Garden centres saw a slower month in January due to snowfall, with indoor departments such as pet care and clothing showing the best performance.
Following a positive run up to Christmas, members of the Garden Centre Association were disappointed with the dampener put on sales by poor weather at the start of 2013. Houseplants were down 19.4%, bulbs fared even worse at -34.2% and garden sundries fell by 18.4%.

Weather-proof indoor departments did better, with pets and aquatics up 8.2% and clothing up 6.3% year on year. Chairman of the GCA Peter Burks pointed out that member garden centres who stocked sledges saw high sales for these, with many selling out.

Garsons managing director Ian Richardson said: "I think retailers in most parts of the country expect to be disrupted by the snow at some stage during the winter months and we all hope that when it does arrive it's after the busy Christmas period, as it was this year.

"We try and make the most of the poor conditions by tempting the locals into our warm, inviting restaurants and perhaps sell them a sledge or snow shovel on the way out. Our farm shops always have a far very good days before the poor weather is forecast to hit as people panic buy to ensure they can survive over the following two or three days."

The results were compiled by the GCA's barometer of trade.