- Opportunities for British garden, leisure and pet product firms to achieve sales in two of the UK's top export markets are the key features in the 2012 programme of initiatives announced by The Federation of Garden & Leisure Manufacturers.
- Members of the horticultural industry have recently helped raise more than £2,500 for Greenfingers after participating in a charity challenge as part of the Garden Centre Association's (GCA) annual conference.
- HTA Garden Retail Monitor has found garden centre sales were up 12 per cent in December and six per cent for 2011 compared to 2010.
- John Deere has joined the UK Golf Course Owners Association (UKGCOA) as a Diamond Corporate Partner, as of January 2012.
- The site of the former Shiplake garden centre will remain vacant for the forseeable future, according to the Henley Standard.
- A scientist at the University of Reading has called for immediate action to save pollinating insects crucial to British wildlife and the economy.
- Three fire crews were called to Sanders Garden World in Brent Knoll, Somerset, after a kitchen blaze.
- A total of 28 young service technicians recently graduated from the John Deere Turf Tech and Ag Tech advanced apprenticeship programmes, run by national training provider Babcock.
- A worker at Swindon Garden Centre clung to a Range Rover to stop a man taking plants, Swindon Crown Court has heard.
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- Jacobsen has signed a new global partnership agreement with the Golf Environment Organization (GEO) to jointly promote environmental awareness, understanding and solutions in the Americas and Asia as well as Europe, Middle East and Africa.
- Westland Horticulture is to sponsor Diarmuid Gavin to build a Chelsea Flower Show garden based on Westland's Light and Easy compost product.
- Buckingham Garden Centre is to host its annual Potato Weekend on the 11-12 February 2012, 10am-4pm each day.
- Klondyke Group, owners of Klondyke Garden Centres and Strikes Garden Centres, have made the leasehold acquisition of Beverley Garden Centre, at Woodmansey, Hull, Humberside.
- Woodland owners and managers (private and public), community groups and farmers in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Somerset and Avon, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall have until the beginning of March to take part in the RFS Woodland Awards.
- Plans to open a Jewish free school in the former Garden Centre Group Mill Hill garden centre have been given the go-ahead.
- A US government bee expert has found even minute doses of neonicotinoid made bees three times more vulnerable to infections from parasites.
- Plummeting temperatures has put a halt to turf growth, after a record-breaking mild winter that kept turf growing far longer than normal.
- Around 160 animals were rescued from a burning garden centre in Oldham last week.
- A new British Retail Consortium (BRC) report demonstrates increasing recognition that reducing waste, energy and water usage makes good business sense.
