unversity. "Lots

of towns had temperatures in the 20s. The low, 24, was recorded in Thomaston."

Rainfall was running ahead of normal, too, with 24.1 inches recorded so far

this year compared to the norm of 17.5 inches.

Charlie Ferris, who grows 23 acres of corn for the cows on his dairy farm

Ferris Acres each year, says it's too wet to plant.

"Germination will be affected," he said. "It's usually started by now."

"We're about two weeks behind the norm," agreed Linda Hufner.

One farmer whose plants haven't been affected was Terry Jones of Jones Tree

Farm in Shelton. He used the farm's irrigation system to create a protective

layer of ice over 15 acres of strawberries.

This method actually protects the plants, he explained, and keeps them at 32

degrees even when the temperatures drop into the low 20s as it did this week.

"What's critical is you have to continually spray the water on the plants all

night," he said. "But I'm confident that this saved the plants."

The weather forecast for this weekend shows warmer days are coming.

"Thursday and Friday look like cool, damp, rainy days but the weekend looks

better -in the 70s," Chris Wasserback said. "Temperatures may get up into the

80s next week. Next weeks looks like warm, humid days."