The UK high street may have had a lacklustre Christmas, but sales of cut flowers and houseplants defied the odds, according to figures released this week by Lingarden.

Analysis of sales in the UK's major supermarkets for December reveals a 12.2 per cent increase in the value of cut flowers bought, compared with the same period in 2001.

Houseplants performed well, with sales rising by 6.5 per cent driven by plants in decorative baskets and other containers, which registered a 22.9 per cent increase.

Martin Brown, Lingarden's managing director, said: 'These excellent Christmas figures reflect the growing importance of cut flowers and houseplants as a valuable year-round category within supermarket sales. Lingarden's significant investment in new product development has helped make flowers and houseplants one of the best performing categories for year-on-year sales increases.'

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