DENVER — The week of Mother's Day is busy for City Floral, as many Coloradans are getting ready to plant new flowers or crops in their gardens. Besides getting ready for customers, the garden center is also preparing for the incoming cold weather.
Our weather team has been tracking the midweek storm impacts expected across Colorado, with a winter storm watch in effect from Tuesday evening through Wednesday afternoon.
For 37 years, Trela Phelps has worked at City Floral, describing the garden center as an amazing place and a great industry. Over the decades, she has learned the challenges that also come with gardening in Colorado, as Mother Nature can always throw in unexpected twists.
"So it's kind of all hands on deck, and so later in the afternoon, we'll start to scoop some of this stuff out that's a little tender and can take that snow and even the rain, because it kind of messes with the open flowers," said Phelps. "We'll start loading those onto racks and moving them into closed buildings, and then we will be putting up tarps and shade structures over the nursery stock and things like that."
► Watch Maggy Wolanske's report in the player below:
This is no small task for the local garden center, Phelps said. The amount they have to move is probably equivalent to about eight to ten semi loads of flowers. This comes at a time when they are also getting in new deliveries, but employees are taking the necessary steps to ensure their plants are protected.
"What I've noticed most is just the fluctuation in the temperatures this year," said Phelps. "It's been difficult to try and navigate those, and we watch the weather. We check it like ten times a day. Just trying to figure out what we're going to do next."
Business was blooming on Monday, with many customers getting flowers and checking out the plants. While Jessica Llorca was interested in planting some new greenery, she also had covers in her hand, ready to protect her garden.
"I'm a transplant. I recently relocated from Florida. We moved in June, so this is technically our first spring, and the second, it got warm out, we planted, and we made a rookie mistake. We learned you're not supposed to do it until after Mother's Day, so now we know," Llorca said.
Once the grass started looking green, her family jumped at the chance to plant. As rewarding as gardening has been, Llorca has learned a new lesson about calling Colorado home.
"We're just going to cover our garden beds, put some stakes in them, and probably do it tomorrow so that it's ready for Tuesday night, and then we'll leave them like that until the snow melts and hope they last," Llorca said.
You still have time to cover your plants ahead of the storm, and Phelps recommended that if any of your trees have leaves, knock off any snow so it does not bend the branches.
