Wisley’s Winter Walk on Seven Acres
Welcome to Wisley’s Winter Walk We want to take you on a short walk around Seven Acres inviting you to look at plants in a new light during the winter months. Please follow the hard path around Seven Acres, looking out for the 10 marker posts on your way, explained in further detail inside this guide.
How long is the walk? The walk should take no longer than 45 minutes to complete.
How do I use the guide? Walking routes are highlighted in a bold green font, and a map with route is supplied on the reverse of this page.
Front Cover: Hamamelis × intermedia ‘Harlow Carr’ All images © RHS except Viburnum betulifolium berries © Dorling Kindersley Ltd RHS Registered Charity No: 222879/SC038262 1
The Glasshouse Glasshouse CafĂŠ
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Wild Garden
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3 Canal & Loggia
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Food Hall Restaurant
Garden Entrance
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1 Strappy leaves and seedheads While most of the grasses are now asleep for the winter, we favour them for the structure and presence they bring through the winter months. Whether they are covered in frost or sparkling with dew, they add great structure to a garden in winter. We cut them back in spring before new growth commences. Did you know some grasses are evergreen, while others are deciduous (lose their leaves in winter)? All the large Miscanthus plants produce the growth you see in just one season and are cut back to the ground each year! Look out for Panicum virgatum ‘Northwind’ which is one of our winter favourites.
Continue past the Garden Library and Food Hall.
2 An orange hedge on stilts Up on high, this ‘pleached’ hedge of Tilia cordata ‘Winter Orange’ is trimmed annually in late winter to show off the youngest stems that have the most colour (above). Pleaching is a method of training trees to produce a narrow hedge by tying in and interlacing flexible young shoots along a supporting framework.
Continue towards the Pinetum and turn left at the crossroads at Stop 3. 2
3 Winter cherry, witch hazel and hellebore heaven Four flowering cherry trees create a twinkling effect blossoming on and off through the winter. There’s also a huge number of Helleborus × hybridus plants (right) with nodding flowers – single, double, speckled, plain, dark, light – all sorts, all together. Opposite, scented witch hazels are densely planted in bands of colour. Hamamelis × intermedia ‘Robert’, ‘Jelena’, ‘Sunburst’, ‘Aphrodite’ (below right) and ‘Barmstedt Gold’ with ‘Rubin’ across the path. These all hold the prestigious Award of Garden Merit or AGM. Silvery, green, lace-marked, heart-shaped leaves of Cyclamen hederifolium carpet the ground (below).
Continue for a short distance until you reach a fork in the path where bright red stems of Cornus alba baton rouge (‘Minbat’) are on the left. Bear left.
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4 Colour, contrast and reflections Walk up to the lakeside and admire many different coloured stems. Among the Cornus (dogwood, below) and Salix (willow) look out for a unusual winter-stem plant called Styphnolobium japonicum ‘Flavirameum’. Enjoy the view across the lake where Euonymus fortunei ‘Emerald ’n’ Gold’ AGM contrasts with the white-stemmed bramble of Rubus cockburnianus ‘Goldenvale’ and the red of Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’. Here Tilia platyphyllus ‘Aurea’ grows as a stooled shrub. Compare this lime tree with the pleached limes of Stop 2. Don’t miss the maple Acer negundo ‘Winter Lightening’ grown, unusually, for its winter stem colour.
Return to the main path around the lake.
5 Woodland side We have planted a mix of colours and textures, including the snake-like bark of Acer davidii viper (‘Mindavi’), the scaly tendril-like branches of Thuja plicata ‘Whipcord’ and the silvery leaves of Euonymus fortunei ‘Silver Queen’. You may notice some small, round fruits, which are from the large tree overhead Pyrus pashia (above). Further along, look out for the glossy, peeling bark of multistemmed Prunus serrula trees (right). Where the grass widens out, the bed behind shows off bold rivers of heathers: Calluna vulgaris ‘Wickwar Flame’ (above right) and Erica × darleyensis ‘Snow Surprise’, joined by the taller Erica arborea f. aureifolia ‘Albert’s Gold’, pruned to keep it small and bushy.
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6 Lakeside foliage fun Along with the deciduous conifer Taxodium distichum is a pine tree whose green needles turn golden as the temperature drops: Pinus contorta ‘Chief Joseph’ AGM.
Blue contrasts with yellow here – Cupressus arizonica var. glabra ‘Blue Ice’ is dotted through the bed.
Nandina domestica is sometimes called heavenly bamboo, and the bright red dwarf cultivar ‘Seika’ (below) is named from the Japanese for ‘sacred fire’.
Carry on in the same direction and stop on the left.
There are more witch hazels here including Hamamelis × intermedia ‘Pallida’ AGM – one of the best of all – favoured for its scent and colour.
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Silver in circles, balls and bulbs
Violet berries, snake skin and blossom
Silver birch trees including Betula utilis var. jacquemontii are wonderful in winter. What special bark! In the tree circles white snowdrops and irises (below, Iris ‘Blue Note’) enhance late winter. Thorny white stems of Berberis dictyophylla are eye-catching. Continue along the path.
On the right, Acer davidii ‘George Forrest’ is another attention-seeking snakebark maple. Violet-purple berries of Callicarpa bodinieri ‘Imperial Pearl’ look like they’re artificial, and on the left, crab apple Malus ‘Adirondack’ bears pretty marblesized fruits until they get eaten by birds. Ornamental cherry Prunus × subhirtella ‘Autumnalis Rosea’ is grown as a shrub rather than a tree. At the back, Viburnum betulifolium holds its red fruits into winter (below).
On the right, notice conspicuous maple Acer × conspicuum ‘Phoenix’ with bright red stems contrasting with the deep green of the holly tree Ilex × altaclerensis ‘James G. Esson’.
Walk a few more steps and look to both sides of the path.
Carry on to where the path forks and keep left, breathing in the sweet scent of a host of fragrant winter-flowering shrubs, and look at the intriguing twisted branches of the magnificent ironwood tree Parrotia persica on the left. At the T-junction either turn right towards The Glasshouse and Glasshouse Café, or turn left to complete the Winter Walk, enjoying the Wild Garden on the right. Stay on the hard path, passing Cornus sanguinea ‘Magic Flame’ on the left and the glistening white birch tree Betula utilis var. jacquemontii ‘Grayswood Ghost’ AGM on the edge of the Wild Garden on the right.
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9 Something a little different Sophora ‘Little Baby’ is compact, with zigzag branches and winter flowers, nestled in with corkscrew hazel Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’ (below). Mahonia eurybracteata ‘Sweet Winter’ is slender and petite, not at all like its larger cousins. Yellow hummocks at the back of the bed are from the variegated pampas grass. Beside the summerhouse on the other side of the path is a shaggy-barked lilac, Syringa reticulata subsp. pekinensis ‘Morton’, which looks like a birch.
Continue along the path to the Round Pond.
10 Photographer’s favourite On the corner of the bed is a stunning five-stemmed birch Betula utilis var. jacquemontii surrounded by drooping blue cedars, a carpet of Erica × darleyensis ‘White Spring Surprise’ and Rubus thibetanus – a well-behaved ornamental bramble. To the left in the bed, as well as on the right-hand side of the path, is the photographer’s favourite willow, Salix alba var. vitellina ‘Yelverton’ (above). 7
Planting List We have selected some of the most popular plants so you can create your own Winter Walk at home. Trees and Conifers
Fruiting Shrubs
Acer davidii viper (‘Mindavi’) Acer palmatum ‘Sango-kaku’ AGM Betula utilis var. jacquemontii Malus ‘Adirondack’ AGM Pinus wallichiana AGM Prunus himalaica Prunus serrula (multistemmed) Thuja plicata ‘Whipcord’ AGM
Berberis darwinii ‘Compacta’ Berberis dictyophylla Skimmia × confusa ‘Kew Green’ AGM Skimmia japonica ‘Veitchii’
Hamamelis Hamamelis × intermedia ‘Diane’ AGM Hamamelis × intermedia ‘Pallida’ AGM
Shrubs Corokia cotoneaster Euonymus fortunei ‘Emerald ’n’ Gold’ AGM Euonymus fortunei goldy (‘Waldbolwi’) Euonymus fortunei ‘Silver Queen’ Euonymus fortunei ‘Sunshine’ Euonymus fortunei ‘Wolong Ghost’ AGM Euonymus japonicus ‘Francien’ Euonymus japonicus ‘Green Rocket’ Griselinia littoralis AGM Hebe ‘Red Edge’ AGM Hedera helix ‘Ice Cream’ Ilex aquifolium ‘Ferox Argentea’ AGM Mahonia nitens ‘Cabaret’ AGM Nandina domestica ‘Fire Power’ Nandina domestica ‘Lemon-Lime’ Nandina domestica ‘Seika’ Photinia × fraseri ‘Little Red Robin’ Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘Golf Ball’ Skimmia japonica ‘Rubella’ AGM Tasmannia lanceolata
Flowering Shrubs Daphne bholua Daphne pontica Jasminum nudiflorum AGM Prunus incisa ‘Kojo-no-mai’ AGM
Winter Stems Cornus alba ‘Alleman’s Compact’ Cornus alba ‘Aurea’ AGM Cornus alba baton rouge (‘Minbat’) Cornus alba ‘Kesselringii’ Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’ AGM Cornus sanguinea ‘Anny’s Winter Orange’ AGM Cornus sanguinea ‘Magic Flame’ AGM Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ Cornus sericea ‘Bud’s Yellow’ Cornus sericea ‘Cardinal’ Cornus sericea ‘Flaviramea’ AGM Cornus sericea ‘Hedgerows Gold’ AGM Rubus biflorus AGM Rubus phoenicolasius Rubus thibetanus AGM Salix alba ‘Golden Ness’ AGM Salix alba var. vitellina ‘Yelverton’ AGM
Bulbs Iris danfordiae Iris histrioides ‘Lady Beatrix Stanley’ Iris ‘Cantab’ Iris ‘Katharine Hodgkin’ AGM
Grasses Stipa tenuissima
Heathers Erica arborea var. alpina f. aureifolia ‘Albert’s Gold’ AGM
Herbaceous Helleborus × hybridus Helleborus walberton’s rosemary (‘Walhero’)