April Snow Delaying Spring Sports, Garden Schedules
The day after Easter looked more like Christmas in the northwest suburbs. At Dundee Nursery in Plymouth, another snowfall has put spring on hold and is putting a major dent in business.
“It hurts quite a bit,” said John Henning of Dundee. “It slows people down. On the weekends we still have people coming in looking for garden seeds to start the stuff indoors, but they’re not buying outdoor stuff as much.”
Because of the frigid weather, Dundee is a couple weeks behind their typical spring sales in flowers, trees, fertilizer, seed and other items.
“Even our pansies, which are hearty for some cold stuff, they aren’t picking those up right now because they are afraid they are going to freeze out at night,” said Henning.
Dundee’s annual Spring Expo is Saturday, but there won’t be as many choices as usual.
“Even our tropical plants that are coming from down South or from California, they aren’t shipping as many of them because they are going to freeze in a shipment,” Henning said. “They are cutting back.”
Spring Sports Delayed Too
The snow and ice is also causing havoc on the high school scene. Believe it or not baseball and other spring sports are supposed to begin this week. At Champlin Park High School, the baseball field looks more like a cross country ski course.
“We were supposed to have a track meet coming up with Osseo this week and I know that’s been canceled already and then baseball this Friday and Saturday,” said Mathew Mattson, Champlin Park’s assistant principal for activities. “I am sure after tonight’s snow and tomorrow’s snow, those will probably get canceled as well.”
The Rebels’ tennis courts are slick with patches of snow and the lacrosse fields are not close to being ready.
“Frozen,” Mattson said. “You get what you get and right now they’re still hard and there’s snow on the ground and we’re just waiting for those 50s and 60s to show up.”
With postponements looming in all sports, it’s going to be a condensed spring schedule.
“I think we’re going to have to do some scheduling changes,” Mattson said. “We’ll wind up with those weeks where we get three or four baseball games.”
The cold snap is the polar opposite of last year when temperatures were in the upper 50s and people were actually golfing.
