Huge range of plants, sundries and gifts near Falkirk, at Torwood Garden Centre
Torwood garden centre is no stranger to the often fickle Scottish weather. For more than 80 years the independent family business has grown and sold plants here in the local area.
Gardening is a seasonal hobby which all but the most hardy of us enjoy during the Spring and Summer months when the sun is shining and the sky is clear. Owner Jamie Stevenson agrees "April is traditionally when the gardening season really kicks off for us at Torwood. However, this year a combination of an early Easter holiday and the unseasonably wet and cold weather have been bringing more customers into our restaurant than out to buy plants."
But Jamie is hoping all this will change soon with the Met office predicting a change in seasons and a long awaited dry spell as we approach May.
Jamie
"We are ready! The garden centre is fully stocked and with temperatures beginning to climb we now have weekly deliveries of bedding plants and other customer favourites like tomatoes and cucumbers ready to be planted on."
Summer ready
For many of you this is welcome news and couldn't come soon enough with the garden centre seeing a sharp jump in visits since last weekend when the sun began to shine.
"We are used to the seasonality of the gardening business" Jamie continued "No two years are ever the same which is part of the joy of gardening. Inevitably we will get a few weeks of sunshine during spring, and increasingly our summers are warming up too. Our job is to be ready when it comes and to help people to make the most of their outdoor spaces, whether that's planting up hanging baskets, growing your own vegetables for the first time or finding a new furniture set or BBQ to entertain friends and family."
Business is blooming
Surveys from the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) suggest that almost three million gardeners were brought into garden centres across the country as a result of lockdown. Nearly half of these were under 45 with a new generation of young people discovering a love of gardening given more time to spend at home. Four years on and Jamie believes many are still hooked.
Jamie
"There has definitely been a move to more young people in the centre over the last few years. For a lot of people the difficulty has been going back to busy lives and not finding the time. But once you've had the chance to try gardening, and to make use of the garden as another room to your house to enjoy and spend time in I think it's impossible not to be drawn back.”
Inspiration
So for those of us who have some time off over the May bank holidays and want to get out in the garden what would he recommend? "I think start small, whether it's growing some seeds with the kids or planting up some pots for the front door, make sure it's manageable and go from there. Who knows you might have a jungle of plants by summer if you enjoy it, and if you ever need any advice then the staff at Torwood are always here with inspiration and advice to help make it easier for you to give something new a shot.
Find out more about Torwood online.