What’s looking good at RHS Wisley?

It’s cherry blossom season! Across the garden our beautiful cherry trees are smothered with clouds of pink and white blossom. Stealing the show at the start of April is the breathtaking avenue of 140 Yoshino cherries in the Welcome Landscape. The Rock Garden is another great destination for blossom. Prunus incisa ‘Kojo-no-mai’ and P. × yedoensis ‘Moerheimii’ are covered in blooms that gently fall like pink and white confetti.

On Battleston Hill, it’s been a wonderful year for our spring-flowering trees and shrubs, which benefitted from the extra rain last summer, giving a profusion of flower buds this spring. In April, camellias continue to shine with myriad cultivars to see, as the magnolias draw you in like beacons as you catch glimpses through the trees. Early rhododendrons, such as bee-enticing Rhododendron racemosum and exotic-looking R. sidereum, are the opening acts for more to come.

Spring starts in the Cottage Garden with an explosion of cherry blossom, as Prunus pendula f. ascendens ‘Rosea’ is covered in myriad soft pink blooms. Beneath the cherries, Narcissus ‘Sunny Girlfriend’ show lovely ruffled, peachy flowers and Leucojum aestivum add charming snowdrop-like flowers. As April continues, tulips create the wow factor. Tulipa ‘Neper’ and ‘Danceline’ bring soft pinks and whites, while ‘Continental’ adds a punchy contrast with purple-black petals – the effect is quite breathtaking.

Don’t miss your chance to see thousands of daffodils transform the grassy slopes of the Alpine Meadow into a sea of yellow. The star of the show is Narcissus bulbocodium – a dwarf species with a rather large central trumpet, giving the daffodil its distinct hoop petticoat appearance. It’s been steadily naturalising in the Alpine Meadow for many years now. Sprinkled throughout are the light purple flowers of Erythronium dens-canis (dog’s tooth violet) and the beautifully checkerboard-patterned Fritillaria meleagris (snake’s head fritillary).

Discover a chocolate box of the most exquisite alpine gems in our Alpine Display House. The display is refreshed every day, so there is always something special to see, including Lachenalia (cape cowslip), Ipheion, muscari, crocus, primulas and hepaticas this month. Breeding in Japan has created a rainbow of colours of Hepatica nobilis var. japonica, from purples and pinks to reds and yellows, with single, double and bicoloured forms. Their dainty size makes them perfect for an alpine house, offering the chance to see them up close.

Uplifting displays of thousands of Cyclamineus Group daffodils bring a golden glow to the Pinetum in spring. Planted in large drifts that include cultivars Narcissus ‘Jetfire’, with its fiery orange trumpet, and creamy yellow ‘Jack Snipe’, they create an enchanting carpet of cheerful nodding flowers sure to lift the spirits. In Oakwood, there are plantings of old daffodils, including Narcissus ‘Rip van Winkle’: an heirloom double, with whorls of slightly twisted petals, dating from before 1884.

A quiet haven for both visitors and wildlife – and one of RHS Wisley’s best kept secrets – take a relaxing stroll around the Jubilee Arboretum. Enjoy catkins, blossom and fresh foliage at its most vibrant this month. Seek out the collection of beech trees, adorned with crinkled young leaves that glow in the sunlight. Fagus sylvatica (Atropurpurea Group) ‘Black Swan’ is a gorgeous beech cultivar with a striking weeping habit and wine-red, almost-black leaves.

From late April, the slopes surrounding the Bowes-Lyon Rose Garden become a sea of intense blue, as masses of naturalised Camassia reach their peak. Delicate star-shaped blue flowers gently sway on lofty stems above a carpet of green leaves – it’s a glorious sight to behold. Splashes of pink and white from flowering cherries are dotted throughout, and on the north side of Weather Hill, the camassia sweep through impressive collections of Cornus kousa and Wisteria, before finally breaking on the shores of the Alpine Meadow.

Download the RHS Garden Wisley app and use as your personal tour guide. Look out for walks throughout the year, including Topiary, Wisteria and Cherry Blossom.