The Royal Horticultural Society has today celebrated 44 villages, towns and cities, as the finalists in this year’s prestigious RHS Britain in Bloom, the UK’s biggest community gardening competition.
Overall Winner was awarded to Newcastle-under-Lyme, in Staffordshire, and the 12 category winners, from 44 villages, towns and cities, were: Aberdeen; Better Bankside; Brandon; Churchtown; Darlington; East Haven; Kinnesswood; Lytham; Newcastle-under-Lyme; Oswestry; Redbourn and St Saviour.
The 44 community gardening groups had all impressed their local judges the year before, and been nominated to represent their region or nation in the UK Finals 2023. Britain in Bloom involves over 3,000 community groups and hundreds of thousands of local volunteers who work year-round to keep their neighbourhoods green and thriving.
Overall Winner Newcastle-under-Lyme achieved a gold medal in the Small City Category. Amongst its many gardening initiatives, it was recognised for its contribution to helping the town to become carbon neutral through planting a commemorative forest of 850 lime trees. The group also impressed the judges with the innovative and creative ways they worked with local groups, residents and school children to plant trees across the borough – with a ‘treetotalizer’ keeping a tally of 9,995 trees planted to date.
Category winners also included:
First time finalists Brandon in Bloom CIC, Suffolk, was awarded gold and crowned winners of the Town Category. Their work to ‘green-up’ the high street was praised for creating eye-catching displays in self-watering planters, that provided environmental as well as sensory purpose.
Churchtown in Bloom, Merseyside, the smallest entry with a population of just over 200 people, was awarded a gold medal and joint winners of the Village Category. The judges were impressed by their strength of community spirit and initiatives to engage all, including distributing wildflower seeds to every household.
In addition to being awarded a gold, silver gilt, silver or bronze, groups compete in categories including town, village and Business Improvement District, to be named overall category winners, and can be nominated for a series of special awards by the judges.
Special award winners included:
Kinnesswood in Bloom, Perth & Kinross, Scotland, was recognised as the winner of the Children and Young People’s Participation Award. They impressed the judges with their partnership with Portmoak Primary School, including their recent projects creating a school pond, wooden wigwams, willow tunnel and planting 135 fruit trees.
Abergavenny, Wales won the Sustainable Gardening Award. All the groups demonstrated plant friendly gardening, but Abergavenny really stood out with their holistic approach, which included inter-generational projects to get everyone in the community involved, citizen science, and sharing their learning and skills.
Darren Share, Chair of the RHS Britain in Bloom judges, said: “Our congratulations go to all the finalists for their incredible commitment and the difference their hard work makes to their communities. Groups were passionate and innovative, they showed how important it is for green space and environmental projects to be at the heart of community life.”
Rachel de Thame, presenting the awards, commented: “Britain in Bloom gardening groups give selflessly of their time and energy to make their communities better for everyone to enjoy. From engaging with young people, helping to grow food for those in need or providing plant displays to inspire a sense of pride – these groups are the heroes of our villages, towns and cities and keep our country blooming.”
Winners were presented with their trophies at the RHS Britain in Bloom 2023 awards ceremony, held in London, and unveiled to the public on BBC’s The One Show.
Full results of the RHS Britain in Bloom 2023 UK Finals can be found at https://www.rhs.org.uk/get-involved/community-gardening/news/articles/bloom-awards-results .
