Cold, wet weather has hit some businesses hard

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – With record-breaking rain recently and months of solid winter weather before that, you might not be the only one wishing for more spring sunshine.

Some local businesses have had a tough time in the wet and cold and there seems to be a lot of pent up demand for fair-weather activities like golf and gardening.

“It’s been very wet and it has affected our operations quite drastically,” says Wayne Vollmer, Director of Golf at Morgan Creek Golf Course in Surrey.

Local links have been sparsely populated over the past few months in a region where year-round golf is the norm.

“We are behind the eight-ball right away. If we get great weather over the next four or five months, we’ll be okay. If it continues to rain then it’s obviously going to affect our bottom line,” he tells NEWS 1130.

“There’s a lot of pent up desire. In the days when it’s not raining here we have a 150 or 160 players and it’s really full when it’s a decent day.”

Garden Centres are also feeling the pinch as the winter weather has lingered into early spring.

“We are behind by about four weeks. The weather has kept people away and I can’t blame them, this cold and wet has been miserable for gardeners,” says Wim Vanderzalm, President of Art Knaap.

“We need about 17 degrees to get plants motivated, but also gardeners motivated,” he chuckles.

That doesn’t mean that folks should be ignoring their flowerbeds.

“Now is when you’d be cleaning up a lot of the mess — the dead or damaged branches and leaves. Clean up your garden so you can prep it for planting maybe some flowers and colour for summer,” he explains.

“Most importantly you want to do a lot of pruning right now. Bring everything in size after a real harsh winter so it can flush out with fresh growth. Otherwise you will have gangly growth at the end of damaged branches.”

But Vanderzalm isn’t worried about the bottom line at this point.

“The way the business and the garden centre industry works is that you go with the old adage ‘don’t count your chickens until the eggs have hatched.'”

He says whether the season starts late or starts early, sales usually even out by June.

NEWS 1130 Meteorologist Russ Lacate is calling for increasing cloud Friday with highs in the low to mid ‘teens.

Rain and showers return for the weekend, with some sunny breaks expected late Sunday.

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