| On Sunday 4th May, I was lucky enough to visit beautiful RHS Wisley Gardens in Surrey, UK. I went with a friend, Bernadette, and we took time to visit the Craft in Focus Art & Design Spring Show, that was taking place in the gardens over the Bank Holiday weekend. It’s a top quality arts & crafts fair, which has been hosted by Wisley every spring since 2011. |
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I though I’d use this post to take you round beautiful Wisley Gardens itself. Next time I’ll explain how you qualify for and cope with a large, top of the range show such as the Wisley one. |
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Wisley Gardens were created by George Fergusson Wilson back in 1878. He was a treasurer of the Royal Horticultural Society, to whom the gardens were presented in 1903, following Wilson’s death. Wisley is now the flagship garden of the Royal Horticultural Society and a centre for horticultural science and research. The gardens are truly inspirational, spread out over 240 acres – and in addition to gorgeous planting, such as shown in these photos…..... |
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….. they form a “test ground” for the RHS too. The colourful walled garden shown below shows alternatives to box hedging. Box is subject to a virus, as you may know, so the RHS are testing all sorts of alternative hedging shrubs and plants . They are using them here to see which ones flourish and how best to cultivate them. This knowledge will then be put forth to plant breeders, nurseries, garden centres, magazines, etc. You can see at a glance how pretty they all are, so my preference would be for a hedge including all of them! |
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The stunning Wisley house, shown here, is a listed building and is filled with RHS research laboratories..... |
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Bernie and I also visited the tropical glass house, which is very similar to the one at Kew Gardens. |
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Finally we went on to the craft show – more of that next time And I’d recommend RHS Wisley to anyone at any time of year! |
