Garden nurseries face brunt of sudden temperature spike, 10-15% plants wilt

Pune: Visually striking seasonal flowering plants like zinnias, petunias, and impatiens typically make up a bulk of purchases for gardening enthusiasts from Dec to Feb.
However, this February-March was challenging for wholesale garden nurseries as they struggled to keep these seasonal plants alive amidst the sudden rise in temperatures.
Many of the nurseries lost entire batches to the scorching heat, and some which managed to shift some of the plants in the shade ended up paying exorbitant labour costs.
"Running a nursery has become extremely challenging business. Last year, water was a big issue. This year, early arrival of summer played spoilsport. We lost almost 10-15% of our plants to heat because we couldn't shift them to a shaded location or build a temporary shade on time. One reason for that is shortage of labour. Earlier, labour costs used to be about 20% of our overall costs; it has now doubled," said Pritam More, owner of More Gardens, a wholesale nursery.
Anil Ambekar, who runs Shree Balaji Nursery along the Pune-Solapur highway, also faced a similar situation. "We lost an entire batch or 20% of seasonal plants owing to the sudden spike in temperatures. The leaves of many plants wilted under the blazing sun or appeared scorched," he said.
Nurseries said that regular customers who used to purchase plants in bulk before summer have not placed orders this year as they appeared uncertain because of the hot temperature, which is unlikely for this time of the year.
"Jan-Feb is the time when temperatures are cool, and it's a good time to repot saplings, etc. However, this year, since it's already so hot, I will be postponing my purchases to July-August when it starts raining and the temperature also comes down," said Naina Gupta, a resident of Baner.
Amol Jagtap, who runs Venkateshwara Nursery, said that the next two months are going to be difficult for garden nurseries.
"During the summer months, we need to hire more labour because work is more. There is more watering required, and overall, the plants need much more care. But due to the early spike in temperatures, we have already increased labour on the ground; otherwise, we risk losing plants," he said.
Nurseries said that they used to hire a lot of labour from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh to work in the fields, but this year not many of them have come back to Maharashtra for work owing to industrial development there.
"We have lost a lot of staffers to construction sites and security agencies because the pay is much more. The staff we are hiring is at a premium, and this is becoming unsustainable. Many other small nurseries around the city are contemplating shutting down because of high labour costs," said a nursery owner at Hadapsar.