The closing date for entries is Friday 31st May.
Westland Horticulture is awarding the major prize to the garden centre that is judged to have run the most effective, all-round Garden Re-Leaf Day campaign in March. To enter, garden centres need to complete a Westland Challenge entry form – available from Westland Horticulture – summarising their event, publicity campaigns, footfall and sales indicators, and return it to Westland by the closing date.
The winning garden centre, who will be notified by 28th June, will receive a delivery of 50 litre bags of Gro-Sure All Purpose Compost for retail or other use, courtesy of Westland Horticulture. The new compost, which is enriched with Gro-Sure Plant Food, is ideal for growing flowers, fruits or vegetables.
Keith Nicholson, Marketing Director of Westland Horticulture, said: “At Westland we are delighted to see just how many people up-and-down the country played an active role in this year’s Garden Re-Leaf Day. We have launched the Westland Challenge to reinforce our support for the annual event. We would like to encourage as many retailers as possible to make sure they share their entries with us by post or email no later than May 31st.”
Hundreds of garden centres and suppliers took part in the second annual Garden Re-Leaf Day in March. The national initiative was established in 2012 to launch the spring gardening retail season whilst raising money for a designated charity. As well as centrally coordinated events such as the Garden Re-Leaf Day Celebrity Gardening Quiz and the HTA’s National gardening Gift Voucher-linked ‘Find the Winning Plot’ competition, retailers organised many hundreds of their own local activities around the UK.
This year the Westland Challenge entries will be judged by Keith Nicholson, Marketing Director at Westland Horticulture, Boyd Douglas-Davies, founder of Garden Re-Leaf and CEO of Hillview Garden Centres, Sue Allen, Garden Re-Leaf committee member and former Managing Director of Millbrook Garden Company, and Michelle Whitefoot, Garden Re-Leaf committee member and Managing Director of Whitefoot-Forward PR.
Garden Re-Leaf Day’s designated charity for 2013 is Greenfingers, a charity dedicated to improving the lives of children in hospices through the creation of magical gardens for children’s hospices around the UK. In 2012 Garden Re-Leaf Day raised more than £55,000 for the charity; enabling two, specially designed, family gardens to be built at hospices in Stoke-on-Trent and West Dunbartonshire.
To request an entry form for the Garden Re-Leaf Day Westland Challenge, email Dympna Carron, dcarron@westlandhorticulture.com, listing the subject as ‘Garden Re-Leaf Westland Challenge’.
