Presented at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival, Moors Meadow Garden in Herefordshire has been named RHS Partner Garden of the Year 2025 for the Midlands and East Anglia – just one year after joining the scheme.
The RHS Partner Garden Scheme offers the RHS Membership access to more than 240 gardens in the UK and worldwide. Established in the late 1980s, it was originally known as the “Recommended Garden Scheme” before being renamed the “RHS Partner Garden Scheme” in 2013. Independently owned and managed, the gardens range from world-famous garden to small private home gardens, each setting its own opening hours and arrangements for RHS visitors.
Among them is Moors Meadow, a seven-acre hillside garden overlooking the Kyre Valley in Herefordshire, where most plants have been grown from seed or sourced from specialist nurseries. Remarkably, the garden is maintained almost entirely by one woman, Ros Bissell.
Moors Meadow has been in Bissell’s family since 1955, when her parents moved to the property before she was born. Today, the garden contains an exceptional collection of rare plants and mature trees cultivated over decades.“My parents grew the pine trees and handkerchief tree from Chiltern seeds,” explains Bissell. “My late mother gardened until the age of 94, when her mobility went. She would bend and weed for hours in her 90s and I hope I’ll be able to do the same.”
Bissell joined the RHS Partner Garden Scheme in 2025 after visiting a Partner Garden when on holiday. “My motivation to join the scheme comes from my passion to share Moors Meadow and encourage others to garden. I want to show people that a pensioner can manage seven acres on a slope on their own – if I can do it, they can do it,” she says. With only occasional assistance with odd jobs and sporadic help from a volunteer in his 70’s, her dedication to this garden is impressive and an example to other gardeners.
Bissell says: “I might put in a ten-hour day sometimes. I see it as doing my bit to protect nature.”
Before acceptance into the scheme, RHS representatives assess each garden to ensure it offers sufficient horticultural interest. In June 2024, Nick Dunn of Frank P Matthews visited Moors Meadow on behalf of the RHS and approved it for inclusion.
The garden has welcomed visitors since 2002, opening for both the National Garden Scheme and previously for St Michael’s Hospice. “People are unaware that the garden owner doesn’t get anything out of RHS Members coming to the garden unless people book a tour or buy some plants,” explains Bissell. “It has however raised the profile of the garden and increased visitor numbers.”
After only a year in the scheme, Bissell said she was delighted to receive the RHS Partner Garden of the Year award for the Midlands and East Anglia. She accepted the award at the Malvern Spring Festival from Dr Tim Upson, RHS Director of Gardens and Horticulture. The award is decided by public vote, making the recognition especially meaningful to Bissell. “I am touched that visitors would think so much of the garden that they would make the effort to vote. A lot of visitors comment on the quality of the air here, the unusual plants species and the bird song,’ says Bissell.
Bissell has also written two books inspired by the garden; ‘Stuff and Nonsense’ shares stories from her mother’s life in the garden, while ‘Gardening by the Seat of Your Pants’ offers a personal guided tour of Moors Meadow. In keeping with her long-standing support for local causes, proceeds from both books, which can be purchased at Moors Meadow, are donated to St Michael’s Hospice.
Seventeen new gardens have been added to the RHS Partner Garden scheme in 2026, including The Eden Project in Cornwall, Merriments in East Sussex and East Lambrook Manor Garden in Somerset.
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