BENTS Garden and Home and Castle Gardens have recently (November, 2017) been announced as the national winners of the 2017 Garden Centre Association’s (GCA) annual Christmas competition. 

The garden centres were judged to have the best festive displays in the country by the organisation and will receive their awards at its annual conference in January.

Iain Wylie, GCA Chief Executive, said: “Each year the standard of entries into our Christmas competition just gets better and better.

“Entrants in the Destination Garden Centre (DGC) category were visited and judged by Liz Hutson and entrants in the Garden Centre (GC) category were visited and judged by Alyson Haywood, so area and national winners could be determined. It was a tough choice as the displays were so impressive but we’d like to congratulate Bents Garden and Home in Warrington, who won in the DGC category, and Castle Gardens in Dorset who scooped the top prize in the GC section of the awards.”

The garden centres were judged on the innovation, inspiration and excitement created from the way their Christmas products are displayed. The range of products available, accessibility, how easy it is for customers to find and select products and ‘wow factor’ were also taken into consideration in an assessment of the overall commercial proposition.

Liz Hutson, who judged the DGC category, said: “Displays have become more and more professional over the years, with some of the best I have seen in this year’s Christmas competition. There is just nothing that compares outside of the garden centre industry.”

The area winners in the South Thames area were Ransoms Garden Centre (DGC) and Castle Gardens (GC). In Wales and West Whitehall Garden Centre – Lacock (DGC) and Whitehall – Whitchurch (GC) were chosen.

In North Thames, the area winners were Perrywood Garden Centre (DGC) and Sunshine Garden Centre (GC) while Brigg Garden Centre (DGC) and Fairways – Ashbourne (GC) were selected in the Midlands area.

Bents Garden and Home (DGC) and Fron Gogh Garden Centre (GC) were selected in the North West and in the North East, Tong Garden Centre (DGC) and Whiteleys Garden Centre (GC) were chosen.

The national winners will be given their awards during the GCA’s annual conference at The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon between January 21 and 24, 2018.

The GCA represents nearly 200 garden centres nationwide.

Through sharing information and its inspection programme the GCA helps members to achieve high standards in customer service, plant quality and reliability.

For further information, please call the GCA on 01244 952170. Alternatively, please visit www.gca.org.uk, log on to www.facebook.com/pages/GardenCentreAssociation or follow the organisation on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GC_Association.