Glee 2025 felt bigger this year, not just in scale, but in perspective. Our latest Underground episode pairs two vantage points: Michael Perry (Mr Plant Geek), a self-described plant promoter, and Paul Oliver of The Urban Nature Store in Toronto. Together they sketch a useful guide for UK brands and retailers: trend-led ranging with real consumer pull, store experiences that lift spend, and export routes that de-risk logistics.
1) From “influencing” to promoting: A tighter brief for product-market fit
Michael’s framing is refreshingly commercial. He isn’t chasing novelty for novelty’s sake; he’s looking for plants that excite both gardeners and non-gardeners, can be grown efficiently, and open up new use-cases at retail. His criteria: distinctiveness, consumer appeal, grower efficiency, and creative re-positioning of familiar species. “It’s not always about new genetics… it’s about looking at things with new eyes as well.”
What this means for UK buyers and suppliers:
- Range with a headline: Lead with a few “talking-point” plants that stop customers in their tracks, then build the bench around reliability. Michael’s conifer characters, fragrance-first selections, and longer-flowering options demonstrate how a headline pulls a shopper into the rest of the story.
- Cross-over placements: Several “houseplants” can earn their keep outdoors in shade patios or summer baskets. Merchandising that challenge old labels create a permission to buy.
2) Experience first, SKU second: Lessons from Canada’s birding retail
Paul’s retail lens is clear: the weekly staple (bird seed) drives frequency; curated lifestyle additions grow the basket. Customers visit to feel something, not just to buy a shovel. At Glee he noticed a strong mix of giftware, books, food and “small supplier” products that make smaller stores more tactile and browseable. exactly the environment his team aims to create.
Practical tips UK garden centres can adapt:
- Anchor + orbit: Identify your seed-equivalent anchor in each category (the regular, repeat-purchase item) and design complementary micro-ranges around it: kids’ kits, books, optics, seasonal food, to lift average order value.
- Format for different homes: Offer multiple pack sizes and pathways for younger, urban customers in flats versus suburban family homes. Smaller packs bought more often can increase total interactions and community touchpoints.
- Programme community: Seniors’ days, guided walks and in-store learning create a club effect. Shoppers return for people and purpose, not only products.
Why this matters now: The audience is broadening. Post-Covid, Paul’s stores see a more ethnically diverse and gender-balanced mix, with many first-time participants entering via apps and then trading up into gear and experiences. Merchandising and content should welcome “tomorrow’s birders”, not only today’s aficionados.
3) Export without surprises: Canada is open for UK partners
For suppliers, Paul’s message is blunt: tariff volatility and politics have made US-centred distribution unreliable. He’s actively diversifying to partners who can land product directly in Canada or collaborate on logistics to ensure predictable landed costs, an area where UK partners, supported by the UK–Canada trade framework, can shine. “By working with a partner in the UK… we know what the certainty is there.”
What Canadian buyers need from you:
- Clarity on landed cost and routings (e.g., via Liverpool into Canadian ports). If you can hold or forecast costs for 6–12 months, say so.
- A sustainability story with receipts: Materials, packaging, and end-of-life guidance that retailers can pass on to customers. (Paul calls out better, more convenient designs e.g., feeders with removable liners as the kind of “small innovation” that sells.)
- Marketing assets that travel: Multilingual POS where possible, short explainer clips, and photography that shows products in context for apartment living as well as suburban gardens. The market is multicultural and multi-generational.
If you’re new to exporting, Gardenex remains a practical first port of call. Their Meet the Buyer sessions at Glee were “absolutely full”, with real deals happening on-site. evidence that international appetite is there if your proposition is ready.
4) Content that meets customers where they already are
Michael’s advice for marketers is deceptively simple: “Interact with your followers where they are. You can’t move people around.” Build for the platforms and behaviours they already use, not the ones you wish they used. In practice, that means channel-specific storytelling and on-floor POS that mirrors what customers have seen online.
5) The mindset shift: Openness over ownership
Two cultural cues worth stealing:
- Share ideas freely: Michael argues that getting ideas “out in the ether” accelerates innovation and partnership. In a category still fragmented by seasons and supply, openness can be a competitive advantage.
- Monetise expertise confidently: there is value in curation, education and the confidence to price your knowledge. Retail theatre and specialist guidance are part of what customers now pay for.
What to do next
- For retailers: pilot an Anchor + Orbit layout in Q4, pairing a weekly staple with three high-margin complements. Programme one community moment per month to make it stick.
- For suppliers: prepare a Canada-ready pack, landed-cost scenarios, logistics options, compliance notes, and retailer-friendly POS/video. Then book time with Gardenex for introductions.
- For everyone: choose one plant or product story that can carry your seasonal table. Write the one-line headline customers will repeat. If you can’t, you don’t have the story yet.
Taken together, these conversations point to a practical reset. Tell clearer plant stories, design stores people want to spend time in, and make exporting feel routine rather than risky. None of this is radical, but the combination is powerful. If the sector keeps learning from peers at home and abroad, next season’s progress will feel less like a leap and more like steady, confident steps.
This article draws on insights from our Glee 2025 live episode with Michael Perry (Mr Plant Geek) and Paul Oliver, founder of Urban Nature Store. Listen for the full conversation: