HARRISBURG, Pa. — As of April 10th, Governor Tom Wolf's office stated all garden centers, both retail and family-owned, were to remain closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wednesday, the governor's office denied an exemption for a locally-owned center near Philadelphia.
The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau believes this is a mistake in one of the busiest times of year for local greenhouses and garden centers.
"Central PA has long history of folks doing their own backyard gardens, growing their own food, putting up food for the winter through canning, freezing along those lines—that starts at the garden center," Darrin E. Youker, Director of State Government Affairs for the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau said. "Buying seed, plants grown at greenhouses, that is the definition of life sustaining."
Greenhouses, like Musselman Greenhouses in Cashtown, Adams County, are allowed to stay open and sell product under an agriculture exemption to the essential business list. Pennsylvania residents can still buy their product at their facilities. However, open greenhouses are still losing a large portion of their business.
Larger greenhouses like Musselman, and numerous others in our area, also supply retail garden centers, florists and more.
"For the average greenhouse, 60-75% of their annual sales are made in the spring season," Aimee Rohrbach, Sales Manager of Mussleman Wholesale Foliage Inc., said. "We’re stuck with all this product we were growing long before COVID-19 was in anyone’s vocabulary.”
The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau wants to open these businesses back up, both to fix the supply chain for local greenhouses as well as make essential supplies for growing food more readily available.
"Whether they’re selling to a major national chain, or independent mom and pop garden center, if that raw product can’t leave the farm because there’s no retail outlet, that product is not making it to it’s intended destination," Youker said.
Farm Bureau officials believe garden centers can follow the restaurant model to serve their customers.
“You can still call ahead, place your order, talk to a person about what’s available and go and do that same transaction through curbside and drive-thru delivery," Youker said.
And as the supply chain continues to stall, the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau grows more concerned about the viability of everyone involved.
"We really do have concerns about their future financial viability," Youker said.
For more information on the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, you can visit their website.