Garden and DIY retailers will be keeping their fingers crossed that this week’s clement weather continues to the all-important Easter trading period.

The four day weekend is as important for those retailers as Christmas is for the rest of the sector. And it is perfect timing for DIY retailers to take advantage of the rebound in the market that has continued since the start of the year.

Home Retail provided more evidence of the upturn in the market on Thursday when it reported like-for-like sales at Homebase jumped 9.3% in the fourth quarter, encouragingly driven by big ticket.

But home and DIY retailers will not be making any assumptions that the sales momentum will continue into Easter following the last two years’ disastrous trading periods. Last year Easter weekend was blighted by heavy snow, while 2012 recorded the wettest April for 100 years. Retailers really did have cause to blame the weather for their poor trading.

They were crushing blows, to Homebase in particular, which makes more than a quarter of its sales from gardening. More than most, it will be hoping the sun is shining come Good Friday.