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Chelsea Flower Show Medal
Unusually, the Flower Show awards gardens in one of four categories – Gold, Silver Gilt, Silver and Bronze. Gold, silver and bronze are familiar to anyone who has ever seen the Olympics (or, frankly, competed in any other type of competition), but silver gilt is an additional class of medal between silver and gold that gives flower show panels an additional way to recognize gardens in certain specific categories. Confusingly, bronze winners don’t actually win a physical medal, but winners in the other three categories do.
Jury
This Royal Horticultural Society Panel of Judges Coming from fields as diverse as horticulture, garden design, landscape architecture and journalism. The RHS describes the panel as ‘highly experienced experts from across the horticulture industry. They are trained by the RHS on how to judge using the RHS criteria but are independent of the RHS.’ The panel consists of three ‘Assessing Judges’ and four ‘Regular Judges’ as well as an independent monitor to ensure that all gardens are consistently judged. The judging judges visit each garden twice, including once when the garden is presented by its designer, while the regular judges join the judges for only the second visit, when all seven vote on which medal to award (or not).
How are parks determined?
Designers submitting a garden to any RHS competition are asked to include a design brief to set out their objectives in advance, including a description of the garden, its purpose, its function and an overview of key plants and features. Judges then assess how well the garden is executed against this brief. They use criteria spread across five different categories: ambition, overall impression, design, construction and planting.
Does every garden win a medal?
No. Many medals are awarded, but there is no guarantee of a medal. There is also no prize money at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show – just the prestige of winning a medal.
Are silver gilt medals better than silver?
Yes, silver gilt sits between gold and silver. An example of a Silver Gilt Medal-winning garden at Chelsea might be one that lives up to the gold standard in its planting and construction but differs significantly from the brief submitted in advance by its designer – although designers are allowed to explain any changes made during the process during the first visit to the judges assessing their garden.
