Success at Horticulture Week’s Custodian Awards

With over 110,000 visitors yearly, our 6-strong gardening team work on the Gardens general maintenance, while simultaneously also aiming to conserve the 7,000 plants we have across our 15-acre site and bring more attention to the work we do on a national scale. Having recently won an RHS Gold Medal for our National Cyclamen Collection, one of only two in the country, we thought we’d enter this year’s Horticulture Week Custodian Awards to top off a year of fantastic achievements and celebrate our beautiful site and hard-working team.

 

The Horticulture Week Custodian Awards praise the best parks and gardens, giving gardens and green space managers working to ensure the best possible future for all kinds of green spaces, the chance to showcase their achievements, reward team effort and highlight to stakeholders the vital role they play.

 

We are delighted to say that we were not only shortlisted for ‘Best Gardens’ and ‘Best Gardening Team’, but also received a commendation for our nomination in the ‘Best Garden’ category.

 

The ceremony was at the gorgeous Woburn Abbey House & Gardens in their Sculpture Gallery and welcomed representatives from major national organisations such as English Heritage, the National Trust and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, as well as other independent gardens, local authorities, and specialist private and third sector partners.

 

We rely on our 5,000 members, Friends, visitors and events to bring in the funds we need for upkeep and we rely on volunteers to help with the huge amount of work that goes into attending shows and caring for this iconic heritage landmark. As one of only two Victorian Botanic Gardens that remain independent in the UK, we are thrilled with this achievement and would like to thank everyone involved – this unique city space is kept in fantastic condition thanks to your hard work!