The Cotswold town of Stonehouse in Glouceshire has been crowned the winner of Britain in Bloom, a nationwide gardening competition. The town’s self-designated community arboretum, which encompasses every tree within the town’s boundaries, impressed the judges. Britain in Bloom, first launched in 1964 and run by the Royal Horticultural Society since 2002, celebrates community gardening across the UK and this year’s champions were announced in October 2026.
In Stonehouse, every local has adopted the responsibility of caring for the town’s diverse tree population, which spans roughly 150 varieties—among them hardy London planes, Tibetan cherries, and swamp cypresses. This initiative builds on the community’s deep-rooted commitment to preserving its natural woodlands and green spaces.
The town has overseen local government adoption of its Community Arboretum Management Plan, which supports the goal of achieving tree canopy coverage of 30 per cent by 2040. Stonehouse also has a target of seeing at least 95 per cent of newly planted trees reach maturity, and so locals are encouraged to act as tree guardians, watering them as they establish.
Local residents volunteer as tree guardians, ensuring young plants get the water they need to take hold. After a storm in 2024 damaged the historic weeping Globe Willow, planted in 1921, they propagated cuttings from it and planted them in their own backyards.
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Stonehouse outshone 43 other competitors in the Britain in Bloom finals, earning an RHS Gold and claiming the Small Town title before being crowned the overall winner. Meanwhile, Wrexham in Bloom led environmental efforts in the Small City & City category by collecting 41,000 litter bags since 2021 and installing 1,125 hedgehog boxes, along with swift boxes crafted from reclaimed materials. Other winners included Truro, Bosworth, Henley, Rochdale, and Fletching.
Judges were particularly struck by Stonehouse’s gardening team, which gave them a canal boat tour highlighting its role as a wildlife route and the town’s revival as a heritage waterway hub. The team displayed carefully curated garden beds featuring agapanthus, Mexican fleabane, and lavender, while also refining planting layouts across the town to suit local sunlight and wind patterns for stronger growth and biodiversity.
Rugby in Bloom, another finalist, distributed over 5,000 trees to 25 farmers in the area, preserving and adding up to 810 meters of hedgerows. The group also established a community orchard with 60 new fruit trees, featuring quince, apples, pears, and regional heritage stone fruit varieties.
