Garden Center - Independent garden centers stand out from other stores selling gardening products with their high-quality products and customer service. The market continues to rebound as interest in edible and container gardening, among other trends, grows. Garden Center magazine serves retailers looking for relevant, practical business management information, as well as those looking for inspiration and out-of-the-box thinking to make their store one that customers will return to over and over.

A graphic with white and light green text on a navy blue background, with five multi-colored glowing vertical arrows on the right. On the left, the text reads Epicor Spring Rush Ready: Smarter POS to Support Seasonal Demand February 18, 2026.

[WATCH] Spring Rush Ready: Smarter POS to Support Seasonal Demand

A smiling woman wearing a red T-shirt and yellow straw hat, with a yellow flower behind one ear. She's holding a black flat of plant seedlings and is standing in a greenhouse full of small green plants.

Building better internships: Practical guides for horticulture employers

Proven Winners partners with Pure Line Seeds to offer vegetable plants

The entrance of a building with a two-tier roof and a tractor bus with people.

Kansas City botanical garden Powell Gardens acquires IGC Colonial Gardens

An outdoor garden center full of colorful potted plants and flowers and hanging baskets.

U.S. horticulture operations report $18.3 billion in sales: USDA

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Edible gardening is a powerful market force that has surged in the post-pandemic world. Learn how to capitalize on this enduring trend with expert strategies for deepening customer loyalty, analyzing demand and leveraging in-store education to boost sales and basket size at your garden center or nursery.

A plant with feathered green and red leaves.

Coleus Lime Edge (Skeletal) named 2025-26 Flower of the Year in Japan

Meet the All-America Selections AAS winners for 2026

A man and woman standing side by side surrounded by yellow, red and orange bromeliads.

How to grow a rainbow: The vibrant bromeliads of Living Colors Nursery

A greenhouse full of black pots with red, pink and white poinsettias on silver metal racks.

Plantpeddler announces winners from 2025 Poinsettia Variety Day

Trends View All

Rows of small green square plant pots with seedlings of vegetables and plant tags at the front showing various vegetables.

How garden centers can capitalize on edible gardening trend

Proven Winners retail survey finds plant quality and selection are top shopping considerations

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TurfMutt Foundation release 2026 backyard trends

A man and woman talk to each other in a screenshot of a video call.

[WATCH] Looking Back to Spring Ahead: Where we’ve been & where the industry is headed in 2026

A large gray two-story house with a black roof and red chimney, with an elaborate garden in the front yard full of shrubs, grasses and plants.

Wild Ones expands free Native Garden Design Program

New plans for Richmond, Virginina, and Lexington, Kentucky, join Wild Ones' 23 ecoregion-specific native garden designs.

Spotted View All

A brown wooden dish full of small red tomatoes, next to a white plate with a few of the tomatoes cut in half and one piece speared on the end of a silver fork.

Scientists develop vitamin A-enriched tomato to fight global deficiency

In newly published research by Jingwei Fu, Denise Tieman and Bala Rathinasabapathi from UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, the researchers introduce fortified tomatoes with boosted beta-carotene — the compound the body converts to vitamin A.

Two white rectangular boxes on a blue background. Blue text on the boxes reads Oasis RhizoPlug Sheet Propagation Kit

Oasis Grower Solutions launches retail Oasis RhizoPlug Sheet Propagation Kit

Oasis Grower Solutions launches Oasis Eleganz Liquid Leaf Clean, Shine and Protect

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[WATCH] The Cloud Makers inventor on how she made it rain at TPIE 2026

A clear container full of dried black soldier fly larvae poultry supplements.

Peak Beak launches home chicken keeper products available to independent garden centers

Marketing View All

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Find out the 2026 Axiom Gardening Outlook Study results

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[WATCH] Beyond the holidays: Finding success with unique seasonal events

A smiling person with short brown hair wearing glasses and a black, gray and purple T-shirt sits among yellow flowers in a garden landscape.

How garden centers can use their employees as social media influencers

This Florida garden center's busiest days are in the fall, not spring. Find out how they do it

How garden centers can capitalize on edible gardening trend

Edible gardening is a powerful market force that has surged in the post-pandemic world. Learn how to capitalize on this enduring trend with expert strategies for deepening customer loyalty, analyzing demand and leveraging in-store education to boost sales and basket size at your garden center or nursery.

Staffing View All

Seven smiling people pose for a photo in a greenhouse surrounded by potted plants and hanging baskets of plants.

Matsuda’s Nursery finds solution to shortage of workers

Two people looking at each other and smiling in a garden center surrounded by plants and flowers. The woman on the left is wearing an orange top and blue denim overalls and holding a tablet. The woman on the right is wearing a green top and orange overalls and pushing a silver metal cart with potted flowers.

Ask HR: Should I hire a garden center customer as an employee?

A photo of four smiling men wearing matching light blue polo shirts pose outside of a greenhouse.

How Knobloch's Greenhouse continued the family business after a sudden loss

A teenage boy and teenage girl wearing black aprons stand in a shop surrounded by flowers. They're both reaching for a pink rose.

How to motivate teenage garden center summer employees

People sitting in rows of chairs in a room with green and cream walls in front of a woman speaking to the group while holding a stack of papers.

Building team unity, ownership & engagement at Down to Earth Garden Center

Wisconsin IGC Down to Earth Garden Center has developed an employee culture centered around unity, accountability, ownership and shared success.

Store Design View All

A graphic with black, brown, green and gray text on a light green background reads Creating Customer Cravings with Visual Merchandising: Birds Eye Visual Merchandising Garden Center. There are four photos across the top of the graphic showing various plants and flowers at a garden center.

[WATCH] Visual merchandising ideas for independent garden centers

In this replay of Garden Center magazine's Fertile Ground Live Event, learn about color theory, shoppable displays, effective endcaps and add-on sales from Rachel Reynolds of Birds Eye Visual Merchandising.

An aerial photo of the exterior of a garden center.

Find out the story behind Petitti Garden Centers' newest Ohio location

A display at a garden center with plants, flowers and pots.

Merchandising and display ideas for small independent garden centers

Long Island Reno: Implementing the redesign at Hicks Nurseries

Long Island Reno: The Hicks Nurseries design process

Money Matters View All

The Garden Center Group hosting 'The Financial Basics of Garden Retailing Workshop Series'

A graphic reads Garden Center Fertile Ground Webinar Series: What Is Your End Game? Succession & Exit Planning Best Practices for the Green Industry, September 10, 2024, 2:00 P.M. ET, Chris Cimaglio, PivotPoint Business Solutions & BEST Human Capital & Advisory Group, Register.

Fertile Ground Webinar Series replay: Succession & Exit Planning Best Practices

Two smiling man stand in a retail greenhouse surrounded by plants.

Industry veterans create Garden Center Consultants company

GS1 US Celebrates 50-Year Barcode 'Scanniversary' and Heralds Next-Generation Barcode to Support Modern Commerce

A store with wooden walls and tile floors, with wooden shelves with black piping holding a variety of products. Signs hanging from the ceiling above the shelves read Tea + Coffee, Honey + Spreads and Snacks. Additional signs above a wide doorway leading outside read Fresh Produce and Garden Party.

How to cultivate connections with garden center suppliers

There’s value in building lasting relationships with suppliers and distributors. Discover how strong vendor relationships give independent garden centers a competitive edge.

Long Reads View All

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Meet Baker's Acres Greenhouse in Ohio

Family in front of garden center on left and husband and wife standing together on right.

How a big risk became an award-winning North Carolina garden center called Mustard Seed Market

How garden centers can use their employees as social media influencers

A women sits in the middle of green plants growing in a greenhouse. She's smiling and wearing jeans.

HILA Class of 2025: Heather Gronek embraces the growth mindset at Plant Development Services, Inc.

A woman fills a plant pot sitting on a folding table with soil. She's standing in front of several people seated outside.

Autumn Hill Nursery: A return to community roots

With shifting demographics toward young homeowners, Georgia IGC Autumn Hill Nursery is focused on customer success with easy points of entry like vegetable gardening. Its entire marketing program is now based not on social media, but on creating a customer experience and a gardening destination.