Butterflies in the Glasshouse is an annual event hosted at RHS Wisley and if you’ve not visited before, it’s well worth a visit. The glasshouse is filled with hundreds of huge butterflies which flutter around you as you walk through - it’s a really magical experience.

We visit Wisley often as we are lucky enough to live close by and our most recent visit was this week at half term. It was our first time seeing the butterflies this year as the queue had looked too long on our other visits. This time we got there early in time for the park opening when there was no queue at all! If you don’t like to queue you can pre-book your slot online, but I am not that organised!

The garden is filled with butterfly and caterpillar sculptures by Alison Catchlove - really colourful and eye-catching on your walk around the garden.

Pushchairs aren’t allowed in the Glasshouse during the butterfly exhibit, so you’ll need to leave your pushchair outside. I would recommend leaving what you can (coats certainly!) with the pushchair before heading in - you won’t be needing them inside, it’s sweltering!

There are butterfly feeding stations set up as you walk around to attract the butterflies and give you the opportunity to watch them feed. There are huge stunning bright blue butterflies (Blue Morpho) and the Giant Owl which is an uninspiring brown colour but has the most beautiful detailing on it’s wings. You can pick up a leaflet to help you spot each type of butterfly and tick them off as you go.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to capture any photos of the butterflies as the humidity meant my camera steamed up, and I was also laden with coats and bag while trying to chase after a toddler! (You’ll note that I did not take my own advice above about leaving things with the pushchair!)

Max loved the butterflies - we’ve visited the Glasshouse many times before, but I’ve never seen him so willing to run around and explore independently before. I think the photo below of his little face (before my camera steamed up!) captures his excitement quite nicely!

All around the garden there are signs of spring with daffodils, snowdrops and camellias all blooming.

We stopped off in the cafe afterwards for a hot chocolate and a yummy apricot, almond and polenta cake - delicious!

 

The Butterflies in the Glasshouse exhibition is on until 6th March, so there is still time to catch it. The admission is included in entrance to the garden, so £14.50 for adults and £7.25 for children on the gate, or pre-book and save 10%, or free for RHS members who can also bring a guest (RHS Annual Membership is only £42.75 - a complete bargain!)