This is where it’s all happening

A congress focused 100 per cent on practical application – that is the essence of the annual event organised by the International Garden Centre Association (IGCA): independent garden centre operators, suppliers and association representatives from literally all over the world meet for a week, but rather than sitting dutifully in rows of chairs in business attire to listen to one lecture after another, they do one thing above all else: They hop on a coach and visit garden centres in the region from early (which is to be taken literally) until late, as many as they can fit into the conference week from Monday to Friday.

You could also say: they go where the action is. This was particularly the case this year, when the IGCA 2026 set up its headquarters in Munich in mid-August – and again, quite literally: Whether it was a Bavarian folk band complete with a folk dance group, alphorn players, Japanese drummers or gentlemen in black suits and bow ties playing the grand piano, cello or flute – the 270 participants were greeted with music everywhere they went. (As the VDG summer trip had joined the programme in the meantime and a number of suppliers and service providers took part in varying line-ups, a total of 330 people were registered for the congress – a record for this event). Afterwards, they fanned out or were guided in groups through the respective markets, which had clearly spruced themselves up for the visit from colleagues from a total of 21 countries.

But even if one sets aside this ‘glamour factor’ of dressing up: the 2026 visit programme in Bavaria featured nothing but exceptional examples of owner-managed garden centres – plus a Hornbach store – and that is precisely how the participants perceived it: Our colleagues from abroad were well able to appreciate the quality with which the German specialist garden trade engages its customers – both in terms of the products and their presentation. Quite a few were amazed: there really is something special about these German garden centres.

Here is a (necessarily very brief) overview: The Schopf family’s Grüne Zentrum Krottenbach sees itself as an ‘experience-based’ nursery and delivers on its promise of an experience with its themed gardens: the Japanese Garden, the Celtic Garden and the Future Garden. Just 5 km away is the Dauchenbeck family’s second garden centre, opened in 2018 in Stein near Nuremberg under Sagaflor’s ‘grün erleben’ retail concept and supplied with live plants from its own nursery. And…