My Garden

They are still taking my breath away.  Glorious butterflies are attracting many, many visitors.  Here are some of my favourite photos.  But I wanted to add - the Garden here at Wisley is also coming alive right now.  The snowdrops are coming out, the daphnes smell wonderful, and the witch hazels are wonderful this year. 

Meanwhile, back to the butterflies.  They are so at home in the Tropical Zone that they are happily feeding from the Plumbago indica and Calliandra tweedei more than the feeding stations

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Over the last few weeks, the team in the Tropical Zone have been really busy preparing for our first major event of the year, and a first for us – Butterflies in the Glasshouse. 
www.rhs.org.uk/whatson/gardens/wisley/butterflies-glasshouse.html
From Sunday 18th January until 22nd February we are inviting you to enjoy the marvellous experience of walking around the warm, moist environment of the Tropical Zone in the Glasshouse, surrounded by glorious plant life and being delighted by hundreds of tropical butterflies. But how have we got them here?  This is the behind-the-scenes story.

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Last year the Glasshouse team conducted an experiment on a plant in the Tropical Zone.  For a while, the Tabebuia or Pau d’Arco (a flowering tree native to tropical regions of South and Central America) was left to 'rest' which really meant it looked dead, but we were actually mimicking its natural behaviour (*see bottom of page for more details).  Last week, as hoped, it came into flower. 

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Happy New Year.  And what a chilly start. 

When the garden is covered with snow it looks entirely different.  And it’s a great opportunity to spot the non-human visitors and residents here by their tracks

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