This plant just won an award - but where's the photo!?
When a plant wins an award at one of the industry’s leading trade shows, everyone wants to talk about it. Growers share the news, garden centers want to promote the winner and marketing teams start thinking about newsletters, social media posts, product pages and in-store signage. That enthusiasm can quickly disappear, however, when nobody has a suitable photo or the plant cannot yet be found in the company’s database. A new award creates a great commercial opportunity, but only when you have the content needed to use it.
The New Plant Awards are one of the highlights of the UK HTA National Plant Show. Almost 100 new plants were entered in 2026 and judged on factors such as appearance, commercial potential and garden performance. Awards were presented across several categories, with Bronze, Silver and Gold medals, Best in Category winners and an overall Best in Show.
This year, Antirrhinum ‘Shiryu Kiss’, entered by Kernock Park Plants, was named Best in Show. It also won the Visitor Vote, which means it impressed both the professional judges and visitors to the show. Fortunately, it was not new to Open Plant Data. We already had the photo available.
Six category winners already in Open Plant Data
Open Plant Data already includes professional photos of six of this year’s Best in Category winners. This means our customers can start using these plants in their websites, webshops, social media, print materials and in-store communication without first having to search for usable photography.
Herbaceous Perennials
Kernock Park Plants
Antirrhinum ‘Shiryu Kiss’
Annuals, Tender Perennials and Container & Basket Plants
Ball Colegrave
Digitalis hybrida Arctic Fox Lemon Cream
Flowering Houseplants
Javado UK
Euphorbia Tiara Alexandra
Foliage Houseplants
Javado UK
Ananas Babyboom
Cacti & Succulents
Javado UK
Wild Kalanchoe ‘Octopus’
Shrubs, Conifers & Climbers
Javado UK
Chamaecyparis thyoides EL PASO™
An award creates a commercial opportunity
An award gives a plant something that is often missing from a standard product listing: a story. It provides a clear reason to feature the plant in a newsletter, promote it on social media, highlight it in an online store or place an award-winning sign next to it in the garden center. Customers may not know every new cultivar by name, but an award immediately tells them that the plant is special and worth taking a closer look at.
The problem is that this opportunity is often time-sensitive. Interest is highest immediately after the award is announced, when growers, retailers and the trade press are all talking about the same plant. When the right photo is missing, the plant name is not yet in the system or the available information is incomplete, marketing teams lose valuable time. A press release may tell you that a plant won Best in Category, but a strong photo and accurate product information are what allow you to turn that news into something customers can actually see and buy.
A plant database should keep moving
A plant database is never finished. New cultivars are introduced every season, existing varieties receive awards, names are updated and new photography becomes available. A plant that attracted little attention a month ago can suddenly become commercially important after a show, an award announcement or a successful social media post.
That is why we continuously add new plants, update existing records and expand our image collection. Keeping the database current is not simply about having more plant names. It is about making sure that retailers, growers and marketing teams have the right content available at the moment they need it. Award-winning plants are a good example of why this matters. When the industry starts talking about a new winner, our customers should not have to begin searching for photos and information. Ideally, it should already be there.
And in this case, six of the category winners already are.