Cold Shadow Covers Bloom in Nurseries : Drought: Some county businesses will have to let much of their land lie fallow this summer, despite six-figure costs from lost sales.
When summer days grow long at El Modeno Gardens in Irvine, workers pull a shade over the chrysanthemums at 5 p.m. to fool the plants into believing that it’s still spring and to hasten their blossoming.
If the prickly pear cacti growing on a hillside above the nursery could speak, they might have warned owner Jan Groot against raising such delicate flowering plants, ferns and vines in dry Southern California.
“It’s a unique climate; normally it’s pretty mild,” said Groot, who runs the 90-acre nursery with his brother, Peter, on land they rent from the Irvine Co. “This year we are again surprised.”
It is the fifth year of a statewide drought. Groot said his business is beginning to be threatened. For the first time, the Groots will let 10% to 15% of their land lie fallow this summer, at a cost of $750,000 in lost business.
El Modeno’s January sales dropped 35% to 40% from the year-earlier month. Groot said he expects sales to fall further by the end of the year.
“We are feeling a lack of demand from the retail nurseries,” he said. “It’s going to be consumer driven. Water is not the limiting factor this year.”
The nursery is one of about 350 growers of shrubs, trees and cut flowers that account for more than half of the county’s agricultural base, with $132.6 million in sales in 1989, according to the Orange County agricultural commissioner’s office. The county is the third-largest producer of nursery stock in California, accounting for 9% of $1.3 billion in sales statewide.
For the last three years, growers in the Irvine Ranch Water District have been planning ahead by reducing the amount of water they use--some by up to two-thirds--so reserves in man-made Irvine Lake have grown to 80% of capacity.
Even so, the drought is hurting nursery sales, as homeowners cut back on buying plants and trees because of water rationing already made mandatory or likely to be required as the drought continues.
In Santa Barbara, residents face a $200 fine for watering lawns, and the Los Angeles City Council ordered a 15% cutback last week. Orange County’s 30 water districts are either considering rationing or have already started. San Clemente ordered households last week to use 30% less water.
Raised in the Netherlands, the Groot brothers are the sixth generation of their family to work in agriculture. As young men in the early 1950s, they left behind a family seed business in Holland to move to Southern California.
Jan Groot had loved the area during an earlier visit here and persuaded his brother to move here with him. He went to work for a nursery in West Los Angeles while his brother went to school and later served in the U.S. Army. By 1958, they started their own nursery with $20,000 in savings.
Today, El Modeno Gardens, which employs 230 people, grows mostly flowering plants for sale to retailers in California, Nevada and Arizona. The Groots opened a second farm in 1980 in Hollister, near Salinas, to grow Christmas trees.
The area around Irvine Lake is the heart of the county nursery business. Businesses there have developed a plan to save water. Two of the businesses, Hines Nurseries and Bordier’s Nursery, have set up systems to collect water runoff, pipe it to a reservoir and filter it for reuse. Both nurseries have reduced water use by 60% or more, according to the Orange County Farm Bureau, a nonprofit trade group.
El Modeno Gardens chose instead to install a computerized watering system, which has reduced water use by 35%, Groot said.
Recycling was not an option for his business, he said, because the flowering plants he grows have a low tolerance for the high salt content of water that is repeatedly run through a treatment plant.
El Modeno’s computer system, which cost more than $500,000, can control air temperature, lighting and ventilation in greenhouses, and fertilization and irrigation both indoors and outdoors. The system waters for five minutes four times daily from 3:30 to 7 a.m. The intermittent watering allows the ground to fully absorb the water, reducing runoff.
Rather than spraying water, El Modeno has also lined its greenhouses with drip lines--tubes that carry water directly to the roots.
“It’s one of the most progressive nurseries in the country,” said Nanci Jimenez, executive director of the Orange County Farm Bureau.
She said the nurseries are going to be hard pressed to use any less water over the same amount of land: “What they are going to have to do is cut back on production.”
This year, the nurseries are using water from Irvine Lake to compensate for 30% reductions in water allotments from the Metropolitan District Commission, which took effect Feb. 1. The lake water is not potable.
Most other nurseries have not reduced production this year but are simply switching to drought-tolerant plants, said Robert Falconer, director of legislation for the California Assn. of Nurserymen, a trade group representing major growers.
“We’re growing junipers, lantanas, mock orange,” said Neal Fulton, manager of Anaheim Wholesale Nursery & Landscape Supply. “We’re staying away from hydrangeas and ferns.”
Groot tells customers that plant choice alone will not keep their lawns and outdoor plants from dying of thirst.
Falconer’s group has been conducting a three-year campaign to help homeowners become more familiar with ways to conserve water, such as using mulches, various soil mixtures and drip irrigation instead of spray.
A commonly heard slogan among members is: “Plants don’t waste water, people do.”
Conservation alone will not solve the problem, said Ralph Klages, owner of Landscape Growers Nursery in Monterey Park and president of the California Assn. of Nurserymen.
He said he was disappointed earlier this month when Gov. Pete Wilson proposed setting aside just $100 million to grapple with the crisis. Klages said the money may carry the state through this shortage but is inadequate to plan properly for improved water collection and storage over the long run.
Klages said the state is at risk of losing a vital industry. Wholesale nurseries, retailers, landscapers and landscape maintenance businesses employ 150,000 people and generate statewide sales of about $10 billion a year.
Groot said the lost revenue from lower production this year will force him to take a hard look at the costs of running his business. His company has never laid off an employee, and he hopes to keep that record intact.
The nurseryman said the uncertainty that comes from not knowing how long the drought will last is difficult: “I hear they’re going to cut off my water, and I think, maybe I should have gone to dental school.
“But then, in the spring when the flowers come out, there’s no nicer business to be in.”
NURSERY INDUSTRY GROWTH The gross value of nursery stock grown in Orange County has increased eightfold in the past two decades.
In millions of dollars 1969: $16.7 1979: $106.7 1989: $132.6 CASH CROPS The total value of all crops and animal products produced in Orange County in 1989 was $250.3 million. Nursery stock and cut flowers topped the list.
In millions of dollars Nursery stock and cut flowers: $132.6 Strawberries: 36.8 Peppers: 15.9 Oranges: 14.2 Avocados: 6.9 Green beans: 6.2 Tomatoes: 5.8 Lemons: 4.2 Celery: 3.4 Cauliflower: 3.2 Asparagus: 3.1 Lettuce:2.7 Other: 15.3 Source: Orange County Agricultural Commissioner
