About
Wakehurst in West Sussex is Kew's wild botanic garden — 535 acres of Elizabethan mansion, extraordinary planted landscape, and one of the most important conservation projects on earth. Managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, under a lease from the National Trust, Wakehurst combines a working botanic garden of world class with some of the most beautiful woodland and valley scenery in the High Weald, creating an experience unlike any other garden in Britain. The Elizabethan mansion at the centre of the estate, built around 1590, provides a magnificent focus, but the garden extends in every direction across a landscape of streams, lakes, meadows, and ancient woodland that gives Wakehurst its distinctive and irreplaceable character.
The plant collections at Wakehurst are extraordinary in their scope and quality. The garden is particularly renowned for its Southern Hemisphere collections — plants from the temperate zones of South America, Australasia, and South Africa that thrive in the mild and humid West Sussex climate in ways they cannot at Kew in London. The rock walk, the ornamental gardens around the mansion, the Water Garden in the valley bottom, the Himalayan Glade, and the extensive woodland areas each have their own character and their own botanical interest. The spring display of magnolias and rhododendrons is among the finest anywhere in England.
The Millennium Seed Bank, housed in a purpose-built building near the mansion, is the single most important plant conservation project in the world. Opened in 2000, the bank has banked seeds from over 2.4 billion individual plants from 40,000 species — more than 15% of all known flowering plant species — from every country on earth. Its target is to bank seeds from 25% of all plant species by 2030. The seeds are stored at -20°C in underground vaults designed to survive anything short of a direct nuclear strike. The public areas of the Millennium Seed Bank allow visitors to see the laboratory and storage areas through glass and to understand the scale and urgency of the conservation work being undertaken.
For garden lovers, Wakehurst offers something rare in British horticulture: a botanic garden of scientific rigour and conservation importance set in a landscape of natural beauty, where the pleasures of walking, the aesthetic excitement of exceptional planting, and the intellectual interest of understanding plant science and global conservation are all available simultaneously.
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Plan Your Visit
💡 Visitor Tips
- Allow at least four hours for a full visit — Wakehurst is vast and the garden, Millennium Seed Bank, and woodland walks together easily fill a full day.
- Visit in spring (late March to May) for the magnolia and rhododendron collections — this is the garden's most spectacular season and worth timing a visit around.
- The winter Glow season (usually mid-November to early January) transforms the estate with illuminated trails — buy tickets in advance as it sells out well ahead.
- Kew membership covers both Wakehurst and Kew Gardens in London and represents excellent value if you plan to visit both.
- Car is strongly recommended — the site is rural and the bus service from Haywards Heath is infrequent. Sat nav to RH17 6TN.
- The Seed Bank public areas are free to enter once you are inside the garden — allow at least 45 minutes to do them justice, especially if visiting with children.
Highlights
The Millennium Seed Bank
The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership at Wakehurst is the most important plant conservation project in the world. It has banked seeds from over 40,000 species — more than 15% of all known flowering plant species — from partnerships in over 100 countries. Seeds are stored at -20°C in underground limestone vaults providing insurance against extinction for species threatened by climate change and habitat loss.
Visitors see the preparation laboratories and storage areas through large glass windows, observe scientists at work, and understand through displays and films why this work is urgent for the future of life on earth.
The scale and ambition of the enterprise — and its understated, purposeful confidence — makes it one of the most inspiring places in Britain.
The Southern Hemisphere Collections
Wakehurst is particularly renowned for its Southern Hemisphere collections — plants from temperate South America, New Zealand, Tasmania, and southern Africa that thrive in the High Weald's mild, humid climate. The Southern Hemisphere Garden contains species from Patagonia, the Falklands, New Zealand forests, and the Cape Floristic Region, many rare or endangered in their native habitats.
Walking through these collections is genuinely disorienting — the flora of three continents assembled in a West Sussex valley, thriving in conditions that approximate their distant native climates with remarkable fidelity.
For botanists and plant-lovers, this is one of the most extraordinary collections outside the Southern Hemisphere itself.
The Rock Walk and Valley Gardens
The Rock Walk is a dramatic path through Ardingly Sandstone outcrops, festooned with ferns, mosses, and shade-loving plants in a damp, enclosed microclimate of great botanical richness. The valley gardens below follow a stream and series of ponds, creating a landscape of extraordinary variety — bog garden, water garden, streamside planting — displaying moisture-loving plants in conditions of unusual lushness.
The combination of geological drama in the rock walk with the quiet beauty of the valley floor creates a garden experience unique in south-east England, particularly in spring when the moisture-loving plants are at their most vibrant and the woodland above is in fresh leaf.
Spring Flowering Season
Wakehurst's spring (March to May) is one of the most spectacular horticultural events in England. The estate contains a remarkable collection of magnolias — among the largest and most varied in the country — and rhododendrons of exceptional quality, many planted by the Loder family a century ago. The combination of magnolia blossom against the Elizabethan mansion, rhododendrons in the woodland garden, and the unfurling of the ancient woodland creates a sequence of visual experience through spring that justifies a dedicated visit.
The Sir Henry Price Garden extends the season with summer roses and perennials, while autumn brings equally spectacular colour to the woodland and valley.
Collections
The Millennium Seed Bank
The world's most important plant conservation project — seed preparation laboratories, underground vaults, and public exhibitions on the science and global mission of banking seeds from 40,000 species.
The Garden
535 acres of botanic garden, ancient woodland, and High Weald landscape with Southern Hemisphere collections, Rock Walk, valley gardens, spring flowering collections, and restored Elizabethan mansion.
The Mansion Exhibition
Exhibition on the history of Wakehurst, the Loder family, the development of the collections, and the partnership between the National Trust and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.