RHS Wisley Garden

Maintained by the Royal Horticultural Society, Wisley Garden offers a world famous collection of plants that have inspired English gardeners for more than 100 years.

A spectacular garden whatever the season, Wisley offers stunning herbaceous borders, rose gardens, woodland gardens and a 6ha field where new flowers, fruit trees and vegetables are trialled.

Discover glasshouses crowded with desert, tropical and temperate climate plants and flowers, visit the extensive arboretum and get some practical ideas from the small-scale model gardens that are designed to show visitors what can be achieved in their own gardens.

Explore numerous formal and informal decorative gardens with displays of rhododendron, azalea and heather, as well as the Alpine meadow and the rock garden featuring pools and water-loving plants.

Size – 97ha

History – RHS Wisley was first laid out in 1878 and gifted to the Royal Horticultural Society in 1902.

Highlights

Follow a winding path, past rocky outcrops, waterfalls, pools and slopes through a 12m-high glasshouse to see some of Wisley's most important plant collections, including rare and endangered species and hundreds of varieties of orchids.

The glasshouse covers three different climatic zones – tropical, moist temperate and dry temperate habitats – and covers an area equal in size to ten tennis courts. Visit the lake environment that surrounds the glasshouse to see molluscs, damselflies, dragonflies and amphibians.

Location

RHS Wisley Garden is located 32km southwest of London in Woking, Surrey.

Getting there

Trains from London Waterloo Station leave regularly for nearby West Byfleet or Woking. On weekdays during the summer months, a special bus service operates from Woking Station to Wisley. You can also take a taxi for the short ride from the station.

Opening times

The Gardens are open daily, year round (except 25 December). Open weekdays from 10am to 6pm and on weekends from 9am to 6pm (4.30pm November to February).

Best time to visit

Any time between April and September. Summer temperatures average 18˚C with a high of 30°C, while spring averages 13˚C and winter averages 5°C.

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More gardens in Surrey

Surrey is packed with great gardens. Here are three gardens not to miss:

Munstead Wood Garden

This restored 4ha wooded garden surrounds the former home of English garden designer Gertrude Jekyll. Originally laid out by Jekyll in 1896, the garden features stone paths that flow through lawns, woodland, shrubbery and a sunken rockery, with daffodils, azaleas, rhododendrons, a rose-covered pergola and topiary box.

Opening times: The garden is located in Busbridge, Godalming, and is only open from 2pm to 5pm on two days of the year – 26 April and 17 May.

Loseley Park

Based on a design by Gertrude Jekyll, this 1ha walled garden includes several gardens, featuring an award-winning rose garden with more than 1000 bushes, a lawn, moat walk and flower garden crowded with mulberry trees, ancient wisteria, yew hedges, herbaceous plants and spectacular organic vegetable garden.

Opening times: Loseley Park is located near Guildford and open from May to September, Tuesday to Sunday from 11am to 5pm.

Gatton Park

This former medieval deer park was redesigned by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown in the English landscape style and, to this day, still contains dramatic vistas.

Ongoing restoration now includes a Japanese Garden, a Rock and Water Garden, a Walled Garden and an Old World Garden, as well as a lakeside walking trail. The garden is most famous for its masses of flowering in February and March.

Opening times: Located in Reigate, Gatton Park is open on the first Sunday of the month from 1pm to 5pm, February to October.

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Latest update: About RHS Wisley Garden: 14 January, 2023

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