PIERSON, Fla. – The freezing temperatures parts of Central Florida are seeing this week can take a toll on those who many plants their livelihood.
In Pierson, several ferneries are still dealing with damage from Hurricane Milton, gearing up for their busy season, and now, trying to keep their plants warm and alive.
Erik Hagstrom at Albin Hagstrom and Sons fernery said they have ferneries stretched over 500 acres across Pierson and other areas where they’ve been working around the clock to get ready for the cold and when they’re most in demand.
“Valentine’s Day is our Superbowl. We’ll start cutting the day after Christmas. We started working every day all day,” he said.
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Hagstrom said his family developed a system that will hopefully keep the plants warm this week.
“As the temperature drops, we’ll first turn on the overhead sprinklers and that’s above the Suran and that will cover everything in water and then that will freeze, and it’ll create an igloo effect,” he said. “This will really fill up with a lot of steam and that will save these plants.”
This year, Hagstrom, like many other Pierson ferneries, is also trying to make up for what was lost in Hurricane Milton back in October. He said it cost them about 10 acres of plants.
“We need every acre available during these rush times so that will impact us after Valentine’s Day because the crops we have now will be everything we have until April 1,” he said.
That could affect their supply for Easter and Mother’s Day.
Now, the hope is Mother Nature will be on their side to help them keep growing.
“First thing we do is pray. You’ve been dealt the hand, right? So, everything that you’ve done prior is so important. We count on nature to at least give us a few days in between each cold snap,” he said.
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