Nursery Owner: “You Can’t Trust the Weather.”

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — “It’s really nerve-wracking and tricky to be in the plant business,” says Ellen Cooper, owner of Cooper’s Nursery. Ellen Cooper has owned Cooper’s Nursery on Parklane Road in Columbia, for fifty years. When she says the business is tricky, she means it. “You can’t trust the weather,” says Cooper. She also says times have changed. “What use to be isn’t anymore, you know people could plant most anything Good Friday, but that doesn’t always pan out, you know,” says Cooper. But when the weather warms up, so does business. “People just get real anxious and they just get sort of impatient and we have a time stalling them off, especially some of this type stuff that’s coming out of a greenhouse that’s really, really tender,” says Cooper. Crandall Sims reporting, “Mrs. Cooper says in the event of a frost, they use what’s called “Nursery Cloth” to cover the plants in order to protect them. Now, if you do not have any nursery cloth at home , you can use a bed sheet or and old quilt. But, Mrs. Cooper says do not use plastic because the sun can cause the plastic to burn the plant.” “I pulled the ones I had just gotten up against the house,” says Carol Player, a customer of Cooper’s Nursery. Wednesday night’s cool weather had Player taking precautions, but it didn’t stop her from buying more plants on Thursday. “Right now, I’m fixing to plant some Mexican Heather just plants around my shrubs and I”m planting and making pots and I’m getting a few things to go in my pots,” says Player. She says the recent weather has her puzzled. “I’m a little concerned, I don’t really know what’s going on,” says Player. So, how do you know exactly when to plant? “You just sort of have to go with your gut feeling,” says Cooper. And if it doesn’t work out? “That keeps a nurseman going, if it gets killed and doesn’t come out, you’ll come back and buy more,” says Cooper. But she says, she always hopes for the best.