RHS Journals
The Garden
June 2007
Welcome to the house warming
This month HM The Queen opens The Glasshouse at RHS Garden Wisley. Its completion is a tribute to the dedication and generosity of its supporters.
Jane Owen outlines its progress. Find out more about The Glasshouse
The Glasshouse at RHS Garden Wisley opened after five years of planning and development. The great curves of glass and steel appear to float above the lake in the landscape on the northeastern side of Wisley’s gardens. Inside, some of the world’s most beautiful plants are displayed at the peak of perfection. What makes this so different from many other great glasshouses, however, is that it is a true ‘garden under glass’, for the focus is squarely on cultivated garden plants rather than species that are the mainstay of most glasshouse collections.
‘The Glasshouse is about the perfecting of plants by people; the story of how they were collected, bred and improved with huge enthusiasm to create our garden selections,’ says Jill Cherry, who became RHS Director of Gardens and Estates in May last year. ‘It has been a privilege to work with some great designers, including exhibition designer Neal Potter, garden designers Cleve West and Tom Stuart-Smith, and Wisley masterplanners Colvin and Moggridge.’
In 2002, the then RHS President Sir Richard Carew Pole launched the glasshouse project as part of the Society’s bicentenary celebrations and he has been one of its most passionate supporters. But what began as a need to replace existing dilapidated glasshouses became much more: three computer-controlled climate zones, a sustainable water supply for much of the garden and one of the most advanced learning areas in any UK garden - all set in a landscaped amphitheatre that will tie it into the rest of the garden.
Stepping inside
Entering The Glasshouse is like walking into a jungle - tree ferns, tall palms, lush-leaved creepers and dazzling flower displays give an air of expectation and drama. There are three interlinked zones: dry temperate and moist temperate (adjacent spaces within the main area of the glasshouse), and a tropical zone overlooking the lake at the front. The tropical section is divided from the temperate by a glass partition and a huge, reddish-brown ‘rock’ structure that also provides a range of planting habitats. The material is actually glass-reinforced concrete moulded from natural rock outcrops, and dominates all three zones.
The Plant Theatre, at the centre of The Glasshouse, stages marvellous displays of plants in peak condition. At the opening will be massed Asiatic and Longifolium hybrid lilies, giving a burst of colour and scent to the theatre. This display, along with smaller ones nestled into beds throughout the glasshouse, will change through the seasons; regular visitors to Wisley will be pleased to know that the garden’s chrysanthemum festival will still appear in autumn. Plants for these temporary displays are brought on in the propagation houses at the back of the main structure.
Seeing the first plants going into a new, purpose-built glasshouse was the realisation of a long-held ambition for Wisley’s Curator Jim Gardiner. Though some 85 percent of the permanent collection has come from extant Wisley stock, it has been augmented by exciting additions brought in by Jim and the Superintendent of Glass, Nick Morgan. They scoured the world for imposing specimens to add impact, including 24 tall, elegant palms. ‘They arrived in November - it was a challenge since the place was still a construction site,’ says Nick, who travelled Europe and across the UK to examine a range of glasshouse structures, from those used by commercial growers to examples at botanic gardens.
As well as the plants that Jim and Nick have bought in, and the existing collection, further plants have been given by botanic gardens and by RHS members. These included cactus collections, a Macrozamia cycad and a 3.5m (12ft) tall Dracaena draco (dragon tree), raised from seed.
Nick now has three extra staff to run the 5,000sq m under glass - double what there used to be - and is relishing the space the new facility offers him. ‘We have some tropical climbers like Strongylodon macrobotrys (jade vine) which produces racemes of up to 50 vivid blue-green flowers in March. In the old tropical house it had to be cut back - and it sulks when it is pruned. Now, there is so much headroom in The Glasshouse we can let it grow to its full extent - some 25-50m.’
In the temperate zone are a remarkable pair of venerable staghorn ferns (Platycerium). They have been Wisley residents since 1904, and before that were at the Society’s first garden at Chiswick in the 19th century, forming a real living link to glasshouses past.
More
Jane Owen, garden writer, also contributes to Times Online
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