MORE than a month's worth of rain in just the first five days of April has proven to be a dampener for flower growers across the region.
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What was looking like a boom season thanks to a cooler than normal summer, has now been washed away by firstly the effects of the coronavirus and now a drenching which has all cut the current crop down..
Ballarat has so far recorded 63.4mm of rain in just six days this month, already more than 12mm up on the average total for the whole of April.
A 30,6mm downpour on Saturday came less than 48 hours after 18mm fell on Thursday. Coupled that with the first taste of winter and it doesn't make a happy sight for growers this week.
Kristy Tippett from Soho Rose Farm in Dean said the weather had been a blow on top of already having to lay off staff due to the coronavirus.
"It's not the greatest that's for sure, my husband is a potato farmer, so it's not been ideal for either of us," she said.
"It's a weird world we're living in at the moment. Ideally what you want is nice warm days and cool nights. Roses like to hydrate at night, so anything up to about 32 degrees is pretty much ideal.
"Up until this point it had been perfect weather for them, but I guess it's just part of growing flowers outside, you're at the mercy of the weather."
"It has set us back today because of the wind and the rain and not having the sun to dry them out."
Ms Tippett said 90 per cent of the business had been cut as most of the flowers were made for weddings and bouquets
"We're a mixed farm as well, so it's not the worst and there are a lot of people much worse off than we are," she said.
"I still have a few retail customers and shops, a few of our florists are staying to do bouquet deliveries.
"A lot of people have been getting behind buying bouquets, buying them through the florist which supports not only florists but wholesalers and growers."
After a series of consecutive years of under average rainfall, Ballarat is tracking well above its usual rainfall figure for 2020. In fact seven of the last 13 months have seen greater than average rainfall, with almost 140mm falling in May last year.
Already this year, 206.2mm has fallen, well up on the usual figure to the end of April of 176.8mm. This comes despite a relatively dry March where only 29mm fell for the whole month.
Interestingly, Ballarat's wettest ever April came after another bad bushfire season. The wettest ever recorded in this part of the world was 154.1mm which came in 1939.
The good news is the weather is expected to clear for the remainder of the week.