BY VERONICA COONS 

vcoons@gbtribune.com 

For a sector that carries a lot of risk in a normal year, owners of local businesses Northview Nursery and Stutzman’s Garden Center were nervous and didn’t know what to expect as news of a novel coronavirus spreading half a world away began to dominate the news. As the United States began to react, companies that provided essential items avoided mandatory closures but there was no way to know how things would play out,

Locally, at least, it has played out favorably, but it could have gone much differently.

“We were worried, very worried,” said Chad Lagerman, owner of Northview Nursery. ”We didn’t know at that time the meaning of ‘essential businesses’, so it was a big wonder if we would even be open.”

With 90% of their live merchandise already in hand, bought and paid for from suppliers around the country who require months of lead time for fulfillment, Lagerman had no choice but to keep working to roll out thousands of flowers, vegetables and trees in the spring, just as he has for the past 25 years. 

Nursery centers begin planning and placing orders for plugs and starts of next year’s inventory in July and August. While this makes it possible to have a wide selection ready at the first signs of promising weather, it also makes it hard to react to sudden changes. Under normal conditions, a nursery can react to some increased demand. That was nearly impossible this year because every other nursery was experiencing the same upswing, so the little excess available was quickly snatched up.

It’s hard to predict what will happen next, said Jason French, Stutzman’s Garden Center retail manager.

“With the economy and margins the way they are today, there aren’t many who speculate much anymore,” he said.  

Early days

While images circulated in the media in February and March of mountains of produce dumped because of restaurant and school closures, Lagerman and his wife, Kim, started to realize this was going to be a different kind of year. Stores started to sell out of items like potatoes and other vegetables. Perhaps this would be a great year for gardening, they thought. Kim bumped up the amount of vegetable seeds she planted, a decision that turned out to be on point. 

“When we were deemed on the essential list because of our fruit trees and vegetables and seed packets and stuff, plus our landscape construction side, we knew we were just going to push the pedal to the metal and go,” Lagerman said. “That’s what we’ve done and we’ve been blessed.” 

Stutzman’s Garden Center experienced a similar bump. While it has maintained a Great Bend presence for years, the Pleasantview based company recently acquired a new location in the city. The March soft opening coincided with the lead-up to the statewide shutdown of all but essential businesses. 

According to French, because the company provides thousands of tomato and pepper seedlings and landscaping supplies, it fell into the category of essential ag and food production business, and was therefore exempt from being shut down. Still, he said, early in April he was nervous about what lay ahead. 

“We offer a live product, and it has a limited shelf life. We had no way of knowing what the turnout was going to be, whether or not people would be afraid and stay home,” French said. 

However, customer demand for vegetables came weeks earlier than normal, with many concerned they might have a hard time finding fresh produce as the pandemic progressed. The businesses fielded several gardening questions from people with little or no experience gardening.

Plant therapy

Both Lagerman and French agree the increase in demand for bedding plants and vegetables has a lot to do with people being home during the shutdown. 

“I think everyone being cooped up for some time, whether they were able to work from home or they weren’t working at all, they had cabin fever,” Lagerman said.

People at home needed something to do, French said, and hours spent gardening offers a healthy way to enjoy being outdoors at home.  

Being open for business during a pandemic meant taking extra precautions for the safety of employees and customers.  

“We’re mostly an outdoor facility,” Lagerman said. “It’s a pretty safe place to be, and I think as soon as they realized we were open, they came out.”  

Cleaning and social distancing are key components of the company’s efforts to safeguard customers and employees, with regular cleaning of counter tops, pens, and other common surfaces with bleach solution, hand sanitizer available for employees and customers, and signage encouraging customers to maintain a 6-foot minimum distance while standing in line and browsing in the greenhouse. Now that the weather has warmed, doors are kept open to allow fresh air to circulate throughout the day. 

“Even in our outdoor facility people are keeping that spaciousness and still visiting with each other and having a good time and I just think it’s a great thing to see,” he added. 

Stutzman’s center is also mostly outdoors, and spacing between tables provides room for customers to maintain an appropriate distance as they browse. 

In addition to being open for business, nursery centers were among businesses hiring when many others were handing out pink slips.  

Finding labor, for once, was not a problem this year, French said. Normally, unemployment is so low in Kansas, the company struggles to find good seasonal help. But this year, there happened to be a sizable pool of good candidates available overall.  

Fall interest to be determined

With Mother’s Day coming up, nurseries are expecting plenty of activity. Soon it will be time to start looking ahead to fall.

Stutzman’s is taking a conservative approach. French is cautious about expecting 2020 to be much different from last year. Fall mums are already in production, he said, but as the state begins to reopen, it’s hard to say if the interest in gardening will wane as people can once again shop, travel, and eat out. 

“That’s the million dollar question right now,” he said. 

Northview plans to reach out to its customer base via social media to gauge interest. Lagerman hopes the revival in gardening will last. 

“People have been spending more time with their family, and we’ve seen more kids in here with their parents,” he said. “We’ve had customers come in and they’ll actually tell their kids, ‘you get what you want to grow. It’s going to be yours, you’re going to do it.’ And when they see watermelon, cantaloupe and some of that neat stuff they like, then they get interested.” 

Fall garden vegetables are under consideration, provided customers indicate an interest, he said. If it’s there, they have the facility to pull the trigger and start growing starts for lettuce, broccoli, cabbage — the possibilities practically mirror the spring garden. Seeds for a second round of beans, some fall potatoes, peas or radishes are other crops to try, he said.

Fall may even be the perfect time to get behind the grill for the company’s annual cookout, Lagerman said. For over 20 years, his customer appreciation event has drawn crowds in the spring, and while it was the right decision to cancel it this year, it wasn’t without regret. Like business owners everywhere, he’s hopeful, but it all depends on how the reopening of the economy goes.