Features

Portfolio Home to Launch New Festive Collection for Garden Centres at Harrogate Christmas Fair. Christmas is coming with Portfolio’s new throws and cushions  Leading home textiles brand, Portfolio Home, has launched a stunning new range of traditional and quirky Christmas products specifically tailored to Garden Centres and Retailers which they are excited to showcase exclusively at Harrogate Christmas Fair (16th – 19th January 2022). The new festive collection includes soft fleece throws and tapestry velvet cushions which have been designed to help increase consumer basket value during the…

EcoGro are delighted to announce their new additions to their highly popular family of eco-friendly, sustainable and natural plant foods: EcoGro Lawn Power, and the EcoGro one litre range.  EcoGro Lawn Power is an exciting and innovative natural plant food designed to help your lawn flourish. This new product contains added nutrients and works with the soil microbes to aid root development. It also acts as a moss suppressant, helping avoid these dense mats which outcompete with grass for all vital water and nutrients. By activating microbes, it will also breakdown any dead matter and…

The UK’s premier landscaping exhibition is less than a month away - have you registered yet? Hall 12 on the 3rd & 4th November at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham - Make sure it's in your diary!  The LANDSCAPE Show provides the first in-person opportunity to reconnect with others in the industry! LANDSCAPE welcomes exhibitors with a vast collection of leading products, services and innovations for the design, build and management of exterior and interior landscape projects.  LANDSCAPE 2021 is the trade event you will not want to miss – and the best part is, it’s all FREE!…

Leading gift and housewares player pushes expansion with leading European pots and planters brand, creating further great offers for retailers and consumers. My Gifts Trade (MGT) and Pottery Pots Nederland BV (PP) are delighted to continue theirdistribution partnership which sees MGT take on exclusive UK and Republic of Ireland distribution for the Pottery Pots brand.   Pottery Pots is a global brand with Dutch roots, developing and selling high quality planters and related products, from jumbo pottery to small accessories and from glossy to rough finishes.  The core ranges are manufactured…

bio-bean Limited, a Certified B Corp and manufacturer of Coffee Logs, has been named a Best for the World™ B Corp in recognition of its exemplary performance beyond commercial metrics. Ranking in the top 5% of all B Corps in its size group worldwide for their sustainable business practices, bio-bean earned this honour because of its excellence in its environmental performance and impact. bio-bean recycles spent coffee grounds from businesses across the UK and upcycles them into Coffee Logs – planet-friendly fire logs for wood burners and stoves – and other bio-based products. By using…

Christmas 2021 provides an opportunity for garden retailers to make up for losses sustained in the pandemic. With national Covid restrictions easing, this festive season promises to be a brighter one than 2020. And for customers, buying a real Christmas tree is all part of the experience.  Here, we speak to the British Christmas Tree Growers’ Association (BCTGA) about its work in promoting British-grown trees. And we hear from some of the Association’s members who offer their insight into being part of an industry that’s growing – in more ways than one. Making the most of your Christmas…

Fish4Pets®, home of the Fish4Dogs® brand has launched a new range of fish-based treats, specifically designed for puppies. The champions of fish are well known in the pet food industry for pioneering fish as ‘the perfect protein’, packed full of natural, healthy goodness for our canine companions. Karen Hubbard, Product Portfolio Manager at Fish4Pets® explains ‘we have one of the largest range of treats in the industry, utilising many different varieties and formats of natural, healthy, sustainably-sourced fish, and whilst many of our treats are suitable for puppies, we have never before had…

Kings Seeds are an Independent British owned company. We are able to offer you the very best varieties available on the market as we have no allegiance to any particular breeder. Our Qualified Technician tests all our seeds for purity, vigour and germination before being despatched to you. If you are unable to find a particular variety you want, just let us know and we will try to find it for you. We supply seed to commercial growers of flowers and vegetables, wholesale, to large users of seed and to the home gardener through our seed packets. On our farm, we have been selecting and…

Glee will return in-person on 14th – 16th September 2021 Industry leading brands set to appear on the exhibitor line-up. Glee’s theme will be Time to Grow, reflecting the opportunities for garden retail. After over a year away from in-person events, Hyve Group are delighted to announce that Glee will return to the NEC Birmingham from 14th – 16th September 2021. Following their Time To Grow manifesto, Glee will be designed to support the industry, helping garden retailers and brands to build on the momentum the industry has gathered over the past year. Working in line with Hyve Group’s Safe…

With the arrival of spring comes the perfect time to get out in the garden and make the most of your outdoor space. One way to completely transform your garden for 2021 is to invest in a garden sculpture. With so many styles and sizes to choose from, Ian Hay, Art Director at the Saul Hay Gallery in Manchester shares his tops tips: Think about WHY you want a sculpture When it comes to buying sculpture for your garden, ask yourself, what do you want the sculpture to bring to the space? Is it to offer sharp, bold contrast to the living elements of the garden, or blend in with natural forms? Is…

BY LEADING WILD BIRD FOOD MANUFACTURER, HENRY BELL & CO In preparation for the arrival of spring, wild birds start nesting early in the year. Due to climate change, nesting is starting earlier than usual when the winter ground is still hard and natural food can be scarce. So, it is essential to support the wild birds by feeding them nourishing food for their egg development and to ensure young birds receive the right nourishment to grow. Henry Bell, shares their top tips on what to feed wild birds and their young during this time.  Henry Bell & Co is a fourth-generation family-owned…

It is safe to say 2020 was a big year for change, and that includes the DIY industry. With people entering the first lockdown in March 2020, the home and garden quickly became more than just a home, suddenly taking on additional roles such as office, gym and even a holiday resort in the summer months.  With people spending more time in their homes and with little else to do there was a huge increase in DIY projects. Google reported an 80% increase in searches for the term “DIY” in comparison to 2019. At EnviroBuild we experienced a huge increase in demand over summer, with our customers…

We are nearly a year into the Covid-19 pandemic and its restrictions. It is needless to say that the virus caused an extreme effect on the garden retail industry with many stores forced to close several times during the different lockdowns. During these lockdowns, many consumers switched their spending to online platforms. Leading online marketing provider Garden Connect provides services to many garden centres to improve their online sales channels.  Rise of online sales Surveys show the restrictions have sped up the changing shopping habits for customers. Edwin Meijer, marketing…

For over 30 years Protek have been manufacturing water- based timber treatments that are child, animal, bird, bee, and plant safe from their factory in Somerset.  When everyone else was selling creosote (remember the smell and the industrial style gloves??!!!) they started selling water -based timber treatments.   A breath of fresh air- literally.   Today the environment is still at the heart of their family business. They are always looking for new ideas that could improve the wood stains and paints and that includes the packaging.  In 2020 they moved 80% of the range into tins, which could…

After a successful first year, the brand and chartered horticulturalist will have a focus on Chelsea Flower Show and charity scheme, Cultivation Street   After a hugely successful first year, leading garden care brand Evergreen Garden Care (www.lovethegarden.com), has announced that it will continue working with Chartered Horticulturalist and TV Gardener, David Domoney.   One of the key calendar events this year will be the Chelsea Flower Show, where Evergreen Garden Care’s leading brand Miracle-Gro will sponsor David’s major exhibit, entitled ‘My Houseplant Changed My Life’ inspired from his…

Notcutts Garden Centres are proud to have partnered with national charity Thrive to help cultivate the nation’s wellbeing through gardening.    Launched just before the first UK wide lockdown in March 2020, the ‘Cultivating Wellbeing in Gardens and Nature’ course has been enjoyed by many – helping them to connect with nature and understand why being outdoors is so beneficial.    The free online course, developed by experts in therapeutic horticulture from Thrive, has been designed to encourage people to use their gardens to spend more time connecting with nature as a tool to restore wellbeing…