Nursery staff pray for rain as some plants dry out

Keeping plants hydrated and healthy during a prolonged dry spell has been extremely challenging, according to a manager at a large garden centre.

Kevin Fleming, plant area manager at Bridgemere Garden Centre, estimated that they have been using "two swimming pool's worth" of water a day.

The 52-year-old, who has been in the gardening business for 34 years, said this had been the hardest season of his career, and they had lost plants, especially seasonal bedding, due to it drying out.

"It's been high-maintenance for us, in watering and also a lot of dead-heading," said Fleming, who has been watching the weather "on an almost hourly basis and praying for rain."

He is part of a team of 13 who work the plant areas at the garden centre, which is on the A51 on the Cheshire-Shropshire border.

"All the staff, we seem to have been on our hoses for 12 hours a day, and once you finish watering you have to start again."

Some of the team have started work at 06:00 BST, watering the plants when it has been a bit cooler, with others staying after hours to "ensure they just get through the night".

Overall it had been a challenging season, said Fleming, with a combination of "a very slow start with extremely cold weather, then all of a sudden it's 30 degrees and blazing sunshine."

The manager said they planned to change how they watered the plants to save time, water and money.

"We're going to have flood beds," he explained.

That will involve installing plastic or metal inserts into the soil, which are then filled with water, allowing the plants to slowly absorb it through their roots.

It means watering a bed could take five minutes, "rather than somebody stood on the end of a hose actually putting the hose into a plant, which can take up to an hour to do," he said.

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