Britain In Bloom Explained

The Britain in Bloom competition was first held in 1964 and has been organised by the Royal Horticultural Society since 2002.

The competition is entered by cities, towns and villages across the UK and is divided into categories so only communities of a similar size compete against each other.

Entrants are assessed for their achievements in three ‘core pillars’: Horticultural, Environmental Responsibility and Community Participation.

Judging takes place each Summer, when judges visit the communities to assess them.  However, they do expect to see evidence of year round activity as part of this.  The results are announced at an annual awards ceremony each Autumn.

The Awards granted follow the RHS medal standards of Gold, Silver Gilt, Silver, Bronze or Certificate of Commendation.  There is also a series of Judges’ Discretionary Awards to highlight outstanding achievement in a variety of areas.

Over 1,000 communities around the UK enter each year and it is estimated that over 200,000 volunteers are involved with In Bloom nationally.

The first stage of entering is for communities to take part in regional heats.  From these, approximately 70 communities are selected to enter the national Britain in Bloom Finals the following year. 

South West in Bloom

South West in Bloom is the name of the local area’s regional heats of Britain in Bloom.  The communities participating in this come from Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, West Dorset, Somerset, South Gloucestershire and most of Wiltshire.

Again, communities from these areas compete against each other based on their electoral roll population size.  The competition follows the same judging criteria as the national finals.

As well as the City of Bath, there are also various towns and villages entering the South West in Bloom competition from the Bath and North East Somerset district.  

For further information on South West in Bloom visit their website.

RHS ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’

This ‘sister campaign’ to In Bloom was launched by the RHS in 2006 to reward voluntary and community groups that want to ‘clean up and green up’ their areas.  A group can enter this, even if the wider community in which the project is based does not enter Britain In Bloom.  At present there are over 50 ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ projects in Bath and North East Somerset. 
For more information on the "Its your neighbourhood" scheme visit the South West in Bloom website.

RHS ‘’Its Your Neighbourhood’ Marking: