The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has announced that Green Island Gardens, a 20-acre garden near Colchester, has been voted overall winner of the prestigious RHS Partner Garden of the Year Award 2024. The award, run by the nation's biggest garden charity, is based on the theme ‘Feel Good,’ and the Essex retreat is the fourth overall winner in the competition's history.
The garden, designed by owner Fiona Edmond, was carved out among woodland destroyed in the 1987 Great Storm and now includes large island beds, Japanese, gravel, and water gardens, as well as extensive woodland gardens.
The garden is also home to two National collections, Hamamelis and Camellia (autumn and winter flowering). It is loved year-round for its seasonal snowdrops, trilliums, bluebell and tree lily displays. The garden has been an RHS Partner Garden for just two years and is home to a tearoom, nursery, and terrace area.
Fiona Edmond, owner and designer of Green Island Gardens, says, “We are so excited to have won this award, especially since there was such fierce competition. We are proud to be an RHS Partner Garden. The visitors really appreciate what we are doing here and are happy to wrap up warm to visit through the winter which is actually one of my favourite times of the year in the garden.”
Green Island Garden was selected from six regional finalists after visitors chose their favourite gardens in six regions. The regional winners include:
East Anglia and Midlands: Green Island Gardens, Essex
North of England and Northern Ireland: Birkheads Secret Gardens Newcastle upon Tyne
South West and Wales: Dyffryn Fernant Garden, Pembrokeshire
Scotland: Gordon Castle Walled Garden, Morayshire
South East and Channel Islands: Farringford Estate, Isle of Wight
Overseas: Andalusia Historic House, Gardens & Arboretum, Pennsylvania USA
North of England and Northern Island winner Birkheads Secret Garden was designed and built in the 1990s to create habitats for wildlife in an open field with year-round interest. Along with stunning views across rural Durham, Birkheads Secret Garden features a formal Japanese-style Meditation Garden, cottage gardens, and a wildflower meadow.
Dyffryn Fernant Garden, perched between the Preseli Hills and the rugged Pembrokeshire coastline, has won this year's vote for South West and Wales. Established more than two decades ago and blending perfectly into the surrounding landscape, the six-acre garden boasts a vibrant walled front garden, beautiful brickyard display, bog garden and Nickys’s Field, a geometric display of ornamental grasses, among others.
Scotland’s regional winner, Gordon Castle Walled Garden, is one of the country's best-kept secrets. The recently restored eight-acre hideaway is nestled between the River Spey and the Moray Coast and is one of the UK’s oldest and largest kitchen gardens. The garden is home to a myriad of herbs, cut flowers, fruit and vegetables within its ancient walls.
Southeast and Channel Island winner Farringford Estate is best known for its association with Poet Laureate Lord Tennyson, who called the estate home. Set within glorious countryside with views of Freshwater Bay, visitors are spoilt with historic parklands and the stunning Woodland Garden. A walled garden and Victorian-style greenhouse provide plenty of interest for all garden lovers.
A new partner garden for 2024, Andalusia Historic House, Gardens & Arboretum, has won the Overseas Award. Located just outside Philadelphia, the garden is situated on the Delaware River. It was redesigned in 2017-18 by British designer Arabella Lennox-Boyd and is home to a curated collection of over 1,000 trees representing over 250 species, a Rose Garden and an Easter Garden, which comes to life in spring.
Helen Feary, RHS Partner Gardens Manager, said: “The results of this year’s RHS Partner Garden of the Year show how much joy visiting a garden brings to people. The winning gardens have all been lovingly created by their owners, and from the comments received with the votes, we can see how much they are loved by their visitors. I’d recommend a visit to them all.”
Details of the 2025 RHS Partner Garden of the Year competition and how to vote will be revealed next spring. There are currently 220 gardens in the RHS Partner Gardens scheme, which allows RHS Members to visit non-RHS gardens for free at selected times of the year. They comprise some of the most famous gardens in the world as well as privately-owned hidden gems, and beyond the UK can be found in 9 countries across the globe, including Barbados, France, Japan, and South Africa.
To find out more about RHS Partner Gardens, visit www.rhs.org.uk/partnergardens
