MCMINNVILLE, Tenn. -
Spring-like weather, with consistent highs in the 50s and 60s and lows above freezing, are causing trees and bushes to bloom early.
For many in the nursery business, the temperatures bring back bad memories from the late freeze of April 2007.
It caused millions worth of damages across the state.
Tommy Bradley, a fifth generation farmer, grows trees and bushes on over 600 acres of property in McMinnville.
"It's just too warm for January and February weather," he told Nashville's News 2 on Friday.
Magnolia trees are already budding on Bradley's property. Their delicate buds will not survive a harsh freeze.
"All the nursery guys are concerned and maybe a little bit on the scared side, because we are hoping it's not going to do what it did in '07," Bradley said.
Even if the temperatures don't take an early spring plummet, Bradley is already losing money.
He said, "It's gonna get critical, because we're not gonna be able to sell that bush, because it's gonna bloom out on us."
The only weapon Bradley can use in his fight against the weather is a claw-like machine that reaches into the soil and plucks out a large tree in less than a minute.
Bradley will try to sell as many as he can early to recoup as much of his costs as possible.
"We're just depending on Mother Nature, hoping it'll turn cool or cold in the next week or two, for sure," he said.
Depending on what happens over the next few weeks, Bradley, the rest of the nursery farmers and the county stand to lose a lot of money.
"For the whole county here, it could be up in the millions of dollars," Bradley said. "For one individual, depending on how big his farm is, it could be $100,000 to half a million."
Bradley said many farmers still have not recovered from the freeze of 2007.
Farmers like Tommy Bradley are worried that current mild weather could mean a late freeze like one from April 2007.
