The Garden Centre Group has signed a deal with clothing retailer Bonmarché that will see the latter trial concessions within a number of centres.
The first is due to open on Friday at Bicester Avenue Garden Centre in Oxfordshire, where it will join over a dozen other concessions including Lakeland, Shuropody, Cotton Traders, Laura Ashley and Rectella Soft Furnishings.

More Bonmarché concessions will follow at three or four other GCG garden centres over the next few months.

Bonmarché specialises in larger-size clothing for the growing population of over-50 women, a profile which it believes provides a neat fit with garden centres.

The retailer's managing director, Beth Butterwick, told The Telegraph: "Gardening is one of the biggest leisurely pursuits within the plus 45-year-old age group so for us this is an ideal partnership.

"Increasingly, people are visiting garden centres as destinations in which to browse, eat and spend leisure time. We believe there is further scope for similar partnerships like this one in future."