RHS Wisley

I had a busy morning attending to chores but then after lunch I met a friend at RHS Wisley to have a quick walk around the gardens before I had to collect my son from school.

The RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) has four such gardens throughout the country, this being their flagship garden and the second most paid visited garden in the UK after Kew gardens.

The gardens were founded in 1878 by a Victorian businessman who then sold them to Sir Thomas Hanbury. He then gifted the gardens to the RHS in 1903. Since then Wisley has developed steadily and it is now is a large and diverse garden covering 240 acres (971,000 m²). In addition to numerous formal and informal decorative gardens, several glasshouses and an extensive arboretum, it includes small scale "model gardens" which are intended to show visitors what they can achieve in their own gardens, and a trials field where new cultivars are assessed.

The laboratory, for both scientific research and training, was originally opened in 1907, but proved inadequate. It was expanded and its exterior was rebuilt during World War I. It was made a Grade II Listed building in 1985.

This photo is of the laboratory with the canal in the foreground.

The gardens were looking so pretty at this time of year, and there were too many photos to choose from so I have added them here