Bents won the GCA Destination Garden Centre of the Year 2023 at the Annual Dinner event which brought the 2024 GCA Conference to a close.

Fairways Ashbourne were announced as Garden Centre of the Year.

Martin Stewart and Warren Haskins were in attendance to present the Haskins Stewart Cup for Associate Member of the Year, as voted for by GCA Members to greetings card suppliers Woodmansterne.

Mark and Sharon from Tong Garden Centre walked away with The Worrall Cup, the GCA's Award for marketing, for their hugely successful local charities "Kindness Pot" campaign.

The Ten GCA Garden Centres of Excellence Awards were presented to:

• Bents
• Barton Grange
• Coolings Knockholt
• Haskins Snowhill
• Klondyke Mortonhall
• Millbrook Gravesend
• Old Railway Line
• Perrywood Tiptree
• Ruxley Manor
• Simpsons

See photos of all the presentations at the Annual Dinner event, including Guy Toppings auction for "The Last Bag of peat based Miracle-Gro Compost" which raised £8,000 for Greenfingers thanks to Terry Head at Stewarts, in the gallery below and watch this space for more coverage of Tuesday at the GCA Conference over the coming days.

Kings and Queens were out in force last night as the GCA celebrated their associate members with a theme night dinner.

Old Kings, Dancing Queens, Disney Kings and Queens plus Pharaohs and Cleopatras were however out shone by the Lion King team from Garsons who scoped the nights Fancy Dress award.  The pub signs from Meadowview Stone were judged to be second with the Millbrook King Prawns coming third  See GTN Xtra's gallery of the evening below 

GARDEN centre teams from across the country are celebrating after receiving awards at the Garden Centre Association’s (GCA) annual conference in the Cotswolds yesterday (Monday, January 29, 2024).

The awards were presented to the member garden centres during a ceremony at the De Vere Cotswold Water Park Hotel near Cirencester, Gloucestershire.

GCA Chief Executive, Peter Burks said: “The commitment and hard work our member garden centres put in each year just gets better and better. Through our annual inspections and awards, we know our members have some of the highest standards in our industry.

“They should all be proud of the example they set to others. I’d like to congratulate all our worthy winners this year for their dedication to ensuring the public receives an experience to remember when visiting them. I would also like to thank all our award sponsors in each category for supporting us this year, to Hozelock our sponsors for today’s conference and to our headline sponsors Evergreen Garden Care and Westland Horticulture and secondary main sponsor Smart Garden Products too.”

The full list of winners (see GTN Xtra's photos in the gallery below) announced on Monday, January 29 were:

GCA GROW Training Award

• GCA GROW Training Award – Bosworths Garden Centre, Burton Latimer

 Dick Allen Award (Most Improved Garden Centre)

Winner

 Dick Allen Award (Most Improved Garden Centre) – Thompson Plants and Garden Welling

Second & third place winners

• British Garden Centres, Arcadia
• Klondyke Beverley Garden Centre

Barton Grange Trophy for Commercial Creativity and Innovation

Winner

 Barton Grange Trophy for Commercial Creativity and Innovation – Bents Garden & Home

Second & third place winners 

• Ruxley Manor Garden Centre
• Perrywood Garden Centre, Tiptree 

Customer Service Award – Best Customer Service – sponsored by Worldpay

Winner 

• The Old Railway Line Garden Centre

Second & third place winners

• Aylett Nurseries
• Klondyke Mortonhall Garden Centre 

Paul Cooling Environment and Sustainability Award sponsored by Wildlife World

Winner

• Millbrook Garden Company, Gravesend

Second & third place winners

• The Old Railway Line Garden Centre
• Ruxley Manor Garden Centre

The GIMA Award for Best Garden Products Retailer

Winners 

• The GIMA Award for Best Garden Products Retailer (Destination Garden Centre Category) – Bents Garden and Home
• The GIMA Award for Best Garden Products Retailer (Garden Centre Category) – Klondyke Garden Wise, Dumfries

Second & third place winners

Destination Garden Centre Category

• Barton Grange Garden Centre
• Stewarts Garden Centre, Christchurch 

Garden Centre Category 

• Klondyke Astbury Meadow Garden Centre
• Tarporley Garden Centre, British Garden Centres 

The Indoor Lifestyle Award – Best Indoor Lifestyle Retailer sponsored by Merzario

Winners 

• The Indoor Lifestyle Award – Best Indoor Lifestyle Retailer (Destination Garden Centre Category) – Perrywood Garden Centre, Tiptree 

• The Indoor Lifestyle Award – Best Indoor Lifestyle Retailer (Garden Centre Category) – Perrywood Garden Centre, Sudbury  

Second & third place winners

Destination Garden Centre Category

• Gordale Garden Centre
• Bents Garden and Home 

Garden Centre Category 

• Pugh’s Garden Village Wenvoe and RHS Bridgewater =
• Creative Gardens, Logwood 

The Outdoor Living Award – Best Outdoor Living Retailer – sponsored by Woodlodge

Winners

• The Outdoor Living Award – Best Outdoor Living Retailer (Destination Garden Centre Category) – Garsons Garden Centre, Esher  
• The Outdoor Living Award – Best Outdoor Living Retailer (Garden Centre Category) – Canterbury Garden Centre 

Second & third place winners

Destination Garden Centre Category 

• Bents Garden and Home
• Ruxley Manor Garden Centre and Hayes Garden World =  

Garden Centre Category 

• Fairways Garden Centre, Ashbourne
• Klondyke Garforth Garden Centre, Stanway Garden Centre, Ramsgate Garden Centre – British Garden Centres, Squires Garden Centre, Frensham, Squires Garden Centre, Woking, Squires Garden Centre, Washington = 

NEW for 2024 – Ian Boardman Indoor Plants Cup

Winners

• Ian Boardman Indoor Plants Cup (Destination Garden Centre Category) – Cowell’s Garden Centre
• Ian Boardman Indoor Plants Cup (Garden Centre Category) – Knights Plant Centre, Betchworth and Pugh’s Garden Village Wenvoe = 

Second & third place winners

Destination Garden Centre Category 

• Webbs of Wychbold and Ransoms Garden Centre =
• Perrywood Garden Centre, Tiptree and Hayes Garden Centre = 

Garden Centre Category 

• Klondyke Garden Wise, Dumfries
• Fairways Garden Centre, Ashbourne 

NEW for 2024 – Best Food Hall/Farm Shop Award

Winners

• Best Food Hall/Farm Shop Award (Destination Garden Centre Category) – Bellis Brothers Farm Shop & Garden Centre
• Best Food Hall/Farm Shop Award (Garden Centre Category) – Squires Garden Centre, Frensham 

Second & third place winners

Destination Garden Centre Category 

• Ruxley Manor Garden Centre
• Klondyke Mortonhall Garden Centre 

Garden Centre Category 

• Pugh’s Garden Village Wenvoe
• Klondyke Beverley Garden Centre

Catering Award sponsored by Clifton Coffee Roasters

Winners

• Catering Award (Destination Garden Centre Category) – Ruxley Manor Garden Centre
• Catering Award(Garden Centre Category) – Knights Plant Centre, Betchworth

Second & third place winners

Destination Garden Centre Category 

• Bents Garden and Home and Haskins Garden Centre, Snowhill =
• Polhill Garden Centre, Henry Street Garden Centre and Stewarts Garden Centre, Christchurch = 

Garden Centre Category 

• Pugh’s Garden Village Wenvoe and Fairways Garden Centre, Ashbourne =
• Klondyke Mayfield Garden Centre 

Ruxley Rose Award for Best Overall Plantaria sponsored by Wyevale Nurseries

Winners 

• Ruxley Rose (Destination Garden Centre Category) – Cowell’s Garden Centre
• Ruxley Rose (Garden Centre Category) – Squires Garden Centre, Hersham 

Second & third place winners

Destination Garden Centre Category 

• Perrywood Garden Centre, Tiptree 
• Aylett Nurseries 

Garden Centre Category

• Perrywood Garden Centre, Sudbury  
• Squires Garden Centre, Woking 

Christmas Competition sponsored by Gisela Graham

Winners                                                               

• Christmas Competition (Destination Garden Centre Category) – Garsons Garden Centre, Esher
• Christmas Competition (Garden Centre Category) – Castle Gardens, part of The Gardens Group

Second & third place winners

Destination Garden Centre Category

• Barton Grange Garden Centre
• Gates Garden Centre

 Garden Centre Category 

• Brimsmore Gardens, part of the Gardens Group
• Pugh’s Garden Village Wenvoe

Westland Horticulture sponsored Rising Stars winner

Haydon Walters – Thatcham Garden Centre (British Garden Centres).

The GCA represents more than 200 garden centres nationwide.

Through sharing information and its inspection programme the GCA helps members to achieve high standards in customer service, plant quality and reliability.

For further information, please visit www.gca.org.uk.

Wasting no time, the GCA kicked off its 2024 conference directly after the AGM where outgoing chair Tammy Woodhouse, handed over the chairmanship to Will Blake of St Peters Garden Centre.

First up, were a deluge of pictures showing inspirational, brilliant ideas and examples of first class customer service and retailing witnessed by GCA Inspectors Alyson Haywood, Gordon Emslie, Phil McCann and Colin Farquhar. Travelling across the country, they visited GCA member garden centres taking around 40,000 pictures from the moment they entered car parks until they left the sites. Some of these images provided great ideas for delegates to adopt at their own stores.

Phil McCann presented an advent calendar of Christmas geniousness from the 40 stores he visited for the Christmas award.  Winners this year are Castle Gardens in the Garden Centre category which embraced sustainability and the environment within its displays and Garsons Esher in the Destination Centre category for its excellent Art of Christmas initiative. His presentation ended with an energetic challenge between Old Railway Line and Cowells, to see who could take the net off a Christmas tree in the quickest time. Won by Old Railway Line, Phil suggests The Great British Net Off could be challenge for garden centres to pick up through social media channels for Christmas 2024.

Alyson Haywood’s summary of the best planteria retailing ended with presentations for the Ruxley Rose awards. Congratulations to Squires Horsham which won the Garden Centre category and Cowells winning in the Destination Garden Centre category.

The five finalists in the Rising Stars competition gave inspirational presentations of their environmental projects. Spanning ideas from educating gardeners about using peat free right through to water wise gardening, it was Haydon Walters who won. Working at BGC Thatcham Garden Centre, his project encouraged 500 children to get involved with planting seeds and seedlings through his workshops during the summer holidays and increased takings in the centre at the same time. This was backed up by his own activity book given free. But watch this space, Haydon is in talks with a major publisher so watch this space as his book could have a bright future.

Guest speaker Josh McBain from Foresight Factory gave a glimpse into the future which will undoubtedly embrace AI to inspire customers to buy, give them more information and more easily find what they want. Although online and in person buying was still very much in evidence there is a trend towards customers appreciating human interactions, which is good news for garden centres, and he suggested they are also looking for multi sensory retail experiences, again another plus for the garden retailing sector.

Rounding up the day and plunging everyone into deep despair about the state of the planet were The Futurenauts, Ed Gillespie and Mark Stevenson.  Thankfully they pulled delegates out of this depression with their enthusiasm on how the garden centre industry was in control of the lever to help make a massive contribution to regenerating Mother Earth.  Collectively, private gardens account for a huge amount of green space in the UK and can make a big difference. By encouraging customers to think of themselves of citizens and to take up composting (especially food waste), the carbon they put back into the soil could change the course of the future.  We should be taking action about regeneration NOT sustainability, as sustaining the current position will not save the planet

Do you want to transport your customers to those warm summer nights where time is spent in the garden curled up on outdoor sofas, firepits roaring, and laughter coming from all sides? Or, perhaps your customers dream of a luscious green lawn marked on each side by stunning flowerbeds full of bright blooms? With the all-new retail theatre merchandising displays from La Hacienda, both are possible.

New for season 24, La Hacienda’s new merchandising displays have been designed to create a new generation of point of sale that shouts and inspires within the retail environment. 

With two displays to choose from, these lifestyle-driven, ‘create the look ’-inspired outdoor sets are designed to maximise sales per square metre. Not reliant on shelf or wall space, these displays can be located anywhere within the store, making them a flexible yet high-impact way to sell La Hacienda’s outdoor cooking and heating solutions.

Both displays feature La Hacienda’s eye-catching orange branding, with retailers able to choose from the quintessential patio/decking area, where multiple products can be dressed so that shoppers can immerse themselves in the complete look, including cross-category merchandising with garden furniture and décor accessories and even Apta pots; or a smaller garden scene, which provides the perfect backdrop to merchandise firepits, firebowls, and chimeneas.

Featured stock can be quickly and easily swapped in or out, with complementary products, such as Apta planters and pots, Easy Fountain water features, and Kelkay paving and aggregates – all available from the AMES Companies, with the latter brands also benefitting from a direct-to-consumer delivery service.

Caroline Elliot, Product & Marketing Director at the AMES Companies, said: “Successful retailing relies on bringing something new to market, and the new La Hacienda retail theatre displays are demonstrative of this. By drawing on the proven knowledge that ‘buy the look’ entices, inspires and increases the average spend, we have created a merchandising solution that takes much of the hard work out of this. With our retail theatres, retailers can present something bright, eye-catching and realistic that will stand out from the traditional shelving FSDUs. This is about celebrating products and having fun within the retail environment. We’re excited to see it work its magic throughout the coming season.”

Find out more

Please contact your local AMES sales manager to learn how to add some La Hacienda retail theatre to your store this spring.              

To stay updated with all the latest news from La Hacienda, including accessing the dedicated trade portal where you will find a comprehensive image library, POS guide and Product Database alongside the 2024 catalogue, please visit www.lahacienda.co.uk. Further details about the AMES Companies by visiting www.ames-uk.com

As Silver supporters of the Greenfingers Charity, Meadow View Stone welcomes the opportunity of collaborating with fellow suppliers to raise funds for this inspirational cause. So, when Kate Ebbens asked the business to sponsor her for running 365 days consecutively to raise funds – how could they refuse!

Meadow View Stone are a leading supplier of premium decorative aggregates, paving and horticultural grits and sands, exclusively to the garden centre sector. Having launched a series of phenomenally successful premium, washed, decorative aggregate blends over the years, the company has revolutionised the hard landscaping category with their collection of exclusive products and innovative point of sale concepts. 

At Glee, the company launched their new “Themed” point of sale vinyl’s which correlate products to a common theme, be it a design trend, colour theme or specific project. These inspiring graphics and display gardens give stockists a selection of stunning gardens to inspire customers by relating products to a project which they can then replicate. 

Customers are already commenting on the displays, having said “I never thought of using stepping stones to create a pathway, I am definitely going to recreate that in the spring.”    

Stockists are equally extremely impressed on the transformation these displays give to their hard landscaping areas and see the potential the new POS offers by inspiring customers to undertake projects, such as smartening up their front door, creating a pathway or a tranquil space to relax and enjoy. 

All at Meadow View Stone would like to wish Kate all the best with her endeavours and would urge fellow suppliers and customers to similar sponsor Kate.

Show your support for Kate

Kate is hoping to raise as much as £10,000 over the next 365 days. To show your support please visit her JustGiving page*, or look out for her at forthcoming industry events.

You can also follow her progress by following Greenfingers on social media - https://www.facebook.com/Greenfingerscharity/, @GreenfingersCha on Twitter, and @Greenfingerscharity on Instagram and LinkedIn. 

* https://www.justgiving.com/page/kate-ebbens-1701443565987?utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=page%2Fkate-ebbens-1701443565987&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=pfp-share

Greenfingers Charity supporter, Kate Ebbens, who has vowed to spend her 2024 running every single day with the aim of raising thousands for the children’s hospice garden charity, reports on how the first month of her challenge has gone. Kate is hoping to raise as much as £10,000 in 365 days.

Kate said: “As January comes to an end, I am looking back on the first 28 days of running, it been so much more than just running and the support I have received has been overwhelming.

“135 km covered – in a few locations in the UK, from my hometown of Saffron Walden to my family farm in Wiltshire, to the hills of Harrogate, a speedy 10k run in Regents Park and lastly to Worcester to run with Will Blake whose garden centre St Peters kindly sponsored me for the month of January.

“And the weather…I think it has thrown everything at me from a very warm start to the month where I was running in shorts to freezing conditions, two wild storms and then today’s run where the full moon was still up in the sky, and the snowdrops are out. 

“Every day my run is to raise vital money for Greenfingers Charity, so those very important children’s hospice gardens can be transformed for the children and their families to spend time together. I can only do this with your support, which so far you have been very generous at a current total of £4,614.

‘There are a few sponsored opportunities available so please contact me by email kate.ebbens@cadix.co.uk

“Only a few days left until February and then I will be putting on the ever so bright T-shirt of Scotsdale Garden Centre, my local garden centre, to run 29 days (PS had not clocked it was a Leap Year until this week).

www.justgiving.com/page/kate-ebbens-1701443565987

Boost your sales opportunities on selected products each month from Webb Garden Power, The Handy and Greenworks Tools. 

A dedicated promotional price calendar is now available from Handy that highlights fully funded promotions available for DIY and gardening machinery brands Webb, The Handy and Greenworks during promotional periods to help retailers ensure they have everything they need for the season ahead and drive incremental sales. 

British brand Webb stands for quality, superior Build, simplicity of operation and designed to perform. All Webb products are built with practicality in mind. They are easy to use and easy to maintain, with a wide range so that your customer will always find a machine to suit their needs. 

Whether it’s cutting the lawn, clearing the weeds, or trimming the hedges, you can trust Webb to make light work of the toughest gardening jobs and give the perfect results to be proud of. 

The Handy  

The Handy offers a range of affordable and reliable garden and DIY tools that include petrol-powered devices as well as those powered by electricity or simple hand-operated tools. Whether it’s for DIY, tilling, moving, clearing, logging, cutting, shredding, sawing, spraying, spreading or rolling. 

Greenworks 

The Greenworks cordless range includes options suitable for any size garden, small or big, and they’re all light and simple to use, as well as easy to store. Plus, because the batteries can be shared across a range of power tools, they are flexible and economical too. 

Dealer Monthly Promotions 

Click here for February 2024 Dealer Monthly Promotions.  

For more information about the Dealer Monthly Promotions, please contact your local Handy Sales Manager or contact the Sales Desk via telephone at 01793 333220  - email sales@handys.co.uk website: www.handys.co.uk 

STV are reporting a huge uptake on their innovative new Development Deals which offer unbeatable cost prices and generous profit margins on key volume lines, as well as providing in-store merchandising completely free of charge.

That makes Development Deals a really easy way to achieve great display with clear point of sale on a small footprint – ideal for placing in high footfall hotspots to meet seasonal demand peaks for all types of DIY Pest Control.

The deals cost from as little as £200 and will generate 60% gross margin at RRP.  But the company is warning that the clock is ticking on the promotion and all orders for 2024 must be placed before the end of February to secure the amazing prices and free merchandising and point of sale.

Top-selling Development Deals include offers on Own label recycled sprayers, The Big Cheese Anti-Mouse Repellents, Defenders Slugs Away and Zero In Natural Citronella.

Other category–beating Development Deals include slug and ant control, garden sprayers, and animal deterrents, as well as a great new range of organic plant protection products.  

(https://www.stvuk.com/off-shelf/development-deals)

To take advantage of these fantastic Development Deals STV are urging customers to contact their local area sales manager or call direct at STV on 01953 881580. Email info@stvuk.co.uk

The funeral of former GIMA President Peter Field, who passed away unexpectedly at the age of 81, will take place at The Arun Crematorium, at 12.00 noon on Wednesday, 31st January.

Peter's family issued the following details:

Arun Crematorium
off Grevatts Lane
Yapton
Arundel
BN18 0LW

A map of the crematorium’s location can be found here https://www.aruncrematorium.co.uk/contact-map.php

Dress code: Please wear whatever you are comfortable in.

Flowers: We request no flowers and if you wish, consider making a contribution to one of Peter’s favourite charities.

Friends of Chichester Hospitals - The local hospitals and clinics who provided great care to Peter.

Greenfingers – Peter supported their work for many years.

Reception: After the ceremony you are warmly invited to join the family for refreshments at the Arun View Inn, a short drive from the crematorium.

The Arun View Inn Wharf Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex, BN17 5DD and more details can be found at https://www.thearunview.co.uk/

For those wishing to watch the live-stream these are the log-in details. They will also allow you to watch a recording of the service, from Tuesday 6th onwards, should you be unable to make the 12.00 noon live-stream.

Watching Live & On Demand

Website:            https://watch.obitus.com    

Username:         cute1158
Password:          188389    

Peter remained a passionate gardener until the end. He had recently moved to a new home in Yapton, West Sussex, and was enthusiastically making plans for the garden design (not afraid to use his 20-plus years as an industry stalwart for a cheeky discount on tools and plants). 

Peter came to the garden industry late in his career, and having dipped his toe in the water with sales roles for other companies, he formed his own Garden Innovations Ltd in 1996. 

Having established a successful range of products, he threw himself into the role of representing fellow suppliers and manufacturers. He was a Director of GIMA from 1999 to 2013, where he made many friends, and was a voice for the small business (his arrival for committee meetings in his white van, was a familiar sight, at the Birmingham offices). He was deeply honoured to serve as GIMA President in 2008/2009.

Peter was also a champion of the Greenfingers charity to which he devoted a lot of his time and energy.  From its early days he helped organise the sale of obsolete industry stock to benefit the cause, as well as creating ‘Greenfingers’ versions of his own products. He was a Trustee for many years, retiring as voluntary treasurer in 2018. He tried to be as hands-on as he could, visiting many of the children’s hospices where Greenfingers had helped create gardens. 

Age and ill-health prevented him from doing more, but it was a mark of his level of commitment that he was invited and accepted, to become an Honorary Member of the charity.

He leaves Mary his wife of 45 years and two sons, Duncan and Gregory.

The teams at GIMA and the Greenfingers Charity are sad to learn of the passing of Peter Field, a man whose passion and dedication helped to shape both organisations.

Founder of the Garden Innovations brand, Peter was a highly recognised face within the garden retail sector. This was further cemented when he joined the GIMA Council in 1999, staying in place until 2013, as well as becoming GIMA President in 2007/2008.

Peter’s passion for gardening also saw him play an integral role in the growth of the Greenfingers Charity. The early days of the charity saw Peter fundraise by selling obsolete stock, and in latter years he was a Trustee and voluntary treasurer, retiring from the role just six years ago.

With so many from GIMA and Greenfingers having known Peter and worked alongside him, the news of his passing has seen many share their thoughts on the man they knew.

GIMA Director, Vicky Nuttall: “Peter was a great supporter of GIMA, serving time as a GIMA Council member and went on to be our President in 2007/2008.   As a fellow Council member at that time, I had the privilege of seeing first-hand how this true inventor and entrepreneur shared his passion for our industry, and he leaves a legacy that is far reaching.  The whole team at GIMA would like to extend their condolences to Peter’s family at this sad time. He will be sadly missed and fondly remembered.”

Richard Jackson, Founder President of Greenfingers Charity: “I was so saddened to hear that Peter has passed away. He was a wonderful man, so kind and generous, and he was a tireless ambassador for Greenfingers as well as the gardening Industry. Peter supported Greenfingers with great gusto from the very start of the Charity and he championed it tirelessly through some very challenging times.  He was a joy to be with and we will greatly miss him.”

Sue Allen, Chair of the Greenfingers Charity: “As the current Chairman of the Greenfingers Charity I must express our sadness at losing a dedicated and inspiring supporter who played such an important role in the development of our charity.  On a personal level and having worked with Peter on the Board for many years I can genuinely say it was always a delight meeting the many challenges we experienced with such a positive and forward-thinking man whose passion for gardening and his belief in what could be achieved shone through. We must give our thanks for Peter’s love and support of Greenfingers and offer our sincere condolences to his family.”

Neil Gow, ex-GIMA Director, in role during Peter’s tenure as GIMA President: “Peter was a true old school gentleman of the industry. He was absolutely determined to always do things the right way and was a constant support, guiding hand and listening ear during my time as GIMA Director. I will forever be grateful for this time, advice and laughter. My deepest condolences to his family at this terrible time.”

Hozelock’s Chris Ramsden, current GIMA Council member: “I was very sad to learn of Peter’s passing.  I knew Peter for many years especially during his time as a member of the GIMA Council. He was a lovely man, always a true gentleman and highly respected by all. I admired him for ‘going it alone’ and for making a success of his own business.  I know a great many people in the industry will miss him, including myself, and my thoughts and prayers are with his family and loved ones.“   

Sipcam’s Nigel Thompson, a fellow GIMA Council member and ex-GIMA President: “What I remember the best and also the most about Peter was his sheer determination and commitment – there was a time he faced a lot of difficulty, but he never ever gave up and always (literally!) showed up. Those values and attributes say a lot and mean a lot.”

Jackie Eades, Head of UK at Dymak, and ex-GIMA Council member: “Peter was such a lovely gentleman, always had time to help and mentor.  He was a great inspiration and support when I joined GIMA council and will be sadly missed.  My thoughts and prayers to his family.”

Spencer Goodall, ex-GIMA Council member: “Peter was a gent and great company! He was always ready to offer advice or help if he could.”

Find out more

Any businesses interested in joining GIMA are invited to contact the GIMA team on (01959) 564947 or info@gima.org.uk. Full details regarding GIMA’s multiple member benefits can be found at www.gima.org.uk

Attendees at the Garden Centre Association conference in the Cotswolds will see two new awards added to the roster this year.

The Ian Boardman Indoor Plant Award and the Food Hall/Farm Shop Award will be presented to the best Destination Garden Centre (DGC) and Garden Centre (GC) in both categories.

GCA CEO Peter Burks says: “We’re delighted to have introduced these two new awards this year. They’re both categories that have expanded significantly during the last few years and we feel need much greater recognition.

“The results of our 2023 monthly Barometer of Trade (BoT) reports showed members’ Food Halls and Farm Shops did particularly well. They offer customers an alternative to supermarkets and are very good at promoting locally produced items right across the product range from honey, jams and pickles to artisan gins and vodkas, which is a key part of future sustainability, as food miles are reduced.

“We’re also recognising the importance of houseplants, the role they play within a garden centre’s offering and their recent revival in popularity, potentially driven by younger, new gardeners with windowsill plots. The award has been named in honour of our former Inspector, Ian Boardman, who very sadly passed away in autumn 2022.

“We thoroughly enjoyed working with Ian when he was one of our Inspectors. He was instrumental in improving our inspection process and was a huge part of the horticultural industry, with a fantastic knowledge, which he generously shared with our members.”

The GCA’s  2024 annual conference will be held at the De Vere Cotswold Water Park Hotel near Cirencester, Gloucestershire from this Sunday, January 28 until Wednesday, January 31.

Both new awards will be presented on the Monday and will feature overall DGC and GC winners and two runners up in each category too.

The GCA represents more than 200 garden centres nationwide.

Through sharing information and its inspection programme the GCA helps members to achieve high standards in customer service, plant quality and reliability.

For further information, please visit www.gca.org.uk.

The Garden Centre Association has secured a plethora of sponsors for its 55th conference taking place next week, including joint headline sponsorship from Evergreen Garden Care and Westland Horticulture.

A further 21 companies have also sponsored awards, days, speakers and various other aspects of the event this year including Smart Garden Products as a secondary main sponsor for the overall event.

GCA CEO Peter Burks says: “We’ve had a great take up for sponsorship this year. We’ve also had a bumper number of delegates sign up to join us next week – almost 400 members coming across the three days – and we’ve some brilliant speakers booked too. It promises to be an excellent event with some great opportunities for everyone to get together to share best practice and socialise as well.

“Evergreen Garden Care is a major and well-respected supplier to many of our member garden centres and is trusted by our industry to deliver products that work for gardeners. Westland Horticulture provides gardening, bird and pet care, as well as environmental products. It covers everything from propagation to digging, watering to weeding.

“Smart Garden Products are also well known to our members as a leading supplier of a variety of garden products and accessories. The company has also built up an enviable reputation for design and innovation in solar powered consumer products under the brands Smart Solar and Super Bright.

“We’re indebted to our sponsors whose support helps make all this happen so successfully. I would like to thank all our Monday award sponsors in each category for supporting us this year and to Hozelock our sponsors for the Monday of the conference too.

“I’d also like to acknowledge our day two sponsors, especially Taylors Bulbs for sponsoring the whole day, Davidson Richards for helping keep us well fuelled by sponsoring our morning tea/coffee break, Quinton Edwards for our Tuesday champagne reception, Fordingbridge for our Gala Dinner and wine, and Bons Bon’s for the delicious after-dinner chocolates we’ll all be enjoying.”

The GCA’s  2024 annual conference will be held at the De Vere Cotswold Water Park Hotel near Cirencester, Gloucestershire from this Sunday, January 28 until Wednesday, January 31.

It includes the body’s annual awards presentations and feedback from its inspectors, as well as industry relevant guest speakers.

The conference has ‘The Future of Garden Retailing’ as its main theme and its sub-themes are Environment & Sustainability, Trends & Insights and Health & Wellbeing.

The GCA Conference 2024 sponsors include:

• Evergreen (main sponsor)
• Westland (main sponsor)
• Smart Garden Products (secondary sponsor)
• Hozelock (Monday day)
• Taylors Bulbs (Tuesday day)
• Europlants (folders and pads)
• CM Ventures (pens)
• CSY Retail (lanyards)
• AMES (Monday dinner and wine)
• Quinton Edwards (Tuesday champagne reception)
• Fordingbridge (Tuesday Gala Dinner and wine)
• Bons Bon’s (After dinner chocolates – Tuesday)
• Davidson Richards (Tuesday morning tea/coffee break)
• Museum & Galleries (Associate’s Exhibition)
• Clifton Coffee Roasters (Catering Award)
• GIMA (Garden Products Retailer Award)
• Merzario (Indoor Lifestyle Award)
• Woodlodge (Outdoor Living Award)
• Gisela Graham (Christmas Competition)
• Wildlife World (Environment & Sustainability Award)
• Worldpay (Customer Service Award)
• Wyevale Nurseries (Ruxley Rose Best Plantaria Award)
• Opcharge (Ed Gillespie and Mark Stevenson – guest speakers speaking about the Environment & Sustainability)

Members of the Garden Centre Association have chosen to support three charities at the organisation’s annual conference this year.

Delegates attending the event in the Cotswolds will be able to take part in a GCA Charity Day this Sunday (January 28) as well as participate in a fundraising raffle during the week.

GCA CEO Peter Burks explains: “This year, we will be renaming our Sunday event as the ‘GCA Charity Day’. During the day, and across the whole conference, we will raise money for three worthy charities that work in our sector.

“For 2024, these will be Greenfingers, Perennial and The Colegrave Seabrook Foundation. In addition to the Sunday event, we will again be running a mega raffle, but this time in a slightly different format. During the conference, there will be envelopes placed at every seat and table. Everyone will have the opportunity to buy a ticket for the value that they feel most comfortable with.

“We’ll have our fundraising activities on the Sunday as normal and the day includes a tour of Associate Member Melcourt Industries’ growing media facilities followed by a tour of the Ramsbury Brewery and Distillery. We’ve a fundraising quiz hosted by Guy Topping at Ramsbury on Sunday night and have more than 60 people attending.

“Greenfingers aims to provide all life-limited children, their families, and carers, within their hospice, emotional support through the power and pleasure of nature. It creates beautiful, well-designed outdoor spaces for children to enjoy with their family, friends and siblings, whether through play and fun, or therapeutic rest and relaxation.

“The challenges and pressures facing people in horticulture are very real and today it has never been more important to look after our mental health and physical wellbeing. We all need a bit of extra support sometimes and Perennial can help you to stay mentally healthy and boost your wellbeing with access to free information and support.

“Now known as The Colegrave Seabrook Foundation, the David Colegrave Foundation was set up in 1993, following the death of seedsman, David Colegrave. During his career, David Colegrave took a keen interest in supporting and promoting the development of young people. Their patron is Alan Titchmarsh MBE.”

The GCA’s  2024 annual conference is being held at the De Vere Cotswold Water Park Hotel near Cirencester, Gloucestershire from this Sunday, January 28 until Wednesday, January 31.

Glitter, jingly bells, a giant Santa, and more scratchy sleeves than you can shake a candy cane at, The Most Jumperful Time of Year – where two brave souls don festive jumpers throughout the month of December – has now come to an end, and this year’s wearers are pleased to report that more than £7,000 has been raised for the Greenfingers Charity.

Linda Petrons, Greenfingers’ very own Fundraising and Communications Director, and Tammy Woodhouse from Millbrook Garden Centres, enjoyed 25 jumpers per piece, wearing them to all and any events, including business meetings, fundraising events and at home. With no escape from the festive cheer, they called upon friends, family and colleagues to donate to the fundraising total, which has now tipped over £7,000!

Linda Petrons said: “’The Most Jumperful Time’ is a really fun way to raise funds for Greenfingers, though some days it can be somewhat itchy! Since its launch in 2020, we’ve been consistently heartened by the support people have shown and how, weirdly, people are actually willing to wear the jumpers all in the name of charity. The biggest thank you goes out to those who donated and kindly sponsored daily jumpers. Your generosity and added support each day by wearing your own jumpers has made an enormous difference in helping to make this annual activity a real highlight in our fundraising calendar.”

Since 2020, when ‘The Most Jumperful’ was launched by Natalie Porter, the event has raised over £20,000 for the Greenfingers Charity. With the 2024 event on the distant horizon, it now falls to Chris Moncrieff, RHS Head of Information and Advice, and Kimberley Hornby, owner of the garden specialist PR agency Hornby George PR, to take on the mantel of jumper wearers extraordinaire.

Find out more

There is still time to show your support for Tammy and Linda. Visit www.themostjumperful.co.uk 

You can also join the conversation by following Greenfingers on social media - @Greenfingerscharity on Instagram and LinkedIn, https://www.facebook.com/Greenfingerscharity/and @GreenfingersCha on Twitter.

With less than three weeks to go, HTA members are encouraged to book their free place at an exclusive event held at Fera’s Plant Health laboratory in York on Wednesday, 14 February, for a day of peer-to-peer networking and updates on vital topics surrounding plant health.

Key industry figures, including Defra’s Chief Plant Health Officer Nicola Spence, Fera CEO Andrew Swift and HTA CEO Fran Barnes, will lead this interactive event and introduce a host of experts from Defra, Fera and APHA.

Duncan Allen and Jake Morris from Defra will examine emerging pests and current high-risk threats, as well as work to engage the public to raise awareness and encourage positive behaviour change to support plant health.

Kelvin Hughes and Dan Munro from APHA will share how Inspectors work to detect and manage these threats and how they support growers.

Scientists from Fera, including Ines Vazquez Iglesias, Adrian Fox, Chris Malumphy, Danny Skelton, Adam Bryning and Steve Bryce, will talk about how they work to protect and support your trade.

Attendees will have a unique opportunity to join a tour of the laboratories and engage with scientists and fellow growers. 

Pippa Greenwood, HTA Horticultural Support Manager, commented:] “This is a unique event that we’ve organised specifically for our grower members which has a very practical emphasis. It offers a real insight into the background and on-site work being done by Defra, Fera and APHA, and how that helps us all to increase biosecurity. I very much hope that our growers will take advantage of the opportunity to visit the laboratories and interact directly with all those giving talks throughout the day.”

Find out more about this event, see the programme and book your place at https://hta.org.uk/events/plant-health 

Southern Trident’s Coco & Coir All Purpose Compost has been awarded with a prestigious "Which? Garden" Best Buy recognition for its performance in growing seeds and nurturing young plants.

The key to this achievement lies in the compost's innovative controlled release fertiliser (CRF) technology. Unlike many other peat-free composts on the market, Coco & Coir's CRF ensures a slow, steady release of nutrients, promoting excellent germination rates and providing consistent growth for young plants. The controlled release fertiliser embedded in the compost feeds plants for an impressive six months, offering a prolonged and sustained nourishment that sets it apart from its competitors.

Steve Harper, CEO of Southern Trident, expressed his excitement over the accolade, saying, "The award of this Best Buy goes to show that coir is a fantastic replacement for peat, and we are proud that one of our products has been recognised for its efficacy and delivers great results for the gardener."

The "Which? Garden" Best Buy award reaffirms Coco & Coir All Purpose Compost as a truly versatile and all-encompassing gardening solution. Garden retailers can trust this compost will delight their customers not only for seed sowing but also for nurturing young plants, thanks to its well-balanced and carefully formulated composition.

What makes this All Purpose Compost stand out is the controlled release fertiliser only begins its precise feeding when the gardener starts using the product. This unique feature ensures that the compost remains in peak condition until needed, providing a distinct advantage over other peat-free alternatives in the market.

2024 also sees the launch of this product in a new bag format making it possible to retail it indoors or outside in the compost area, this will improve its overall visibility to consumers when shopping for the product.

Southern Trident remains committed to providing sustainable and effective solutions for modern gardening needs. This multi award-winning All Purpose Compost serves as a testament to the company's dedication to delivering products that not only meet but exceed the expectations of today's environmentally conscious gardeners.

For more information on Southern Trident and its range of gardening products visit www.southerntrident.com

The Horticultural Trades Association has officially released its Environmental Horticulture Manifesto, outlining ten key priorities for a future UK Government. 

The manifesto underscores the significance of green spaces, plant health, and sustainable practices, aiming to position the UK as a global leader in environmental horticulture.

The manifesto draws on recent YouGov poll data conducted on behalf of the HTA in December 2023, involving Members of Parliament. The results reveal that a majority of MPs, 53%, support the creation of a cross-government Office for Green Spaces, the HTA’s lead policy ask. Notably, this proposal garnered support from MPs across various parties.

Key insights from the survey also indicate that MPs acknowledge the substantial benefits of the environmental horticultural industry in areas such as Jobs and Skills (82%), the Nation's Health and Wellbeing (80%), the Economy (72%), and the Environment and Biodiversity (76%). With political parties currently writing their own manifestos ahead of the General Election later this year, the HTA believe that utilising the value of plants is a key policy solution in areas such as the environment, health, skills, jobs and the economy.

HTA Chief Executive Fran Barnes said: "This manifesto marks a pivotal moment for the future of environmental horticulture. With the right support and policies in place, the UK horticultural sector has the potential to emerge as a global leader in sustainable practices and deliver green growth, ensuring that future generations can benefit from the original green industry.

"We strongly urge policymakers and prospective parliamentarians to seize these opportunities and recognise the value of our sector. If we look at one area of our industry, domestic gardens, we know that these comprise 29.5% of the UK's urban space. In England alone, this garden area surpasses our National Nature Reserves by more than four and a half times. This substantial resource is significant for the environment and wildlife, providing a habitat for thousands of generalist species that thrive in these spaces. We also have 30 million regular gardening enthusiasts, and almost two-thirds (62%) of UK adults have a garden/outdoor space, which they report using to cultivate plants, trees, or flowers. This means gardeners in every UK parliamentary constituency who hugely value the UK’s green spaces.

"Supporting this growing nation of gardeners not only fuels local and national growth across the UK, but it is also a solution to adapting to our changing climate - aligning with 7 of the 10 Environmental Improvement Plan goals. Furthermore, environmental horticulture contributes to the well-established mental and physical benefits derived from spending time in nature-based spaces."

The full Environmental Horticulture Manifesto, including comprehensive details on the HTA's ten policy asks, is available at hta.org.uk/manifesto

The 2024 GCA conference got off to a peat-free start with around 60 delegates getting a behind-the-scenes tour of Melcourt’s site in Tetbury.

After learning about the raw ingredients for Melcourt’s professional and retail growing media, delegates saw specialist machinery in action bagging and palleting the bags ready for despatch.  To help maintain quality for gardeners, Melcourt has started to print the date of production on its bags, recommending product is used with 12 months to ensure the best plant performance.

Old Railway Line was the lucky recipient in a generous prize draw winning a pallet of 50 bags of Melcourt growing media. The garden centre is not currently a stockist so this will be great test to see if Old Railway Line customers like the new offering.

Next stop was a tour of Ramsbury Distillery in Wiltshire, maker of vodka, gin and beer. On its 19,000 acres it grows everything, apart from hops, that it needs and is one of only five distilleries in the country producing single estate vodka and gin. With sustainability at the fore, it is currently working towards BCorp certification and hopes that within three years it will also be adding its own whiskey to its shelves.

In the distilleries events space, it was competition time with the Cabbages and Pansies going head to head in a quiz with Guy Topping as quiz master. Congratulations to the associates (Cabbages) who took the prize with 41 points versus a close 39. The real winners of the night however, were the three charities being supported at the GCA conference this year which are Greenfingers, Perennial and The Colegrave Seabrook Foundation. Fundraising got off to a great start with £3000 from the evening’s entertainments which will be added to over the next two days.

A big shout also has to go out to Weber for its platters of flamed cooked food accompanied with a delicious slaw and bbq’d apple pie.

The Garden Centre Association voted at its AGM today to add a third tier garden centre category for members and to reduce its regions to four.

The vote took place at the organisation’s annual conference in the Cotswolds this morning.

GCA CEO Peter Burks explains: “We have spent a lot of time responding to members comments regarding the difference between being at the higher end of the Garden Centre (GC) category and then moving to the bottom of the Destination Garden Centre (DGC) category.”

The new third group will be known as ‘Local Garden Centre’ (LGC). The DGC and GC sections will remain. Allocation to a specific group will depend on turnover.

“There is a big difference between garden centres at both ends of the previous higher category. By adding in a third tier, we hope that the competition will be evened out. However, having done this, we also realised we needed to amalgamate some areas to ensure there were sufficient numbers in each tier to have a fair competition for every award.”

The GCA has also agreed to reduce the number of geographical regions it has from eight to four.

These will be:

•  North – includes the North West, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and the North East.
•  Midlands, Wales & West – this includes South Wales, Midlands & South West.
•  East – this includes most of the previous GCA North Thames region plus other Easterly areas.
•  South East – this includes most of the previous GCA South Thames Region.

Due to the amazingly high standards set and the huge number of customer votes received, 18,919 to be precise, it has taken longer than usual for the judges of GTN’s Greatest Christmas Awards to decide on their winners and for the votes to be ratified.

We are now pleased to announce the finalists in each awards category, plus the Top 30 centres in the ultimate customer vote for The Greatest Christmas Garden Centre Team

We will be announcing the winners and presenting the awards on the Inspiring Retail Stage at Spring Fair in Hall 2 on Monday 5th February at 5:00pm, where we’ll also have some drinks and snacks available for all those who can join us for our celebration of all that’s great about garden centre Christmas retailing. 

If you haven’t already, you can register for Spring Fair at https://www.springfair.com/visitor-registration

GTN's Greatest Christmas Awards 2023 - Finalists by category

The Greatest Christmas Houseplant Team

• BGC Studley
• BGC Tring
• Blue Dimond Newbridge
• Brimsmore Gardens
• Dobbies Brighton
• Dobbies Edinburgh
• Dobbies Richmond
• Gates
• Haskins Snowhill
• Klondyke High Legh
• Newquay
• Perrywood Tiptree
• Whitehall Lacock

The Greatest Outdoor Plant and Christmas Tree Team

• BGC Bournville
• BGC Playhatch
• BGC Winnerash
• Brimsmore Gardens
• Coolings, Rushmore Hill
• Garsons Titchfield
• Haskins Snowhill
• Jacksons Boutique
• Klondyke Astbury Meadow
• Klondyke Mortonhall
• Old Railway Line
• Pengelly
• Perrywood Sudbury
• Planters Tamworth
• Pugh's Radyr
• Squires Badshot Lea
• St Peters Worcester
• Tong

The Greatest Gardening Gifts Sales Team

• BGC Bournville
• Blue Diamond Newbridge
• Castle Gardens Sherbourne
• Fron Goch
• Garsons Titchfield
• Gates
• Newquay
• Pugh's Wenvoe

The Greatest Christmas Wild Bird Care & Pet Team

• Barton Grange
• Bents
• Blue Diamond Newbridge
• Garsons Esher
• Garsons Titchfield
• Groves Bridport
• Old Railway Line

The Greatest Festive Retail Food Team

• Barton Grange
• Bents
• Chessington
• Garsons Esher
• Klondyke Mortonhall
• Longacres Bagshot
• Old Railway Line
• Pugh's Radyr
• St Peters Worcester
• Whitehall Lacock

The Greatest Festive Season Outdoor Living Team "The SOLEX Sizzle"

• Alton
• Cambridge Home & Garden
• Chessington
• Newquay
• Old Railway Line
• Polhill

The Greatest Festive Garden Centre Catering Team

• Bents
• Dobbies Tewkesbury
• Haskins Snowhill
• Holt
• Jacksons Boutique
• Munros Nurseries
• Newquay
• Pengelly
• Pugh's Wenvoe
• Squires Badshot Lea
• The Garden Kitchen By Pugh's,  Rogerstones
• Woodlands, Kent

The Greatest Christmas Marketing Team

• Barton Grange
• Bosworths, Burton Latimer
• Cooks
• Fron Goch
• Garsons Esher
• Garsons Titchfield
• Gates
• Hall's Garden centre
• Pugh's Radyr
• Pugh's Wenvoe
• The Garden Kitchen By Pugh's, Rogerstones

The Greatest Garden Centre Grotto Team

• Barton Grange
• Baytree
• BGC Arcadia
• Birkacre
• Chessington
• Coolings Lifestyle
• Gouldings Santa Experience
• Keydell
• Ruxley Manor
• Tong
• Wentworth

The Greatest Christmas Garden Centre Video

• Alton
• Barton Grange
• British Garden Centres
• Dobbies
• Keydell
• Old Railway Line
• Pengelly
• The Grange
• Tong
• Wentworth

The Greatest Christmas Supplier Team

• Festive
• Florasilk
• Giftware Trading
• Gisela Graham
• Kaemingk
• Premier Decorations
• Richard Lang
• Smart Garden Three Kings

The Greatest Group Small Garden Centre Christmas Team

• BGC Bournville
• BGC Braintree
• BGC Burford House
• BGC Charlbury
• BGC Harrogate
• BGC Playhatch
• BGC Studley
• Klondyke Astbury Meadow

The Greatest Group Large Garden Centre Christmas Team

• BGC Woodthorpe
• Blue Diamond Bridgemere
• Blue Diamond Newbridge
• Blue Diamond Van Hage
• Dobbies Edinburgh
• Haskins Snowhill
• Klondyke High Legh
• Klondyke Mortonhall
• Klondyke Stokesley
• Squires Badshot Lea
• Tong

The Greatest Small Garden Centre Christmas Team

• Bennybeg Plant Centre
• Cooks
• Munros Nurseries
• Pengelly
• Poundbury Gardens
• The Grange
• Whitehall Pewsey

The Greatest Mid-Sized Garden Centre Christmas Team

• Birkacre
• Bosworths, Burton Latimer
• Brimsmore Gardens
• Castle Gardens Sherbourne
• Glendoick
• Hall's Garden centre
• Holt
• Jacksons Boutique
• Mackenzie & Cruickshank
• Newquay
• Pugh's Wenvoe
• Silverbirch
• Whitehall Whitchurch
• Woodlands, Kent

The Greatest Large Garden Centre Christmas Team

• Fron Goch
• Garsons Titchfield
• Old Railway Line
• Pugh's Radyr
• Wentworth

The Greatest Giant Garden Centre Christmas Team

• Barton Grange
• Bents
• Garsons Esher
• Gates
• Longacres Bagshot
• Perrywood Tiptree
• Whitehall Lacock

Voted The Greatest Christmas Garden Centre Team – The Top 30 in alphabetical order

• Allbrighton BGC
• Azure Garden Centre
• Birkacre
• Bosworths Burton Latimer
• Bow Garden and Aquatic Centre
• Braintree BGC
• Brigg BGC
• Busy Bee
• Cooks
• Ferndale
• Garden King
• Gates
• Hillmount Belfast
• Jacksons Boutique
• Keydell
• Munro's
• Newquay Garden Centre
• Old Railway Line
• Pengelly
• Perrywood Sudbury
• Perrywood Tiptree
• Planters Bretby
• Planters Tamworth
• Pughs Rady'r
• Pughs Wenvoe
• Roxton BGC
• Southwood Garden Centre
• Summerhill
• Trowell
• Woodthorpe BGC

Our team of judges had a truly wonderful time visiting the 102 garden centres nominated in this year's awards and they have been overwhelmed by the excellence of garden centre retail teamwork once again.  We have also been amazed at the passion your customers have shared in voting for The Greatest Christmas Garden Centre Team.

We look forward to celebrating that excellence and passion with as many garden centre teams as possible on Monday evening, 5^th February, Inspiring Retail Stage in Hall 2 at Spring Fair, 5:00pm  See you there!

Westland Horticulture has launched the Resolva 2024 Win-A-Car promotion, arriving in garden centres across the UK and Ireland in Spring 2024. 

With the top prize being a brand new electric Mini, worth £32,500, there’s going to be more interest in-store than ever before in the Resolva range. Along with the wonderful car there’s holidays and Westland garden hampers to be won throughout the year.

Easy Entry & retailer support

Entry couldn’t be easier… consumers enter a code at www.winwithresolva.co.uk from any purchased Resolva product and winners will be notified 14 days after the closing date of 31^stAugust 2024.

Westland has developed a variety of point-of-sale materials to bring to life the prize draw. Ready-to-retail display pallets are appearing in centres now along with shelf edges, floor graphics and gondola signage. Retailers wishing to take part should speak with their Account Manager now to ensure they receive the in-store promotional materials.

Sweet treats for your team

Best in-store displays will be rewarded with monthly chocolate hampers worth £100 for the team to share. To be in with a chance of winning a hamper, stores can send images of their instore set up to gpitcher@westland.com. 

Westland Resolva range

The Resolva range has been designed to deal with unwelcome weeds, wherever they occur in the garden. Paths, lawns and borders can all be kept weed-free with a quick application of the relevant Resolva product. Time-pressed gardeners can swiftly deal with isolated problems or large areas with the ready-to-use products. Larger areas can be affordably treated with the concentrate.

Bents Garden & Home have teamed up with the Church-run Food Pantries scheme in Wigan, providing the network of outlets with surplus and short dated food from its dining destinations and Food Hall, which would otherwise go to waste. 

The Food Pantries, which have been operational since the covid pandemic, are based in a number of churches throughout Wigan and instead of handouts, offer once or twice weekly shopping baskets of 20 basic items.  An annual fee of £5 plus a payment of whatever can be afforded provides users of the Pantries with ‘ownership and self-esteem’. 

Says Matthew Bent, Managing Director at Bents Garden & Home: “We’ve been wanting to donate our surplus food for a long time, but wanted to make sure it was going to the best place so have spent a lot of time researching the different opportunities available. 

“The Food Pantries network was a great choice.  It isn’t a foodbank, but it is the perfect complement to one.  Their aim is to offer good quality food alongside support from a wider community as well as an opportunity to manage money.  We are very pleased that we can help by providing food, but their all-round offering is about so much more which is why we identified it as an initiative we wanted to support.”

Adds Tracy Mathioudakis from the Food Pantries scheme: “"For us at Toms pantry, the products the produce we collect from Bents has been amazing . People are so happy to say the least.

“For me it's the collections too that make a difference when you’re tired, had a long day yet are greeted with respect and pleasure by the wonderful staff at Bents who are so happy it's going to good causes."

Bents is always keen to support community initiatives and regularly provides donations to local schools and churches as well as sponsorship for sports teams including netball and football clubs and most recently donations of a wooden bar and blankets for the Warrington Youth Zone and plants donated to Culcheth Library.

Greenwood Plants, a UK wholesale nursery has been awarded the title of International Grower of the Year (IGOTY) 2024 by the International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH).

The coveted ‘Gold Rose’ award was presented to Greenwood Plants by AIPH President Leonardo Capitanio at the AIPH IGOTY Awards Ceremony 2024 on Tuesday 23 January 2024 at IPM Essen, Germany.

Founded in 2009 with the support of FloraCulture International, the AIPH IGOTY Awards recognise best practice in horticulture by the top ornamental production nurseries from around the globe, celebrating the expertise and energy they give to horticulture.

Greenwood Plants is a landscape supply nursery which specialises in the new build property, commercial, and infrastructure sectors. With over 100 acres, it produces around six million plants a year across its six nursery sites. In 2023, the company was awarded the HTA Peat-free Grower of the Year due to its commitment to sustainability.

“The team will be so delighted to have won this award,” said Melanie Asker, Managing Director of Greenwood Plants. “They’ve been really excited and it’s an absolute credit to their hard work. It’s a great accolade and the support that we’ve had from across the industry in the UK has been amazing, so it’s something everyone can be proud of.”

In addition to the Gold Rose Award, Greenwood Plants also won the Finished Plants & Trees category, presented by Torben Brinkmann, Head of Projects, IPM Essen, and the Sustainability category, presented by Sarah von Fintel, Key Account Manager for GlobalG.A.P. and G.N.N. Label.

The IGOTY 2024 jury commented: “Greenwood Plants is an innovative producer of landscape-ready plants and is a recognised leader in what they do. They conduct every action with environmental sustainability in mind and they have been proactive in innovatively marketing their products and the industry as a whole.”

The IGOTY 2024 category winners are:

Young International Grower of the Year

• Winner: Colin Fernandes (Kenya)
• Finalist: Tomasz Dźwigoń (Poland)
• Finalist: Zhuoer Fang (China)

Cut Flowers and Bulbs

• Winner: Beyond Chrysant (Netherlands)
• Finalist: Yunnan Yunxiu Flower Co. Ltd. (China)

Young Plants

• Winner: Sjaak van Schie (Netherlands)
• Finalist: Guangzhou Flower Research Center (China)
• Finalist: Yunnan Shining Flora Co., Ltd. (China)

Finished Plants and Trees

• Winner: Greenwood Plants (UK)
• Finalist: Huverba BV (Netherlands)
• Finalist: Kwekerij Dirk Mermans (Belgium)

Sustainability

• Winner: Greenwood Plants (UK)
• Finalist: Beyond Chrysant (Netherlands)
• Finalist: Fitoralia (Spain)
• Finalist: Kwekerij Dirk Mermans (Belgium)

For more information about each of the winners, take a look at the digital Winners Brochure.

AIPH thanks Host Sponsor IPM Essen, Founding Partner FloraCulture International, Sapphire Sponsors GLOBALG.A.P. & GGN Label and Greeningup, Pearl Sponsors Greenhouse Sustainability, Green is Life, and MyPlant & Garden, and Media Partners Economía & Viveros, Guiaverde, Horticulture Week, Grower Talks/Green Profit, and Pod Osłonami PL for their support of the awards.

Entry for IGOTY 2025 is now open! Find more information and begin your entry here.

Colin Fernandes, Trial Site Coordinator for Marginpar, Kenya, received the Young International Grower of the Year Award at an International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH) awards ceremony held on Tuesday 23 January 2024 in Essen, Germany.

This award is part of the AIPH International Grower of the Year (IGOTY) Awards 2024, which celebrates the best of the best in ornamentals production. The Young IGOTY category recognises vibrant individuals, aged 25-40, who will lead the industry into the future. Entrants were participants of Jungle Talks’ Pro Manager Mastercourse.

Before Colin joined Marginpar, there was no trial site in Kenya. Colin was responsible for setting the location up and its subsequent management. After just four years, the location has become a productive trial site under the cohesive work of Colin and his team. One achievement of Colin’s of note is the introduction of Sanguisorba - Red Dream to the market. This is the first time this variety has been commercially grown in Africa.

“It feels absolutely amazing to have won this award,” Colin said. “I couldn’t have done it without my team. It’s a great stepping stone that will help me in the future to come. The Mastercourse has been one of the best experiences I’ve had so far. A two-week intensive course with some really inspirational people, it’s been amazing.”

Colin, along with the other finalists, presented his ideas to an international jury of horticultural professionals. The judges were: Leonardo Capitanio, President of AIPH and owner of Vivai Capitanio, Italy; Eliot Barden, Past YIGOTY winner and Aftercare, Apprenticeship and Training Director for Majestic Trees, UK; and Puck van Holsteijn, CEO of World Horti Center and CEO of HortiHeroes, Netherlands.

Leonardo Capitanio commented: “Colin has rapidly achieved an important role in Marginpar. He has a good eye for the future, developing product and people; effectively managing teams in different countries. This, alongside his valuable international experience makes him an inspirational manager and grower and a worthy winner.”

AIPH thanks Host Sponsor IPM Essen, Founding Partner FloraCulture International, Sapphire Sponsors GLOBALG.A.P. & GGN Label and Greeningup, Pearl Sponsors Greenhouse Sustainability, Green is Life, and MyPlant & Garden, and Media Partners Economía & Viveros, Guiaverde, Horticulture Week, Grower Talks/Green Profit, and Pod Osłonami PL for their support of the awards.

spoga+gafa as the biggest garden and BBQ trade fair in the world brings companies from the garden lifestyle industry and trade visitors from all over the globe together in Cologne every year.

The next spoga+gafa is being staged from 16 to 18 June 2024 - under the key theme "Responsible Gardens". Together with the green industry, the leading trade fair will place the centre of attention on the different levels of responsible behaviour in and around private green spaces from the points of view of the manufacturers, suppliers and consumers.

Mr Lohrberg, why did you choose this key theme? 
On the one hand, the new key theme is a logical and consistent continuation of our past key themes. spoga+gafa has already been staged under an overriding key topic that takes the current industry developments and socially-relevant topics into account since 2017.  
In an increasingly connected world, where individual actions can have a far-reaching impact, the role of personal and collective responsibility in meeting global challenges becomes more and more important. That means we have to consider the effects of our decisions for the community and the environment. Manufacturers, the trade, consumers - we all have to be aware of the impact of our actions. So it was a logical step to also place the focus on the theme responsibility at spoga+gafa 2024 - in the form of the key topic "Responsible Gardens". 

How should responsibility be interpreted? What levels are there? 
The theme responsibility is all too quickly associated with sustainability or equated with it. But in our opinion responsibility is much more. On the one hand, it contributes towards minimising environmental impacts, reducing the consumption of resources and maintaining the ecological diversity. On the other hand, it promotes social justice and economic stability because it aims to bring about a balanced distribution of resources and opportunities. Overall, the theme responsibility plays a fundamental role in creating a liveable society that is stable long-term. Hence, our key theme Responsible Gardens should also be considered at different levels: from social challenges, to health aspects, through to ultimately the actual product in the garden. 

What is the job of spoga+gafa as the biggest garden and BBQ trade fair? Which role does the trade fair take on? 
Our aim as the biggest garden and BBQ fair is that all of the players of the green industry become aware of the responsibility their bear towards society and the environment as companies, product manufacturers, dealers, multipliers and as consumers when designing and using balconies, gardens, terraces or open spaces. 
Together with the exhibitors and the visitors, spoga+gafa 2024 will find individual answers to questions that arise from this key topic. Since the more responsibly we handle private green spaces, the more social and personal relevance our gardens, balconies and terraces gain. 

What responsibility does the whole green industry have to take on within society? 
Resource-saving gardening, fairly produced garden products, low-emission BBQ technologies, climate-friendly garden care and irrigation, but also a responsible rapport between garden owners will be especially emphasised at spoga+gafa 2024. The aspects of the key topic will be presented and discussed in various formats at the trade fair. For example in the case of the manufacturers and producers it is about the responsibility they take on through their products, the production location, the production methods and the materials used. With the dealers, it is among others about how they present the theme on their space. Here the focus lies on environmentally-friendly, sustainable and fairly produced or ergonomic products. And taking this a step further, the trade has to make sure its staff is trained properly, i.e. the customer service, for instance regarding natural garden design and how to handle garden tools correctly.  

As in the past, spoga+gafa is totally on trend with the theme "Responsible Gardens". Couldn't one even say spoga+gafa creates the trends of the green industry? 
Responsibility is gaining significance in the garden industry for several reasons. With the growing awareness for environmental issues such as the climate change, species extinction and the scarcity of resources, both the companies and the consumers are recognising the necessity to act more environmentally-friendly. This also includes sustainable cultivation methods, protecting biodiversity and the responsible handling of water and other natural resources. The consumers are increasingly well-informed and are interested in the origin and the production methods of the products they buy. In the garden industry this is leading to a growing demand for regionality, ecologically grown plants, sustainable garden products and eco-friendly practices. The companies have meanwhile realised that they play a role in society and that responsible behaviour contributes towards a positive perception, which among others leads to sustainable business practices and contributes to the common good. Ultimately horticultural companies also have to behave responsibly in view of the stricter environmental laws and requirements. This may encompass the reduction of pesticides and chemicals, the promotion of biological cultivation and the observance of sustainability standards. The key topic of spoga+gafa 2024 "Responsible Gardens" picks up on precisely these developments.  

Koelnmesse – Global Inspiration for Living, Contract and Public Spaces
Koelnmesse is the world’s top trade fair organiser for the areas of Living, Contract and Public Spaces.
At the trade fair hub of Cologne, in addition to imm cologne and interzum, other trade fair formats such as LivingKitchen, ORGATEC, spoga+gafa, FSB and aquanale are among the internationally renowned and established industry meeting places. These fairs comprehensively represent the interior and design segment, the furniture and interior construction industries' supplying sections, the kitchen world, all topics for the modern working world, garden lifestyle as well as public space, sports and leisure facilities and also sauna, pool and ambiente.

In addition to the events in Cologne, Koelnmesse is strategically expanding its portfolio in key growth markets around the globe like with the successful shows ORGATEC TOKYO in Japan, interzum bogota in Colombia and interzum guangzhou in China and interzum forum italy.

Further information: https://www.spogagafa.com/trade-fair/spoga-gafa-2024/industry-trade-fairs/

GTN December 2023 - January 2024 - Sustainability Directory Issue with 36 pages of sustainability news, features, ideas and directory listings plus much more.

• Handing over the GCA baton. GTN Interviews Tammy Woodhouse.
• Get ready for Glee in September 2024
• Finalists and voted for contenders in GTN’s Greatest Christmas Awards
• GTN’s Sustainability Directory 2024
• The last bag of Miracle-Gro peat compost
• Sustainability News
• Responsible Sourcing Scheme update
• GIMA Awards Sustainability Champions
• GCA Westland Rising Stars Sustainability projects for 2023
• Ecoveritas and EPR compliance
• LifestyleGarden makes a world of difference
• Sustainable feeding from Westland Peckish
• A more sustainable supply of houseplants from Horti House
• Timber displays the full potential
• Strengthening natural defences with Waspinator and SuperNinja
• GTN’s sustainability Directory listings for 2024
• Embracing sustainability - LOFA Column
• Environmental milestones - HTA Column
• Spring Fair Preview

with all the news direct to your e-mail inbox.  The best news service every weekend and all the breaking news as it happens.

Subscribe for free using this link

The Yorkshire Garden Centre group (YGC) has created a new Commercial Plant Manager position across its sites at Tong, Tingley, Otley and Bingley.

Marc Salama started his career at YGC when he was appointed Outdoor Manager at Tong Garden Centre in 2022 before a promotion to Centre Manager when YGC acquired the former Stephen H Smith's site at Harden, Bingley. His latest role is designed to streamline plant buying throughout YGC to secure economies of scale to benefit the consumer.
 

"I'm looking forward to the diversity of the role. I'll be visiting growers and building relationships with suppliers to source plant ranges that will inspire our customers to create great gardens and outdoor spaces at home. I will then work with the teams at each centre to communicate our unique proposition, including seasonal special offers, plants of the month, hints and tips and loyalty card offers," said Mr. Salama.

YGC Commercial Director, Sharon McNair said: "We've been inspired by Marc's plant expertise and creativity since he joined YGC in 2022. We're excited about his plans to source plants directly from our network of nurseries and to work with the marketing team and colleagues at each of the centres and to communicate his vision to our customers."

Mr. Salama, who lives in Norwood Green, Halifax, previously spent 14 years in the Royal Navy and trained as a battlefield medic. He spent time doing search and rescue in Scotland, running the first aid school and saw active service in Afghanistan in addition to travelling the world playing rugby as a Royal Navy team member.

The Yorkshire Garden Centres (YGC) group comprises Tong, Tingley, Otley and Bingley Garden Centres. Otley and Bingley were known as Stephen H Smith's before they were acquired by YGC in 2022.

Squire’s Garden Centres has bolstered its Restaurant team with the appointment of Paul Larson, in the newly created role of Restaurant Training & Standards Manager.

Paul will have responsibility for overseeing training programmes across Squire’s 16 garden centre restaurants, as well as continuing to drive high standards and processes among restaurant teams. Paul will also establish Centres of Excellence and provide support in the roll-out of new menus.

Bringing a wealth of experience across catering and retail businesses amassed over 30 years in the food industry, Paul has worked in various roles for organisations including McCarthy Stone as Head of Food & Beverages, Sodexo (UK & Ireland) as Head of Retail, Threshers and Safeway Stores plc. Most recently Paul was Head of Commercial Business Development for a local authority.

Sarah Squire, Chairman of Squire’s Garden Centres, comments: “Our restaurants have developed significantly over recent years and Paul’s appointment will bring additional resource and an extra dimension to our restaurants. We have many loyal customers coupled with excellent restaurant teams. We believe Paul’s appointment will help us to serve our customers better and offer our colleagues enhanced training and support, so that their time at work is more enjoyable and satisfying. 

”We are delighted to welcome Paul, who brings with him a wealth of experience, and I know his strengths in training and motivating individuals and teams will be a fantastic addition to our restaurant team.”

Community gardeners to grow and share millions of flowers of friendship as RHS Britain in Bloom celebrates 60 years of community gardening.

This year marks 60 years of RHS Britain in Bloom, the UK’s largest community gardening campaign, and to celebrate the RHS will be sharing ‘friendship flower seeds’ to highlight the enduring friendships made through caring for plants, community and a love of gardening. 

Over 2 million flowers, including sweet peas, cosmos, nigella, gypsophila, rudbeckia and zinnia will be sown, planted and grown by the 3,000 community gardening groups that make up RHS Britain in Bloom and its grass roots version It’s Your Neighbourhood. The array of fabulous purple, orange, blue and pink hued flowers will be on display in public greens spaces and then given in an act of friendship to people and communities all over the UK.

“The 60th anniversary is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate community gardening,” says Kay Clark, RHS Community Development Manager. “Gardening brings people together and enriches lives. Social connections are fundamental to good health and wellbeing, and for the Britain in Bloom 60th anniversary, we’ll be celebrating the friendships and social benefits forged through plants and gardening.”  

As part of its anniversary celebrations the RHS is gathering and sharing stories of friendships formed through gardening, to encourage people across the UK to join in and experience the many wellbeing benefits of gardening in a community setting.

Kay added: “We’re providing the seeds as a ‘thank you’ to all our existing groups and the hundreds of thousands of passionate volunteers who work with plants year-round to strengthen their communities and improve the local environment.  We are encouraging people to grow some of these flowers for wildlife, and share some as bouquets with friends and other people who deserve them in their communities. We hope these gestures of friendship will inspire even more people to get growing too.”

Over six decades, millions of people have participated in Britain in Bloom, enabling them to get to know their neighbours, make new friends and forge stronger community networks. Groups vary from urban communities to rural villages, and from people who look after a tiny patch of land to those in charge of a whole town.

Their activities positively impact millions more people, who benefit from the cared-for communal green spaces, brightened high streets, and more cohesive communities.  Bloom groups embrace sustainable gardening practices and engage and support younger members of the community to get involved in gardening. 

People often join community gardening groups at a time of change in their lives and many make new life-long relationships through their connection with plants and gardening. To help celebrate this special anniversary and the flourishing friendships forged through community gardening the RHS is asking community gardeners to share their stories of friendship and how being a part of a community gardening group has connected them to other people.    

 
RHS Britain in Bloom covers the four nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Ulster, as well as the Channel Islands, and is managed by the RHS in partnership with 17 Bloom Regions and Nations.

If you are inspired to get involved in community gardening in your area find out more at www.rhs.org.uk/community

If you’d like to share your friendship stories with us visit www.rhs.org.uk/get-involved/britain-in-bloom or tag #RHSBloom60 on social media.

Garden rose: Rosa Hybrid Plant’n’Relax from Roses Forever ApS, Faaborg (DK), was awarded the Show Your Colours Award IPM 2024 during the IPM 2024 in Essen.

The Garden rose: Rosa Hybrid Plant'n'Relax presents itself as a gift, and the rack from which the rose grows shows at a glance that this is a climbing rose that can be used practically anywhere.

The promised fragrance of the flowers is more than delivered. The brand name tells exactly what the intention is with this product: plant & relax,, according to the professional jury, which awarded the prize together with a public jury. The prize was presented to Rosa Eskelund by Eva Kähler-Theuerkauf on behalf of the IPM organisation, in the BIZZ Holland stand.

Second and third place

Second place went to Cherry Tomato Brown Solanum Lycopersicum, which was submitted by Vreugdenhil Young Plants (NL). First Editions® Eclipse® Bigleaf Hydrangea: Hydrangea macrophylla 'Bailmacseven' EUPBRAF, submitted by Bailey Nurseries (US), finished in third place. The other plants nominated included Camellia 1001 Summer Nights® Jasmine, Discover nature's elegance with Garden Beauties®, Haworthia and Gasteria Mix, Helleborus x Ericsmithii ViV® Olivia, Ilex Verticilata Jingle Bells®, Le Profumatissime della Riviera dei Fiori® (a collection of garden rose varieties), Leucothoe 'Rant01' (FIRESTAR) en Loropetalum chinense 'Pearl' BLACK PEARL.

Judging

The plants and concepts nominated were exhibited in the BIZZ Holland stand in Hall 8 at the trade fair. The visitors had until Thursday morning to vote for their favourite plant/concept using special coins. A professional jury consisting of Sytse Berends, Blunt Communicatieadvies, Helma van der Louw, Hester van Lint and Eva Kähler-Theuerkauf from IPM Essen, judged the entries on Thursday afternoon. The jury's verdict and the votes cast using coins resulted in the Show Your Colours Award IPM 2024 going to Garden rose: Rosa Hybrid Plant’n’Relax. 

The Show Your Colours Award IPM 2024 is a collaboration between trade fair organisation IPM and BIZZ Holland.

As the shortest days of winter are behind us, spring anticipation begins – and for some the blooming spring season can’t start early enough. On Tuesday 20 February 2024 at the Garden Press Event at the Business Design Centre in London (UK), Keukenhof, Rijnbeek Perennials, and JUB Holland join forces to offer the British garden media an exclusive peek at what they have in store for the new season of Keukenhof, open from 21 March to 12 May 2024.

Keukenhof keeps evolving

The 2024 edition of Keukenhof marks its 75th jubilee, celebrating not only the colourful past but even more a promising future, with focus on innovation and intensified cooperation with the Dutch floricultural industry. Flower exhibition Keukenhof proves to be still evolving. The spring park is a favourite place to enjoy blooming tulips, daffodils, and other bulb flowers. It offers traditionally designed borders as well as modern landscaping and keeps on surprising its visitors with the newest creations. 

As in a true Bulb Mania, Keukenhof’s focus is on the 7 million spring-flowering bulbs. Yet, there are so many more stories to tell and new ideas to share. Like the interesting combination of bulb-grown flowers and perennials. The challenge with perennials has always been that when Keukenhof is open, most perennials do not flower yet - for Rijnbeek Perennials a challenge they are happy to take on. Rijnbeek is the perennials specialist with a product range of over 5.000 varieties; a household name and reliable partner for landscape designers all over the world. The company from Boskoop (NL) has been sharing its ideas with Keukenhof and took the initiative to make a bold selection of early flowering plants and perennials with extraordinary leaf colours and textures. Beautiful products that will perform well in early spring and match great with naturalising bulbs. Rijnbeek reached out to JUB Holland to team up and present a Keukenhof debut: a 235 m²mixed flowering field of bulbs and perennials.

JUB Holland has been a Keukenhof exhibitor of the first hour, showing visitors their expertise in long-flowering bulb mixtures. In recent years JUB got the opportunity to deliver their own creative designs alongside their supply of flower bulbs. In close cooperation with the Keukenhof team, garden and landscape designer Carien van Boxtel has been designing unique combinations of colours and varieties for JUB Holland’s borders in the park every year since 2019. For the presentation of Rijnbeek and JUB, Van Boxtel designed a lively meadow-style field, offering prolonged flowering and an exciting, colourful metamorphosis over the course of Keukenhof’s 8 week opening period. After the season ends, the gardeners of Keukenhof usually take the bulbs out of the ground. In autumn, the cycle of planting, flowering, and digging up begins again. The new perennial border of Rijnbeek and JUB Holland will remain in the ground, mature and rebloom even more lavishly and colourful in the years to come.

Bulbs & Perennials – the perfect match

With their joint border at Keukenhof, Rijnbeek and JUB demonstrate how well naturalising bulbs and perennials work together. It is an efficient way to increase biodiversity early in the year and to widely extend the flowering time. Perennials form a highly attractive display together with bulbs and even cover up finished flowers and leaves after their peak.

Like their bulbs and perennials, the Dutch family businesses Rijnbeek Perennials and JUB Holland seem to be a great match too. The companies find each other on themes like sustainability and environmentally friendly production, both being at the forefront in finding innovative, durable solutions. With their joint passions and sense of responsibility, they offer their mutual customers in landscaping, retail, and mail order all kinds of products and tools to make a difference. From sustainably grown and organic flower bulbs to an extensive range of bulb mixtures suitable and attractive to bees and butterflies (JUB Holland), and from landscape design concept with 100 % peat-free plants to climate adaptive retail solutions (Rijnbeek Perennials).

The aim is to be more green throughout the chain, bring back the natural balance, work with the seasons, maximise outdoor space - and to encourage and enable gardeners to do the same. This season, it all comes together at Keukenhof.

Spring starts early at the Garden Press Event

While visitors of Keukenhof must wait until 21 March to enjoy the new perennial meadow-style border, British journalists, broadcasters, freelance writers and influencers get the first look on 20 February. During the Garden Press Event, organised by the HTA, GIMA and partners, the 3 Dutch companies will be among a diverse array of exhibitors to bring their new products, themes and stories to the attention of the movers and shakers of the UK garden media, right at the start of the gardening season. Keukenhof, JUB Holland and Rijnbeek Perennials will present in a joint stand (nr. H141-H142) with their unique, early flowering show presentation.

A leading garden furniture supplier has warned that the industry faces massive problems if urgent action isn’t taken soon.

Jack Whiteley, Chairman of Katie Blake, claims that outdoor furniture suppliers to garden centres are experiencing the most difficult time ever.

“At Solex in July last year we all came away feeling good about 2024, buyers were looking forward to the new season and we and they were very happy. At Katie Blake having sourced and designed a whole selection of new products we were excited for 2024. Unfortunately, due to poor weather, the economy, the Government, and a myriad of other reasons the stock they all expected to sell before the end of the season didn’t sell and is currently sitting in warehouses across the country. 

“Now it’s January 2024 and the centres have still not placed orders for the coming season, that’s a huge mistake! The consumer will still want to buy garden furniture and we wonder how long that 2023 stock is going to last and how quickly the centres can replace it. Most Far East factories have been struggling as sales of outdoor furniture worldwide have been down and most of the factories laid off their staff to survive. That means that production is going to be much slower than it was remembering that many of the products require highly skilled workers and new untrained ones, without the necessary skills, will make production a lot slower. Add to this in the middle of February, only four weeks away, Chinese New Year which includes the other Far East countries such as Vietnam, take four weeks holiday celebrating New Year.

“Workers who are migrant go a long way home to be with their families, this has gone on for years. So, if orders are not placed now it’s going to be impossible for anyone to get supplied until way into April and May and definitely after Easter.

“Right now, we have a problem with shipping due to the Houti Pirates closing the Suez Canal and everything is going via the Cape of Good Hope adding two weeks minimum to the shipping time. It’s about 6 weeks now, normally four, so given there are no orders in the pipeline it’s going to be a long time before you are going to see any Garden Furniture. Sure, we have massive stocks in the Far East and here, but it’s never going to be everything you want. if we are lucky and can get a ship, which are becoming difficult to get as the lovely shipping lines have reduced the number of ships to force prices up, it’s going to be a long wait. 

“So, garden centres are going to have to do something quickly otherwise the Internet traders will take even more business than they do now. Don’t allow that to happen ensure you have stock to sell and get your orders placed now. It’s a high margin sale with lots of profit so make sure you’re not left behind which at the moment seems to us that’s the case.”

Andy Strachan, a veteran of the home, garden and pet industry, has announced his retirement after 37 years of service.

Andy began his career working for Erin Marketing and Richard Grimmer during the late 1980’s, where he would go on to sell compost, barbecues, hanging baskets, furniture, and more.

With the founding of LeisureGrow in 1999 (which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year), Andy was instrumental in the rapid growth of the business through his unwavering dedication to his customers and an unparalleled expertise for the industry.

His commitment to excellence is evident in every customer interaction, fostering trust and long-term relationships, as well as inspiring a positive and collaborative spirit between his colleagues.

Andy plans to spend his retirement between Marlow next to the rolling Chiltern hills, and with his daughter and family in Morzine on the border of France and Switzerland.

Richard Grimmer, Chairman of LeisureGrow Products LTD, said: “Andy’s retirement is a well-deserved rest to a lifetime of service. While we are all sad to see him leave, he will always be part of the LeisureGrow family.”

The Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) releases its comprehensive market update report for December 2023 and the full-year state of trade review. Access and participation in gardening statistics are also included this month, using the results of our Annual Consumer Survey to provide unique industry insights.

As reported throughout 2023, the horticultural sector faced record-breaking weather extremes, from the driest February in 30 years to the hottest June on record. December continued the trend, with mean temperatures and rainfall more than two times higher than in December 2022. Yet, garden centres showcased remarkable resilience, finishing the year with sales up by +2% compared to the previous calendar year.

Despite the delayed start to the gardening season in 2023, with garden/gardening categories finishing -1% down on 2022, notable exceptions included bedding plants, which saw a surge of 12% and catering and food/farm shop sales maintained strong growth, finishing at an impressive +23%.

Focusing on the December state of trade, overall Garden Centre sales were up +2% compared to 2022, with a significant +12% on indoor plants. Catering sales were also up +21% versus December 2022, counteracting weaker Christmas sales (-7%) likely impacted by the current economic climate and still witnessing the effects of COVID-19, which likely altered product replacement cycles on categories like lights, decorations, and artificial trees. ​ Garden centres may also face competition from discount retailers on these products, which may have held a greater share during the current tough economic climate. However, it is worth noting that real Christmas trees were +7% in November 2023 versus November 2022, suggesting trees were purchased early.

Fran Barnes, CEO of the HTA, said: "In a year marked by extraordinary weather events, the horticultural sector adapted to the challenges to maintain positive growth. The dedication of our retailer members and the continued support from customers have been instrumental in navigating the unpredictable landscape.

“The year-end review reveals a nuanced performance across categories. While garden/gardening sales saw a modest decline of -1%, catering sales surged by +23%, indicating a shifting consumer focus. Christmas sales, influenced by economic factors and evolving consumer behaviour, experienced a slight dip of -7%, with notable variations in subcategories.

“Despite lingering uncertainties, consumer confidence showed an overall pattern of improvement throughout 2023 despite remaining in historically negative territory, ending the year 20 points higher than December 2022. 

“As we begin 2024 with consumers less pessimistic about their finances, businesses will likely continue planning for extreme weather events more regularly and looking at ways to maintain profit margins amidst pressures on wage bills, shipping costs and interest rates.”

Supplementing this month’s report are some insights from the HTA's annual consumer tracking survey on access to and participation in gardening. In the December 2023 consumer survey, over 9 in 10 UK adults reported having access to some outdoor space for gardening. Most people (78%) have their own private garden, which has remained stable over the last few years. The number of people without access to a garden has also remained stable. However, with the increased cost of living causing higher rents and mortgages, owning your own home may become more unaffordable for younger generations, which could significantly impact the gardening market.

Fran Barnes suggests: "As we look to the future, businesses will explore products and positioning that cater to the evolving needs of renters and homeowners alike. With around 13% of individuals having small gardening spaces, portable solutions and low-cost ideas for these consumers present exciting opportunities for innovation."

For more detailed insights and analysis, including access to the gardening survey results and year-end review, HTA members can log in to the website.

GIMA has confirmed that its annual awards ceremony – one of the most anticipated nights of the year – will take place on November 7th at the five-star Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, South Wales.

This new winter scheduling reflects the changes occurring within both the gardening season and the exhibition calendar. With many brands choosing to debut new products later in the season, the new November date is a celebratory end to what is hoped to be another thriving year for garden retail.

Commenting on the new timing of the 2024 GIMA Awards, GIMA Director, Vicky Nuttall said: “The timing of the GIMA Awards Gala Dinner has been knocked back by a fortnight from the previously published date to reflect the recent changes announced by Glee.  We feel that our new November date is also the perfect time to herald the close of the season and celebrate our members’ success, and I am sure our attendees will support this move ahead of this year’s edition of the GIMA Awards.”

Entry to the GIMA Awards 2024 will open in March, with brands afforded nine weeks to complete their entry, with the end of May marking the closing date. From here, it will be the judges’ job to decide the winners, with the judging day returning to Warwick Racecourse on July 9th and 10th. 

GIMA key dates for your diary

While the GIMA Awards might be the glittering jewel in its events calendar, several in-person key dates throughout the year also draw the crowds. From fundraising to networking and the value of education, GIMA’s wider calendar of events is not to be missed. Key dates for your diary include:

• February 20th - Garden Press Event, Business Design Centre, London 
• March 14th – GIMA Day Conference, Horticulture House, Chilton, Oxon
• May 10th - GIMA AGM (virtual)
• June 6th – GIMA Golf Day, Belton Woods, Grantham
• July 9th/10th – GIMA Awards Judging, Warwick Racecourse
• November 7th – GIMA Awards Gala Dinner, Celtic Manor Resort

In addition to the above, GIMA have a full schedule of virtual webinars and workshops to keep members updated and informed on key business and industry topics.  Visit the GIMA events page for a comprehensive list of events. 

Find out more

For further information regarding the GIMA Awards 2024, including sponsorship opportunities and the association’s complete diary of events, please get in touch with the GIMA Press Office on (01959) 564947 or info@gima.org.uk.

Sipcam Home & Garden, a leading provider of innovative solutions in the home, pet, and garden care markets, has announced the appointment of Ian Renshaw as Area Sales Manager. 

Supported by Sipcam Oxon, an international specialist in crop protection, Sipcam Home & Garden has an unrivalled network from which to utilise innovative technology and expertise to serve retail partners in the UK market. 

Bringing unique home and garden solutions to the gardening and pet market, the growing team offers the flexibility and character of a small business from the security of a large group. With a continuous focus on innovation across product categories, recent new product launches for brands such as ecofective, SPOT-ON and Patio Blast will now be backed with new sales resource and valuable experience that Ian Renshaw offers.

Ian brings a wealth of experience and a passion for the industry, making him a valuable addition to the Sipcam Home & Garden team. Ian has a vast career in the garden, gift and horticultural sector and is a well-known, well-liked face in the industry. He has worked with several leading businesses such as Stewart/Keter, Panacea and Keith Newmark. Ian has a proven track record delivering excellent customer service and sales growth for retailers in these roles, and working independently as a sales agent.

Nigel Thompson, Head of Sales and Marketing at Sipcam Home & Garden said: “I have worked with Ian on two previous occasions and am delighted he is joining this exciting adventure here at Sipcam Home & Garden. Customers really trust and respect Ian immensely, so this coupled with his hard work ethic will, I am sure, mean Ian will be a great success. Our customers are in safe hands with Ian. We are delighted to have him here.” 

Ian will be responsible for selling the entire Sipcam brand portfolio, which now also includes the FITO & GET OFF brands, recently acquired by Sipcam Oxon. Sipcam Home & Garden provide quality assured, cost-effective solutions to help deal with the common problems and tasks in and around the home and garden. 

If you are a garden or pet retailer talk to the Sipcam team today at enquiries@sipcamhg.co.uk about how their unique home, pet, and garden solutions can grow your sales!

Every week GTN receives and analyses epos data from a number of UK garden centres to produce the GTN Bestsellers charts and weekly bestsellers sales tips.

The full charts which provide useful insight into product sales peaks, new trends and new link sales opportunities are published in the weekly GTN Xtra newsletter.

As the year goes on we give sales volume comparisons with 2018 as well as 2019 to allow your teams to see variations over a three year period.

Access is by subscription only.  For £145.00 per year you and your team can have access to the most up-to-date gardening sales analysis that has already helped many UK garden centres increase their sales.  To subscribe call 07973 504214, e-mail karen@pottingshedpress.co.uk or buy on-line using this link.

WARNING the GTN Bestsellers Charts seriously improve the business of our subscribers.  Invest 15 minutes each week in improving your sales using the GTN Bestsellers charts and your turnover and customer satisfaction will improve too.

Get the GTN Bestsellers charts in full every week in the GTN Bestsellers newsletters for only £145.00.

GTN Bestsellers is the only industry source of weekly garden centre sales information, collating Epos data from centres with an aggregate turnover in excess of £100m.

Use the weekly Garden Products and Growing Media Top 50 sales volumes charts to plan your hotspot and other promotions and ensure you have the right products in stock to satisfy the needs of your customers.

For further information contact karen@pottingshedpress.co.uk or call 07973504214.

Buy your subscription today and start receiving the GTN Bestsellers charts this week.

Last week, the judges for GTN’s Greatest Christmas Awards all met up to start the process of deciding the winners of this year’s awards that will be announced and presented on The Spring Fair Retail Inspirations Stage, in Hall 2 of the NEC, at 5:00pm on Monday 5^th February 2024.

The process of deciding the winners is proving to be even more challenging this year as the Christmas retailing standards and exceptional examples of garden centre teamwork that have been seen by the judges have been even greater than ever this year. 

Another two days of judging meetings are now planned to complete the review of over 100 garden centre visits made during November and December covering nominated stores from Inverness to Weymouth and from Suffolk to Caernarvon.

“It’s great to see so much good stuff going on, hear about passionate teams and continually see creative ideas converted into commercial realities,” commented the judges.

In addition to the 14 award categories that relate to the judges visits, garden centre customers were also able to vote for their “Greatest Christmas Garden Centre Team.”  Votes closed on the 21^st December with a record 18,919 votes being made across 333 garden centres, proving just how great garden centres really are during the Christmas period.

If you join us at The Spring Fair Retail Inspiration Stage, in Hall 2 of the NEC, on Monday 5^th February at 5:00pm you’ll get the chance to meet the garden centre teams who are the winners of this years Gold, Silver and Bronze Greatest Christmas Awards.  It’s a real gathering of Christmas greatness!

GTN’s Greatest Christmas Awards are sponsored by: AMES, Garden Radio, Glee, Kaemingk, MorePeople, Noma, PATS, Smart Garden Products, Solex, Stars for Europe and Woodmansterne.

For more information contact GTN’s editor, Trevor Pfeiffer; trevor@pottingshedpress.co.uk or visit www.gardentradenews.co.uk

Our team of judges have now completed the task of visiting the 100 garden centres who were nominated for GTN’s Greatest Christmas Awards 2023.  And our sponsors have been lining up prizes of stock or hotel accommodation for the category winners.

Here are the categories for GTN’s Greatest Christmas Awards 2023

• The Greatest Christmas Houseplant Team
• The Greatest Christmas Tree and Outdoor Plant Team
• The Greatest Christmas BBQ and Outdoor Leisure Team – The Solex Sizzle
• The Greatest Christmas Wild Bird Care & Pet Team
• The Greatest Christmas Marketing Team
• The Greatest Christmas Community Event
• The Greatest Festive Gardening Gifts Team
• The Greatest Festive Retail Food Hall Team
• The Greatest Festive Garden Centre Catering Team
• The Greatest Garden Centre Christmas Video
• The Greatest Garden Centre Grotto Team
• The Greatest Group Small Garden Centre Christmas Team*
• The Greatest Group Large Garden Centre Christmas Team*
• The Greatest Small Garden Centre Christmas Team
• The Greatest Mid-Sized Garden Centre Christmas Team
• The Greatest Large Garden Centre Christmas Team

*The Group Garden Centre awards are for centres that are part of groups with 5 or more centres

Judging visits will take place during November and December with the winners being announced on The Stage at Spring Fair on Monday 5^th February 2024.

As well as the kudos and fame from winning a Greatest Christmas award, our Gold winners in each category will win prizes including stock, services or hotel accommodation from our sponsors, which at time of going to press include:

• AMES
• Garden Radio
• Glee 2024
• Kaemingk
• LeisureGrow - NOMA
• PATS 2024
• Smart Garden Products – Three Kings
• Solex 2024
• Stars for Europe
• Woodmansterne

Watch out for details of the prizes on offer in issues of GTN Xtra: www.gardentradenews.co.uk and in the next issue of GTN.

What the judges will be looking for when they visit:

As GTN's Greatest Christmas Awards firstly recognise the amazing teamwork involved in garden centre Christmas retailing excellence we asked our judges what specific things they will be looking for in each Christmas Awards category this year:

• The Greatest Christmas Houseplant Team
  • Christmas theming of the displays, link sales and plants as Christmas presents 
• The Greatest Christmas Tree and Outdoor Plant Team
  • Extending the Christmas experience out into the Planteria, not only making the sale of cut trees fun and different but what is being done to promote link sales to trees as well as plants as presents. 
• The Greatest Christmas BBQ and Outdoor Leisure Team – The Solex Sizzle
  • Effort (and success) being put to inspiring  sales of BBQ’s, firepits, furniture, arbours and leisure items normally associated with summer rather than Christmas
• The Greatest Christmas Wild Bird Care & Pet Team
  • From a gondola end of Christmas pet treats to a whole department dedicated to wild bird care or pets of all shapes and sizes. The festive feeling generated by the team, from their attitude for sales to their inspirational displays.  Who has been bold enough to include a pet or wild bird care display in the main Christmas area?
• The Greatest Christmas Marketing Team
  • On and off centre Christmas marketing activity: advertising, p.o.s. video, social media, influencer promotions. We are looking for originality, execution and sucess.
• The Greatest Christmas Community Event
  • A one off ‘launch’ or an ongoing feature – for example a zoo, woodland walk, colouring competition, cookery demonstration or a charity fundraiser that engages the community and extends the Christmas experience.
• The Greatest Festive Gardening Gifts Team
  • This is all about creating sales at this time of year through inspirational use/display/promotion of regular gardening tools and sundries items in a festive setting /department which are capturing sales to both new annd experienced gardeners.
• The Greatest Festive Retail Food Hall Team
  • Food Hall, Farm Shop or just a department in the retail area. Looking for seasonal lines, offers and services to build unit sales as well as dressing of the area. What is special to your Garden Centre offer over other food retailers?
• The Greatest Festive Garden Centre Catering Team
  • What have you done to make your restaurant or coffee shop a part of the Christmas experience? Looking for dressing of the seating area, servery, menu, special offers, link sales, promotions and of course, Festive staff!
• The Greatest Garden Centre Christmas Video
  • Simply a Christmas promotional video that creates garden centre visits and sales.
• The Greatest Garden Centre Grotto Team
  • What have the team done this season to create a really memorable and enjoyable experience.
• The Greatest Group Small Garden Centre Christmas Team*
• The Greatest Group Large Garden Centre Christmas Team*
• The Greatest Small Garden Centre Christmas Team
• The Greatest Mid-Sized Garden Centre Christmas Team
• The Greatest Large Garden Centre Christmas Team
  • For all of the overall team awards the judges are looking for happy, festive garden centre teams who can keep their Christmas retailing standards at their best throughout the Christmas sales period. 

By popular demand we have brought back Customer Voting for The Greatest Garden Centre Christmas teams, after all it is what customers think that is most important. See the details here

The first Greatest Christmas Awards Team visit the judges carried out this year was at British Garden Centres Woodthorpe, back in August.  See our gallery of pictures below:

Spring Fair, the UK's most popular, diverse, and trend led marketplace for Home, Gift, Fashion and Everyday, and retail’s definitive wholesale shopping destination, has revealed a raft of new experiences and activations to inspire buyers and enhance their visit making it more efficient and enjoyable. In addition to these initiatives, attending Spring Fair provides the opportunity to meet over 1,200 suppliers, ready to stock your shelves with their products.

Following months of research and insights from key partners, the Spring Fair team have created a ream of features that will be available to buyers who visit including free tea & coffee in Buyer Lounges which all buyers have access to, subsidised cloakrooms, abundant seating areas to relax and recharge, buyer concierge information points around the show, and discounts at Resort World. Spring Fair also continues to pay for parking at the NEC so all visitors and exhibitors can park for free for the duration of the show.

Soraya Gadelrab, Event Director, Spring Fair says “This year’s show is all about creating a seamless buying experience that ensures successful sourcing and brings maximum delight and efficiency. Over the past year we’ve spoken with our community about how to enhance the Spring Fair buying experience, and we’ve listened. To offer a smoother and more enjoyable purchasing experience we’ve introduced new initiatives and improvements including a one-step registration for buyers ensuring a more personalised experience pre-show and new onsite information points offer quick resolutions to buyer’s queries during the show. The Little Black has returned, alongside the Show Guide and the Spring Fair app, giving buyers the tools they need to plan their visit. And, we’ve paid for your parking so all Spring Fair visitors can park at the NEC, completely free of charge. We also hope the new Sip & Shop Happy Hour will be a very welcome distraction to close a successful day’s sourcing. 

“There’s a real buzz of anticipation for the show and we are proud to introduce three new feature stages that will undoubtedly elevate your show experience. Get ready to be inspired, informed and empowered at The Inspiring Retail Stage, Trend Talks and Masterclass Studio and across the entire show floor.”

Buyer Concierge Information Points will be located throughout the show, helping buyers with their onsite journey and experience. Each sector now has dedicated community support manager to assist buyers in planning ahead for the show, and to provide support onsite and post-event as needed. 

To help buyers identify key products look out for the Trend Trails for Sustainability, Licensing, Made in Britain, and those looking for a Distributor. For inspiration and the inside track on the newest and hottest products visit the popular New Product Showcasereturns presenting a curated edit championing new products launching at the show located alongside the new Trend Talks stage in Home, Living & Décor in Hall 6.

As well as hosting the live judging for Gift Of The Year, buyers will also be able to immerse themselves in an art gallery style display in Hall 5 of the shortlisted products, and an education and information space including a historic photo timeline of Spring Fair’s partnership with the Giftware Association and Gift Of The Year. 

Other must-see feature areas include the BIRA/BHETA Pavilion, the Cardgains Village, the #SBS Village, the GCA Debut Pavilion, the Footwear Showcase, plus the debut First areas for exciting new exhibitor launches in Beauty, Gift, Kids, Home, and Moda.

The Cardgains Village will be at the heart of the Greetings section. On this years' stand several of their members including Cherry Orchard, IC & G, Jacksons, Rainbow Designs, Saraunds, UK Greetings, Word 'n' Wishes and Woodmansternes will all have pods showcasing the latest range of brand-new designs, greetings cards and gifts.

Spring Fair’s three show floor theatres, Inspiring Retail Stage featuring the MODA Catwalk, The Masterclass Studio, and Trend Talks including Pitch Live, will offer hours of free educational support, inspiration, and advice. 

The Inspiring Retail Stage will host industry icons and fashion pioneers sharing their experiences, stories and advocacy. It will be a hub for thought-provoking keynotes, progressive discussions and the much-loved and crowd drawing Moda catwalks. Don’t miss the keynote speakers Dame Zandra Rhodes, Theo Paphitis, Kris Hamer of the British Retail Consortium and ESG pioneer Paul Wright.

Trend Talks in partnership with The Future Collective will be the go-to stage for discovering the latest retail trends and product innovations from future forecasters and creators. Discover insights from likes of Kantar, HappyHQ and brand experience consultancy, The Ready House. Trend Talks also hosts our new Pitch Live Dragon’s Den-style feature. Watch exhibitors from our Gift and Fashion destinations take to the stage with their most innovative products, pitching to an esteemed panel of industry judges looking for fresh and innovative products that epitomise the future of retail and provide effective solutions.

Debuting this February is the new Masterclass Studio located in Hall 3, created to share the tools to help retailers grow their business with leading agencies and consultants presenting their expertise on an invaluable array of topics. TikTok Shop, B Corp, Google, Avocado Social and The Buyer and Retail Coach are just a few names presenting their knowledge on subjects including digital marketing, social media, radical retail technology, conscious consumerism and more.

Buyers keen to enhance their visit with sustainable insights and actions, content sessions include eco-creative solutions for conscious consumers from Products of Change, navigating the path to B Corp certification, the opportunities and benefits of local credentials, and an informative overview on sustainable trends.

For some much-needed R&R stop by the show cafes in Home, Gift, and Moda. Enjoy some festive fun with reindeer at the Christmas themed Deck the Halls Café located in Christmas, Floral & Seasonal in Hall 5. A Starbucks pop-up will be serving their Christmas offering with Christmas cups and their Christmas special drink, an eggnog Latte. In Hall 2, discover the MODA Caféwhich incorporates the Shoe Gallery, and the Keplin Café; and The Summerhouse Café is a welcome retreat in Hall 7.

Don’t miss Peppa's Playground in the Kids, Toys & Play sector in Hall 5 by Hasbro to celebrate Peppa Pig's 20th Anniversary. Join Peppa Pig at Peppa's Party on Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th February at 4:30pm for pink drinks and cupcakes.

After a long day walking the aisles, buyers are invited to attend the show’s new Sip & Shop Happy Hours. Four locations across the Gift, Home, Moda & Everyday sectors including the Summerhouse Café and Trend Talks stage will offer bubbles, music, and networking from 4.30 – 5.30pm on Sunday to Tuesday. 

Look out for water stations, lanyard and badge recycle collection boxes, and tap to donate to the Retail Trust machines at the Show Guide stations.

With 13 product sectors across Home, Gift, Fashion and Everyday destinations, Spring Fair is the one-stop-shop for sourcing the newest products in UK retail, offering 1200+ exhibitors and over 100,000 new products. Over 100 brand new exhibitors will offer the latest and most popular products on the market enabling buyers to stock their shelves with their next best-sellers!

Spring Fair has brought the industry together for over 70 years so retail's people can discover the latest products and trends. An efficient show layout designed around buyer’s needs will mean less time spent finding suppliers and products and more time experiencing them and everything else the show has to offer.

For more information visit www.springfair.com.