Amateur Gardening

Sixty years of Britain in Bloom

Join the UK’s biggest floral celebratio­n

Britain in Bloom, the annual floral fantasia that brings so much joy and colour to town and villages the length and breadth of the UK, celebrates its diamond anniversar­y in 2024. This much-loved horticultu­ral jewel is 60 years old this year and in celebratio­n, its organisers the RHS have chosen ‘friendship’ as its main theme.

For the past six decades, horticultu­ral groups all across the UK have come together to sow and plant and tend everything from community allotments to High Street hanging baskets and municipal parks. Thousands of groups sign up to the annual event, which also has a grassroots off-shoot called It’s Your neighbourh­ood, and the winners are announced at a special ceremony in the autumn.

This year the RHS will be donating millions of seeds including sweet pea, cosmos and nigella to participat­ing groups as a way of shining a light on the importance and value of friendship­s made through caring for plants and a shared love of gardening. The flowers will be displayed in public green spaces and then gifted to people and communitie­s across the UK.

RHS community developmen­t manager, Kay Clark said: “We’re providing the seeds as a ‘thank you’ to all our existing groups and the hundreds of thousands of passionate volunteers who work with plants year-round to strengthen their communitie­s and improve the local environmen­t. “We are encouragin­g people to grow some of these flowers for wildlife, and share some as bouquets with friends and other people who deserve them in their communitie­s.”

The RHS will also be collecting and sharing stories of friendship­s formed through gardening to encourage more people to get stuck into community gardening. To find out more about Britain in Bloom and It’s Your Neighbourh­ood, and to get involved, visit rhs.org.uk/get-involved