The family-owned Perrywood Garden Centre in Essex is celebrating a series of successes at the national Garden Centre Association (GCA) Conference and Awards.

Perrywood, based at Tiptree, near Colchester, picked up the Worrall Cup award for Best UK Garden Centre Marketing Campaign, in recognition of a campaign which aimed to share a love of houseplants with a younger audience through a mix of events and in-store promotional activity.

The firm also came second in the Ruxley Rose Award for “destination” centres with turnover of more than £4m, which recognises the best plant areas.

And Perrywood was placed fourth out of the 100 outlets included in this year’s Garden Centre of Excellence ranking which is based on scores from the GCA’s annual inspection of all its members – up from 11th place in last year’s table.

Members are judged during their inspection on elements including customer service, merchandising, creativity and innovation and the quality and range of products.

Perrywood was praised for its plant displays and use of colours, impactful and easy buying displays within its gift shop and its commitment and focus on continuing to deliver a point of difference for their home grown plants.

Owner Alan Bourne, whose parents, Mary and Les, launched the business in the 1950s, said: “We are very pleased to have moved to 4th place in the GCA league table. This is an amazing achievement and is a testament to the hard work and determination of our entire team.

“Second place in the Ruxley Rose Award reflects our passion for plants and the knowledge and enthusiasm the team has. Both the plant area and plant production nursery teams should be incredibly proud of this accolade.”

Communications and HR manager Hannah Powell, added: “We are delighted to win the prestigious Worrall Cup and have given it to our houseplant team.”

The awards were presented during a gala dinner at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon. The event was hosted by comedian Jo Caulfield.