RHS Garden, Wisley
The
Royal Horticultural Society's garden at
Wisley in the
English county of
Surrey south of London, is one of the three most visited paid gardens in the
United Kingdom alongside
Kew Gardens and
Alnwick Garden. It is one of four public gardens run by the Society.
Wisley was founded by
Victorian businessman and RHS member
George Ferguson Wilson, who purchased a 60 acre (243,000 m²) site in 1878. He established the "Oakwood Experimental Garden" on part of the site, where he attempted to "make difficult plants grow successfully". Wilson died in
1902 and Oakwood and the adjoining Glebe Farm were purchased by Sir
Thomas Hanbury, the creator of the celebrated garden
La Mortola on the Italian Riviera. He gifted both sites to the RHS the following year. Since then Wisley has developed steadily and it is now is a large and diverse garden covering 240 acres (971,000 m²). In addition to numerous formal and informal decorative gardens, several glasshouses and an extensive
arboretum, it includes small scale "model gardens" which are intended to show visitors what they can achieve in their own gardens, and a trials field where new cultivars are assessed.
In April 2005
Alan Titchmarsh cut the turf to mark the start of construction of the Bicentenary Glasshouse. This major new feature will cover three quarters of an acre (3,000 m²) and will overlook a new lake. It will be divided into three main planting zones representing desert, tropical and temperate climates. It is budgeted at £7.7 million and is expected to open in 2007.
*
Official website*
RHS Garden, Wisley â€" information on garden history
