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 Wednesday, 28th May from 10.30am to 4.30pm the garden centre is organising a free wildlife day. The Science Boffins will be demonstrating lots of creature facts about butterflies, ladybirds, ants and other garden bugs and Jan will be visiting with his fantastic birds of prey, along with other wildlife organisations, for Notcutts’ ‘Look Out for Wildlife’ event.

The Guide Dogs for The Blind Association, will also 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, Will Howard. “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.”

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 Will Howard, 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 Will. “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 Will.

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).

NOTCUTTS STAFF RAISE £2,118.46 FOR HOSPICE

The Shooting Star Children’s Hospice in Hampton Hill received a welcome bonus after staff at Notcutts raised money for the charity. This week saw pet shop sales assistant, Lana Wright, handing over £2,118.46 to Alex Robinson, corporate fundraiser with Shooting Star.

“Like lots of firms we adopt a charity each year to fundraise for,” says garden centre manager, Will Howard. “Last year it was the staff’s turn to choose a charity and we had a unanimous vote for The Shooting Star Children’s Hospice. The staff really entered into the spirit of fundraising and we had raffles, leg waxes, guess the weight of the cake, wishing well money and lots of other activities to enable them to reach their target of £2,000. So it was great when they exceeded it with £2,118.46.

“In addition to this two Rotary Clubs, Shepperton Rotary Club and Shepperton Aurora Rotary Club benefited from Santa’s grotto and we handed over £2,510.00 to them recently so our fundraising total for 2007 was £4,628.46. So it is well done to all the staff and thank you for all their hard work.”

“We are very grateful to everyone at Notcutts Garden Centre for their enthusiastic support of our work,” says Alex Robinson, the charity’s corporate fundraiser. “This is absolutely vital in helping us raise the £3million that is needed each and every year to run The Shooting Star Children's Hospice.”

Shooting Star House Children's Hospice provides care and support to children and young people living with a life-limiting condition and their families. With 10 children's bedrooms, 6 family rooms and facilities including the hydrotherapy pool & spa, the sensory room and wet and dry play areas, the hospice offers a "home from home" environment to families who find themselves in the most unimaginable circumstances. With no current long-term statutory government funding, the £3 million required each year to run the hospice, comes from charitable voluntary donations and fundraising.

ROTARY CLUBS COIN IT IN FOR LOCAL CHARITIES

£2,510 has been raised for local charities from Santa’s grotto at Notcutts this year when the Rotary Clubs of Shepperton Aurora and Shepperton helped to run Santa's Grotto at the garden centre in the run-up to Christmas. On Thursday (10 January) a spade full of money was shovelled over to Jeremy Edwards, President of Shepperton Rotary Club and Pauline Hedges, Past President of Shepperton Aurora Rotary Club by Notcutts management trainee, Chantal Ricketts.

The two Rotary Clubs will divide the £2,510 raised equally between them to donate to their local charities. Hundreds of excited children had enjoyed visiting the grotto each meeting Santa and receiving a present from his sack.

Pauline Hedges said that she had had special little ears made for her role as an elf at the grotto and declared that the children were very amusing. She said that she was cold on one particular day and a little boy said to her, “You should be used to the cold because you come from Lapland.”

The Rotary Clubs have been looking after Santa at Notcutts for five years. This year Santa arrived on the special Rotary Club sleigh.

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 all fundraising at the Staines garden centre.

February half term, Friday 22nd February from 10am to 4pm, 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. The ever-popular What-A-Doodle Puppet Show will also be visiting the garden centre. Watch them get up to their tricks with performances at 11.00am, 1.00pm and 3pm.

“Guide Dogs have worked with Notcutts in helping to build up some very successful All About Dogs Days at other Notcutts garden centres,” says garden centre manager Will Howard. “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.

“During the year the money from our wishing well and fundraising within the garden centre will all be for the benefit of Guide Dogs,” continues Will. “This activity will all be complemented with regular visits by Guide Dogs volunteers and their puppies and dogs. We have always found that such visits are a hit with customers who have a warm spot for the adorable dogs.”