RHS gives 104-year-old plant award a makeover

Following a period of consultation and development with RHS Expert Groups, the trade, RHS Members and the public, the RHS Award of Garden Merit is being renamed RHS Recommended: Award of Garden Merit. The long-standing award, established in 1922 and given a logo in 2011, will continue to give gardeners a trusted stamp of approval on plant labels.

Clare Matterson, RHS Director General, says: “The RHS aims to make gardening accessible to all, regardless of ability. This new name recognises the long tradition of the award, while making it clearer for all gardeners that any plant with the RHS Recommended: Award of Garden Merit logo has proven reliable in expert-led RHS Trials.”

Testing and observing in our DNA

While the change is subtle, it makes explicit that these plants have been rigorously tested in RHS Plant Trials and by expert growers, and have performed exceptionally well. Trials have long been central to the work of the RHS. The first recorded formal judging of Plant Trials by committee took place in 1860 at the former RHS Garden in Chiswick. Since the move to RHS Garden Wisley in 1904, trials have continued there and have since expanded to other RHS Gardens.

Expert growers and specialists come together for the Lantana RHS Plant Trial

Each year, new awards are given to plants scrutinised by expert growers or assessed through RHS Trials lasting up to five years. “RHS Trials can contain 20 to 100 plants, and are overseen by up to 10 judges,” says Emma Allen, RHS Head of Horticultural  Relations. “The judges, from diverse horticultural backgrounds, may be RHS Expert Group members, from commercial or specialist nurseries, or Plant Heritage National Plant Collection holders. They inspect the plants up to four times a year then debate which get the award, based on strict criteria such as pest or disease resistance. Gardeners can trust plants with this award to be excellent and reliable.”

The first plant to receive the award, in January 1922, was Hamamelis mollis (Chinese witch hazel). The list of awards is periodically reviewed to ensure plants that have been superseded by better cultivars are removed. As a result, H. mollis no longer holds the award, but two cultivars, H. mollis ‘Wisley Supreme’ and H. mollis ‘Jermyns Gold’, do.

Hamamelis mollis with fragrant golden-yellow flowers in late winter

The future of plant recommendations

Introducing the words RHS Recommended also creates a clearer framework for bringing other RHS plant lists under a single, trusted umbrella. In future, recommendations such as RHS Plants for Pollinators, as well as groupings based on plant performance or purpose, including flood resistance or drought tolerance, will sit under the RHS Recommended stamp of approval.

Adam Taylor, Director of Taylors

These are fleshy, rounded, underground storage organs, usually sold and planted while dormant. Examples include daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, lilies, onions and garlic. The term is often used to cover other underground storage organs, including corms, tubers and rhizomes.

Find out more about the RHS Recommended: Award of Garden Merit. For enquiries regarding commercial or trade use of the logo, please email [email protected]