Best In Show” Awarded To Sussex Based Family-Run Garden Centre

It was a very successful South of England Show this year for family-run garden centre firm Tates of Sussex who came away with two accolades to their name.

Rather than their usual plant shop, this year the business decided to enter a show garden as well to demonstrate their green-finger abilities.

Created by a plant team, led by Lorna Wilkinson from South Downs Nurseries in Hassocks the result clearly appealed to the judges.

Much hard work in the run-up to the Ardingly show resulted in a beautiful show garden with a Mediterranean theme with everything including soil, plants and trees taken to the site from the Hassocks nursery.

Awarding Best in Show, for the best Horticultural trade exhibit, the event’s Chairman of Horticulture, Nigel Ellis, remarked:

“The garden design and overall interpretation of a Mediterranean garden was excellent and the planting plan and choice of material used was consistent with your design. 

"The planting plan sales area was well laid out and its overall appearance was professional and aesthetically pleasing hence the judges’ award.”

The Tates’ team were also awarded a Gold Medal for their show garden, with company director Benjamin Tate commenting:

“This was a bold and exciting new venture for us, and the team embraced the challenge with tremendous passion and creativity.

"We look forward to building on this success in the future.”