Plant Awards

Although there are other Awards we consider the most helpful one to be The Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit (AGM) which helps gardeners make informed choices about plants. You can spot the plants that we propagate that have this prestigious award by the letters AGM after their name.

This award indicates that the plant is recommended by the RHS. Awards are usually given after a period of trial at an RHS garden, often Wisley. Plants are judged by one of the RHS plant committees.

The AGM is intended to be of practical value to the home gardener. It is awarded therefore only to a plant that meets the following criteria:

• It must be of outstanding excellence for ordinary garden decoration or use
• It must be available
• It must be of good constitution
• It must not require highly specialist growing conditions or care
• It must not be particularly susceptible to any pest or disease
• It must not be subject to an unreasonable degree of reversion in its vegetative or floral characteristics

Plants of all kinds can be considered for the AGM, including fruit and vegetables. An AGM plant may be cultivated for use or decoration. It can be hardy throughout the British Isles, or suitable only for cultivation under heated glass. Though growing conditions and plant types may vary, the purpose of the award is always the same: to highlight the best plants available to the home gardener.

The AGM is only awarded after a period of assessment by the Society’s Standing and Joint Committees. Committees draw upon the knowledge and experience of a wide range of members, including nurserymen, specialist growers, and well-known horticulturists. Assessment for AGM takes place in one or more of the following ways:

• during trials at one of the Society's gardens or at some other venue
• during examination of specialist collections
• during round-table discussions by committee members, with contributions by specialists when necessary

Each Committee is responsible for recommending plants for the AGM from within its own particular area of interest. Round-table discussion necessarily played a large part in the first ten-yearly AGM review, the results of which appeared in the 2003 edition, but trials continue to be the principal means of judging garden merit. This is especially the case in plant groups where large numbers of new cultivars are introduced each year.

There is no grading system within the AGM, and no attempt is made to distinguish the good from the very good. Committees are expected to set a particular standard against which each plant is to be judged: if a plant equals or exceeds the standard, it may be recommended for the award. No limit has been placed on the number of plants that may hold the award at any one time, but in groups that include many cultivars, standards have to be set especially high if the AGM is to offer helpful guidance to the gardener.