History of the RHS

The Royal Horticultural society has a long and interesting history dating back to 1804. It was founded at the bookshop of James Hatchard, Piccadilly, originally under the name The Horticultural Society of London, by Sir Joseph Banks and John Wedgwood. Its aim was to collect information about plants and to encourage the improvement of horticultural practice. The prototype of the Society's popular flower shows today began in the late 1820's, with a series of floral fetes in Chiswick.

The 1850s saw financial crisis for the Society. Prince Albert, its then President, revived its fortunes by arranging a new charter in 1861, resulting in the current name, the Royal Horticultural Society, and secured it for a lease of a site for a new garden in Kensington.

In 1903, Sir Thomas Hanbury purchased the garden of a former Society council member, George Fergusson Wilson, as Wisley, Surrey, and presented it to the Society as a new experimental garden. Wisley remained the Society's only garden for 80 years. However, in 1987 it received its second garden, Rosemoor in Devon, a gift from Lady Anne Berry. This followed in 1993 by Hyde Hall, in Essex, the gift of the Hyde Hall Garden Trust. In 2002, the Northern Horticultural Society merged with the RHS, introducing Harlow Carr in Yorkshire as the fourth RHS garden.

The Society's Centenary year, 1904, saw the opening of its offices and exhibition hall at Vincent Square. A further exhibition hall, the New Hall, was opened in 1928 on an adjacent site. After the move from Kensington in 1888, the Great Spring Show was staged at the Temple garden; in 1913, this show moved to the grounds of the Royal Hospital at Chelsea, where it remains today and is now known as the Chelsea Flower Show.

To mark our Bicentenary year, the RHS has designated 2004, the 'Year of Gardening, sharing the celebrations with seasoned and amateur gardeners alike. A UK-wide programme of exciting activities has been put together to provide interest and enjoyment to a maximum number of gardening enthusiasts around the country.

If you want to learn more about the history of the RHS, why not take a sneak preview of The Encyclopedia of Gardening Bicentenary Edition? Simply click here to view an historical timeline of the RHS.