Pike Family Nurseries Falls Victim to Drought

By Odette Yousef

Atlanta, GA – Norcross-based Pike Family Nurseries has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The largest privately-owned garden center in the country has fallen victim to the drought.

The ban on outdoor watering has meant that homeowners aren't buying plants to install outside, so Pike's sales have taken a hard hit.

Wayne Juers has been with Pike for thirty years:

JUERS: The consumer, the homeowner, not being able to water in this drought level 4, has left our business declining at about the rate of a 35% drop in business last year, and we just are looking at where we're going.

Juers says lawmakers should have built more reservoirs and a better water management system. And he believes exemptions that allow landscapers to water new installations should have been extended to homeowners who install their own landscapes.

For the time being, it will be business as usual at Pike Nurseries, which turns fifty next year. An investment company will finance Pike's operations until it emerges from bankruptcy.