RHS Wisley is going from strength to strength and despite the fact that winter is still around the gardens were in excellent order. That's expected to a certain degree but I think we noticed a great deal more interaction with the gardening team as well as a great Winter Walk, which shows and clarifies how certain plants appear, what one could do with these at home and one hopes this could be continued in other seasons as well. Best of all though was the Giant Houseplant Takeover in the Glasshouse. There are queuing ropes outside so it would seem it could get busy and it appears timed tickets (not extra in terms of price?) would be wise to ask for. Wisley's team has done a fantastic job with a variety of indoor plants, placing them in the semi-surreal surroundings of a Victorian household. The displays are magnificent, with additonal arrangements throughout the various sections. This continues until March 1st so highly recommended to be seen.

Lets deal with the bit that stops the Excellent rating. The Cafe. Sorry but we were there this Wednesday and in the cafe at 14:30, one piece of rock cake, a dry scone, vastly overpriced cakes and couldn't care less service. Now that's out of the way let's concentrate on the main event. As a total amateur gardener this is a fabulous place to visit, probably even more so as they suffer the same problems as my garden this time of year. We walked all through the gardens and came away with many ideas and inspiration. I look forward to being a regular visitor.

Shame the summer weather had turned miserable, as I would have loved to have seen RHS Wisley in the glorious sunshine, especially as I'm a keen nature photographer. My mum & I enjoyed walking around for 5hrs though, lots of lovely different flowers, plants & interesting sculptures to see. Particularly loved the 'wisteria walk' archway, with the colourful gladioli inside, leaning towards you, and the pretty dedicated Hybiscus area - so many different types! There were also lots of nice secret garden areas. Didn't particularly like the Philip Haas giant season sculptures..bit creepy! The cafe prices for food & drink were too expensive - £6 for a small smoked salmon sandwich and £3 for a can of coca cola! No staff around enforcing any social distancing measures, therefore people just ignored the printed signs. Will visit again next year for sure though, hopefully on a sunnier day. :)

We usually enjoy visiting Wisley but our visit this week was not good. Given the gardens are rather sparse at this time of year it would be good if there was a reduced entrance fee for January when there's not much happening and not much to see. On the day we went the Glasshouse was closed - getting ready for an exhibition. It would have been good if people were warned about this at the garden entrance before paying the entrance fee because in January this is one of the few main attractions. We went for lunch at the cafe near the entrance. It was a cold day so we chose soup. Although it was only 12.45 - no soup: please wait 15 mins. Running out of soup before 13.00 on a cold January day! We therefore went to the other main restaurant - a line of over 20 people waiting for soup. Wisley's catering used to be good but the current operator appears to be hopeless. We went to have lunch in Ripley.

I booked the evening Glow event because it sounded like a great outdoor activity and a nice way to welcome in the New Year. RHS Wisley and the staff team should be congratulated on running a superb event. It is beautifully put together and all the measures they have put in place are designed to keep people safe. However, the ticketing of this event has ensured maximum revenue over appropriate visitor numbers. This means that the event is far too busy for Tier 4 restrictions. Social distancing goes out of the window for many visitors who congregate in various parts of the trail despite signage warning against doing so. The 7pm slot was supposed to be quieter but there were frequently points where queues built up. I wore a mask for the entire visit. Given the high infection rate and presence within tier 4, this event should have been cancelled - because there were too many visitors, a great number of whom behaved inconsiderately by not observing guidelines and social distancing. I left feeling quite sad because people have the capacity to be so much better but they choose to be selfish and thoughtless.

If you were an RHS member and you visited Wisley through the seasons it could be worthwhile. If you are a non member just making a day visit you may find it an expensive experience. The food in the main cafe is above average but does not justify the high prices charged. Having to book a time to visit does not appear to have reduced visitor numbers. Just at the moment you will find the place very busy. Social distancing is patchy and not being observed in the main greenhouse particularly by mothers with push chairs. The garden contains a wonderful collection of plants but the number of visitors the road noise and the stress of access in a busy area can spoil the visit experience. The new plant centre is large with a good selection of reasonably priced plants some which might only be available from specialists. The seed selection is exceptional. The staff are polite and the place is well run. If you want tranquillity away from the herd you may not find it at Wisley.

We visited Glow in 2019 and it was a lovely evening and a wonderful display of lights. As such we decided to book for early 2022 as it was fully booked for the end of 2021. We managed to get a late booking which was fine, however staff failed to tell us on arrival that they would be starting to cordon off areas from 8pm, half hour after we arrived. After waiting at the Cafe where they had plenty of staff around, but most were engaged in personal conversations and did not realise the one till they had open was forming a large queue. I paid for a grossly overpriced sandwich and eventually managed to get to walking around the park where we enjoyed a walk around and got to see the new displays that were on this year, the light and sound display was particularly good and the glasshouse is always a must see. They also had a tunnel of lights which many people were taking as a great photo opportunity. A shame that some of the other guests there were particularly rude and even one family refusing to take a photo of us which seemed extremely bizarre as helping to take photos of each other seems to go hand in hand with the family experience of the event.

We had been looking for something a little different to do this Christmas that was outdoors and safe and Glow at RHS Wisley seemed perfect so we booked for myself, my husband and my 24 year old son (who has autism and loves lights). On the way there, we stopped to look at a local house who has lots of Christmas lights up and collects for charity - to be honest, we would have been better off staying there for an hour and giving the money we spent on our entry to him. Our trip wasn't helped by the fact that we turned up during an awful rain storm and got royally soaked, but once it stopped, we were wet but fine. I wish having been now that we had turned around and gone home. No festive feel at all, a bit of classical music and a few lights in trees and across a pond. There was a nice Christmas tree but you couldn't see it as people were crowding around it to take photos, the directional signs were close to useless as it was too dark to see them and the best bit of the whole event was a tunnel of fairy lights about 50m long that you could walk through half of (again if you could make it through without people stopping in front of you to take photos). Due to the Covid restrictions the indoor cafes and restaurants were closed, which is totally understandable and there were a few takeaway outlets dotted around the park. However, having stopped to buy a sausage (yes just one) sliced in half in a bap, priced at £5.25, we thought the food grossly overpriced - I am amazed at their audacity in charging that much for what we got. We ended up spending including entrance and food , almost £70, add that to the petrol it would have cost for an 80 mile round trip and you can perhaps understand why I feel royally ripped off!. Won't be going back and the best thing they could do is shut down due to Covid, refund everyone their money and save others being as disappointed as we were. Fortunately we were out of there within an hour and stopped for food on the way home.

Living in Essex and having an RHS membership I decided to make the journey around the M25 to check out Wisley. It really did blow me away. Very well organised as you arrive with stewards directing the car parking. A short walk to the entrance where again people are directed swiftly to tills. they are asking for people to wear their masks indoors and everyone is still complying with this, mostly of out respect for the lovely staff who are seeing loads of people pass their way. Toilets are dotted about the site, disabled and baby changing facilities included. There were several places to eat from restaurants to a little van where you could get an ice cream or a cup of tea. It is a really great place for accessibility - clearly marked on their maps and on signage. I would say it is hilly and some sections such as the rock garden would be difficult to access if disabled or having a pram to push. The layout of the garden meant you felt like you visited ten gardens in one day. I can't tell you my favourite, they were all absolutely stunning. There were fountains and waterfalls in all sections, plus copious benches so that you can sit and listen to the water and admire the plants. We took a picnic and ate it in the vegetable garden. Rest assured there are places undercover to escape heat or rain - benches inside the green house, undercover awning near the alpine garden, plus open shed like structures in the pinetum and by the orchard too. We spent about three and a half hours there and wanted to do more but torrential rain and thunder scuppered our plans. The shop alone is worth about another half hour, my daughter spent quite a while looking at the huge selection of gardening books! I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it, I'd imagine every season is a joy in different parts of the garden.

RHS Wisley is always a wonderful place to go. Beautiful gardens and plants and the place has a good feel about it. We have visited on a number of occasions. It is big enough without being too big and with our children being 9 and 6 we didn't want to have to walk miles and miles. But I feel compelled to write this review because of the terrible and awful organisation of the cafe we visited to get lunch. )It is listed as cafe 4 on the map and is at the top of the hill where the learning centre is). As a result, it made what was a very enjoyable visit, a pretty disappointing visit - it was that bad. We started queuing at 12.50 to get a couple of sandwiches and drinks to complement a picnic we took with us. The queue was out the door and running back along the little stream / water feature. But I stupidly made an assumption that lunchtime rushes were well organised (there are a lot of people who visit here every day!) and it would clear through pretty quickly. Wrong! Finally managed to make it to the section just before the tills where you can pick up some sandwiches salads and drinks at 12.30. Sadly they had run out of all normal sandwiches and were only left with a few salads and ham and cheese toasties. Judging by the fact nothing was being replenished, with the exception of the cheese and ham toasties, it seems the staff / management had not ordered anywhere close to enough food to cater for lunchtime. Another 5 minutes and I got to the till, where I was informed by one of the teenagers working there, that there was only 1 toasting machine (it wasn't a machine but seemed to be more of a microwave oven - certainly not the traditional hot plate machines which toast and melt the sandwich) and there was a big queue of toasties waiting to be done. So we had another 10 minute wait! By this time there were at least 4 other groups of people stood around in exactly the same boat as me and all complaining about how poor it was that it should take nearly an hour to buy some sandwiches. When the heated sandwich finally made an appearance the person serving had also manage to forget the coffee I had ordered so we had another wait for that to be done. Absolutely nothing against the young people who were basically running the cafe (I think they were doing their best and even detected some of them were clearly embarrassed about the situation), but you cannot expect a group of young people to be running a cafe which is that busy! The lady manager didn't seem to be doing much managing at all given the clearly massive queue and the groups of clearly unhappy customers. She was refilling toasted sandwiches and the occasional salad back into the fridge selection area. But not supporting and cajoling her staff. It was exceptionally poor and put a very big black mark against our visit - which was a real shame. I sincerely hope they sort themselves out and get some proper direction within the cafe.