Wisley art

Back to Wisley last week for what appears to be the first visit since October last year, as noticed at reference 1.

Checked the day before about booking and their site told me that they had more than 2,000 slots for the day following, so I did not bother. But we arrived there at around 10:30 for find a long queue outside, the first time such a thing has ever happened. But it moved along fast enough and in we went. Turned left on entry, on the grounds that most people seemed to be turning right, and after a little while found ourselves in the plant art corner, as snapped above. It came with massive wooden benches from which to admire it, benches which were a good deal more comfortable than they looked. It was quite amusing earwigging the various reactions of others to the art.

Thankfully, art was pretty thin on the ground elsewhere in the gardens. Not absent, but not nearly as intrusive and irritating as it sometimes is.

On the other hand there appeared to have been a lot of new planting since we were last there, with a lot of new flower beds. Some of which were a bit too arty, a bit too Chelsea Flower Show for my taste. I prefer things either a bit simpler or a bit more muddled. A bit more what might be called cottage garden.

We made our way to the flashy new buildings and plantings called RHS Hilltop. In the words of their website: 'RHS Hilltop – The Home of Gardening Science: the UK’s first dedicated horticultural scientific centre of excellence has opened to the public – protecting the future of plants, people and the planet at the iconic RHS Garden Wisley'.

Closer inspection of the plant climbing up the side of the new building revealed a label saying 'hop', which seemed entirely plausible, hops being very fast growers. Especially when they are planted in something stronger than the thin soil of the allotments I used to have, for some evidence of which see reference 2.

An array of what looked to be educational material inside and educational plantings outside. Interspersed with seating and eating opportunities and there seemed to be plenty of people sitting around doing just that.

The small eatery where they used to specialise in sausage sandwiches seemed to have vanished.

Back in the gardens proper, a variety of dwarf chestnut from China, Redgersia asculifolia. Actually nothing of the sort, rather a member of the Saxifrage family, better known here in the UK for its creeping ground coverers, often found on rocks or in rock gardens.

A not very happy looking metasequoia, happier looking specimens of which are to be found at Hampton Court Palace. I like the elaborate patterning of the lower trunks. Which all goes to show, even at Wisley trees can get ill. Not to be confused with the modelling software to be found at reference 3, seemingly used to create animated graphics, maybe the sort of thing you get in animated films.

We opted for a meal in the main cafeteria rather than a snack. Chicken for me, salad for her, plus two cakes. It did the job, but I thought it was rather dear for what we got. The usual mixture of pensioners like ourselves, lunching ladies and young families. Quite busy.

Onto the arboretum to the right as you come out of the cafeteria, where we sat for a while among the trees. 

The base of a rather unusual small tree, said by the label to be a Cryptomeria japonica. An appearance which did not go very well with the description in Wikipedia at reference 4 of a large tree from China and Japan. Did not go very well with the pictures either. Clearly a tree to be kept under observation.

And so to the shop and exit into the hot afternoon sun. Car park considerably thinned out in the five hours or so since we had arrived. We are clearly not the only ones to prefer the first half of the day for outings of this sort.

Aspen leaves above? They certainly look like some of the aspens turned up by Bing. Something else to be checked next time around.

The whole operation made me think of the Vauxhall pleasure gardens of old: a successful outdoor entertainment with plants. Which is what people want, fair enough. But it is not the same as the rather staid botanic gardens of my youth. It also involves spending a great deal of money on buildings and novelties, money which has to be recovered by sponsorship, donations and free spending visitors. Money which makes generating revenue the overriding preoccupation of management; plants be blowed. Leave them to the gardeners.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/10/wisley.html.

Reference 2: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2007/04/candymen.html.

Reference 3: http://metaseq.net/en/.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptomeria.