RHS Photographic Competition
The winners of the 2007 RHS Photographic Competition have been announced!
Find out more about the 2007 winners
RHS Raffle 2007
The RHS Annual Raffle 2007 has now closed. The winners have been notified. Thank you to everyone who supported us this year.
RHS supports planting the right trees in London
The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, launched an initiative to help plant more trees suitable for London's changing climate at a conference in Delhi on creating sustainable cities. The 'Right Trees for London's Changing Climate' project is a partnership between the Mayor 's office, the Forestry Commission, Natural England, The Tree Council and the Royal Horticultural Society.
RHS wins media 'Oscars'
The RHS picked up three awards at the Garden Writers' Guild awards lunch at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London last week. The awards are regarded as the 'Oscars' of the gardening communication world.
Manolo Blahnik creates image for Chelsea Flower Show
Manolo Blahnik, the famous shoe designer, has created the image which will be used to represent the 2008 RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Grow Your Own VEG
The RHS Grow Your Own VEG Campaign, launched at the beginning of 2007, has been a great success, with thousands of gardeners signing up for our e-mail newsletters and taking advice on how to grow their own.
New masterplans for RHS gardens
The RHS has appointed The Landscape Agency to prepare the first phase of new masterplans for the four RHS gardens. A key aspect of the masterplan brief is to celebrate the geographical and seasonal distinctiveness of the RHS gardens, and make the most of their individual characters.
Hadspen is in your hands
Fifteen concepts - ranging from a forest of Sequoiadendron giganteum to a night garden - have been chosen as finalists in the competition to design the walled Hadspen Parabola garden in Somerset.
Fuchsia gall mite is in Britain
The fuchsia gall mite (Aculops fuchsiae) is a microscopic creature but it has a profound effect on fuchsia plants. The mite was found for the first time on the mainland of Britain in early September 2007 when samples of infested fuchsia plants were sent to the Royal Horticultural Society's members' advisory service at Wisley Garden, Surrey.
Passionate about plants
A Passion for Plants was the title of a BBC TV series that covered all aspects of RHS work as the UK's leading gardening charity.
To accompany the series there is also a book of the same name, published by BBC Books.
Full details about the book and the TV series
Nominations called for top RHS awards
The RHS is now accepting nominations for its top awards for 2007/2008. The awards include The Victoria Medal of Honour, the Veitch Memorial Medal, the Associateship of Honour and Honorary Fellowship. Nominations close 14 December 2007.
Read more about the awards and download nomination forms
RHS launches Campaign for School Gardening
The RHS has launched its Campaign for School Gardening, with a call to action to all UK primary schools to use gardening to teach the National Curriculum.
Garden Explorers also launched
Children and adults are getting a completely different view of gardens and what lives in them with the new RHS family membership package. Garden Explorers offers free access to the four RHS gardens and encourages children to take the lead and look beyond the flowers.
Britain in Bloom
The winners of this year's competition have been announced.
View the winners and find out more
Tesco buys Dobbies
After several months of wrangling, the supermarket Tesco has finally acquired the Scottish garden centre chain Dobbies.
Wyevale takes over Sanders Garden World
Sanders Garden World in Somerset, which is now a major gardening destination, has become the 116th outlet in the Wyevale group.
Mr alstroemeria dies
Peter J Smith, who became synonymous with alstroemerias and who was a regular exhibitor at many RHS shows, has died aged 67.
Plants for People & Places
This is the title of a Symposium being held at the Lindley Hall, Westminster, London, from 28 April until 4 May 2008.
RHS Online is a hit
The RHS website, RHS Online, won a HitWise Top 10 Award in two categories for the April to June quarter.
Heirloom vegetables making a comeback
Heirloom vegetables, particularly potatoes, will have a strong presence in the 2008 Thompson & Morgan seed and plant catalogues.
The future of bedding
Ball Colegrave, one of the world’s leading bedding and patio plant producers, announced its new plant ranges and reveiled some interesting gardening trends at its open day.
RHS signs wildlife manifesto
The RHS is among the UK’s leading wildlife and horticultural organisations who are joining Natural England in signing Let Our Gardens Live! - a wildlife gardening manifesto to save the nation’s gardens, particularly those in towns and cities.
Digital report
The Society's Annual Review is now available for the first time as an interactive digital version, including video clips.
View the Annual Review 2006 interactive edition
RHS awards for horticultural excellence
The RHS announces the recipients of its 2007 awards.
Sustainability tops the list of gardeners' concerns
A new survey reveals nearly three-quarters of British gardeners rank climate change and its effect on the environment in the UK as their biggest gardening concern.
Results of the RHS survey into cypress dieback
The results of the survey are now out.
Narcissi for naturalising
March and April are big months for daffodils. These versatile spring-flowering bulbs, not only look good in beds and borders, but they can be used elsewhere in the garden. Sparkling amid long grass, narcissi can be most effective in natural settings. Nigel Colborn selects his favourites for these situations.
View and download a lo-res pdf version of the whole feature (1.4MB)
View and download a hi-res pdf version of the whole feature (3.5MB)
View the colour plate of species and cultivars
To view the pdf documents you will need a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader. We strongly recommend that you download the latest version to prevent problems viewing the documents. This is available free from the Adobe website. Click on the logo to go to the website.
RHS top 10 pest & disease enquiries of 2006
The top 10 pest & disease enquiries received by the RHS Advisory Service has been announced.
Save our gardens
Following changes to planning law (PPG3) in 2000, gardens have been defined as brownfield sites. The implications of this are that developers are able to acquire houses with large gardens and put in planning applications.
Garden Organic has set up the Save our Gardens campaign - the national campaign against garden grabbing.
Visit the Garden Organic website and find out more
This was also the subject of the RHS Forum 2006 - What future for urban gardens: Eden or Extinction?
Developers reminded 'wildlife needs good neighbours'
Town planners should make biodiversity a core consideration within urban and suburban regeneration plans and purposefully create 'green networks', reveals the Wild About Gardens Discovery Survey, carried out by the RHS and The Wildlife Trusts in partnership with Ribena.
RHS wins media 'Oscars'
The RHS picked up three awards at the Garden Writers' Guild awards lunch at The Savoy Hotel, London last week. The awards are regarded as the 'Oscars' of the gardening communication world.
RHS Forum 2006
What future for urban gardens: Eden or Extinction?
Those lucky enough to have a garden attractive to developers may be surprised to learn that without you knowing, developers can apply for planning permission to demolish your home to make way for high-density housing. This was one of the topics up for debate at the RHS Forum 2006 - 'What future for urban gardens: Eden or Extinction?'
Water-efficient Garden Design Conference
Following a 200% increase in RHS member enquiries on drought-resistant gardening and water use in the garden since the summer of 2005, the RHS Horticultural Advisory Department organised a one-day conference on water-efficient garden design.
Wisley Mail Order online
You can now buy books online from the Wisley Bookshop.
RHS appoints new Director General
Inga Grimsey has been appointed as Director General of the RHS.
Gardening Matters
RHS advisors are producing a new series of leaflets and booklets providing practical and authoritative advice and information on garden-related issues.
The first booklet is Front Gardens - Are we parking on our gardens? Do driveways cause flooding?
The second is Watering in the Garden - Are we draining our water supplies? How can gardeners save water?, sponsored by Thames Water.
Grow your own calming cuppa
If you need a brew for your flu or a cure for a cough, turn to the RHS Fruit, Vegetable and Herb Committee’s recommended list of healing herbs to grow for tisanes, teas or infusions.
Hanburyana goes live
Hanburyana, published annually by the RHS Botany Department, is a serial dedicated to horticultural taxonomy. It is available both in printed form and online; it is not necessary to subscribe.
Green TV
green.tv, the world’s first broadband TV on demand channel dedicated to environmental issues, is now available online.
The future of horticulture
The National Horticultural Forum has commissioned a report into the future of British horticulture.
Find out if the future's bright
RHS calls for volunteers to help secure a healthy future for gardening
The RHS is calling for more volunteers at numerous locations around the UK to help it deliver its charitable activities and to secure a healthy future for gardening - and you don’t have to be an expert gardener.
Hedgehog rockets to UK's number one
Charities' national survey reveals attitudes to garden wildlife
The hedgehog has been named the UK’s favourite garden creature in a survey by the RHS and The Wildlife Trusts (TWT) for the joint project Wild About Gardens.
RHS Science Exchange examines exotic pest and disease threat
The RHS held a Science Exchange on 23 November 2005 to provide an opportunity to discuss the issue of whether we risk importing new plant diseases and pests with the increasing international trade in plants.
Gardening and health
Gardeners who grow their own fruit and vegetables could be the healthiest people, avoiding diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular problems.
RHS debate: A clash of the passions
While most gardeners have been setting about creating their own private paradise, has the image of our nation with gardening at its heart been suffering?
This was the subject of the 2005 RHS Debate Private Passion or National Indifference: Is gardening still core to the British way of life? hosted by The Garden.
Career changers featured in BBC series
Eight career changers who want to work in gardening professionally were given a unique opportunity to realise their dreams as part of a BBC television series hosted by the RHS at its garden in Wisley.
Project set to foster nation of healthy eaters
A project called ‘Open Future: Grow it! Cook it!’ to help young children learn about how to grow and cook their own food has been launched. The project is a partnership between the Helen Hamlyn Trust, the Royal Horticultural Society Flourish Campaign and the Focus on Food Campaign founded by the Royal Society of Arts.
Pots without peat: National Trust and RHS trials confirm success for peat alternatives
The National Trust and the Royal Horticultural Society has announced the results of a series of year-long trials that bring good news for environmentally-conscious gardeners.
Trees in a changing environment
The RHS, along with the Tree Council, Notcutts, UK Climate Impacts Programme and Forest Research, hosted a conference to bring home the implications of climate change to all those who plant trees.
High hedges
On 1 June 2005, regulations to bring Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 which affects high hedges, came into force.
RHS challenges gardeners to consider the science behind successful growing
During Science Week (11-20 March) the RHS asked gardeners to complete an online survey to find out which bits of gardening folklore they believed and which they didn't. What were the results?
The DEFRA Code of Practice on Invasive Non-native Plants
DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) has launched a new code of practice to draw attention to the problem of invasive non-native plants.
New RHS Council cartoon
As part of the celebrations of the RHS Bicentenary, Charles Griffin, cartoonist from The Sun newspaper, has drawn a new cartoon of RHS Council members.
Gardens Through Time
The RHS has built seven themed gardens at RHS Garden Harlow Carr reflecting the trends in gardening over the last 200 years.
Climate change affects bugs
Weather for gardeners
The RHS has introduced RHS Weathercall - a weather service for gardeners