Another national award for Valley talent
1 May 11
Phil and Roz Mather scored a major victory on April 1 when they were awarded The Best Medium Garden Centre in Australia by The Nursery and Garden Industry.
Phil and Roz have lived in Kangaroo Valley for more than 20 years and have owned and operated the Mittagong Garden Centre for 12 of these years.
For the past five years they have held the title of Best Medium Garden Centre in N.S.W. and A.C.T, but this is their first national win.
"It's tremendous" said Roz "To be awarded best in Australia is absolutely huge and I don't think my feet have touched the ground since the announcement"
The award was presented to Phil and Roz at a gala dinner held at Crown Casino in Melbourne.
"It was such a great night" said Phil. "The Nursery and Garden Industry are such a fantastic bunch of people and we celebrated well into the night."
"Thanks to the judges; I knew it was worth plying you with champagne" said Roz "And a zillion thanks to our great team at Mittagong Garden Centre; what a wonderful bunch." "Thanks also to Helen from Qantas in Melbourne who understood the importance of getting our glass award home in one piece in our fragile, bleary-eyed state."
The awards are a hotly contested event each year, and entries were up a whopping 70% in 2011.
When we asked Phil "What next?" he countered: "What next? We'll have to do it again next year."
The judge was full of praise for Mittagong Garden Centre and especially liked the ambience, the happy team and the "Brilliant Frequent Flowers customer loyalty scheme" "Well done to this magnificent business."