Bad weather knocks Shropshire garden centres sales

Garden centres across Shropshire are catching a cold – because the miserable spring weather is keeping customers indoors.

Torrential rain, late frosts and gale-force winds have left gardeners not knowing if they are coming or going and holding back on planting their plots as a result. The fall in trade sparked by the wettest April on recent record has hit smaller garden centres particularly hard.

John Anderson, managing partner of Meadowdale Nurseries in Horsehay, said the May Bank Holiday would usually be a peak selling time.

He said: "With a bank holiday we usually sell a heck of a lot more bedding plants than we have this weekend, especially in comparison to last year where we had such a good April.

"Most people are fair weather gardeners. When the sun's out they want to put the bedding plants out but once you get the rain people aren't as interested."

Mr Anderson said, because of growing times, he had to order his plant stocks in October last year.

But now he is finding gardeners are reluctant to buy plants until they know whether to expect a drought or a deluge this summer.

"We've got the added problem of the drought, and people aren't sure what sort of plants to buy," he said. "It's definitely affecting sales."

Steve Evans, owner of Lakeside Plant and Garden Centre, in Priorslee, said he had also noticed a serious drop in sales.

"We're probably down 50 per cent on what we would normally be selling," he said.

"We would normally have had our bedding plants in stock four or five weeks ago, but we're really only just starting to take them in this week. It's been too cold to do it before."

Mr Evans said many customers were also asking a lot of questions about the hardiness of the plants.

He said: "Hardiness seems to be the most important thing now."