Overall sales were up 5.37% in August 2012 compared with the same month last year for garden centre members of the Garden Centre Association (GCA).
Outdoor furniture and barbecue sales were up 11.34%, and outdoor plant sales were up 1.78% year-on-year. Catering, meanwhile, continued to do well with a boost of 9.76%, meaning the subsector is now up 8.42% for the year to date.

The results come from the GCA's Barometer of Trade (BoT) assessment of its 200+ members. GCA chairman Peter Burks said: "For most of this year we have seen a consistent theme of only three areas of trade performing particularly well at our member garden centres: catering, clothing and gifts. August was a much better month all round and this is largely due to the sunshine.

"The wet weather this year has meant outdoor furniture and barbecue sales have suffered, but in August this category was up by 11.34% as compared to the same month last year, which is a great result.

"Outdoor plant sales have also suffered, with most months not managing to top last year's figures, however in August sales were up 1.78% as compared to August 2011. Garden sundries were up 6.39% and pets and aquatics 5.62%."

"The only area with notably slow trade was seeds and bulbs, which was 24.18% down. Our members will be pushing for autumn planting this year so we are hoping this will boost figures going forward."

Barton Grange Garden Centre saw an increase in plant sales during the month. General manager Russell Winteridge said: "For us, sales of outdoor plants really picked up in August after a slow start and we actually had much better plant sales in August than we'd had the year before."