American Couple Reacts: SHOCKED & AMAZED Seeing A UK Garden Centre For The FIRST TIME!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- American Couple Reacts: SHOCKED & AMAZED Seeing A UK Garden Centre For The FIRST TIME! OMG!! This is the REACTION OF ALL REACTIONS from us! This place SHOCKED, MESMERIZED, SURPRISED, AWED AND AMAZED us! The sheer size of it alone was jaw-dropping! As you would say, we were GOBSMACKED! We LOST our MINDS in this episode! We were jealous, angry and excited all in one! Everything you could ever need or want is at this place! We now have a NEW #1 UK Destination on our list and this is it! We should say that we now know this specific Garden Centre is not like all UK Garden Centres. But it's unlike ANY Garden Centre's we have in America! The United Kingdom certainly Beats America on this! And we are super envious! Join us on this episode to watch our heads explode at every turn of this tour of Bents Garden Centre located in Warrington, England. This is EPIC! Thank you SO much for watching! If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing to our channel, it is the BEST way to support our channel and it's FREE! Also, please click the Like button. Thank you for your support! *More Links below...
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OMG!! This is the REACTION OF ALL REACTIONS from us! This place SHOCKED, MESMERIZED, SURPRISED, AWED AND AMAZED us! The sheer size of it alone was jaw-dropping! As you would say, we were GOBSMACKED! We LOST our MINDS in this episode! We were jealous, angry and excited all in one! Everything you could ever need or want is at this place! We now have a NEW #1 UK Destination on our list and this is it! We should say that we now know this specific Garden Centre is not like all UK Garden Centres. But it's unlike ANY Garden Centres we have in America! The United Kingdom certainly Beats America on this! And we are super envious! Join us on this episode to watch our heads explode at every turn of this tour of Bents Garden Centre located in Warrington, England. This is EPIC! Thank you SO much for watching! If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing to our channel, it is the BEST way to support our channel and it's FREE! Also, please click the Like button. Thank you for your support
You should look up Webbs of Wychbold Garden centre too! Amazing place! So much there it’s unreal! 🫶🏼 but no not all garden centres here are on that scale! But I can’t resist a trip to them! Spend a fortune though! 🫣🤣
We go every Christmas, its like wonderland. Very difficult to leave & and control the spending. LOL.
I'll do our allotment for you in the summer.
@@emmsue1053 I’m going to go next crimbo!!
What a great place loved it
If you like this, wait until you see the Chelsea Flower Show….
Always love setting up the stand there. Nice to see people still into there nature and gardens
On my bucket list.
I'll bet it's the nicest scent in Chelsea, every time I've visited places in the Chelsea area it reeks of sewage!
It is fantastic
CFS is something that you have to attend... there is no point even trying to articulate what a wondrous experience it is.. .. just demand that person experiences for themselves. That is all.
Even Brits who don't have gardens love going to garden centres. Lol
We can see why!
Yes, this is true. Especially on Bank Holidays.
its a perfect sunday day out
My son who has Down’s syndrome is recovering from an operation and his first request when home was “to go to the garden centre and see the fish and get a piece of cake”. We do love our garden centre and of course I took him there.
Love to you both from the UK ❤️
Hope he's doing well!
My son has autism and he loves to go to the garden centre at Christmas when there are lights everywhere. We have one ten minutes walk away so it's very handy on a rainy Sunday!
I’m sure the fish and the cake helped in his recovery ❤️
My son has Down Syndrome. He loves going to the garden Centre with his nana ❤
A young man with astonishing good and highly discerning taste.
I think our love of garden centres stems from when shops could not open on a Sunday, but Graden Centres could, so they started diversifying. A trip to the Garden Centre is a nice Sunday day out!
You are absolutely spot-on!
We've got a lush garden centre in Gosport, UK. But pricey though.
I'm old school I prefer plants in a garden centre!
The beauty of these garden centers is that they showcase local independent companies x
Hi Natasha & Debbie
We are leaving you a comment to give you both a big thank you for watching and reviewing our Bents Garden Centre video on your channel. Although uploaded on our former TH-cam channel. It was still a delight to see your reactions.
Gary Kershaw told us you had reviewed our vlog, and we were overjoyed.
Your reactions to the garden centre were hilarious we were all laughing along with you.
To blow your mind even more we never filmed in the pet store or the outdoor clothing outlet. So actually the garden centre is even bigger than what you have already seen.
Once again a big thank you for watching and reviewing. You now have three new fans and subscribers.
Keep an eye on our new TH-cam channel. Where we will be uploading vlogs on other days out in the UK and perhaps even more garden centres 😀
Stay safe and well.
Thank you for filming this and allowing us to see Natasha and Debbie decide that they're going to move here.
@thewanderlusttrio Hey! We tried so hard to contact you to ask permission to use your video but all your contact info was not working. We're thrilled you are cool with us reacting to your video! We didn't know you had a different channel. Absolutely LOVED this video! Can you email us? We'd love to chat further. Thank you again!
You skipped by the Edinburgh woollen mill,one of the main attractions
You need to film the Christmas displays. My garden centre has amazing Christmas decorations.
I found and recommended your video via the N&D FB page after searching for some time on YT for the sort of video that would capture the allure of UK destination garden centre culture. Strangely all the big garden centres brands seem to do a bad job of doing that. I was surprised but very glad N&D watched it and very pleased you liked it too. I’ll check out your new channel too.
We Brits love our garden centres. I’ve been known to drive for miles to visit a really good one. At Christmas, they are like Santa’s grotto! 😊
Yeah for sure.
I used to think that glass christmas ornaments were long since gone until I saw a huge section of them in one of Cumbria's garden centres last december.
Oh my goodness! Christmas at a garden centre. Bauble heaven for me!
@@drogna3905 You should visit Keydells in Portsmouth. It’s off the scale!
@Whippy99 hmmm, its possible I've been there. I visit my cousin in Fareham every year so we can go bauble hunting lol. So she's taken me to many Garden Centres. But I will mention this one in case I haven't been.
@@drogna3905 I know Fareham very, very well. 😉
I am American and traveling to the UK is an “eyeopener”. I have seen these garden centers and they are amazing. The food is top rate along with the clothing. And yes, the plants are great. American open your eyes!
Our local one is great but on a hot day it's empty due to no air con and a plastic roof !
OMG! Did an American say some British food is top rate? I passeth out 🎉
@@gillianclayton🤣
Stop talking and let us see the video
we do love our quality.
During the lockdowns in the UK the garden centres were allowed to be open as an essential and they definitely did well as a result. To be fair even small ones have lots of amazing things too….
I am a supplier to garden centres ( greeting cards) and during the lockdowns we had sales figures we had never seen before or since.
It was phenomenal.
That is definitely a BIG garden centre, but even those on a smaller site will present a similar mix of plants and goods and services, including indoor and outdoor fish keeping supplies. Yes, they have developed as destinations that people love to visit. Some will rent shop spaces to local businesses, and others will have the garden part of business as a kind of after-thought. I'm thinking of Trago Mills in the South West of England, and the national chain of B&M discount stores. Garden centres had their origins from garden nurseries being allowed to trade from 10am-4pm on Sundays, and they just evolved from that. Also the totally ridiculous cost of parking in town centres drove customers to these out of town places, and not having to pay town centre rents and rates helped make the large garden centre business model viable. If you visit holiday destinations in the UK you'll find that many farm shops have morphed into sell-everything-local stores under a large roof. A good example of this if you ever visit Devon and Cornwall is Strawberry Fields which started as a fruit picking place, then a farm shop, and now with a nice restaurant, coffee bar and food hall. I'm not sure how different generations take to these places or if the bubble will burst, but you see families as well as elderly people in chairs and electric scooters enjoying a day out because access is level. At Christmas probably every little kid will want to be taken to a big garden centre to see Santa's grotto and all the colourful lights. The biggest 'garden centre' of all is probably the Eden Project in Cornwall which, at it's outset looked like a colony base under domes on a different planet.
This is my local garden centre, it started as one man in a shed by the road, selling roses. now its like a town in itself.
Where abouts is it in the UK? From Yorkshire would love to visit this place 😍
Yes where is this? I must go there immediately!❤
@Lyndahayes I believe that they said it was Warrington
@@andrewtims9524 thanks so much!!!♥️
@@andrewtims9524 thank u x
I work in a garden centre and yes it's a great to be surrounded by the seasonal planting everyday. Most customers come to meet with friends, have a coffee, a cake, and a mooch.
lovely... as far as customers go - You have a lovely bunch!
He i have a lot of memories as a kid going to the local one with my mum and gradma, it was like there were toys or anything but it was still a very fond series of memories... they did have santa's grotto there as well over christmas
In Australia we call then nurseries or Garden Nursuries very occasionally
Being a German, living in the UK for decades now and watching you Ladies regularly. I'm very fond of this channel. You are utterly charming. Very enjoyable 😊👍
Thank you so much! We're going to be doing Germany on Wednesdays starting some time in March!
@@TheNatashaDebbieShow I am going to watch that, for sure. Germany should be interesting enough, very organised, very clean. A bit too rigid for my liking now." Orders must be obeyed at all times "😁👍along those lines...😉🙃
@@MartinaCubbidgePeople tend to expect everyone to follow the law, yes ; which I don't think is a bad thing exactly.
Germany to UK? You downgraded
It's not all old people, we're 20 and have an allotment and an obsession with garden centers :D don't get me wrong we still get messy at the weekend ;) but love us a garden center haha.
I'm an Aussie and I want that garden centre too...
I'm surprised you are both surprised. We have dozens of these places in the UK.... Some are large places, like this one, others are more local to towns or villages, and may be smaller. The garden centre closest to me, specialises in water gardens, with ponds, rockeries etc. They even sell exotic fish to put in your pond..... The English are sometimes referred to as a nation of gardeners. Here on UK TV, we have a number of specialist gardening programmes offering advice, tips etc, some of which have been broadcast for 40+ years. Some of the presenters of these TV gardening and garden make-over shows are now household names here. Some UK DIY (Do It Yourself home repair etc) chains have a garden section, selling plants, gardening tools etc. Some larger garden centres also have a cafe area..... Some of the garden centres in the UK have large outside areas, with trees, plants, shrubs etc, all on display in a natural setting. Some often sell sheds and garden landscaping supplies......
@marycarver1542some people go to garden centres just to have a meal.
Dozens you mean thousands
❤💯
The British are described as a nation of gardeners! Have you ever heard of Beechgrove?
Dozens is a huge understatement.
This might help you understand why we call the outside space around our house a garden when you call it a yard. We're obsessed with gardening and see it very much as an extension of our home. When I grew up in the 80s, we'd travel to the local garden centre one Sunday every month and it was very much an afternoon out, not just a place to shop. They were definitely simpler back then, but I distinctly remember you could by fish, pets, sheds, summer houses and more and then go and chill in the cafe. Mum & Dad would pick up a few plants and we would try to get the parrots to say rude words. Happy days.
@domramsey Here in the US we are obsessed too. Almost 70% of Americans at least have house plants (same % grow food plants too), 55% have gardens and we are obsessed with our yards and tend to spend a lot of time in them and money on them.
We have plant swaps, seed libraries locally and even community gardens that grow food plants for entire neighborhoods, fruit trees in cities along sidewalks/in parks etc
On city balconies you will see small gardens, roof top gardens and green spaces inside office/government buildings.
I'm not, I hate it. 😅 I do have a few indoor plants though and I do like the garden centres. Never seen one that big!
@@LadiofthewoodsThere’s definitely lots of plants and gardening in both countries of course, but in my experience the US is really into big green well-kept lawns with short (and frequently-mown) grass. In the UK we don’t tend to have massive plain grass yards like that, the average UK garden is smaller, more flowery, and often with some fruit, veg, and herbs. The grass tends to be a bit longer too. I understand the suburban aesthetic of the US, but I must admit I like the UK’s more “wild” garden style; much better for the wildlife too
@@MawganRogerson American yards usually do have a lot of grass and they also tend to be large, not necessarily true in suburbs altho those lots might still run large as well.
I personally do not know a single person that has just grass. Flower beds, garden beds, fruit trees...maybe more spread out than yours but abundant nonetheless. The aesthetic you speak of are usually found in cookie cutter newer developments or specifically used for advertising.
Not many people are willing to have shadeless, colorless yards that lack personality. Within my personal circle every single plant in our yards has a nutritional/medicinal value. Every flower, tree, plant has a use, even my grass.
@domramsey The garden is the front of the house and the yard is at the back .
The back yard had the pool , the sheds and the kennels for the dogs.
I grew up in South Africa and that is how we referred to the property.
We were doing a day trip on the island of Tobago. While being driven to the other side of the island for a snorkelling trip our driver pointed out places of interest. We were stopped at a junction and to one side was the entrance to a large garden centre. A comment was made on the minibus and our driver laughingly commented how they used to include a trip to the garden centre for the Brits. “You lot really love a garden centre. Trying to get you all out and back on to the bus was like herding cats!”. They had to stop after always being late leaving 😂
Lol
Perhaps they should have done a separate trip just to the garden centre 😂
😀
We live in Cheshire and we go to Bents quite often. You really need to see it at Christmas - they set up a number of room layouts and include animatronics, such as Santa playing the piano, polar bears, penguins, and so on and it changes each year. Absolutely fantastic, and it's a huge draw. Oh, and the Pet Cafe - they cordon off a part of the main restaurant for people with dogs, so the owners can sit and eat too whilst staying with their pets. The thing about Bents is it's top notch - everything is a little bit more expensive than elsewhere, but it's all top quality, both plants (larger specimens can often come with a two year guarantee, by the way), and food produce. I'd say it's one of the biggest, but by no means the only one. There's another in Cheshire called Bridgemere and it has exactly the same format, but it also has award-winning gardens that you pay a small fee to go round. The gardens alone can take you at least an hour to walk around. Such garden centres, with the miniature golf and concessions stores like Lakeland, Hobbycraft and Edinburgh Woollen MIlls, shoe shops, etc are becoming more the norm here, but I think Bents is the biggest one I've been to. It's regarded as a full day out, and we love it!🤗
when I had my dog, Skippy,I WOULD TAKE HIM to the dog-friendly cafes to enjoy dinner together
Webbs near Droitwich is similar at Christmas. Hundreds turn up to watch Santa arrive with reindeer
Use to love the Christmas ice rink at Webbs pre covid, hope they bring it back.
😅 Bents us In Leigh.😅
One of my regular places to visit.
Bloody love Bents me! Local to me.
In the uk,most of our garden centres are like this.We have homeware,sheds,conservatories,food,clothes,plants,garden tools,handbags,candles,inside and outside accessories,toys and a lot have play areas for children.Also we have craft areas with yarn,sewing and art accessories.We have great garden centres!😊
After retirement a great many Brits go to garden centres for days out a couple of times a week. In the UK we have hundreds of them.....plenty of huge ones though most are smaller than Bents. Garden centres are a godsend for retired people. They are warm and dry all through our grey, wet winters, and are a great place to meet friends for lunch or afternoon tea, with plenty to look at as well.
If you live in a British town, you can rely on having at least half a dozen garden centres within a 20 minute drive.
In April, Brits go completely mad and buy dozens and dozens of plants. It's a kind of national celebration of Spring! 😍🇬🇧🤩😍🇬🇧
My son, as a 14 year old used to come with me to the supermarket and find the deadest (is that a word-probably not) most crispy, mouldy, and unwatered plant he could on the sale rack and ask me to buy it. He took it home and within a month it was a triffid. He managed to do it to every single plant he picked out despite their original condition. He’s now nearly 22 and living the other side of the country in uni accommodation but I’m sure he still has a plant somewhere.
I always collect the dead and dying plants in the plant hospital section …..always revived them
When I bought my 1st house the local garden centre allowed me to go through their scip as I explained to them I was a skint but would return when not, when I sold the house the trees and shrubs I rescued were a established garden.
LOVE this...
I did the same. I found a shrub at this very garden centre thirty years ago that was ready to be thrown out. It looked almost dead, so I bought it, and after three years it practically took over a corner of the garden. I chopped it down two years ago because I had grown tired of it and wanted to plant something different for a change.
I hope at some point he gets a good job to buy the house of his dreams and gets to design his own garden. So he can enjoy looking after his plants inside and out. There is nothing like it for relieving stress and feeling good.
Hi guys, love this video. Im British and i definitely take this for granted that most garden centres here have lots of other bits as well as plants. Lovely to see your comments and reactions.
A garden centre with plants only is a nursery 👍
A Nursery should grow a large majority of the plants they sell
Yes nurseries you can buy bulk bedding plants at a decent price. Larger shrubs and bulk buy trees etc. Or you have specialist nurseries that deal with just one type of plant . I love garden centres ❤
No garden centre sales lots of other things beside plants a nursery just sales plants.
I buy plants regularity from my local nursery. I guess they could have one or more nursery men at a big garden centre too,
My local guy is a horticulturalist specialist in trees. You are more likely to get advice on local growing conditions, planting tips etc from a nursery grower and the plants are cheeper.
Garden Centres are more for the whole experience in commerce.
I have often seen plants for sale at food supermarkets totally unsuitable for .local soil. We are on chalk. Unless grown in pots with ericaceous soil imported they will fail, but you can see most shoppers know this and they remain unsold. Pity the supermarket distribution centre does not. I hate tinsel plants slowly dying through ignorance! I diverse.
The big garden centres can be a good day out. They often have water gardening sections too. You can learn a lot, just from the labels.
Not just older people, my daughter has loved gardens centre since she was about 3 years old. It’s still one of her favourite days out at 23 years old 😍😁
It's even more of a thing for those of us stuck in housing with either ratty gardens or no gardens at all.
My dad has always been salty that the next door neighbor owns the entire garden behind our 2 houses and loves a visit to a garden centre.
Garden Centres in the UK are a day out. It's possible to spend 3hrs plus shopping or not.
The restaurants are amazing with great food and coffee.
The clothing range is so upmarket. The plants are also amazing. Christmas is a special time. Usually Reindeer and Santa.
Our local had [ until taken over by a soulless corporation] a petting zoo and miniature railway plus skating in winter and corn maze in summer
Places like this were a godsend when my mum was in a wheelchair, it didn't matter if it was raining we could stay insrde and looke at the different departments, have a coffe and a meal. Look in the greenhouses and just have a grat day out.
I noticed there was a good amount of disabled parking..something I need myself ..and good space in the aisles
I love UK and Irish garden centres, they are fantastic.
I live just outside London there is a road full of garden centres, they are all different. Another big Garden Centre near us called Van Hagues had a mini zoo as well and a little train to take a ride on.
Is that Crews Hill Enfield? Fantastic place.
@@jackieup6041 It's in Amwell between Hoddesdon and Ware. The train ride is great fun.
@@jackieup6041 yes Crews Hill is the Road with lots of garden centres and Van Hagues is in Great Amwell Ware
I use to live near Van Hagues 😊
I love the British “understatement” by the couple who made the original video!!
True!
Look up Blooms of Bressingham Norfolk they are Nurserymen for other garden centers suppliying them thr plants, but the massive site has 3 narrow gauge Railways full size locos, Vintage & Vetran Fire Engines & a massive colection of Steam Road & Agricultural Traction Engines & a Steam "Galloper" Fairground Roundabout!! What more could you want?? & the narrow railways run through the fields where the seed plants are growing!!
they also have static genuine steam railway engines in a shed. amazing place
Wow, that sounds amazing 😍
I think the concept of gardening is very British. Theres lots of TV shows centred around gardening. The most famous is probably Gardeners World, which has been on since the 60s. Some others are Ground Force and Garden Rescue, which they do up someones garden for them and give helpful tips and ideas
Certainly there are similar outlets in both the Netherlands and France.
And there's Gardener's Question Time on the radio, which has been running since 1947. Generally recorded in a different past of the country every week.
The Beechgrove Garden in Scotland.
The concept of gardening is in deed a fairly British trait. Even hundreds of years ago, the very wealthy would have landscaped gardens around their large country houses. And if you were anyone, you got a fellow named Lancelot Brown to sort your garden out.....a very Capable chap, was Mr Brown.
Gardening isn't rkin British. EVERYBODY gardens
This is something I'd never really thought about growing up, but it's a valid point - British garden centres are weirdly expansive. And they're entirely right - the place I used to be most excited to go to as a kid at Christmas was the local Garden Centre - they decorated all of the plants, the interior section had lights and model trains with a christmas themed track, it was amazing.
But yes, British garden centres go far beyond the scope of gardening - they often include anything and everything you could possibly need to enjoy your garden/summer from camping gear to hobby craft stuff to small pets. It was the go to place as a kid for seeing the fish, getting high quality warm/waterproof clothes at decent prices, looking at camping equipment (you could usually get that cheaper elsewhere) and having a really nice lunch or slice of cake, then heading to the little craft shop to look at all the beads and other supplies. It was also the kind of place that was strangely unifying - EVERYONE considered it to be a pleasant trip. You could ask your Nan to take you as a kid, or if your parents were watching you and a school friend for a while after school (while their parents were stuck at work, for example) you could take them to get some tasks ticked off of your list while getting the kids fed and having them actually excited to go.
I think the fact that they're often in the countryside areas outside of towns allowing them more space than usual, combined with the fact that people looking for things to garden with will inevitably also want somewhere to sit to look at their garden when they're done, something comfortable and durable to wear while gardening, decor, things to do in the garden, maybe even a nice book to read etc and that when you're spending that long shopping you naturally want a place to get a drink and a bite to eat, allowed these places to organically evolve into stocking the entire range of niche items under the category 'outdoors' that you usually have to go to specialised shops for and, by pure coincidence, became a destination for a nice afternoon out at the same time.
It's less common, but I've been to garden centres that set up 'biomes' - they climate control the 'greenhouse' sections as well as regulate the humidity and have small areas which grow more temperate or tropical plants and give you 30 seconds of feeling like you're in a rainforest as you walk through.
To answer the question "Are they all like this?" - Yes and No? They're mostly all as expansive in what they cover, and have been since I was a kid in the nineties being taken there at the weekend, but this is definitely a more upmarket one which has more space devoted to the food section in particular than most (generally they have a nice cafe and something resembling a small farmers market of local produce they stock). This particular example has taken the general model used by a British garden centre and said "Let's do that, but bigger, better and fancier".
Most garden centres, for example, do not have eight hundred parking spaces.
But they ARE all crammed with everything you could possibly put in a garden.
I'm in UK .... this is a normal type of garden centre ... its a place to go for a walk around and have tea and cake with friends. The gardening area is usually outside and includes fencing and slabs as well as furniture. They have workshops and events and if enough room outside will have rides for kids Christmas is crazy fun.
We have nurseries but they are usually just plants and quite small so we go for cheap plants to nurseries and they often need TLC
Most nurseries supply councils and cater for the road way decorations etc but the public can go and buy the leftovers very cheaply.
Lakeland is a popular kitchen store in UK and sells great stuff.
basically a garden centre sells quality goods and its great fun and educational . they'll havbe people explaining things like insect hotels and how to create a floral decoration for your table centre etc.
Very popular butchers and groceries are from local farms and there are imports from european delis.
Bonjour From France I love your channel and each exciting instalment. WE have garden centres in France, My local Garden Centre sells clothes . plants and garden tools and small animals like Rabbits and Chickens and Hen and Fish even singing birds. They also have food and wine. Very similar to ones in the UK . Jean-Marc , France Merci Natasha and Debbie
A few years ago I lived just outside of Paris (I live in England now) and there was an amazing Garden Centre a few miles away...it was spectacular! I'm from the US originally and I love how some Countries in Europe do Garden Centres...it isn't the same across all of Europe but it is very different to the US! :D
In the UK there are over 30 million people who are gardening fanatics. They say it's about 42% of the population but they don't take into account those who have allotments or gardens on a balcony but they are gardeners. My love of gardening started at the knee of my grandfather who was a miner he spend all day every day down in the bowels of the earth. So he combined two of his greatest loves. Gardening and model trains. He had already built in his attic a to die for trainsets from the Flying Scotsman to the Orient Express which also had a huge diorama interspaced it was beautiful, When he run out of space he started combining his garden into a real life diorama.
He belonged to a group of gardeners that grew the huge veg and I was blown away. My garden is in 2 acres of land and split into sections. It's taken my husband and I thirty years to get it like it is. I have orchards and an area that is just wildflowers. A rose garden, I also grow about 70% of what I eat. I also live very close to Sandringham and they have many gardening themed weekends I mean the gardens of Sandringham are simply stunning. They sell seeds of nearly everything they grow.
English people especially are so proud of their gardens that many many villages have open gardens. They charge a small fee and the money is usually raised for a charity they have picked that year. I live with in 5 to 10 miles from 7 different garden centres. One specialises in just Irises another specialises in African Violets. We also have a Japanese garden place and I truly truly love that place what he can grow is truly astonishing. He he has weekend and teaches you how to care for any plants you wish to purchase.
My husband and 3rd son are Bonsai addicts between them they have over 250 of them and in the village that I live in we hold Orchid weekends. To put into perspective Brits spent £110 billion on home improvements during the coronavirus pandemic, standing at £2,000 per person for home and garden renovations and with that discovered that they not only liked gardening they loved it. The funny thing with me though is my gardens are my pride and joy but if I bring a house plant into my home it dies. I have yet to keep one alive except for my carnivorous and I have many of those. Helps with the fly problems. Also very impulsive viewing to see them perform.
I’m the same! I can grow absolutely anything out of doors including plants from the ‘dead and dying’ section of a garden centre. I stuck a 2-inch bit of variegated foliage from a small bouquet directly into the ground under my kitchen window and it took off and covered that section of wall within a few years. House plants are a different matter entirely; they just keel over and die out of pure spite. 😢
My compost is full of my dead indoor plants. @@chixma7011 I do exactly what they tell me to do. I think it's telling me to stick to the one outside and stop been greedy.
The biggest one is Bridgemere Garden Centre,there are lots of these types of centres all over the UK
There's a bigger one????? 😮
Bridgmere is a ace, it's a nice place to idle away a Sunday and had a fab butchers
I used to go there a lot (some of my friends worked there) . we used to like the aquarium section and water features.
Best of all, the Bridgewater canal goes past Bridgemere and we have moored up for a couple of days to visit
I live about 10 miles from Bridgemere and used to go regularly with my mum and dad but haven't been for many years. The massive Coi pool was a favourite
When you two look at each other… the love in your eyes is beautiful. I love you two. 🇬🇧❤️🇺🇸
One of my fave garden centres ❤
Uk garden centres tend to have the food, clothes, gifts, home stuff, pet sections etc. Nurseries sell just plants and stuff mainly. This is one of the bigger ones but we have bigger ones still. Even the smaller ones have most of the same sections just smaller.
Love a garden centre outing and a garden centre café.
Love how you have a green thumb, here in the UK we'd say we have 'green fingers' if we're good with plants.
In the late twentieth century, only garden centres and small stores selling perishables were the only places allowed to open on a sunday, even chip shops were closed. So garden centres became a to do on a sunday, and their roles and what they sold got a little stretched with the result that you see in the video. Even the idea of it being an out door activity store is a little stretched. Most of the displays would be concessions, so Lakeland is a kitchenware shop with it's own on line presence but shops usually in garden centres.
A lot of the diversification is driven by the need to cover the autumn and winter when a garden centre that only sold plants would do zero business. I'm surprised it doesn't have an area selling tropical fish, cold water fish and other small pets to attract the kids.
We have a very large Garden Centre nearby and Christmas is a must visit. They sell beautiful, unusual decorations, tableware, Christmas trees, etc. We also have a plant advisor who can help you find the right plant. They also sell garden fencing and furniture, clothes, aquarium stuff, artisan food, butcher, brand concession stores and acres of plants, trees, etc as well as pots for your plants. Birthday cards too! All this is normal in Britain. Lakeland is a wonderful shop that sells kitchen wate, baking stuff, laundry equipment, coffee machines, etc. I always visit them in the Garden Centre. It is a good day out.
Most garden centres have outdoor furnishings, decorations, and clothing as well as plants, different composts, and outdoor-related tools. Pet-related goods are common together with things to attract wildlife into the garden. Some household goods and food items are sometimes found. Quite a lot have cafes.
Thanks Ladies as always. British garden centres really did work it out right. They capitalized on the Brits love of gardens especially with our short growing season. The weather!!!!!! And decided to make them into a "destination" event. You should see them at Christmas.
A lot of the food items you will probably find are owned by either local firms or small firms in the UK.
We love that!
Part of the reason for the expansion and diversification of garden centres dates back to the days before the relaxation of Sunday trading laws. Up to the early 80s shops were, with a few exceptions, prohibited from trading on Sunday. The exceptions were generally logical: newsagents, petrol (or 'gas') stations... and nurseries. So long as they were 'predominantly' selling garden products they could open on Sundays.
As the centres were, for obvious reasons, out of town, it made sense to add a café. Then maybe some gardening clothes (boots, waterproofs etc), DIY tools, garden furniture... Since you're selling food in the café the obvious next step is to have a range of local produce to take away.
Then throw in some cookware, maybe toys to keep the kids entertained and suddenly garden centres morph into these retail destinations.
Not all garden centres are as big as the one seen here but there is a tremendous variation; one centre I used to visit with my mother sold poultry--as in live hens, geese and ducks rather than meat in the chiller! They also sold tropical fish and small pets.
Thanks for explaining the history and context of how these places have developed. I hope Debbie and Natasha read this comment.
I remember to get around the Sunday trading laws, traders would sell you an onion for £10 and you get a free spade if that's what you wanted to buy. A carrot for £100 and a free lawnmower.
I am a Brit who is now living in Cyprus and I miss SO much about the UK, so to watch your reaction videos is like putting on a warm, cozy blanket and feeling I'm home!! Thank you! Another thing -------- I am completely, totally, utterly IN LOVE 💕 with your meditating poodle on your bookshelf. I love ALL things DOG, and he is so gorgeous. Please tell, where did he come from and have you had him a long time??
Thanks so much! In regards to our meditation doggie, not a poodle. We actually have 2. One in our bedroom, too. Unfortunately we bought them from a store that went out of business a few years back
Awww, enjoy them both!! Many thanks 🐕🐩
I live in the south of England and have never seen a garden centre like this..we have them on a much smaller scale and mostly plants
Hi, we live about 4 miles down the road from Bents and go there quite often (we have one of their loyalty cards). It was always big but got a lot bigger when they added the food hall and the other shops that followed. However, they missed off the outdoor clothing shop (rucksacks and walking boots etc.) and the pet section (with the pet cafe), where we now live since we got a dog. Also, their plants come with a guarantee (could be 5 year, maybe 10). If they die, they will replace them. Years ago, one bush I bought at Bents wasn't happy where we planted it and it died. I thought they wouldn't honour this guarantee (say I'd killed it in some way) but no, they replaced it with a different bush of the same price. Also, if you want to visit, I recommend a sunny summer evening for a meal next to the lake. Glad you like Bents as much as we do.
UK garden centres are generally a really great day out, with the variety we have and many with plants, indoor shopping and cafes and restaurants as you saw, but even my jaw dropped at the size of that one! Like they say in the video, they are often worth returning to at Christmas for the wonderful displays and Christmas gifts / decorations etc
Our local Garden Centre has separate small stores, a pet shop, butchers, bookshop, fish, and a mobility/disabled store, plus the rest, smaller than Bents but still very similar.
Another one about 30 minutes away is larger and again is similar. It also has an Owl and Bird of Prey centre inside, owned by a friends son. They kindly took me there to fly some Owls and other birds of Prey as a birthday surprise.
It's very typical of a British Garden Centre, even the smaller ones have an indoor section that sell things like that. This is one of the bigger shops, a super store that sell a larger variety of goods. Most of them have some sort of cafe where you get refreshments and food. Most sell pond equipment, pond fish and aquatic plants, also tropical fish, aquariums and plants. Some have small pet animals and birds plus all the gear needed for them. All of them will have garden plants, compost, pots and fruit trees, the bigger ones will sell hot tubs, greenhouses, sheds, sculptures, ornaments, fencing and garden machinery, even small tractors. Some sell camping equipment as well as garden furniture.
Almost every time we go visit our mum we go to a garden centre. Every area has multiple different garden centres. From where my mum lives there are 4 within a 30 minute drive. Most are not quite this big, but they usually have retail concessions (shops within shops), like the one in the video. They all have at least a cafe, some have a full restaurant. Many do senior citizens lunch or dinner specials. Most have loyalty programs, offering discounts and free beverages. Some have play areas for the kids, but I’ve never seen crazy golf at a garden centre before. I only know of one locally that has a butchers within it. Garden centres are a big thing, not just with older folks. Our 31 year old daughter often takes our grandson to local gardens centres.
Your reactions were pure joy.
Thank you for cheering me up on this chilly, rainy, Winters day.
We love our garden centres here in the UK 😊
Who asked?
There are lots of garden centres like this all over the country.
I can vouch that Bents is HUGE and was so pleased to see my town on the board for local produce sold there. The Christmas displays are something and a lot of people buy in the sales as it can be expensive.
Me too 😊 so happy to see Fitzpatricks from Haslingden on there ❤
Bents is alright, but it's got no miniature steam railway. I mean, what kind of self respecting garden centre doesn't have it's own on site rail network? It'd be like going to one, only to find that they hadn't got any books on the development of the tank through the decades, lead crystal glassware sets, or packets of locally produced oak smoked back bacon. Can you imagine? There'd be riots within a week!
No railway indeed! Bent's is barely more than an oversized B&Q Garden and Outdoors aisle.
big shout out for Haslingden
They have a great beer selection, sometimes that's the only reason I go there 😂
I used to visit Bents regularly - for plants, gifts, clothes, food etc and going to see the Christmas displays was always a highlight. The restaurant is exceptional and the cakes / desserts are amazing. However, I haven’t been for about 10yrs and it’s expanded ++++ It was always big, but wow!
I need to go again 😂
Our local garden centre stocks a similar variety of everything, it’s just smaller. But we also have several local small g/centres that stock plants, trees and related gardening things only. So Bents isn’t typical of all UK g/centres.
As someone in the UK who used to be taken to a garden centre fairly regularly, nothing surprised me about the place in terms of _type_ of things on offer, but the _size_ of it did. (actual plants are typically in a nursery section; garden furniture and decorations typically dominate the main garden section; there's also usually a large variety of garden rocks and gravels available based on the ones I'm used to). But basically, take what you saw in the video, divide it by... 8? Maybe 20? And that's more in line with what they usually are. Especially for the indoor area of it.
...OK. Slight correction. The mini-golf surprised me.
But, yeah, in his later years of life my dad was still going to (well, eventually being taken to) the garden centre just to visit the tea shop and have a bit of a couple of hours out when he wasn't up for being taken somewhere for the day. Even the smaller ones tend to be nice places to visit. Just... For an hour, maybe two, rather than on the scale of that one.
You picked the best one, in my opinion, for your first UK garden centre reaction
Can I suggest you take a look at the annual flower festival and parade of decorated floats that take place in a small town called Spalding. It’s an area that is responsible for raising and growing most of the flower bulbs that are sold as British grown bulbs. The fields surrounding the town are filled with the bulbs that are being grown for sale plus the laboratories where they are trying to develop new varieties of flowers for colours and form(ie multiple heads). All of these nurseries are trying to find plants that they can take out a patent on and the most sought after single colour is a pure black bloom.
Also there is The Chelsea Flower Show in London.
In her "twilight years" there was nothing my late mother enjoyed more than a day out at a Garden Centre. A wander around the gardens, plants, displays and other offerings and attractions, some gentle shopping, somewhere to get a nice lunch and afternoon tea, all under one roof. Bliss.
As @LaraGemini mentioned, until 1994, a lot of stores weren't allowed to open on Sunday, but Garden Centres were. They started with garden furniture, garden toys, outdoor clothing, and so on, things that were at least tangentially linked. But over time, they've become like mini-malls as you see here, with a lot of things with no real connection to gardens.
This one is at the larger end, but certainly not unprecedented. There are a couple near me that have coach tours running to them.
You should also check out Trago Mills, which is kind of a mix between a big box or outlet store and a garden centre but has rides for kids including a working steam railway, and a petting zoo with free-ranging peacocks!
This was brilliant, you two are great. I went there many years ago, it's delightful to see how, one - it's still going, and two - how much its grown! What a place!
I'm not a gardener but I loved this video because of your reactions. I just happened to pause it when you first saw the plants and 'gobsmacked' perfectly describes the look on both your faces. Your obvious joy and wonder is infectious. Thank you.
Greetings from Stoke-On-Trent the home of pottery. I didn't know about this garden centre but after looking it up on Google its actually not far from me so I am going to pay the this place a visit when the weather gets a bit better as were coming to the end of winter here in the UK. Thanks Ladies for this and keep up the good work.
The one at Trentham isn't too shabby
Bents at Christmas is out of this world!
You need a whole day there, and you still won't everything.
The restaurant is also amazing, as is the food hall.
When I lived in England I used to go to two beautiful garden centres. One I loved the restaurant there. The plants were beautiful in each. That’s all I’m interested in. The plants in the UK are amazing. One had peacocks running around. Seeing them flying is amazing. You should visit the Chelsea Flower Show in the summer in London.
I am from the uk and that place is enormous
I love visiting the garden centres💚🌿. My favourite one has an art gallery and expert craftspeople showcasing their exquisite work. Of course the many local food outlets are great amongst the gorgeous scenery and plants 💚
Garden centres are very famous in UK for Granny sitting. An expression for taking your elderly parents out during the midweek for a meal. Plus, a wander around if. they're up to it. and not too frail.
Hi Debbie & Natasha. We live in Greater Manchester and yes. Bents is our biggest local garden centre. It's just off the East Lancashire Road near Warrington. Get your Mancunian friend to take you there. The restaurant food is fabulous - not cheap but tasty and a lots of choice. It's a great place to visit if it's rainy and/or cold. You CAN easily spend 3 or 4 hours there. In the summer (our weather can be unpredictable) they have a big indoor mock-up beach/sand pit for the children with big tables and beach umbrellas around it for the parents! It was a great place to take our grandson. He loved dabbling in those water features AND playing the dinosaur golf. We enjoy the food too!!! Manchester UK
My local garden centre also has an aquatics shop where you can buy tropical and cold water fish, fish tanks, ponds. They sell hot tubs and full on trees. They too have a butchers, food court, various independent retailers and all the other sections shown in this video
The Tebay centre they talk about is a motorway service station in Cumbria, just over the border from Northumberland & I shop there, it's a beautiful farm shop & does the original sticky toffee pudding, from (& invented in) Cartmel, Cumbria 😊
Tebay does BRILLIANT breakfasts. And it's so scenic!
They also have a sister site on the M5 at Gloucester (I believe the owners are related)
@@dasy2k1 wouldn't know, just know Tebay is part of a massive farm & is very much more than a service station to us, in fact, it's ridiculous to call it that , I spend hours a time there , it's in such a stunning area 😀
@@CorinneDunbar-ls3ej isn't it though? I agree about the breakfasts too ❤️ ❣️
Oh what a great idea for a video! I recognise that place immediately! 😃, its 10 minutes from my house 😅. Bents is HUGE now, the original Bents used to be barely the size of a 7/11 in the early days. It's been part of the community for over 80 years now. I think it was one of the countries first garden centres too. The area it is in has lots of neighbouring farmland , made of small villages like Croft which are great for pub grub! Kenyon Hall Farm is nearby too which sells local produce and offers fruit and veg picking.
And loads of coffee shops and restaurants up the road in Culcheth
@@lesleyfarrington4809 definitely. I like Newton Le Willows. That has lots of nice cafes like Mamma J's and What's Cookin’. Theres also a plant themed restaurant in Warrington called The Botanist. Well worth a visit
Wowzer, I live in the South of the UK and yes we have both small and large garden centers/plant nurseries near by which have all the elements of this shopping experience but the sheer size of this place is gobsmacking 😮 (and I should say the mini golf is a new one on me⛳ 😁 I'm seriously thinking of booking an airbnb just to visit! Best of all I love that this is still owned and run by the founding family! 👏👏👏
I was going to say something similar, we have more scaled down versions of this garden centre down South, with similar offerings. Around the local area where I live, we usually have a Maidenhead Aquatics and Pet Store tagged on as well. That garden centre blew my mind!
We have Garden Centres and Nurseries. A GC is like Bents and a Nursery is just plants and accessories for planting without the all the other attractions. You should see the GCs at Christmas, they are spectacular!
I don't live far from this Bents Garden Centre! It's a beautiful place, lovely staff, fantastic food and loads of stuff to look at. Their Christmas displays are just out of this world!
So surprised you don't have any like this the majority of garden centres in the uk are like this,
Really enjoy your videos guys and respect to our cousins across the pond, from Somerset 😊
I'm so happy you love our garden centres😊 They're such an integral part of life over here.
Since I was a little kid we would go to the garden centre at least once a month and just mooch around. It's something I carried on with my kids. It's lovely, relaxing family time and holds a lot of nostalgia for me❤
Yep. I grew up going to garden centres and have been going throughout my life. I even used to go there when I had a flat and no garden just for a mooch about. Everyone loves a good garden centre :)
@@jamesward3547 they're great aren't they?😊
The biggest one is Bridgemere Garden Centre,there are lots of these types of centres all over the UK,I think it's the biggest in the world I no it's the biggest in Europe
loved watching this, i haven't been to a british garden centre for years and they are lovely. Used to take my mum to our local one for lunch and a day out. Next you must find a video of a the garden centre at Christmas... they blow my mind EVERY time!
These garden centres are all over the country..we have some fab ones in the north east ..spend the day in them .especially Christmas time ..our Arcadia one near Stokesley Yorkshire…was spectacular…xxx
Not all garden centres are this big. We have a couple of quite big ones close to us but not to this scale. Most tend to sell plants and tools, home and garden decor, garden furniture, garden buildings, giftware, clothing, some food and an aquatics centre and pets section. (for some reason they didn’t show these). They all have restaurants or cafes. A lot of people go to the garden centre for lunch and once inside you can’t help but be tempted by everything else. They all have big a Christmas section every year with all things sparkly.
There are quite a few large garden centres and villages in UK which are designed to be a full family day out and shopping experience - they are large due usually to a number of independent businesses from around the country owning plots within - Lakeland etc….they are usually on outskirts of town in rural areas and have parking , buses , taxi stands for access also -
Ps as said earlier these centres usually have aquarist , pond and aquarium sections for tropical , marine and cold water fish / Koi etc for hobbyists - there is one here that wasn’t shown I believe ….. 🤪🤯
This place is about 25 minutes from my home and I have spent many a happy hour or six just wandering around it.
I hope this couple do one at Christmas cos the place is just magical. We took our two year old granddaughter and the joy and excitement on her face was absolutely heartstoppingly brilliant to see.
The biggest bonus is that the plants are really good too
I hope you get over here as I would love to take you there
Nick
The only gargen center near me that's not chancged since I was a kid in the 80's is Riggs in Todmorden. it STILL has large rooms filled with indoor and outdoor plants. it's always had garden furnitcher and outdoor garden stuff like anything made of storn or outdoor pots, and 2 rooms dedicated to plant care. it also used to have a coffee machine, something unheard of in the 80's. now it also has a little pet care center, fish, a huge room of stuff and plastic plants.. didnt have any clothes in it when I went last year :P
My local garden centre has a pet section, out door and indoor furniture, garden statues, fountains, indoor decor, a restaurant, cafe, food hall, books, stationery, clothes, kitchen stuff, kids toys and nursery. Oh and the plants of course. A great place.
I love your channel and imagine my excitement when you had Bents on your show, I live right next to Bents and my hubby and me go for scones and tea all the time xx ❤
I live practically next door to Bents, it started off as a shed you need to see the Christmas displays. People travel to visit Bents
Bents is local to me too - can’t believe how much it’s grown! A day out in itself 😅
Now that's a reaction! Some garden centre's, like Bridgmere near Nantwich, also have show gardens to illustrate how planting can be done and hard landscaping. Also most Garden Centres are series of concessions who rent space from the owners eg Lakeland, Edinburgh Woollen Milll, Cotton Traders etc
Love Bridgmere. Outlets such as Lakeland - baking etc., Hobbycraft for all crafts, many eateries, a stall for fresh friut and veg. Then there's a large butchers and fresh cheese and savoury counter. The plant outside are of superb variety and quality. Bents is amazing as well.
Bridgemere's Christmas display is always brilliant too.
Great reaction ladies. Love it that you get so excited over what we in the UK take for granted. Such a shame you don't have places like this where you are. Come visit us whenever you want. x
This looks like a very nice hypermarket with some plants attached outside. We have a garden centre near here which admittedly doesnt have anything like the indoor shopping here but, absolutely dwarfs this place for space outside devoted to plants only. It is absolutely enormous, it must take 25 minutes walk to get from the front entrance to the furthest reaches of the outside plant sale area. Checking out can take anything up to 45 minutes because of the queues and amount that people buy. Its practically American in scale.
This is my local garden centre. I met Mr Bents 30 yrs ago who lived next door to his shop, and showed me around his own garden. The garden centre is big, but I spend only an hour amongst the plants, and never leave without buying something. I go every year throughout spring and summer. This is quite an informative video as you discovered, although I have never taken the time to look around the whole place myself I might just do that one day.
You're very lucky. I adored John Bent when I was a child as he went out with my biology teacher and was really sweet with us.
Oh, its nice at Christmas too, lots of Christmas decorations/trees for sale and they have nice Christmas displays dotted about and a Father Christmas. Probably a few videos on here of it. It was a regular occasion for me as a kid to visit Bents at Christmas and see Father Christmas. They do a Christmas tea party with Father Christmas for kids now too
I took my grandson to that this year - it was amazing :D
Several years ago we had friends from texas visiting just before Xmas. The Bent family were very generous and welcoming. Our friend was an interior decorator and did decorating for Xmas and other holidays. So we were given a guide to show us around and he was allowed to take photograph of the decorated trees even though there were signs everywhere saying no photography. Our friends were as blown away as you were. The garden centre has grown so much larger since then.
How very nice it is to listen to you both appreciating the things we know and love but perhaps are so familiar with that the pleasure wears off! :-D (I am a Brit, b t w, but have spent some time in parts of the US and enjoyed myself there greatly. I realise that seeing you liking these things we have doesn't at all mean there aren't different things at home that you can also like and that we would greatly admire.) By the way no not all Garden Centres are as big as this one, though some approach it. I think the thing that happened was that garden centres were set in countryside and so had space to easily add in other things whereas it was much more difficult for other organisations that started as something else eg a shop in a town to grow. Enough of me, and more. All the very best, George
We have an awesome garden centre like this about 5 minutes away from where I live and now they are building another one literally next door! My husband hates any form of shopping but never says no to a garden centre- we Brits really love our gardens and our garden centres. Love to you both Xx
one of my all time favourite home and garden centres is the absolutely amazing Burford Garden Company. Its in Oxfordshire. My Mum lived 6 miles away in Gloucestershire. I now live too far away across the country but when visiting Mum we would often go there and very often to the post Christmas Sale.. it was a real destination. Cafes with good quality food, amazing plants and the interior was amazing as well as lots of outdoor furniture and structures to buy as well as rocks, swings etc. You could spend half a day there or more.
Burford just gets bigger and bigger. It's the size of the entire town now it seems! 😂
To be fair Burford is a gorgeous looking town too.
Living in Oxfordshire, Burford Garden Centre is my local one, too. Absolutely beautiful although not as large as Bents which I’d love to visit.
@@zoeen5650 it is. I was brought up near there.