In Scotland,  Helen MacDonald, owner of Merryhatton Garden Centre in East Lothian, which was blanketed in snow for the Easter weekend, said: “While we experienced a definite uplift over the weekend, the impact on sales of the ongoing bad weather and an early Easter was clear, particularly on plant sales.

“The feedback from customers is that they're dying to get back into their gardens again especially because last year's awful weather prevented any serious gardening taking place. So the potential is definitely there to claw back at least some of the shortfall as soon as the weather improves.

"In the meantime, like everyone else, we're putting extra effort into our non-plant sales and thanking our lucky stars for our ever popular cafe!"