| RHS Garden Wisley | |
|---|---|
 The laboratory at Wisley Garden with thecanal in the foreground | |
  Location in Surrey | |
| Type | Garden |
| Location | Wisley |
| Coordinates | 51°18′47″N0°28′27″W / 51.3130°N 0.4742°W /51.3130; -0.4742 |
| Area | 240 acres (97 ha) |
| Created | 1878 |
| Operated by | Royal Horticultural Society |
| Visitors | 1,104,362 (2024)[1] |
| Open | All year round |
| Designation | Grade II* |
| Website | RHS Wisley |
RHS Garden Wisley[2] is a garden run by theRoyal Horticultural Society inWisley,Surrey, southwest of London. It is one of five gardens run by the society, the others beingHarlow Carr,Hyde Hall,Rosemoor, andBridgewater (which opened on 18 May 2021).[3] Wisley is the second most visited paid entry garden in the United Kingdom after theRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew, with 1,104,362 visitors in 2024.[1] The gardens areGrade II* listed.[4]
The gardens are accessed from Wisley Lane which connects to theA3 just south of Junction 10 on theM25 motorway. TheRiver Wey forms the north-western border of the site.[4]
Wisley was founded byVictorian businessman and RHS memberGeorge Ferguson Wilson,[5] who purchased Glebe Farm,[6] a sixty-acre- (24 ha) site, in 1878.[2] There, with assistance fromGertrude Jekyll,[4] he established the "Oakwood Experimental Garden"[7][8] on part of the site, where he attempted to "make difficult plants grow successfully". Wilson died in 1902 and Oakwood was purchased by SirThomas Hanbury,[9] the creator of the celebrated garden,La Mortola, on the Italian Riviera. He gave the Wisley site to the RHS in 1903. The society sold its lease on its gardens in Chiswick in March of that year and moved to Wisley in the April.[4]
The storms of 1987 and 1990 reduced the original wooded area, leaving only a few mature oak trees.[4]
In April 2005,Alan Titchmarsh cut the turf to mark the start of construction of the Bicentenary Glasshouse.[10] This major new feature covers three-quarters of an acre (0.30 ha) and overlooks a new lake built at the same time. It is divided into three main planting zones representing desert, tropical and temperate climates. It was budgeted at £7.7 million and opened on 26 June 2007.[11] A £20 million Welcome Building including a larger restaurant, cafe and visitor facilities was opened by Alan Titchmarsh on 10 June 2019.[12]
In 2024, the influential gardenerPiet Oudolf redeveloped the two-acre space of his Glasshouse Landscape borders, first planned by him 20 years earlier, in a style more designed to mimic the natural world.[13][14]
Directors have included;[15]
Wisley is now a large and diverse garden covering 240 acres (97 ha). In addition to numerous formal and informal decorative gardens, several glasshouses and an extensivearboretum, it includes a trials field where new cultivars are assessed. The original laboratory, for both scientific research and training, was opened in 1907, but proved inadequate. It was expanded and its exterior was rebuilt duringWorld War I. It was designated a Grade IIListed building in 1985.[16] Visitor numbers increased significantly from 5,250 in 1905, to 11,000 in 1908, 48,000 in the late 1920s, and 170,000 in 1957, and passed 400,000 in 1978, 500,000 in 1985, and 600,000 in 1987.[6]
The grounds contain the following features:[17]
Visitor facilities include cafés and restaurant, car parks, plant centre, etc.
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