The Garden Centre Association (GCA) barometer of trade results showed an increase of 3% in the number of catering customers for member garden centres, while catering spend was up 5.5% and overall turnover increased by 6%.
The results showed catering outperformed all other areas of garden centre trading, with the cold start to the month blamed for the 4.9% drop in overall sales figures.

Outdoor plant sales were down 11%, seeds and bulbs by 15% and garden sundries by 7%. The GCA said this was "in line with the argument that weak sales were due to the cold weather."

GCA chief executive Phil Slinger said: "The very cold weather at the start of February meant that garden centres relied on their catering operations to help boost overall sales... Some retailers found February to be a challenging month, however there are garden centres that outperformed the market, proving that it is possible to perform well when external factors make conditions difficult."

The BoT reports allow the GCA garden centres, of which there are nearly 200, to compare their trading positions with one another.