The RHS this week opens its new glasshouse at RHS Wisley in Surrey, promoting it as an elegant meeting and conference venue.

Within the garden under glass, three climatic zones provide the stage for more than 5,000 different cultivated plants. Curving gently upwards to a height of 12.5m, The Glasshouse is large enough to accommodate mature palm trees and covers an area the size of 10 tennis courts.

The three zones are dry temperate, moist temperate and tropical, with winding paths taking them past rocky outcrops, a waterfall and still pool, and up a gentle slope into the canopy of plants.

The Glasshouse is available for evening events and offers visitors views over its amphitheatre Landscape Garden, designed by the award-winning Tom Stuart Smith, and the massive lake reservoir, which holds enough to water the entire garden at Wisley for two months.

Catering for up to 550 people, The Glasshouse at RHS Wisley is being marketed for corporate hire by the events team at the Royal Horticultural Halls & Conference Centre.