The future could be bright for garden centres 70 years on from the first one opening its doors in the UK - Yorkshire Post Letters

The first garden centre opened in Britain 70 years ago and the numbers have literally grown year-on-year over this period of time.

The humble beginnings from plant nurserymen selling direct to gardeners are a lot different to the large garden centres we see on the edge of towns and villages these days, which cannot rely on selling only plants and a few garden related items like fertilisers, clay plant pots, pest and disease chemicals and pre-mixed John Innes (JI) compost for sowing seeds, JI Number 1, potting on, JI Number 2 and JI Number 3 for final potting of annual and perennial plants. prior to planting out.

Summer and winter flowering bedding plants were grown in shallow wooden trays with a sheet of newspaper at the bottom to cover the drainage holes to prevent compost falling through. These trays were cleaned with Jeys Fluid and used many times.

Today plants are grown in plastic pots and multi packs trays (6's or 10's) and due to the thin plastic are in reality single use and then sent for recycling or incineration.

It is fair to say today that there are only a handful of plant nurseries which sell direct to the public. Many of these are family run and the numbers are diminishing due to high production cost and change of growing mediums from peat based, which retains water and fertilisers longer, compared to the new more open structure garden waste and straw based compost which have the opposite effect of more intensive watering and additional liquid fertilisers top-up.

Both small and large garden centres today have to include a gift shop and often a cafe to support sales and make them financially viable.

And in the run up to the lucrative Christmas retail market with sales starting as early as September, many have a 'Winter Wonderland' incorporating a 'Santa's Grotto'.

The professional body who represents garden centres operators, The Horticultural Trades Association, have published that there were 203m visits to garden centres in 2024.

During the Covid period, 2019 onwards, the Royal Horticultural Society, estimated 2m new gardeners took an interest in their gardens as they could be outside in fresh air, the results of sowing flower and vegetable seeds brightened up and provided a few basic vegetables whether it be a few potatoes or salad crops, which got them 'hooked' on gardening.

Retailing of live plants has been competitive over the years with many gardeners buying from Woolworths and Wilko, who both have sadly ceased trading of selling of perennials and shrub plants, spring and summer flowering 'Cuthberts' brand seeds, bulbs, onion sets, seed potatoes and loose grass seed.

Fortunately there have been more peaks than troughs in the retail garden market with many of the bigger retailers having a go at selling plants and sundries.

The most famous high profile example being Tesco buying Dobbies garden centres and after several years of trading losses they sold the business on to an expert garden centre group.

With the government setting targets for building homes, I am optimistic that garden centres will bloom and flourish for many years to come.