A new dedicated bridge into RHS Wisley is now open. If travelling by car, visitors who would normally access the garden from the A3 will now use Ockham Park roundabout and follow new signage onto the bridge and over the A3 to the existing RHS Wisley entrance. Find out more

The Great Seed Swap

Special Event
Back
1
Feb

RHS Garden Wisley, GU23 6QB

RHS Garden Wisley, GU23 6QB

Address

Wisley Lane, Woking

Venue

RHS Garden Wisley, RHS Hilltop - the home of gardening science

Booking


  • Member

    Free garden entry

  • Non-member

    Normal garden admission applies

  • No booking is required for this event

Overview

  • Event times

    Saturday 1 February 2025 10am–3pm

  • Subject

    Special Event


Join us for the biggest collection of seeds we’ve ever had in one place! RHS garden collected seed, rare and unusual Plant Heritage seeds, specialist seed from some of our plant societies and hundreds of packets from our plant centre.   

Growing from seed is an exciting and inexpensive way to fill your garden with annuals, perennials, edibles and even shrubs and trees. Visitors can join free talks throughout the day to learn more about the fascinating world of seeds, how to successfully collect and grow them and learn how to make your own seed collection envelopes to take away some treasures to sow at home.
 
From 10am to 2pm the RHS Seed workroom will be open for a behind-the-scenes tour to see how the team harvests, dries, cleans and sends out seeds to members as part of the RHS Members’ Seed Scheme.
 
How can visitors share and take seed on the day?
If you have seed to swap, including home collected or unused/half used seed packets you can bring them along to the registration table. Home collected seed will be checked and labelled before being distributed to the swap tables. The ‘sow by’ date on packets of seed should be no older than 2022.
 
Please note:
  • No seed from abroad is allowed
  • Seed from plants collected in the wild (countryside, woodland, coastal, heathland etc.) is not allowed and, in many cases, illegal
  • Seeds brought into the garden must be in sealed containers/ packets (envelopes, plastic bags, sealed plastic containers), and only opened in the event space.
Then you are free to browse through all the swap tables and choose your favourites to swap or take for a donation. Visitors with no seed to swap can go straight to the swap tables to start choosing. There will also be sit and swap spaces where visitors can take time to choose, talk to some of our seed experts and chat about everything seed!
 
Please note that the seeds are intended for your own personal use, so whilst there will be no restriction on the number of packets you can take, to ensure there is plenty of choice and they don’t go to waste please only take what you intend to grow in the following season.
 
Talks Schedule
10.30    The Wonderful World of Seed
11.30    Collecting seed – How to collect, prepare and store your own seed
12.30    How to sow seed – Learn how to sucessfully sow and grow on from seed
13.30    Growing Veg from seed – Find out how to grow your own produce at home
14.30    The Wonderful World of Seed
 
For more information contact [email protected]

Get involved

The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. We aim to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.