The owner of a Belfast garden centre has spoken of his relief at an orderly reopening following lockdown.
There was steady stream of customers at Hillmount Garden Centre this morning, but no long queues.
Owner Robin Mercer said he was delighted at how things had gone.
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"I'm very very happy at how it has gone. We were panicking a wee bit this morning - would there be queues from early morning?" he told the PA news agency.
"But there hasn't been queues, everyone is coming in at their own pace, not too many at a time, and the comments from customers have been fantastic, they are so happy.
"We have had the online business, which we are going to continue, but it's so lovely to see so many people about.
"We have learned a lot, over the last few weeks we have been preparing for today, getting all the precautions in. We have maybe gone a bit overboard but I am happy we are ahead of the game and taking all the care we can for customers as well as staff."
Hilary Hall from Holywood was among those perusing the plants.
She said she had been using the online delivery service but was delighted to be able to browse herself again.
"I'm here today to look at some plants for the garden that I've cleared during lockdown," she said.
"I bought a lot of bedding plants through the online system so I have all my tubs and baskets done, and I've also bought fruit and vegetables from it, which I hadn't done before. I have grown most of them in tubs so I'm now eating my own strawberries and I'm starting to see little sweet peppers come along, and tomatoes. It has been fabulous. It filled many hours during lockdown.
"We're very fortunate that we have a garden, and the weather was nice which was great as well. The house has probably never been cleaner. I've also started to bake bread in the house which I never used to do before.
"You fill your days, but it will be nice to get out again."
Ken Ferguson, general manager at Dobbies Lisburn, said it had seen an influx of customers.
“It has been a very busy start to our first day of reopening, with cars arriving an hour before we opened," he said.
“Our team members have been well briefed on all the social distancing measures we have in place, and these are being respected by all our customers throughout the store and at the tills. It has been great to see some of our loyal customers and lots of keen gardeners back in the store.
“Customers have been particularly keen to get fresh bedding plants, which come from our local supplier, herbaceous plants and garden furniture. People are clearly very keen to spend time in their gardens this spring.
“I would like to say a very big thank you to all our team members who have been really excellent on our first day.”
