Specialist garden pinks grower Carolyn Whetman is this year's Grower of the Year.

The flower producer from Dawlish in Devon received the Syngenta-sponsored award last night on behalf of her business, HR Whetman & Son, at a gala awards ceremony at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.

Judges said they selected Carolyn as the overall winner because her firm demonstrated the best example of a business responding to consumer demand. The family-run company flourished once it moved away from just growing and supplying cut garden pinks – a relation of the carnation, to breeding and providing a range of plants for the garden, pots and patio planters.

Patrick Bastow, 34, scooped the NFU Young Grower of the Year prize for his three-year-old business Swedeponic UK, which is now one of the UK's leading pot herb producers.

Other successful candidates at this year's awards - presented annually by the NFU and publishers of the Grower magazine, Nexus Horticulture – included Frederick Hiam Ltd, winners of Hallmark Vegetable Grower of the Year; Paul Mansfield of RW Mansfield & Son – New Spitalfields Market Top Fruit Grower of the Year; Harry Hall – Field/Koppert Soft Fruit Grower of the Year; Jack Buck Growers – Rijk Zwaan Salads Grower of the Year; Goodend Produce – Marks & Spencer Organic Grower of the Year; Bury Lane Farm Shop – Grower Retailer of the Year; Watton Produce Co Ltd – HSBC Business initiative of the Year; Southern Glasshouse Produce – HRI Science into Practice Award; and Guy Shropshire of G's Marketing – Elsoms Seeds Lifetime Achievement.

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