Covid-19 pandemic puts sudden halt to Florida's yearly crop of ornamental plants, throttling the industry just as it was reaching high season with the beginning of spring
A man wears a mask amid fears over the spread of the novel coronavirus as he buy plants at The Home Depot in Homestead, some 64 kilometres north of Miami, on April 15, 2020.
"This is the period that the hibiscus is blooming. If we don't sell them, we're going to have to eat it in our salad," said Francisco Gonzalez, the owner of Primavera Nursery, a small nursery in Homestead, just south of Miami. Across six hectares Primavera Nursery produces 70 different types of ornamental plants, including ficus, croton, clusia and heliconia, hardly essentials for those in lockdown across the US.
These workers are off the books, with no access to unemployment benefits or the emergency federal aid check for employees. "But agriculture and the commercial ornamental industry is a huge economic impact driver, because it employs a lot of individuals," she told AFP.
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