In This Issue
Join in #FloralFriday today, celebrate re-opening and say thank you!
Orderly queues form as garden centres in England re-open
“Stay Alert” - make sure your customers and staff have a safe and enjoyable garden centre experience
Making garden centres friendly, safe and accessible again
Green light for garden centres to re-open on Wednesday in England - UPDATED - Comment from James Barnes at HTA and Alan Titchmarsh MBE
Dobbies’ Swansea reopened
Wales - Monday, England - Wednesday or June 1st?, Scotland and Northern Ireland?
St Peters staff in tears after council serves Prohibition Notice
Getting ready for business - feedback from Coolings, Planters, The Gardens Group, Blue Diamond, Green Pastures, Fron Goch and more
GrowNation Secures Free Social Distancing Help and Advice for Garden Centres
It was a Red, White and Blue #FloralFriday
Reopening your retail store: Step two – sanitation & portable hand washing/sanitisation stations
RHS Chelsea Garden Product of the Year to be judged during Virtual RHS Chelsea
GrowNation and Industry Partners Provide Click & Collect to Garden Centres
Violinist Rosanne Philippens embraces the sun in Keukenhof
Promising Digitalis Panther available now
Fiskars’ annual Happiness and Wellbeing Study
Free use of 16 different Covid-19 safety measure/social distancing posters
New online garden retailer Lockdown Gardener launches for home delivery
Get your own copy of GTN Xtra
GTN Xtra - Send to all
The best of last week's
We need centres re-opened, says Sun legend Peter Seabrook
Tricia Cox co-founder of Glendoick Garden Centre dies
Safe Trading Guidance for all garden centres published by HTA
Reopening your retail store: Step one - signage & screening
James Stamp to the rescue
Record Number of Suppliers and Garden Centres Spread a little Floral Cheer on #FloralFriday
Garden Centre Photo Tours
Haskins Snowhill re-opens after £15m re-vamp
Pets Corner in garden centres re-opened
Dobbies’ podcast explores gardening for beginners
GrassSaver Soft Chews for dogs will help gardeners keep their lawns in pristine condition
Bestsellers Top 50 charts every week
Buy your subscription to GTN Bestsellers
GTN Bestsellers
Bestsellers Top 50 charts every week
 

Every week GTN receives and analyses epos data from a number of UK garden centres to produce the GTN Bestsellers charts...

Read more»
Buy your subscription to GTN Bestsellers
 
Buy your GTN Bestsellers Subscription here
Send us your news and great ideas

Contact us with your news.

Email trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk or call the GTN News team on 01733 775700


 
Join in #FloralFriday today, celebrate re-opening and say thank you!

Today (Friday 15th May) Greenfingers Charity are urging the nation to use this #FloralFriday as an opportunity to say thank you to all those who have lobbied and campaigned to support nurseries, growers and retailers...

Read more»
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (0)
Orderly queues form as garden centres in England re-open

This was the scene at British Garden Centres Osterley garden centre just before 9:00am on Wednesday morning.

 

Send us your pics and videos of your re-opening experience, thanks to the team at Downtown Garden Centre (below), and we'll publish as many as we can in GTN Xtra at the weekend...

 

Read more»
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (0)
“Stay Alert” - make sure your customers and staff have a safe and enjoyable garden centre experience

Yesterday afternoon, in advance of garden centres re-opening today in England, I went to Megaplants in Doddington, Cambridgshire. Megaplants is a small plant centre that got permission to re-open two weeks ago...

Read more»
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (0)
Making garden centres friendly, safe and accessible again
GTN Xtra promotion

Some garden centres have already taken massive steps to reopen safely. Many in the garden industry, and in retail at large, will be keenly watching and evaluating what works and how customers respond. No doubt over the coming weeks there will be refinements and many improvements as it becomes clear things will stay ‘different’ for a long time.

 

Green Magic Co (Sign-Holders.co.uk) has been beavering away during lockdown to discover, devise and deliver new solutions...

 

Read more»
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (0)
Green light for garden centres to re-open on Wednesday in England - UPDATED - Comment from James Barnes at HTA and Alan Titchmarsh MBE

A green light has been given for garden centres in England to re-open on Wednesday May 13th.  In new "Staying alert and safe (social distancing)" guidance, published this afternoon by the Cabinet Office it says "Food retailers and food markets, hardware stores, garden centres (from Wednesday 13 May) and certain other retailers can remain open...

Read comment from HTA and Alan Titchmarsh MBE
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (2)
Dobbies’ Swansea reopened
 

Dobbies Garden Centres reopened its Swansea store this morning, Monday 11 May.

Read more»
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (0)
Wales - Monday, England - Wednesday or June 1st?, Scotland and Northern Ireland?

All of the lobbying and media activity about garden centres re-opening appeared to be bearing fruit with the Welsh Government announcing garden centres in the province could open from Monday and plenty of media comment on Sunday that garden centres in England would be able to open from Wednesday 13th May.  However, the omission of any mention of garden centre's re-opening in the Prime Ministers address on Sunday evening leaves possible doubts as to when re-opening will be possible in England.

 

The only mention of shops re-opening in the address came as part of step two "– at the earliest by June 1 – after half term – we believe we may be in a position to begin the phased reopening of shops and to get primary pupils back into schools, in stages, beginning with reception, Year 1 and Year 6."

 

Boris Johnson said he would be "setting out more details in Parliament on Monday afternoon and taking questions from the public in the evening" so we will have to wait for a few more hours...

 

 

Read more»
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (0)
St Peters staff in tears after council serves Prohibition Notice

After receiving hundreds of plaudits from customers staff at St Peters Garden Centre in Worcester were left in tears after Wychavon District Council served a Prohibition Notice on the business following the re-opening of their food hall and pet departments...

Read more and watch the St Peters Social Distancing measures video
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (1)
Getting ready for business - feedback from Coolings, Planters, The Gardens Group, Blue Diamond, Green Pastures, Fron Goch and more

Last week we asked garden centres what their plans were for getting back to business with particular reference to policies for staff safety, and we also asked for feedback on how they would welcome reps calling on them when they re-open...

 

“We had a work party on a couple of evenings and then all (unfurloughed) staff came in on Saturday to help with the last push in re-organising. They then posed as customers and we tested the one way systems and the till are to see how our modifications worked..."

 

"We will need all the help we can get!  If I can till train a rep then we would do that too!..”

 

"We accept that restaurants will be amongst the last to open and we accept that come the end of June our catering team is facing redundancy..."

Read more»
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (0)
GrowNation Secures Free Social Distancing Help and Advice for Garden Centres

GrowNation (grownation.co.uk), today announces free professional advice on social distancing and safe operation to garden centres across the UK...

Read more»
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (0)
It was a Red, White and Blue #FloralFriday

#FloralFriday (May 8th) saw thousands of friends come together in the sunshine to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of VE Day...

Read more»
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (0)
Reopening your retail store: Step two – sanitation & portable hand washing/sanitisation stations
 

 

Advice from Cleaner Retail – a new one-stop-shop designed to assist in creating a sanitised environment for safer shopping and a clean retail experience for the consumer...

Read more»
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (0)
RHS Chelsea Garden Product of the Year to be judged during Virtual RHS Chelsea

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), has announced it will host the prestigious RHS Chelsea Garden Product of the Year Competition and a special People’s Choice vote for RHS Chelsea Plant of the Decade during its first ever virtual show, taking place from 18-23 May...

Read more»
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (0)
GrowNation and Industry Partners Provide Click & Collect to Garden Centres

GrowNation (grownation.co.uk), last week announced partnerships with leading horticultural organisations to allow garden centres to begin selling online immediately through click & collect and local delivery services...

Read more»
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (0)
Violinist Rosanne Philippens embraces the sun in Keukenhof

Keukenhof wants to show the blooming park to as many people as possible. The park has therefore entered into a unique partnership with violinist Rosanne Philippens. In a 5-minute video, viewers can see and hear Rosanne embracing the sunrise in a colourful Keukenhof...

Read more and watch video tours of Keukenhof 2020
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (0)
Promising Digitalis Panther available now
 

 

 

Appealing, and with a profusion of flowers. Dainty on the outside and bold on the inside. Continuous flowering from early spring through to late autumn. Digitalis Panther is available now...

Read more»
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (0)
Fiskars’ annual Happiness and Wellbeing Study

To support Fiskars’ consumer-focussed Happiness and Wellbeing Study, the company is offering a 2020 spring trade offer...

Read more»
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (0)
Free use of 16 different Covid-19 safety measure/social distancing posters
 

Spring Marketing are currently providing garden centres with a range of 16 FREE poster designs communicating the safety measures they are putting in place for their customers and staff in preparation for reopening...

Read more»
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (0)
New online garden retailer Lockdown Gardener launches for home delivery

Last week saw the launch of Lockdown Gardener distributing the plants from a number of growers including Farplants and Crossland flowers in Sussex and delivering directly to homes in and around London...

Read more»
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (0)