Ten months on from the first “Love the Plot You’ve Got” Masterclasses for garden centre teams – what’s been happening in garden centres?

Over 100 staff from 36 businesses attended the Award Winning GIMB/HTA Masterclasses in the early spring. The aim was to try new things to attract and inspire anyone to add some zest and zing to their plot – no matter how small – no matter if only a window box.

Those who attended reported extra sales of patio sets – especially tea for two, plants, pots and planted containers.

What they said:

Sarah, Lynne, Sue & Karen from Gordale Nurseries attended the LTP Masterclass held at Sinclair and go on to say:

“Here are a couple of photos of some of the displays that have we built since the Masterclass. The owner of a local pub in Neston has used the planted wheelbarrow as inspiration for his own display outside the pub. 

"We also did a large display in the foyer of the garden centre for the Weber BBQ event that we held in May. We believe that increased sales in tickets and sales on the evening were generated by the display. Weber have reported to us that our event was the largest attended so far this year. 

"The 4 staff that attended the course were thoroughly inspired and will continue to use the new knowledge gained in the future.”

From the Plant Area At Fosseway Garden Centre, Jayne Homer explains:

“Here at Fosseway garden centre we have really embraced this project. A space has been allocated with two plots of identical size. We had a large back drop printed of two houses. One is a traditional Cotswold stow and the other is red brick with PVC windows. To date we have changed the gardens twice. The cottage garden style encouraged sales of roses and the veg garden sold directly twice the amount of veg thugs and veg. The gardens create much interest and is a focal point in our plant area. We often use it as an opportunity to talk with our customers and have so far had positive feed back.”

You’ll see from the photos that there are great visual ideas to inspire customers. Remember that “Love The Plot You’ve Got” is a three year campaign so the more people get behind it – the more it will build each year.

Building on the success of 2015, here is a Masterclass in your region covering how to develop successful ideas for 2016:

• What we learned from Year One
• How to do even better in Year Two
• Principles of visual merchandising and driving sales
• Practice building displays to sell more plants and garden goods in 2016 – prize for the best on the day
• National Competition for the best display – winner announced at the GTN Greatest Awards at the HTA Futures Conference 2016

Target audience – anyone wanting to improve their display skills indoors or out – and whether you attended the Year One Masterclass or not.

Masterclass Timing:  9.30-4.30

Book your place by emailing i.boardman@btinternet.com – see next page for dates & venues

Only £95 per delegate plus vat. Payment in full in advance – non-refundable. Refreshments provided