June 15, 2014
Retail stores come in all shapes and sizes — family run, second or third generation, newly-owned, room for 20 flats or 2,000 flats — each with its own unique appeal.

We welcome you all to enter Landscape Ontario’s Garden Centre Awards of Excellence program in 2014. The retail program is open for entry from July 1 to 31; then closed again until 2015.

Categories were created by members of LO’s Garden Centre Sector Group, giving retailers the best opportunity to showcase their stores and provide an additional tool for marketing to their customers.

Categories include Outstanding Display of Plant Material, Outstanding Display of Goods, Other Merchandising Techniques and Permanent Display Gardens. Full details may be found at www.loawards.com, or watch for the brochure included in this issue of Landscape Ontario magazine.

To enter the Garden Centre Awards of Excellence, include photographs of your store. Look at the categories open for entry (there are 14 to choose from) and determine what your photographs should include. Also required is a project summary that explains what the photographs are showing and what you were trying to achieve (ie. “This display of hard goods was placed at the front of the store beside the bulb stock because …”). And, of course there is the fee. It is $75 per entry and is open to members only. Non-member entries will not be considered.

Winners will be announced at the Garden Centre Luncheon on Thurs., Oct. 23 at Garden & Floral Expo. We welcome your feedback any time, including suggestions for improvement to kristen@landscapeontario.com.