RHS Garden Wisley Outdoors

Wisley is Britain's best loved garden with 97ha (240 acres) offering a fascinating blend of the beautiful with practical and innovative design and cultivation techniques.

For many, it is the beauty and tranquility of the garden that captures the imagination, with its richly planted borders, luscious rose gardens and the exotica of the glasshouses, but a closer look reveals the real value of Wisley.

In the trials fields, the finest flowers and vegetables are identified from the countless new introductions. Elsewhere in the garden, cultivation techniques, such as composting or pleaching, are tried and tested, and a series of model gardens answers the needs of a variety of conditions and circumstances.

The Royal Horticultural Society was given Wisley in 1903, although at that time only a small part of the 24-ha (60-acre) estate was actually cultivated as a garden, the remainder being wooded farmland. The original garden was the creation of George Ferguson Wilson - businessman, scientist, inventor and keen gardener and a former Treasurer of the Society. .