Terms and Conditions for the ‘Spooky Plants - Scariest Photo’ Competition 2026

  1. The competition
    1. Visitors to all RHS Gardens are invited to take part in the ‘Spooky Plants – Scariest Photo’ competition, a social photo competition offering participants the chance to win a Halloween Jellycat bundle.
    2. The Royal Horticultural Society with registered charity number 222879/SC038262 of 80 Vincent Square, London, SW1P 2PE (the RHS) is the promoter of the competition.   
    3. By entering the competition, you agree to these terms and conditions, a copy of which is available at https://www.rhs.org.uk/competitions/scariest-photo-terms-and-conditions. Entrants under 18 must have the consent of a parent or guardian. Where an entry is submitted on behalf of a child by a parent or legal guardian, that parent or legal guardian confirms that they have read and accepted these terms and conditions on the child’s behalf. 
  2. How to enter 
    1. The competition runs from Saturday 24 October 2026 at 9.30am (the Start Date) to Sunday 1 November 2026 at 11.59pm (the Closing Date). The period between the Start Date and the Closing Date is the Competition Period.  
    2. To enter the competition, you must: 
      1. Take a photograph on the Spooky Plants Trail at one of our RHS Gardens (RHS Garden Harlow Carr, RHS Garden Bridgewater, RHS Garden Hyde Hall, RHS Garden Wisley or RHS Garden Rosemoor) during the Competition Period;  
      2. Share the photograph on your Instagram or Facebook account during the Competition Period; 
      3. Tag the relevant RHS Garden’s social media page and include the hashtag #SpookyPlants in your social post; and 
      4. Ensure your Instagram or Facebook account is set to public, or that the competition post is otherwise set to public, for the duration of the Competition Period so the entry can be viewed by the judging panel.  
    3. Competition entries received after the Closing Date will be automatically disqualified.  
    4. The RHS is not responsible for any technical failure, malfunction, interruption, loss of data, social media platform outage, or any other issue affecting Instagram or Facebook, internet connectivity, or any other system or platform which may result in any entry not being properly uploaded for any reason. 
  3. Eligibility 
    1. To enter the competition, you must be resident in the UK.  
    2. Entrants under 18 must have the consent of a parent or legal guardian. Entrants aged 13 to 17 may enter using their own Instagram or Facebook account. Entries for children under 13 must be submitted by a parent or legal guardian using the adult’s account. The adult will accept these terms on the child’s behalf and provide any permissions or information reasonably required by the RHS in connection with the entry or prize fulfilment. 
    3. You may not enter the competition if you are: 
      1. an employee of the RHS or its subsidiary companies; 
      2. an employee of the RHS’ agents or suppliers or its subsidiary companies, who are professionally connected with the competition or its administration; or 
      3. a member of the immediate families or households of (a) or (b) above. 
    4. To enter the competition, the photograph must: 
      1. Be taken by the entrant at a RHS Garden; 
      2. Reflect the theme of the competition; 
      3. Be the entrant's own original work and not infringe the intellectual property rights or other rights of any third party;  
      4. Where any identifiable individual appears in the photograph, the entrant must have obtained permission and consent from that individual for the photograph to be taken and entered into the competition and used by the RHS in accordance with these terms and conditions. Where an identifiable individual is a child age 16 or under, the entrant must have obtained the consent from that individual’s parent or legal guardian; and 
      5. Not contain any material that is offensive, defamatory, discriminatory, obscene or otherwise inappropriate. 
    5. By entering the competition, you confirm that you are eligible to do so and eligible to claim any prize you may win. 
    6. You may be required to provide the RHS with proof that you are eligible to enter the competition. 
    7. The RHS will not accept competition entries that are: automatically generated by AI or other computerised means; submitted by third parties or in bulk; illegible, have been altered, reconstructed, forged or tampered with; or incomplete. 
    8. Multiple entries are permitted, however, each entry must be a different photograph. 
    9. Except where a supervising adult submits an entry on behalf of a child, entries made on behalf of another person will not be accepted and joint submissions are not allowed. 
    10. The RHS may refuse entry, or refuse to award the prize, to anyone who has: 
      1. breached these terms and conditions;  
      2. acted in any way that goes against the spirit or intention of the competition;  
      3. submitted an entry that does not reflect the theme of the competition; or  
      4. failed to obtain any necessary permissions and consents relating to the photographs. 
  4. Judging 
    1. ​At the end of the Competition Period, all eligible competition entries from each RHS Garden will be judged by a panel of three representatives from that RHS Garden. The panel will include at least one independent judge who is not involved in administering the competition. The panel will assess the entries based on how effectively the photograph captures the spookiest, most 'scary’ moment at the RHS Garden Spooky Plant Trail. 
    2. One winner will be selected for each RHS Garden.  
    3. The decision of the judges nominated by the RHS (acting reasonably) is final and no correspondence or discussion will be entered into. 
    4. The RHS will send the full names of the judges to anyone who writes to the RHS requesting such information within one month of the Closing Date. 
  5. Intellectual Property 
    1. The entrant retains ownership of all intellectual property rights in their photograph. By entering the competition, the entrant grants the RHS a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to use, reproduce, publish, display, adapt and share the photograph for the purposes of administering, promoting and reporting on the competition and promoting the RHS and its charitable activities, in any media and format, for a period of two years from the Closing Date. 
  6. The prizes 
    1. Five prizes are available, one for each RHS Garden. Each prize consists of a Halloween Jellycat bundle with an approximate retail value of £100. 
    2. The prizes are supplied by the RHS. The RHS may substitute the prizes with prizes of equal or greater value. There is no cash alternative for the prizes.  The prizes are not negotiable or transferable. 
  7. Claiming the prize 
    1. The winners, or the parents/legal guardians who submitted entries on behalf of child winners, will be notified by direct message on the Instagram or Facebook account used to submit the winning entry. The winners will be selected and notified within 10 working days after the Closing Date. 
    2. The RHS will make all reasonable efforts to contact the winners.  If a winner does not respond to the RHS within 10 working days of being notified by the RHS, then that winner's prize will be forfeited. The RHS may then select another winner in accordance with the process described above. 
    3. In order to claim a prize, winners must respond to the RHS's notification and, where requested, provide such contact details as are reasonably required by the RHS to administer the prize. Depending on the nature of the prize, the winners may be required to collect a physical prize from the relevant RHS Garden within 28 working days of being notified by the RHS (unless otherwise agreed by the RHS) or may receive the prize, or details of how to redeem it, by email or other contact details provided by the winner. The RHS does not accept any responsibility if a winner is unable to take up, receive or redeem the prize. If a prize requiring collection is not collected within the specified period, the winner's claim to the prize will become invalid. 
    4. A third party may not claim the prize on your behalf, except where a parent or legal guardian claims the prize on behalf of a winning child. 
    5. The RHS must either publish or make available information that indicates that a valid award has taken place.  To comply with this requirement, the RHS will publish the winning photographs on its website and social media publicly. The RHS must also provide information and the winning entries to the Advertising Standards Authority on request.  
  8. Liability 
    1. To the extent permitted by law, the RHS, its agents or distributors will not in any circumstances be responsible or liable to compensate the winner or accept any liability for any loss, damage, personal injury or death occurring as a result of taking up the prize, except where it is caused by the negligence of the RHS, its agents or distributors or that of their employees.  Your statutory rights are not affected. 
  9. Data protection and publicity 
    1. Unless you have chosen to receive other information from the RHS, your personal data supplied for the competition will be used by the RHS for the purpose of running the competition, including contacting the winners and distributing the prizes, and as set out in these terms and conditions regarding the announcement of the winners.  Where an entry includes an image of an identifiable individual, the entrant is responsible for ensuring that any necessary permissions and consents have been obtained in accordance with these terms and conditions. 
    2. The RHS may contact the winners for photography and filming which may be published on RHS social media channels. The RHS will obtain necessary consents prior to any photography, filming and publications taking place. 
    3. The RHS may publish your name and winning photograph on its website, social media channels and other promotional materials for the purposes of administering and promoting the competition. Where the winner is a child, the RHS may publish the child’s first name and winning photograph, subject to confirmation from the child’s parent or legal guardian. 
    4. The personal data of all winners will be kept for 140 days from the Closing Date and then be deleted. 
    5. Please read our full RHS Privacy Policy to find out more about how we use your personal data and how to exercise your rights under applicable data protection laws.  
  10. General 
    1. The RHS may void, suspend, cancel, or amend the competition where it becomes necessary to do so. 
    2. These terms and conditions are governed by the laws of England and Wales, and the parties submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts. 

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