Twenty-four staff members from garden centres across the country took part in a training day at Millbrook Garden Centre Gravesend recently with expert mentors as part of this year’s Glee Talent Store.
The Glee Talent Store, in collaboration with the Garden Centre Association (GCA), aims to nurture and encourage the next up-and-coming stars of horticultural visual merchandising.
Matthew Mein, Event Director at Glee, said: The training day was a great success and we had 100% attendance from our students, despite snow in parts of the country. Twenty-four students joined us from 18 garden centres across the UK.
“The day began with presentations on the basics of visual merchandising from Talent Store mentor, Debbie Flowerday, a Visual Merchandising Consultant who has worked with the likes of Selfridges, Gucci, and John Lewis, followed by trend insights from TrendBible’s Home & Interiors Trend Editor, Wendy Lowe, and some plant inspiration from Michael Perry, aka Mr Plant Geek, a plant expert and leading horticultural influencer.
“The second half of the programme was more interactive with the students putting their abilities to the test by creating mood boards and shop floor displays. At the end of the day, students were put into four groups and tasked with creating a pop-up store concept and design for either houseplants or outdoor plants. These designs have now been submitted to Glee and the decision on which will be chosen to be built at Glee 2023 will be announced very soon!
“I would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to GCA Chairman, Tammy Woodhouse, and all of the team at Millbrook Garden Centre, who were fantastic hosts for the training day.”
Glee will take place at the NEC Birmingham from June 27 until 29, 2023.
Peter Burks, Chief Executive at the GCA, said: “It’s fantastic to see so many students in the Talent Store, which is in its first year this year, who are keen to show off what they know already, as well as learn more about visual merchandising. I can’t wait to see the submitted designs and wish everyone luck for the competition.”
