Richmond Hill Blooms

Richmond Hill Blooms is a program designed to encourage residents to play a role in beautifying our community by creating attractive, colourful and well-maintained front gardens and recognizing them.

Free Gardening Webinars

Participants will hear from expert gardeners on how to design, plant and maintain beautiful and bountiful gardens.

Potager Gardening with Master Gardener Cathy Nikolaidis - Thursday, May 26, 7 - 8 p.m. - Register here!
- Not sure what a potager garden is? In this talk, you will learn some of the history and the design elements of the potager garden, including site selection and preparation, companion planting and the use of planting schedules to optimize your harvest.
Layered Designs for Natural Gardens with eco-landscape designer Sean James - Thursday, June 16, 7 - 8 p.m. - Register here!
- With the expanding trend toward landscaping to enhance all forms of life, the question becomes – how? This webinar will delve into the best plant choices, design considerations, native vs. non-native plants and finer details relating to creating habitat in your yards.
Gardening with your Kids with former RHGHS president Patty Carlson - Tuesday, July 12, 7 - 8 p.m. - Register here!
- Looking for an outdoor activity to do with your children this summer? Discover how to make gardening fun with children and teach them the basic principles of gardening.
Garden Maintenance with Master Gardener Debbie Coleman - Thursday, August 18, 7 p.m.- 8 p.m. - Register here!
- Now that you’ve planned and planted your garden, you can sit back with a smile on your face and enjoy the fruits of your labour. Find out what to do to keep that garden looking its best all summer and into the fall.

Front garden recognition program

Nominate your own front garden or the front gardens of family and friends in Richmond Hill!

How to nominate a garden for recognition

The online nomination form will be posted here from Friday, June 10 to Friday, July 15, 2022. Please be ready to provide the address(es) of the garden(s) you are nominating, along with your name, address, telephone number and email address.

NEW this year, each nomination must include a photograph of the garden you are nominating. Photos will be used for shortlisting purposes only and will not be shared publicly. See 'Photo submission criteria' below.

To ensure fairness and provide equal opportunity for all residents, first place winners in each ward will be ineligible from winning first, second or third place for a period of one year. This means that the 2021 first place winners can still be nominated, however, they will not be considered for the Top Three Gardens in their ward in 2022.

Entries should not include holiday decorations and must include horticultural features visible on the front garden.

Photo submission criteria

You can submit one photo per nominated garden. Please ensure you have permission to take photos of any garden that isn't yours
The photo must be in landscape (horizontal) orientation
Ensure the photo encompasses the entire front garden
No pets or people must be shown
Acceptable file formats are JPG or PNG (maximum file size 2 MB)
Photo must be submitted via the online nomination form (photos sent via social media or email will not be accepted)

Important 2022 dates:

Nomination period: Friday, June 10 – Friday, July 15, 2022
Nomination sign drop-off period: Wednesday, July 20 – Friday, July 29, 2022 (dates are subject to change)
Shortlisting: Shortlisted gardens will be posted to this webpage the week of July 25, 2022.
Judging period: Tuesday, August 1 – Friday, August 12, 2022

Judging

Every nominated residential front garden will be acknowledged with a recognition sign for their garden as part of the Richmond Hill Blooms program two-step judging process. Following this recognition, the best gardens will be shortlisted. The Richmond Hill Garden and Horticultural Society (RHGHS) will then select the top three gardens per ward based on the Ontario Horticultural Association's Garden and Special Planting Criteria.

The top three front gardens in each ward will receive a winner's sign for their garden, a plaque and recognition on this webpage. Winners are announced in the fall.

How-to gardening videos

2021 winning gardens

We had a record turnout in 2021! Thank you to everyone who participated and congratulations to our winners! Please enjoy the beautiful winning front gardens in the gallery below.

Ward 1

1st Place