Roses: Get it right and there is still money to be made selling roses in garden centres. Wholesale growers and successful retailers tell Liz Dobbs what works in today's challengingtimes

摘要

When customers want rose plants, 50 per cent will buy from a garden centre—way ahead of any other retail group such as plant nurseries (14 per cent) and DIY superstores (14 per cent). That is an advantage for garden centres and reflects the way the public now like to buy their roses—for example, potted plants in flower.Poor weather and the recession have hit all plant sales. Wych Cross Nurseries in East Sussex is a garden centre that specialises in roses. In 2009, director John Paisley bought in 20,000 a year and made ￡96,000 annual profit. Roses were 11 per cent of turnover but 25 per cent of profit[2]. In March this year, he reveals: "Since 2009 it has been harder to sell roses but it is still very profitable if you can sell them." He now sells around 15,000 a year. Sales of shrub roses have fallen but a higher proportion of roses are now bought as gifts. He would advise anyone starting to sell roses to concentrate on that side.