Yorkshire in Bloom: See which Harrogate district groups were among the winners

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The Yorkshire in Bloom award winners have been announced, with places around the Harrogate district receiving a range of accolades.

The annual competition, organised by the Royal Horticultural Society, encourages communities of whatever size to make a positive and lasting improvement to their local environment.

This year's awards ceremony took place in Tadcaster on September 24 and included numerous categories, which allowed small villages to compete on equal footing, rather than go up against large towns and cities.

It’s also a celebration of the beauty of the area, rather than a typical competition.

This means that rather than gold meaning first place, it’s instead an award given based on point scoring. This means that multiple areas may receive gold in the same category.

The RHS's 2026 marking guide defines gold as 85–100 points, silver gilt 75–84, silver 60–74 and bronze 50–59. The judging considers horticulture, environment and community.

Local winners

In the urban communities category, which rewards schemes that improve urban areas through planting and environmental work, Starbeck received gold, and was named the category winner. It also received the Yorkshire Rose Award for its group.

In the large town category, Knaresborough in Bloom came out with a gold award.

In the cities and town centres category, three entrants emerged with gold medals – Harrogate in Bloom, Harrogate BID and Ripon in Bloom. Harrogate in Bloom was also awarded the Yorkshire Rose Award for town/city, and Harrogate BID for the best BID.

The next, very broad, category focuses on public gardens, churchyards, public buildings and similar sites, often maintained by Friends groups or volunteers. This group also offers platinum awards.

Knaresborough came out well, receiving platinum for Conyngham Hall and Knaresborough Castle, with Valley Gardens also getting this award.

Valley Gardens was praised for its very high maintenance standards and partnership between the council and Friends group.

Ripon Spa Gardens also got gold in this category.

There were a huge number of other niche categories, which included many groups and places around the Harrogate district.

Categories included shop windows, pubs, schools and resident-led community groups.

Just some mentioned across these categories included Millenium Garden in Spofforth, Starbeck Station, Horticap, Rudding Park Hotel, Rossett Acre Primary School and Blind Jack’s pub in Knaresborough.

For the full list of results, including judges' notes, see the Yorkshire in Bloom website.