Beautiful Scotland judging begins

28 communities showcase their thriving projects in our national Beautiful Scotland 2022 competition, celebrating and telling the story of their community’s environmental improvement.

Members of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Bloom Federation, we administer Beautiful Scotland to recognise the efforts of local authorities, communities and businesses that work tirelessly to improve their local cities, towns and villages. The groups have together nurtured an astonishing number of plants, organised local environmental awareness campaigns and encouraged volunteer participation across their community – all to improve the places where they live and work.

Now the final touches have been made to the flourishing planters, the streets are clean and the communities are excited to welcome our Beautiful Scotland judges so they can tell their story of hard work, pride and camaraderie.

Judging will be held from 1-14 August 2022, where pairs of highly experienced volunteer judges will visit groups as part of a tour which takes in small villages, large towns and our major cities.

During the judging tour, three themes will be examined - horticultural achievement, community participation and environmental responsibility - to discover which communities have been most successful in developing the attractiveness, cleanliness and sustainability of the places they care for.

The last two years have seen a slightly pared-back version of the Beautiful Scotland competition due to restrictions, but this year we are holding the full competition, with medal certificates, category awards including the prestigious Rosebowl, and discretionary awards for outstanding performance in areas such as biodiversity, tourism, and community involvement being presented at a ceremony in the autumn.

Some of the winners from Beautiful Scotland 2022 will go on to represent Scotland in the UK-wide RHS Britain in Bloom Finals in 2023. Last year this honour was awarded to two groups and this year, all of our 28 groups aim to be one of the lucky few.

Juliette Camburn, from Keep Scotland Beautiful, said: “Villages, towns and cities that enter Beautiful Scotland have already made a huge contribution in keeping Scotland beautiful for residents and visitors.

“As we face a climate and nature emergency, this programme supports local authorities, communities and businesses to work together to help tackle biodiversity loss and local climate issues. We know that as we emerge from the last two years of restrictions people are eager to reconnect with nature and their communities.

“The Beautiful Scotland groups bring people together to build stronger communities and continue to make a massive difference to Scotland’s environment while having fun at the same time. I’d like to wish all the groups the best of luck and look forward to celebrating all their achievements with them at the 2022 award ceremony in September.”

These activities would not happen without the many hundreds of people committing thousands of hours to looking after their communities. The effort of all groups is supporting us to tackle climate change and improve the places where we live and work. Find out more about Beautiful Scotland.