Award of Garden Merit

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Test field for the Award of Garden Merit at RHS Garden Wisley

The Award of Garden Merit (AGM), often abbreviated as Award of Merit, is an award from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). The RHS awards these to plants that are particularly suitable for horticulture in the British Isles. The RHS distinguishes plants that on the one hand significantly enhance the garden, but which can also be grown without any major problems for hobby gardeners. Of the approximately 100,000 varieties of plants available in the UK, approximately 7,100 have an Award of Garden Merit.

The Award of Merit is divided into different climatic degrees of hardness. Plants are awarded once and keep the award. However, the award can be withdrawn if better cultivars appear on the market.

history

The RHS introduced the award in 1922, but it was barely noticed. In 1992 there was a new start, the RHS decided to realign the award and call it the company's most important award. Trial plantings now played a bigger role than before. In addition, all of the awarded plants were checked again every ten years.

In the 2012 evaluation, around 1900 varieties lost their distinction, mainly because they were no longer commercially available or because they were susceptible to certain diseases. It was also possible that they have now been replaced by better varieties. In the same evaluation, 1400 new plants were added. Following the evaluation, the RHS decided to carry out the evaluation annually for certain categories in which the market is changing particularly quickly.

criteria

Criteria from 1992 to 2012

The RHS determines the following criteria:

  • The variety must have outstanding decorative or utility value for a garden.
  • The variety must be available.
  • The variety must be in good shape.
  • The variety does not need to require rare specialist knowledge or highly specialized equipment.
  • The variety must not be particularly susceptible to any particular disease or pest.
  • The variety must not have an excessive tendency to relapse.

Of the 100,000 or so plants on sale in the British Isles, around 7100 received an Award of Garden Merit.

Criteria since 2012

All plants traded in the British Isles are eligible for the Award of Garden Merit. This also includes fruits and vegetables.

The criteria have changed since the 2012 review. They are now:

  • The variety must be outstanding under appropriate conditions.
  • The variety must be available. Hobby gardeners need to be able to get reasonable quantities at reasonable prices without disproportionate effort.
  • The strain must be in good shape and generally healthy.
  • The variety must be stable in shape and color, and the plant reliably corresponds to the description.
  • The variety must be disease and pest resistant, and not particularly susceptible to any particular disease or parasite.

Degrees of hardness

There are no further gradations of quality within the Award of Garden Merit . The RHS divides the price according to the climatic requirements of the plant. Four degrees of hardness (with intermediate levels and further subdivisions) indicate the conditions under which a plant can be grown in the British Isles. The degrees of hardness are:

  • H1: requires a heated greenhouse
  • H2: requires an unheated greenhouse
  • H3: hardy in some regions of the British Isles, or plants in need of winter protection
  • H4: hardy throughout the British Isles

Intermediate levels are H1-2, H2-3, H3-4 and H1 + 3 (can be outside in summer, but needs a heated room in winter). For the plants that require heated greenhouses, the RHS adds a minimum temperature to the recommendations, which is given as either 15, 10 or 2 degrees Celsius.

Selection process

The award is given by permanent and temporary committees that the RHS convenes from a group of experts. In total, several hundred professional and amateur gardeners and experts are involved in the selection.The awards can be given:

  • after planting trials on a trial field
  • after visiting a specialized plant collection
  • after an extensive discussion by the responsible committee

The most important and most frequently used variant is that of the experimental plantings. The extensive discussions and advice especially play a role when it comes to evaluating ratings or withdrawing the title, as there are more suitable varieties.

There is no limit to the number of plants selected. However, the more plants in a group have already been awarded, the more the committees are instructed to interpret the criteria more strictly. It is also possible to withdraw the award again. This can happen when a plant is no longer available, when it has become susceptible to a particular disease or pest, or when it has been replaced by another, more suitable variety.

Remarks

  1. ^ A b Graham Rice: RHS overhauls its plant awards system , The Telegraph March 20, 2013
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Royal Horticultural Society: Award of Garden Merit ( Memento of the original from October 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rhs.org.uk
  3. ^ John Grimshaw: Launching the new Award of Garden Merit list , John Grimshaw's Garden Diary February 24, 2013
  4. ↑ Grimshaw p. 21

literature

Web links