Northumbria in Bloom
Celebrating the communities who make our region greener, cleaner and more colourful.
Coming soon
Entries for 2027 open on 1 December
Main Competition: 1 December – 1 February
Stand Alone Specials: 1 December – 31 May
It’s Your Neighbourhood: 1 December – 20 June
Just announced
The 2026 results
Every medal and award from this year’s presentation.
Encouraging community groups to enhance their local environment by gardening together
Northumbria in Bloom runs a campaign every year to recognise, encourage and reward community groups who work together to transform their village, town or city through gardening, environmental awareness and community support.
Our region runs from Berwick in the north, south west to the border with Cumbria, then along the border with North Yorkshire to the sea south of the Tees at Staithes. Any group can enter – many are entirely volunteer-run, others work in partnership with their Local Authority.
Read the Entrants’ Handbook1964
Going since 1964 – one of the seven founder regions of Britain in Bloom
1,600
Community groups involved across the region, from small villages to city centres
RHS
Part of RHS Britain in Bloom, the UK’s biggest community gardening campaign
Three ways to take part
Northumbria in Bloom is an inclusive campaign – any community, no matter how small or large, can get involved.
The Main Competition
For villages, towns and cities, from a Small Village to a City Centre. You enter the class that matches your size, based on electoral roll or area.
Entry period
1st December – 1st February
Stand Alone Special Entries
Not part of a Main Competition entry? Enter a park, school, pub, allotment or other space in one of 17 Special categories.
Entry period
1st December – 31st May
It’s Your Neighbourhood
The RHS It’s Your Neighbourhood campaign is non-competitive, free to enter and aimed at smaller volunteer groups such as community gardens.
Entry period
1st December – 20th June
Already entering the Main Competition?
You can also enter up to 10 Specials, across 19 categories, as part of your Main Competition entry.
Judging and awards
Our judges are all volunteers and visit you twice during the year, once in April and again in July. These are your opportunities to show off your community.
After the summer visit, the judges write a feedback report and award a medal, which is presented at our annual Awards Ceremony in September.
How entries are judged
Northumbria in Bloom is meant to be an enjoyable, positive experience. Get active, be proud of your community and encourage as many people as possible to join in. Above all, have fun! Entries are judged on three areas:
40%
Horticultural achievement
Standards of gardening knowledge, skills and practice across the entire entry.
30%
Environmental responsibility
Standards of care, maintenance and improvement of the local environment across the entire entry.
30%
Community participation
How well local people are engaged, and the ongoing sustainability of the campaign across the entire entry.
Why take part?
Communities that take part in Northumbria in Bloom benefit in many ways. The most common are:
- Cleaner and greener surroundings
- A stronger sense of community, through improving public spaces and bringing people together
- More civic pride, with people involved in improving their own community
- Safer environments for local people to enjoy
- Long-term improvements to the environment, tackling sustainability, conservation, litter and graffiti
- Less anti-social behaviour
- A boost to the local economy, including business and tourism
- Regeneration of run-down or disadvantaged areas
Making your town or village beautiful and winning the competition are not necessarily the same thing.
The competition includes marks for environmental and community matters; these are not always obvious to visitors but essential for judges. You need to think about this when allocating your precious resources of time and money.
Don’t point out your mistakes to the judges.
They are so busy on the visit with information being presented to them that they may not notice your mistakes. If you point them out, they definitely will!
A sense of control is important.
Even a neglected area of ground that is “turned over” neatly looks controlled and purposeful. Left alone it looks neglected. Alternatively, you may have a large area you wish to leave to wildlife etc. Just mowing neat paths through it will change the whole feel of the area. Now it will look controlled and purposeful.
Colour is important because it attracts the eye.
Become familiar with the artist’s “colour wheel” so you can use it to the best advantage; eg., a yellow and blue mix in Springtime; very popular!
Baskets and tubs.
Follow the “thriller, spiller and filler” rule; ie, have a central “thriller”; then other plants to tumble over the edges, “spiller”; and something else to fill the remaining gaps, “filler”.
Tubs. Use a sense of proportion when planting your tubs.
Thinking in “thirds” is helpful. If the tub is two thirds, then you need one third in height above it. Alternatively, if the tub is one third then you need two thirds in height above it. Only have a thin covering of plants across the top of a large 3 ft high tub if you can prove a design idea. For example, blue plants giving the impression of water cascading over the tub like a fountain.
Always give your judges a plan of the route and annotate it accordingly.
This is immensely helpful later when the judges come to reflect on your entry. They can use the plan to remind them of what they saw. Top entries also use the plan to cross reference the marking sheet. For example, “here you will see …… that relates to section A1 on the marking sheet”.
If you need inspiration for a display then why use great art as your theme?
The artist will have done the colour work for you already. So we just match their colours with flower colours.
Judges do not judge “taste”.
That is personal and up to you. But we do look for “right plant, right place”. For example, don’t plant sun loving plants in deep shade.
Finally, stay calm.
The judges are on your side. They are not out to punish you like an old fashioned head teacher. They want to give you marks so show them as many things as possible that will enable them to do so. Try to cover every box on the mark sheet and point them out as you go.
Communities in bloom
Just a few of the gardens, parks and community spaces that have taken part.
