This summer The Greatest Awards are ON TOUR creating more opportunities to reward the excellence of garden centre teams across more areas of garden centre businesses.

After the love and passion of The Greatest Catering Awards at The HTA Catering Conference, it's the turn of excellent plants teams to be in the spotlight for The Greatest Plant Retailing Awards which will be presented at 3:30pm on Tuesday 23rd June at The HTA National Plant Show.

The HTA National Plant Show, sponsored by Hortipak, at Stoneleigh Park on 23 and 24 June 2015. With over 100 companies exhibiting, is a great opportunity to view the best from UK growers.

Other key events happening through the event include:

New Plant Awards

At the heart of the show is the New Plant Area, host to the New Plant Awards, which showcase the very best in new plant introductions from UK plant suppliers. Sponsored by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), the winners will be announced on the morning of Tuesday 23 June, and the Visitor Vote, sponsored by Floramedia, will close at 3pm on Wednesday 24 June, with the winner announced at 3.30pm.

Best Plant Display Award

Whilst the focus at the HTA National Plant Show may be on the plants themselves, it also provides a fantastic platform for exhibitors to demonstrate innovative displays that ultimately lead to increased plant sales. The Best Plant Display Awards, sponsored by Flowering Plants Ltd, highlights those displays that capture the imagination, provide clear information and attract attention. The winners of the Best Plant Display Award will be announced on the morning of Wednesday 24 June.

Talking Plants - Show Seminars

The National Plant Show seminars, sponsored by Barclaycard, provide an extra focus to the show. Focussing on plants, this year’s seminars speakers include Chris Collins, Kevin Waters and Tom Hart-Dyke.

Tuesday 23 June 2015

• 10.00 – 10.30 Chris Collins - Love the Plot You’ve Got 
  • ‘Love the Plot You’ve Got’ is a mission, an industry wide mission to get all those people who have yet  to  discover the true  value of their outdoor  space . Former Blue Peter gardener and horticulturist Chris Collins explains more.

• 15.00 – 15.30 Kevin Waters - How to increase sales through responding to trends?
  • The ability and willingness to change with the times has always been the success of the garden centre trade. Kevin Waters looks at why it is more important than ever that we respond to the trends and present our plant offer in a meaningful, inspiring way which is capable of kick-starting our customers into action

• 15.30 The Greatest Plant Retailing Awards
  • The Greatest Linked Sales Team of the Year
  • The Greatest Pot and Plant Sales Team – Top of the Pots - sponsored by Elho
  • The Greatest Plant Advice Team, including planteria signage and information
  • The Greatest Plant Supplier of the Year
  • The Greatest Plant Sales Team of the Year, sponsored by The HTA

Wednesday 24 June 2015

• 10-10.30 Tom Hart Dyke - Exploring the World of Plants
  • Modern day plant hunter Tom Hart Dyke presents an eclectic plant filled mix including:  What sparked his interest in the wonderful world of plants; his time in captivity at the hands of Colombian Guerrillas; botanical stories from the developing World Garden and to top it off – further plant hunting tales to the far flung corners of our green globe. 

• 13.00 Breakthrough Breast Cancer Rose Launch 
  • TV broadcaster Nicki Chapman will launch the ‘Breakthrough Rose’ from Nursery Fresh which will be raising funds for Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

• 15:30 New Plant Award - Visitor Vote Awards presentation 

Market Place

The HTA National Plant Show will once again host a dedicated area for the British Plant Fair Marketplace, sponsored by Container Centralen. This will give visitors the opportunity to view shelf samples from many of the growers exhibiting at the show, and place a central order for any combination of shelves with a total minimum order of just two trolleys.

Breakthrough Rose Launch

This year’s show is delighted to be the host of the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Rose Launch. Pop Idol judge and RHS Chelsea Flower Show host, Nicki Chapman, will launch the rose and talk about why this project is important to the garden industry and consumers. Peter Hull from Nursery Fresh will then give a brief overview of how they got involved with Breakthrough and talk about the rose and how it will raise money for the charity. The launch will be taking place in the seminar area on Wednesday 24 June at 1pm. The Breakthrough Breast Cancer Rose will be used to decorate the seminar area throughout the day. Visit Nursery Fresh on stand 110-111, and Breakthrough Breast Cancer on stand 17.

David Colegrave Foundation Orchid

The David Colegrave Foundation (DCF), the charity for people studying horticulture, is launching a new fundraising collection of Phalaenopsis Orchid at this year’s HTA National Plant Show. The charity worked with Garden Centre Fresh, which originally approached DCF with the initiative, as well as two young growers who have a passion for orchids to select the collection. The collection, which offers a distinctive fusion of summer colours and striking markings, will be sold into retailers this summer. Every orchid purchased will help to fund the DCF’s scholarships for students studying horticulture at colleges across the UK. Visit DCF on stand 168.

Visitors to The HTA National Plant Show can register online at www.nationalplantshow.co.uk – just click on the visitor tab. Alternatively garden centre and nursery staff staff can register at the show itself.