The Garden Centre Group-owned business in York has been granted planning permission to significantly expand the garden centre, bring brand new nursery facilities back to the site and develop a 200-seat restaurant.
The expansion will include brand new nursery facilities, which will grow a variety of herbaceous and hardy nursery stock. The new plant nursery aims to strengthen the GCG's 'distinctive character' and allow it to offer customers a modern garden centre environment firmly rooted in locally produced plants, said the gardening chain.

The all-new Poppleton Garden Centre, formerly known as Challis, will also create 50 new jobs and its extension will cover a sensitive Green Belt location.

Poppleton GC manager Michael Parker said: "This is a fantastic opportunity for us to offer our customers an even broader range of high quality plants at Poppleton, which has a long history of offering an excellent range of horticultural products.

"Importantly for the local area this will create up to 50 new jobs and will bring back nursery growing facilities to the former Challis site. The Garden Centre is already a key part of the lcal community, and we will work hard to expand this, by working with local schools, community and educational groups."

The work will start this summer and should be completed before the end of 2012. It comes just days after parent company the Garden Centre Group was officially sold to Terra Firma for £276m.