Britain has around 2,000 garden centres, and on a bank holiday weekend they are among the busiest retail destinations in the country. This requires some explaining, because a great many of the visitors have no intention of buying a plant.
What they have become
A garden centre began as a nursery selling plants. Most are now something considerably broader:
- Plants and gardening equipment — the original business, and often now a minority of floor space.
- A large café or restaurant, which is frequently the main attraction and reliably busy from mid-morning.
- Furniture, homeware and gifts — candles, cushions, cards, ornaments.
- A food hall selling local produce, jams, cheeses and fudge.
- A farm shop, a pet section, sometimes a small aquarium or an animal enclosure.
- An enormous Christmas department, opening in September.
Why they are so popular
Several things converge. They have free parking, which most high streets do not. They are largely indoors, which matters in a country with this weather. They are pleasant to walk around slowly without being asked to buy anything, and they are welcoming to older people and to families in a way many retail environments are not.
Above all there is the café. A cup of tea and a scone in a warm conservatory looking out at plants is a recognised and entirely respectable way to spend a Sunday morning, and the garden centre is one of the few remaining places to do it without booking.
The bank holiday phenomenon
A British bank holiday has a standard itinerary, and the garden centre is on it. Traffic builds from mid-morning, the car park fills, the café queue reaches the door, and a substantial proportion of the country buys a tray of bedding plants it will not get round to planting.
Christmas
Garden centres are, unexpectedly, one of Britain’s major Christmas retail sectors. Displays go up in September, and the larger centres build elaborate walk-through Christmas shops with artificial trees, decorations, lights and a grotto.
The complaint that it starts earlier every year is made annually and has no effect whatsoever, because it works. For many families a trip to the garden centre Christmas display is itself a tradition.
The chains and the independents
Dobbies, Blue Diamond and Squire’s run large groups, and the sector has consolidated considerably. Genuinely independent centres survive by being better at plants, and the difference is real — an independent nursery will usually have better stock, better advice and lower prices than a large centre where horticulture competes for space with scented candles.
For serious gardeners, the advice is generally to buy plants from a specialist nursery and go to the garden centre for the cake.