Notcutts, Norwich What's On May 2008 - June 2008 For a full programme of events throughout the year pick up a What"s On leaflet from the garden centre now. 2008 Charity We are delighted to announce that Guide Dogs for the Blind is our company charity for 2008, look out for fund-raising events at the centre throughout the year. Look Out for Wildlife – Thursday 29th May – 10.30am to 4.30am Come and see Kate with her Mini Monsters Road Show, other wildlife organisations will also be here. Look Out for Wildlife Calling all children – enter Notcutts Wildlife competition for your chance to win a Bird Box Camera for your school and £50 in wildlife products for you. All you have to do is to paint or draw pictures of wildlife and bring them into the garden centre to be displayed. The winner will be announced at the end of May.   BBQ Demonstration Day – Sunday 8th June– 10.30am to 4.30pm Lots of useful tips and demonstrations on how to make the most of your BBQ for summer entertaining.

News May 2008 - June 2008   BEETROOT JUICE SALES SOAR Sales of beetroot juice, both in the restaurant and shop, are soaring at Notcutts since the media reported that drinking 500ml of beetroot juice a day can significantly reduce blood pressure. “We realised that we were constantly replenishing stocks of James White Beetroot Juice,” says James Debbage, garden centre manager. “James White juices always sell well but we were surprised that we were ordering far more of the beetroot variety and the reason is that people have discovered that it helps to cut blood pressure. “The key beneficial ingredient appears to be nitrate, which is also found in green, leafy vegetables,” continues James. “We are finding that more and more customers want to grow their own vegetables, whether it be in containers, their gardens or on allotments, that we have significantly increased our kitchen garden range to meet that demand. Some people don’t like germinating their own seeds, some people want just a few plants and others lose seedlings to the elements or pests and so they come into the garden centre to buy established plants in the kitchen garden range. Coupled with the huge range of seeds we stock, there is something for the novice to the most experienced vegetable grower.” “Beetroot is so easy to grow and now is the time to plant it. There are so many delicious recipes you can create using beetroot, but if you don’t want to grow them yourselves then the garden centre has beetroot juice,” says James. Researchers discovered that in healthy volunteers blood pressure was reduced within an hour of drinking the juice. The study, by Barts and The London School of Medicine and the Peninsula Medical School, could suggest a low-cost way to treat hypertension. Previously, the protective effects of vegetable-rich diets have been attributed to their antioxidant vitamin content. Professor Amrita Ahluwalia of Barts and The London School of Medicine says, “Drinking beetroot juice, or consuming other nitrate-rich vegetables, might be a simple way to maintain a healthy cardiovascular system.” (source BBC news website. Image by Mike Hammett WATCH THE BIRDIE – WIN A CAMERA For a chance to win a Bird Box Camera for their school and £50 worth of wildlife products for themselves, children can enter Notcutts ‘Look Out for Wildlife’ competition. All children have to do is to paint or draw pictures of wildlife and bring them into the garden centre to be displayed. The winner will be announced at the end of May and children can visit the garden centre in half term to see the pictures entered into the competition. On Thursday 29th May, from 10.30am to 4.30pm, the garden centre is organising a free wildlife day when Kate and her Mini Monsters Road Show, along with other wildlife organisations and The Guide Dogs for The Blind Association, will be visiting the garden centre. There will be lots of free to enter competitions with some great prizes to be won including an exclusive family outing to the Guide Dogs breeding establishment. As The Guide Dogs for The Blind Association is Notcutts chosen charity this year there will be a special wildlife treasure hunt map at £1 a go (proceeds to Guide Dogs) with the prize being the exclusive family visit. “As our customers, and particularly children, are very interested in wildlife we often organise wildlife days in school holidays,” says garden centre manager, James Debbage. “There was so much interest in the bird box cameras last year, with some of the garden centres actually having nests in their boxes, that we thought it would make an excellent prize for schools. The bird box camera is just one of 460 wildlife products we stock, so there’s something for everyone.” WHAT’S NEW AT NOTCUTTS? More than 20 growers, suppliers and organisations will be sharing their expert knowledge with customers at a special open evening at Notcutts on Thursday 6th March from 6.30pm until 9.00pm. You can find out what’s new in gardening this year and meet the people who make gardening what it is today. Famous names include Thomson and Morgan, John Woods Nurseries, the RSPB and Beefeater Barbeques. Visitors can also meet the team from the award winning Horstead Farming Group, who will be opening their brand new retail farm shop in the garden centre in early March. “It is great news that Horstead Farming Group will be opening their brand new retail farm shop in the garden centre,” says garden centre manager James Debbage. “The open evening is a great opportunity for visitors to come and see what they will have on offer. Come along and see all their wonderful locally grown produce that you will be able to buy in future at Notcutts.” “We had such a successful spring launch evening last year, that we found even more suppliers wanted to show off their new products for the new gardening season at Notcutts this year. It’s great that so many suppliers want to support us. It is bound to be a productive evening for all our visitors,” says James. Visitors can also view Notcutts new season’s furniture collection, take advantage of a 15% discount off most products within the centre and relax in our restaurant the restaurant. THE GARDEN CENTRE THAT KNOWS ITS ONIONS! Garden centre staff have been declared “Brains of Norwich”. The garden centre entered the competition organised by Radio Norwich and came joint first with a financial services company scoring 24 out of 25 for questions on general knowledge. Says garden centre manager, James Debbage, “Each week day lunch time a team from the garden centre went on air to answer five general knowledge questions and beat 25 other companies.” Each day a different small group of employees took part. “ We believe that part of the reason for our success is the wide cross section of people that work in the garden centre of both sexes,” says James, “and all ages with a wide variety of interests. There were, however, perhaps one or two lucky guesses!” The team won a bottle of champagne and a certificate, which is currently being displayed for all the garden centre’s customers to see. All members of staff who took part put their names into a hat to decide who should take the champagne home. “I am personally very proud that our team has proved that people employed in horticulture are very intelligent!! To get just one question wrong all week is a fine achievement by anyone’s standards!” concludes James. NOTCUTTS CHOOSE GUIDE DOGS FOR THE BLIND AS THEIR 2008 CHARITY Notcutts has chosen Guide Dogs for The Blind Association as their 2008 charity. Guide Dogs will benefit from fundraising at the garden centre, plus they will also be the principal benefactors from Notcutts popular ‘All About Dogs Day’, hosted by TV’s Peter Purves, which includes Scruffts heats, the Kennel Clubs popular crossbreed competition. ‘All About Dogs Day’ will be held at the garden centre on Thursday 31st July. February half term will see the official launch of the fundraising with Guide Dog puppies, their handlers and GDBA volunteers in the garden centre talking to customers about the organisation and its work on Friday 15th February from 10.30am to 4.30pm. Also in the garden centre will be Jan with is fabulous birds of prey, the Science Boffins to enthral children with the wonders of science and Kate with her Creepy Crawlie road show. “For the past couple of years Notcutts has worked with Guide Dogs building up very successful All About Dogs Days,” says garden centre manager, James Debbage. “The organisation was so professional and supportive at these events that we all voted to work with them in 2008 and extend our support to fundraising across the group. “It’s great to be holding another All About Dogs Day, which was piloted at Norwich and are now held at four Notcutts garden centres, including heats of Scruffts heats, plus celebrity dogs Wellard and Terrence from East Enders will be here. Last year winning dogs from the Scruffts heats at Notcutts in Cambridge, Norwich and Oxford went on to Discover Dogs at Earls Court and won three out of the four Scruffts categories and one was overall champion,” continued James.   Click here to see news and photos of September's .

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