The competition began, back in the early 1960's. Roy Hay MBE, a horticultural journalist, was on holiday in France when he noticed that the place was over flowing with plants and flowers.

When he asked what was going on he was told that this was part of the 'Fleurissement de France' initiated by General de Gaul.

Once home and with the support of the British Tourist Authority, Roy set up a campaign to develop a home grown version,thus Britain In Bloom was born.

At the request of the British Tourist Authority, Tidy Britain Group, which had been associated with the competition virtually since the begining, took over responsibility for the organisation of national Britain In Bloom in 1983.

In 2001, The Royal Horticultural Society took over the running of the national competition.

Now with a rather wider enviromental approach, the competition has gone from strength to strength and it attracts over 1500 individual entries from small villages to the largest cities.