After the mayor of Colmar, it is the Alsatian horticulturists and nurserymen who are annoyed by the prefectural decrees on drought. In the Haut-Rhin in particular, almost all the municipalities are affected by these restrictions. Municipalities can no longer water flower beds. Alsatian horticulturists fear long-term impact on their business.
“Horticulturists or nurseries are the main suppliers to municipalities“, explains Paul-André Keller, president of the union of nurseries and horticulturists of Alsace. “Our fear is that municipalities will stop investing in plantations, and this will obviously have consequences for our activity.“.
We did not wait for 2022 and this situation to react
The horticulturists of Alsace believe that they have already made a lot of effort to ensure that flowers and plants consume very little water. “We fear that the work we started 20 years ago will be called into question“, deplores Paul-André Keller, especially since “the drought decree was imposed without consultation with the actors of the flowering“.
According to him, flowering has adapted to environmental but also climatic requirements. following the effects of the 2003 heat wave. “We did not wait for 2022 and this situation to react. Most municipalities have invested in containers with water reserves, suitable potting soil, drip irrigation systems, not to mention the mulching of beds and the recovery of rainwater.“, enumerates the representative of the horticulturists. He is also concerned that these measures could annihilate “all efforts around the promotion of the label of towns and villages in bloom“.