Winter Gardens

Winter gardens have a drama of their own with frosty days and lingering mists.  It’s a cosy, wrap-up-warm time of year when the cold air is kept at bay with warm drinks over leisurely cream teas. There are some specially designed winter gardens in the South East, planted for colour and interest.

Wakehurst Place in West Sussex is home to four National Collections and as well as many rare and exotic plants. Their winter gardens are coloured by dogwoods and willows, head for Westwood Valley where the smell the daphnes fill the air

If the weather is too cold even for winter gardens, visit RHS Wisley where the new Glasshouse has been built.  It was developed in celebration of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Bicentenary. 

The huge, cathedral-like glass structure has three climatic zones, recreating tropical, moist and dry temperate habitats. See the tender cacti, climbers, ferns, orchids and tropical water lilies that wouldn’t survive in the outdoor winter gardens at RHS Wisley. 

It’s a great way to enjoy the RHS’s collection without feeling the nip of frost, somewhere you don’t have to be outside to enjoy the winter gardens.

Find out more about the many fabulous gardens in England’s South East