Garden centres get ready for busy long weekend

Plant growers and sellers have been getting ready for the busy Bank Holiday weekend – traditionally the point in the year when many people want to get their gardens in shape.

Spring sunshine has seen sales in plants rise in Worcestershire, with businesses saying the weather "drives everything".

At local Bransford Webb Plant Company, where a 45-acre site grows two million plants a year from seed to saplings, the team has been potting about 1,600 plants an hour to keep up with demand.

With sunny spells forecast by the Met Office this weekend, amid some changeable and wet weather, companies are hoping for potentially record-breaking sales.

David Chilvers, sales and marketing director at the Bransford Webb Plant Company, said: "If you went back six weeks from now, we're at the end of February, early March, it was grey, it was damp.

"People couldn't get out in their gardens because it was too wet after a wet winter, and equally plants weren't growing much because the light levels and temperatures weren't there."

He said that getting to mid-March, the temperatures have increased, adding: "It's gone dry, people are out gardening, garden centres are seeing a massive footfall increase - and then we've seen that turn into sales as people convert that into plant deliveries."

Plants leaving the sheds at his company are heading to garden centres up and down the country, including family-owned Laylocks Garden Centre in Worcester, which had its best March in 43 years last month.

Hannah Warr, director at Laylocks, said the recent sunshine had brought in the customers and they were expecting a busy weekend over Easter.

She said everyone wanted to be in their gardens as soon as the weather turned warmer.

She added: "They see a huge space outside to use and they're inspired as soon as the sun starts to shine. They want to come here and decorate."

Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.