Christmas
The fantastic displays that you see at the Gardens Group centres begin their life in January when I travel to the big trade fairs in Harrogate, Birmingham and London to see the exciting new products and displays from over 45 different companies and 7 countries. At this stage we decide and plan all the main Christmas themes and how we are going to display them.
The stock starts to arrive in July and is then sorted out by a team of staff who unpack and price up each individual bauble and angel. This bit is quite exciting as, although I can remember roughly what I bought, I get excited as it is like Christmas morning every day as we open up a box for the first time and see what is inside!
In October we start to build the displays. I can honestly say that every member of staff at each centre gets involved in putting the display together. It takes about 2 weeks at each centre from start to finish and involves erecting walls, partitions, painting, stapling fabrics onto surfaces, decorating Christmas trees and getting your creative juices flowing to come up with lots of new ideas. We work into the night only stopping for a quick supper in the garden centre restaurants. There are some really talented people working at our centres who are brilliant at making displays. The result of the hard work put in by the staff is that people keep coming to the tills and saying 'do you get professional shop displayers in?', We reply ''YES - we do it all ourselves!''
We were delighted that Castle Gardens once again won first prize in the Garden Centre Association Christmas display competition for Wales and the West - but to win first, second and third with Brimsmore and Poundbury so close behind was even better.
We enjoy creating the Christmas displays and we aim to create a wonderful magical experience for you all to enjoy. Do come and be among the first to see the displays at our preview evenings and the why join us and bathe in the atmosphere at our Magical Evenings that are held closer to Christmas.
Louise Burks
Director
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