Homebase and B&Q have been slammed by Which? Gardening magazine after research revealed a poor quality of staff knowledge about a common gardening problem.
During April 2013, secret shoppers from the magazine visited DIY stores and garden centre chains, posing as inexperienced gardeners. They asked for advice on a diseased rose and wanted to buy another rose to plant in the same spot to replace it.

The magazine says it expected staff to identify clearly that the rose had blackspot and suggest a suitable chemical treatment. It also wanted them to give standard horticultural advice on replanting a rose in the same spot - which is not generally advisable.

The magazine found the best service came from The Garden Centre Group, but concludes that the UK's largest DIY chains should be avoided by gardeners hoping to get good advice. It says: "Homebase and B&Q say that a lot of their plant staff are horticulturally trained, but they gave the poorest advice on our visits.

"The staff we spoke to generally managed to deal with the simple question on rose blackspot and recommended a suitable chemical treatment. But our secret shoppers were only told about the potential problems with replacing a rose with another rose on four out of 12 visits, and were recommended a suitable solution only once."

It says the problem is often about finding the right member of staff. In one Homebase store the only person available to help the shopper was someone from the paint section.

"The Garden Centre Group came out top in our research," the magazine goes on. "In all of our visits the staff listened to the problem carefully and gave very thorough advice. They explained clearly what to do, but also the reasons for doing it."

Following its recent purchase of Barton Grange's Bolton branch The Garden Centre Group now has 130 centres, including the Wyevale, Blooms and Country Gardens fascias.