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00:13Come on.
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00:38Hello. Welcome to Gardener's World.
00:42This is a white climbing rose,
00:47which is suitable here for the writing garden,
00:49because everything in here is either white or green.
00:52I'm pretty sure it's climbing iceberg.
00:55I'm not certain, because I've lost the label
00:56and it was a few years ago I planted it,
00:59but for the moment, whatever its name is,
01:02it needs tying up.
01:03Now, of course, climbing iceberg
01:05is a banker.
01:07It's guaranteed to flower
01:09for months on end.
01:10This can be flowering at Christmas sometimes
01:13and it's worth pointing out that when you're
01:15tying any vegetative growth up
01:17at this time of year, particularly this time of year,
01:19use soft twine.
01:21Never use anything with wire in it,
01:23or even a hard-edged plastic, because
01:24the new growth is soft,
01:26it will move slightly,
01:28and if you have anything other than very soft twine,
01:31it can cut into it and damage it.
01:33Now try and gather all that in there
01:35and pull it back,
01:37because otherwise it can flop
01:39a lot.
01:40And whilst a bit of floppage is good,
01:43too much is not.
01:45Let's go out.
01:46Let's go out.
01:47Let's go out.
01:57Let's go out.
02:19Now, you can't stay here,
02:21because I've got to plant stuff.
02:23Alright?
02:24Unless you want to lie down here.
02:26Go on.
02:27Okay.
02:29We're not planting neds.
02:31We're planting summer bulbs.
02:33We do tend to think of bulbs belonging to spring,
02:38and of course they do,
02:38in huge variety and glory,
02:41from the first snowdrop
02:42to the last carmacea,
02:44which here at Longmeadow
02:45can take us into June.
02:47But,
02:47there are another group of bulbs,
02:50or bulb-related plants,
02:52that perform beautifully
02:54from mid to late summer into autumn.
02:56And of course they're familiar,
02:57there are gladioli,
02:59dahlias,
03:00crocosmia,
03:01lilies,
03:02and now is the time to plant them,
03:04if you haven't done so already.
03:07Some do really well in pots,
03:09and none better than lilies,
03:10so I want to plant some lilies today in pots.
03:12And the compost is really important,
03:15because lilies need good drainage,
03:17but they also need another element,
03:19because they are essentially woodland plants.
03:22And what they like is a sort of loose soil.
03:25It's not just sharp drainage like tulips,
03:27but a loose, almost fluffy soil,
03:29and the best way to create that
03:31is by using leaf mould if you've got it.
03:33This is a very gritty potting mix,
03:37and that's part peat-free bought-in potting compost,
03:42partly sieved garden compost,
03:44and you can see the grit in it.
03:46There's quite a lot of it.
03:47Now that would do,
03:48that would be fine,
03:49but if you've got leaf mould,
03:51then add that.
03:52And I'm going to add all that to it,
03:55like that,
03:56mix it up,
04:00like that.
04:02In the bottom of the pot,
04:03you will need crocks.
04:05So we just plop that up.
04:10Okay.
04:12And a half fillet.
04:17Okay, that's good.
04:20Now, the bulbs themselves.
04:22This is a variety called Claude Fried,
04:25which I've got in the Paradise Garden.
04:27And it's tall,
04:29it's sort of turt's cap variety,
04:31with wonderful sort of raspberry, burgundy colours.
04:35You know, these are different from most bulbs,
04:38because the scales have no outer layer,
04:43so that they're,
04:44they're scaly,
04:45like an armadillo.
04:47So I'll pop that in.
04:49I'm going to put four in this pot,
04:51which is plenty.
04:52Three would be fine,
04:54but I think I can get away with four.
04:57There we go.
05:01And then use my mix to go over the top of that.
05:14I'll just put the last little bit in.
05:17There we go.
05:19There is room to water,
05:22and this will settle a little bit.
05:23Now, I will put this out of the way,
05:26somewhere outside,
05:27it doesn't need to be protected at all,
05:28and then put in position in June,
05:30and we can really enjoy it
05:33once we hit mid and late summer.
05:36Now, of course, it's important to label it.
05:41That is destined for the Paradise Garden,
05:44but not for a bit.
05:46Now, Jamie has been to visit Beth Chatter's garden
05:50near Colchester.
05:51If you haven't been,
05:52I'd recommend anyone to go.
05:53It's one of our great gardens,
05:55but actually he went for a very specific purpose,
05:58which is to celebrate a plant
06:00which, by and large, he feels is underappreciated.
06:13What else gives you colour like this?
06:16That incredible acid green.
06:20It simply glows.
06:23And yet the funny thing is,
06:25this plant is so often completely overlooked.
06:31There are over 1,500 species of Euphorbia,
06:36making them one of the largest
06:38and most varied flowering plants in the world,
06:42ranging from small ground-covering perennials
06:44to large drought-tolerant shrubs,
06:47and even succulents that could easily be mistaken for cacti.
06:55This is Euphorbia wolfenniae.
06:58It's one of the most architectural euphorbias,
07:01and on a day like today, where it's backlit,
07:04it is literally a beacon.
07:06It is glowing.
07:08It's a really drought-tolerant plant.
07:11It needs next to no watering,
07:13even in the driest of summers.
07:15So it adores this gravel garden setting,
07:18and a little bit of plant geekery.
07:21What looks like these columns and towers
07:24of architectural flowers are actually bracts.
07:27They're not flowers at all.
07:28The flowers are hidden inside the bracts,
07:32and they're teeny tiny.
07:34But the plant itself is phenomenal
07:37and one of my absolute favourites,
07:39a must-have for any drought-tolerant garden.
08:03This is a beast for Euphorbia.
08:06This is Euphorbia cross-pasterii.
08:10That means it's taking the very best bits
08:13of two different Euphorbias.
08:14Euphorbia mellifera,
08:16and Euphorbia stygiana.
08:18And in the next few weeks,
08:19these flowers will start to emerge en masse.
08:21Now, they're beautiful to look at,
08:23but quite unusually for Euphorbia,
08:25they have an additional quality.
08:27They smell incredible.
08:30They smell of honey,
08:31which also gives it its common name
08:33of honey sponge.
08:35I love to use this one to create drama,
08:39especially towards the back of a border,
08:41and it'll hold the rest of the planting in place.
08:54Just spotted,
08:56in this shady little nook,
08:59something that's not quite out yet.
09:01It's Euphorbia griffii fireglow,
09:04and it will do exactly what you think it will do
09:07with a name like fireglow.
09:09It's gonna illuminate this dark corner
09:12with the most vibrant orangey-red flowers.
09:16It thrives in moist, well-drained soil,
09:20where fertile conditions bring out those rich tones.
09:23I think even just the new foliage of the epimediums
09:28against the stems of the Euphorbia is a beautiful thing.
09:32And I so wish I could come back in about a week's time
09:37and see this just erupt into this fiery glow,
09:41because you just know it's gonna be really special.
09:47From full sun to shade, dry soil to damp,
09:50they're far more adaptable than you might think.
09:54And they're surprisingly easy to propagate,
09:57which means you can multiply their impact across your garden.
10:00Emily Ellard is the resident propagation expert here.
10:05So, one of the plants I'm obsessed with in the gardens today,
10:10especially is the Euphorbia wolfenniae.
10:12It's just glowing.
10:14When's the best time to collect the seeds?
10:17So, it's probably gonna be about May, June time,
10:20because at the moment you've got the lush mop heads
10:21and soon they will start to curate the seed.
10:25And then just before it's starting to dry out a bit,
10:27we collect those mop heads.
10:29Can you hang them upside down or anything else?
10:30No, put them in a box, a little bit of newspaper on top,
10:33because they will pig everywhere like popcorn.
10:36And then all your seed will be at the bottom of the box.
10:38You can collect that all up and you can store some
10:40or you can sow some fresh.
10:44It always amazes me that in each one of these seeds
10:46is the genetic information to grow that plant.
10:50It's magic.
10:51It's real-life magic.
10:53So, we've got the six-mil gravel
10:55and then we're just gonna sprinkle that on top.
10:58This is like the big duvet that sits on top of the seed.
11:00So, it's like going in a cold frame, basically.
11:03How long would you normally expect them to take
11:06to start to germinate?
11:07Yeah, so I actually got some that were sowing January time.
11:11I hope it's okay.
11:12I'm just gonna grab one,
11:13because I think these are amazing.
11:15From that, those teeny tiny little seeds.
11:18We're gonna get one of those beautiful euphorbia wolf anyway.
11:32Whether they're lighting up gravel gardens
11:34or thriving in dappled woodland.
11:36These are plants which are great for wildlife.
11:40Rob Byford is responsible for the biological control in the gardens,
11:45working closely with nature to keep things in balance.
11:50It's such a broad genus.
11:52There's so many species to it.
11:54They allow us to extend this flowering period from February almost to the first frost.
11:59So, the chance for the insects to get food.
12:02And we need that now more than ever.
12:05A powerhouse of the garden, really.
12:07They really are.
12:08And a lot of it comes down to this here, which is their flower structure.
12:12So, it's a special inflorescence, a ceafeum.
12:16And we can see in here the nectar glands.
12:20Now, they secrete the nectar.
12:22And we've got the anthers here, the pollen.
12:24So, for nectar feeders and for pollen feeders, euphorbia has it all.
12:29For some of us, we do get aphids in our garden.
12:31Yeah.
12:32But these will attract lacewings and parasitic wasps,
12:35which are great defenders, almost like our own little air force,
12:37against those less beneficial insects.
12:40It's self-regulating.
12:41And just by adding it to your garden,
12:43you're adding in defence to your garden as well,
12:46against these less favourable critters.
12:50It's such a beautiful plant, so uplifting and smile-inducing,
12:55but it's also giving benefit to our insects.
12:56It is. They are like little beacons, really, flashing amongst it all.
12:59To humans and insects alike.
13:01To humans and insects alike, absolutely.
13:14The more you look, the more you realise what the truly special plant euphorbias are.
13:20They're tough, they're resilient, they're beautiful, and they're full of life.
13:25So I think it's about time we stop treating them as background plants
13:31and hiding them in amongst our borders,
13:33and instead celebrate them and put them centre stage.
13:56This is the Euphorbia caracchia swulfenii.
14:01It loves the dry garden.
14:03It loves the poor soil and the good drainage,
14:05and will seed itself in cracks in paving
14:08and up against the corner of a wall and paving.
14:12But it really won't do anything else in the rest of the garden,
14:15which is not suitable for it at all.
14:17I've tried growing it from the Jewel Garden and it just flops and is very sad and doesn't last.
14:22However, here in the dry garden, not only does it look good in itself,
14:25but it's a really good foil for the tulips and the sweet rocket.
14:29And also, you know, as a plant,
14:31it's one of the most statuesque architectural plants you could have.
14:47But I've got here some Euphorbias that thrive in shade.
15:03This is the woodland garden, which is the latest change.
15:08And it's a work in progress.
15:10For the moment, this year, I'm concentrating on the area that we cleared last autumn
15:15and have started to plant this spring.
15:17And it's coming through. Things are coming along.
15:20And the Euphorbias I've got here, which goes by the tongue-twisting name of Euphorbia amygdaloides verrobii,
15:31is perfectly suited to this kind of woodland environment
15:35because it thrives, it positively thrives in dry shade.
15:39And there are very few plants that do that.
15:41Now, the shade comes particularly from these cherries.
15:44This is a wild cherry, a gin.
15:46Lovely blossom at the moment.
15:48But the roots suck up all the moisture and the leaves cut out most of the light.
15:54So this whole area here is going to be dry shade.
16:00You can see that it has these wonderful bracts, which are like a collar, almost like a satellite dish, reflecting
16:09light with tiny flowers inside.
16:12And in shade, deep shade, they'll grow taller.
16:16So they're more visible.
16:18They'll rise up above the foliage and give a really good display for weeks on end.
16:22And then, even when they die back, the foliage will spread.
16:25It spreads quite easily, makes a really good ground cover plant, as well as having this glorious display in spring
16:33and early summer.
16:34Now, I'm going to start placing these.
16:38I'm putting them in groups.
16:39They're not plants to place singly.
16:42Like here, go down there, and then over here.
16:46I put these in a group of three, because I want them actually to grow together and spread and form
16:53ground cover.
17:04That should do.
17:07Now, it's worth saying at this point, when you're handling euphorbias of any kind, do be careful.
17:13Because if they break or crush in any way, they exude a very milky, thick sap.
17:20And that can easily cause burns.
17:23I hate gardening in gloves and never do it unless it's very thorny.
17:27But if you are happy to wear gloves, then I definitely would wear them for euphorbias.
17:32And if, like me, you don't wear gloves and you get a little bit on your hands, stop and go
17:37and wash it off.
17:54Now, Rosemary Alexander started the English Garden School.
18:02And a whole generation of garden designers learnt their craft there.
18:05And we had the opportunity to visit Rosemary's private garden at home.
18:18One of the first things I do when I'm redesigning a garden, I try to make a garden that the
18:24owners will actually enjoy.
18:25And, you know, you can naturally maintain it.
18:29It's got to be something that works for you, whether it's a large or small garden.
18:34And when I came to this garden, I wanted somewhere where I could grow all the plants I loved.
18:40This is my garden at Sand Hill Farmhouse in West Sussex, where I've been for the last 20 years or
18:46more.
18:51The whole garden is about half an acre on the front and half an acre at the back.
19:00So this is the main path in the whole garden, and it leads from the entrance right down to the
19:05far end.
19:06And from here, you can see the house to the left and the terrace and then the woodland garden down
19:13to the right.
19:13I put the box balls to give this path structure and form so the repetition works well.
19:19The box balls pull you through and you can walk past those until you get to the blue seat at
19:25the end.
19:29Instead of having the seat facing directly down to the entrance gate, I decided to put it at an angle
19:36so that I can sit and enjoy all the woodland plants in the lower level woodland garden.
19:46I trained as a landscape architect and then I began to notice all sorts of things.
19:50I decided I really wanted to become a garden designer.
19:54I started changing gardens and changed my own garden quite a bit.
19:59I realised that unless you went to Wisley or Kew, you couldn't really learn about plants.
20:03So I thought I would set up my own school and teach people about plants.
20:08I set up the school in 1983.
20:11I just wanted to teach how to redesign a space.
20:18We're now in the woodland garden.
20:20My overall aim was to have several different areas which would have different types of plants.
20:25The contrast between dark green leaves and light green leaves and shiny leaves and matte leaves
20:31and also the stems of the plants, because if you look here, there's quite a lot of stem
20:37and then big groupings of things to make it look more natural.
20:42I try to use plants to separate the gravel from the soil
20:46because I don't like using timber or metal edges.
20:49And so I use this Ophiopogen here
20:52and then in other areas I use London Pride, Saxifragia ombrosa.
20:57When people walk into the garden, I want them to feel,
21:00oh my goodness, this is going to be a wonderful garden.
21:11I think focal points and vistas are very important.
21:14Always thinking about the long-term view.
21:19After I built the summer house, I thought I wanted it to look out at something.
21:23So, first of all, it looked straight out at the Crotagus laciniata,
21:28at the very far end there, which is a lovely deciduous tree.
21:32And then four of the box balls were already here,
21:35so I decided I would continue them leading down to look at the view.
21:40I like focal points in the garden because it gives you a reason for sitting in a particular place,
21:45and so all gardens should have focal points.
21:48Often I look at the background colour.
21:51You know, for instance, in the garden here you've got a brick wall,
21:55so I'm looking at the brick wall and thinking what colours would go well in front of that.
22:00The yew hedge was here, so we clipped it,
22:02and it seemed a perfect backdrop for the blue chair
22:05because blue is actually a very good colour of paint
22:08because there's quite a lot of green in blue.
22:15You know, my granddaughter's been coming here for years,
22:18and she spends a lot of time down here with me.
22:21We loved what she did, and we knew that she was so talented and so amazing at what she'd created
22:26with the school.
22:27I always thought, oh, that would be an amazing industry to be in.
22:33Granny invited me to come and study on the course,
22:36and that's when I just fell in love with designing gardens,
22:40and it was kind of opening up of a whole new world.
22:46I'm definitely still always learning from Granny.
22:48She's always pointing things out in the garden,
22:50but also I'm at a point now in my career where I can start to show her the work that
22:55I've created,
22:56and we can discuss it together, and that's a really nice thing to be able to do.
23:01It's amazing having somebody in my own family that we've got a lot in common with,
23:05and we spend quite a lot of time discussing things and what plants to use and so on.
23:11No, I'm very lucky with her.
23:18If you're going to design a garden for the first time,
23:21you first of all need to decide what soil type you've got.
23:24That's really necessary, whether it's acid or alkaline or neutral.
23:27So that will depend on what you grow.
23:30And then another thing is not to be over-ambitious,
23:33not to worry about having one of this and one of that and one of the next thing,
23:37but to keep repeating certain plants that will do well in the garden.
23:44I am immensely proud of Granny.
23:47I think that she's informed a generation of gardeners, horticulturalists.
23:54Often people come to me and they have no idea where to begin.
23:57What I like is building up their confidence
23:59and seeing them, you know, develop in their own right.
24:02It still is exciting.
24:04It's interesting.
24:08It's just a very relaxing way,
24:10it's interesting.
24:11It's interesting.
24:13It's funny.
24:18It works well, because I think
24:32it's interesting.
24:32Now we know it's like it's better for me.
24:51It's always good to see a new generation coming in and learning from us oldies.
24:56I have to say my grandchildren are beginning to get interested in the garden, so whether
25:00they go on and become gardeners or garden designers, we'll see, but it'd be nice.
25:07This is very practical, I'm sowing peas.
25:10What I do is I make a very shallow sort of trench, you can barely call it a trench, it's
25:16more a groove in the ground.
25:19These are purple-potted peas, so the peas themselves are green, but the pods are purple, really
25:26decorative, and when you cook them, if you cook them in the pod, the pod then turns green.
25:35Now I'm placing these about two or three inches apart.
25:40They don't need to be any wider than that.
25:46Personally, I think a double row works best, okay.
25:52And just rake over them, very simple.
25:55And just go along like this, and then gently, gently, gently, gently, like that, without disturbing
26:05the peas underneath.
26:08When those peas germinate, little green shoots should appear, marking the spot of each pea,
26:13depending on the weather, in about two or three weeks' time.
26:17But they will need support.
26:19Peas are scramblers, so the support needs to be able to take the tendrils whatever way
26:26they go.
26:26It does have to be something that is twiggy.
26:29So keep prunings, dogwood will do it, anything really, anything that's twiggy and woody.
26:39And just stick them in at a slight angle.
26:43But you want them to be branching right from ground level, quite close together so they overlap,
26:51like that, there we go.
27:09What you're looking to achieve is a tangle, and this is a perfect tangle.
27:14And somehow doing this, just like putting up bean sticks, feels to me like part of the
27:22development of a vegetable plot that is really part of summer.
27:26If I see the pea sticks going in, then we've moved on, we've moved out of winter forever.
27:32And we're on into the middle of spring, and very quickly that will be followed by summer.
27:48Come on, Ned.
27:50The rhubarb season is in full flow.
27:53It's a fairly long season, it starts in February, particularly if you couldn't force it.
27:58This is Timpley early, and that's a variety called Victoria, which is later, that's main
28:02season if you like.
28:03So early is February, and then that will run through till June.
28:08Late doesn't really kick in until the beginning of May.
28:12But May and June is fantastic, and all rhubarb should be left unpicked after the end of June.
28:18Leave it alone, because otherwise you'll weaken the roots and you won't get nearly such a good
28:24harvest next year, and gradually it will diminish.
28:27The reason why you force it is because the stems are sweeter.
28:30Now if I take the lid off, you can see that there's a lot less foliage, and if I pull
28:36it
28:36up like that, you can see that it looks rather anaemic.
28:42But of course if you do this in February or early March, it's a treat.
28:46Now, whenever you're harvesting rhubarb there is one really important thing to remember.
28:52Never cut it.
28:54You pull rhubarb, and if you cut it you can get infection and rot in the stem.
29:01If you pull it, it comes away with a little piece of the base where it's attached to the
29:06root, and that heals very quickly.
29:08You need a little bit of this heel on the bottom of the stem, but you can see that's
29:13got a bit twisted.
29:13But it's paler than most rhubarb, and that will be sweeter.
29:17So I'll pop that in there.
29:24Now obviously these stems are unforced, so you can see they've got very green leaves.
29:28And the leaves are poisonous, you don't eat them, but it is absolutely delicious.
29:34And I love rhubarb crumble, rhubarb pie, just stewed rhubarb with yoghurt for breakfast is
29:41a really good way to start the day.
29:42And of course the leaves are brilliant on the compost heap.
29:45Once they're composted, then they'll do no harm whatsoever.
29:48Now, earlier this month we went down to South Wales to join Sue Kent in her garden.
30:01After a very wet winter here in Swansea, springtime in my garden is the time of year that brings
30:08me such joy and hope.
30:19Look at this.
30:20This is the first fruit tree blossom of the year in its dams and plum.
30:24It hasn't got much of a scent, but it really lifts the spirits.
30:32Over here I planted walnuts.
30:37Nothing seems to be happening yet, but come with me.
30:47This was a walnut that I put in a bag in the fridge to try and get it to germinate.
30:53Nothing happened for months and I was about to put it in the compost bin yesterday and I
30:58noticed a shoot and I'm so pleased and so excited, but I should know better.
31:04I've been gardening for many years and I shouldn't give up on plants until June to give them a
31:09chance to see if they'll shoot.
31:11So this one, with its lovely little shoot, is going to go in a pot and grow.
31:21I'm going to use a peat free compost.
31:25It likes a nice, light soil and the way I do this is use a local product which is crushed
31:31cockle shells.
31:32So I'm going to sprinkle them in and they will be very slow release calcium as well
31:38as a sort of soil aerator.
31:41It'll slightly alkaline the soil and walnuts prefer that anyway.
31:45I'm going to mix it in.
31:49So I've got my croc in, then put a base layer in the bottom of the pot.
31:56I'm going to very gently take my baby out.
32:00So exciting.
32:02Look at that little shoot that's cracked open and I'm going to pop that with the shoot
32:07going downwards because that's the root.
32:10And then I'm going to cover it with a two inch layer of compost.
32:15So this walnut is from a tree that my father gave to me, from a tree that his father gave
32:21to him and I am giving it to my son to grow in his garden.
32:27So it really is a family tree and it's rather lovely to think it'll carry on through the generations.
32:35I'm going to top it off with some pistachio shells.
32:38So I eat a lot of pistachio nuts and I love the smell.
32:42Oh gosh.
32:43They will slowly break down and add nutrients and deter slugs.
32:47And it makes a little mini mulch for a smaller pot to keep in the moisture and stop the weeds
32:54coming.
32:56Needs a bit of a water.
33:03And there we go.
33:13I'm so pleased with this.
33:16It's absolutely stunning and it's lighting up the garden when not much else is here.
33:23It's Spiraea bridal wreath.
33:26And you can see here some beautiful small white flowers already open but lots, lots more
33:31to come.
33:32And it's almost got red branches on it.
33:35It looks good in summer and although it's deciduous the branches look great in winter.
33:40I am a bit of a fan of Spiraea and here I've got them free flowing.
33:45But around the garden I've used them more structurally and I've clipped them quite tightly.
33:48But this one is the star of the show at the moment.
33:52It's a great time for me to plant anything tender.
33:56Being coastal the sea air is warmer keeping the frosts away.
34:00The key is to know your own climate and use protection like fleece if needed.
34:05This is going to be a case of third time lucky.
34:09I've tried three times to grow this and twice the plant's been got by frost and this year
34:15I've kept it in the greenhouse and it's survived.
34:18It's Echium piniana and it derives from the Canary Islands and I think it's going to be
34:25absolutely, absolutely extraordinary.
34:40This is going to grow huge up to four metres.
34:44And it's going to be covered in blue flowers which are really attractive to bees and the
34:51flowers are going to produce lots of little seedlings and hopefully they're going to populate
34:56all the way along here.
34:58I might have to dig some up and shelter them into the greenhouse for winter to ensure their
35:02survival but I will leave some.
35:04It's supposed to be a biennial.
35:06That means you plant the seed one year, you get the flower the next year but in this case
35:10this is three years old so for me it's a tri-annual.
35:14And the reason I put it here is because it likes a very sunny spot and this is the sunniest
35:19spot in my garden.
35:20It likes free draining soil and also it hides the ugly fence and I can see it when I'm lying
35:26in my bath from my bathroom.
35:29And now all I've got to do is water.
35:53A lot of my edible crops are winter hardy.
35:56They cope with low light and start to regrow as the days lengthen and warm.
36:06I like to pick a salad every night and I've already started here.
36:10I've got parsley, mint, lamb's lettuce, a bit of normal lettuce, some beetroot leaves and
36:16I want some more.
36:17And it's amazing, this looks a bit of a mess but it's full of food.
36:21And here I've got landcress which is a bit like watercress but it roots itself in soil,
36:27you can see, and I'll cut a bit and it's got quite a peppery flavour but it'll regrow
36:32before you know it.
36:37This is twisted leaf garlic and the leaves have a very subtle, not overpowering flavour
36:43of garlic so nice to add.
36:46Twisted garlic is a perennial, that means it will keep coming back year after year and
36:51that goes for sorrel too.
36:53This is a stalwart of the salad, this is French sorrel and it just keeps giving.
37:00When they're smaller they're great for salads, when they're bigger they're great for adding
37:03to the curries and when you see this appearing you want to get rid of it because you don't
37:08want the plant to get to seed so you remove that.
37:13They're also great in green smoothies.
37:16The nasturtiums don't usually grow over winter, it's classed as an annual so the fact that it
37:22has survived in the greenhouse is a stroke of luck.
37:28I'm going to finish the bowl with primrose flowers which are rather beautiful and delicate
37:35and you can eat the flowers but not the leaves and of course if you've got any health conditions
37:39it's best to check.
37:41So I've got vibrant green zesty flavours, I've got lemon flavours, I've got peppery flavours
37:48and nothing gives me more pleasure than eating from my garden.
38:13I love the fact that Sue is growing her walnut to make a tree to produce walnuts to give to
38:18her son and that the walnut came from her father's tree which came from a walnut from his father's
38:22father.
38:23That intergenerational handing on is something that taps into a longevity that we don't
38:29normally think of in our gardens, we want everything now.
38:33Right, these as you can see are lemons and I'm just taking the fruit off for two reasons.
38:40One, because if you leave mature fruit on the tree that will inhibit the development of flowers
38:47and other fruits even though they look lovely, and two, because these are particularly heavy
38:53and are weighing down.
38:54So for example this is fine, it looks nice and it's not weighing the branch down but where
38:59they are, like there, I'm just going to take that off and that will spring back up.
39:06This is not pruning.
39:08Pruning citrus is something you do when the worst of the weather is over so I would leave
39:13that till May.
39:14But it's good to get them outside as soon as you can because citrus don't like being
39:19indoors, particularly not in a centrally heated house.
39:23So that's fine there, I've got a lovely basket of fruit.
39:25I mean you have to say, look at that.
39:28You know there is something magical about having your own lemons or your own oranges from your
39:35garden.
39:35But, now is a really good time to repot any citrus that you have.
39:43To give it a fresh start to grow.
39:45And this one for example has been in this pot for quite a long time.
39:48I haven't got a new pot for it.
39:51So what I'm going to do is take it out of this pot, clean up the roots, get rid of
39:55the
39:55old compost, refresh the compost and put it back into the same pot.
39:59So the first thing I'm going to do is just take it out of the pot.
40:02There we go.
40:04I'm going to put that onto there.
40:07You need plenty of crocs.
40:09The same crocs can go in the bottom.
40:15I'm just going to clean off some of the spent compost on here.
40:20Now this has been in this pot for probably a couple of years.
40:23If you're keeping it in the same pot you need to do this at least every other year.
40:27If you're potting onto a bigger pot then you probably need to do that about every three
40:32years.
40:33But either way just using your fingers, take any compost off that you can.
40:42Don't worry if you break the roots a little bit because they will regrow.
40:46So I'm getting my thumb in there and I'm just working free excess compost.
40:55Now the compost mix.
40:58That is a bucket of sieved garden compost, horticultural grit and actually I've got here
41:09a mix of potting compost with a lot of grit, leaf mold and sieved garden compost in it.
41:18But I'm going to add a bit more garden compost, not a lot, just a little bit in there.
41:24And quite a lot of grit.
41:25In fact I'm going to add all this grit to this mix.
41:32And then mix it up.
41:38Right.
41:38So we'll put some in the bottom of the pot like that.
41:47Okay, that's good.
41:48Now holding it nice and upright, fill in around.
41:56And what I'm going to do is just shake it gently.
42:01Shake it in there and then a little bit more in front of that.
42:08Leaving enough space in the surface for it to take water.
42:14I will then water that in and that will drive the compost into those nooks and crannies of the roots.
42:20And once they come outside and start to show signs of growth,
42:23citrus should be watered and fed once a week.
42:26I feed them on a quite dilute seaweed mix and so that we combine the watering and the feed at
42:32the same time.
42:34Now it seems amazing to me, but RHS Chelsea Flower Show is just a few weeks away.
42:40It's racing up on us and we went down to Cornwall to visit Andrew Mills as he prepared his exhibition
42:48for Chelsea,
42:49which incidentally is based upon a long and well-founded Cornish tradition.
43:01For the last 20 years I've been manager of Burankoos Nurseries and they're a big nursery with rare unusual plants.
43:07They sell magnolias, rhododendrons, camellias predominantly.
43:09And so I've done many, many Chelsea's before.
43:12But this will be the first time that actually my plants will be on display at Chelsea for the whole
43:17world to see.
43:19When I started out in horticulture, as did many other farmers locally,
43:23grew anemone decaine and St. Piran, the local strain.
43:28Anemones originate from the Eastern Mediterranean, so they like it warm.
43:32Cornwall seldom gets a frost, so that's why people grew anemones.
43:37We had all these market gardeners and farmers growing small amounts of anemones.
43:41And the farmer's wife would pick them during the day and they would bunch them up in the evenings.
43:45And then there would be a regular deposit to train stations where the boxes of these anemones would be taken
43:52to Covent Garden.
43:53So that was a very important industry for Cornwall many, many years ago.
43:56But that all petered out probably late 80s, early 90s.
43:59And this is just a nod back to that.
44:03So what I've got here is I've got five different types of anemone ground.
44:06I've got the Jerusalem type.
44:08What's common to the Jerusalem type is there'll be lots of reds.
44:12Well, these are suited for cut flowers because the breeding of them over the years have increased the stem length,
44:18they've increased the flower size, they've also increased disease resistance by the thickness of the leaves.
44:23Hardy outside, not just only grown in a glasshouse.
44:27Bred from that, a variety called Miron, and that's classified as a flower machine.
44:32What we have with the Miron is a very tall flower and quite a slender stem.
44:40Now we're here in amongst the Mistral varieties of the Italian Ranunculus.
44:44These are my favourites and they will give you a constant supply of anemones over a long period of time.
44:50So what you won't have is a flush and then gone.
44:54And they are very consistent in their quality and they are very consistent in their stem length.
44:59And the colours are quite exceptional.
45:02My overall favourite would be an Enmi coronaria Mistral Panda.
45:06And this is just coming into blue.
45:08So look at this, you can see why it's called Panda.
45:13They've gone further with the Mistral variety to create the Mistral Plus,
45:17which means there's even bigger flower heads, even thicker stems,
45:21and the plant is a little bit more compact.
45:23They would be perfect to grow in your garden.
45:26The other variety I have is the Levante double.
45:29Slightly shorter stem, which is common, but also a very, very delicate flower when you get up close.
45:37These anemones are historically planted in July in Cornwall, both inside and outside.
45:42That will establish the plant before it flowers and the flowers will start flowering in October, November and December.
45:49There'll be a short pause in December and January when the light levels drop and the weather gets poor,
45:54only for them to restart again towards the end of January, February and go through into March
45:58when other flowers come onto the market and the anemones have had their day.
46:03They will come back in next year in a bigger corn, but they won't be as good as the first
46:08year
46:08because the best anemone flower will come from the smallest size corn.
46:16I usually pick two or three times a week and I get to about 50 or 60 bunches anymore
46:20and I just won't be able to cope with it.
46:23To pick an anemone, you need to pick them when the flower is still tight and not open.
46:28So you could pick this, bunch it up and in two or three days that will be open
46:32for another two or three days, maybe four or five in a cool kitchen window.
46:37When picking anemones, it's very important to get the stem length as long as possible
46:41and try to cut it off as close as you can to the corn
46:45to stop any rot being left on the remaining stem that you've picked from.
46:50And like every cut flower, cut it off diagonally so that you have a bigger surface area of the stem
46:55bottom
46:55to take up as much water as possible.
47:01So when it comes to Chelsea, I'm trying to just slowly keep these going along
47:06until probably two weeks before the show where then I can sort of accelerate their blooming
47:11by just adding some basic tomato feed.
47:15So the weather's going to be dull for the next couple of weeks
47:17and that will really help me slow these down a little bit and not bring them on too fast.
47:22What I intend to display at Chelsea is anemones in this stage of opening.
47:27So hopefully on the flower stand at Chelsea, you'll see just a riot of colour
47:31and as long as I'm pleased with how it looks, the medal is a bonus.
47:35Nervous at all or not?
47:37No, I don't do nerves.
47:40Apart from the day.
47:44They're grown locally, they're done come locally, they're distributed locally, they're bought locally
47:49in a two mile radius.
47:52It's quite remarkable to see something which is smaller than a piece of gravel
47:56to produce something which is quite comprehensive and can produce multiple flowers.
48:01Anybody can do it. It's a garden plant as well as a cut flower.
48:25I thought it was absolutely fascinating that Andrew said the smallest corn produce the biggest flower.
48:33Now that is really counterintuitive.
48:35And also I'm only just beginning to really learn about the ranunculus family
48:39with anemones of all kinds.
48:42We're very used to Japanese anemones and maybe sort of woodland anemones,
48:46but of course you realise there are so many more.
48:49And I'm very much looking forward to seeing how he fares at Chelsea.
48:52See them at their very best.
48:54Talking about their very best, I do think the orchard is looking really good at the moment.
48:59And I don't take much credit for that because what we started to do a few years ago was take
49:04all last year's tulips all grown in pots and we let them die back and they dried out
49:10and then take the bulbs and planted them in the orchard and in the cricket pitch at random.
49:16And some come up, some flower well, some don't flower and it's pure luck.
49:23Well, A, I think it looks great and B, it makes me very happy.
49:51These are gardener's delight tomatoes destined to be planted outside in the vegetable garden.
49:58I've got other tomatoes I'll grow in the greenhouse, but these will do perfectly well outside.
50:02But I need to get the timing right.
50:04Here at Longmeadow, it's really not feasible to plant tomatoes out much before June
50:10and sometimes not till the middle of June.
50:12So I've got at least six weeks and maybe a couple of months to go.
50:17And the pots that they're in are not going to be big enough to provide the nourishment or the moisture
50:23they need
50:24because before they plant out, the plants could be three times as big.
50:27So they need potting on.
50:29Now, if I take this out of the pot, I'm just going to put that in there.
50:35You will see there's more root than compost.
50:39This is exactly the right moment to pot it on.
50:43Now, having established that you do need to pot it on, then the question is what size pot?
50:51If I was to plant this in a pot, not out in the garden, and there's no reason why you
50:56can't grow tomatoes in a pot,
50:57that's roughly the sort of size that would do.
51:00It doesn't want to be much smaller than that, but it doesn't need to be much bigger.
51:03And you might think, well, the logic is, is put it on to that and that's job done.
51:07The whole thing's finished.
51:08But it's not a good idea for two reasons.
51:12One, it means that you've got to store much bigger pots under cover, and that's going to use up a
51:17lot more space for another month at least.
51:19And two, it won't be good for the plant, because the plant's roots grow outwards like the spokes of a
51:27wheel,
51:27so that most of the compost in the pot is acting as a sponge to hold moisture, so it's going
51:34to be too wet.
51:35That's about right. You can see the difference.
51:38It's distinctly bigger, but not a lot bigger.
51:41And if you place it inside, you know, it's probably got quarter of an inch all round it.
51:46As a rule of thumb, it definitely doesn't want more than an inch space around the edge of the old
51:52pot.
51:53Now, here's a trick, and it always works.
51:56Take your new pot, put compost, and by the way, you need a really good compost, so peat-free, add
52:04some goodness to it if you can.
52:06A bit of grit, and if you've got sieve garden compost, the plant will do better.
52:11Put soil in the bottom, like that.
52:16Place the plant in, maybe take a little bit more soil out.
52:20Make enough room.
52:22Place that in its pot. Don't take it out the pot.
52:25And then, and I'm going to do this on the table to show you, it'll be messy, fill in around
52:30it.
52:33This might seem a bit bonkers, but just bear with me.
52:36It works.
52:41And we will push that down there.
52:45And having done that, gently lift out the inner pot.
52:50And what you're left with is a space that is exactly the size of the old pot.
52:57Now you remove it, and just pop it in.
53:02That's it.
53:03That's all you have to do.
53:05And the beauty of this system is that the plant barely knows it's been potted on.
53:11There's no stress whatsoever on the roots.
53:15Don't try and force the soil around it.
53:18Just water it, and then that will give it enough goodness and enough moisture to see it through at least
53:24another month.
53:25By which time the plant will be that big, and we can consider either planting it out or potting it
53:30on to its final home.
53:33Right.
53:34Well, that's certainly one job you can do this weekend.
53:38But here are some more.
53:52As the spring bulbs end their flowering season, they need to be left so that the foliage can slowly die
53:59back.
54:00But if they are in a handsome pot, that means the pot can't be used for months on end.
54:05So I lift them out of the good pot, put them into an up-cycle plastic pot, where they can
54:12be set to one side, and it frees up a really nice container for summer display.
54:26Corgettes are the hardiest of the cucurbit family, and you can start to sow them now.
54:31There are lots of varieties to choose from, but whichever ones they are, you grow them in the same way.
54:36Either place individual seeds in generous sized plugs, or a couple of seeds to a pot.
54:43Cover them over, and then place them in water for about 15 to 20 minutes so that they soak up
54:49moisture.
54:50They must go somewhere warm in which to germinate, and they should appear in between 10 and 20 days.
55:04Next year's daffodils will be formed in the bulbs, but if you allow the seed heads to develop, that will
55:12weaken the flowering next year.
55:14So snap off spent flowering heads just below the seed heads, leaving the stem, and let the leaves die back
55:21naturally to feed into the bulb for next year.
55:41I've got one more job to do here in the jewel garden. The jewel garden, by the way, is the
55:46last bit of long weather to get going.
55:47Yes, we have the tulips and the wallflowers and pots, but actually in the borders, there's very little happening yet,
55:54because it's dominated by the foliage of an allium, allium purple sensation, which will flower in a couple of weeks'
55:59time.
56:00But there is one job I can do, which means getting into the borders, and if I do it now,
56:04it's going to make a dramatic difference later in the year.
56:13Right in the middle of the border here is this tree. This is a paulonia, sometimes known as the fox
56:21club tree, and it does have wonderful flowers,
56:25sort of lavender-coloured moe flowers, which will grow on really quite a large tree. This will grow, if I
56:32left it, 50 foot tall, a really big, proper tree.
56:37But I didn't plant it to become a big tree. I planted it in order that I could really relish
56:43its foliage.
56:45And paulonia is one of the trees that if you coppice it, i.e. prune it back really hard, it
56:52will sprout new growth,
56:53which in turn will carry extra big foliage, and they look really exotic and dramatic, and they're brilliant for setting
57:01off flowers around it in a border.
57:02Now's a good time to do it, just as it's starting to break into leaf.
57:08So, here we go.
57:10I'm going to chop those out.
57:28Now, if I left this like this, it would effectively be a pollard.
57:33Pollards are when you leave a straight bare stem, and then the new growth will grow from here, and it
57:39will stand out.
57:40But I think that would look a bit odd. What I want to do is take it down, so that
57:44new growth comes from about this height here.
57:48So, I think about that height is right.
58:00Well, I don't do that very often.
58:02It looks drastic, it'll be fine, and we'll get new shoots coming in just a few weeks time, they'll start
58:09to grow.
58:10By midsummer, they should be a metre long, and these huge leaves will appear.
58:15They'll be at their best in August, September, and into October.
58:19And I can either repeat that next year, or just do it every few years.
58:22But it's a really good way of adding drama to a border.
58:28And that's the end of the drama for today, I'm afraid.
58:31Well, I'll see you back here at Longmiller next time.
58:33So, until then, bye-bye.
58:52And we'll see you back there.
58:53We'll bring you back there.
58:53We'll be back here.
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