A major part of the UK’s gardening industry worth £1.4 billion, which includes hundreds of family businesses up and down the country, could be destroyed following the UK coronavirus shutdown, claims the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA).

Peak season has only a matter of weeks left for the horticulture sector which has formed an essential part of British life for over 350 years. It includes the ornamental crop sector, which grows bulbs, bedding plants, cut flowers, pot plants and stock mostly sold through garden centres, supermarkets, florists and DIY stores.

Around 650 businesses across the UK produce ornamental crops, which contribute £1.4 billion in total to the country’s GDP annually and employ over 15,000 people directly and almost 30,000 indirectly. Many of these jobs form a vital lifeline for rural communities.

The perishability and seasonality of plants means that an estimated £200million of seasonal plants will have to be scrapped across the ornamental horticulture industry.

In the current climate, we are always looking for a good news story to lift our spirits and what is better than giving back to charity and community?   One company that is doing just that is Primeur – the brand behind the game changing ECO Garden and Mighty Mats collections. From raffles to product donations, the business, known for its innovative garden products made of recycled rubber tyres, regularly arranges events and fundraisers to give back to a range of charities and worthy causes.  Here the company summarises how its helping charity causes to thrive.

Primeur has a strong commitment to working with its nominated charities, Sue Ryder and Greenfingers.  The team at Primeur always encourage staff to give back to the local community and have made product donations to make life’s everyday moments more enjoyable for those that desperately need it.

For the past year, the West Yorkshire company has been successful in raising considerable amounts of money for Manorlands, a Sue Ryder hospice near Keighley that offers expert palliative care, as well as supporting people with life-limiting conditions.   The Primeur team has been generously raising vital funds for the hospice through seasonal raffles for Easter eggs and Christmas hampers, as well as taking part in the Manorlands Challenge Days, the most recent being at the Coniston Hotel last year.

LifestyleGarden^®, the pioneer of the ground breaking DuraOcean^® chair and stunning outdoor furniture ranges backed by an environmental and sustainable business agenda, has taken steps to ensure that extensive stock of its leading product portfolio is readily available to its customers including those set-up with transactional webstores, in a bid to meet consumer demand during the nationwide lockdown.

Since the Government ordered all non-essential retailers, including garden centres, to close their doors just weeks before the peak Easter sales period, LifestyleGarden^® has vowed to support its retail customers as much as possible, and has worked tirelessly to ensure that all the containers entering the UK have been allocated or are safely warehoused ahead of the long-awaited post-Corona sales peak.

To support retailers at this difficult time, LifestyleGarden^® is also driving consumers to its dedicated stockist page at www.lifestylegarden.com so those isolating at home could safely obtain its products for home delivery during the Coronavirus crisis.  The company will also be supporting its retailers with a wide-reaching consumer campaign to further engage and build awareness around its products; products that are ready and waiting to be sold once the doors open at garden centres post-lockdown.

“For much of the population the garden is their preferred retreat, as it provides a place to escape from the unprecedented restrictions that have been imposed on everyday life as the Government attempts to slow the spread of Covid-19,” said Paul Cohen, Sales Director at LifestyleGarden^®.