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When you work in the garden sector, you get used to trade shows, open days and industry dinners. A reception at the House of Lords is a little different.

Recently, Phil from WrightObara was invited to the Parliamentary Reception of the All-Party Parliamentary Gardening and Horticulture Group (APPGHG), hosted with the Environmental Horticulture Group (EHG). It brought together MPs, members of the House of Lords, trade bodies and industry representatives to recognise the people and organisations championing horticulture in the UK.

It was not a debate in the chamber or a formal policy meeting. It was a chance to mark the sector’s contribution, share the latest evidence and start conversations about where horticulture goes next.

For us, it was also a useful reminder: the work this industry does is being noticed, and the commercial side of gardening is increasingly part of a much bigger story about the UK’s green economy.

This blog is about why that matters, and how we see WrightObara’s role in supporting the business of gardening.

Horticulture: A serious green industry, not a Cinderella sector

The Environmental Horticulture Group’s latest economic analysis puts the sector’s total contribution to UK GDP at around £38 billion in 2023, supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs once you include supply chains and tourism.

The coverage of the APPGHG reception in the trade press underlined this point, highlighting that ornamental plant producers alone generated well over a billion pounds of value and that environmental horticulture and landscaping directly contributed many billions more to UK GDP.

These are not niche numbers. They put horticulture firmly in the green economy mainstream, alongside other sectors that are far more visible in Westminster and in the business pages.

Crucially, the Environmental Horticulture Group’s research suggests this contribution could grow significantly over the 2020s if the right policy and investment conditions are in place.

That growth will not come purely from “more plants”. It will come from:

Better designed and better used domestic gardens
Smarter, greener housing and infrastructure
More productive, innovative suppliers and retailers
A workforce that sees horticulture as a credible career path

Which is where the themes touched on at the reception start to intersect with the day-to-day decisions made by brands, retailers and their marketing teams.

Gardens as green infrastructure – and a growth engine

The Horticultural Trades Association’s Value of Gardens report reframes gardens as infrastructure: millions of domestic gardens across the UK, making up a significant share of our urban area.

These spaces are not just environmentally useful, they are economically active.

The HTA estimates that UK households spend several billion pounds a year on products for their gardens, with further billions on professional gardening and landscaping services. Garden centres support substantial contributions to GDP and tens of thousands of jobs, with hundreds of millions of visits each year.

There is also a long tail to all this. Modelling in the Value of Gardens report suggests that when new homes are built with decent-sized gardens, they generate decades of additional demand for plants, tools, outdoor living and services. Remove the gardens, and that value disappears.

For marketing and commercial teams, this is not abstract research. It is the demand side of your category, quantified.

If you sell plants, pots, irrigation, décor, tools or outdoor living products, you are not just in a “nice lifestyle” market. You are part of a long-term economic system that depends on how policymakers think about housing, planning, tax, water and skills, and on how effectively the industry explains its value.

What was being talked about on the night (and why brands should care)

Water resilience and climate risk
Drier summers, wetter winters and the lack of new reservoirs are putting pressure on the water system. The Environmental Horticulture Group is calling for a more joined-up approach to water resilience, including better support for growers to capture and store water, and smarter public communication than simply “hosepipe bans”.

For brands, that means:

Designing products and services that help gardeners and professionals use water more efficiently
Communicating in a way that acknowledges public concern about water use without undermining confidence to plant and invest in gardens
Working with retailers to position gardening as part of the solution, not part of the problem

Skills, careers and workforce
The sector supports a large and diverse workforce, but horticulture is still too often seen as a “Cinderella” industry of small businesses and seasonal jobs. The EHG and HTA are pressing for horticulture to be recognised within green skills strategies and for education to embed plants and growing throughout the curriculum.

Commercially, this is about:

Ensuring there are enough skilled people to design, grow, sell and care for plants and green spaces
Positioning your brand as a place where people can build meaningful, future-facing careers
Using your marketing to make the sector look as modern and opportunity-rich as it actually is

Trade, regulation and the cost of doing business
From plant health regimes and border processes to the peat-free transition and vehicle taxation, the reception surfaced a familiar list of pressures on growers, manufacturers and retailers. The Environmental Horticulture Group’s growth plan calls for regulatory frameworks that enable investment, innovation and fair competition with international producers.

For brands, this reinforces the need to:

Build resilience into supply chains and product portfolios
Invest in storytelling that makes the cost and value of higher standards (for example peat-free production or biosecure sourcing) visible to buyers and consumers
Keep a watching brief on the policy landscape as you plan long-term ranges, pricing and capital investment

Evenings like this do not set policy, but they do reflect the mood of the sector and the priorities that industry bodies are taking into more formal discussions. The question for brands is whether they are aligning their own story with those priorities, or leaving that work to others.

How WrightObara is helping to give horticulture a stronger voice

We are not a lobby group. We are a creative marketing agency that happens to specialise in the commercial reality of gardens and home.

Our contribution sits in three areas.

1. Bringing the industry’s evidence to life
The EHG and HTA have done an exceptional job of quantifying the value of environmental horticulture and domestic gardens. But research only shifts behaviour when it is translated into stories, campaigns and experiences that people can relate to.

That is where we spend most of our time:

Turning sector-level data into retailer-ready propositions for specific brands, categories and NPD
Designing trade show stands, POS and launch assets that help buyers see the commercial upside of backing greener products and better ranges
Creating consumer campaigns that connect policy themes like water resilience or biodiversity with everyday gardening decisions

We see our role as taking the spreadsheets and strategy decks and turning them into something a buyer can say “yes” to and a shopper can act on.

2. Using The Underground Podcast to explore the real issues
Through The Underground Podcast, we’ve been able to give airtime to growers, manufacturers, retailers, designers and charity partners who are wrestling with the same issues highlighted in the reports and on the night: skills, sustainability, housing, water, trade and the future of garden retail.

That matters because the sector’s voice is more credible when it reflects what is happening on the ground, in businesses of all sizes. The podcast is our way of joining those dots and keeping the conversation practical, not theoretical.

3. Championing gardens where the social impact is most visible
Our support for Greenfingers Charity has given us a different lens on the value of gardens: not just as economic infrastructure, but as spaces that transform the experience of life-limited children and their families.

When you see that impact up close, it strengthens the conviction that commercial success and social value are not competing outcomes. They are part of the same story. When the sector grows, so does its capacity to fund charities, support communities and invest in meaningful green spaces.

Keeping the conversation going

A reception at the House of Lords will not decide the future of horticulture. What it can do is shine a light on the people, organisations and evidence that are pushing the industry forward, and create space for honest conversation about what comes next.

For WrightObara, being in that room was a small but encouraging sign that the commercial side of gardening is being taken seriously alongside its environmental and social roles.

Our job now is the same as it was before:

Help brands build strategies that are rooted in the real economics of gardens, not just in seasonal trends
Craft brand stories that speak to retailers, consumers and stakeholders in a clear, confident way
Create campaigns and content that show horticulture’s value in pounds, jobs and long-term resilience, as well as in wellbeing and beauty

If you are a brand or retailer in the home and garden space, this feels like a moment to sharpen how you talk about what you do. The sector has stronger data, better coordination and more visibility than it did a few years ago.

Events like the APPGHG reception are one part of that momentum. The rest is built, day by day, in the way we present, position and promote the business of gardening. That is where we are focused, and where we are proud to play our part.

Recorded live at Glee 2025, our latest episode of The Underground is a neat snapshot of how ideas move through the garden trade – from a sketch on the kitchen table to a product on garden centre shelves.

On one side you have GIMA membership ambassador, Tony Kersey, bringing decades of big–box buying experience to a record number of supplier members. On the other, GIMA Seed Corn Fund winner, Belle Richardson, whose start-up Seal Stop is designed to tackle water waste in gardens, smallholdings and beyond.

Put together, their stories say a lot about where the sector is heading – and what that means for brands and retailers.

Trade bodies as engines for newness

Tony’s role at GIMA exists for a reason. After a career at Sainsbury’s and Homebase, mainly in buying roles across paint, gardening and seasonal, he moved into semi-retirement and “wasn’t ready to hang up his trowel”, stepping into the ambassador position just before Glee last year.

In that short time GIMA has grown to 214 members, with around 80 new members since the previous Glee, many of them small and medium suppliers who, as Tony puts it, “need nurturing and support”.

The GIMA Lounge and Village reflect that momentum. This year’s show saw over 70 stands around the lounge and more than 104 GIMA exhibitors across Glee, the association’s largest presence to date.

This is more than a badge on the stand. Through initiatives like the GIMA buddy scheme, new members are matched with non-competing, more experienced companies for mentoring on everything from trade show preparation to marketing and presentation.

For brand and marketing teams, the message is clear: trade associations are increasingly practical partners in getting innovation market-ready, not just networking clubs.

From “us and them” to genuine collaboration

Tony is candid about how the retailer–supplier dynamic has shifted. Twenty years ago, he recalls a more aggressive focus on own brand, overseas sourcing and hard negotiation, often at the expense of UK brands and manufacturers.

Today, the bottom line still matters, but he sees greater need for retailers and manufacturers to work together to deliver “newness” that ticks boxes on sustainability, recycling and first-to-market development. Many retailers simply do not have the in-house expertise to develop these ideas alone, so partnership has become a practical necessity rather than a nice-to-have.

For suppliers, that means turning up to conversations with more than a catalogue and a price list. Robust environmental claims, clear consumer language and well thought-through activation can genuinely move a listing from ‘maybe’ to ‘yes’

Glee as the proving ground

Tony describes Glee as “the one main show in the year where members can exhibit and showcase newness and their product portfolio to buyers, retailers and company owners”.

With the show floor now reflecting that record GIMA membership, the bar is higher. New and smaller suppliers need to arrive with a clear plan:

What story is the stand telling, about the range, not just the hero product?
How will you follow up efficiently when you get back from the show?
Which trade bodies, buyers or mentors can you lean on to refine your pitch before you ever set foot in the hall? (at WrightObara we’re always happy to help nail the perfect pitch)

This is where the membership ambassador role and buddy scheme come into their own. For time-poor founders, that support can be the difference between a scattergun three days and a focused, productive show.

Seal Stop: A Seed Corn case study

Against this backdrop, Belle’s story gives a very human view of what it takes to bring a genuinely new product to market.

After 11 years as an NHS radiographer, she and her husband were juggling a smallholding in Yorkshire, small children and “lots of animals”. She describes the familiar scene: hose in a trough or bucket, a distraction elsewhere and returning to “a flooded mess” – “I was doing this over and over again”.

That frustration became the catalyst for Seal Stop, a robust constant-level valve that fits a standard garden hose. Clipped to the rim of a bucket, watering can or trough, it allows the container to fill, then uses a float to shut off the water supply automatically. “So now you can walk away from it. There’s no risk of wasting water. And you can now go spend more time in the garden.”

It took five years and multiple 3D-printed prototypes to fine-tune the design, including a mechanism that has to work reliably across water pressures from 0.5 to 5.5 bar.

Belle self-funded a soft launch through her website, building an “excellent” Trustpilot rating and using customer phone feedback as informal R&D – understanding how people were using the product and what they wanted next.

Winning the GIMA Seed Corn Fund was, in her words, “everything”, giving validation, visibility and timely financial support for trade display units just as she was beginning conversations with garden centres.

For retailers and buyers, Seal Stop is a reminder that many of the most interesting new products are now coming from founders who sit outside traditional corporate R&D, but who are deeply embedded in real-world garden and smallholding life.

Sustainability without shortcuts

What stands out in Belle’s interview is how carefully she talks about sustainability.

“There’s no greenwashing here,” she says. “It was built on a sustainable core because that was really important to me.”

Her focus is the water crisis. Through the Water Literacy Programme run by Groundwork, Waterwise and Northumbrian Water, she has gained a broader view of how organisations and households can reduce water use, and she talks about the long-term goal of moving towards “water neutral” or “water positive” outcomes.

Seal Stop is already finding applications in koi ponds, hot tubs, leisure pools, farming IBCs and larger troughs, with new holders in development to cover wider container sizes.

For brands, there is a useful discipline here:

Be specific about the problem you solve.
Back claims with credible partnerships and programmes.
Design for convenience so sustainable behaviour is the easy choice, not the virtuous one.

It is a particularly relevant lesson as temporary use bans and meter costs put gardeners under pressure; products that quietly reduce waste without preaching will be easier to champion in-store.

British-made as a value story

Seal Stop is also a case study in how UK manufacturing can be part of the brand story rather than just an added cost.

Belle describes herself as a “fierce networker”, determined from the outset that the product would be British made and that she would support local businesses. Through women-in-manufacturing networks she found a local injection-moulder, keeping the entire supply base in Yorkshire.

Crucially, she does not see this as an unaffordable luxury. Being able to guarantee quality and durability – including the now-famous video of Seal Stop surviving being run over by a tractor – is, in her view, worth the investment because she can hand on a product she is genuinely proud of.

For marketers, it is a reminder that origin stories and production choices are not afterthoughts. When integrated with clear functional benefits – time saved, water saved, hassle avoided – they can justify price points and foster loyalty.

Getting a leg up: Why help from the industry really matters

One of the strongest threads running through this episode is how much easier progress becomes when you stop trying to do everything on your own.

On the GIMA side, Tony talks about the buddy scheme as a practical way of matching new or smaller suppliers with experienced, non-competing members who can help with specific challenges. That might be marketing, how to present product ranges, or simply understanding what a buyer needs to see. Requests are fed into the GIMA council, then paired with someone who has the right expertise to support them, effectively creating a tailored mentoring relationship within the membership.

Belle’s story shows the informal side of that support network. Her route into the sector began when her father happened to meet Will Armitage. Months later she looked Will up on LinkedIn and, in her words, realised “I need this man” for his contacts, mentoring and coaching. Will not only became an ongoing sounding board – he was literally looking after her stand during Glee – he also encouraged her to join GIMA and the Young People in Horticulture Association, opening doors into the wider garden community.

What Belle values most, though, is the sense of not doing it alone. She talks about the connections GIMA has given her, being put in front of buyers and other members, and the importance of businesses supporting one another. “If you support other business and create a community, you’re much stronger and it feels a heck a lot less lonely as well,” she says.

For brand and marketing teams, there is a clear takeaway here. The garden sector’s networks – whether it is GIMA’s formal buddy scheme, individual mentors like Will, or peer groups through organisations such as YPHA – are not nice extras. They are part of the infrastructure that helps young brands stress-test their ideas, sharpen their story and arrive in front of buyers better prepared. In a market where time, money and attention are all tight, learning from people who have already walked the halls of Glee a few times might be one of the smartest investments a new product can make.

Where this leaves marketers and teams

Listen to Tony and Belle together and a pattern emerges.

Networks matter. GIMA, the Young People in Horticulture Association, water authorities and manufacturing networks all play a role in getting good ideas off the ground.
Trade shows still count. Glee remains the key stage for garden innovation; the work is in how you plan, present and follow up.
Stories travel. Whether it is a membership ambassador who “wasn’t ready to hang up his trowel” or a radiographer dealing with daily flooded troughs, human stories make complex ideas understandable and memorable.

For suppliers and retailers planning ranges for the next few seasons, there is a real opportunity to champion this kind of grounded innovation: products that are born from genuine frustration, engineered with care and backed by honest sustainability.

At WrightObara, this is the space we love working in: helping home and garden brands shape the strategy, visuals and storytelling that connect these ideas with the people who will benefit from them most.

If Seal Stop and GIMA’s Seed Corn Fund have sparked thoughts about how your own innovation pipeline shows up – at Glee, in-store or online – it might be time to start that conversation.

Check out the full episode of The Underground Podcast, featuring Tony Kersey, Membership Ambassador at GIMA and Belle Richardson, inventor and founder of Seal Stop), below:

Gardening, growth and why the business of horticulture matters