Award of Garden Merit

The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions.

The Award of Garden Merit is a mark of quality awarded, since 1922, to garden plants (including trees, vegetables and decorative plants) by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). Awards are made annually after plant trials intended to judge the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. Trials may last for one or more years, depending on the type of plant being tried out, and may be performed at RHS Garden, Wisley, other RHS gardens or after observation of plants in specialist collections. Trial reports are made available as booklets and on the RHS website. Awards are reviewed annually in case plants have become unavailable horticulturally, or have been superseded by better cultivars.

The AGM should not be confused with the RHS Award of Merit (AM), given to plants deemed 'of great merit for exhibition' i.e. for show, not garden, plants.

Since 1989, France has had similar awards called the Mérites de Courson, but these are drawn from a limited number of plants submitted by nurserymen to juries at the twice-yearly Journées des Plantes de Courson and awards are based solely on the opinions of the jury members as to the plants' likely performance in French gardens, rather than on extensive trials.

The AGM was reviewed in 1992, to increase its usefulness and prestige. Field trial results gained weight in the assessments and existing AGM plants were reviewed in the light of more recent experience. The AGMs were to be reviewed at 10 year intervals from 1992, but this frequency has been increased to annually. The 2012/13 review, with advice from experts such as RHS plant committees, specialist societies, Plant Heritage National Collection holders and others, resulted in many changes. Nearly 1,900 plants lost their AGMs and more than 1,400 plants gained awards; the AGM list included 7,073 plants after the review.

Plants may be added to the RHS 'Sunset List' for rescission for several reasons, including unavailability to gardeners, better plants becoming available, affliction by pests or diseases, or insufficient uniformity.

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