Our 2025 South East region summer award winners Garden centre teams from across our South East region are celebrating today after scooping awards during a presentation evening yesterday at Coolings Nurseries in Kent (Tuesday, July 8, 2025). Garden Centre of the Year in the Destination Garden Centre (DGC) category was Ruxley Manor, the Garden Centre (GC)…
We’ve revealed our 2026 conference main theme & booking goes live! We’ve unveiled the main topic for our 2026 annual conference alongside the launch this week of our special early bird bookings for the event too (July 2025). Our conference at Carden Park Chester from January 25-28, 2026, will explore the theme of ‘Growing a…
We’ve opened up sponsorship for our 2026 annual conference We’re seeking potential sponsors both big and small for our annual conference taking place from January 25-28 next year (2026). We want to hear from businesses with horticultural industry relevance that would like to be associated with the event, which takes place at Carden Park Hotel…
Details of our regional award meetings & a coach option from Midlands & West We’ve revealed the dates for our summer regional award meetings when members find out who has come top in its 2025 annual inspections. Members are encouraged to attend with their teams and this year those in the Midlands and West also…
May’s BoT shows another ‘healthy’ month Our members have recorded another ‘healthy’ month in our May 2025 Barometer of Trade (BoT) with seven of the 13 categories listed performing positively when compared to the same month in 2024. Figures out today (June 19, 2025) have revealed May’s top performer was gifts at +10.07%, followed by…
April’s BoT shows ‘positive’ sales Our Barometer of Trade (BoT) for April has revealed members had another ‘wonderful’ month – with the year-to-date increase now at +12.28% (2025). Data from our garden centres show all 13 categories logged saw a positive increase, when compared to April 2024, with plant sales and core gardening categories in…
Call for applications for Dick Allen Scholarship Award We’re urging members to put forward their staff for the GCA Trust’s Dick Allen Scholarship Award Scheme. Open to GCA garden centre staff The scheme is open to staff within our member garden centres and the recipients of the award will be invited to attend the International…
March BoT reveals furniture & BBQs top garden centre sales Our members recorded a ‘wonderful’ March according to figures posted in our Barometer of Trade (BoT) for the month – with furniture & BBQs up at +57.7% (2025). Statistics from member garden centres show 12 of the 13 sales areas recorded did well, when likened…
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…
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…