Squire ’s Garden Centers celebrates its eighty-fifth Anniversary this year . The party was integrate on the 22 April 2025 and the original certification of incorporation , though faded over time , still hangs on the council chamber wall alongside the first handwritten bank statement .
Sarah Squire is now Chairman , and she tells us a piece about the alteration in gardening and garden center over the last 85 years .
Plant trendsPlant trends hail and go but many plants are just as popular now as they were 85 years ago , and for upright reason – because they do well in people ’s garden and are authentic performers . Roses , Clematis , and Lavenders are perennially popular , and there ’s increased requirement for " produce your own " fruit & veg and big assertion plant life . plant for wildlife is a trend which quite rightly keep open on growing in popularity . Our gardens have become such an important resource for aboriginal wildlife with the urbanisation of the last hundred years or so . We are also seeing a resurgence in bright colour schema this twelvemonth as we all look for something upbeat .
Britain - grownWe are gallant that 80 % of our industrial plant are grow in Britain , many very locally indeed – this supports local producer and mean that customers can prefer from the tonic possible stock which has n’t traveled far from nursery to garden center .
Gardens became sanctuaries for many people during lockdown , particularly with more people working from home and spending more meter at nursing home . Gardens and open spaces have become more important to people and gardening , make bold I say it , has become nerveless again . And its popularity continues to rise with research by the Horticultural Trades Association ( HTA ) show up that lockdown in 2020 created 3 million more nurseryman .
With citizenry expend more meter at place again in 2021 it is the perfect opportunity to make your garden , no matter what its size of it , front its good . But it is not just about looks . It is a fact that gardening makes many citizenry feel happy , healthier and more in melodic phrase with nature .
" My granddaddy D.J. Squire ( 1905 – 2003 ) take up our business concern . He was chief nurseryman and sports coach-and-four at the Police orphanage in Twickenham and a not bad long - distance runner with Thames Valley Harriers . When the orphanhood closed in the mid-1930s he was made surplus . This was a time of in high spirits unemployment and unable to line up alternate employment and with a young family to stand he make up one’s mind to start his own nursery and landscape horticulture business sector . He solve hard and was soon capable to rent a nursery and then buy a nursery . During the Second World War the troupe build up Anderson aviation raid shelters in the Twickenham area and turn the glasshouse over to nutrient production . Land Girls were enlisted to help on the greenhouse and later in the warfare Italian and then German prisoners of war were brought in to assist from the big prisoner of war refugee camp at Kempton Park Race Course .
With D.J. ’s blessing , his son , my father , Colin Squire who is also 85 this summertime , develop the company into one of the first garden center businesses in the UK when he opened Squire ’s in Twickenham in 1964 . Today we function 16 garden centers located in Surrey , Sussex , Middlesex and Berkshire . This relatively tight geography mean that the senior squad can call each center often and we all know many of our colleagues very well and are privileged to get to know some of our customers too . It means we can do our good to keep the household tone of our centers . I believe our centers should have the freedom to have their own type and personality , like siblings , but that there should be a family resemblance because we divvy up the same standards and values .
GardeningGardening is very much a family tradition , it is in our DNA , and we are very gallant to be an sovereign family - own garden heart chemical group , steadfastly rooted in the communities we service .
Gardening is heavy because it gets you out in the sweet gentle wind , is skillful exercise , tie in you with nature and have you space to think and top your mind . It is so therapeutic to nurture plants and see them grow . I defy anyone not to sense relaxed and let the cares of the day slide aside in the garden .
The former garden centers were a far cry from today ’s businesses . They trade plants and gardening products , normally from converted greenhouse building that were nowhere near the shopping environment customers quite justifiedly involve today . From the 1980s , garden furniture and BBQs started to take off , and then cafes became an intrinsic part of the experience . At the same prison term , garden center stage business invest in their buildings to produce more attractive , better insulated and watertight place to shop class . Today we aim to provide our local community with superb timbre plants and horticulture products as well as attractive reach of garden furniture , BBQs and ally products , and a truly pleasurable garden center experience .
To fete the 85th Anniversary , appear out for special flowerbeds our garden center team have designed to fete our ‘ 85 class ’ in works . We are also pop the question a exceptional Anniversary Cream Tea in our Café Bars in July and August .
For more info : Squire Gardens Centreswww.squiresgardencentres.co.uk
