Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Mother's Day weekend is here. For garden centers and nurseries across Western New York, the days in mid-to-late May leading into Memorial Day weekend are the busiest times of the year and Mother's Day weekend is the kickoff.
"The Saturday before Mother's Day is the busiest day of our season. Usually as long as the weather's good," says Theresa Buchanan, a long-time Garden Center Manager at Lockwood's Greenhouses & Farm in Hamburg.
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"Business is picking up," said Darci Bogumil with Adam's Nursery and Garden Center in Lancaster. "This is the jumpstart of the planting season where everybody's feeling nice and warm from the sunshine, everyone wants to get outside, get to the greenhouses and see what's new."
The No. 1 best sellers at the nurseries this time of year? Two words: hanging baskets. Thousands and thousands are sold just this month alone in every local garden center.
"Everywhere you look up, even on the tables. We've got hanging baskets for days," says Bogumil.
"The nice thing about hanging baskets is it's something you can put up right away. It's what everybody buys first, because if it gets cold, you can take them down and put them inside for the night to protect them if there is a danger of frost. So it's the easiest thing to move around," adds Buchanan.
The general rule of green thumb for putting your plants in the ground in Western New York is Memorial Day weekend. The professionals say you definitely don't want to do it earlier.
"I would hold off until Memorial weekend. If you do put stuff outside it's best to put it in planters where you can move it into a garage or a covered patio so it doesn't get that frost," said Bogumil.
"The problem with people starting this early, especially with vegetables, is the ground has not warmed up yet. A lot of people look at the air temperatures and say 'Oh, this is fine. I can plant in the ground.' With the exception of perennials and shrubs, it's too early to plant in the ground. You need a consistent 50 degree night temperature for a solid week or so to start the ground warming up," Buchanan explains.
Buchanan puts an emphasis on not planting your vegetables and annuals now.
"I always tell people if you plant a tomato now and you plant one Memorial Day weekend, the one you plant now will be smaller and stunted compared to the one you plant when the soil is warm and the temperatures are much warmer."
Both Buchanan and Bogumil say their gift cards are another popular option for those who don't know what to get specifically for the gardener in their life.
A nice pace of May weather ahead with Meteorologist Andy Parker.
While the weather is still not optimal for planting, Western New York is on the right track for the gardeners to start their gardens come Memorial Day.
"We don't see anything that's going to bring those freezing temperatures back. So the setup for the next week or 10 days looks pretty solid as far as getting the gardening going across Western New York," said Meteorologist Andy Parker.
Parker said the May in Western New York started pretty rough, but with the weather so far this week will continue to stay warm for Mother's Day weekend with no rain.
"The 70s are going to stick around for Saturday and we're going to find a mix of sun and clouds and the breezes will be refreshing. Keep in mind it was just about a week ago that we were dealing with snow showers across Western New York. So this has been an awesome start a preview of summer. Now the second half of the weekend, it will not be as warm as temperatures take a drop, we're going to be in the upper 50s to low 60s, a little bit below average. But we're gonna have a mix of sun and clouds, no rain on Mom's Day."