UK’s garden centres hope sunshine and Chelsea flower show will help them rebound from the rain

Preparations get under way for the RHS Chelsea flower show in London. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA

The sixth-wettest April on record has not been kind to Britain’s gardens or its 1,600 garden centres.

So far this year, with most of the key selling season over, garden centre sales are up just 2% on last year and down 11% on 2022, after the sodden spring depressed sales of shrubs, trees, bedding plants and seeds.