The drought that has Georgia and North Carolina firmly in its grip, with the surrounding states of South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi along for the ride, is driving much of the green industry to its knees.
The worst affected state so far is Georgia. The drought has been exacerbated by not having adequate water supplies for the huge population surge Northern Georgia has experienced over the past 20 years. Much of the state is at a Level 4 drought response plan, and all outdoor watering is banned.
“We're often told by water purveyors that they cannot enforce the one-day a week watering, or hand watering, so ... enforcement becomes as easy as driving around, looking for irrigation or outdoor use,” said Sherry Loudermilk, executive director of Georgia Green Industry Association (GGIA).
Growers, landscapers and retailers have been hit hard. Out of the 79,000 green industry employees in Georgia, 35,000 have lost their jobs, with 30,000 in jeopardy of losing their jobs. “The only ones left are pretty much the owners and their families,” Loudermilk said.
The industry has lost $3.15 billion in 2007 alone. "Horticulture is Georgia's No.2 agricultural commodity in economic value, yet we are not perceived by others as an important and viable industry," Loudermilk said.
Pike Family Nurseries has filed bankruptcy, although it is still operating. Habersham Gardens has closed for the winter. Several plant suppliers told me their Atlanta retail clients haven’t been paying bills lately.
North Carolina is also in trouble, but not quite so deeply. Unlike Georgia, North Carolina has a series of water boards across the state, 628 of them, according to the governor’s press secretary, Renee Hoffman. So while the governor has called for conservation, restrictions are decided by each water board. For a statewide ban to be declared, “[Governor Easley] would have to declare a state of emergency, which would require a threat to the public health and safety,” Hoffman said. North Carolina is not at that point.
I spoke with a few retailers in North Carolina. All of them said they were cutting down on their spring plant orders. One, Tina Lee, co-owner of DeWayne’s Home and Garden Showplace in Selma, N.C., said that for the first time they would not pre-book any spring plants. DeWayne’s game plan is to send their plant buyer to local growers to cherry pick the best plants -- if the water restrictions stayed at the current level. In Lee’s county, watering is allowed only on Saturday, and only if it’s hand watering. That may change to a full-out ban by spring if conditions do not improve, however.
The fewer plants garden centers buy, the less revenue growers earn. With the downturn in new housing starts, even landscapers are feeling the pinch, which will affect growers even more deeply. Loudermilk said she’s beginning to get reports that the ripple effect has even reached plug suppliers.
One source, who preferred anonymity, reported on another rumor (an emphasis on “rumor”) that claims one major mass merchant will not sell plant material at 90 stores in the drought-affected areas, and other more mass merchants are scaling back severely on the amount of plant material they will sell.
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