What is a Garden Centre?

• 10-09-2009 6:58 AM

  Andrew Stalham Joined on 08-19-2009 China Posts 35	What is a Garden Centre? Reply Contact Encarta Dictionary English UK - Garden Centre a retail establishment that sells plants and gardening equipment So, is B & Q the UK largest garden centre chain or could it be Tesco?   Synergy - The essential ingredient
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• 10-09-2009 9:15 AM

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  Geoff Parsons Joined on 11-19-2008 Posts 227

  Re: What is a Garden Centre? Reply Contact garden centre     Means land and buildings wholly or mainly devoted to the care and preparation and display for sale; and, sale of plants and seeds together with gardening plant, machinery and other equipment and furniture to meet the needs of domestic gardeners and allotmenteers.  (A first stab - I have spent years devising definitions of property related words and know that a first stab is almost always capable of amendment - see The Glossary of Property Terms.)

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• 10-09-2009 12:13 PM

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  Matthew Appleby Joined on 08-04-2008 Posts 200

  Re: What is a Garden Centre? Reply Contact A garden centre in the UK sells plants, compost, fertilizers, tools and landscaping products such as statues, furniture and garden ornaments.(wikipedia) For the top 100 garden centres feature I defined garden centres as  retail outlets that sold mostly garden goods and goods that have become related to what places that sell mostly garden-related goods sell.

• 10-09-2009 3:05 PM

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  Andrew Stalham Joined on 08-19-2009 China Posts 35	Re: What is a Garden Centre? Reply Contact Sorry Matthew, I left school at 15 - Can you explain this bit again ! For the top 100 garden centres feature I defined garden centres as  retail outlets that sold mostly garden goods and goods that have become related to what places that sell mostly garden-related goods sell. Synergy - The essential ingredient

• 10-10-2009 1:21 PM

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  John Walker Joined on 02-19-2009 North Wales Posts 52	Re: What is a Garden Centre? Reply Contact Hubristic cathedrals to consumerism, increasingly coated in an insipid shade of greenwash?

• 10-10-2009 10:55 PM

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  Melanie Livingston Joined on 06-15-2009 Posts 53	Re: What is a Garden Centre? Reply Contact For the moment, my plant area is still bigger than rest of the garden centre, however if the tatt patrol get any funny ideas about invading my bit, I'm going to build a wall of JI No 2 with an alpine grit topping cos' that bloke Hadrian knew a good idea when he saw one !   P.S. John... was that Greek tragedy kind of hubris or just the ordinary ?

• 10-11-2009 3:58 PM

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  Geoff Parsons Joined on 11-19-2008 Posts 227	Re: What is a Garden Centre? What's in a name..? Reply Contact Melanie Hop "gardens" were called such so as to avoid tax..? If you run a nursery you might call it that - perhaps for a similar reason..?
  	Filed under: nursery practice

• 10-11-2009 10:44 PM

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  Melanie Livingston Joined on 06-15-2009 Posts 53	Re: What is a Garden Centre? What's in a name..? Reply Contact Geoff, your definition forgot to mention tinsel, baubels and an animatronic Santa sat in the corner to scare small children !

• 10-12-2009 7:43 AM

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  Geoff Parsons Joined on 11-19-2008 Posts 227	Re: What is a Garden Centre? What's in a name..? Reply Contact Melanie    She would scare me too!

• 10-12-2009 11:37 AM

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  JOHN GREEN Joined on 10-12-2009 WOLVERHAMPTON Posts 1	Re: What is a Garden Centre? What's in a name..? Reply Contact Sadly, there seem to be few dedicated Garden Centres. Today they are Garden Department Stores, probably surviving only by the rental from the various franchised units on the site.  At least with the array of goods on offer and especially with a good quality cafe  they can rely on  return visitors and some impulse buying.  John Green

• 10-12-2009 6:29 PM

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  Jane Broom Joined on 07-15-2009 Posts 6	Re: What is a Garden Centre? What's in a name..? Reply Contact  There does appear to be a niche appearing for plant centres.  Exhibiting at a couple of shows this year, a number of people stressed to us that they were plant centres as opposed to garden centres.  Back to basics?

• 10-13-2009 10:56 PM

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  John Walker Joined on 02-19-2009 North Wales Posts 52

  Re: What is a Garden Centre? Reply Contact - P.S. John... was that Greek tragedy kind of hubris or just the ordinary ? - A good question Melanie. You know, I think both kinds apply. In Greek mythology hubris manifested as excessive pride toward or defiance of the gods, leading to nemesis. In a way, garden centres/the gardening industry, in many ways, exemplify a defiance of ecological limits, and their masters certainly exhibit oodles of excessive pride. With their focus on driving more and more consumption in a world of finite resources I can't help thinking that nemesis might be just around the corner. As for the ordinary kind, the horticulture industry is replete with it. Recent examples that spring to mind include doughnut-shaped garden centres, and the idea that running garden centres is the 'hardest job in retail'.

  Filed under: garden centres, climate change, environment, gardening, consumerism, ecological limits, hubris

• 10-14-2009 10:15 PM

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  Melanie Livingston Joined on 06-15-2009 Posts 53	Re: What is a Garden Centre? Reply Contact Well done John, fantastic answer ! Tomorrow I'm off to dangle some baubles and tinsel round some perennials just to see if I can up my average transaction with a bit of unnecessary accessorising and we'll see how long it takes to reach a landfill site. Out of interest, do you buy plants from a garden centre ?

• 10-23-2009 1:59 PM

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  Bethan Norris Joined on 09-01-2008 Posts 18	Re: What is a Garden Centre? Reply Contact Related to the way this thread has gone, please read Garden Centre Group's dropping of Plan Apple (which won the Garden Retail environment award last year). The report says that garden centre bosses believe gardening is fundamentally green so do not need gimmicks to prove it. Worth debating?

• 10-23-2009 9:43 PM

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  John Walker Joined on 02-19-2009 North Wales Posts 52	Re: What is a Garden Centre? Reply Contact Yes Bethan, probably one of the few things worth debating in respect of the gardening industry, especially when we keep hearing how 'green' it is (yawn). Is the report you refer to coverage in Hort Week, or is it somewhere else? If it's the latter, could you possibly post a link to it. Thanks.