UK garden centers hit by COVID-19 in peak season destroy plants

03:30

Britain is a nation of passionate gardeners – an estimated 23 million across the country. But since the lockdown started, garden centers across the UK were forced to close, deemed a non-essential business by the government during the coronavirus crisis.

The knock-on effect across the horticultural industry has been catastrophic. "When lockdown happened, it happened at a time of the year when growers were in peak production," says James Barnes, chairman of the Horticultural Trades Association.

"They were just about to send out all that seasonal stock through garden centers. And clearly with the lockdown there was no outlet for that stock. And unless it gets to the end user, unless it gets in the ground, then it gets wasted."

Boyd Douglas-Davies, director of British Garden Centres, is hoping to reopen soon. /CGTN

With the Spring sales season lasting from March until May, growers were left with no choice but to throw away millions of potted bedding plants. "In the early stages of the lockdown, we were looking at wastage of potentially up to a million pounds a week," says Brett Avery, managing director of Farplants Group, which produces around 2,000 varieties of plants.

"We were doing our best, obviously, to protect the plants and look after them as best we could and look at other channels where we could maybe move them, but that was very limited, obviously, so there was a huge amount of wastage."

Keen gardeners stuck at home during the lockdown are equally frustrated. With time on their hands, gardening has become a popular pastime during lockdown. Online sales outlets of plants are overwhelmed, yet unable to meet the sudden surge in demand, with limited logistical options for mailing out potted plants. Some garden centers are offering a click-and-collect service for customers, but it is still insufficient to shift all seasonal stock.

The Horticultural Association is calling on the government to reconsider the lockdown rules and exempt garden centers from current business closures. "We are calling for government to relax that and for gardening and plant sales to happen," says Barnes. "And that clearly benefits the industry, but we also believe it can benefit the nation as a whole, because being able to do something healthy at home keeps you at home."

Boyd Douglas-Davies, Director of British Garden Centres, which has 57 outlets countrywide, says he's optimistic the government will relent before the planting season finishes at the end of May. "We're hoping to reopen, we're really hoping that the next phase announced by government will allow us to reintroduce garden center customers to the centers, so that the plants and so on can then be sold. We can obviously social distance, the space is very open and airy."