PLEASE READ THESE TERMS CAREFULLY
1. The terms that apply to your use of RHS Grow
1.1. Please read these terms (“Terms of Use”, “terms”) carefully before you start to use RHS Grow. By using RHS Grow, you confirm that you accept these terms and that you agree to comply with them. If you do not agree to these terms, you must not use RHS Grow.
1.2. RHS Grow is operated by The Royal Horticultural Society (“The RHS”, “We”, “Our”, “Us”). We are a registered charity in England & Wales and Scotland (charity numbers 222879/SC038262). Our registered office is 80 Vincent Square, London, SW1P 2PE and our VAT number is GB 461532757.
1.3. These terms apply to your use of RHS Grow, whether you access RHS Grow by the RHS Grow app or our website www.RHS.org.uk.
1.4. The ways in which you can use the RHS Grow app may also be controlled by the relevant terms of third party app stores where we make the app available (“App Platforms”), including the AppStore’s or GooglePlay’s (as applicable) rules and policies. Where there is any conflict or inconsistency with these Terms of Use, the terms of the App Platforms, including the AppStore or GooglePlay rules and policies (as applicable), will prevail.
1.5. The RHS Grow Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect about you, and how and why we use that information. The RHS Cookie Policy explains how we use cookies if you visit our website.
2. Supply and download of RHS Grow
2.1. RHS Grow is available for download from our website and relevant third party App Platforms.
2.2. Installation of RHS Grow is your responsibility. To use RHS Grow, your device must meet certain system requirements. These will be updated from time to time and can be found on the the information page of the RHS Grow app on the relevant App Platform.
2.3. If you download RHS Grow onto any device not owned by you, you must have the owner’s permission to do so. You will be responsible for complying with these terms, whether or not you own the device.
2.4. Subject to you agreeing to comply these terms, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable (except as expressly set out in these terms) limited licence to use RHS Grow as set out in these terms. To access some or all of the features or functionality of RHS Grow you may be required to create a user account and/or purchase a subscription (“Subscription”).
3. Subscription and Fees
3.1. At the time you sign-up for a Subscription you will be shown:
3.1.1. the functions and features you will have access to as part of your Subscription;
3.1.2. the duration of your Subscription (the “Subscription Term”), which will be automatically extended for successive periods of the same length unless you cancel your Subscription; and
3.1.3. any fees payable for your Subscription (the “Fees”),
3.2. You may cancel your Subscription at any time, as set out in clause 4 below.
3.3. If you have not cancelled your Subscription as set out in clause 4 at least forty eight (48) hours before the expiry of your Subscription Term, your Subscription will automatically renew for successive terms equal in length to your original Subscription Term. You will be charged additional Fees for each successive term until you decide to cancel your Subscription under clause 4 below or we otherwise decide to terminate your access under these terms. Subject to any statutory right to cancel that you may have, we cannot provide refunds for any Subscription that has automatically renewed and that you have not cancelled in accordance with this clause.
3.4. We may modify the Fees at any time, provided that any Fee change only becomes effective at the end of the then-current Subscription Term. We will provide you with reasonable advance notice of any change in the Fees, to give you an opportunity to choose to terminate or continue your Subscription before such change becomes effective. If you do not agree to the new Fees, you must cancel your subscription as set out in clause 4 and your subscription will expire at the end of the current Subscription Term.
3.5. When you purchase a Subscription, the App Platform will process the payment and be the merchant of record. You will be entering into a separate legal agreement with the relevant App Platform, subject to the App Platform’s standard terms and conditions (available on the applicable App Platform) which you are required to agree to in addition to these terms. Even when you agree to the App Platform’s terms, your use of RHS Grow remains subject to these terms. We are not responsible for services provided by the App Platform so it is important that you familiarise yourself with their standard terms and conditions which set out their obligations to you.
3.6. If you fail to pay any Fees by the due date for payment, your access to RHS Grow through your Subscription will be suspended until all outstanding Fees are paid.
3.7. From time to time, we may offer trial subscriptions for which no payment will be due for an introductory period (a “Trial Subscription”). A Trial Subscription is subject to these terms unless otherwise stated in separate terms provided at the time you enter into the Trial Subscription.
3.8. At any time, you may choose not to convert or continue to a paid Subscription by cancelling your Trial Subscription before the end of the trial period. You may cancel a Trial Subscription from the “general settings” menu on the RHS Grow app.
3.9. Unless you cancel the Trial Subscription via 'general settings' menu on the RHS Grow app before the end date, your Trial Subscription will automatically convert into a paid Subscription and you will be charged the applicable Fees for that Subscription.
3.10. We may restrict or cancel a Trial Subscription at any time.
4. Cancelling your Subscription
4.1. You may cancel your Subscription by accessing the “general settings” menu on the RHS Grow app.
4.2. You have a legal right to change your mind within 14 days of first signing up for a Subscription (including any Trial Subscription) (“cooling-off period”). If you cancel your Subscription before the end of the cooling-off period, then:
4.2.1. if you have not used RHS Grow through your Subscription during the cooling-off period, we will refund the Fees paid in full, and refunds will be processed via the App Platform.
4.2.2. if you have used RHS Grow through your Subscription during the cooling-off period (including by activating any Subscription), the cooling-off period will end and you will lose your right to cancel and receive a refund of the Fees for that Subscription Term; and
4.2.3. if you have used RHS Grow through a Trial Subscription, you may use RHS Grow through your Trial Subscription during the cooling-off period and still cancel up until the end date of the Trial Subscription.
4.3. Following the cooling-off period, you may cancel your Subscription at any time. So long as your request to cancel is sent via the 'general settings' menu on the RHS Grow app at least forty eight (48) hours before the end of your current Subscription Term, your cancellation will take effect at the end of your current Subscription Term.
4.4. We may terminate your access to RHS Grow, including under any Subscription, by giving you 30 days’ written notice at any time without reason. If we terminate your Subscription under this clause, we will refund a portion of the Fees paid which is proportionate to the unused portion of the Subscription Term.
4.5. We may terminate your access to RHS Grow, including under any Subscription, immediately by written notice to you if you commit a material or persistent breach of these terms which you fail to remedy (if remediable) within 14 days after issuing written notice requiring you to do so. No refund of Fees will be due if we terminate in accordance with this clause 4.5.
4.6. If your Subscription ends or is terminated for any reason:
4.6.1. all rights granted to you under your Subscription as set out in these terms end; and
4.6.2. you must stop your all activities authorised by your Subscription under these terms; and
4.6.3. we may remove and/or delete any or all of the content you have uploaded or posted to RHS Grow under your Subscription.
5. We may update, change, suspend or withdraw RHS Grow
5.1. We may automatically update and change RHS Grow at any time. This may include adding or removing products, services and functionality. Alternatively, we may require you to install updates to RHS Grow for these reasons.
5.2. If you choose not to install such updates or if you opt out of automatic updates you may not be able to continue using some or all of the features of RHS Grow and we will not liable for any loss or damage caused by failure to update.
5.3. We do not guarantee that RHS Grow, or any content on it, will be available or uninterrupted. We may suspend, withdraw or restrict the availability of all or any part of RHS Grow for commercial or operational reasons. Where feasible, we will try to give you reasonable notice of any suspension or withdrawal.
6. We are not responsible for viruses and you must not introduce them
6.1. We do not guarantee that RHS Grow will be error free, secure or free from bugs or viruses.
6.2. You are responsible for configuring your information technology, computer programmes and platform to access RHS Grow. You should use your own virus protection software.
6.3. You must not misuse RHS Grow by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful. We may report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them.
7. Conditions of use of RHS Grow
7.1. You must be 18 years or older to be eligible to register with us and to use RHS Grow. By using RHS Grow, you represent and warrant that you are 18 years or older.
7.2. RHS Grow is for personal, non-business use for individuals accessing RHS Grow from the United Kingdom only.
7.3. Your RHS Grow account is personal to you and must not be shared with any other person.
7.4. You must keep your account details for RHS Grow confidential and not disclose them to any other person. Your account details may include your identification code, password and any other security information.
7.5. You are responsible for all activity under your account even if someone else uses your account. You authorise us to act on instructions received under your account and we will not be liable for any loss that you might suffer through following such instructions whether by you or another person.
7.6. If we consider you have not complied with these terms or that there may be a security risk to RHS Grow, you or other users, we may disable any of your account details for RHS Grow, such as user identification code or password, at any time.
7.7. If you know or suspect that any other person knows your account details for RHS Grow, you must promptly change your log in security details using the RHS Grow account functionality.
7.8. The content on RHS Grow is for general information only and you should not rely on it. If you need specific advice, we recommend that you seek professional or specialist advice, such as through our members’ advisory service.
7.9. If you use our AI assistant which aims to help answer your gardening related questions (“RHS ChatBotanist”), you acknowledge that RHS ChatBotanist:
7.9.1. is not always accurate and has its limitations as set out in our FAQs;
7.9.2. may display information that is inaccurate or does not represent our views or values;
7.9.3. may refer to a third party product or service that does not indicate a recommendation or endorsement by the RHS.
7.10. If you are using RHS ChatBotanist and our feature to add notes and images of your plants and garden (“Notes”), you acknowledge that RHS ChatBotanist and Notes are not intended for users to provide any personal data and images of people and so you should not enter any personal data and images of people into RHS ChatBotanist and Notes.
7.11. Although we make reasonable efforts to update the content on RHS Grow and strive to provide helpful information via our plant identification service and RHS ChatBotanist, we make no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied, that the content is accurate, complete or up to date.
7.12. RHS Grow may contain links to other sites and resources provided by third parties. These links are provided for your information only and should not be seen as an endorsement. We have no control over linked sites or their content, and we have not approved them. We make no express or implied warranties with regard to the information, material, products, or services that are contained on or accessible through third party sites. Access and use of linked sites is solely at your own risk.
7.13. We have not verified or approved any information or materials posted on RHS Grow by other users. Any views expressed by other users on RHS Grow do not represent our views or values.
8. How you may use material on RHS Grow
8.1. We own, or have the rights to use all intellectual property rights, including copyright, in RHS Grow and its content. All rights are reserved, which means that no one can use RHS Grow or its contents without our
permission as set out in this section.
8.2. ‘The Royal Horticultural Society’, ‘RHS’, and our logo are our registered trade marks. You are not permitted to use them without our approval, unless they are part of material you are using as permitted under this clause 8.
8.3. You may print off one copy and download extracts of any pages from RHS Grow for your personal use.
8.4. You must not modify in any way any materials you have printed or downloaded, or use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics without any accompanying text.
8.5. Other than for your own user-generated content, you must acknowledge our status, and that of any identified contributors, as the authors of content on RHS Grow. You must not represent that answers from RHS ChatBotanist are human generated.
8.6. You must not re-sell or use any content on RHS Grow for commercial purposes.
8.7. If you print off, copy, download, share, repost or use any part of RHS Grow in breach of these Terms of Use, we may: (a) end your right to use RHS Grow with immediately effect; and (b) require that you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made. This right is in addition to any other rights we may have.
8.8. You must not conduct, facilitate, authorise or permit any text or data mining or web scraping in relation to RHS Grow. This provision is an express reservation of our rights. It applies to the extent that we are able to exclude or limit text or data mining or web scraping activity by contract under applicable law.
9. Rules about linking to RHS Grow
9.1. You may link to RHS Grow, provided the link:
9.1.1. is from a website that you own that meets the equivalent content standards that are required under these Terms of Use;
9.1.2. does not suggest any form of association with the RHS, or approval or endorsement by the RHS;
9.1.3. is to the RHS Grow home page on the RHS website or to an app store only; and
9.1.4. does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it; and
9.1.5. complies with applicable laws.
9.2. You must not frame RHS Grow on any other site.
9.3. We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice.
10. Any content you upload to RHS Grow, including for the plant identification service, RHS ChatBotanist and Notes
10.1. If you post or upload any content to RHS Grow, including any images to the plant identification service, questions and feedback to RHS ChatBotanist, and text, images, ratings and tags in Notes, you must ensure the content:
10.1.1. is not confidential;
10.1.2. is owned by you and does not infringe another person’s or organisation’s intellectual property rights;
10.1.3. does not reveal any person’s image or identity without their express consent;
10.1.4. complies with our content standards in clause 11; and
10.1.5. complies with applicable laws.
10.2. You retain your ownership rights in your content. You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, transferable licence to use, store, copy, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform your content: (a) to make it available to other users and to provide RHS Grow and its services; (b) to develop and improve of RHS Grow and other RHS products and services; (c) to promote the RHS and RHS Grow; and (d) for any of other technical, research, internal, charitable or commercial purpose of the RHS, but we will not sell your content to a third party. You waive all moral rights in the content including, for example, the right to attribution of authorship. We will own all derivative works and compilations created by us which incorporate your content.
10.3. We may store and use the anonymised results generated by your use of our plant identification service, RHS ChatBotanist and Notes for any purpose, including for improving RHS Grow, our plant identification service, RHS ChatBotanist and Notes; and for research, charitable and commercial purposes. Any use of your personal data by the RHS is as set out in the RHS Grow Privacy Policy.
10.4. If you upload any content to RHS Grow, including saving content to your personal space, you are solely responsible for securing and backing up any content you upload.
10.5. If we consider that your post or content does not comply with the content standards set out in these Terms of Use, we may remove it and any other post or content that you make on RHS Grow. This right is in addition to any other rights we may have.
10.6. We may disclose your identity to any third party: (a) to the extent permitted under our privacy policy or (b) as required to comply with applicable law.
11. Content standards
11.1. The standards in this clause 11 apply to any content, material and images which you contribute to RHS Grow. The standards must be complied with in spirit as well as to the letter. The standards apply to each part of your content as it taken as a whole. We may determine, at our discretion, whether your content breaches these content standards.
11.2. Your content must: (a) be accurate, where it states facts; (b) be genuinely held, where it states opinions; and (c) comply with the applicable laws.
11.3. Your content must not: (a) be defamatory of any person; (b) be obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory; (c) bully, insult, intimidate or humiliate; (d) promote sexually explicit material; (e) include child sexual abuse material; (f) promote violence; (g) promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age; (h) infringe any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person; (i) be likely to deceive any person; (j) breach any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence; (k) promote any illegal content or activity; (l) be in contempt of court; (m) be threatening, abuse or invade another's privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety; (n) be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person; (o) impersonate any person or misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person; (p) give the impression that the content comes from us, if this is not the case; (q) advocate, promote, incite any party to commit, or assist any unlawful or criminal act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse; (r) contain a statement which you know or believe, or have reasonable grounds for believing, that members of the public to whom the statement is, or is to be, published are likely to understand as a direct or indirect encouragement or other inducement to the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism; or (s) contain any advertising, marketing or promote any services or web links to other sites.
11.4. You agree not to take any action which imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on the software’s infrastructure. In addition, you agree to comply with any acceptable use policy published by us from time to time.
12. Our responsibility for your loss or damage
12.1. We do not exclude or limit our liability to you in any way that would be unlawful to do so. This includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or the negligence of our employees, agents or subcontractors and for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.
12.2. As we only provide RHS Grow for domestic and personal use, you agree not to use RHS Grow for any
commercial or business purposes. We have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.
12.3. If we fail to comply with these terms, we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking these terms or our failing to use reasonable care and skill, but we are not responsible for any loss or damage that is not foreseeable. Loss or damage is foreseeable if either it is obvious that it will happen or if, at the time you entered into these terms, both we and you knew it might happen.
12.4. If we supply defective digital content that damages a device or digital content belonging to you and this is caused by our failure to use reasonable care and skill, we will either repair the damage or pay you compensation. However, we will not be liable for damage that you could have avoided by following our advice to apply an update offered to you free of charge or for damage that was caused by you failing to correctly follow installation instructions or to have in place the minimum system requirements advised by us.
13. Your responsibility for our loss or damage
13.1. You will be liable to us if you fail to comply with these Terms of Use. This means you will be responsible for any loss or damage that we suffer as a result of your not complying with these Terms of Use.
14. Events Outside Our Control
14.1. An “Event Outside Our Control” means any act or event beyond our reasonable control, including without limitation failure of public or private telecommunications networks.
14.2. We will not be liable or responsible if an Event Outside Our Control causes our failure to perform, or delay in performance of, any of our obligations under these.
14.3. If an Event Outside Our Control takes place that affects our performance of our obligations under these terms:
14.3.1. our obligations under will be suspended and the time for performance of our obligations will be extended for the duration of the Event Outside Our Control; and
14.3.2. we will use our reasonable endeavours to find a solution so that we can perform our obligations despite the Event Outside Our Control.
15. We may make changes to these terms
15.1. We may need to change these terms to reflect changes in: (a) RHS Grow, including changes to features and functionality; (b) Subscriptions or other payment models; (c) law or best practice.
15.2. We will try to give you at least 30 days’ notice of any material change by notifying you of a change when you next start RHS Grow, or by emailing you at the email address you provided when registering your account.
15.3. If you do not agree to the notified changes, you should cancel your Subscription and stop using RHS Grow. If you continue to use RHS Grow, you will be deemed to have accepted the changes.
16. Communications between us
16.1. If you wish to contact us in writing, or if these terms requires you to give us notice in writing, you can send this to us by email to us at [email protected]. We will confirm receipt of this by contacting you in writing at the email address or postal address you provided to us when you register your account.
16.2. If we have to contact you or give you notice in writing, we will do so by emailing the email address you
provided in registering your account.
17. How this contract can be transferred
17.1. We may transfer our rights and obligations under these Terms of Use to any third party, provided this does not adversely affect your rights under these Terms of Use.
17.2. You may only transfer your rights or your obligations under these terms to another person if we agree in writing
18. Third party rights
18.1. This contract is between you and us. These terms do not give rise to any rights to any third party to enforce any term.
19. Delays in enforcing rights
19.1. If we do not insist immediately that you do anything you are required to do under these terms, or if we delay in taking steps against you for being in breach of these terms, that does not mean that you do not have to do those things and it will not prevent us taking steps against you at a later date.
20. Governing law and jurisdiction
20.1. These Terms of Use are governed by the laws of England & Wales. If mandatory statutory consumer protection regulations in your country of residence contain provisions that apply by application of applicable law, those provisions apply regardless of the choice of the laws of England & Wales.
20.2. The courts of England and Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction except that if you are a resident of Northern Ireland you may also bring proceedings in Northern Ireland and if you are resident of Scotland, you may also bring proceedings in Scotland.
