The rain and wind last week prompted a big drop in plant sales, well down on the same week last year but 8% up on the same week in 2017. 

As roses bloom their sales increase, moving up 10 places to No 4, only behind Pelargoniums (including zonal Geraniums) Petunias and Begonias in terms of volume sales and popularity.

With gardeners looking for more instant colour it was good to see so many new plants with long flowering periods at BBC Gardeners World Live! this week.  We’ll be watching the GTN Bestsellers Epos data carefully next year to see how they sell through when they get into full production.

All Plants volume sales change: Week on week DOWN 38.6%.  Year to date vs 2018 DOWN 3.4%, vs  2017 UP 1.7%.