Features

Scruffs® will be located on Hall 9, Stand A70-B71 at Spring Fair between the 2nd – 6th February 2020. The show is located at the NEC in Birmingham. As the company enters is fifteenth year of trading, it is expected to launch several new product lines and potential retail display solutions over the coming months. Spring Fair is the UK’s all-encompassing sourcing marketplace - facilitating connections between retailers, exhibitors and marketers. We offer certainty that only scale can provide. Encompassing 16 carefully edited show sectors, including the co-located Jewellery & Watch, Spring…

THE GARDEN Centre Association has announced Phil McCann and Mark Taylor will be joining its team of inspectors.   The pair will be responsible for inspecting member garden centres in South Thames with Phil inspecting those in the Garden Centre category and Mark checking members in the Destination Garden Centre category.   Iain Wylie, GCA Chief Executive, said: “We’re thrilled to have Phil and Mark joining our established team of inspectors.   “Phil has vast experience in the horticultural industry and graduated as a Plant Scientist and Mark studied at Writtle Agricultural College and has a…

The lawncare sector is poised for a buoyant spring. Months of rainfall have left the nation’s green expanses lacklustre in appearance and riddled with unsightly moss. When it comes to lawn renovation, however, the tide is turning against synthetic treatments. In a sector where chemicals once dominated, a transformation is being driven by a new generation of natural lawn treatments that are not only kinder to the planet, but reward consumers with outstanding results and levels of performance that were once only available to turfcare professionals.  Natural & organic lawncare solutions from…

The doors are set to open on the third annual Glee at Spring Fair concession event in just a few short weeks. Retailers and buyers from across the garden, landscaping, and home and gift sectors are invited to register for the show to secure their free ticket ahead of the annual exhibition. To register, simply visit www.springfair.com and click on the ‘Get your Free’ ticket button, and follow the instructions on screen. Your ticket will provide access to both the main show, as well as Glee’s second edition within its new-for-2020 location in Hall 7.   Retailers visiting the Glee at Spring Fair…

Garden Trade Specialist Victoria Galligan tried out a brand new gardening product and says both traders and their customers will love it. Brand new to the market, Vuba's patented gardening product is nothing short of genius. Designed especially for house plants, Easihold is a spray which sets stones that have been laid on top of soil – and it's completely permeable, allowing users to water and feed plants as usual. If, like me, you've got young children who like to play with houseplants and find the taste of soil delightful, or have pets who are partial to knocking over a potted plant every…

Evergreen Garden Care announces David Domoney Chartered Horticulturalist as brand ambassador   Evergreen Garden Care, which encompasses leading garden care brands such as Miracle-Gro®, Levington, Roundup and Tomorite, is delighted to announce it has appointed one of the UK’s most prominent Chartered Horticulturalist and TV broadcasters, David Domoney, as its brand ambassador.   The partnership will see David produce a wide range of stimulating content to motivate and support all gardeners to have successful gardening experiences and help unlock the love of the garden for all to enjoy. The…

This month is National Hobby Month, so we spoke to Elizabeth Dixon, a Printmaker from Lancashire. She explains her return to Printmaking, and how you can get hold of some original art to decorate your home. It has taken me many years to have the confidence to call myself a Printmaker - years of pursuing other creative pastimes which seemed easier to fit in around work and family life. But the imminent approach of my 60th birthday in 2019 was the catalyst that changed everything and sent me back 40 years to rediscover my love of colour, pattern and printmaking. At the end of the 1970s I was…

The Hawkesmill Nurseries team have to keep an eye on the top plant trends when producing perennials, wildflowers, grasses, ferns, herbs and more.  Fashionable colours and varieties are more important than ever when choosing ornamental plants.  And with all of us being much more aware of climate change, it is also important to look at growing your own herbs and vegetables to ensure the food on our plate has a smaller carbon footprint. The Pantone colour of the year has now been announced as 'Classic Blue', a hue that will instil calm and confidence, not only in your wardrobe and on your…

TREADSTONE PLACES UNIQUE ‘SAFETY DNA’ OF CLIPGLOVE RANGE AT RETAILERS’ FINGERTIPSTreadstone Products has just launched a range of Industrial Safety Gloves, showcasing the expertise and technology behind the company’s ground-breaking ClipGlove gardening gloves. The industrial division will ensure a continued new product development stream, bringing its know-how to the ClipGlove range. At a time when there are so many ‘me too’ gardening glove products on the market, this affords stockists much-needed enhanced sales opportunities.  The new range of high quality safety gloves will be used in…

Winter can be a beautiful time of the year. If you’re not caught outside in the middle of a frozen gale that is, looking at the wicked outdoors from inside with a cuppa can be relaxing. However, that’s easy enough to say from inside the comfort of your own home. If reports are correct, the Beast from the East is due to return this winter, which means for our plants, this experience won’t be so pleasant. There are some things we can do to help though. Now is the time to start preparing and protecting your garden from winter elements and the Beast from the East. Allow Prestige Lawns to talk…

Green Protect is a leading retail brand in Scandinavia (known there as ‘A Green Way’) which offers a simple, effective and sustainable route to a pest-free home. With many consumers adopting an eco-approach in their everyday lives, there is an ever increasing consumer focus over the mid-long term. We have seen an increase in the level of adoption of natural products in the European market and this is set to continue to grow across the continent with more eco-focused individuals than ever before. Green Protect products help to prevent pests without the use of chemicals, making them ideal for…

Pest-Stop is a leading manufacturer of high quality, market leading domestic pest control products for the retail market worldwide. The Pest-Stop brand offers a comprehensive range of market-leading products, from the Little Nipper mouse traps, one of the longest standing pest control brand names, to contemporary products designed with the domestic user in mind. Pest-Stop has over 120 years of brand heritage and brings professional expertise to the amateur pest control market with new product development being driven by Europe-wide technical knowledge. To become a Pest-Stop customer or…

The Wheat Bag Company pride ourselves on manufacturing quality products in the UK. We have our own in house designers who design our own bespoke fabrics that we use to make our Microwavable Wheat Bags, PADi Pillows and a range of textiles products. Our Microwavable Wheat Bags are filled with English wheat and lavender and are comforting, warming and relaxing and a natural way to soothe aches and pains. They are available in a large selection of designs with finest English lavender buds or unscented. We also offer bespoke eye catching wooden display units free of charge to display our products…

By Will Haxby, Marketing and Ornamental Sales Director at Haddonstone In the colder months, it’s easy to neglect, forget or put off looking after your garden. And it’s understandable, especially with the drop in temperature and sunlight that the winter months bring.  But, for many homeowners, the garden is your pride and joy. In fact, the average Brit spends more than 2000 days gardening in their life, and it can add as much as 20% to the value of a home. Your garden could be the reason you purchased a house in the first place, and where you plan to host friends and family for next year’s…

Garden Trade Specialist editor Victoria Galligan catches up with Malini, a leading brand in premium soft furnishings, to find out the interiors trends for 2020 and find out why the brand is a popular choice for garden centres… Malini is likely a brand you’ll have come across – its luxury cushions, throws rugs and quilts are stocked in many of the high-end garden centres in the country. When the company began trading in the 90s, its first big deal was with the Pier chain of furniture retailers and since then it’s gone from strength to strength, becoming a favourite supplier of premium…

The post-digital environment will see the horticultural sector ever more dominated by developing technologies and artificial intelligence – and sustainability remains of the utmost importance.  The horticultural industry contributes more than £24 billion a year to the UK’s GDP and employs more than 550,000 people.  Garden centres are booming, but how environmentally sustainable is the sector as a whole? Larger retailers have diversified their business with cafés, adventure playgrounds, gift shops, workshops, Christmas grottos and by hosting events to attract visitors all year round.  Smaller…