Wisley Garden, England

The RHS garden Wisley is supposed to be the jewel in the RHS’ crown. It’s certainly a fantastic garden, which has almost anything one might be interested in as a gardener. Unfortunately for me, Wisley came at the end of our spring trip to England and I have to admit that I was a little bit gardened out. I really didn’t think this would ever be possible, but apparently five large gardens and an even larger garden show are just about enough for one trip. And maybe, although it seems sacrilege to even suggest it, I also grew tired of the absolute perfection of each garden we visited. Forests and wild meadows never seem to lose their charms – could it be that English gardens, or any type of garden for that matter, are just too ‘landscaped’ for their own good? Or maybe I’m just reading way too much into this – seeing multiple castles or paintings can also wear you down, no matter how beautiful each is individually.

But I digress. Back to Wisley, which really is a very lovely garden. It’s the oldest garden owned by the RHS, which means the Society has had over 100 years to develop it into one of the top attractions in England. The well-known greenhouse is instantly recognizable, while the Wisley trial fields are the sacred ground where the “RHS Award of Merit” is determined. There is great history at Wisley, a true establishment of English gardening culture.


As the gardens are very large, I’ll just go through a few of my favourite sections. One of the latest notable additions to the garden is Piet Oudolf’s modern take on the English double border. His wide borders run from the aforementioned signature greenhouse up a large slope, to the upper part of the gardens. While in late May they clearly weren’t at their full glory, they were still nicely filled in. I did think that perhaps some more structure (which is often found in Oudolf’s work) would have made the composition stronger, but maybe late spring is not the best time to judge.



A completely different area was the alpine garden. Here, attention was focused on the individual plants, and late spring was a great time to visit. As one might expect, everything was grown to perfection - a real candy store for the alpine plant enthusiast.



As seems to be often the case, I also really enjoyed the woodland section. There were two woodland sections at Wisley, one a little more ‘gardened’ with smaller trees and a great concentration of lovely woodland floor plants, and another which was more forest-like, at the further end of the garden. The latter featured some amazing rare and old tree specimens, as well as an impressive collection of rhododendrons and azaleas, all in bloom. A beautiful garden to enjoy, even in the perennial English drizzle.

RHS Garden Rosemoor, Devon, England

Rosemoor garden in Devon is one of the four large, public gardens maintained by the famous Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) in the UK. Similar to some of the other RHS gardens, Rosemoor was a private donation, and came with a house, an English-style garden of flowering perennials, shrubs and trees, and about 65 acres of surrounding, undeveloped land. Needless to say, the RHS had its work cut out - since taking over in 1988, they have invested a lot of resources and effort in converting the site into an world-class garden and educational resource.

Today, Rosemoor makes for a great, relaxing garden visit. While its main aim is not necessarily to pioneer break-through ideas in horticulture, it does a good job of balancing good old-fashioned horticulture with some new and more adventurous developments.

As with every garden we have visited in England thus far, the first thing that made an impression was the plantsmanship. The stream-side planting below is just one example – the damp conditions were perfectly suited to Carex elata ‘Aurea’ (Bowles’ golden sedge), bold gunnera, primulas and ferns.








Given that the main aim of the RHS is education, the garden includes a little bit of everything, from annual plantings to woodland. This perhaps detracts from making one strong impression, but it does allow visitors to see many different habitats and scenarios, from model city gardens to traditional cottage gardens, which I never seem to tire of.

Another nice area was the woodland on the steeper, upper side of the garden. This is a spring garden and was especially good at the time we visited in late May – masses of thriving rhododendrons were in full bloom under the filtered light and protection of the mature canopy.

An example of the RHS’ efforts to incorporate contemporary design into its gardens is showcased in the new Square garden, designed by Roger Webster and installed in 2007-2008. The planting here is decidedly more modern – ‘new perennials’ and grasses are used to support the hot colour theme. The development and design intent of the Square garden is detailed in this article by Rosemoor curator Christopher Bailes, which also includes some nice pictures of the garden at its impressive peak during late summer. Even at the time of our visit it was looking great – public gardens face a tough challenge trying to balance one spectacular peak with year-round interest, but this garden seems to have figured it out.

I also really enjoyed some of the meadow areas. Given the large grounds, meadows are almost a necessity at Rosemoor. In the second one below, Camassia was dotted through the grass to great effect. I saw a lot of Camassia in England, and it’s always interesting to see how some of our North American natives are often ignored at home but much appreciated abroad. Wonder if the Camassia manages to naturalize here – they still looked rather sparse in this area, but perhaps it’s still too soon to tell.