Notcutts Garden Centre in Maidstone held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the opening of a new display garden designed to inspire local gardeners with imaginative planting and landscaping ideas all year round.

Caroline Notcutt, vice-chairman and great-granddaughter of Notcutts Garden Centres founder Roger Crompton Notcutt, cut the ribbon to officially open the new garden last weekne, alongside the Mayor of Maidstone, Councillor Marion Ring, local dignitaries, customers, and the Notcutts Maidstone team.

The Notcutts Garden is a permanent display at the garden centre, with ideas and inspiration for brightening borders and garden design. Tranquillity is the theme, with a large water fountain, beautiful collection of plants and a shaded seating area.

The garden features more than 300 plants of 30 different varieties, many in elegant white and calming pastel shades, such as arum lilies, foxgloves, Dicksonia Antarctica tree ferns and Betula alba birch trees which have a majestic silver bark in winter. The Notcutts Garden was designed and built by Notcutts' head of visual merchandising Marco de Jongh, plant buyer Stuart Andrews and garden centre colleagues Paul, Suzanne and Harry.

Caroline Notcutt said: "The garden celebrates the best of what we do at Notcutts - with over 120 years' experience and 50 Gold medals won at RHS Chelsea Flower Show, we're pleased to bring our expertise in planting and garden design to our customers in Maidstone."

General manager Jon Kemp said: "We are very proud to unveil our glorious Notcutts Garden at Maidstone. It is a fantastic addition to our garden centre and we hope it will inspire customers with new and creative planting ideas. Thank you to all who joined us for our special garden opening event.”"

A number of Notcutts' 18 garden centres have a special display garden.