Jobs to do in the garden in April There is still a lot to tend to in the garden this month and below are some of the key jobs that will need your attention now. Fertilise If we have a spell of wet weather, mulch around azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons, this helps keep moisture in…
February’s Barometer of Trade reveals catering & gifts led the way Our Barometer of Trade (BoT) figures released for February 2025 show members did the best in non-gardening categories. When compared with the same month in 2024, data from member garden centres show five of the 13 categories recorded performed well with catering once again…
Sow Your Own tomatoes Growing tomatoes from seed is easy and means you can try different varieties relatively cheaply. You can start sowing your seeds now (March/early April). If you’re worried about pinching out sideshoots when the plants are bigger, then grow determinate varieties such as Sweet Olive F1 and Tumbling Tom Red. How to…
Tips on the economy from top expert This week’s 2025 conference guest speaker ‘takeaway’ blog comes from leading economist Roger Martin-Fagg. Roger, who specialises in making economics accessible for everyone, presented to members on Tuesday, January 28, and shared his knowledge to help delegates create their 2025 strategies. Back by popular demand Roger was a…
New GROW Equality, Diversity & Inclusion in the workplace course Members are being offered a new course launched this month by our Garden Retail Online Workshops (GROW) e-Learning platform to help create inclusive workplace environments (March 2025). This is the 96th course to be added to GROW and it’s available to GCA member garden centres and…
Victorian love values for Mothering Sunday This Mothering Sunday (March 30, 2025) children will be able to REALLY say it with flowers. Flowers have been given meanings for centuries. The Romantic poets such as Keats and Wordsworth were responsible for promoting them, but it wasn’t until the Victorian era that a social code for flowers…
Bringing possibility to life As part of our ongoing series of ‘takeaway’ blogs from speakers who presented at our 2025 conference in Reading in January, today we’re sharing some top tips from collective imagination champion Rob Hopkins. Power of imagination Rob is the co-founder of Transition Network and Transition Town Totnes and author of several books…
Top tips on orchid care Orchids are easy to look after according to our CEO and horticultural expert, Peter Burks. If you are giving one to your Mum this Mothering Sunday, or receive one yourself, then just print off Peter’s easy-care guide to help you keep your orchid looking good. Don’t over water. More orchids…
How to recruit and retain talent – from Baby boomers to Gen Z After our popular conference in January (2025), we asked our keynote speakers to send us some ‘takeaway’ hints and tips to create blogs that would benefit our garden centre members. We launched our series recently with creator and author of ‘Celebrity Service’…
Good news! We’ve reduced our fees to join GROW. To continue to provide our full members with the best value for money, we’ve reduced the fees to join GROW. All you’ll pay is: £500 + VAT for your primary centre (paid in year 1 only), plus £100 + VAT per additional centre (paid in year 1 only),…