Sir Tim Smit, founder of the Eden Project in Cornwall, has urged garden centres to see the environment crisis as a massive opportunity to make a difference to people's lives. "You should see yourselves as being at the pointy end of a new revolution," he told the GCA Conference in Bristol today (Tuesday).

"You are receptacles of marvellousness," he said. "Be aware.".

In a passionate address that gripped his audience, Sir Tim said horticulture was "so so important" to our futures and garden centres were places where grandparents and their grandchildren could go to feel safe. He acknowledged the "astonishing impact of greenery" on wellbeing.