Garden centres throughout the UK will be hoping that this weekend's forecasted mild weather will help to boost sales. 

“It’s going to be 15 degrees this weekend,” were the optimistic words from new Scotts UK General Manager Sheila Hill as GTN joined her for a day of visits to garden centres.  

The visits to Van Hage Peterborough, Baytree and Waterside garden centres revealed that stores are well stocked and ready for the season. They, like gardeners across the country, are just waiting for the ground to warm up so that they can get on.

At Van Hage Peterborough, manager Chrissie Hills proudly reported to Sheila that they had sold more volume of Evergreen Complete last week than either of Van Hage Great Amwell and Chenies.  Lawn care looks set for a good season when the grass gets growing – Evergreen Complete re-entered the GTN Bestsellers chart at No 11 this week.

A check of the Met Office Weather forecast as GTN Bestsellers goes to press shows that whilst temperatures may not quite meet Sheila’s 15-degree wish, they won’t be far behind. With sunshine and no frost that should be enough to uncoil the spring!

GTN Bestsellers Top 50 sales volumes compared to the same week last year...

• Garden Products – down 38%
• Veg-2-Gro Products – down 39%
• Growing Media – down 11%
• All items index – down 26%

A notable change between the GTN Bestsellers Garden Products chart for week 9 this year vs last year is that there were five gardening glove lines in the Top 50 in 2014 and there are none this year. That’s another great indicator that customers are just not able to get on with their gardening at the moment.

• Growth Technology Orchid Focus Bloom Fertiliser 100ml is this week’s highest re-entry.
• Westland Fish Blood & Bone 3.5kg is the highest chart climber, up 35 places to No 10.
• Gardman Solar Swirl Marker Lights are the highest new entry at No 24.