Royal Horticultural Society giving them the opportunity to grow plants, food and develop life skills. The society honours certain persons with the Victoria Medal of Honour who are deemed by its Council to be deserving of special recognition in the field of horticulture. Other medals issued by the society include the Banksian, Knightian and Lindley medals, named after early officers of the society. It awards Gold, Silver-gilt, Silver and Bronze medals to exhibitors at its Flower Shows. The Veitch Memorial Medal, named after James Veitch, is awarded annually to persons of any nationality who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement and
Worcester County Horticultural Society Garden, as well as supporting the Cary Award, an award program for excellence in New England cultivation practices. The Society was informally founded on September 19, 1840 when several local doctors and businessmen met in Worcester "for the purposes of mutual improvement in the theoretical and practical branches of Horticulture," and in the subsequent weeks organized an exhibition of fine specimens of orchard and garden plants from cultivators in Central Massachusetts. The organization's founders shaped it in homage to the Royal Horticultural Society in London, expressing hope in their earliest reports that their "little Society, which has thus far so