RHS Garden Wisley

RHS Garden Wisley, Wisley Lane, Wisley, Woking, UK
1-90 Years
Paid

Description

RHS Garden Wisley is the historic home of the RHS and one of the largest plant collections in the world. This expansive garden offers a beautiful experience throughout the seasons, from spring blossoms to vibrant summer borders and colourful autumn displays. It is a leading destination for horticulture, combining natural beauty with gardening science and heritage.

Visitors can explore a wide range of attractions including the Glasshouse with exotic plants, RHS Hilltop for gardening science, the Old Laboratory with interactive exhibits, and themed spaces like the Wellbeing Garden, Wildlife Garden and World Food Garden. Other highlights include the Exotic Garden, Jellicoe Canal, Clear Lake, Oudolf Landscape, Seven Acres, Battleston Hill, Rock Garden, Oakwood, Back to Nature Garden, Orchard, Trials Garden, Pinetum, Alpine Meadow, Cottage Garden, Mediterranean Terraces, Mixed Borders and Bowes-Lyon Rose Garden. Activities include walking through diverse landscapes, exploring plant collections, family play experiences, and enjoying seasonal displays.

Admission prices range from £14.80 for pre-booked adults to £19.80 on the day, with children aged 5–16 priced at £5 and under 5s free. Discounted options such as saver, off-peak and car-free tickets are also available depending on time and eligibility.

Overall, RHS Garden Wisley offers a rich and immersive experience for nature lovers, families and gardening enthusiasts. With its extensive plant collections, educational spaces and beautifully designed landscapes, it provides both relaxation and inspiration. It is an ideal place to explore world-class gardens and enjoy a peaceful day surrounded by nature.

Features

  • Paid
  • Host birthday parties: No

Features

  • RHS Hilltop – The Home of Gardening Science: The UK’s first dedicated horticultural scientific centre of excellence is open to the public – protecting the future of plants, people and the planet at the iconic RHS Garden Wisley. Step inside this stunning space to see our research being carried out, learn about the invaluable work of the RHS with our interactive displays, marvel at our world-class collections and enjoy a bite to eat at a cafe where the produce is fresh from the gardens outside.
  • The Old Laboratory: Step inside the Old Laboratory and discover the previously hidden stories of RHS Garden Wisley’s rich past brought to life through interactive exhibits, weird and wonderful artefacts and the memories of students and staff who worked in the building and garden.
  • The Glasshouse: The huge cathedral-like Glasshouse, covering the area of 10 tennis courts and rising to 12m (40ft) high, is home to the RHS’s world-class tender plant collection. Entering the Glasshouse is like walking into a jungle – tree ferns, tall palms, lush-leaved creepers and dazzling flower displays give a feeling of lushness and drama. 
  • The Wellbeing Garden: Welcome to the Wellbeing Garden – a space filled with ideas for gardening for body and soul. What better way then to celebrate than with this health and wellbeing garden designed by Matt Keightley, an RHS Chelsea award winning designer already established as putting wellness at the heart of his gardens.
  • The World Food Garden: You can taste your way around the world at one of the most recent additions to RHS Garden Wisley – our garden of all things edible. The World Food Garden takes its lead from the traditional kitchen garden, synonymous with English country estates, but with a contemporary twist.
  • The Wildlife Garden: Drink in the wonders of wildlife among flowerbeds and borders buzzing with life, then introduce bug-friendly plants to your own green space. RHS Wisley’s first-ever dedicated wildlife garden aims to encourage visitors to put nature at the heart of their own gardens. 
  • The Welcome building: A world-class welcome building that sweeps visitors through into the heart of the garden. The Welcome building and surrounding landscape has transformed the entrance to Wisley, putting design, plants and horticulture at the forefront for visitors to enjoy.
  • The Welcome Landscape: The elegant landscape design blends new and existing spaces – welcoming visitors to the iconic Wisley. The stunning landscape, designed by one of Britain’s most influential designers, award-winning Christopher Bradley-Hole, runs along the entire area – walking visitors through a world-class garden and up to the entrance of the Welcome building.
  • The Garden Centre: Pop into the garden centre and browse curated collections of houseplants, unique plants and shrubs, gardening tools and accessories, and our eclectic selection of gifts and homewares. 
  • The Exotic Garden: The Exotic Garden showcases plants that have a tropical look and feel, but will flourish outdoors in a typical UK summer climate. The Exotic Garden is home to large leaves, vibrant flowers and exciting plants that you wouldn’t perhaps expect to see growing outdoors. Palms jostle alongside hardy bananas while cannas, gingers and dahlias add splashes of vibrant colour.
  • Jellicoe Canal: Perhaps the most iconic view of Wisley, the Laboratory is set among a terraced landscape with the striking Jellicoe Canal taking centre stage. A very special part of Wisley, the iconic Laboratory building is surrounded by terraces, interesting plantings and of course the striking Jellicoe Canal, which is home to many waterlily cultivars.
  • Clear Lake: Clear Lake is a man-made lake collecting rainwater for irrigating the garden, with gently sloping sides providing the perfect habitat for Wisley's wildlife. An exciting new project has been officially opened at RHS Garden Wisley. Affectionately described as a giant water butt, Clear Lake is a man-made lake created on the former trials fields below Battleston Hill and holds the equivalent of 42,000 domestic water butts. 
  • The Oudolf Landscape: In the redesigned Oudolf Landscape you can drift through ‘rivers’ of foliage and flowers as you enjoy glorious views down to the Glasshouse. Situated between the Viewing Mount and The Glasshouse Landscape, the Glasshouse Borders have had a radical facelift to become the wonderful Oudolf Landscape, which opened on 15 May 2024.
  • The Glasshouse Landscape: A grand, contemporary, sweeping landscape that wraps around the Glasshouse. The Glasshouse Landscape was originally laid out in 2007 by Tom Stuart-Smith when the Glasshouse was completed. This dramatic landscape links with both the interior of the Glasshouse and the wider garden around it.
  • Seven Acres: Originally rough pastureland, Seven Acres lies between the Food Hall and Restaurant on one side and the Glasshouse at the other. Seven Acres is home to wide open lawns, ponds, fine specimen trees and, more recently, a Winter Walk.
  • Battleston Hill: Lose yourself on Battleston Hill, a beautiful woodland garden where winding paths allow you to explore plants from far-off climes. Battleston Hill is planted to provide year-round interest, but it is best known for its flamboyant burst of spring colour that reaches a climax in April and May. 
  • The Rock Garden: The naturalistic Rock Garden is one of Wisley’s oldest, and most magnificent, features. The Rock Garden, constructed between 1910 and 1912, showcases a wide range of alpines and plants that flourish in alpine conditions, alongside small weeping trees and dwarf conifers for year-round interest. The cloud-pruned Japanese larch is probably Wisley’s oldest plant.
  • Oakwood: Oakwood is the original Wisley, where George Fergusson Wilson created various conditions – such as mounds, ponds and ditches – in order to ‘grow difficult plants successfully’. Surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the Rock Garden and Seven Acres, Oakwood offers a sense of solitude and serenity with many paths to explore and new plants to discover. In fact, this part of Wisley has the garden’s most diverse plant collection. 
  • Back to Nature Garden: An exciting and inspiring garden space for children and families to play, discover and relax in, while connecting with the great outdoors. Fun play elements include two treehouses linked via an aerial walkway, swings, slides and trampolines, as well as a hollow log for climbing on and crawling through, a stream with water pumps, dens for hiding, a living willow pod, hidden burrow and giant sand pit.​
  • The Jubilee Arboretum: The Jubilee Arboretum is a comprehensive collection of both deciduous and evergreen trees, with certain tree types grouped together for easy comparison. It is also the perfect place to choose the next tree for your garden. 
  • Conifer Lawn and Wisteria Walk: The Conifer Lawn is home to some of the oldest trees in the garden and is a wonderful, open space to enjoy views to the beautiful laboratory building. Originally a collection of cypress trees, the Conifer Lawn was planted in the early 1900s and was home to around 60 large trees.
  • The Walled Gardens: Wisley’s sheltered Walled Gardens house two distinct schemes: one shows creative alternatives to box, the other puts foliage to the fore. Walled Garden East, nearest the Jellicoe Canal, features an attractive parterre that demonstrates and trials a range of alternatives to traditional Buxus (box) hedges.
  • Howard’s Field: Howard’s Field is a quiet, contemplative clearing, home to some fine specimen trees, the National Plant Collection of heathers – one of the largest heather collections in the UK – and an ornamental Grass Garden. Wisley has had a good collection of heathers since the 1920s when then-Director Frank Chittenden planted the Heath Garden on Seven Acres.
  • Herons Bonsai Walk: A delight at any time of year, Herons Bonsai Walk is a showcase of hardy, outdoor bonsai trees. Herons Bonsai Walk is an exquisite showcase for a range of evergreen, deciduous and flowering bonsai trees. Presented on simple wooden stands in front of an evergreen hedge backdrop, the trees typically range from 40 – 80 years of age.
  • The Orchard: The Orchard is a living library of fruit cultivars, with particularly good collections of pear, apple, plum and damson. The Society has always had an outstanding fruit collection, starting with one at the RHS garden in Chiswick in the 19th century. Today the Wisley Orchard holds a large and diverse range of species.
  • Trials Garden: Explore the Trials Garden to see spectacular displays, discover new plants and take a look at which plants are being assessed by our trials team for the RHS Recommended: Award of Garden Merit. Trialling plants for garden performance has been integral to the work of the RHS since its earliest years. In fact, plant trials have been carried out at Wisley for more than 100 years.
  • The Pinetum: A collection of century-old trees, many coniferous, the Pinetum is the place to enjoy magnificent mature trees. The Pinetum is the oldest tree collection at Wisley, made up mostly of conifers. It is glorious year round, but especially in winter and in autumn, when many of the accompanying deciduous plants show their autumnal hues which contrast beautifully with the evergreen conifer backdrop.
  • The Alpine Meadow: The grassy slope next to the Rock Garden is the Alpine Meadow, famous for its carpets of spring bulbs. The meadow’s year begins when the large collection of snowdrops begins to flower.
  • The Cottage Garden: Originally laid out by Penelope Hobhouse in the early 1990s, the Cottage Garden blends billowing cottage-style plants with a formal layout. Beautifully chaotic, relaxed plantings soften the formal hard landscape of this charming garden, formerly known as the Country Garden.
  • Bowles' Corner: Bowles’ Corner commemorates renowned plantsman and former RHS president, Edward Augustus (E.A.) Bowles, who was known for his love of unusual plants. In February, look for Galanthus (snowdrop; Bowles coined the term ‘Galanthophile’), Edgeworthia chrysantha (paperbush) and twisted Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’ (corkscrew hazel). By March, crocuses and colchicums - a passion of Bowles’s - blanket the ground under the trees. Look for Crocus ‘Snow Bunting’ and C. sieberi ‘Bowles’s White’, which were both bred by Bowles. Hellebore hybrids, hepaticas, Pulmonaria (lungwort) and primulas ensure plenty more spring interest.
  • The Mediterranean Terraces: The Mediterranean Terraces give a flavour of plants from Mediterranean climate zones, which can thrive in a hot summer and give interest all year. The Mediterranean Terraces, on the south side of Battleston Hill, display plants from countries that enjoy a Mediterranean climate, as well as plants from the Mediterranean itself.
  • The Mixed Borders: Providing one of the most iconic views of Wisley, these impressive mixed borders are among Britain’s finest. Wisley’s famous double Mixed Borders run either side of the Broadwalk, on the slope leading up to Battleston Hill. They are a 128m- (420ft-) long horticultural wonder, bringing bold colour and texture from late spring to autumn, but reaching a peak in July and August. 
  • Bowes-Lyon Rose Garden: The Bowes-Lyon Rose Garden, supported by Witan Investment Trust, has an inspiring contemporary design, teaming roses with a broad range of companion plantings. This innovative project, started in late 2007, replaces the old rose borders and catenary at the southern side of Weather Hill. 

Facilities

  • Parking: Free car parking available. 
  • Food & Drinks: Treat yourself to delicious food made from fresh, seasonal produce in our restaurant and cafés.

Price

Price: Paid

Price Details

Admission prices

  • Adult – online pre-booked tickets: From £14.80
  • Adult – at the gate tickets: £19.80
  • Children 5–16 years: £5
  • Children under 5 years: Free
  • Car-free offer adult (bus, cycle, walk): £14
  • Universal or Pension Credit and ESA: £1

Other Offers

  • Saver: £14.80 - Weekdays Oct–Mar (excl. 27–31 Oct)
  • Off-peak: £16.60 - Weekends Oct–Mar / Weekdays Apr–Sep & 27–31 Oct (excl. 28 Mar–21 Apr, 5, 26–30 May & 23 Jul–7 Sep) 
  • Standard: £18.40 - Weekends 28–29 Mar, Apr–Sep / Weekdays 30 Mar–21 Apr, 5, 26–30 May & 23 Jul–7 Sep
  • On the day: £19.80 - All year round
  • Under 5s: Free - All year round
  • Kids 5-16: £5.00 - All year round

Pricing URL: https://www.rhs.org.uk/gardens/wisley/plan-your-visit

Birthday Parties

Offer Birthday Parties: No

Open daily except Christmas day:

  • Monday to Friday, 10am – 6pm (last entry 5pm)
  • Saturday and Sunday, 9am – 6pm (last entry 5pm)

The Glasshouse

  • Monday to Sunday, 10am – 3.45pm (last entry 3.30pm)
  • Entry is free with garden admission

The Old Laboratory

  • Monday to Sunday, 10am – 5pm (last entry 4.30pm)
  • Entry is free with garden admission

RHS Hilltop – The Home of Gardening Science

  • Monday to Sunday, 10am – 5.45pm (last entry 4.45pm)
  • Entry is free with garden admission

Address: RHS Garden Wisley, Wisley Lane, Wisley, Woking, UK

Post Code: GU23 6QB

Council: Woking

County: Surrey

RHS Wisley is located near the towns of Woking and Guildford in Surrey, in the South East of England. You can reach us in under an hour from central London.

Key travel information

  • Visit car-free and save 30% on garden admission
  • Public bus: No. 462 and 463 bus services (hourly) from Woking and Guildford, seven days a week
  • Public bus: No. 714 bus service (hourly) from Kingston, Monday to Saturday
  • 32 electric charging points
  • Dedicated cycle parking and repair station
  • Free car parking

Visit the website for more information.

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