England’s Finest Gardens & Chelsea Flower Show 2009
May 19th – 27th, 2009
 

May 20th, 2009

The group met last night for their welcome dinner and got settled into their rooms for the evening…a very happy and delighted group I must say. All so looking forward to their tour. We are here at the Copthorne Tara Hotel for the full 8 nights so I am sure this is adding to the holiday feel of the group.
http://www.millenniumhotels.co.uk/copthornetarakensington/index.html

This hotel is wonderful – centrally located, in a quiet area and right up the street is the Kensington underground with Marks & Spencer and Boots, the two most important shops for travelers ? (we are using it for the 2010 tour as well! As everyone loved it!)

We enjoyed a full English breakfast before we headed off to visit Wisley. We have a beautiful relaxed day here as we wander around these gardens.

The flagship garden of the RHS, Wisley captures the imagination with richly planted borders, luscious rose gardens and of course, the state-of-the-art new Glasshouse. Gifted to the Society in 1903, only a small part of the original estate was cultivated as a garden, the remainder being wooded farmland. Over time, the face of Wisley has changed, so it is now world-class garden in its own right, but a closer look reveals
the real value of Wisley. In the trial fields, the finest flowers and vegetables are identified from the countless new introductions. Elsewhere in the garden, cultivation techniques, such as composting or pleaching, are tried and tested, and a series of model gardens answers the needs of a variety of conditions and circumstances.

I have been to Wisley many times and each and every time I am seeing things I had not before. This past tour I visited the vegetable trial beds because someone had asked me to take pictures, and the alpine house as well as some other areas I had not seen for awhile. I have many pictures of Wisley from past tours you can look at as well. http://www.rhs.org.uk/WhatsOn/gardens/wisley/index.asp

We also handled out their Chelsea programmes and answered any questions they may have had about the show itself, plus I gave many ideas of what to do and when to do it while at Chelsea.