The Garden Centre Association says its members can make up for April losses by the end of May, despite figures showing sales were up to 52 per cent down in some sectors and around 14 per cent down so far this year.
What a wretched contrast to the start of the garden retail season in 2011 this season's opening has proved to be. This time last year, industry stalwarts such as Peter Seabrook were hailing the best ever spring for retail sales for 50 years.
Barbecue sales fell from £360m a year to £330m over the period 2007-11, with garden furniture sales down from £1,154m to £841m, TGI/Kantar Media has found.
Garden centres see April sales fall by 36 per cent on 2011 and no let-up in early figures for May.
Solus tool brand Yeoman has upped its market share to 10.6 per cent.
Retailers nationwide are feeling the pain in line with garden centre owners, some of whom have reported trading at 40 per cent less than 2011 for the last five weeks.
DIY spending was £7.8 billion last year, according to research by Lloyds TSB, the lowest for 15 years.
Plants are not going over despite poor sales - up to 50 per cent down - over the last month, say retailers and growers.
April sales at garden centres were 36 per cent down on average this April according to Garden Centre Association figures.
Sales for some garden centres were almost halved last month compared to the previous year after the wettest April for 100 years.
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