Pot Is Putting a California Town’s Love of Farming to the Test

Growing plants is so ingrained in Encinitas’ identity that a poinsettia adorns its seal, and the city proclaimed itself the Flower Capital of the World.

But many flower farmers are struggling, and hope growing pot will buoy their businesses — if the city will allow it.

Stark wooden beams form the skeleton of a greenhouse at Dramm & Echter, one of the few flower growers left in Encinitas. Owner Bob Echter hopes a new crop sprouts in the unfinished structure, one he never thought he would touch when he bought the property in 1995.

That was before soaring water and energy costs, before cutthroat global competition, before minimum wage hikes and before Proposition 64 legalized pot growing (if a local jurisdiction signs off).

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