The winners of the prestigious 2022 RHS Photographic competition have just been announced. The competition celebrates the power of gardens and the beauty of wildlife and attracts thousands of entries from amateur and professional photographers. This year, the winners were selected from almost 10,000 entries across nine categories. Here, we highlight some of our favourites.
Discover some of the winners of this year’s RHS Photographic Competition
Plants category
The Overall Adult winner and winner of the Plants category was Sanjay Jani’s ‘Saffron Sunset’ photograph, capturing crocuses unexpectedly blooming alongside a concrete office wall in Iowa, USA. The judges said that the image stopped them in their tracks and perfectly summed up the longing for spring that comes at the end of winter.
Gardens category
The gardens category was won by professional garden photographer Andrea Jones for her image of Madresfield Court in Worcestershire, designed by Tom Stuart-Smith. The topiaried yew, Stipa gigantea, roses and herbaceous perennials, are captured perfectly in the early morning light.
Macro category
Marek Mierzejewski was unaware of the exquisite beauty of Equisetum arvense (field horsetail) beneath his feet in a meadow in Gdansk, Poland – until the striking rows of green stars were revealed through the macro lens of his Canon EOS 6D Mark II.
Indoor gardening category
Kam Hong Leung captured a worker at RBG Kew tending to the plants in the Waterlily House, which was designed to showcase the giant Amazon waterlily (Victoria amazonica).
Social media category
Sara Bishop captured the beauty of a summer meadow at its peak, taken on a family walk in the Abbey Gardens, Bury St Edmunds.
Under 11s category
Alex Chapman shot this image of a reflection in a winter pond at RHS Garden Hyde Hall in Essex on an iPhone XR. Nicola Stocken, photographer, garden writer and competition judge said that the image “immediately jumped out for a rare spontaneity, a real conversation piece: was it serendipity or the result of patience and planning?”
Richard Bloom, award-winning photographer, regular contributor to Gardens Illustrated and competition judge said: ‘This year’s competition has seen an incredibly diverse and outstanding range of imagery from deeply considered intricate and labour-intensive images to instinctive decisive moment captures and everything in between. There are many beautiful, clever and highly creative photographs, some strange and unusual and some surprisingly moving.’
The category winners will be available to view at the RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show 2022 at Saatchi Gallery, open from 9th-29th April, or online at rhs.org.uk/photocomp.