Every team member has a designated area that they look after and my placement generally ranged from working with individual members on a specific area one week and then a team week where everyone got together to work on specific larger tasks.
The Wild Garden
It is the oldest and original part of Wisley. Wisley was founded in 1903, gifted by Sir Thomas Hanbury a rich quaker to the RHS. This part of the garden had existed before that and was created in 1878 by George Fergusson Wilson treasurer of the RHS as an experimental garden to grow difficult plants successfully, it was formerly called 'Oakwood Experimental Garden'. It was well known for its lilies, gentians, Japanese irises, primulas and water plants. One of the rarest things that grow there is a Franklinia alatamaha - from the US, unusual that it flowers in autumn and has autumn colour at the same time.
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| Photo 1: Franklinia alatamaha |
There are also a lot of Kalmias.
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| Photo 2: Kalmia latifolia 'Minuet' |
The Wild Garden is interesting because it has a lot of ditches, varied shade and open areas which provides a lot of different microclimates, winding paths and diversity and is one of the few spaces that one could get lost in but this is often under appreciated.
John Ricketts who looks after the garden is new and does not have such extensive horticultural experience, so he is still getting to grips with it. His best start is familiarising himself with its history, planting plans etc and probably do active observation - tweaking what is obvious (e.g. controlling plants that have become weeds that have taken over too much), getting a sense of the plants that are in here, with activities such as catching up with labelling, consulting Gill Skilton (Plant Records) and Billy (one of the longest standing member of staff now on Formal who use to look after the Wild Garden and knows a lot of its treasures) and Gaynor Messenger - the library manager who will have records and all sort of interesting research and info it.
Within the 5 year plan for it, it is to be managed primarily as a spring garden within a woodland setting, promoting the display of woodland shrubs & herbaceous plants, bulbs and ferns. Maintaining its series of deep ditches for marginal and understorey plants. The top layer/ canopy are large substantial oak trees of some maturity with climbers like roses, Wisteria and Hydrangea. It has very rich layers and tapestry of plants. Crown thinning becomes an integral part of managing this space.
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| Photo 3: Blechnum chilense. There are some impressive ferns in the WG. This would be a great plant group to build on in there. |
The idea is to extend it's interest by incorporating more Astilbe, Actaea, Hosta, Lilium, Kalmia, Enkianthus and Hydrangea. Doing a mini survey with John I discovered there were key plants like Enkianthus that underpinned each bed. They are also wanting to emphasise the Asian genera, this also fits in with the extensive Epimedium collection in there too. In summer some of the prominent interests are its Aruncus dioicus - with its white hanging tassels light up dark corners (Aruncus kamtschaticus - a finer flowered one), wonderful specimen of Stewartia pseudocamellia flowering, Staphylea (late spring, early summer) and Cornus kousa.
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| Photo 4: Aruncus dioicus with an wonderful shot of colour from an unknown Iris ensata, speaks of the potential of what you can do to extend interest into summer. The cooling green background is a feature in itself this time of year. Layers of green, shots of colour. |
Planting numbers has come into consideration also decisions have been made that -
- Trees and large shrubs such as Magnolia or Enkianthus can be planted singularly
- Smaller shrubs such as Fothergilla should be planted as a minimum of five
- Herbaceous subjects such as Primula or Astilbe should be planted as a minimum of twenty
- Bulbous subjects should be planted as a minimum of one hundred.
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| Photo 5: A large patch of candelabra primulas, they have become obsessed in flooding this area with more primulas, they have to careful that they don't overdo it. |
Notable plants - Rhododendrons (they have a champion Rhododendron arboreum with great bark, Stewartia pseudocamellia has great bark, Camellias - there are a lot of sasanqua ones for winter interest and scent - Billy loves these (not sure about their practice of drastic cutting back and limbing up - looks awkward for a wild more naturalistic garden), Hamamelis, Fothergilla, Oxydendron arboreum - great autumn colour, really good colony of Narcissus cyclamineus gazing into the ditches early spring and Corylopsis. Lysichiton americanus in ditches, even the Caltha palustris, Gaultheria x wisleyensis 'Wisley Pearl' - seem to have taken over a bit but gives great flower and berry interest. Other more obscure plants - Sinowilsonia henryi (Hamamelidaceae family - possible interesting autumn colour), Echinocystis lobata - curious small curcubitae plant, Vincetoxicum scandens (see photo below)
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| Photo 6: Vincetoxium scandens |
One of the notable views of the garden is at the top of the Rock Garden - it's amazing. They have talked about taking this into consideration and the entrances into the area from busier thoroughfare paths like at the bottom of the Rock Garden to help entice people in. Not sure about their view of needing to make viewpoints from WG to Seven Acres and RG. I like that it feels enclosed and its own world in there. There is a bamboo collection in there at the moment too, I don't really like how they're dealt with, specimens (not necessary good ones) with mounds of mulch, not so in keeping with the rest of this area. The bamboo can be an interesting feature, I've seen its potential of how it can tie in with the Glasshouse Landscape and be a backdrop to that too, but this has not been exploited.