The organisers of the fourth annual Greenfingers Garden Re-Leaf Day are celebrating first signs of the event’s success, with a fundraising total of over £50,000 already confirmed ahead of final results.

This is the first year that Garden Re-Leaf Day has been fully integrated amongst Greenfingers’ other fundraising activities, but it remains the charity’s main drive to source funds towards its Rosy Cheeks campaign – a £750,000 fund for creating much needed hospice gardens, which is now in its final year.  Greenfingers Garden Re-Leaf Day is also embraced across the UK gardening industry as a season-starting event opportunity after the winter months.

Deborah Skillicorn, Charity Director, said:"The amount of publicity and support the charity has already received for Greenfingers Garden Re-Leaf Day across the industry has simply exceeded expectations.  I would like to thank every single person involved in raising money, and those who donated - you are all absolutely fantastic!"

The biggest single success in terms of known funds raised so far has been from Richard Jackson's four Greenfingers Garden Re-Leaf Day shows on QVC, which ran for an unprecedented six hours over three days and raised in excess of £40,000.  A minimum of £1 was donated from each unit sold by suppliers, including Plants2Gardens, Hayloft, Montrose of Guernsey, De Jager, Unwins, Golden Gark, Wet & Forget, Bernini Fountains, Gripeeze gloves, Lawn Magic and Langdon European as well as Richard Jackson's own Garden Care Range. 

Richard Jackson, who is also the Founder President of Greenfingers, said: "Our success with fundraising through the QVC shows could not have happened without the generosity of our suppliers, or indeed the viewers that purchased the products - many of which sold out in minutes.  The money we have together raised is quite simply a life changing amount for the children and families that use our hospice gardens - thank you!"

Another key fundraising success was the 20 mile Thames walk undertaken by 28 intrepid members of the garden industry on Garden Re-Leaf Day, including walk organiser and Glee event manager Matthew Mein, GIMA Director Vicky Nuttall and HTA Chief Executive Carol Paris. Walking from Ruxley Manor Garden Centre in Sidcup to Clifton Nurseries in Maida Vale, West London, the team’s efforts have already raised £7,000, with more hoped for. 

Greenfingers Charity Fundraising and Administration Officer, Sarah Lioveri, was at the finish line to greet the walkers and praised everyone who donated and took part: "Congratulations and a huge thank you to the Thames Walk team for their efforts, and to those who donated their time and money for Greenfingers on the day.  The funds that have already been raised are invaluable and will help us install more of our lovely, much needed hospice gardens."  To donate to the Greenfingers Garden Re-Leaf Day Thames Walk team follow this link: https://www.justgiving.com/greenfingersgardenreleafthameswalk/

Glovies – setting a brand new Greenfingers Garden Re-Leaf record

At 11am on Greenfingers Garden Re-Leaf Day, hundreds of people from the garden industry and beyond set a brand new record for the most selfies of people wearing gloves (aka 'Glovies') posted on social media.  The campaign was actively supported by gardening glove suppliers Briers and Town & Country.

A total of 247 posts featuring the hashtags #Glovies and #Glovie appeared via 55 different Twitter accounts, reaching 79,143 individual twitter users.  78 original #Glovies were tweeted on Twitter and 21 on Facebook. 

Greenfingers Garden Re-Leaf Day Social Media Coordinator, Robbie Cumming said: "A huge thanks to the record number of 166 different people who helped put #Glovies, and more importantly, Greenfingers Garden Re-Leaf Day, in front of a global audience.  Together we were retweeted, 'favourited' and seen a whopping 241,126 times within the space of a day."  More images are being posted - check the hashtag #Glovies on Twitter for the latest.

Garden centre activities

The feedback from the dozens of garden centres that took part in Garden Re-Leaf Day this year has highlighted a wide range of events, and increased awareness for Greenfingers amongst customers. Examples included:

• Long term supporters Perrywood Garden Centre in Essex were among the most active on the day, with their team posting scores of Glovies images on Twitter, donating money for each one sent in, planting potatoes at a nearby college and filling their café with teams taking part in the Greenfingers Garden Re-Leaf Day Quiz in the evening
• Newcomers to Garden Re-Leaf, Orchard Park Garden Centre in Dorset, were one of the very first to sign up through the new 'register your event' page on the Garden Re-Leaf Day website.  Members of staff spent the day fundraising by cycling on an exercise bike, selling cakes, holding a raffle and getting  youngsters in for an Easter egg hunt, all of which raised over £500
• White Stores doubled their normal sales on Garden Re-Leaf day as customers chose to buy from them after discovering 10% of net sales (online, phone and in-store) was being donated on all products sold during Garden Re-Leaf Day 2015.  They raised over £2,690
• The Old Railway Line Nursery in Brecon also had great success, raising more than £1,570 with a wellie throwing challenge, ‘Soak the Boss’ wet sponge stall, planting activities for children and a raffle
• Altons Garden Centre in Essex ran a competition to plant up and decorate a wellie, a staff fancy hat competition and the Garden Re-Leaf quiz, beating their fund-raising target of £1,000
• Longacres Garden Centre held a charity day in the run up to Garden Re-Leaf that raised £900
• Poplars Garden Centre in Bedfordshire celebrated raising over £500 from their raffle and quiz
• Littleheath Garden Centre in Bromsgrove held a humorous 'Guess the length of a piece of string' competition to win a £150 Plant Area trolley dash.  The idea was also carried out at sister Hillview Group stores Billing, Burford, Charlecote, Hilltop, Newton Regis, Pavilion, as well as Studley and Studley Green. 
• All of the Haskins Garden Centre stores held raffles
• Klondyke/Strikes stores all put on Tea Re-Leaf events
• Scotts Miracle Gro was among suppliers that supported Garden Re-Leaf Day activities, supplying prizes for raffles being run at garden centres including Simpsons in Inverness, Cowells in Woolsington, Langlands in Yorkshire, The Old Railway in Powys, Willowbrook in Bromsgrove, Ayletts in St Albans, Poplars in Dunstable, Millbrook in Gravesend and Crowborough, Goulds in Weymouth, and Otters in Devon
• Rolawn was another supplier that made a considerable contribution to Garden Re-Leaf Day, with events ranging from fancy dress to cake sales and holding a growing competition

Auction of Easter Egg by David Cameron’s Chequers chef – your chance to bid!

The Prime Minister's personal chef at Chequers also made a special Easter egg which is currently being auctioned with the proceeds going to the Greenfingers charity. 

More details on fundraising from Greenfingers Garden Re-Leaf Day will be made available in the coming months, but for a full list of events that took place see http://www.gardenreleaf.co.uk.