surrey gardens
Get growing with RHS Garden Wisley
Spring is the ideal time for new beginnings in your garden, at RHS Garden Wisley the garden is bursting with activity and planting.
F
ind ideas at Wisley to inspire your gardening year and visit for fresh scents, new shoots and carpets of colour from spring bulbs.
Start a kitchen garden Start this new season by preparing your garden this month. If you’re growing to eat this year, begin your veg patch by planting shallots, onion sets and early potatoes. For smaller gardens, you can use containers for vegetables, plant carrot or beetroot seeds. Try newspaper origami for your seeds, these biodegradable containers can be used to plant seedlings straight out in the garden later in spring.
Prepare now for floral abundance
Top jobs in the garden this month include protecting your hard earned spring shoots from slugs. Don’t forget to open vents in the greenhouse on warmer days. You can also begin staking your herbaceous perennials as they start to emerge from their winter rest.
Pick up inspiration and advice Welcome the arrival of spring by visiting the Spring Plant Fair at Wisley (18 – 20 March). Meet specialist nurseries and choose from a wide range of quality plants. Begin with instant impact from colourful shrubs, early displays include Daphnes, Corylopsis, Spirea, Chaenomeles and Ribes. Or start your summer of colour by choosing bulbs and annual seeds for scent, such as lilies, Freesia, Matthiola, sweet williams, and sweet peas.
The wide variety of nurseries brings together specialists and unusual plants to tempt even the seasoned gardener. Whether you’re interested in picking up seeds and propagating, choosing from the best quality plants or browsing for accessories there’s something for every plant lover. The Plant Fair offers a large selection of plants including summer bulbs, roses, woodland and alpines, cacti and tropical, perennials and climbers plus herbs and vegetables. The Plant Fair will also feature some rare and heritage plants that you will not find elsewhere.
During the weekend catch a glimpse of the pretty nodding petals of the snake’s head fritillary and learn more about a range of these intricate spring flowers as the Fritillaria Society puts on a show on Sunday 20 March.
Take a piece of Wisley home Plant seeds from RHS Garden Wisley. The RHS Seed Team collects a wide variety of seed by hand. Choose from annuals, bulbs, grasses, rock garden plants, herbaceous perennials, shrubs and trees. To help make the selection process easier each year a variety of collections are also put together, for example a Perfect for Pollinators collection; Cut Flower collection, AGM collection. RHS Members can order these until 31 March. Alternatively you can purchase them in the Plant Centre at Wisley.
RHS GARDEN WISLEY Woking, Surrey GU32 6QB
Open every day except Christmas day Monday – Friday 10am – 6pm Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holidays 9am – 6pm
Garden entrance prices
www.rhs.org.uk/ wisley (RHS Members go free).
Orders from the RHS Seed Scheme can be made online by going to
rhs.org.uk/seedlist or by contacting the Membership team on 020 3176 5810
surrey magazine spring 2016 55
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