Garden centres sparkle with Christmas displays

We’ve revealed the regional winners of our annual Christmas display competition this week (November 23, 2015).

Fifteen garden centres have been named as having the best overall Christmas displays in their individual regions.

Iain Wylie, our GCA Chief Executive, says: “I am delighted to announce the area winners of our Christmas competition. The centres are now being judged to determine the national winners. Congratulations to all the winners so far and thank you to our band of judges who volunteered to visit them. I’d like to wish all the area winners good luck in the next round!”

The two overall national winners will be announced later this month and presented with their awards at our annual conference in January.

The results are as follows for the Destination Garden Centre (DGC) and Garden Centre (GC) categories: Barton Grange (DGC) in Lancashire and Burleydam Garden Centre (GC) in Cheshire came top in the North West. Squires Badshot Lea (DGC) in Surrey and Millbrook - Gravesend (GC) in Kent were the winners in the South Thames region. 

Also going through in the North West region is Bents (DGC) in Cheshire and from South Thames, Castle Gardens (GC) in Dorset. They both go through to the national finals as they were last year’s overall winners, giving an additional finalist from their respective areas.

Meanwhile in the Wales and West area, Whitehall Garden Centre (DGC) at Lacock in Wiltshire and Brimsmore Gardens (GC) in Somerset are in pole position with Van Hage Great Amwell (DGC) in Hertfordshire and Frosts – Brampton in Cambridgeshire coming out top in the North Thames region.

In the North East, Langlands Shiptonthorpe (DGC) in Yorkshire and Langlands (GC) Leeds, West Yorkshire came first and in the Midlands the winners were St Peters (DGC) and Pennells – Lincoln (GC), Lincolnshire.

In Scotland and Northern Ireland, the overall winner was Glendoick Garden Centre (GC) in Perth.

The national judging begins now (November 23, 2015) and, this year, Andy Campbell will be visiting all the centres over a two week period. Good luck to everyone in the national competition. There has been some excellent feedback about the wonderful Christmas displays across the country from the area judges so it’s going to be an interesting competition this year.

We will be announcing the overall, national winners later this month and they will then receive their prizes at our annual conference, which takes place at The Grand Hotel in Brighton from January 24 until 27, 2016.