Education, Science and Learning
This weekend we took a trip to visit flagship RHS site Wisley in Surrey to get a closer look at Wisley’s portion of the RHS 160 million pound development. Wisley is one of the UK’s best loved gardens, welcoming over 1 million visitors per year and is well known for being a great day out for garden enthusiasts, families and professionals alike. What it’s less well known for though is its history and credentials in horticultural science that’s what this expansive new development is hoping to put right.
Wisley has been home to RHS Science since 1903 and RHS School of Horticulture since 1907 where a team of botanists, scientists and horticulturists have, to date, compiled some of the most important horticultural collections in the UK, if not the world. Their database alone houses 325,000 plant names and they have cultivated over 80,000 plant specimens in the RHS Herbarium. The existing grade II listed garden was originally designed to be a “living laboratory for experimentation and education in horticulture” and to this day provides a foundation on which scientific research there tackles globally important issues.
The new development at Wisley aims to open the laboratory to the public for the first time in over 100 years and aims to be both a step back in time to explore how scientists pioneered horticultural research and also a classroom for the future, lifting the lid on the latest scientific advances in botany and horticulture.
As part of the development, there will also be seven new gardens, some of the most interesting of which surrounding The Centre of Horticulture, Science and Learning. The three gardens here will focus on mental health and wellbeing, gardens as ecosystem services and also a brand-new kitchen garden teaching people about our connection to the natural world through the food we eat. Each garden having a unique educational focus like this, really grounds the theory in practice, thus making it more tangible and palatable for its visitors.
The great part about this development is that there is this keen focus on learning. The RHS is aiming to encourage future generations to “embrace all aspects of horticulture and understand its value and importance”. This is something vital in a world where technological and scientific advances are so often perceived as synonymous with indoor pursuits.
For so long now, science and research has been something conducted behind closed doors, only put on display once the reports are written and results are validated. The work at Wisley is attempting to turn all that on its head and quite literally open its doors to the public in a bid to help engage and educate all of us. And in relation to this new idea of transparency, they’ve already started as they mean to go on with a ground level viewing platform of the building work as it occurs. An absolutely genius idea, though, we probably spent a little too long watching the diggers.
Wisley have long-since had a mission to “Enrich everyone’s life through plants and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place” and from next Summer we will begin to see how they are fulfilling that objective. Great work Wisley, here at Studio 31, we look forward to seeing the work unfurl.