A visit to Wisley is a visit to a truly inspirational garden. There is so much to see here. But there is also so much that our visitors generally don’t see and that is the behind-the-scenes science that we carry out in the Laboratory, the beautiful 'country house' (actually purpose built as a... Read more..

It’s harvest time, and with it we’ve been celebrating the wonderful world of produce at A Taste of Autumn. It was a phenomenal success this year, with Wisley’s busiest ever day on record on Saturday. As part of the celebrations we do an apple mosaic. Every year we invite school children to draw up a... Read more..

It’s here. We have a bright and cheerful snowman welcoming everyone into the Garden for the next few weeks. As a seasonal citrus twist on our annual Apple Mosaic that features during Wisley's ‘A Taste of Autumn’ festival, the Fruit Department have designed and built a Citrus Mosaic for Christmas... Read more..

One of our traditional annual attractions is the carpet bed in front of the Laboratory building in garden. Approximately 10,000 plants go into this 14ft square, which is the most intensely planted part of the garden. This year’s design is inspired by a late 19th Century fan, of a peacock. Carpet bedding... Read more..

Colourful July, and we're at the peak of the season. If you're coming to visit us this week look out for some of these: On the corner of the Laboratory, the trumpet vine Campis radicans is creating a vertical carpet of deep orange. On the Top Terrace, the flowers are really starting to perform... Read more..

Our old laboratory (not to mention the staff!) may have something of the magical look about it so it is fitting that in time for Bonfire Night we turned up a Devil's Coach Horse from the samples. I should perhaps explain that the Devil's Coach Horse ( Ocypus olens ) is in fact a jet black rove... Read more..

Sarah shows John how to separate out insects from detritus under the microscope While we still have Sarah (whose time with the Plants for Bugs entomology team comes to an end next summer), we need to make sure she passes on all her expertise on sorting and identifying invertebrates. Prepared to step... Read more..

No, this isn't a maths class for invertebrates (perhaps they'd be best at multiplication?!) but rather an insight into one of our most productive sampling methods; pitfall trapping . On a very (and I mean very ) cold morning last week, Dr Andy Salisbury and myself lifted the traps from the centre... Read more..