News from the gardening world
Garden centres buoyed by brisk sales as customers return, writes IAN HODGSON
Gardeners queued around the block and staff were wearing protective equipment – but more than 2,000 garden centres in England and Wales got back to business with a bang last week after seven weeks of enforced closure.
For many smaller centres it was a desperately-needed lifeline, even though parts of the garden centres, such as restaurants, had to remain closed. Hopes are now high that the season can be rescued as gardeners return in numbers, keen to fill their borders and baskets for the summer.
Bigger operators flung open their doors, too. Dobbies, the UK’s largest chain, opened 54 of its stores in England and Wales, the Blue Diamond Group all its 37 stores in England, while the RHS opened its four plant centres at Wisley, Surrey, Harlow Carr, Yorkshire, Rosemoor, Devon, and Hyde Hall, Essex. RHS gardens, gift shops and catering outlets remained closed.
As reported in last week’s Garden News, the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) had prepared strict guidelines under which centres could operate, limiting the number of customers in stores and enforcing social distancing with one-way systems in operation and markers in place inside and out.
While hand sanitising and trolley cleaning stations appeared at store entrances, protective screens were installed at tills, with appropriate PPE for staff, and customers encouraged to pay by card.
Best buys
Through the period of closure, centre managers juggled caring for existing stock, desperately trying to hold seasonal plants back where they could, rather than locally gifting them to hospitals or care homes or disposing of
them. With the situation so uncertain, supplies of short-term seasonal ornamental and edible plants are at best variable, with seasonal bedding in short supply as growers try to restart their operations, giving a different look to stock and display beds. But customers were undeterred, just grateful to be able to buy what they desperately needed. Basic bulky products such as compost, fertiliser and bamboo canes, as well as plants in flower, vegetable plugs and herbs proved popular purchases.
The three centres owned by Dorsetshire-based The Gardens Group even introduced a drivethrough compost shop, while customers bought large items, such as garden furniture, by taking barcodes to the till where staff arranged free home delivery. Many centres elected to keep their online delivery services running after introducing them when the pandemic closure hit, and are hopeful lockdown easing will see their season roll on into summer as gardeners try to catch up.
Customers were grateful for care measures the centres put in place. Sion Hughes, from Swansea, said of her Dobbies store: “Social distancing was managed effectively without being imposing.”
Abigail from Cirencester added: “You've all done an amazing job at making the store safe to visit.”
A joint effort
Alan Titchmarsh, one of the prime movers lobbying for centres to reopen, said: "As customers we need to understand the endeavours being made by garden centre staff to supply our needs under exceptionally difficult circumstances. With joint determination to make this work, and that will involve patience and cooperation on both sides of the till, we can rescue a situation and avert what seemed like total disaster.”
The HTA is continuing to lobby government in Scotland and Northern Ireland to reopen their centres. Of the situation in England and Wales, its chairman James Barnes said: “We would ask customers to check first that their garden centre is open. Our Plants Near Me website will show which centres have signed up to the Safe Trading Guidance. Although opening garden centres is hugely welcomed, this isn’t the single answer for the £1.5 billion British nursery market, which has already had to dispose of hundreds of tonnes of plants.
"We will continue our talks with DEFRA to secure a rescue package for this sector. The best option now is for the UK Government to pursue a simple Dutch-style compensation scheme, which will help to save our horticultural industry.”