Maryland garden centers, landscapers report an uptick in sales

Nurseries, garden centers and landscapers in Washington County, Md., are reporting an uptick in sales this spring, The Herald-Mail reported.

“The good news is, this year we had a rotten winter, people [customers] were housebound, so they were really chomping at the bit to get into their yards,” said Jon Snavely, co-owner of Snavely’s Garden Corner Inc. “And throw into that the nice warm weather early in April, and they’ve just come running in.”

At Snavely’s, which has a location in Chambersburg, Pa., in addition to Hagerstown, Md., sales were up 19 percent in April alone, compared to those in April 2009, Snavely said. That sounds good — until compared to those for April 2006, which Snavely said was his company’s best year.

“For the month of April ’10 compared to April ’06, we’re still off 32 percent, and that’s with an upswing,” he said.

Still, there is a change in what people are buying at his stores this year compared to last year, Snavely said.

“We are seeing people more inclined to buy a bigger ticket item,” he said. “They might spend a couple hundred dollars on a bench ... or an arbor — things that, in other years, they might have walked by.”

There always seems to be a market for flowers, regardless of the economy, he said.

“One of the things we always look at in this industry is, when things go sour, people spend more time at home, so they’re more inclined to dress up their yards,” Snavely said.

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