Following on from Bents and Castle Gardens being announced as the national winners of the 2017 Garden Centre Association’s annual Christmas competition as reported in GTN Xtra two weeks ago the winners from each of the GCA areas have now been announced.

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

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

Bents Garden and Home and Fron Goch Garden Centre (see picture gallery below) were selected in the North West and in the North East, Tong Garden Centre and Whiteleys Garden Centre were chosen.

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 category were visited and judged by Liz Hutson and entrants in the Garden Centrecategory 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 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.

See GTN Xtra's photo tour of Christmas at Fron Goch below: