Mid Ulster gardening business announced as winner at Antrim garden show

Sprout Plants Landscaping & Plant Specialist, from Magherafelt, who supply quality trees, hedging and shrubs were awarded first prize for their high standard of presentation and creative use of plants and flowers at their

stalls at the three-day garden extravaganza.

The aim of the awards is to reward those who produced a high standard of presentation, making it attractive to visitors attending the show and in particular, those who made use of plants and flowers to decorate or interpret their products. The judges were inspecting the stalls from a marketing perspective, judging them on their overall design and presentation, use of plants and flowers to decorate their stalls, attention to detail and interactivity with visitors of the show.

Highly Commended prizes were also awarded to the Northern Ireland Flower & Foliage Association (NIFFA) and handmade faux wreath company, Blossom Meadow.

Tasked with the job of whittling down the many wonderful stalls to find their winners were an esteemed judging panel. The panel consisted of Chris Flynn, Centre Director for The Junction & Leisure Park in Antrim, Shona

Mulholland from Mulholland Motors, Vanessa Elder from Castlewood Holiday Park and Brian McCarthy from Cork Rooftop Garden.

The awards were presented on the first day of the three-day garden show by ambassador and garden designer, Diarmuid Gavin. The winner, Sprout, received a handcrafted ceramic bowl by local ceramics maker Adam Frew

from Adam Frew Ceramics in Coleraine, whose work was exhibited in the Craft NI’s Craft Village of the show.

Creative Director of Garden Show Ireland, Claire Faulkner said: “Congratulations to our winner, Sprout.The judges were very impressed with the creative use of props and the use of the surrounding area of trees

and hedging displayed in their creations. Thank you to each and every one of our exhibitors for attending the show and displaying their tremendous businesses. It has been wonderful to receive such positive feedback in

terms of their sales.” This year the event introduced six new show areas.