May Gardening Tips
May is such a lovely month in the garden with all your planting plans being able to go ahead with the wonderful shows of colour.
Seed Sowing
Growing your own plants from seed is exciting, rewarding and represents good value for money if you are successful at it.
GCA Christmas Competition winners
Barton Grange Garden Centre and Castle Gardens have recently (November, 2018) been announced as the national winners of our 2018 annual Christmas competition. The garden centres were judged to have the best festive displays in the country and will receive their awards at our annual conference in January, 2019. This year’s displays were extremely impressive,…
Former English rugby player and coach unveiled for 2019 conference
Former English rugby player and coach unveiled for 2019 conference Former English rugby player and coach Sir Clive Woodward OBE has been announced (November, 2018) as the first speaker booked for our annual conference in Luton in January (January 20 until 23, 2019). Garden centre owners, managers and their teams can now book their places…
Houseplant sales still going strong in September
Houseplant sales still going strong in September Sales in houseplants departments at garden centres across the country remained strong during September (2018) according to our Barometer of Trade (BoT) report. Compared to last year (2017) sales in houseplants were up 16.49%. Outdoor plants followed close behind at 15.75% up. It looks like there is no…
Scotland and N. Ireland regional winners revealed
Our final regional awards presentation evening was a huge success and it was wonderful to hear from Inspector Alyson Haywood, who presented her findings from her inspections, which took place earlier in the year.
Plant Area Forum at Ball Colegrave is a success
We held a successful Plant Area Forum at Ball Colegrave this summer (July, 2018). The event was our third and was attended by more than 50 delegates, including plant area managers, buyers and supervisors and was facilitated by GCA inspector, Roger Crookes with assistance from Michael Cole. Our third annual Plant Area Forum was a…
Our Ruxley Rose finalists are announced
We have recently (August, 2018) announced the finalists in our annual Ruxley Rose competition. Twenty centres all received top scores in the spring bedding and hardy nursery stock categories from our spring inspections and have now been put forwards for autumn judging. Throughout the spring our member garden centres received visits from our inspectors and…
Sunshine sends garden centre sales soaring
Sales at garden centres across the country continued to soar in June (2018) thanks to the sunny weather according to our Barometer of Trade (BoT) report.
Outdoor plant sales were up 26.94% compared to the same month last year (2017) and sales in houseplants were close behind at 24.1% up.
Wales & West winners receive awards
Members from the Wales & West region are celebrating after scooping awards during a presentation evening at Whitehall Garden Centre – Whitchurch yesterday (Tuesday, July 24, 2018).
The Old Railway Line Garden Centre was named Garden Centre of the Year in the Garden Centre (GC) category and Monkton Elm Garden & Pet Centre scooped the award in the Destination Garden Centre (DGC) category.