February 2026 by Wendy Darter
The meal I was served yesterday at the Blue Water restaurant was barely edible.
It was a club sandwich. The bread was soggy, the bacon was hard and cold, not recently cooked, the egg yolk was solid. My companion was not served until later and her bruschetta was barely warm.
Very disappointing.
August 2025 by Paula P
This garden centre is amazing. Its absolutely vast, with every plant or bush or alpine you could think of. Theres a huge variety of pots too. It is enormous. Prices range from about 3.50 for small strawberry plants to over 1,000 for well established ornate trees. You could literally spend hours here. There is ample free parking on arrival too.
As well as the garden centre there are a few small shops...craghoppers just one of them, a huge restaurant, area for the kids to play (currently being renovated), sweets and alcohol along with a deli counter that sells amazing food such as lasagne, flavoured chicken, scotch eggs etc. Then we have the butchers which is small but amazing. I can highly recommend the steak stir fry, the bacon and the chicken schwarma kebabs. Well worth a visit.
Now for the pay in gardens. Entry is £8 per person so don't expect the same level as chatsworth or RHS Bridgewater. After being in the garden centre i felt quite disappointed. The walk in gardens are sparce with limited colour or amazing areas. There are plenty of areas to sit and chill and listen to water fountains, which is nice but it really could do with a burst of colour. Everything was so beige. The Japanese was quaint but lacked beauty. Its not a massive area overall and could be so much more if only more thought went into the planting. Sadly disappointed and definitely not worth the pay in fee. Sorry.
August 2025 by Craig
Great place to visit really nice garden centre
August 2025 by Andrew
Garden Centre is typical Blue Diamond layout. Outside shops ,lakeland,craghoppers papers hobby raft and ribble. Along with a show garden area which costs £8.00 ,this is in gardeners world 2 for 1, very pleasant day out.
August 2025 by Pauline
Disappointing. I did not see the show gardens , which I am told are splendid . However , garden centre part offers nothing different and I noticed many of the plants to be in poor condition , un- cared for , dead . Gives a dreadful impression and I left without purchasing . Some perfectly pleasant staff to whom I spoke re poor quality of plants stated that it was due to the hot weather . Given that this is a vast commercial enterprise I would expect there to be proper systems in place . Toilets also unpleasant .
August 2025 by Alidee Kittran Dorn (Dee)
Really lovely place. Lots to see too much to see in fact and the cafe was amazing. Gluten-free food available and it was warm (The scone) and they were just really polite, nice and considerate people.
Shout out to Melissa. Really good service.
Lost boyfriend in the fish and tanks area...he loves it.
????
August 2025 by Kimberly Dodd
Part of the Blue Diamond chain of garden centres, we visited the nearby show gardens (well worth a visit) at the same time. The garden centre itself is what you?d expect from Blue Diamond, fairly large, lots of choice, well stocked, with the addition of a staffed deli/pie counter in the food hall, also a cafe and restaurant, and a small market stall outside the food hall selling fresh fruit and veg ? definitely worth a visit if you?re in the area. Great indoor and outdoor plant sections too. The show gardens are beautiful, 16 gardens set in 6 acres of countryside; it is advised that it takes about 30 minutes to walk round, but it was such a glorious day and it wasn?t overly busy so we spent about an hour there. We paid £8 each for tickets at the entrance desk (there?s also an ice cream and snack kiosk here) but I know you can also buy yearly memberships for unlimited access.
August 2025 by Philip Yates
Extensive garden centre with restaurant. More than just plants, other shops to explore.
August 2025 by Cov Bloke
Great place to visit for all gardening needs.
Really nice breakfast too.
April 2025 by Janice Charters
The quality of the plants is largely poor. old stock, place usually bit if a Nmess!
March 2025 by Melissa Fox
Website claims to source local British food but I wouldn?t call EU meat local. Will not using another local from shop instead going forwards
March 2025 by Kate Roberts
Please support British agriculture in the cafe!
October 2024 by Alexander McCollom
This is a large garden centre. It is like a tardis. It has 2 places to eat and drink. Parts of it are lovely, some parts need updating. I think the toilets let it down. They need updating. There are lots of departments to browse
October 2024 by Rob Shergold
We live not more than 20 minutes drive from the Garden Centre. It has always been a nice place to visit with its wide selection of plants, interesting outlets and food areas. The gardens have been particularly good to see over the years, but today we were shocked to find that they are now £7 each to visit! It?s a small area and really if you are spending money there it really should reduce the cost of seeing the gardens. Service in the restaurants is incredibly amateurish and slow with very young servers finding their feet when all you want is a coffee and cake!
October 2024 by Jane Rogers
Lots of unusual items to purchase
