Could this be the RHS's Jekyll and Hyde?   It chose a difficult place to develop, in an exposed, windy ridgetop with heavy clay soil, dry climate and undistinguished farm buildings.  But it has started to create gardens that already show the brilliance of the team at the RHS.

The trouble is that it is very much a work in progress and although there are parts that are hugely satisfying to visit, the overall effect is still, in our view, another couple of decades away.

But let's concentrate on what is good, because these alone ensure visitors will gain real enjoyment from a visit.

The established parts of the garden are the best - up around the old farmhouse and outbuildings are some stunning, rolling lawns, beautiful lakes and ponds, impressive large scale border plantings and the roses . . . oh the roses. 

Dry climates love roses and Essex seems to be perfect for raising a collection of these gorgeous shrubs that is perhaps the best I've seen anywhere.

Watch out for the Rose Rope Walk for a display of the best climbers. There's a shrub rose border that winds intimately through some tall, old garden and species rose bushes.

But the best is undoubtedly the Modern Rose Garden with large beds protected with neat topiary hedges crammed full of the most floriferous displays. 

This is a celebration of abundance with blooms tumbling over blooms, relegating foliage to understory. It is as showcase of mainly David Austin Roses, but as they supplied the raw stock, we all have to be thankful.

The Dry Garden is a new, half acre rockery addition that is proving to be very successful, with over 400 Mediterranean style plants along with plenty of fascinating grasses like the soft pink-bronze plumes of Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' and Stipa arundinacea. 

There are also plenty of recognisable drought-tolerant plants, such as Agave americana 'Variegata', achilleas, santolinas and eryngiums, along with Echium, Verbena and Euphorbia.

The Australian and NZ Garden works well and showcases some of the unique flora from down-under, which is amazing as the climates are so different to Essex. The Hebes and Grevilleas are in great shape while Eucalypts provide some of the taller tree canopies.

Access and pathways are very good all round and the thatched barn tearooms at Hilltop are delightfully rustic - along with the outdoor quandrangle eating area, flanked by the farmhouse wall clad totally in Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) which would be spectacular in autumn.

But although there is much to enjoy, there are some distinct weak spots - the old corrugated farm buildings, the front of the Farmhouse that could be a council house, large expanses of 'not much' and a brand new 'Arrivals' building that looks distinctly 'industrial estate'.

RHS Hyde Hall has big plans, it WILL be brilliant but they do need to communicate their plans, let us know what's coming, big graphic sign-boards and more directional signs would be most welcome. Then we will understand why it doesn't all flow at the moment.

Garden visitors are a forgiving lot, especially when they are treated to the excellence on display in so many of the existing smaller current precincts.