UK: Proven Winners Design Competition with Provender Nurseries announce winner

Provender Nurseries, in collaboration with Proven Winners ^®, are delighted to have selected a winner for their Proven Winners Design Competition.

The three judges, Esther Wientjens of Valkplant, Mark Lane, award-winning garden and landscape designer, and Richard Burt, Sales Director at Provender Nurseries, selected the winning design by Spencer Lawrence of Spatial Garden Design, stating that the design had "'great plant combinations for all year-round interest, beautifully crafted documentation clearly highlighting the differences for each season and a real understanding of the brief."'

The Proven Winners Design Competition with Provender Nurseries was launched in October 2023 at their Problem-Solving Plants event and attracted over 20 entries from Provender Nurseries customers.

The brief stated that the design is to have maximum impact, will be used as a demonstration and educational area, comprise plants from the Proven Winners range, and that the plant choice should reflect all year-round interests. A list of Proven Winners plants was compiled from popular plant choices with Provender customers within the range.

Spencer of Spatial Design, a regular customer of Provender Nurseries, says, "When I saw the Proven Winners design competition, I thought it would be a really good opportunity to showcase my work. I was very inspired by the brief as Proven Winners have a great range of plants, all with very different characteristics. Working from a prescribed plant list would be a challenge, challenged further still as they were all shrubs, which would mean using them creatively – almost treating some as if they were small trees and others to play the role of herbaceous plants – which really captured my imagination."

On winning the Proven Winners Design Competition with Provender Nurseries, Spencer says, "To have your work scrutinized by such knowledgeable and prolific people within your industry and have it stand out in some way is a real accolade, and to have such positive comments to is amazing – planting plans are notoriously time-consuming, so it certainly made all the time and effort worthwhile!"

Richard Burt, Sales Director at Provender Nurseries, says, "the workmanship of all of the entries was extremely high with very different interpretations of the brief. Spencer showed an appreciation of each season and produced a well-thought-out plan with added details. I am really looking forward to seeing Spencer's design come to fruition."

Spencer's design will be planted in March in a prime position along the entranceway into Provender Nurseries.