The flagship garden of the Royal Horticultural Society and one of the mo
RHS Garden Wisley is the flagship garden of the Royal Horticultural Society and one of the most important horticultural sites in the world. Its 240 acres in Surrey encompass trial grounds where new plant varieties are rigorously evaluated, specialist collections of roses, rock plants, alpines and kitchen garden crops, model gardens illustrating different design approaches, and the striking Glasshouse complex with its tropical and arid zones.
For the serious gardener, Wisley is endlessly instructive. The plant trials are particularly valuable — this is where the RHS Award of Garden Merit is assessed, and where new introductions prove themselves in real growing conditions. The long double herbaceous borders, the extensive rose gardens and the rewilded Oakwood offer contrasting experiences of horticultural artistry and naturalistic planting.
A visit to Wisley on one of our tours combines the educational with the purely pleasurable. The kitchen garden alone — four acres of immaculately maintained productive beds — is among the finest examples of its kind in Britain. The adjoining Seed Meadow, planted as part of an ongoing rewilding programme, shows a contrasting but equally considered approach to ornamental horticulture.