The UK's love for indoor plants shows no sign of diminishing according to the Garden Centre Association (GCA), as new research claims most flatsharers own at least one houseplant each.

In the GCA’s Barometer of Trade for October (2019) houseplants were recorded among the bestsellers by member garden centres for the third consecutive month, with sales up 13.47% on last year.

Iain Wylie, GCA Chief Executive explained: “The UK’s current love of houseplants seems to be growing, particularly amongst renters, as new research from the company Spare Room has revealed recently. According to the organisation, 76% of those sharing flats now own at least one houseplant each. There has also been an increase in the number of houseplants being featured on Instagram feeds, with millions of posts tagged #houseplant.

“They appear to have become popular among millennials, who said in the research that they buy houseplants to have something to nurture, love and care for. Houseplants are also being featured in more and more lifestyle magazines as desirable household accessories. It’s trendy to have a cactus or a succulent and to have cyclamen on your table for Christmas.

“But it wasn’t just houseplants that recorded good sales in October; clothing was up 13.88% too. Sales of outdoor plants were down by 16.68% as the weather continues to be erratic for this time of year. Garden sundries sales were also down by 12.41%. But it was a better month for seed and bulb sales were 3.16% up.”

Gift sales were up 4.74% for the month, showing a strong tendency for customers to be getting ready for Christmas earlier this year. Christmas sales were up 4.06% for the month in comparison to last October.

Wylie added: “Furniture and barbecue sales were understandably down -20.37%.

“Pets and aquatics sales were up 6.57% and hard landscaping sales were down -29.38%. Food hall and farm shop sales were up 3.23% and catering was up 4.87%.”

Overall sales for the month were down -1.69% with a year to date change of 5.74%.