Festive shoppers scratching their heads over last-minute Christmas presents should consider gifting a house plant, as figures show December is a peak month for potted purchases. 

Around one in seven of all houseplants sold in the UK’s garden centres are purchased in the last month of the year. Industry body, the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA), says a plant is the perfect way to celebrate the season and has wellbeing and environmental benefits too.

New information from the HTA’s Garden Retail Monitor system, which collects barcode-level sales data from UK garden centres, shows that last year (2023), 13% of all houseplant sales in garden centres took place in December and the industry is expecting a similar level of trade this year.

Laura Loveridge, Market Research Manager at the HTA, said: “A houseplant really is the gift that keeps on giving, usually for many years. Some greenery and colour bring cheer to us all in these darker months as well as continued pleasure, long after the wrapping paper from other presents has been recycled. This all makes a houseplant a sustainable present in more ways than one, with benefits to mental and physical wellbeing too.”

The benefits to mental and physical wellbeing that plants provide was explored in the HTA’s ‘Value of Plants’ report which showed houseplants have been found to boost happiness, productivity, creativity, concentration, attention and promote lower stress levels.

Although Poinsettias are often a top choice at Christmas, the HTA advises that some other flowers and plants are easier to care for in winter. It suggests that different types flourish at this time of year, including more tropical species. Dracaenas, Epipremnums (commonly known as Devil’s Ivy or Pothos) and Philodendrons are resilient all year round, but they especially thrive in the winter. This is because they are adept at surviving in lower light levels, with about 95% of sunlight being filtered out.

The festive season is a vital trading period for the UK’s garden centres: the HTA found that 11% of total annual garden centre turnover in 2023 was made in December, and just over a quarter of garden centre sales (26%) in that month came from their Christmas departments.

It also found that 3.8 million people bought a real Christmas tree, and 2.4 million bought an artificial tree in a garden centre in 2022.

For shoppers unable to reach a garden centre in time or who are gifting from afar, the HTA runs the National Garden Gift Cards available in garden centres and online. The gift cards and e-vouchers range from £5 to £500 and can be spent in over 1400 locations across the UK.