Hospice UK celebrates 30 years of National Garden Scheme support

2026 marks the 30th anniversary of the National Garden Scheme’s support of Hospice UK. This year, we’ll be celebrating the immense impact of their funding through an exciting array of events, competitions and stories – all showing how the partnership has bloomed since 1996.

Hospice UK are joined in 2026 by fellow beneficiary charities Marie Curie, and Carers Trust, who are also celebrating their 30th anniversaries with National Garden Scheme.

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A hospice's open gardens

Without such generous funding from the partnership, says Hospice UK’s Chief Executive, Toby Porter, Hospice UK would simply not be the charity it is today.

See how hospices like St Cuthbert's in Durham are getting involved with National Garden Scheme's support of Hospice UK; and what visitors to the event say about being able to explore the impact of hospice care through the scheme.

What we’ve achieved thanks to 30 years of support

In 1996, National Garden Scheme commenced their support of Hospice UK – picking us as one of a handful of health and nursing charities to benefit from their funding.

The decision to choose Hospice UK has, over the last 30 years, had such a profound impact on our work as a charity and membership organisation that it is difficult to put into words.

It is thanks to the dedication of thousands of garden owners, from large estates to keen amateur gardeners who open their back gardens to the public, that the National Garden Scheme is able to so significantly fund health and nursing charities, and gardens and health projects around England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands.

Hospice open gardens

Hospices have themselves played an important role too: since hospice members began to open their gardens, over 120 open gardens have taken place at hospices in support of the National Garden Scheme.

These hospices join a quietly committed national group of garden owners, all wanting to give something back to their communities – whilst taking immense pride in their gardens and horticultural prowess.

The National Garden Scheme doesn’t just open beautiful gardens for charity – they are passionate about the physical and mental health benefits of gardens too. They also support charities doing amazing work in gardens and health and grant bursaries to help community gardening projects.

Fighting for fairer funding for hospices

For Hospice UK, the funding – over £8 million since the partnership first came into bloom – allows us to amplify our policy and advocacy work, fighting for fairer funding for our 210+ member hospices. The vital funds enable campaigning to take place in the political capitals of Westminster, the Sennedd and Stormont, to ensure that everyone who needs hospice care now, and in the future, can get it.

As our populations continue to age, the importance of their funding comes to the fore – as demand for hospice care continues to rise.

Karen Mann opens her gardens for the National Garden Scheme in memory of her son Jake

"When I open the garden...everyone supports the cause"

Jake received hospice care before he died in 2014. His hospice nurse asked his mum, Karen, to consider holding her own open gardens to support the National Garden Scheme.

Karen says that it was "the best thing I could have done," giving her focus - and positivity - following Jake's death; and that open gardens help show hospices as brilliant places, full of lovely people.

Jake's story: our 2019 partnership film

Funding specialist training for hospice staff

It was thanks to the support of the National Garden Scheme that in 2008, Hospice UK was able to launch a rolling programme of professional development bursaries. Since the grant’s inception, more than 1,160 nurses and healthcare professionals working in the hospice sector have benefited from a National Garden Scheme Professional Development Grant.

The impact that these grants have made on the hospice sector cannot be underestimated. They enable hospice colleagues to undertake further specialist training, ultimately enhancing patient care. The development in knowledge and expertise is often shared with other hospice colleagues, resulting in improvements across the sector, year on year.

Funding deep dive hospice sector research

Over our 30 year partnership, funding from the National Garden Scheme has enabled us to deliver a wide range of important work including the landmark Commission into the Future of Hospice Care, 2011-2013; and the Workforce Survey to Understand the Clinical Workforce, 2024.

Thanks to National Garden Scheme funding, Hospice UK was able for the first time to thoroughly research the national hospice clinical workforce, providing insights which will help shape recruitment and retention in the hospice sector for years to come.

Helping Hospice UK become who it is today

The National Garden Scheme has shaped who Hospice UK is today, and played a vital role in changing the landscape of the hospice sector.

As our longest and biggest partnership, they’ve been with Hospice UK through it all: helping to shape our strategy during the 2014 transition from Help the Hospices, to Hospice UK, to better reflect our role in supporting the diversity of hospice and end-of-life care across more than 200+ member organisations. We simply couldn't have done it without them.

Maureen Kesteven and her husband Patrick, who received hospice care. Patrick's legacy lives on today through Maureen's open gardens for the National Garden Scheme

Maureen's husband Patrick, a consultant haematologist, and 'King of Compost,' received hospice care at the end of his life. She says that they never imagined needing to use one of the services that their own open gardens helped fund - funding which is now more important than ever.

Patrick encouraged Maureen to take on the role of National Garden Scheme Regional Chair for the North of England, knowing that she would 'need it' after he died.

His legacy lives on today through Maureen's annual open gardens.

About the National Garden Scheme

The National Garden Scheme gives visitors unique access to over 3,300 exceptional private gardens in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands, and raises impressive amounts of money for nursing and health charities through admissions, teas and cake.

Thanks to the generosity of garden owners, volunteers and visitors they have donated over £77.8 million to nursing and health charities and in 2025 made an annual donation of over £3.8 million. Their core beneficiaries, alongside Hospice UK, include Carer’s Trust, Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie, Parkinson’s UK and The Queen’s Nursing Institute.

Planting the seed

The National Garden Scheme has a rich and interesting history: from humble beginnings in the early 1900s when they first started supporting district nurses, to donating millions of pounds to nursing and health charities almost 100 years later.

At a QNI (Queen’s Nursing Institute) council meeting in 1926, council member Miss Elsie Wagg came up with the idea of raising money for district nursing through the nation’s obsession with gardening. A year later the National Garden Scheme was founded and garden owners were asked to open their gardens for 'a shilling a head'.

Almost 600 gardens opened and raised a total of £8,191 – equating to roughly £440,000 in today’s money. Just three years later, 900 gardens opened for the National Garden Scheme. Sir Winston Churchill and Vita Sackville-West were among the most famous garden owners at the time.

In 1949, the famous National Garden Scheme guide turned yellow – symbolising a mood of national regeneration. The colour yellow has continued to be synonymous with the National Garden Scheme right up to the present day.

In a special celebration of 30 years of partnership between the National Garden Scheme and Hospice UK, we’ll be launching ‘Hospices in Bloom,’ a hospice garden competition. We'll be asking for hospices around the UK to show us their gardens, for a special exhibition at the Hospice UK National Conference in Liverpool in November 2026.
Winners will be awarded some amazing garden-related prizes, and announced by Dr Richard Claxton, Chief Executive of National Garden Scheme, at the Hospice UK National Conference.
To celebrate the landmark anniversary, we’ll be holding a very special event for National Garden Scheme representatives and trustees at St Cuthbert’s Hospice in Durham.
Here, we’ll be championing the partnership and its impact on hospice care through film, gardens, hospice care – and of course, plenty of cake.
Attendees will get the chance to hear from hospice colleagues at the forefront of delivering vital end of life care, with the opportunity to see the Hospice UK Garden of Compassion, designed by Tom Hoblyn, which was relocated here following the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2025.
A photo tells a thousand words – and a film tells a million.
In 2026, we’ll be exploring the support from the National Garden Scheme through the story of an open gardens owner who has directly experienced hospice care; through a special partnership film featuring our two Chief Executives rolling up their sleeves and doing some gardening together at Royal Trinity Hospice; and through experiences shared by other open garden owners who have directly benefited from hospice care.
Throughout the year, we’ll be sharing vibrant bunches of content on our website and social media, all celebrating the impact of National Garden Scheme’s support of Hospice UK, and hearing from hospices around the country about the relationship between gardens and health.

The more people visiting open gardens, the more donations that the National Garden Scheme will be able to provide to all health and nursing beneficiary charities.
In turn, that results in more people cared for, and even more incredible work in the gardens and health space. Open gardens take place throughout the year, from snowdrops season to late autumn colour.
Find an open garden near you.
If you’re a keen gardener, and have always fancied showing off your gardening prowess, you can! It's not as difficult as you might imagine - and it all starts with contacting your local county organiser at the National Garden Scheme.
Opening your garden comes with so many benefits, and National Garden Scheme will support you all the way. If you’re part of a community, village, or even a street where there are others who have beautiful little gardens, then you can also get together and open as a community garden.
In 2027, National Garden Scheme celebrates its own special anniversary: their 100th birthday. With a huge national media campaign being planned, that makes it the ideal time to take the plunge and open your garden too.
The deadline for applying for open gardens participation in 2027 is early September 2026 – find out how to get involved.
We’re keen to get as many of our member hospices involved as possible – and we know that when a hospice opens its gardens, it helps break down the barriers and misconceptions of hospice care.
If you know your local hospice has a garden, perhaps you could ask them if they might consider opening it in 2027, so that more people in the local community can see what happens at one.
Here's some advice we heard from hospices that do already open their garden for National Garden Scheme, plus some handy tips.

What the National Garden Scheme means to our hospices

Toby Porter, Chief Executive, Hospice UK, explains why the ongoing partnership means so much to hospice care across the country:

“The National Garden Scheme are one of Hospice UK’s largest and certainly one of our most important donors. They’ve been supporting us since 1996.

“Through their open gardens, the people who support the National Garden Scheme have donated more than £8 million.

“That helps all of our work supporting the hospice sector with more funding, with raising popular awareness and support for local hospices.

“But also the funds that we've received from the National Garden Scheme have allowed us to bring a really great programme of bursaries to men and women who work within the hospice sector. And these bursaries have proved so popular for the individuals and so impactful in their career progression and what they’re able to achieve for their local hospice and community.

“We would simply not be the same charity that we are today without the support of the people who open their gardens as part of this wonderful scheme.”

Laura Barker is Chief Executive of St Cuthbert’s Hospice – one of the 10 hospices in England and Wales who are opening their gardens for the National Garden Scheme in 2026. She says that their annual event has been a firm favourite ever since they signed up in 2016:

“It really gives us that opportunity to engage with the community. It was the community that saw the need for the hospice and it was the community that fundraised to open the doors back in 1988, as a day hospice. It’s absolutely that same community that sustains us today.

“One of the things that I often hear when patients come to the hospice is a sense of relief. I think it's so important for those people who have really been struggling with their life-limiting illness and how we can support them as a hospice and to use the gardens as that therapeutic space so that they can engage in that and have that quiet relaxation and mindfulness.

“There are a lot of myths and misconceptions around hospice care and what hospices do. So it really provides a relaxed and informal environment for us to be able to talk about hospice care and the really impactful work that we do and that hospices aren’t scary places. Hospices are places that are full of life, full of joy and happiness. And being able to engage in those conversations in a meaningful way is really impactful for us.”

Sophie Brewis and Kate Ball are healthcare assistants at the hospice – and it’s their access to a beautiful garden that can have a transformative effect on their day to day life:

“It means everything to us and the patients to have a garden at the hospice. Particularly if we've had a rough day at work, because obviously it’s a very emotive subject where we work, sometimes it's nice for us just to sit in the gardens for 10 minutes, have a deep breath and restart. And that's why it's really important to have these gardens as well.”

Alex Lloyd is a community fundraiser for St Cuthbert’s. She explains what happens at their open garden event:

“On the open garden day, we invite everybody in, we open our greenhouse, our cafe is open, we have a tombola, fair, and it's just a really nice atmosphere for everybody to see what we do and hopefully raise some funds.”

And visitors to St Cuthbert’s open gardens in July 2025 described how the experience opened their eyes to the connection between gardens and hospice care. Like Barbara, who says:

“It's absolutely wonderful to come to somewhere like this and begin to understand that my little donation is going to really help the hospices.

“We get to see wonderful gardens, we begin to learn a bit more about what the hospice is actually all about and it’s all helping. What's not to like?”

Friends Julie and Christine were visiting a hospice open garden for the first time. They described the social aspect of their experience:

“It’s positive…everybody's friendly. There’s a really nice feel to it. It's very relaxed. We’ve both really enjoyed being here today and looking at the grounds and all the flowers. We’ve enjoyed having a tea and coffee, haven’t we? Chatting to each other, meeting people."

Ian Schofield is a volunteer gardener at St Cuthbert’s. He says that a National Garden Scheme open gardens gives the hospice and its gardening team a welcome sense of recognition as a garden:

“I like the idea that people actually want to come and have a look at our garden. And I always feel proud of our volunteers and the amount of work that we put in.”

Jocelyn Armitage is Head Gardener at St Joseph's, Hackney. She comments, “you get a real opportunity to say thank you to your volunteers by giving them a day where they can show off their pride and joy, and show people what they do. My volunteers are just so proud of what they do. It’s a brilliant way of rewarding them."

And finally, Lucy Hooper of Shooting Star Children's Hospices in Surrey says of open gardens, “[they're] such a great opportunity to welcome your local community and help break down any stigmas about hospice care. What’s also nice is that it gives people the chance to come back who may have used the hospice, or had a family member that has been there before. They can come back in a safe, relaxed way, which is really nice. And what could be more iconic,” adds Lucy, “than being in the little yellow book!”