CHOOSE GARDEN CENTRES BY COUNTY BELOW
PLANTS AREA: Huge area, huge choice and well laid out
See lower down this article for a more comprehensive review of the Bridgemere Garden Centre plants area.
Plants Area Rating:
INTERIOR SALES AREA: An excellent area for spending a few hours
See lower down this article for a more comprehensive review of the Bridgemere Garden Centre interior sales area.
Interior Sales Area Rating:
CAFE: Two cafes, good food, reasonable decor, good service.
See lower down this article for a more comprehensive review of the Bridgemere Garden Centre cafe.
Cafe Rating:
DOG FRIENDLY? Bridgemere Garden Centre is dog friendly and welcomes well-behaved dogs in all areas of the garden centre except the main restaurant. The cafe has a pet friendly area.
VALUE FOR MONEY OVERALL:
Entrance to Bridgemere
Garden Centre
OPENING HOURS BRIDGEMERE GARDEN CENTRE |
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| Open | Close | |
| Monday | 9.00am | 6.00pm |
| Tuesday | 9.00am | 6.00pm |
| Wednesday | 9.00am | 6.00pm |
| Thursday | 9.00am | 6.00pm |
| Friday | 9.00am | 6.00pm |
| Saturday | 9.00am | 6.00pm |
| Sunday | 10.30am | 4.30pm |
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SIZE: Main cafe is large, the Kipling Patisserie is medium sized.
FOOD TYPE: The main cafe serves typical garden centre food with everything from coffees / teas, cakes, breakfasts to main and snack meals.
FOOD QUALITY:
The food we were served in the Kipling Patisserie was of good quality. We
sampled the broccoli and stilton soup which was tasty and was presented as a
good soup should.
We also sampled the Cake Mezze consisting of four mini-cakes and they tasted freshly made and full of flavours. If you like cakes, this is for you.
Food at Kiplings Patisserie
One cappuccino and one Americano, both tasted very good.
DECOR:
The decor in the Kipling Patisserie was basic but clean. The tables and chairs
were fine.
Cafe at Kiplings Patisserie
The main cafe areas was more attractively decorated but nothing special
OUTDOOR SEATING:
We didn't sample any of the outdoor seating areas
SERVICE:
Service was good with very little waiting time.
VALUE FOR MONEY:
The
Kipling offered good value. The Cake Mezze at £4.25 for 4 mini cakes or the
cakes and a coffee at £6.95 represented value for money.
Menu and prices at Kiplings Patisserie
(click it to enlarge it)
SIZE OF PLANTS AREA: The plants area at Bridgemere Garden Centre is huge, reputed to be the largest of any garden centre in the UK.
PLANT SELECTION:
Bridgemere Garden Centre is a very pleasant place to wander round if
plants are your choice. Many of the plants are arranged in rows but
there are several diversionary displays to provide lots of interest.
The plants are the star of this garden centre. Nowhere in the UK will you find a better selection of healthy specimens. They are fully backed by a well advertised five year hardy plants guarantee.
Compared to most other garden centres, Bridgemere specialise in every plant group. However, the range of roses is spectacular, the range of larger plants is excellent and the choice of trees, both ornamental and fruit, is huge.
Signs are a problem in a garden centre of this size and no solution is going to be perfect. However, there are lots of signs, a few to plant groups and some to individual plant types such as roses. All in all they've done a good job at directing shoppers to the plants they are interested in but you can expect to find it difficult to find some plants simply because of the vast size of this garden centre.
The Greenhouse People provide displays of garden buildings at several of the larger garden centres but they have really excelled themselves at Bridgemere Garden Centre and they also have an excellent choice of greenhouses and other garden buildings. The range is large and they are well displayed.
Whatever time of year, the display gardens at Bridgemere Garden Centre is well worth a visit. There are several well maintained gardens each with a particular theme. All the plants are labeled so if one takes your fancy you can buy it at the garden centre. Pleasant just to wander round, great if you are you looking for ideas, tables and chairs are provided if you fancy a picnic.
Map of display gardens
When Bridgemere Garden Centre was owned by Wyevale, entrance was free. Now the garden centre is owned by Blue Diamond, they charge £6 per person to enter the display gardens.
The plants are the star of this garden centre. Nowhere in the UK will you find a better selection of healthy specimens. They are fully backed by a well advertised five year hardy plants guarantee.
View of Bridgemere Garden Centre plants
Compared to most other garden centres, Bridgemere specialise in every plant group. However, the range of roses is spectacular, the range of larger plants is excellent and the choice of trees, both ornamental and fruit, top fruit is huge.
The plants looked to be in excellent condition, weed free, well watered and in the correct pot sizes. If you are interested in reducing your carbon footprint then you will be doing just that by buying your plants from Bridgemere garden centre - many of the plants they sell are grown on site.
LAYOUT:
Paths are wide and the majority are solid with very few
obstructions. The tender plants section, under cover, is normally
positioned to the left of the garden centre plants area. There are
also other covered paths which provide some protection from rain but the vast
majority of the area is open to the elements.
View of Bridgemere Garden Centre plants
VALUE FOR MONEY:
We
expected prices to be high at a garden centre of this type but surprisingly they
were about average.
SIZE: Very large
LAYOUT:
Nothing could be as impressive as the range of plants at Bridgemere
Garden centre but the interior sales area does a good job at trying!
Very large, it stocks everything a huge garden centre should and
more. The range of concessionary shops is impressive, a large
Hobbycraft and several other large concessions. The foodhall is particularly
impressive.
Foodhall at Bridgemere Garden Centre
There is also a large aquatics store at Bridgemere call Ripples. This stocks a comprehensive choice of fish, accessories and feeds. Just off Ripples is an excellent display of water features. Aside from the items for sale above, Bridgemere supply a good choice of others including, cards, gifts, garden furniture, barbecues, books, kitchen ware, food hall and lots, lots more. It is a great store for wandering around and passing an hour or two browsing and maybe buying,
VALUE FOR MONEY:
About average.
ACCESS:
Excellent
FACILITIES: Show gardens at a a cost of £6 per person.
ADDRESS:
Bridgemere Garden Centre
Nantwich
Cheshire
CW5 7QB
OWNER:
Blue Diamond Home and Garden
TELEPHONE NUMBER:
01270 360 003
EMAIL:
info@bluediamond.gg
WEBSITE:
https://www.bluediamond.gg/garden-centre/bridgemere-garden-centre
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23 May | Comment From: Denis |
| I've just come back from a visit and was amazed at the huge selection of plants at this garden centre. I wasn't keen on the inside though, some areas look a bit like a jumble sale. | ||
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24 May | Comment From: Mary |
| When privately owned this used to be a wonderful place to buy plants. Excellent quality and a massive choice of unusual varieties. It was bought by Wyevale a few years ago and now owned by "Wyevale Garden Centres".
I visited today. The place seems to have become a retail park which sells plants. The space allowed for plants which was vast, has shrunk and is now taken by plant pots, gazebos, garden sheds, ornaments and fancy paving stones etc etc.. The plants are no longer well labelled or described and the massive range of varieties of a plant, for example daylillies has gone. The plants are no longer cared for as they used to be. Today I found dried up, discoloured and dead bedding plants. The automatic watering system seems to have been dismantled and in the section for herbaceous perennials the plants were showing very obvious signs of not having been watered properly. I was told by an assistant that the numbers of staff there to care for the plants had been reduced and that this was why the watering was suffering. It is very sad to see that what was a superb place to buy plants, appears to me, to have lost its focus on providing good plants to making a fast buck out of a general retail business. |
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