Garden Products:  After a promising start, that horrible March weather put paid to the season getting going for Easter. Great promotions of pick-up items such as garden lighting helped save the day so that when the weather improved sales could really get going.

At the half-year, Top 50 volumes are up 10.5% on last year but still 4.6% down on 2011. New Product of the Year so far has to be Slug Gone from Vitax – in the Top 50 regularly since the middle of March.

Prospects for the second half: As gardens are growing well there are still plenty of potential garden product sales out there. Multiple facings and sitings of bestselling lines will maximise volumes and keep tills ringing.

Veg-2-Gro: The top performer of the three GTN Bestsellers charts. Whoever said Grow Your Own was dying? Up 10.8% on last year and only 1.5% behind 2011. Veg plants have been the stars, showing vigorous growth, particularly those supplied by Suttons (grafted veg), Gardeners Kitchen and Quantil.

Prospects for next year: Grow Your Own will keep growing, so our advice is to get it as close to the front of the centre as possible and link with your catering and farm shop.

Growing Media: Sales have struggled all year – they’re still down 3.3% on last year and 19.7% down on 2011. If customers miss out on buying growing media in March, they just carry on gardening without it. Or have they been buying from other outlets such as DIY stores or supermarkets?

Prospects for the second half: Provided the weather is good, there should be enough activity for sales to match last year but that's unlikely to make up for the deficit in the first half.

All Products:  This is where the diversity of garden centres comes into its own. Even when the weather was bad, coffee shops, gifts and farm shops continued to trade well. Keep up the good work, garden product and plant retailing needs your help!

Prospects for the second half: Christmas will be a blinder as garden centres take an even more professional approach to event and attraction staging.