- 7 weeks ago
Gardeners World S59E01 Episode 1 Engsub
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:10Oh
00:37Come on.
00:52Hello, and welcome back to a new season of Gardener's World.
00:55And welcome back to Longmeadow.
00:57After a very long, wet and grey winter here,
01:02suddenly the garden is positively bursting out into spring.
01:07The daffodils here in the orchard have all started flowering just in the last few days.
01:11These are the wild narcissi that I first planted a quarter of a century ago.
01:16And they're still bringing me joy every single year.
01:20I've made other more recent changes.
01:22This winter I added some big hornbeam balls in amongst the apple trees,
01:26and I'll talk more about those another day.
01:28But there are lots of changes and lots of things to be getting on with.
02:00Now, one of the first big jobs of the gardening year for me, particularly when the sun is shining and
02:05there is a feeling that we're moving away from winter, is to cut back the grasses in the grass border.
02:12So the grasses look really good from June right through to at least the new year, and that's the magic
02:20of them.
02:20Because when the rest of the garden is dying back from September onwards, the grass borders are looking brilliant.
02:26And at the same time, they're giving brilliant cover for a whole range of wild animals.
02:32I found hedgehogs hibernating in the grass borders, and mice of all kinds, let alone all the invertebrates, ladybirds and
02:39beetles and one thing or another.
02:40So very good for wildlife, looks great in the garden, and really easy on the gardener.
02:46Very, very low maintenance. But it is important that this time of year, you do the one big thing, which
02:53is to cut them all back, except for the evergreen grasses.
02:57Now, if you have evergreen grasses, like this steeper, this is steeper gigantia, just run your hand through and tease
03:04out any dead material.
03:06But put on some gloves, because the green can be very sharp.
03:10Ow, you see, I cut myself then. You've got to be a bit careful.
03:13So put on a pair of good stout gloves, staunch the flow of blood, and off you go.
03:19But most of these grasses are deciduous, can be cut hard back to the ground, and you either do it
03:25with a pair of shears,
03:26or I have done it before with a hedge cutter, which works perfectly well.
03:29And the time to do it is once you see the new growth, which can be early February.
03:34You don't want to do it when the new growth gets too long, because you don't want to cut that
03:38back.
03:50So, this is a miscanthus.
03:52And you can see the flower heads are still on, relatively small because it was so incredibly dry last summer.
03:58Miscanthus are very tough, they'll grow in almost any conditions, but they need a little bit more water than they
04:03got last summer.
04:04No new growth at the bottom, so I can just get in there and cut like that.
04:11I cut to the ground, clear it away, and take it to the compost heap.
04:16Another way of doing it is called chop and drop.
04:18So you can do it with grasses, you can do it with any plant that's got dead stems still standing
04:23in winter, like this Rebecca.
04:25And what you do is instead of cutting at the base, and then clearing it away, you just cut it
04:29bit by bit down, and let the pieces fall wherever they may.
04:35And they stay on the ground as a mulch, but I'm going to finish this and clear it all away,
04:42because there is another stage I want to go through.
04:44I want to weed it, because this is the big opportunity to do that, and then when I'm happy with
04:49weeding, I want to mulch it.
04:51But first, we're going to go from a garden which has been here now for over 30 years, to a
04:58brand new garden, or at least a brand new plot, and a very excited Adam.
05:14See that? That is one very excited face. I am like a kid in a sweet shop. I have a
05:21new garden to play with.
05:23October we moved in, and to be fair, it looked a lot better then than it does now.
05:33It's amazing, isn't it, how much mess you can make with a digger.
05:38It's 20 metres wide by about 50 metres long.
05:44The first job was to get the space measured up, and down on paper, so that I have an actual
05:50scale plan to work with.
05:53What I've done is divided it into basically four spaces.
05:59The first one really I suppose, let's call it the family garden, you know, it connects back with the house.
06:05I'll wrap that around with planting, and then there will be a lovely little raised pool that sits on that
06:11side.
06:12And then a nice big simple lawn, and you can see I've started to add these trees going through the
06:18space.
06:19Big borders, each side, nice simple area for the dogs and the family.
06:27Right, so now we're off down the garden path.
06:30There's going to be a little brick edge all the way along here.
06:34We'll get halfway down the path, and then we're just going to have a little seating area.
06:38Maybe two little rockers, and what this will benefit from is the sunset, which is over there.
06:45So it's going to be incredible just looking over the planting, and then into the distance.
06:50And then we'll carry on that journey.
06:52And then at the moment, I've got to jump down.
06:55Boom!
06:56So, I'm now what?
06:59My knee height.
07:00So you're talking about sort of two foot down, so about 600.
07:04But this is a good place to explain how the garden was when I got here.
07:09If you imagine, it was just a slope that disappeared to that water.
07:13That water over there is flooding off the field.
07:16The river runs along the bottom, and then when it does burst its banks, it comes into the space.
07:21So what I've done is I've created this sort of series of terraces.
07:25So if the water eventually does come in, it will push it all that way, and it won't come into
07:31the garden.
07:32You are now, though, you're in the herb garden.
07:34So we're talking herbs, fruit, maybe the occasional little veg.
07:38But I am stood in my, what will be eventually, my new greenhouse.
07:43Really simple space, but very, very immersive.
07:46You know, when you're going to be in the planting here.
07:53A few weeks ago, I actually started work and prepared the ground for some bare root hedging.
08:01The hedges I'm going to use to obviously either side of the garden, but then also to divide the garden,
08:07a hornbeam.
08:08So conditions-wise, where I live, you know, east side of the country, so actually summers can be very, very
08:14dry.
08:15But then at winter, down at that river, and you can see where that water's holding, that could well be
08:20wet down the end of the garden.
08:22And hornbeam are a good tree because they'll deal with so many conditions.
08:28So when it comes to actually looking after these as they grow and mature, I'll choose the height that I
08:33want, first of all.
08:35But then I'm going to keep them quite crisp and clean, and not only will that then work either side
08:41of the garden, but also as I divide the spaces and break the areas up, it becomes the backdrop, you
08:47know, for the soft, bellowy planting.
08:51They say the best time to plant a tree was yesterday, and I've already made a start.
08:58Trees will be integral to the garden, and getting them in the ground in the right place early on is
09:05vital.
09:05So that line is 90 degrees to the house, but what this allows me to do is start to set
09:12out the final few trees for this space.
09:30I talk about soil being the most important thing in the garden.
09:38This was an old farmyard. So in places, literally, old stones and bricks.
09:52Get the jacket off.
09:55I'm digging a hole. It's probably twice the size of the root ball.
09:59And I'm not talking about depth, just talking about width.
10:01The fact actually that it's a square hole is important as well.
10:06If you imagine, clay soil, you dig a hole that's just slightly bigger than your root ball, your container,
10:15you slot it in, your roots start to go, and they go round and round in a circle.
10:21By doing this, as the roots get out, they'll get to the corner, and then ultimately, they'll take themselves out,
10:28and they will cement the tree into the ground.
10:31Interestingly, in the tree world now, there's lots of conversation about whether you should put any compost, well-rotted manure
10:39in the bottom of the hole.
10:41Partly because what you want to do is you want that tree to work hard.
10:47You want that tree to put on good, young, fibrous root.
10:51And if I make that area too much of a happy place, what you'll find is the roots won't go
10:59searching.
11:00And that's what we want.
11:02It's interesting, when you're sort of choosing trees, I think a lot of the time we're sucked into the tree
11:07that we really want.
11:08You know, whether it's a silver birch, whether it's a ginkgo, and then we work out where to put it.
11:13Whereas this itself is, it's a nut, it's a hazelnut, and this will be beautiful because it will sit at
11:19the end of the border.
11:20I can control that growth, but also there's going to be a path that comes across the bottom of the
11:24garden,
11:25and this will sit at the end of that path.
11:27Why I've gone for multi-stem, actually, because it will be slightly smaller.
11:31So it's going to sit in the border, so I could leave it four or five years, and then I
11:36could coppice it back to the ground.
11:38So let's get it in.
11:39It's covered and wrapped in hessie, and you don't have to take that off, it's biodegradable, so that will just
11:44break down.
11:45What I am going to do, before I start planting, I'm just going to free this tree.
11:51So, I've got the face where I want it.
11:55We can start filling in.
11:58If I just heal that in, I'll water it in, but I won't give it too much at the moment.
12:04What you'll remember is any new tree, you know, you're planting over the winter, going into March.
12:11The further you get into the season, the more water that plant is going to need.
12:16So I will make sure, right through the year, I'm out here, and I'm checking these trees every day.
12:25I think there's something magical about planting trees.
12:30So I've put an awful lot of thought into exactly where they're going.
12:35And when I plant and plan, it tends to be one tree gets placed, and the other trees are driven
12:42from that tree.
12:43And that was the ginkgo. The ginkgo, which is a beautiful tree, but it needs space.
12:48That will sit as a stand-alone focal point.
12:52But all the time I'm building, I'm thinking about shapes and forms.
12:56And also, the beautiful thing about it, in reality as well, is you're not just planting for you and the
13:02family.
13:02You could well be planting for another generation.
13:14Look at that.
13:16Can you imagine the first time I saw this at the end of the garden?
13:22I mean, I've created gardens for lots of people, literally all over the world, and also at home for my
13:29family.
13:30But this has got to be the most exciting garden I have ever created.
13:37And it's just lovely that I'm going to be able to take you with me.
14:05I can remember that excitement when I first came here.
14:10That sense of creating something.
14:12And look at me here. 36 years later, I'm still doing it.
14:17So, can't wait to see how that develops.
14:20What I'm doing here is much more prosaic.
14:23Having cut back the grasses, cleared everything away, that's gone to the compost heap.
14:28I've used the opportunity just to have a bit of a weed through.
14:31Now this is couch grass.
14:33It's a really successful plant.
14:36And once it gets established, it takes over.
14:39And couch grass is something that will work its way into the roots of other plants.
14:44That's its real problem in a border.
14:45If it works its way into perennials or shrubs, let alone into hedges, it's almost impossible to get out.
14:51And it's quite brittle.
14:53So if you leave any little bit of it in the ground, it will reproduce.
14:57So we try and take out as much of that and burn it.
15:00Don't put it on the compost heap.
15:03And I've got a nettle in here.
15:05Now, I'm avoiding getting stung because nettles in spring sting like nothing else.
15:15But what you can see are these very characteristic yellow roots.
15:19And it's the yellow that gives them away.
15:21Now, with nettles, if you cut the top off, that can go into the compost heap.
15:25But the roots of nettles, of couch grass and bindweed, burn them and then put the ash on the compost
15:32heap.
15:32And if you can't have a fire, then put them into green waste.
15:36But there you are, a glorious nettle, not wanted in this part of the garden.
15:40It's worth pointing out that we do keep nettles on the fringe of the garden because they're brilliant for caterpillars.
15:46So don't regard them as always being a weed.
15:50It's just the wrong plant in the wrong place.
15:52Then it becomes a weed.
15:54Now, here on the grass borders, I'm going to mulch with pine bark.
15:59And I use it especially here on the grass borders for two reasons.
16:04Because it is slightly acidic and low fertility.
16:08Because grasses don't like too much fertility.
16:14And our soil here is very fertile.
16:17So if I mulch this with farmyard manure, we get too much lush growth.
16:23And that's not good for grasses.
16:24So I'm just using this.
16:27We're keeping the moisture in.
16:28We're keeping the weeds down.
16:30But not enriching the soil too much.
16:33So it lasts a long time.
16:35So I only do this every other year.
16:37And also when it breaks down, it really lightens the heavy soil.
16:42It's a big mistake to mulch half-heartedly.
16:46If you're going to mulch at all, you really want to aim at two inches.
16:50Sort of four centimetres minimum.
16:53Because that is what you need to block the light and stop evaporation.
17:00Do it now.
17:01Do it in spring.
17:02That's partly because you can see where you're going.
17:04Don't mulch over the top of existing growth.
17:07And then the beauty of this stuff is you just use your hand.
17:11And that just goes round like that.
17:18Now we're going to Carmarthenshire to visit a garden owned by Bob and Ranvig Wallace, who are amateurs, but have
17:26a huge amount of knowledge and passion for a distinct group of plants.
17:37It's hard to believe that this all started when, as a four year old, I went into the local churchyard
17:42and picked all the tulips.
17:44I'll bet your grandma was upset.
17:46Then I joined the Alpine Garden Society, went to a couple of talks and I think you came along and
17:52you were hooked as well.
17:54By that time we had a pretty small garden.
17:56Ranvig got interested in these small plants, alpines.
18:00So we thought, well, what better, small plants for a small garden?
18:03The collection has grown and grown over the last 50 years until it is what it is today.
18:16Since, what, the 1980s?
18:19Yes.
18:19We've been travelling widely all over the world looking at bulbs in the wild.
18:24And it is absolutely phenomenal to see huge numbers of what are reckoned to be pretty rare species in cultivation
18:31growing in vast numbers on mountain hillsides in Iran or in Uzbekistan or in Morocco or wherever.
18:39And also it gives you a lot of hints as to how to grow them, what conditions they need in
18:44cultivation when you see what they're coping with in the wild.
18:47Yeah.
18:55All the greenhouses are absolutely full of plants in pots now because we like to exhibit what we've got as
19:02well.
19:02Six greenhouses, two polytunnels.
19:06We've got the show on Saturday.
19:07Yes.
19:08I thought we might start thinking about some of the specials that we might have to take.
19:11How about that?
19:12Yeah, that's not bad, is it?
19:14Cyclamen pseudobiracle.
19:15You remember going up into the wild in the Amarnas Mountains where Turkey and Syria join?
19:20Yeah.
19:20Warm, quite humid woodland.
19:23This is a particularly good form, isn't it, with these dark pink flowers?
19:25Although I do like the pale pink ones as well, I have to say.
19:28I like them all.
19:29This is the more common one in the wild, isn't it?
19:32Yes.
19:32The botanists had a real field day with that, didn't they?
19:35Because they used to be Chionodoxa and now they're Sillas.
19:38And like all the bulbs, it responds well to a nice free draining compost and a bit of care and
19:43attention when it's coming into growth.
19:45Easy, but spectacular.
19:47Yeah.
19:47Lovely.
19:48I mean, now we need something a bit taller and a different colour.
19:50Maybe a yellow Narcissus would make the three look nice.
19:53Oh, I think I've got just the thing.
19:55I had to go to the other greenhouse to get it.
19:57Okay.
19:57Okay.
19:57Hurry up then.
20:06How about that?
20:08That's looking good.
20:09That's a really nice hybrid, that.
20:10So this is a form of Narcissus triandrus, the angel's tears, because of the shape of the flower with the
20:17corona hanging down and these petals swept back like that.
20:21And it's a really elegant plant.
20:24So do you reckon that would go nicely with those two?
20:27I do, yes.
20:28Yeah.
20:28Yeah.
20:29And I think it needs lifting up a little bit so the flowers show above the two other ones in
20:34front.
20:39This is Irish Sindhpurs, which is actually a hybrid between two Turkish species, a big tall blue one and a
20:48little tiny one about sort of, you know, the sort of sizes of these here.
20:52I think it might go to the show.
20:55It's a matter of what we think on Friday.
20:57We may even take it on Saturday and decide not to, depends on the condition of the flowers.
21:03We've grown it for years, so we have to be very, very careful about watering and to water just in
21:08the pot and not in the plant.
21:10And that's probably true of a lot of things, actually, that watering is the crucial thing.
21:15For example, this one, you see the leaves are forming a sort of a cup.
21:18And if you get water down into that cup, which in the world probably happens naturally, but the plant dries
21:25up very quickly.
21:26Here, with the humidity that we have here in West Wales, it doesn't dry up.
21:30You get rots that go down into the bulb, and all of a sudden, the bulb's dead.
21:39All but my particular favourite is this one here, which is Corydalis maracandica.
21:46It occurs in two colour forms, one yellow and one purple.
21:49And as you can see, this one seems to be a mixture of the two, which makes it really appealing.
21:56The alpine house has got very good ventilation.
21:58You can see running down each side of the greenhouse, there are these louvre windows, which are open all the
22:04time.
22:05The air still flows over the plants and keeps them healthy.
22:07These plants are definitely for greenhouse growth.
22:11They would be temperature hardy outside, but they certainly wouldn't be rain hardy.
22:15So there's no point to trying these out in the open garden. They just wouldn't survive.
22:21We're here in the middle of February. It's freezing cold outside.
22:25It's in low single figures. It's snowed overnight.
22:29You don't come into the greenhouse and see all sorts of things growing, flowering.
22:34There's loads and loads of colour in here.
22:37And of course, once you've got this big collection of plants, you want other people to see them.
22:41So what better way of exhibiting your plants than going to various Alpine Garden Society shows and putting them on
22:48the show bench?
22:49You mean you like to show off?
22:50Well, a little bit of that.
22:51And there's actually quite a bit of competition as well, so it's a lot of fun.
23:03It's been a very long day because we had to get up early to get here on time.
23:07We then had to unload the car with all the heavy boxes that we have to carry in.
23:10And then they all have to be placed on the benches.
23:14They have to be labelled, arranged in their classes.
23:18Picked over to make sure there's no dead flowers or dead foliage.
23:22I just want to soak up the kind of excellence of horticulture, really.
23:25All these gorgeous plants, the sort of things that you never get to see anywhere else.
23:30There are some amazing plants here and just amazing examples and an opportunity to find new gems that we want
23:36to grow.
23:37You're into plants and even if you're not, you might get into plants if you come to a place like
23:42this.
23:42Because you'll see something and think, right, what is that? I want to grow it. How do you do it?
23:51It's such a fun day out. I mean, not only do you have all of these lovely people, you've got
23:57all of the nurseries and then you can come and see old friends, new friends.
24:03I'm very proud that I've managed to get thirds.
24:05This particular one is a Hepatica Nobilis and, yeah, it's just, it opened out last night.
24:12So I was very, very chuffed that it was actually making it for the show.
24:16Basically, it's just tiny plants. I love them.
24:19I've received a first on one of my plants. It's a Ginospermum, which is in the Berberadesi family.
24:27Exciting. They bring intense colours through what can be quite a boring time of year.
24:32I think that's what I love about the shows. It brings the best of what's looking good at this time
24:37of year.
24:38Well, we got first with all of our Corridalis.
24:41These are all Corridalis with a big tuber under the ground, radiate out the stem, and if you don't try
24:48and block the growth of the stems horizontally, they all come up around the edge of the pot.
24:53So when we're potting them, we put in barriers to make them come up in the middle of the pot
24:58as well as around the edge.
24:59And that gives you a nice flat top.
25:02Otherwise, I mean, in the wild, you can often find a plant will be this much across, but there's that
25:09little tuber under the ground somewhere under a stone.
25:11Can I have an ice pack for my black-eyed bits?
25:15Our first show, I think, must have been 1972, when we were both students.
25:21And that's 54 years ago. Between us, we've been growing for more than a century, if you like.
25:27And we're still going strong.
25:50What do you think? What do you think?
25:53Now, don't go on the border. Good point. Just stay there.
25:56One of the things that I increasingly respect is the way that there's this deep reservoir of knowledge amongst people
26:04who have devoted their lives to plants.
26:07And I think that's something that we should treasure.
26:09Now, I know that none of those experts would think that the spring garden here is particularly special because none
26:15of the plants are particularly special.
26:17But at this time of year, as we come into spring, it holds centre stage here at Longmeadow.
26:23And now coming through are the hellebores and the snowflakes, the leucosium.
26:28You have the tete-a-tete daffodils.
26:30And I can see that the imperial fritillaries are starting to grow.
26:34So, this slither of Longmeadow is certainly the best thing in the garden.
26:39And then, by about mid-May, it's done its stuff. It's over. Until next year.
27:04Come on up.
27:06Come on up.
27:24Right. What I'm setting up is a new framework to support a new batch of raspberries that I'm growing.
27:31This is a new plot near the greenhouse, near water. This is going to be our new soft root bed.
27:36We've got strawberries at that end. I've planted autumn fruiting raspberries.
27:40But what I'm planting today are summer fruiting raspberries.
27:44And these fruit on canes that are grown the previous year.
27:49So, the ones I plant today won't give me any fruit until next summer.
27:54Now, if you're planting raspberries, and now is a good time to do it, and they're summer fruiting, they need
28:00support.
28:01It can be a trellis, it can be a fence, but I like this wire system.
28:05So, what I've got are wires attached to tensioners at either end.
28:13And this is quite important, because if you just loop the wire around, inevitably it gets slacker, and then you
28:19can't tighten it.
28:20And you want the wires to be reasonably tight.
28:22So, I just hook them onto there, and then tighten it up.
28:28And, by the way, these are eight-foot posts driven two foot into the ground.
28:32So, I've got six foot of height.
28:34These could easily stay in position for 10, 15 years, and absolutely necessary to have into place before you start
28:43planting.
28:52Having walked all over the soil putting up the wires, I'm just loosening it.
29:03Now, these brown sticks will bear fruit, but they're two quite different varieties.
29:09There's Glen Ample, which is a trusted variety.
29:14I've grown it many times before.
29:15It's very disease resistant.
29:17It copes very well with wet conditions compared to other raspberries, and is delicious.
29:22And that will crop from sort of the end of June to early August.
29:29And this is bare root, so that needs to go in the ground first.
29:31In a pot, looking very undistinguished, I've got Malling Admiral.
29:37And I've chosen this, although I've not grown it before, because it's disease resistant, coping with all kinds of soil,
29:43and a delicious fruit.
29:45Now, you can see there are five stems in the pot.
29:49Those are five separate plants, and you need to space them out at least round about 18 inches apart.
29:56I'm not actually going to plant these now, I'm going to plant the bare root ones.
29:58Because bare root plants, they're not in the pot, they're not in any compost.
30:03So you need to get them in the ground as quickly as you can, ideally the same day.
30:11Here are a bundle of bare root plants, and you can see there are the roots.
30:14Now, if it's going to be a slow process, have a bucket of water nearby and stick them in.
30:20Don't let the roots dry out, and that is really, really important.
30:24I'm not going to plant them in the ground, I'm going to plant them on the ground.
30:29So if I put that like that, I'm just going to bring the soil up around them.
30:40Raspberries have very shallow roots that grow sideways, not very deep, and they really hate sitting in very wet soil.
30:49However, if you've got free draining soil, that's fine, that's okay, you can plant them normally.
30:58I will water them in, and I will tie them, because by tying them, it gives them stability while the
31:05roots get established.
31:06Once the roots are established, these can then be cut back.
31:08Right, one more row of Glen Ample, then a couple of rows there, and I'll have four rows of summer
31:15fruiting raspberries, which will be ready to harvest in July 2027.
31:21There's forward planning for you.
31:27Now, Arit has been to Kew.
31:31Most of us go there and walk around and visit the glasshouses and see the planting, and it's very much
31:37a sort of a public park, as well as one of the world's greatest botanic gardens.
31:40But she has been allowed behind doors that very few of us ever go through.
31:47Hidden deep within the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, lies a world almost no one ever sees.
31:54Closed to visitors, this secret tropical nursery is a plant emergency room for some of the planet's rarest plants,
32:01and has become one of the most biodiverse corners on Earth.
32:05The work carried out here is a battle for survival, and every second counts.
32:11Behind these doors are over 10,000 plant species.
32:16Many of them are rare, threatened, or of vital conservation concern.
32:21But today, I've been given exclusive access to learn more about these critically endangered plants,
32:27and to meet the specialists that are working around the clock to save them.
32:35Within the nursery are an incredible 21 separate climatic zones split into four groups.
32:42Orchids, temperate, moist tropics, and arid.
32:49Carlos Magdalena is a senior botanical horticulturalist.
32:53He is known for his remarkable success in bringing the world's most threatened plants back from the brink of extinction.
33:01Hello.
33:02Hey, Carlos.
33:04This is proper laboratory. I feel like I'm somewhere really sci-fi.
33:08What work are you doing here?
33:10Well, in this tank alone, there is about 50 different types of water lilies.
33:16We have also the smallest water lily in the world, which almost went extinct about a decade ago.
33:22So this is the smallest water lily in the world?
33:25Yeah.
33:25Why is it not in the wild? What happened to it going nearly extinct?
33:29The habitat where it grows is probably smaller than this tank.
33:34So it was a matter of time before something happened, you know.
33:38There was only four plants left and they were here in queue, which was quite scary.
33:43Trying to grow the seedlings to maturity was almost impossible.
33:47Right.
33:48So I managed to come up with a way of cultivating these ones from seed.
33:52All you have to do is grow them very, very shallow.
33:55Yeah.
33:56So that when the seedling germinates, it touches the air.
33:59It's things like this that make a whole difference, right?
34:02From those four plants, we produce lots.
34:04We have here more than a hundred now.
34:06But also we have sent them to many different places.
34:08There is growers in America, Asia, Africa, Europe, you name it.
34:12So it's very well secure out of the habitat.
34:15Saved by the bell, really.
34:17One of Carlos's biggest successes was the integral role he played
34:22in saving the plant known as Café Miron.
34:25Café Miron was thought to be extinct until a single surviving tree
34:30was spotted by a schoolboy in 1979 in its native island of Rodriguez in Mauritius.
34:37So this has had a real challenge, hasn't it?
34:41There's been a real story behind it, then.
34:43Yeah.
34:44It has taken us almost a whole century to work out how to save this.
34:49Wow.
34:49It was not seen in a while for more than 40 years.
34:52So then class specimen was found and then a cutting was flown to queue.
34:58Right.
34:59From that plant, we managed to root a plant.
35:02For more than 25 years, not a single seed was produced.
35:06And then, even though we had many plants, they were all cloned
35:08because they were all from the same cutting.
35:10Yes.
35:10If you take a cutting, it's cloning the plant.
35:13And then it will carry the same problem, that it flowers but it doesn't produce seeds.
35:18And if you want to reintroduce the plant in the wild, you will need to have a plant
35:22which is able to reproduce by itself.
35:24There was plenty of chances for us to try new things.
35:28And then one day, bingo, I got a fruit with nice seeds.
35:33Which is incredible.
35:34Yeah.
35:35So you're the plant whisperer.
35:37You brought it back from extinction near enough.
35:40That's amazing.
35:41Why is it so important to keep these plants on our planet?
35:46What would happen if we were to lose plants like this?
35:49Well, first of all, every species has kind of like a link with other species.
35:56So they're all part of our ecosystem.
35:58But more importantly for us humans, they are the main reason we can get medicines.
36:04Everything you eat comes from a plant or something that eats plants.
36:08And therefore, protecting plants is really essential and important to humankind.
36:13I think it's amazing work that's been done over a long time.
36:17So long may you continue to be keeping plants alive, Carlos.
36:26Globally, one of the world's most threatened plant groups are arid plants.
36:31Tough enough to survive deserts, they are now facing unprecedented danger
36:35and need urgent help.
36:38Tropical nursery manager Paul Rees is on a mission to save them.
36:42Paul, it's like being in a different world.
36:45All of these plants, what sort of challenges are they facing out in their own environment?
36:52The plants in this zone are species that come from very dry conditions.
36:56Often when we think of climate change, we think of a warming climate
36:59and we immediately think that arid plants are going to be able to cope with that.
37:04But often they're sort of living at the extremes already
37:07and if the conditions get hotter and drier, there's lots of pressures that cause problems.
37:11Some of them are very rare as well, so they'll only exist on one slope
37:14or one or two slopes within a region and that has lots of implications
37:18where if they're overexploited or there's change in land use,
37:22species can go to endangered quite quickly.
37:24Is there anything particular that you've been working on recently?
37:27The plants we've got here in front of us, these are conophytums, succulent plants.
37:30They are endemic to the northwest of South Africa into Namibia and they sort of exist nowhere else naturally.
37:38When the conditions become hotter and drier in the spring, they start drying out and form these papery sheaths.
37:44So by mid-summer, the plants all look like they're completely dead and that's sort of extremely beneficial for the
37:51plants.
37:51In the deserts there's a very high diversity of tortoise and the tortoise will get all of their moisture during
37:57the dry season by eating plants.
37:59So if you as a conophytum look like you're dead, the tortoise ignores you and eats something else.
38:05So they're very, very interesting, well at least to me.
38:09This is one of the group that sort of captured the attention of people which has led to over-exploitation
38:15in habitat, mainly through poaching.
38:18And species through these mass poaching events have gone to critically endangered if not extinct overnight.
38:24Wow.
38:25And the estimate currently from that region is sort of about 1.9 million plants stolen from habitat since 2020.
38:31Our goal is to ensure we've got backup collections.
38:36Conserving a species where it's supposed to be is priority one.
38:40And then we're also looking to ensure that there's decent seed collections of very vulnerable species in our seed bank.
38:45To try and reduce, if not stop, stop species from going extinct.
38:49What advice can you give to people in terms of when they're buying their house plants?
38:54It's fantastic in many ways. To see people growing plants is amazing.
38:59And more people interested in the natural world and more people growing plants is important.
39:03But I think understanding that when we are buying plants we need to just make sure that we're buying them
39:10from places that are reputable.
39:14You can really feel the power of plants here.
39:18Their beauty, their resilience and their importance to all living things.
39:23The work going on behind the scenes here is all about passion meeting purpose.
39:28Saving plants and safeguarding the diversity of these plants for future generations to come.
39:34Saving plants andoue
39:43Good for Хот
40:00just how vital the work they do at Kew is and it's a privilege to get a chance to see
40:06it in action. Much more up front and available to all of us are the colours you get from
40:12flowering bulbs at this time of year and every October and November I make a real point of
40:18planting as many as I can into pots and this is the result. We've got various daffodils,
40:23we've got hyacinth, the wonderful little iris, crocus. It lasts a few weeks and just as we come
40:32through a long winter, boy does it make your heart sing. Now that's going full blast and hopefully
40:39that will keep going for a little bit longer. What I do need to do now is prepare for summer
40:44and particularly late summer and what I've got in boxes are dahlias and dahlias are an absolute
40:51essential plant for Longmeadow from the middle of July through till November. Now these have
41:01been stored all winter in a dark place wrapped in newspaper which we found is a really good way
41:06of keeping them at the right humidity levels. So this is a variety called Rothsay reveler which
41:12is a kind of raspberry ripple of a flower and you can look lovely tubers. Now what I'm looking for
41:19here is to see if any have rotted, if they've got too dry, if the mice have been nibbling at
41:26them,
41:26maybe there was a slug in there with them having a go. So just check them over, feel the tubers,
41:31are they firm? If they're soft and squidgy that's not good and you need to cut them off and fatter
41:36and
41:36the sort of more firm the tubers are the more flowers they will produce. I have to say that's a
41:41very
41:42nice group of tubers. So at this stage there are three things I can do. The first is to put
41:49them
41:49back into storage for another month because it's too early to plant out dahlias yet. They're not frost
41:55tidy so I wouldn't plant these out until mid-April at the earliest. The second thing to do is to
42:01pop
42:01them up and grow them on in a frost free place but with light so that when you plant them
42:07out they've got
42:08growth a foot tall and that will give you flowers about a month earlier and we tend to do that
42:12with
42:13most of ours. And the third thing to do is exactly what I am going to do now and that
42:18is to pop them
42:18up but specifically to produce cuttings. Now any old pot will do as long as it's big enough. Recycle pots,
42:30compost, put some compost in. It doesn't have to be anything special but it does have to have
42:39reasonable drainage. So you might want to add a bit of perlite or grit. Now let's get the level right.
42:52Yeah. When you plant dahlias in the garden you want to plant them deep and the deeper they are the
42:57better they are protected from cold weather. When you're putting them in a pot the cuttings are taken
43:02where they come from the tuber so if it's buried you can't get at it. So we'll put that like
43:07that
43:07in there and then just put a little bit of soil around them but not burying it completely.
43:22Right the important thing is to give this heat, water and light and that will produce new growth.
43:30If you've got a windowsill above a radiator that's absolutely fine. If you've got a greenhouse that's
43:35better and ideally a heated mat in a greenhouse and that's perfect and the new growth will appear
43:43after about a week and the cuttings will be ready when they're about sort of two to six inches long
43:50and that's usually three to four weeks and I'll do that with you when they're ready.
43:53If you're not worried about taking cuttings then just put it somewhere frost free and light
43:58and you'll get growth ready to plant out round about the end of April.
44:06Now we're going to a garden near Maidstone in Kent where Cathy Smythe and Gary Catamole have created
44:15an exotic paradise for their dogs.
44:26The tropical plants here transport you to another place and it's so wonderful to just have that
44:32illusion of maybe you could be anywhere in the world and that's all done by plants. They're really
44:37tactile, you can touch them, you can hug the the tracheacarpus which is a little bit weird I know
44:45but you know sometimes I'll just give them a bit of a squeeze and you don't tend to do that
44:49with
44:50cottage garden plants so much. We've never been to the tropical islands of anywhere so it's nice to kind of
44:57drag it to rural England.
45:05In 2017 we applied to a doctor setter and that's how Bowie came into our lives.
45:11He's a calm, beautiful, peaceful, joyful boy. After Bowie came along we realised that we weren't going to
45:19stop there. Dotta is our ball of energy, she's just a delight. Then Melly and then our baby Mojo.
45:28So now our little rescue family is complete. We wanted to give them a space that was just beautiful
45:37considering they'd had troubled backgrounds. We didn't want to restrict them in any way.
45:41Before we knew it we'd thrown 10 tons of sand down and we were calling it the Small Deeds.
45:51It's been a great space for the dogs to rehabilitate and they've got their own little routines, places
45:57they like to go in the garden. Some of them feel comfortable going up higher or they could bury
46:03down low or they could just sniff around and really enjoy themselves. It fills your heart
46:09to see just how content and happy they are.
46:18This is where it all began in the Small Deeds with one raised bed
46:22with a formium that was a gift from a friend who had moved and didn't want it anymore.
46:28So thank you Dawn. We call this formium Wavy Davey. Very, very resilient plant, very robust. It can
46:36take a bashing from the dogs. Fantastic. Love it. We also had our cordyline which is up here and this
46:44is Torbay Dazzler that we call Miss Tina Turner for obvious reasons and the spiky groovy hair. She
46:50came home in the footwell of our car but over the years has just shot up and yeah this is
46:57where it all began.
47:00A lot of the planting is quite sturdy because the first thing we say is can it take a bashing
47:06from
47:07the dogs. Don't normally assume that you can have four quite exuberant dogs and a wonderful space for
47:14yourself as well and I think that we've actually proved that you can here.
47:23Kath is excellent at remembering the plants gnomes. I'm absolutely terrible.
47:27It's easier to remember the names of things when you genuinely have an interest and
47:31Gary is the... Plantus potus is what I can remember. I absolutely adore this palm. Look at it. It's like
47:45it's having a really bad hair day. This is a Washingtonia so it's a cross between a Robusta and a
47:54filibuster so what you'd normally see these maybe out in Beverly Hills but they're called skyduster
47:59palms right up into the air but unfortunately they're not hardy for a severe winter so as it
48:07is one of my ultimate favorites if we do have a brutal winter we'll build a cage for it and
48:12we'll
48:12protect it so it can just grow up to the sky. As the gardens evolved over the years we've added
48:21more
48:21plants and they develop you kind of grow fond of them in a weird way so they the plants become
48:27part
48:27of the family too.
48:34Look at this beautiful hairy fibrous trunk. I love it. I can't stop touching it. It's
48:39from the Trachycarpus family. It's a Fortunii. I like to make little pitter pockets out of the fiber
48:46here and then wedge a bromeliad in an air plant or some succulents just to make it a little bit
48:53more
48:53blingy which is lovely. Then we have same again Trachycarpus family but this is our Wagnerianus.
49:02Easy to tell the difference because these palms are really quite stiff and they are more suited for
49:08windy areas. These are boys and this one's a girl and I know this one's a girl because you
49:15can see the seeds here. So once the seeds have matured they'll fall and then over the years
49:20you'll find yourself with seedlings like we have here which are potentially lots of little palm trees
49:28which are actually crosses between a Fortunii and a Wagnerianus. Look how resilient these plants are
49:37because you think they're being stamped by the dogs day in day out. They take all the frosts,
49:43they take any snow super hardy.
49:51Because the garden was originally a carpark with loads of hardcore we have to get a groundbreaker in
49:56for any small plant. And every time I'll visit the nursery and I think oh I really like that and
50:02you
50:02can see Gary's face just dropping because he knows that he's going to have to get the groundbreaker out and
50:07that's going to be fizzy hands for the next three weeks.
50:16So here we have the staple for every tropical style garden I believe which is the hardy banana
50:24moosa basdew. These guys add so much to a tropical garden. You look at the leaves they're fantastic.
50:30They're like big sails waving in the wind when the weather's bad and the winds come in and the rain
50:36hammers down the leaves tear and shred and they look like gorgeous feathers. It's just something
50:41really magical. This one here has flowered this year. If you see up there you can see the remnants
50:48of the flower and the tiny bananas which aren't at all edible but this will die. If I move this
50:53you can
50:54kind of see it becoming a little bit fragile at the base. But the good news is that it will
51:00pop
51:00babies up or pups as we call them. So we lose this one and then we have more replacing it.
51:14I get quite emotional when I think about the garden really because it's come a long way.
51:21It was designed for these guys here. They've come such a long way too and it just gives so much
51:29joy.
51:31It's a dream come true to have these incredible animals with us in a lovely environment like this.
51:39We're so lucky. Very lucky.
51:57We're so lucky.
52:07We're so lucky.
52:22Come on.
52:43It's good to see another version of a dog garden.
52:46And you would like that, Ned.
52:48You would.
52:49To have that sort of exotic paradise within one garden, fabulous for people and fabulous
52:55for dogs.
52:56Now, I'm going to do a job which really needs doing fairly soon.
53:00It's cutting back late flowering clematis.
53:03These are group three clematis, as sometimes referred to, and all of them flower on new
53:08growth.
53:08And you can see the new growth.
53:09It's appearing.
53:10And if you don't cut them back, you get a lot of bare growth at the bottom of the plant
53:15and then a mass of new shoots at the top with the flowers on.
53:17But because they flower on new shoots, you can prune back all last year's growth knowing
53:22there will be new growth to carry new flowers.
53:25And at the same time, it will encourage extra new growth, therefore extra flowers.
53:29So it's win-win.
53:37What I do with clematis that's growing in a border is I don't take it right to the ground.
53:42I take it about a foot or two above the ground so that the growth isn't competing with all
53:48this other growth that's going to come round them.
53:49However, if you've got this on an open fence or by a door, you can cut nice and low.
53:55Leave two buds.
53:58So if we take this tendril here, there's some buds there, buds there, and there, and there's
54:05some right down there.
54:06It just means if for any reason one set of buds gets damaged or frosted or whatever it
54:12might be, you've got another.
54:14And then everything above it is now redundant and can be thrown away even though there's
54:18new growth on there.
54:27Now at this point, it's worth just inspecting your supports.
54:31And if in doubt, now is the time to change them.
54:35These have lasted about three or four years.
54:37That's all I expect from the hazel in the garden, particularly when it's been so wet.
54:42So these can come out, oh yeah, that's broken.
54:46So it shows they needed doing.
54:47As a rule of thumb, if they break like that, they're no good, they're not going to be strong
54:51enough to hold the weight of a clematis.
54:54A big, strong clematis full of flower in August or September needs pretty stout support.
55:02However, you can put them against a trellis, you can put them against a wall, as long as
55:05they're reasonably strongly supported.
55:09The main thing when you're growing any clematis is they do not like to be dry.
55:14So if you're planting at this time of year, add a little bit of compost or actually any
55:20organic matter, not so much to feed it, but to soak up moisture and hold moisture.
55:29And I'm really pushing them in as hard as I can.
55:46Right, that's a good job done.
55:49And if you've got late flowering clematis, then I do recommend that you get on with it
55:53and do it as soon as possible.
55:55But if you haven't got any late flowering clematis, here are some other jobs that you
55:59can do this weekend.
56:14It's time to begin sowing tender annuals.
56:17This is something that I like to do in stages across the coming weeks.
56:21I'm beginning by sowing Tithonius, the Mexican sunflower, with their intense orange petals.
56:29Sprinkle the seed thinly on compost in a seed tray.
56:33Cover them over.
56:34Water them, ideally from below by sitting them in a tray.
56:37And then put them somewhere warm to germinate.
56:39And then, in a few weeks' time, the seedlings will emerge.
56:50Now that they've finished flowering but still got lush foliage, it's the perfect time to lift
56:55and move snowdrops.
56:56You can either spread an existing group by lifting them and dividing them and then replanting
57:01them locally, or take them to a new location and plant them there.
57:05Either way, they will scarcely notice they've been moved and they'll re-flower with renewed
57:11vigour.
57:20Chitting potatoes, particularly for first earlies, is the best way to get the earliest possible
57:27harvest.
57:28In principle, it simply means taking the seed potatoes and placing them on end in some kind
57:35of container, either an egg box or I'm using a seed tray, so that one shoot is exposed to
57:41light.
57:42Put them in a frost-free but sunny place.
57:45And that shoot will become knobbly and hard, but when you plant it, it'll be primed to burst
58:00into growth.
58:07I think Ned is quite relaxed.
58:11I sat down here for a minute and two seconds later he was on my lap and now he's flat
58:15out.
58:16But it has been a wonderful day.
58:18I can't tell you how nice it's been to spend the whole day outside in the sunshine.
58:23And looking forward to so much more because, of course, not only is the garden looking better
58:29every day, but there is quite a lot to do.
58:31And in the end, that combination of enjoying the garden and gardening is what makes it so
58:37special.
58:39But that's it for today, and I will see you back here at Longmeadow next time.
58:43So until then, bye-bye.
58:46Bye-bye.
58:53Bye-bye.
59:00Bye-bye.
59:07Bye-bye.
59:09Bye-bye.
Comments