A true gardener is an artist and can plant a garden to look like a picture of beauty, and in this year of the Diamond Jubilee gardeners are planting their gardens to honour the Queen with patriotic colours.

Gardeners all over the UK will be prompted to fly the flag for Britain and plant their gardens this year in the form of red, white and blue designs in beds, borders and containers. Blue and white lobelia, the red geranium and salvias and many other bedding favourites will be the mainstay for many borders, of course it will be a challenge to get these colours in the garden in time for the jubilee celebrations in the first week of June.

The ivy geranium can be grown in baskets and come in beautiful five-petal flowers in white with lavender markings, deep pink, purple, white, red, salmon, purple and burgundy, and can easily make a wonderful patriotic display maybe with blue and white lobelia and red geraniums all planted together, there are many plants that will offer the red, white and blue of the flag, the begonia with pure white petals also makes a wonderful hanging plant the begonia leaves are pleasantly colourful on vines that grow up to 3 feet long as they cascade over the hanging basket.

Containers are another way of flying the flag plant up a variety of plants in red, white, and blue. There a lot of garden centres and nurseries that are already tuned into the event and will supply a pack of the three colours in different plants.

Hanging baskets are a popular addition to patios, and outside walls and fences, and whether or not you want to plant up especially for the royal occasion, there are many plants that look especially great in baskets, for example the trailing verbena plant a fast-growing hanging basket plant that blossoms from spring to the hard frost season, and colours including pink, purple, white, red and lavender. The Fuchsia and petunia also make wonderful hanging basket plants.

Containers is another way to plant up different plants for pleasure, lavender plants grow well in containers, although lavender has a large, spreading root system, it prefers growing in a tight space, a pot that can accommodate the root ball with a couple of inches to spare would be a great choice.

The pot should have plenty of drainage, rot root is one of the few problems experienced by lavender plants, but remember that container grown lavender will require more water than garden grown plants.

A spokesman for Blooming Direct a horticultural business located on the island of Jersey said yes we have noticed that gardeners are buying more red, white, and blue flowering plants, but we are still doing good business with the more vibrant colours such as oranges, and bright yellows, we have a huge selection of garden plants, and are on online shopping facility which delivers all orders to the UK FREE, we take great trouble to pack carefully so the customer receives all the plants in perfect condition. He went on to say, we have many offers, on plants, gardening tools, garden furniture, we also offer gift vouchers which we think makes a perfect gift for a keen gardener.

For further information visit: www.bloomingdirect.com or you can visit their Facebook page to discover more offers.

Greying tigers, the generation of over 65s who are becoming a more powerful generation in the market place. This is the generation that has seen all the changes take place and are reminiscent of the good old days.

They remember when the wallflowers were sold wrapped in newspaper and they remember the price. This is a generation looking for nostalgia and is very price aware.

This is still a generation that are loyal to many garden centres and dare one say it, but because of their loyalty they may be putting young people off visiting the same establishments.

This is a generation that we cannot ignore, but have to fit them into a marketing scenario that meets all generation needs.

Many garden centers have realized there is an opportunity, especially where they can get involved in celebrating the Red Hat Society as an event in the garden center. If you are not aware of this society, I recommend you check them out on the web. This is a growing group and a great way of introducing fun into our garden center with this generation.

Greying Tigers are the most adventurous retired generation that has ever been and as a result will experiment in there gardens. They are the nostalgia market and this is a huge opportunity for any garden centre who wishes to develop nostalgic promotional opportunities. Why not have a corner in the garden center for nostalgic products and plants.

Garden centers who are looking to attract this market need to be less abled friendly and have plenty of seating located around the center. The coffee shop needs to be price aware; many price decisions are made by judging the price of a cup of tea.

Many centers are allocating special days for this generation; I have one client who has built their traffic on a quiet day by promoting to this group. My local shopping center actually takes a mini bus around the local retirement homes on a Thursday. They invite people to the shopping center, provide them with a complimentary cup of tea and let them shop. This has proved to be very successful, not only to the target market, but has also grown community support for the center. The same concept could be applied to a garden center.

They may be lower spenders, but on quieter days that can make a difference. The Greying Tigers are also often collectors and this is also an opportunity to provide them with collection pieces, the gift market especially has developed this market, but the same could be applied to cacti and other plant products.

Dos

Ensure your garden center is less abled friendly. Have parking for the less abled in a prime location in your car park

Have a wheel chair available, but more important encourage your team to get in it and go around the garden center, this will give them an opportunity to experience it and make appropriate changes to the customer flow

Have plenty of seating located at locations around the garden centre

Promote nostalgia plants at key locations around the garden center and use words like remember and Nostalgia on the signage

Make sure signs are bold and simple; eyes fail as we get older

Ensure your cash point team are greying tiger friendly and are prepared to help .have a help service to the car for the less abled

Donts

Place delicate products in locations where frail hands may drop them

Talk down, this generation has a lot of background knowledge, especially on gardening self and will not consider the container as such an important element as, for example generation X

Put all your container plants in expensive containers, this generation will purchase plants for the plants it