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Answering three Parliamentary questions, ministers have stonewalled the question of garden centres re-opening ahead of the end of the second period of lockdown this week. Source: Garden1

Lancashire-based glasshouse manufacturer Hartley Botanic said there had been a 35% increase in homeowners citing ‘grow your own’ as the primary reason for their interest. Source: Garden1

NFU horticulture and potatoes board chair Ali Capper is hopeful garden centres will open soon as that will help save the growers supplying them. Source: Garden1

The Teenage Cancer Trust has welcomed a £73,000 donation from the UK’s biggest garden centre group Dobbies Garden Centres. Source: Garden1

Planned lockdown relaxation rules have been leaked for retail, restaurant staff, workers in people’s homes, factory workers, outdoor workers, people working in vehicles and office workers. Source: Garden1

A garden centre in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire will break ranks and re-open this week. Source: Garden1

Growing media sales have been higher than expected during lockdown, with online and multiples among paths to market helping meet demand. Source: Garden1

Dorset/Hampshire-based Stewarts Garden Centre, has donated around 50 annual plants to Lewis-Manning Hospice Care patients. Source: Garden1

Gardeners Kitchen’s Ed Boers said the garden centre season could extend well into June after the enforced closure of garden retailers throughout April. Source: Garden1

Speaking on BBC Gardeners’ World, Don, who has been critical of the garden retail industry, said he hopes garden centres can open again soon. Source: Garden1

Suttons managing director David Robinson says the company is finally getting on top of orders after selling more than one million seed packets and millions of plants, with sales reaching 25 times the usual level. Source: Garden1

Source: Garden1

Tricia Cox (née Sherrard), founder/owner of Glendoick Garden Centre with her husband Peter Cox, died peacefully at Glendoick on 2 May 2020. Source: Garden1

“It’s galling” say garden centre bosses, after Met Office April weather statistics were released, showing fine weather throughout most of the coronavirus crisis. Source: Garden1

Mail readers have backed reopening garden centres after a grower had the innovative idea of leaving plants of householders’ , including Alan Titchmarsh’s, doorsteps, with resulting donations halving losses and saving the nursery, whose clients include the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, RHS Wisley and the Eden Project. Source: Garden1

Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has announced an end to lockdown with garden centres to reopen on 18 May. Source: Garden1

HTA chairman James Barnes has written to Robert Jenrick MP, the Communities and Local Government Secretary of State, about. click and collect contradictions in the regulations and the inconsistent approach by local authorities in terms of enforcement, as well as Jenrick’s counterparts in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Source: Garden1

Source: Garden1

Webbs Garden Centres, with over 350 employees, has won a UK Best Workplace award along with 161 other UK organisations through the Great Place to Work scheme. Source: Garden1

An Edinburgh garden centre New Hopetoun Gardens has received a Government loan during the coronavirus crisis, thanks to CBILS support from Bank of Scotland. Source: Garden1