Wisley’s Winter Garden
At Wisley, red-flowered hybrid witch hazel ‘Ruben’ provides a vivid contrast to a gold needled conifer and blooming heath.
The day after we visited the Savill Garden last February, we faced a long drive to Avon Bulbs in the south of England. However, at the suggestion of John Anderson, we decided we would visit RHS Garden Wisley, the flagship of the Royal Horticultural Society’s gardens on our way. When we arrived, we had one hour for touring the 240 acre garden and decided to do the Winter Walk though we wish we had had more time to visit other areas.
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Hybrid witch hazel ‘Pallida’ with a blue needled, creeping juniper.
The Wisley website provides an excellent overview of the the highlights of the Winter Walk with in depth descriptions and photos of 10 locations. Included at the end is a Winter Walk planting list with clickable entries containing photos and details about each plant. You can read it here. During our hurried visit, I captured a random sample, which I will share below.
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The amazing silver buds of ‘Winter Liebe’ edgeworthia underplanted with winter-blooming daffodils.
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I was very impressed with the witch hazels at Wisley, here the hybrid ‘Harry’. They provide a multitude of brightly colored flowers in the winter landscape.
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A closeup of the flowers on ‘Harry’.
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Shrub dogwoods are grown for their winter branch color, here bloodtwig dogwood, Cornus sanguinea ‘Magic Flame’.
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Conifers provide a great contrast in the winter garden, here hybrid witch hazels ‘Pallida’ and ‘Robert’ with a blue spruce.
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Although snowdrops were not a focus of the garden, they were sprinkled through out, adding a cheerful white accent, here ‘Sibbertoft No 2’.
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The garden featured plenty of hellebores, including ‘Anna’s Red’ from the Frostkiss series.
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Frostkiss ‘Molly’s White’
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Hybrid witch hazel ‘Vesna’ with a small variegated shrub, maybe a euonymus, providing a beautiful contrast.
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This Japanese pink pussy willow ‘Mount Aso’ really stood out.
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The white stems of ‘Winter Lightning’ with the woven branches of golden willow ‘Yelverton’.
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The woven branches of golden willow ‘Golden Ness’ edge the pond.
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A gorgeous combination of hybrid witchhazel underplanted with ‘Ice ‘n’ Roses White’ hybrid hellebore.
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A close up of hellebore ‘Ice ‘n’ Roses White’, which is early blooming and a great performer in my garden.
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The winter garden at Wisley is well worth visiting if you are in England in February.
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Carolyn
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CAROLYN'S SHADE GARDENS 
November 5, 2023 at 8:59 am
What splendid colors in a February garden! So glad you stopped there and took pics to share with us. Isn’t that pink pussy willow charming?
November 5, 2023 at 9:07 am
Although I don’t think I had seen it before, ‘Mount Aso’ pussy willow is available in the US and hardy to zone 4.
November 5, 2023 at 10:20 am
Whew! Glad this is Wisley in February- I thought it might be NOW and was very confused! I’ve
Been wondering what I might see if I visited England in February, and thanks to your post, I see that there’s LOTS! Thanks a lot for this.
November 5, 2023 at 11:11 am
I wrote a post in 2019 about snowdrop destinations in England: https://carolynsshadegardens.com/2018/12/11/your-february-2019-snowdrop-trip-to-england/, but I would add several new places if I wrote in now. I hope to cover them in individual posts like the last two on Savill and Wisley.
November 5, 2023 at 6:29 pm
Is it N. ‘Cedric Morris’ under the edgeworthia?
November 6, 2023 at 8:30 am
Unfortunately, I didn’t get its name. The only early narcissus I grow is ‘Rijnveld’s Early Sensation’.
November 5, 2023 at 10:59 pm
Love those witch hazels!
November 6, 2023 at 8:25 am
Great to hear from you, Paula. Never enough witchhazels.
November 6, 2023 at 12:19 am
Thanks for sharing the beautiful & informative images of your trip to Wisley. I’m always on the lookout for worthwhile Hamamelis to addd to the garden. I will have to expand my pallet further and keep an eye out for Salix ‘Mount Aso’ !
November 6, 2023 at 8:24 am
Wisley made me want to add more witchhazels. I have yellow and red but not orange!
November 6, 2023 at 8:55 am
Carolyn,
Of course there are a number of nurseries in the East with catalogs to search for Witch-hazels, Broken Arrow Nursery to name one. However most of mine have cone from Gossler’s in Oregon, (Magnolias also) whom I have ordered from since the 90’s.
Good luck, you’ll need to do your research as there are so many cultivars to choose from these days. Something to consider is a number of hamamelis do not shed their leaves well prior to flowering and ruins the show, so you may want to eliminate those. However many young plants which hold their leaves (until the reach 4-6 ft) seem to “grow out” of this fault. Another work around, is to site them in a more open area where the wind will assist in fall leaf removal.
Anyway Thanks again!
Jacques
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November 6, 2023 at 9:26 am
All good information, Jacques. I choose both my witch hazel cultivars carefully to make sure they did not retain their leaves. This is very important as you don’t want to have to pull each leaf off by hand, and the brown leaves ruin the look of the flowers. My absolute favorite is ‘Angelly’, which, having seen all the yellows blooming, has the brightest and most noticeable flowers.
November 6, 2023 at 9:35 am
I know local witch hazel but what other of the plants you showed are native to SE Pennsylvania?
November 6, 2023 at 9:40 am
Hamamelis x intermedia, hybrid witch hazel, is generally hardy in zones 5 to 8, according to the Missouri Botanical Garden plant finder, which evaluates numerous cultivars, including the ones in my post: http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderListResults.aspx?letter=H
November 6, 2023 at 10:17 am
My witch hazel looks great right now. How about some of the other plants in the pictures you showed?
November 6, 2023 at 4:59 pm
Hybrid witch hazels have great fall color but bloom in the winter. You must be referring to the leaves. Edgeworthias are great at any time of year with excellent buds, flowers, bark, fall color, and habit, fall-blooming snowdrops are flowering now, and hellebores have shiny, winter green leaves. I don’t grow any of the other shrubs