RHS Wisley An open garden in Surrey

I love the garden at Wisley. At any time of the year there is so much to see. Beyond the fabulous mixed borders and disipline of the walled garden and so on, the wild garden and battleston hill are fantastic all year round. In both areas you can pick up ideas on what to grow in the shade, on a slope or even in a bit of a bog. Wander up to the alpine houses to get ideas for smaller gardens and rockeries - you cant fail to be impressed by the range and beauty of the specimens there. Next door to the alpines you can find the veg garden - brilliant for keeping up to speed with your own vegetables. Richard is the member of staff there and is the deepest mine of veg gardening knowledge you could hope for... look out for people waiting in line to talk to him! For those looking for long term satisfaction pop to the model fruit garden for tips on growing fruit from the smallest step-over apples to training pears over an arch to growing soft fruit. They also have a couple of composters in the corner working away at staff leftovers! The Glasshouse is the newest addition and this is set to be another brilliant area to visit. Hothouse plants that you might grow at home are taking off in this perfect environment. It is amazing to think you might have some of the plants seen here at home in a much smaller version!

The Wisley Flower show is in August and the Taste of Autumn is in... Autumn. Entrance is a little pricey so make sure you put aside enough time to make the most of it. The car park is also a bit of a problem - it is very big and very busy especially for the shows and on sunny weekends there have been rennovations in progress for months now. Try arriving at 10am when it opens or later in the afternoon - the last entry is at 5pm in the summer (4.30pm for the glasshouse). RHS members get in free + guest... The plant centre has a great range of plants but they are 'RHS prices' which makes it quite expensive. All in all, a good day out, but heavy on the wallet for popping by as a non-member.

I found the trials fields at Wisley amazing... going to all that trouble to identify the finest flowers and vegetables. I am adding two photos I took at the trials field. Shame I didn't take a wide angled photo.

Visited about 10 yrs ago - for me the 2 most memorable bits were 1. the dephinium trial beds and 2. the impressive collection of eucalyptus trees, which were really beautiful and really opened my eyes to this group of trees, some with lovely flakey bark in shades of silky grey and cream and others with fab shapes like the ones that tapered up to the sky like ribbons. I also bought Agnus the Cactus from there. He's still going strong and recently became a mother..er...father I mean.