Garden Wise Plant & Garden Centre (above) was awarded Best Garden Centre (GC) and Raemoir Garden Centre (below) won Best Destination Garden Centre (DGC) in Scotland. Creative Gardens Donaghadee scooped Best Garden Centre in Northern Ireland.



The awards were announced by GCA Inspector Liz Hutson and presented by Scotland Regional Chair, Yvonne Ritchie from Brechin Castle Garden Centre.  Commenting on Raemoirs win, Liz said; "in my opinion the food offering at Raemoir is amongst the best in the UK, it's great food with added pixie dust."

Iain Wylie, Chief Executive of the GCA, said: “The Scotland and Northern Ireland area awards evening is always a popular event and this year proved to be no exception. It was a great opportunity to visit one of our newer members, Glendoick, and we thank Kenneth Cox and his team for hosting the occasion. There were some fantastic examples of best practice and innovation shown in the presentation and there were some very worthy winners.

“The award for Best Customer Service went to Garden Wise Plant & Garden Centre in Scotland and Creative Gardens Donaghadee in Northern Ireland while the award for Most Improved Centre in Scotland went to Klondyke Garden Centre – Mayfield and Bushmills Garden centre in Northern Ireland.”

The awards are decided by the results of the annual inspections, which take place at all GCA garden centres. Garden centres have no advance warning about when their inspection will take place and they do not have the option to turn away the inspector.

The Best Garden Centre and Best Destination Garden Centre awards went to the members that scored the highest overall mark in the area in their annual inspections.

The top scoring centres overall, nationally, in both the Destination Garden Centre and Garden Centre categories will be re-inspected before the titles of Garden Centre of the Year and Destination Garden Centre of the Year are announced at the GCA annual conference taking place in January 2016.

The full results for the Scotland and Northern Ireland GCA area awards are as follows for the GC and DGC categories:

Scotland:

Best Garden Centre
1:  Garden Wise Plant & Garden Centre
2:  Gouldings
3:  Mains of Drum

Best Destination Garden Centre
1:  Raemoir Garden Centre
2:  Simpsons

Best Customer Service
1:  Garden Wise Plant & Garden Centre
2:  Raemoir
3:  Simpsons 

Best Environment and Community
1:  Garden Wise Plant & Garden Centre
2= Simpsons
2= Gouldings

Best Creativity and Innovation
1:  Garden Wise Plant & Garden Centre
2:  Gouldings
3:  Raemoir

Most Improved Centre
1:  Klondyke Garden Centre – Mayfield (Kelso)
2:  Raemoir
3:  Caulders Kirkintilloch

Best Restaurant - Garden Centre
1:  Glendoick Garden Centre
2:  Klondyke Mayfield (Kelso)
3:  Mains of Drum

Best Restaurant - Destination Garden Centre
1:  Raemoir Garden Centre
2:  Simpsons

Garden Products Retailer - Garden Centre
1:  Garden Wise Plant & Garden Centre
2:  Gouldings
3:  Brechin Castle

Garden Products Retailer - Destination Garden Centre
1:  Raemoir Garden Centre
2:  Simpsons

Best Indoor Lifestyle - Garden Centre
1:  Gouldings Garden Centre
2:  Glendoick
3:  Garden Wise

Best Indoor Lifestyle - Destination Garden Centre
1:  Raemoir Garden Centre
2:  Simpsons

Best Outdoor Living - Garden Centre
1:  Gouldings Garden Centre
2:  Brechin Castle
3:  Mains of Drum

Best Outdoor Living - Destination Garden Centre
1:  Raemoir Garden Centre
2:  Simpsons

Northern Ireland:

Best Garden Centre: Creative Gardens Donaghadee 

Best Customer Service: Creative Gardens Donaghadee 

Best Environment and Community: Creative Gardens Donaghadee 

Best Creativity and Innovation: Creative Gardens Donaghadee 

Most Improved: Bushmills Garden Centre 

Best Restaurant: Creative Gardens Donaghadee 

Garden Products Retailer: Creative Gardens Donaghadee 

Best Indoor Lifestyle: Bushmills Garden Centre 

Best Outdoor Living: Creative Gardens Donaghadee. 

About the GCA:
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 0118 930 8918. Alternatively 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.