The Hub City is in a drought, and while much of the attention is focused on farmers, small business nurseries are also facing the consequences.
“We are one of the businesses where these are container-grown plants. We can’t get crop insurance. This is our livelihood out here. We don’t have the right to send it back to the grower and say, ‘Y’all are going to pay for this dead plant,'” said Derek Lane, a manager at King Nursery.
While the business says they are doing well, it is because of the extra time employees are taking to maintain their plants.
“If we didn’t give it the attention and pamper these plants like we do, business would drop. Plants would die, or they would start looking sickly. People would think we didn’t take care of our plants or brought in bad plants, and business would drop, so that’s why we work very hard out here to keep plants alive,” said Penny Scott, a manager at King Nursery.
While this may not seem like a huge task, Texas Tech expert and greenhouse manager Vikram Baliga said this industry counts on the rainfall.
“When we are not getting rain, that labor cost goes up. The amount of water they have to use and the amount of money they have to spend on water goes way up, too,” said Baliga.
According to Baliga, rainwater has a more positive impact on plants because it has nutrients than irrigation systems.
While these small businesses have to fight the drought, they said they are not struggling with business.
“I don’t think people really know how hard we do come out to work to make sure that the plants that they are going to buy are going to be in tip-top shape and the best they can be in,” said Scott.
“It’s our second family. We eat, sleep, and breathe out here. We go home and just rest for a few hours. This is our livelihood. We do it because we love plants,” said Lane.
