Never call a buyer on a Monday.  Never give surprises.  B&Q’s Tim Clapp explains how to become a successful supplier to the multiple retailers like B&Q or Wyevale.  Read more

The latest figures from the GCA show 2014 was the best year for 4 years with December beating May as the biggest sales month of the year. Read more

Manchester Evening News reports how a horrified mother found a razor blade in a present given to her daughter by a garden centre’s Santa.  Read more

The Garden Media Guild Awards were held at The Savoy, London yesterday. Hosted by James Alexander Sinclair, the awards lunch drew many influential players in the gardening world. Read more

Quotes from HTA Garden Futures: “I want to create an emotional connection between the consumer and a bag of compost.”   And “Gardening is about partying, entertainment and living outside. It is not about ‘Jobs for the month’.” Read more

2013 turned out to be another disappointing year in all three key sectors of the garden retail market – garden plants, garden care and garden leisure – with all three sectors showing a steady decline in the five years to 2013 covered by the Analysis. Read more

The garden retail industry was in a confident mood at the GIMA Awards where Burgon & Ball won the Sword of Honour for the best new product and Taylors were named supplier of the year. See more... Read more

As PwC confirms that discussions with interested parties about buying Solus are still ongoing, Edward Conroy suggests this is an opportunity to reflect on our progress as an industry and to consider what still needs to be done. See more... Read more

Garden centres are being invited to sign up this month (May, 2014) to help with an attempt to have the most teddies picnicking on the same day nationwide. See more... Read more

Measures to stop invasive alien species of plants, animals or insects getting into the EU or to limit the ecological and economic damage caused by those that do, came a step closer last week. See more… Read more

The benefits of green landscaping were widely recognised by experts at the AIPH conference, but who makes sure it happens? "Not us,'" says the Mayor of London's representative. See more... Read more

While overall sales in February were almost the same as last year, according to the GCA, more garden centres were down than up especially in the wettest parts of the country. See more... Read more

The Hillier Manual of Trees and Shrubs has been fully revised and updated in conjunction with botanists from the RHS, so that plant names are consistent with those in RHS Plant Finder. See more… Read more

Industry gets ready for fund-raising events on Friday 14th March. See more... Read more

Home Retail Group, owner of Homebase and Argos, is the latest national retailer to try and muscle additional rebates from suppliers. GIMA advises its members to stand firm. Read more

Sunshine Garden Centre and Van Hage are the best GCA outdoor living retailers.  Cowell’s and Bents are the best for plants. Read more

The Government is proposing legislation that would force Britain’s biggest companies to reveal their payment terms and performance, quarterly.  GIMA welcomes greater transparency saying the garden industry is particularly bad when it comes to paying bills. Read more

2014 has been dominated by the repositioning of the major gardening goods distributors following the demise of Solus.  The weather for once provided a good news story and towards the end of the year there was a flurry of activity from Wyevale as it picked up eight long established independent garden centres.  See the full review – which is open to all… Read more

Garden centre catering operations face new food labelling regulations which come into force on December 13. Read more

GCA figures for September show that the gardener is back. Outdoor plants, garden sundries and landscape products showed double digit growth for the month. Read more

Gardenforum believes the RHS, the HTA and other organisations behind Horticulture Matters need to re-think their strategy to solve the skills crisis in horticulture. Read more

In 1994 garden centres were outmanoeuvred when it was generally accepted they should be exempt from new Sunday Trading restrictions. Now the HTA is calling for the government to think again. See more… Read more

B&Q’s Sir Ian Cheshire stepped into the debate about Scottish independence, with several publications reporting his warning that investment would be put on pause if Scotland voted in favour of independence. See more... Read more

Garden furniture, sundries and plants drive strong garden centre sales in April; and stock keeps flowing despite upheavals in the supply chain. There is a feeling that the gardening feel-good factor is back. See more... Read more

There are many happy bunnies across the garden industry after a bumper Easter weekend. Many garden centres are reporting record trading days with plants and garden sundries sales particularly strong, along with catering. Read more

The first episode of The Big Allotment Challenge airs tonight (Tuesday) at 8pm promises tension and tantrums in every episode. It should be a boost for Grow Your Own. See more… Read more

An unprecedented succession of autumn and winter storms have caused a national shortage of fence panels which is likely to last into the summer and beyond. See more... Read more

While it was no shock that honey fungus was the number one problem disease in 2013, perhaps the biggest surprise was the influence the weather had on the RHS list of top 10 garden diseases.   See more... Read more

A record number of garden centres, over 230, took part in Garden Re-Leaf on Friday. They were backed by more suppliers than ever before. The sun shone, customers responded and so did the local press. See more... Read more

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has announced its ‘Top Ten' garden pests for 2013. As in 2012, slugs and snails topped the list with enquiries remaining at their highest since 2002. See more… Read more