garden centre chain . for other uses see van hage disambiguation . this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . january 2011 learn how and when to remove this template message van hage limited industry gardening founded 1968 products garden centres website van hage homepage van hage is a british based garden centre chain that has over 50 years experience in garden plant garden equipment design and leisure retailing . the chain currently operates three centres two in hertfordshire and one in peterborough cambridgeshire . contents 1 history 2 awards 3 centres 4 reference list history edit theadora warmerdam co founder of van hage was evacuated from the netherlands to england during the second world war in 1940 . as the eldest of 6 children theadora took over the running of the family business at the age of 20 when her father died in 1948 . cornelius van hage co founder of van hage a young entrepreneur who exported bulbs from the netherlands to the uk . he met theadora and they were married in 1953 . during the same year they opened a nursery on the site of a run down pig farm at spitalbrook in broxbourne . the van hage s saw the opportunity to create a garden centre with a difference from the experience they had gained . they purchased the famous rose nursery of chaplin brothers at gt . amwell . the garden centre was formally opened by percy thrower the top national gardening celebrity of the 1970s . van hage has continued to grow and develop into one of the pre eminent and largest garden and leisure retailers in the united kingdom . as part of this development in 1996 a second garden centre was purchased chenies in amersham . in more recent years the company has added another centre to its portfolio . this being at the new peterborough garden park development in peterborough cambs uk . the van hage garden centre takes centre stage as part of the development which includes a number of smaller retail units . awards edit the company has received a number of industry awards . these include best houseplant centre in the uk best plant area best garden centre best christmas display best uk flower bulb display and a best garden in show at chelsea receiving the fiskars sword of excellence . in 2002 the van hage team won a gold medal at the chelsea flower show for their bridal garden . 1 centres edit van hage peterborough is located as part of the new peterborough garden park development . voted best garden centre in the midlands . van hage great amwell van hage chenies near rickmansworth reference list edit van hage awards . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title van hage & oldid 716682114 categories organizations established in 1968horticultural companies of the united kingdomhidden categories articles needing additional references from january 2011all articles needing additional references navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 23 april 2016 at 05 05 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view