A garden centre which has barely changed in 104 years is closing down after passing through five generations of the same family.

Webb's of Bearwood opened its doors in 1921 and has been serving green-fingered customers in the West Midlands for more than a century.

It is believed to be Britain's oldest garden centre having traded from the same location on a terraced street in Smethwick throughout its entire history.

But current owners Pauline and Steve Webb have decided to shut up shop now they are ready to retire and with their grown-up children unwilling to take the business on.

The family-run firm started life as a simple shop in the Sandwell suburb selling corn, bulbs and seeds - long before gardening centres were even a concept.

As well as lasting through WW2 and seeing five monarchs take the throne, it has also survived the emergence of national garden centre chains and the growth of online shopping.

The couple believe the store, which has barely altered over the years, has been able to stand the test of time by being able to adapt to gardening trends as they have changed.

Gran-of-two Pauline, 70, of Bearwood, who took over the shop in the early 70s when seeds were 28p "a pint" said: "We love this place but we're just ready to retire really."

"It does take over your entire life. We only live six doors up from the shop and the plants always need you."

"But we're 70 now. It has kept us fit but we'd like to retire to Cornwall now. "

"We start at 5am in the morning and don't get back until 8pm some nights, it's seven days a week for nine months of the year. "

"From Christmas to Easter, we're closed on Sundays, but the rest of the year it's seven days a week. "

"It's fetching the plants to start with, unloading and then spacing them out of full trays. "

"We take them to the greenhouse and re-pot any that need repotting. Then running the shop generally and nipping to the warehouse -"

it all takes time.

"We haven't had a holiday for 15 years, we haven't left Bearwood basically. "

"Plants need us here all the time so we can't get away and now we feel it's time."

Pauline's grandfather Oliver John Webb founded the shop in 1921 with the help of his mother Emily, before handing the keys over to John William Webb and Jenny Webb.

Pauline then inherited the company from her parents and began working there in 1971.

She and Steve brought up their children Samantha and Adam at the store who have also helped run the gift shop from 2007 onwards.

They say changes in gardening trends include a move to bulbs over seeds as penny-pinching gardeners struggle to heat their greenhouses nowadays due to rising costs.

Lazy millennials are also being blamed for a downturn in summer bedding plants - with most opting for the easy to maintain herbaceous perennials.

They say there's also been a decline in veg plant sales due to a drop in allotment numbers as a result of increasing urban developments compared to the 1970s.

Pauline added: "We've seen the gardening world change dramatically over the years."

"It depends entirely on season and what's in fashion. Right now, geraniums are the summer favourite and then winter pansies sell well in the leadup to winter."

"Gardening is still as popular as it has ever been - it is very therapeutic and people like being out in the fresh air. "

"Since the pandemic people seem to enjoy being outdoors more. Around nature and out in the sun."

"The problem these days though is that a lot of the allotments have been built on, meaning there's a lot fewer vegetable plants being sold. "

"And now people don't heat greenhouses. Nobody can afford to heat them. So they don't grow them from the seeds."

"One of my first jobs as a girl when I first came home from school was packing our own seeds as you couldn't buy packets of seeds back then. "

"You'd have to come in and ask for a packet, go to the drawer and packet the seed while the customer was waiting. "

"Herbaceous perennials are what people go for now. You plant those and they live every year. They die down but spring up every year because the roots are still intact. "

"The trend of summer bedding plants has gone purely because of the effort it takes every year."

"If the sun is out we can still get hundreds of customers a day so it is still popular."

"We have some customers who have moved down to Kidderminster still coming back here."

The couple will now close their doors for good on June 28 after decades of offering up their gardening expertise to the local community.

They say their children are ‘leading their own lives' with Samantha, 40, now a wedding photographer while Adam, 38, works as a mechanic.

The store is believed to be the oldest garden centre in Britain after Stewarts of Ferndown in Christchurch, Dorset, previously laid claim to the accolade, which opened in 1961

Revealing the secret to their long-standing success, Pauline added: "It's high-quality plants, sensible prices, giving advice when asked, and being people who have always loved their business and their customers."

"We could be the oldest independent garden centre around but we don't know for sure - we've just enjoyed serving our customers for all these years."

"We're very proud to have been part of such a long established business."