B&Q’s horticultural buying team

B&Q highlights the new horticultural buying team it has assembled over the last year under Stephen Pitcher, director of seasonal. Read more - members only

Stephen Pitcher

More chat from the aisles of the Garden Press Event

A new website for Westland, Showa’s bio-degradable gardening gloves, Eden Project seeds, a 10,000 strong Facebook community of Garden Goddesses and Hozelock’s electric weed killer were some of the innovations on show at the Garden Press event. Read more - members only

Hozelock Thermal Weeder

Diary

What will the scribblers be viewing at Thursday’s Garden Press Event?

The country’s gardening press converge on the Barbican on Thursday to get fresh ideas to write about this spring.  What will catch their interest at the Garden Press Event? Read more - members only

Van Meuwen's Gigantomo

GCA names best garden centres for plants and furniture

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

The-GIMA-Award-for-Best-Garden-Products-Retailer-(Destination-GC)

December was the biggest month of the year for GCA members

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 - members only

Review of 2014 in the Garden Industry

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 - open to all

Hands confirms Wyevale is moving away from Plants

Guy Hands tells the Evening Standard, that Terra Firma has moved Wyevale from being plant- and horticultural-based to more like a leisure company. Read more - members only

Wyevale's Blooms at Gloucester

Scotts to spend £7.5m on four TV adverts

Scotts Miracle-Gro is spending £7.5m this spring and summer on TV campaigns to drive customers in store.  The advertising will start to air week commencing 30th March. Read more - members only

Miracle-Gro Magic Start

Online retailers raise their profile

The growing presence of online retailers was clear at the Garden Press Event with two established sites and two newcomers, one launched at the show and one being mysterious about its launch plans. Read more - members only

Monthly plan from Garden Wants

Johnsons calls upon all suppliers to eliminate the use of unsuitable varieties in their lawn seed mixes

Continuing a campaign started last year DLF Trifolium accuses some competitors of continuing to cut corners by bulking out their lawn seed blends with unsuitable low grade seeds. Read more - members only

February 2015 long range forecast

February looks set to be sunnier and slightly colder than average  Although drier, snow showers will often feature in the forecast.  Read more - members only

Jobs

Vitax buys manufacturer of 6x and Groworganic

Vitax has bought the shares of Organico Ltd, the manufacturer of 6x and Groworganic.  The deal was announced today.  See more… Read more - members only

6x bags and tub

Where to see the best Garden Centre Christmas displays

The GCA has named 13 regional winners in their annual Christmas display competition.  To see where to go to see the best displays. Read more - members only

Castle Gardens Christmas displays

Looking ahead - It's not all doom and gloom

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 - members only

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