Let’s drop everything and go to a garden centre; it always ends well. Two of the best? Gemmell’s in Ayrshire and McLaren’s near Glasgow, and even though they’re a bit on the slick side for me, I’m partial to a Dobbies now and then as well. Drop me off there and I’ll have a thoroughly nice time, wandering around with the smell of compost and coffee and cyclamen in the air. Plants? Fastest route to happy really.

Ah but: there’s trouble. You may have noticed that Dobbies is planning to shut 17 of its 77 stores, including shops in Inverness and Edinburgh, in an attempt to stem its losses. The chain is now owned by an investment firm, Ares Management, and a £7m loss has turned into a £105m loss and so 11 of the garden centres and all the high-street shops are getting the chop. The company said this: “The restructuring plan and other strategic initiatives are expected to return Dobbies to sustainable profitability through site rationalisations, rent reductions and other cost savings”.

But let’s try and take a shovel to the business-speak shall we and get underneath it to what’s really going on because, having spoken to people in the industry, it’s clear that garden centres, big and small, are under stress. There’s also an uncomfortable truth about the industry that’s adding to the pressure right now and which the Scottish Government hasn’t come to terms with but is going to have to (soon).

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