A total of 28 garden centre staff are participating in this year's Westland Rising Star 2014 Programme.
The programme run by Westland Horitculture and Garden Centre Association (GCA) is now in its sixth year. Candidates will take part in three masterclasses throughout the year where they will receive coaching in all areas of retail merchandising.

After the first two masterclasses, only the most successful candidates will be taken through to the final round. New to 2014, the five most successful candidates will attend the GCA Conference in Chester in January, where they will give a presentation on what they have achieved throughout the year.

Westland marketing director Keith Nicholson said: "Each year the Rising Stars programme gets more and more successful and the standard achieved higher and higher. This demonstrates that horticultural retailing is a strong career choice, which is fantastic for the industry as a whole. We are proud to be once again supporting this initiative."

The Rising Star of 2014 will be chosen by conference delegates and the winner will receive their prize at the GCA's annual gala dinner on Tuesday, January 27 2015.