Third time lucky again for garden centre (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Third time lucky again for garden centre

3:44pm Saturday 16th June 2007 in Chippenham By Raeanne Nightingale

The Whitehall Garden Centre at Lacock has won the Ruxley Rose' 2007/08 award for the Best Plant Area in the South West and Wales region for the third time in a row.

The biennial competition is organised by the Garden Centre Association (GCA) and aims to find the best Plant Area in a British garden centre.

As the regional winner, Whitehall will now go on to the national stage of the competition and the overall winner will receive the Ruxley Rose trophy in January 2008 at the annual GCA conference.

Garden Centres have been judged on the quality, range and presentation of plants and products, as well as the overall layout of the plant area.

Other key points that were judged were informative labelling, signage and promotions. Staff were also judged on their standards of plant knowledge as well as customer care.

At Whitehall the judges were particularly impressed by the range and quality of the plants on offer as well as the enthusiasm, pride and horticultural knowledge that the plant department team took in the plant sales area.

Adam Dorber, Plant Department manager at Whitehall, said: "At Whitehall we pride ourselves on the quality and range of the plants that we sell together with excellent customer service from our team of plant experts.

"And we are delighted that the Garden Centre Association has yet again recognised Whitehall as one of the leading garden centres for the best quality plants and advice in the UK!"