The Best of Late-Summer Colour at the Wisley Flower Show
The repeated success of the Royal Horticultural Society’s (RHS) Wisley Flower Show means it is bigger than ever in 2012, with more exhibitors and an extension to a fifth day, making it a must for plant-lovers. The show takes place 5 – 9 September at RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey.
The Wisley Flower Show has firmly established itself as a visitor favourite and highlight of the gardening calendar, with attendance growing annually. In 2011 the show was extended from three to four days, and 32,000 visitors flocked to the RHS Garden to enjoy the intimate, ‘village show’ style event. The show returns in 2012 with more exhibitors, and yet another day to allow even more people to enjoy the show, while seeing RHS Garden Wisley at one of the most colourful times of year.
The show will bring 37 of the UK’s best nurseries to the garden, many of which are RHS Chelsea Flower Show award-winners, and offers visitors the chance to find inspiration, pick up tips from the experts and take home something special.
Making its debut at the Wisley Flower Show, Kelnan Plants will bring a display of mature restios and other South African plants, while many more, including HW Hyde & Son, Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants and Potash Nursery, will return with spectacular displays of perfect blooms.
Trade stands include Chi-Africa Ltd which specialises in handmade recycled metal sculptures and African stone sculpture, and Pepe Garden Furniture which offers pressure-treated Scandinavian redwood garden furniture.
Colin Crosbie, Curator of RHS Garden Wisley, says, “The Wisley Flower Show is a very special event which is incredibly popular with visitors. It’s not only the fantastic setting and relaxed, informal layout of the show that people love but also, at a time when gardeners should be gearing up for their autumn planting, the chance to pick up a range of plants that you just don’t see at any of the bigger, midsummer shows.”
As the show is set in the grounds of RHS Garden Wisley, visitors will also have the chance to enjoy the spectacular late-summer colour of the garden, from traditional English herbaceous plantings in the impressive Mixed Borders to the modern, perennial planting and sway of grasses in the Glasshouse Borders, and from the lush tropical planting in the Glasshouse to the colour and interest of the North American-style Prairie Meadow.
In addition to all of this, visitors to the show will also be able to see magnificent floral art displays from the Surrey Area of NAFAS, which will be exhibiting in the Glasshouse Gallery, or to walk the Surrey Sculpture Society Trail which displays outdoor sculptures from artists across the South East. The Surrey Sculpture Society Trail runs 25 August – 30 September and all sculptures are available to buy.
