Many greenhouses at the Keller Plant Shed are sitting empty.
The ones that are still full are covered with shade cloths to protect against the scorching Texas sun while sales signs offering 75 percent discounts line the plastic plant containers.
"I can tell you the nursery business is struggling right now," store manager Anthony Kahaly said. "We haven't had heat like this in a long time for this amount of days."
On Saturday, the mercury hit 105 degrees at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, the 36th consecutive day of triple-digit heat. The same high is expected today, and the National Weather Service predicts that the area's record of 42 straight days of 100-plus temperatures will be broken next Saturday, meteorologist Daniel Huckaby said. No high will be below 104 degrees, he said.
Business isn't blooming at many area nurseries, say landscape companies and sod suppliers, who are frustrated by high temperatures that are destroying inventories and keeping customers away.
"This is pretty much going to have the same effect as winter when all the snow killed a lot of St. Augustine," said James Guthrey, sod landscape sales manager for Servall, a landscape supply company in Plano. "It sounds ridiculous because it's hurting business now, but it will help business in the future."
Until cooler weather prevails, growers, owners and landscapers are doing what they can to survive. Steep discounts on inventory are becoming more common.
Many landscapers are trying to do work that does not require planting flowers, trees and shrubs.
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