Despite a recent gloomy buying mood among consumers, the nurseries in northern Germany are optimistic about the forthcoming start of the season for the sale of bedding and balcony plants. “The expectation and the desire is there,” said Andreas Kröger, President of the North German Horticultural Association (WVG Nord) in Bremen, with a view to the interest of garden and balcony owners. It is true that the often cloudy weather has recently curbed the desire to garden. At the latest from the ice saints in mid-May, however, the planting season is approaching. “That’s why we’re all very optimistic at the moment,” said Krüger. This Friday, many nurseries and garden centers in northern Germany will increasingly start selling summer flowers.
However, balcony and garden owners who now want to fill tubs and boxes have to be prepared for higher prices for summer flowers. “The companies had to increase their prices slightly due to the increased costs, which are still related to the delivery bottlenecks caused by the corona pandemic,” said Kröger. Higher expenses, for example for substrates and pots, but also higher wages for employees led to the price increases. How high these were, varies from company to company. However, the WVG President spoke of an overall “moderate” price increase.
“There is now the full range of bedding and balcony plants,” said Kröger. Summer flowers such as daisies and geraniums are already available in many nurseries – but gardeners should wait before planting sensitive flowers in the bed because of possible cold snaps. “You can already plant now,” said the expert – but then more in sheltered places such as balconies or terraces.
Thanks to the mild winter, the higher energy prices would have hit the industry less than feared, said Kröger. Many companies have been working for years to reduce energy costs, for example for heating greenhouses. In order to reduce costs, nurseries would have started cultivating plants later or opted for species that can be cultivated without much heat.
The mild but wet and cloudy winter in northern Germany also had a downside for the horticultural businesses: “Due to this weather, the plants get little heat from the sun. That means the plants are a little further behind than they have been in recent years were in April,” explained Kröger. And consumers have recently bought fewer spring flowers due to the moderate weather. The companies are therefore now primarily relying on persistent, sunny planting weather, said Kröger.
As early as last summer and autumn, the industry registered a reluctance to buy bedding and balcony plants due to inflation and consumer concerns about rising heating costs. The Central Horticultural Association (ZVG) recently announced that consumers were very unsettled. According to estimates by the Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (AMI), consumers in Germany spent an average of 22 euros on such plants in 2022 – slightly less than before the corona pandemic.
ZVG notification of April 13, 2023 WVG notification on the start of the season WVG notification on the “Plant of the Year in the North”