In This Issue
It’s #floralfriday tomorrow, what will you be doing?
"I just don't get how gardening is deemed non-essential then certain supermarkets put big banners with get ready for spring," more post Easter feedback
After the quietest Easter ever, how are you and your team?
Thank you for reading GTNXtra in such high numbers
GrowNation could be a good answer to organisation challenges of garden centre delivery systems
Farplants, Hill and Newey donate plants for NHS Nightingale at ExCel
Gardenex and the CHA add support to plight of growers and retailers
Rose Festival returns for a 3rd Year - virtually
Good Friday saw #floralfriday Cheer and much needed donations for Greenfingers Charity
Neudorff switches focus to online retailers in a bid to drive sales of natural gardening products during peak season consumer lockdown
Budding gardeners invited to enter Scarecrow Competition as children take to the vegetable patch
Primeur’s unbreakable recycled rubber range will remain pristine during the lockdown
Aspin gift Creme Eggs to NHS hospitals
Get your own copy of GTN Xtra
Derek Spicer, Kilworth Conifers dies
GTN Xtra - Send to all
John Grayson joins Hozelock
Garden Radio charges on hold
The best of last week's
Johnsons of Boston Food Hall open today despite major fire in garden centre yesterday
FREE E-commerce Web Site for Garden Centres
For sale - A long Established Garden Centre Business
Horticulture hits the national and local headlines
The HTA launches ‘Plants Near Me’
Garden Centre Photo Tours
Haskins Snowhill re-opens after £15m re-vamp
GTN Bestsellers Garden Re-Leaf Subscription Offer
Bestsellers Top 50 charts every week
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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...

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Contact us with your news.

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


It’s #floralfriday tomorrow, what will you be doing?

Greenfingers Charity would love to see as many people as possible spread a whole load of floral cheer tomorrow Friday (17th April) and are offering a prize going to the most inventive and creative picture posted on social media...  

How you can spread some floral cheer on #floralfriday
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"I just don't get how gardening is deemed non-essential then certain supermarkets put big banners with get ready for spring," more post Easter feedback

After publishing GTN Xtra last night we've now had feedback from other centres including a record-breaking day online on Easter Monday at Longacres, how a veg hub is working wonders in Cornwall, how 12 vans are delivering up to 200 orders a day from Coolings, feedback from Matthew at Bents and comment from deepest Kent's Grovewell Garden Centres...

 

"I just don't get how gardening is deemed non-essential then certain supermarkets put big banners with get ready for spring etc and roll it out also selling clothes, homewares etc.  It just seems like everyone is finding ways to bend the rules."

 

“It’s very intense work and there is no let up all day. We're still all smiling though, and it just hammers home to me what a great crew I have.”

 

“We know that we are making no more money (or losing no less) than those who have closed their doors completely and furloughed all their staff.  What we do have is a core of enthusiastic staff who are keeping busy and that has to be a good thing for mental wellbeing as well as keeping some wheels of trade in motion which is good for the local economy.”

 

“We had a record-breaking day online on Easter Monday when we opened up a new load of delivery slots.  Demand is exceptional and we’ve had some great feedback from people who are immensely grateful for our delivery services.”

Read comments from Grovewell, Bents, Coolings, Longacres and Pengelly Garden Centres
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After the quietest Easter ever, how are you and your team?

Usually on Easter Monday, GTN Xtra’s Trevor Pfeiffer contacts garden centres to ask how their Easter trading has gone, but not this year.  Instead we just asked: How are you and your team? And how are delivery services going? Will Click and Collect be part of your recovery strategy?

 

"It’s been manic!  With three vehicles we’re managing 100 deliveries a day from phone orders."

“We’ve made sure we found a way through it all, after 49 years building the business I’m not about to throw in the towel."

"We have plans for changing our shop around to help customer flow and reduce the 'browsing' that we spend so much time perfecting."

"In conversations with customers on the phone especially the elderly it’s clear that many are bewildered and a call that takes 30 seconds to take an order often extends to 10 or 25 minutes as the team just chat."

“I have had my battle with the virus but now clear...

Read comments from Green Pastures, Alton Garden Centre, Caulders, Perrywood, Haskins, The Gardens Group, Planters & Garden King, Fron Goch and Blue Diamond
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Thank you for reading GTNXtra in such high numbers

Thank you from the team at GTNXtra for all the reading and sharing of our e-mail newsletter during this crisis period.  Our stories about Easter feedback from garden centres have beaten all records in terms of number of individual story clicks and the amount of time spent reading GTNXtra which has jumped by over 65%.  Thank you.

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GrowNation could be a good answer to organisation challenges of garden centre delivery systems

Following the launch of GrowNation, the free E-Commerce web site for garden centres, GTN Xtra has been asking Steve Meleka to give more information about the site and the reasons behind the initiative...

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Farplants, Hill and Newey donate plants for NHS Nightingale at ExCel

Farplants along with two other West Sussex growers, Hills and Newey donated plants last week for an initiative run by Richard Sabin of Biotecture to plant out the temporary Covid-19 Nightingale Hospital at ExCel with Plant Boxes around the NHS nurses and other hospital workers areas...

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Gardenex and the CHA add support to plight of growers and retailers
 

Gardenex and the Commercial Horticultural Association (CHA) have thrown their support behind industry-wide rallying calls for a softening of trading restrictions at UK garden centres and nurseries during the Covid19 crisis...

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Rose Festival returns for a 3rd Year - virtually

Peter Seabrook, The Sun’s Gardening Editor supported by Roses UK and Whartons Garden Roses are making plans for the third Rose Festival week running from the 20th – 28th June and launching in The Sun on 18th April...

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Good Friday saw #floralfriday Cheer and much needed donations for Greenfingers Charity

On #floralfriday (Friday 10th April 2020), Easter bonnets, floral shirts, dresses, bears, gnomes, a look back at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and much more helped to ensure Greenfingers Charity remained in the hearts and minds of supporters both old and new...

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Neudorff switches focus to online retailers in a bid to drive sales of natural gardening products during peak season consumer lockdown

Neudorff, the pioneer of products for natural gardening, has taken steps to ensure that extensive stocks of its leading product portfolio are readily available via internet-based retailers – in a bid to meet consumer demand during the nationwide lockdown...

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Budding gardeners invited to enter Scarecrow Competition as children take to the vegetable patch
 

 

 

The Gardens Group, which has three garden centres in Sherborne, Poundbury and Yeovil, is inviting children to build a scarecrow out of recycled items found in their homes and gardens, in order to watch over the growing number of fruit and vegetable patches popping up across the region...

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Primeur’s unbreakable recycled rubber range will remain pristine during the lockdown

 

 

Primeur’s new generation of ‘virtually indestructible’ garden ranges, which are renowned for their ability to endure punishing levels of wear and tear without suffering damage, will remain in pristine condition whether garden centres are forced to remain closed for weeks or locked down for months...

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Aspin gift Creme Eggs to NHS hospitals

Last week Aspin, providers of trade eCommerce and rep ordering systems to greeting card publishers, giftware distributors and garden centre suppliers. gifted several local NHS hospitals with 1000s of Crème Eggs...

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