Award of Garden Merit (AGM)

The Royal Horticultural Society of Great Britain periodically grants Awards of Garden Merit, AGM, to plants which have proven themselves over a period of time.
Besides being one of the highest accolades the RHS can give to a garden plant, the AGM is of practical value to the ordinary gardener.

Every AGM plant should:

be of outstanding excellence for garden decoration or use
be available in the trade
be of good constitution
require neither highly specialist growing conditions nor care

The Heather Society has had a direct input to the granting of these Awards, its recommendations being made as a result of national trials, reports from members in various locations and from the various National Collections.

In the case of heathers, they have to have shown that they perform well over about a 10 year period in a number of different locations and be reasonably widely available (at least in the UK).