Welcome to Wisley in high summer. Around the garden you can find colour, form, open areas and shade, tasty-looking fruit and veg, and inspiring plant combinations. Summer bedding schemes have a tropical flavour, and the formal Canal is full of colourful water lilies. And as you explore you'll find colour, views, and tasty produce growing all over the garden.
Take the path to the Arboretum and Fruit Field to enjoy a pleasant walk and admire the tree fruits. The vineyard is full of ripening grapes, while in the orchard areas early apples and pears are being harvested. The trees in the Arboretum, especially on the Glasshouse side of the Fruit Field, bear colourful crab apples and Sorbus berries. Autumn fruiting raspberries and peaches are also looking tempting.
One of Wisley’s best views is from the top of the Glasshouse Borders down to the magnificent Glasshouse. These borders are planted in drifts, or rivers, designed to give structure and movement, which you can clearly see when viewing from the top. Echinaceas, including Echinacea purpurea 'Fatal Attraction' below, rudbeckias and Perovskia star among the grasses and other perennials.
Wander up the hill from the magnificent Mixed Borders and you enter the broadwalk on Battleston Hill. This area is full of hydrangeas, mainly Hydrangea paniculata with large, pointed flower heads that change colour over time.
Beyond Battleston Hill you can find annuals, perennials and vegetables on the Trials Field - some of the plants here may be selected as winners of the prestigious Award of Garden Merit. This year the trials include dahlias, blackberries and clematis.
Don’t miss the magnificent one-year-old Bowes-Lyon Rose Garden. At the heart of Wisley, this impressive new garden has got everyone talking. The stunning mix of herbaceous and woody plantings, in full glory right now, supports the blocks of colour from hundreds of roses.
From the Top Terrace you have a fine view of the Mixed Borders. They are full of goodies at this time of year with everything including tender perennials to grasses, climbers, shrubs and pollarded trees. The colours gradually change from cool to warm as you go up the hill. Look out for the white Agapanthus praecox 'Maximus Albus' AGM, salvias and veronicastrums as their different colours and forms contrast with each other yet go together beautifully.
Annual flowers sown only a few weeks ago fill large parts of the garden with pretty, delicate flower combinations, some of which have been put together by our own teams, others by the team who have worked on the Olympic Park in London. Check out the pictorial meadows by the Glasshouse Lake, in front of the Honest Sausage cafe, and in the middle of the Model Gardens.