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.

Two men in a trade show booth surrounded by plants.

[WATCH] Costa Farms R&D director explains new Twist.Lift.Water self-watering plant pots

Editor Patrick Alan Coleman caught up with Justin Hancock, Costa Farms' director of research and development, on the TPIE 2026 show floor to learn about the Twist.Lift.Water self-watering plant pots.

A display of fake tan rocks and green vines and plants on a trade show floor.

Find out the winners of the 2026 TPIE Cool Products Awards

Hoffmann Family of Companies acquires Smith Gardens, Pacific Plug & Liner

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

A plant with feathered green and red leaves.

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

View All

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.

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

A dog laying on green grass in a person's backyard.

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

Pennsylvania Horticultural Society announces top 10 gardening trends of 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

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

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.

Spotted View All

A man and a woman stand in a trade show booth.

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

Editor Patrick Alan Coleman caught up with The Cloud Makers inventor Ericka Axelsson on the TPIE show floor to talk to her about the genesis of her fluffy, raining, plant-watering friends.

[WATCH] Costa Farms R&D director explains new Twist.Lift.Water self-watering plant pots

Find out the winners of the 2026 TPIE Cool Products Awards

A pink and white box of postcards with flowers on the front.

2025 Wave x Anne Geddes wraps collab with postcard collection launch

A garden with green grasses, shrubs and trees, with a very small circular pond in the middle.

Garden Conservancy to release documentary celebrating legacy of Harlem Renaissance poet Anne Spencer

Marketing View All

An illustration of a man shooting an arrow at a target.

Find out the 2026 Axiom Gardening Outlook Study results

A busy festival with a large crowd of people, white tents and palm trees.

[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

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

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

People sitting at a wooden picnic table in a gravel lot full of green plants and underneath red, blue and yellow shade awnings and hanging lights.

How independent garden centers are thriving despite economic uncertainty

Three independent garden centers share their perspectives and strategies for weathering economic uncertainty in 2026.

Long Reads View All

Autumn Hill Nursery: A return to community roots

How independent garden centers are thriving despite economic uncertainty

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 graphic showing a kitten hanging in a tree on a black poster. Black text reads Motivational moment.

Garden Center 2025 State of the Industry Report

An industry facing soft profits and a historically weak spring may be seeking motivation to hang in there, Garden Center magazine found in its 2025 State of the Industry Report.