Gary Blondell of Gary's Gardens in Severna Park, also a small independent garden center owner, said traffic is good, but the dollar amount of purchases is not.
"They are buying just a little bit of happiness, of cheerfulness or color. A hanging basket. A container garden."
Mother Nature shares the blame, too.
"When the sun is out, we are head of last year's sales," said Carrie Engel of Valley View Farms in Cockeysville. "When it's not, we're not."
Summers, whose modest and sensible landscape redesign projects are the strength of his business, hopes to continue to help those customers by linking with another landscaper.
His 25 employees, however, will be out of work at the end of June unless someone steps in with an infusion of cash to save the business.
Janet Leidy said she knew the closing was coming but was still shocked. She took a job working the cash register 12 years ago as a respite from the difficult care of her mother and sister. She met Bob Leidy, Summers' shrub and tree supervisor, and they married.
"Being here, taking care of the plants. It saved my life," she said. "I'd have worked for free."
