Visiting RHS Wisley, the flagship garden of the Royal Horticultural Society, is always a delight. No matter what month. So when an opportunity arose that would enable me to revisit my favourite garden I jumped at it. My last visit was on a cold December morning in 2013 so it was a real pleasure to return on a hot summers day in August when not one, not two, but three events were running simultaneously. Celebrating 150 years since the novel Alice in Wonderland was published the garden was buzzing with excited children hunting down Alice and the Queen of Hearts, or maybe it was the mums because I doubt that many of the small children I saw even knew who Alice was. The second event was a sculpture trail to which I paid scant attention and then there was the fuchsia event. I suspect that was in the Glasshouse, but I never even got that far as I was more interested in looking at and photographing all the wonderful plant-life in the garden.
Not so much a walk, rather a sedentary stroll through some of the 60 acre site on a very warm, late summer’s day.
Full of colour and texture, the famous Mixed Borders are a 128m-long horticultural wonder.
In summer these borders are at their absolute peak. Colour, shape, form all designed to stun and wow the visitor. The cool and pastel-inspired perennials contrast with the hotter sections intermingled with tall grasses, salvias and dahlias. It can take a while to simply peruse this part of the garden.
True blue and beautiful, agapanthus feature across the garden.
Agapanthus ‘Northern Star’
The Bowes-Lyon Rose Garden and Mixed Borders.
There is an older rose garden too called the Jubilee Rose Garden where you will find older varieties planted in the traditional pattern of rose-beds with a modern twist provided by the new wrought-iron obelisks and fencing for the climbers to wrap themselves around.
Rosa Pride of England ‘Harencore’
And do pop into the Country Garden where you are sure to find a bench on which to ponder the visual delights surrounding you.
The Country Garden
More lovely walks can be found over at my friend Jo’s place.
Earth laughs in flowers 
It must take an army of gardeners to tend to this beautiful place. What a delight to stroll through here (without all the work) 🙂
One reason why I love it so much is that I don’t have to take care of it!
I’ve just realised that I wasn’t following this blog! Shame on me. I wandered over from your “every angle” post via a comment about your new camera and macro shots. The macros in this post are great.
Are you happy with swapping a bridge for a DSLR? The thought of carrying all that kit around, and thinking about lenses, puts me off. 😦
Happy you found the ‘flower’ me!
The new camera is mirrorless so not heavy at all. In fact even with the 40mm – 150mm lens it is lighter than my Fuji bridge. I can’t carry heavy stuff so avoided the DSLRs. Getting used to swapping lenses is the main drawback, but I am coming to realise that you either stop and swap, or you compose images to suit the lens. I think it may actually benefit me as it stops me simply snapping everything. Now I think about what I can do with the lens and if it doesn’t work I don’t shoot.
Ah, that’s interesting. I’ve heard of mirrorless cameras but didn’t realise that meant they weighed less. I shall follow your progress with interest. How long have you had the new one? And what persuaded you to get this particular make and model?
Only had it a month. Took me three years to decide on which camera to buy! Finally decided between the Olympus or the Panasonic (they share lenses) and the Olympus won purely on price offer at the time, plus excellent reviews.
Totally glorious, Jude! How did you drag yourself away? That header photo positively vibrates colour. 🙂
They close at 6 pm.