Go for green, rather than colour, RHS tells Britain in Bloomers
GARDENERS will be praised for using eco-friendly wild hedges rather than beautiful flowers, the RHS says, as competitors are told going green offers the best route to success.
The Britain in Bloom competition, which has been inspiring gardeners for more than half a century, will no longer place the beauty of floral displays at the forefront of its judging criteria.
Enthusiasts will instead be rewarded for using plants grown at home or in local gardens and nurseries, which help to reduce carbon emissions.
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) will encourage participants to plant perennials and herbs, which have a low carbon footprint, and will penalise the overuse of bedding plants such as pansies and begonias.
Ivy and moss will be promoted in urban areas to decrease the harmful effects of pollution.
Gardeners will also be asked to “consider the needs of wildlife” when creating their displays, such as avoiding trimming hedges in nesting season, and will be barred from using pesticides and herbicides.
As well as issuing guidance on acceptable plants and methods, gardeners will be offered the opportunity to take part in nature surveys that assess whether their display has increased biodiversity. Kay Clark, community development manager at the RHS, told the Daily Mail that the charity wants people to start using “green walls and roofs” and to buy local to “reduce climate change”.
“The campaign has moved away from the idea of beautiful flowers and making it all attractive, to improving the local environment and using plants as a way to do that,” she added. “We are really thinking about wildlife. They need to look at making habitats.”
The charity, which also runs the Chelsea Flower Show, has embraced ecological displays in recent years, with 2021’s event featuring giant installations made of recycled plastic and selfwatering plants.
Britain in Bloom was founded in 1964 after Roy Hay, a horticultural journalist, fell in love with gardening competitions while on a trip to France.
The annual event has branched out from judging locals’ hanging baskets and now takes place in more than 1,600 towns, cities and villages across Britain, with thousands of gardeners and volunteers vying to secure the coveted title of Champion of Champions.
The competition was last held in 2019, where the Scottish city of Perth was awarded the top prize.
‘The campaign has moved away from the idea of beautiful flowers to improving the environment’
The Royal Horticultural Society is giving new meaning to the term “green fingers”. First, it praised yellowing grass, telling the public that they should no longer water their lawns using the mains to help save the planet. Now, it has announced environmentally friendly judging criteria for the Britain in Bloom competition, which will penalise the overuse of plants such as begonias and reward wild hedges instead. It is good to see attention paid to the ecological benefits of gardens, as well as to the role of gardeners as custodians of wildlife. But it would be a shame if the gentle beauty of the well-tended garden were to be disregarded altogether. In their honourable concern for nature, the rewilders tend to forget the reason people care for their little patch of land in the first place: gardens are places for humans to enjoy, too.