With the photographic help of Heather Kavanagh and as an insignificant member of the Royal Horticultural Society, I am visiting the Royal Horticultural Society garden at Wisley to take photos of their plants to use in this website, since neither commercial mail-order nurseries nor the Royal Horticultural Society or The National Trust (member) will provide photos of the flower, foliage, overall shape, fruit/seed and in flower bed/ fruit orchard/ vegetable garden/ pond/ landscape from their plants that they own without payment.

As an unqualified member of the public, I am commenting on the unfortunate state for the visitors of the 2 Mixed Borders either side of the long lawn leading past the RHS Plant Centre to Battleston Hill; with the East Border having an entrance to that Plant Centre and the West Border having lawn gaps which lead to the Jubilee Rose Garden and AGM Borders. The Mixed Borders are item 2 on the Visitor Map to the RHS Garden Wisley Summer 2012, part of which is shown below with North being on the right hand side:-

Design Considerations:-

What is the purpose of this small 200 acre garden at Wisley? Perhaps, it is show different aspects of gardening in different areas to a large number of day visitors for their education - 1 million per year (page 72 of The Garden May 2013).

So, you need to split the areas into:-

• car park for them to arrive and depart from
• entrance to get into and out of the garden
• toilets and eating areas inside and outside the garden to sustain the bodily requirements of those visitors
• shop and plant centre to get into from the garden and car park and out to the car park to them to buy plants and information about plants and
• wide paths to quickly (paths only 4 feet wide allow for 2 people to walk alongside, 8 feet wide allow another couple to overtake them or come pass from the other direction without hindrance) get to an area through other areas and then view that area

to be within the constraints of the total physical area of Wisley garden. The profits from the entrance fee, eating areas, plant centre and shop can then be used to offset the capital and running costs of the garden.

Having got into the garden, the constraint of Item 15 (Laboratory Building) and Private House with its garden in Grey constrain your visitors movements until they come to a split in the path:-

• one path on the left leads past the Private House and Garden; then up through a flight of steps to the Bedding Area - past the Plant Centre on the left - before reaching the entrance to Item 2 the Mixed Borders
• middle path leads to the Conifer Lawn and
• the right path leads past the Laboratory Building to the Canal and Loggia

These paths are all straight and thus persuade visitors to keep walking rather than admire the view alongside because they can see their first destination in the distance. This is important so that the thousands of daily visitors do not clog up the entrance path, which is also used as the exit path to the Entrance or to the Shop. I suspect that the middle path to the Conifer Lawn was improved for just this reason. The Bedding Area after the flight of steps can be seen from one end to the other whilst walking through it to other areas, thus providing interest and showing how bedding displays work and does not stop the steady dispersal of the visitors to other areas. The wheelchair users can use the path to the Conifer Lawn and then turn left into the middle of the Bedding Area to get straight onto the Mixed Borders, thus catering for them to be able to see that area as well. The photos at the bottom of this page show the view from each of the exits from The Mixed Borders Area.

There are 71 photos of the East Border and West Border of the Mixed Border and these have been stitched into Sections as detailed below and put into Design of East Border and Design of West Border Pages as shown in the right hand table at the bottom.

10 Panoramic Section views of the East Border and 9 of the West Border show the difference in plant growth from Winter to Spring to Summer to Autumn 2013.

Each of those Panoramic Sections has 3 to 6 parts as shown under the Winter, Spring, Summer with Early and Late Autumn Sections in the top of the menu table on the right :-

WINTER, SPRING, SUMMER WITH EARLY AND LATE AUTUMN SECTIONS OF WISLEY MIXED BORDERS
1-6 East Border

• East Section 1 Parts 1, 2, 3, 4
• East Section 2 Parts 4, 5, 6, 7
• East Section 3 Parts 7, 8, 9,
• East Section 4 Parts 10, 11, 12
• East Section 5 Parts 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
• East Section 6 Parts 16, 17, 18

7-10 East Border

• East Section 7 Parts 18, 19, 20, 21, 22
• East Section 8 Parts 22, 23, 24, 25
• East Section 9 Parts 26, 27, 28, 29, 30
• East Section 10 Parts 31, 32, 33, 34

1-5 West Border

• West Section 1 Parts 35, 36, 37
• West Section 2 Parts 38, 39, 40, 41
• West Section 3 Parts 42, 43, 44, 45
• West Section 4 Parts 45, 46, 47, 48
• West Section 5 Parts 48, 49, 50, 51, 52

6-9 West Border

• West Section 6 Parts 52, 53, 54, 55, 56
• West Section 7 Parts 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62
• West Section 8 Parts 62, 63, 64, 65, 66
• West Section 9 Parts 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71

Each of the 71 parts has its own Page with photos of that part in the Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn and my comments. A part may appear on the right hand side in one panoramic section and also on the left hand side of the next panoramic section. Heather's photo procedure for each part of these composite panoramic sections was walking forward 5 paces on the respective path, turning to face across the lawn, take the photo, and then repeat the procedure for the next part. She started with the East Border at the Canal and Loggia end, proceeded up the lawn to the road, crossed the lawn and walked back to the Canal and Loggia end.
Each part has its own permanent planting of bulbs, perennials, shrubs, climbers and trees with bare areas in between for bedding. These permanent planting areas vastly reduce the overall maintenance time.

The use of organic mulching would further reduce irrigation requirements. The plant support structures for the climbers, perennials, shrubs and bulbs stop the display from being flattened when it rains heavily or is very windy. Some of these permanent plants are tender and their protections systems are shown.

Any of these parts could be used or adapted for your own private garden - surrounding path next to your boundary hedge, fence or wall and the respective part in the middle. These beds are 20 feet from the Lawn/Path to the Hornbeam Hedge. The soil is a sandy loam, that has been improved by adding well-rotted organic matter many years ago. The result is a well-drained, but moisture-retentive bed where grasses and herbaceous plants thrive without the need for water. The grasses do not require high Nitrogen levels so the organic matter to be added must be well-rotted.

Photos of the entry and exit points of the Mixed Borders to show which other areas of garden interest are directly linked to these Mixed Borders Beds

Starting with the entrance to the Bedding Area for the Wheelchair users:-

then onto the the entrance from the Garden Entrance and Exit to the same Bedding Area:-

before viewing up the Mixed Borders area to Battleston Hill with the Henry Moore Sculpture as a focal point in the distance:-

Moving up the left side past the 3 beds of the East Mixed Border, we come to a small area with 1 garden seat for all the visitors to the Mixed Border area:-

before continuing up to the Plant Centre exit:-

with its exit gate for wheelchair users and the other green gate for pedestrian exit:-

Having reached the end of the East Mixed Border beds, this is the Access Road to the RHS maintenance staff area and for their access only with the path for visitors leading onto Batleston Hill East with its Rhododendrons, Azaleas and Camellias:-

The lawn area is used as a viewing area for the beds alongside and as a path to the Henry Moore Sculpture at the top of Battleston Hill before it then drops down to the Trials Field:-

On the right hand side; the Access Road continues up Weather Hill to the Toilets on the left and the Jubilee Rose Garden on the right:-

before we turn back to the Mixed Borders area again for this view taken on 11 November 2012:-

and this view taken on 25th February 2013:-

and this shows the 20 feet width of these borders in the West Mixed Borders:-

before coming to the first exit which leads to the Jubilee Rose Garden on the left, with the Weather Hill in front and the AGM Borders on the right. The Plant Centre exit is opposite this exit:-

The next exit from the West Mixed Borders leads into the AGM Borders area, where you see the left section:-

before turning to the right to see its right section. The area for the garden seat in the East Mixed Border is opposite this exit:-

and then back down to the other side of the Bedding Area again:-

The area of the Mixed Borders is less than 1% of the total area in this RHS garden.

"These herbaceous borders are 6 metres (20 feet) deep and 128 metres (427 feet) long. To create the best possible display we use annual summer bedding, climbers on birch supports and shrubs as well as the traditional perennials, all backed up by a dense hornbeam hedge. Designed to be viewed from each end, they create a dramatic impact as your eye is drawn along their length.

Planted to provide interest from May until November, the show begins with early summer flowers such as alliums and geraniums. These are followed by a succession of favourites such as phlox and clematis, reaching a peak in August, with a vibrant display of colourful dahlias, bright yellow helianthus and deep orange helenium in the hot-coloured central beds.

Over the winter, the borders are cut back to the ground and fresh stakes are put in to support the following year's growth. It's a lot of work for Wisley gardeners but the summer glory makes it all worthwhile." from The Mixed Borders notice board in East Border Section 1 Part 1.

This section details what I consider as errors in design carried out by the staff at the RHS garden in Wisley, before the next section details my Design Concepts:-

Mixing all the primary colours together for the flower colours used in many of the 71 parts of these Mixed Borders
This Mixed Border scheme has deciduous climbers, trees, evergreen and deciduous shrubs with bulbs as its other permanent plants to provide a permanent structure - see Permanent Herbaceous Perennial Plant Index and the Permanent Plants in the table on the right; which is backed by a deciduous hornbeam hedge.

This mixture provides a foliage and flower foil against which these other permanent herbaceous perennials can provide new growth from the ground each year, with the different colours of foliage from juvenile to mature to dying off in the autumn and then an easy maintenance during the months of December-March for removing most of the growth above ground and replacing the plant supports to provide a neat bed in a series of large ground areas.

The bedding plants - see Bedding Annual Plant Index and Un-labelled Bedding Annual Plant Index pages - provide the icing on the cake at different flowering time periods between May and November to enhance the overall flower colour scheme. The new bedding each year can provide opportunities to vary the look of these beds.

It was disapointing that I did not see the flowers during 2013 of more than 25% of these Permanent Herbaceous Perennial Plants - possible reasons shown in Lost Flowers Page with 'Walkabout' Plants and 'Stateless' Plants Page.

A table for each month - May, June, July, August, September, October, November - shows the flower photos for each of the 71 parts of the Mixed Borders split into Blue, Orange, Pink, Red, Unusual Colour, White, or Yellow for all the plants. Besides that, you can see from the table below that Red and Pink with Unusual Flower Colours seem to be predominant as flower colours and that these are spread throughout the beds.
Not having the knowledge of a fully qualified Royal Horticultural Society gardener, I am failing to see either

• a colour scheme from pastels to bright colours and then back to pastels to accentuate the middle area of the entrance to the Plant Centre or exit path to the Bowes-Lyon Rose Garden on the other side or
• the Red, bright Blue and Bright Yellows being closest to the garden entrance with the pastels at the furthest point of Battleston Hill to provide a visual extension to these beds or
• the duplication of the same plant throughout the beds to provide continuity (there are 14 Phlox varieties which provide some kind of continuity in the bed in using the same family with the same kind of plant form). Each of the Permanent Herbaceous Perennials normally only occurs in 1 patch in these Mixed Border Beds - rarely twice and even more rarely in 3 patches. Each of the parts of the Mixed Border beds overlaps the adjacent parts, so depending on how wide on the ground is that patch of a collection of a plant, then it depends on how many parts of the 71 parts that it is on.
  or
• change of flower colour from for example Yellow in May to Red in September to coincide with the possibility of the herbaceous shrubs/trees/hedge foliage becoming Brown/Red in the Autumn, in this Mixed Border or background hedge.
  or
• how the following distribution of flower colours from the Permanent Herbaceous Perennials in these beds comes from a restful to the eye and mind, coordinated and planned flower planting scheme:-
  Red or Pink flowers occurs in
  35 parts (17 Pink + 20 Red - 2 Pink and Red) in June,
  53 parts in July,
  59 in August and
  60 in September.
  Multi-coloured or not Blue, Orange, Pink, Red, White or Yellow flowers occurs in
  35 parts in June,
  53 parts in July,
  57 parts in August and
  47 parts in September.
  Mixtures of 2 or more colours is
  29 in June (16 of 2 colours + 17 of 3 colours + 2 of 4 or more colours - 6 of White and other Colour),
  52 in July,
  55 in August,
  50 in September.

I have added the BEDding (started January 2014 - completed March 2014) and then the OTHer Permanent Plants (started March 2014 - completed May 2014) to the table below to show the flower colour planting scheme of the Bedding and the Other Permanent Plants and then its combination.
"Bedding Plant in Unknown Section" top data row in the Flower Colour Range months pages refers to the lack of a photo taken by me or H. Kavanagh of that bedding plant with the label in the same photo of a Permanent Herbaceous Perennial or Other Permanent Plant whose location in 1 or more of the 71 Parts of those Mixed Borders can be identified.

If I had produced this planting design with its mixture of flower colours in almost every part - or maintained these beds in this way - in 2013, I would be deeply ashamed.

As a nation of gardeners in Britain; the Royal Horticultural Society being at its pinnacle, with the tradition of excellence by our previous head gardeners and their staff during the Victorian era, I had thought that the staff at the RHS Garden at Wisley would not need a lecture.

Another Possible Solution for lack of coordinated Flower Colour Scheme

If you want the garden to be restful to the eye, then you can provide a colour scheme using the harmony of adjacent colours. If you prefer to shock the visitor, then use the contrast of opposite colours, but I am not favourable of the above partial use of the harmony of triads as shown by the Colour Wheel Page of Garden Design.

Very Poor Plant Labelling

After reviewing the situation that 102 plants were missing their identity when in flower in 2013 out of 348 (29.31% of the plants) in 768 square metres of Mixed Borders garden beds:-

• for the Permanent Herbaceous Perennials of the Mixed Border beds in the
  Lost Flowers Page with the
  'Walkabout' and 'Stateless Plants' Page ,
• for the Other Permanent Plants of the Mixed Borders in the Index above
• and the Bedding Plants of the Mixed Border beds in the
  Bedding Plant Index Page
  and Un-labelled Bedding Plant Index Page

I am tempted to state:-
'There is room for improvement in the Mixed Border'.

Possible Solution for this Very Poor Plant Labelling

As a possible improvement for the viewing public being able to identify the plants in the RHS Garden at Wisley, maybe the following might be useful:-

• Each planting member of the RHS staff at Wisley be provided with Large White Plastic Angled-Head Labels which are 20 inches (50 cms) in height with a 6 x 4 inch (16 x 10 cms) writing surface and a Marker pen with Black ink.
• When they have completed the planting, then the plant information on the plant label supplied with the plants will be rewritten onto 1 Angled-Head Label and inserted into the ground in front of the plants. This label should have large-enough writing on it for the public to be able to read it from outside the flower-bed with the naked eye, even if that bed is in the Alpine House:-
  
  or behind it if the label is higher than that plant:-
  
  Above photos taken by Chris Garnons-Williams on 2 September 2013.
• The plant label supplied with the plants will be given to the sign-writer with the distance from the public viewing point and the eventual height of the plant when in flower, who could then use the Letter Size to Visibility Chart with the Colour Contrast Visibility Chart.
• The sign-writer will then produce the required plant label on a relevant contrast colour background with the font size being large enough to read easily by the viewing public at the viewing distance that public is away from the plant label. The stake that it is on is to be sufficiently high that the reading part of the label will be 6 inches (15 cms) higher than the plant when in flower and be inserted at least 8 inches (20 cms) into the ground to provide stability for that plant label.
• This new label should replace the white plant label inserted by the planter within a week and should be inserted into the same hole as the previous label by the same plantsman. If plant labels in between this label and the viewing public are higher than this plant label, then the Soft Landscaping Designer of that bed should be informed so that person can then resolve the possibility that the newly planted area would become not visible when that plant was in flower because the plants in front had grown higher than it.
• The White plant label can be cleaned and re-used.

This might lead to flower beds becoming educational instead of being frustrating for the viewing public:-

• in not being able to either identify that plant in flower because it had no label or
• that label supplied was unreadable by the naked eye due to its font size being too small for the distance from it to the viewing public, or
• not identify it because its label had been overgrown by the plant in front of it, or
• not identify it because the plant label had been turned away from the viewing public:-

The viewing public stand on the lower path. Only RHS staff have access to the path at the back of this Mixed Border bed.

Photos taken by Chris Garnons-Williams on 30 November 2013.

Another way to provide plant labels is to provide a Plan with Plant Labels from the Plant Label Wizard and place that at the front of a bed or part of a bed on 1 label.
If you want to allow people to continue walking whilst searching and looking at the signs then the Sign Legibility Rules of Thumb by the United States Sign Council will help.

Design Concepts

Each of the 71 pages describes all the plants used in each of the 71 parts of these Mixed Border Beds. These descriptions include links to the Plant Description Page of each of those plants.

Each page may also include a Design Concept as shown in the last column of the Mixed Border Part Number menu on the right.

Site design and content copyright ©February 2013. Chris Garnons-Williams.

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