Branching out: Garden centres turn to deliveries to survive as they face losing millions of pounds worth of plants due to coronavirus crisis
- Garden centres are starting home delivery services to prevent stock waste
- Companies delivering locally said they had experienced a boom in request
- Others were handing plants and flowers out for free to community projects
Garden centres faced with the prospect of losing millions of pounds’ worth of plants have started home delivery services to prevent stock going to waste.
Companies delivering locally said they had experienced a boom in requests – with some forced to stop taking new orders, such is the demand.
Others were handing plants and flowers out for free to community projects, schools and NHS workers rather than see them destroyed.
Plants inside a garden centre on April 2. Goulding’s garden centre, near Rosebank, Lanarkshire, said it had been inundated with orders for plants and gardening equipment
A customer notice is displayed at the Plants Galore garden centre in Exeter as it remains open for business today despite being served with a prohibition order from City Council
The Horticultural Trades Association has warned that millions of plants, shrubs and trees could be binned in the coming weeks following the closure of 2,000 garden centres and nurseries at what is typically their busiest time of the year.
Goulding’s garden centre, near Rosebank, Lanarkshire, said it had been inundated with orders for plants and gardening equipment.
Though not selling its full range of products, the company is offering to deliver items including packs of bedding plants, compost and weedkiller. Meanwhile, a nearby plant nursery has put on a spectacular rainbow display in a message of hope amid the crisis.
The closed Sheen Garden Centre in London on April 2. Garden centres faced with the prospect of losing millions of pounds’ worth of plants have started home delivery services to prevent stock going to waste
Reynard Nursery in Carluke has arranged 27,000 plants to create a multi-coloured scene with around 160,000 flowers.
The flowers would otherwise have gone to waste as lockdown measures prevent people from leaving their homes for anything other than food, medicine and to take exercise.
In a video posted online, nursery owner Garry Young, his wife Sheena and their two sons, Alan and Andrew, show off their floral creation. Mr Young said: ‘What we’ve done has been inspired by the Chase the Rainbow campaign that the children are using to raise hope.
‘We used plants here that were otherwise going to get thrown out. We hope people will see this and be inspired to hope during the coronavirus outbreak – and bring a bit of happiness all round.’