Features
Rune Sovndahl co-founder and CEO of Fantastic Services
When you are preparing to head off on your holiday and have no one to look after your garden, you might be worried about what state it will be in upon your return.
Do not despair: with a few simple hacks you can effectively look after it while you are away.
Preparation
The key thing about maintaining your garden when you are going away is preparation and making sure you have done everything you can to limit the work you will have to do upon your return.
Get rid of all the weeds, cover any bare soil with mulch and trim the hedges…
Royal Hedge is part of the Dongen based nursery Boomkwekerij E. de Jong in Holland. For the past 22 years this nursery has grown young trees, 3x transplanted trees, pleached trees, big solitaire, multistemmed trees and also trees and hedging material in containers.
'Royal Hedge' for Screening
In summer 2015, they launched a range of grasses which can be used to create a 'Royal Hedge'. This was a new profile for the 'Royal Hedge' concept and is used mainly for screening. The 'Royal Hedge' is produced in bags from 50cm long. This is very easy to plant and makes a very beautiful colourful…
Buyers from a specialist German online retailer and mail order company that specialises in British products, as well as garden distributors from Germany and Romania (each with an online presence too) will be travelling to the UK on 30 November 2017 to meet with UK suppliers.
The Romanian company is not only looking to extend its offering in its home market, but also plans to extend online sales into some neighbouring markets in south-eastern and central Europe. The two buyers will be participating in the latest ‘Meet the International Buyers’ event which offers suppliers one-to-one…
A historic Christmas tradition is returning to Burford House Garden Store as they welcome back the UK’s largest and most popular Holly and Mistletoe Auctions for the third year.
The Tenbury Wells store, part of Hillview Garden Centres, will host the world-famous auctions which are held annually on the last Tuesday of November and the first two Tuesdays of December (28th November, 5th and 12th December).
Dating back to the Victorian times, the mistletoe plant is very important to the people of Tenbury for many centuries. Mistletoe is abundant on the many orchards around the market…
A MEMBER of staff at one of the UK’s leading nurseries is this month (November, 2017) growing a moustache in aid of a hospice in Hereford.
Geoff Godsall, who has worked at Wyevale Nurseries for 30 years and is currently a Trading Foreman, will be growing a moustache for the second year running to fundraise for St Michael’s Hospice.
Geoff, who is 64-years-old and lives in Hereford, said: “I chose to support St Michael’s Hospice again this year as it’s such a vital local charity. It offers a fantastic service to the community during particularly hard times. Both the hospice and Macmillan…
Continuing its successful programme of Buyer Connect events GIMA has confirmed that it has teamed up with Longacres – the UK’s largest independent garden centre – to hold a special speed networking event with the buying team from this garden retailer.
The family owned group of garden centres currently consists of four centres, with the flagship Bagshot store retaining the title ‘highest turnover garden centre in the UK’ for the last seven years. With an ambitious expansion plan, Longacres owner, Nigel Long, is keen to meet with new and exciting garden and giftware suppliers to assist with…
PKL gave a helping hand to Petersham Nurseries on October 25th to help them put on a remarkable charity event in aid of the #CookForSyria campaign.
The supper club, for national press and digital influencers, took place in Petersham Nurseries’ new Covent Garden interiors store and delicatessen. Featuring inspiring recipes from the #CookForSyria cookbook, the evening was a fantastic success for the campaign and for Petersham Nurseries including their team of chefs led by Executive Chef Damian Clisby and Syrian restaurateur Imad Alarnab .
The success was even more impressive because the…
In October 2017, due to the continued growth of their rapidly expanding Export business, Smart Garden Products welcomed two new employees to their award-winning team based in Abingdon.
Following her recent promotion, Elvire Beugin was delighted to recruit Silvia Staudenmaier and Sabrina Laloui. Coming from a diverse range of backgrounds, they will be able to utilise their valuable experience to help promote and support the Smart business in continental Europe.
Jonathan Stobart, Managing Director of Smart Garden Products says of the recent recruitment drive “We are always looking for…
Employees from Zest 4 Leisure, a leading trade supplier of quality timber furniture, have covered over 3,400 miles this year, raising in excess of £15,000 for Cancer Research UK, its chosen charity for 2017.
Running, swimming and cycling, employees have taken part in a variety of challenges, the latest of which saw 45 people complete the Flintshire 10k Run.
In addition to this, 23 people successfully completed the Chester Marathon and 25 employees did the Manchester Marathon. Not to be outdone, Managing Director Steve Morgan and John Vaughan, Fencing & Timber Buildings Manager have…
THE GARDEN Centre Association (GCA) has launched its Worrall Cup competition this month (November, 2017) that is designed to find the member garden centre with the best marketing expertise.
The garden centre with the best marketing campaign or initiative will be awarded the prestigious cup during the GCA’s annual conference in Stratford-upon-Avon from January 21 until 24, 2018.
Chief Executive of the GCA, Iain Wylie, said: “This is a wonderful opportunity for members to win a prestigious award, where both flair and commercial success are rewarded.
“We’re searching for the garden centre…
Following strong growth this year for the nursery co-operative Farplants, Andy Merrick has been promoted to Head of Sales.
Andy Merrick, previously the Garden Centre Sales Manager for the West Sussex based plant wholesaler, has been appointed to Head of Sales to continue the company’s growth plans. Since joining in 1999, he has progressed within sales and account management to manage the sales team and provide support to Farplants’ garden retailing customers.
Merrick has been an integral part of the Farplants product development team who have made over 1000 updates to the 2018 offering.…
Following the recent release of the film It starring everyone’s favourite clown Pennywise – it’s clear we’re a nation that loves to be scared.
And as we head towards Halloween, houses will be adorned with scary spooks and costumes will be donned as people hide behind masks in order to shock their friends and neighbours.
Whilst this is a bit of fun for many people, our pet dogs can sometimes find this distressing – especially if they are part of the outfit! If your dog is nervous around strangers imagine opening the door to a masked ghoul or being around groups of excited youngsters or being…
The original in-store media company “Neat Ideas” offer a range of inspirational kitchen, garden, housewares & DIY products.
Everything we do, from selecting innovative quality products, to our packaging design and smart in-store media, is designed to ensure maximised sales.
With our in-store media and promotional approach, we ensure that our products offer more profit per square foot.
We offer Sale or Return (so retailers never have to reduce prices to clear stock)
No quibble returns policy
Targeted promotional periods – (8-12 weeks)
Regular changeover of stock keeps products…
Following the success of BEES™ Seeds and Gifts over the last couple of years, G Plants have developed a collection of new wooden display units with vintage BEES branding, which will be available for delivery from December.
The products in these ranges have been designed to be suitable for year round sales, with attractive packaging, which makes them ideal for gardening gift lines to drive sales, even in quieter months.
Display stands are available when ordering a selection of BEES™ Seeds and Growing Gift lines, which can be stocked up with follow up orders throughout the year. New smaller…
The industry was saddened at GLEE 2017 to hear that the range of DaVinci Home and garden products were no longer available to garden centres as the business had ceased trading due to personal reasons.
The good news is that Melmar Stone, one of the leading stoneware and garden ornament suppliers in the UK have formed an exclusive strategic partnership with the manufacturer of the range and are pleased to announce that the products are NOW available for ordering in time for the 2018 season.
This is important news because the products have been hugely successful in the UK and Europe and UK…
With margins of +140% on high ticket items that cost the retailer virtually nothing to stock, this was something we really wanted to find more out about. So to find out how they do this Garden Trade Specialist interviewed WhatShed.co.uk, the UKs most authoritative website on garden buildings.
The Cottage PlayhouseQ: So WhatShed, how did you find out that this was such an important profit center for the retailers?
A: From an online perspective WhatShed is one of the largest traffic drivers for some of these retailers. Over the last few years, they have opened up to us and have revealed to us…