Outdoor plant sales continued to grow at garden centres for the second month running in November (2018), according to the Garden Centre Association's Barometer of Trade (BoT) report.
Sales were up 11.69% compared to the same month last year (2017).
In October there was some much milder weather, which continued into November, meaning people were able to carry on with any gardening much later into the year than usual and could enjoy autumn flowering plants for longer too.
Hard landscaping sales were also up 13.12% as people made the most of the weather and worked on improving their outdoor spaces ready for 2019.
Once again, the milder weather meant people delayed their festive shopping sales as gifts were down -1.6% and general Christmas sales were down -2.49%, however the GCA predicts this will improve greatly when seeing the results of their December sales.
Seed and bulb sales were up 3.5%. Food hall and farm shop sales were up 3.5% and catering sales were also up at 7.08%. Houseplant sales were also up 6.45%.
Sales in garden sundries were down -2.25% and furniture and barbecue sales were also down -15.01%.
Pets and aquatics sales were down -4.02% and clothing sales were down -0.14%.
Overall sales for the month were up 1.13% with a year to date change of 1.19%.