Doncaster garden centre wins Best in Show at Chelsea - more GTN highlights from the world famous flower show
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Graham Bodle's Doncaster based garden centre, Walkers Nurseries scooped The Best Artisan Garden in the Show at Chelsea last week, attracting huge crowds and plenty of media interest during the show.
Family Cook won Silver Gilt for their display of Hydrangeas in the Great Pavillion. "We've gained loads of social media and local newspaper coverage," Paul Cook, owner of Cooks Garden Centre told GTN Xtra at the show on Friday. "25,000 facebook views, 800 likes, 500 comments, a full page in the Stourbridge paper, and we've been on BBC TV."
Gruffalo products were selling as fast as Kevin Goodchild from Briers could re-stock them on the Perrenial stand in Ranleigh Gardens. "They are a must have purchase for show visitors wanting to take something home for children and grandchildren in particular."
John Clowes and Jane Hartley were revelling in the enthusiasm shown by the school children members of The Miracle-Growers academy that had visited and talked to visitors on their stand in The Great Pavillion. 100 schools took part in the academy this year. This is a great opportunity for garden centres to get involved and develop more links with schools, school children learning about growing and their parents and grand parents.
Dan Zinner and Caroline Linger from Wyevale Garden Centres took their direct report teams to Chelsea on Friday for a dose of reactive inspiration. GTN Xtra met them on the Burgon and Ball stand. Well actually just off the stand because it was so busy!
The 70th Gold Medal winning display from Hilliers was staffed by the youngsters on Friday. Young horticulturalists from Hillier Nurseries, Hillier Garden Centres and Writtle College answered visitor questions from 8am to 8pm. "We told our customers that the young Hillier staff would be here on Friday and several of them have been sought out specifically by customers," reported Hillier Garden Centre Director Chris Francis. "What a great experience for these enthusiastic youngsters."
Also spotted on the Hillier garden were Raoul Curtis-Machin from the HTA with Ben Duffy, Head of Retail at The National Trust who have just opened their first garden centre at Morden Park in south west London.
See our Chelsea Friday picture gallery for more ideas and inspiration.
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