The GCA has its origins in the very roots of the garden centre movement, which surprisingly has only been in existence for 40 years. The term ‘garden centre' was not coined until the early 1960s - before that, gardeners bought their plants from nurseries or by mail order.
Garden centres as such began to take off after the idea that plants could be sold in containers all the year round - an American development - was pioneered in the UK by a handful of forward-thinking nurserymen. This had the effect not only of spreading demand beyond the traditional planting ‘bottlenecks' of spring and, in particular, autumn (especially for roses), but also of making plants easy to transport and to handle as a retail commodity.
Stewarts, Russells, Wyevale and Notcutts (who coined the title Plantarea for their first cash and carry retail unit), were among those early “container revolutionaries” who helped to shape the garden centre industry we know today.
By
1966, the movement was sufficiently well developed to need
specialist representation so a Garden Centres Group was formed
within the Horticultural Trades Association. One of its first
decisions was to set up an inspection scheme for members,
who were entitled to “Approved Centre” status and this continues
today.
The following year, the group joined the European alliance which eventually become the International Garden Centre Association (IGCA) but it was not until 1979 that it became independent of the HTA and in 1986, the group finally adopted the name of The Garden Centre Association.
Today, the Garden Centre Association, with
its dedicated head office team,
represents over 200 garden centres - widely regarded as being
among the UK 's most progressive. As the market has grown
and the expectations of customers have increased, many have
developed to become full scale ‘leisure destination' centres
offering a rich and rewarding shopping experience based around
plants and related products for the home and garden. |
