Gardeners made use of the milder weather in November and made enhancements to their outdoor spaces, according to the latest results from the Garden Centre Association's (GCA) Barometer of Trade.
Sales in hard landscaping were up 7.9% and furniture and barbecue sales also rose, up 13.2% on the same month in 2014.

Food hall and farm shop sales rose 20.0%, clothing rose 15.1% and catering rose 8.4%. Christmas was up 4.2%.

Overall garden centre performance in November was up 3.9%, with a year-to-date change of 6.2%.

Poorer performers were houseplants, outdoor plants and seeds and bulbs.

However, Richard Pennell, managing director of GCA member Pennells Garden Centre in Lincoln, said: "Following recent development of the centre at Lincoln we have seen strong growth in sales of outdoor plants from our new canopy area and indoors from our new food hall. Our restaurant too has seen strong growth."

Matthew Bent, managing director at Bents Garden and Home, added: "Our results support the GCA figures, with our clothing and food hall departments both significantly up on last year. Both departments are now much bigger and offer a much wider variety of products following our recent expansion, and we're happy the results reflect the work that has been put in.

"Catering is also up in line with the industry figures, demonstrating that our more long-term and established areas of the business continue to perform very well."