Meritorious Criteria

The trial gardens at the RHS Wisley are a great place to see plants that have been given the Award of Garden Merit in action, so to speak. By coincidence that is our next, and last stop, on the cavalcade of gardens tour - coming soon.




Award of Garden Merit

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

Is it possible that this list might be modified to form criteria for lots of other categories of acquisition in our lives? Thrift sale finds, home decor, fabric, spouses for example.


Look at these great lists of 10 AGM plants for each month of the year.