Wisley themed

Our first visit to Wisley for what appears to be six months, with the last visit I can turn up being that noticed at reference 1.

Shop

The entrance suite, shop and associated facilities were up and running. All very handsome, even if they do take up a good deal of space and generally promote the consumption side of the Wisley enterprise. We wondered whether it was as big as the shop at Chessington Garden Centre down the road. Do they share suppliers with the fancy good shops in Ashburton? See reference 3. We also wondered what proportion of the site - which must be some hundreds of acres - was given over to car parks, shops, cafés and visitor facilities generally. How does that compare with Chessington World of Adventures? An exercise for a bored child.

The sculpture business was also in evidence, generally not so good, but including a rather stark Moore, which I may come to like better when I know it better. The trusties, anxious lest they be seen as fuddy-duddies, have also seen fit to include a contribution from Dame Trace, of which slightly more in due course. Depressing how worthy people up and down the land seem to find it necessary to bow and scrape before what is being passed off as art. I seem to remember reading in Huxley, writing getting on for a hundred years ago, that the deal was that I invite you to my risqué parties, in return for which you buy my art. Or as I had occasion to say at reference 2, 'Plus ça change...'.

Tree

Ticket

Fruit

Took our first tea and cake underneath a liriodendron tulipifera tree dedicated to the late Queen Mother. In rather better shape than both the one in Osborne and the one on West Hill, which last has been looking a bit poorly the last couple of years. See, for example, references 4 and 5. Fruits not much like the brown shells that I remember; perhaps a shell is what gets left when the flower is not fertilised.

Flipped a coin to decide to head off into the trees at the north eastern end of the gardens. Lots of good stuff, which seemed to include reorganisation of the heather beds. And at the far end repurposing of what had been a gardener's cottage as another café. We find out later that the gardener in question was the Director. No.3, top right, in the map at reference 1.

Weeping cedar

Weeping cedar a good deal smaller than the one which is growing in Hook Road. Maybe the difference is that this last is grown on a frame. And I wonder this morning whether the natural habitat is the slopes of Atlas mountains, where the ground provides the frame. See reference 7.

A newish clump of araucaria

An old plum tree of some sort

Cyclamen underneath in the spring or autumn?

Mystery flower of Puckpool

Somewhere along the way we came across what looked very much like the flower we had noticed at Puckpool in July, noticed at reference 6. Described as campsis × tagliabuana 'summer jazz' and Bing turns up lots of people who will sell your one. Not come across any mention of the Canary Islands yet though.

We also came across various small gardens, after the fashion of the small celebrity gardens which have become a big feature of the Chelsea flower show. Mostly conspicuously themed, perhaps concentrating on a colour, a sort of plant or some particular place or area. BH rather likes them, while I rather dislike them, with their managing for me to be both show-off and fussy. I like my gardens to be simpler and less obviously 'designed'. Or perhaps they go in for 'curation', after the fashion of a lot of other arty & creative types these days.

Fake wall

The fake wall which had started life hiding the new entrance complex has been moved up the hill to hide the new science complex.

Fag end

At about this point we had a snack at the café up the top somewhere called 'The Honest Sausage', No.5, top left in the map at reference 1. I thought the sausages looked a bit overcooked but as it turned out I had a good sausage roll, with a sausage not full of lumps of alien material or herbs. Slightly shocked to find a fag end - when we had thought that the whole place was smoke free. Perhaps staff snatch the odd puff outside, at times when there are no visitors to snitch on them.

Farm shop

There was a farm shop which sold produce. Produce which came from the gardens, decorated with bales of straw which most certainly did not. We wondered how far they had come to be with us.

Hibiscus

A flower which we first thought was a sort of lavatera, a popular garden plant in our part of Surrey. But yesterday I asked Google Image Search which seemed fairly sure that it was actually a hibiscus, an identification confirmed by consulting Wikipedia for both. But we were given the excuse that they both belonged to the mallow family; quite closely related really.

Dahlia

Google Image Search had no problem working out what this one was either.

Shop interior

Snapped a bit of the interior of the grand new shop on exit - almost mandatory as one has to exit through the shop. Dame Trace's contribution in neon being visible middle right.

Puzzle

Our visit closed with a puzzle. Were the new paving slabs on the car park side of the shiop some kind of expensive stone, or were they just concrete faked up a bit to look like stone? Deliberately badly compacted to leave interesting voids to confuse the viewer? I remain uncertain, so leave this one to a masonry competent reader.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/02/wisley-eight.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/08/fake-81.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/12/gifts.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/06/tulip-tree.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/07/hot-afternoon.html.

Reference 6: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/07/ryde-buoys.html.

Reference 7: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/08/atlas-cedar.html.