Garden centre boss fears for business in heatwave

The owner of a garden centre said he fears frequent heatwaves could threaten his livelihood.

John Cutteridge opened Megaplants in Doddington, near March in 2013 and said footfall is at least "40% down".

The five acre site has eight large polytunnels and more than a million plants, trees and shrubs, but with temperatures hitting 50C inside the structures, no one wants to look around.

During periods of extreme heat, Cutteridge said he used 400,000 litres of water everyday from the centre's own reservoir to keep plants fresh.

Cutteridge said during the most recent heatwave, the centre had to close for only the second time in its history, due to the heat peaking at 38C outside.

He said: "I have been watering from dusk till dawn. Some of my acer saplings died of the heat intensity despite being watered twice a day, it is incredible.

"I ordered 20,000 extra plants for last Bank Holiday in May, which is usually really busy, but the temperature was 32C, so I have not shifted many at all.

"People are really struggling to keep plants and flowers healthy at their homes because of the watering involved, and they don't want to add anything else in case it dies, especially if they're unable to water it at least twice a day."

Cutteridge stores and collects water in his own reservoir but because he is using electric pumps to transport it, his electricity bill has "quadrupled".

He added that the business can cope with watering the plants, but said it will be a difficult year for the garden centre to survive with so few customers.

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