- 16 hours ago
Gardeners' World (1968) Season 59 Episode 7
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00BIRDS CHIRP
00:07Come on then.
00:13Come on.
00:39Hello. Welcome to Gardener's World.
00:42This is a white climbing rose, which is suitable here for the writing garden because everything in here is either
00:50white or green.
00:52I'm pretty sure it's climbing iceberg. I'm not certain because I've lost the label.
00:57And it was a few years ago I planted it. But for the moment, whatever its name is, it needs
01:02tying up.
01:03Now, of course, climbing iceberg is a banker. It's guaranteed to flower for months on end.
01:10This can be flowering at Christmas sometimes.
01:13And it's worth pointing out that when you're tying any vegetative growth up at this time of year, particularly this
01:18time of year, use soft twine.
01:20Never use anything with wire in it or even a hard-edged plastic because the new growth is soft.
01:26It will move slightly. And if you have anything other than very soft twine, it can cut into it and
01:32damage it.
01:33Right. I'm going to try and gather all that in there and pull it back because otherwise it can flop
01:39a lot.
01:40And whilst a bit of floppage is good, too much is not.
01:45I don't know.
01:45I don't know.
01:46I don't know.
02:09You're like a fish drop.
02:09I don't know.
02:14Let's go.
02:19now you can't stay here because i've got to plant stuff all right unless you want to lie down here
02:25go on okay we're not planting neds we're planting summer bulbs we do tend to think of bulbs
02:36belonging to spring and of course they do in huge variety and glory from the first snow drop
02:42to the last carmacea which here at long meadow can take us into june but there are another group of
02:49bulbs or bulb related plants that perform beautifully from mid to late summer into autumn
02:56and of course they're familiar there are gladioli dahlias crocosmia lilies and now is the time to
03:04plant them if you haven't done so already some do really well in pots and none better than lilies so
03:10i want to plant some lilies today in pots and the compost is really important because lilies need
03:16good drainage but they also need another element because they are essentially woodland plants and
03:22what they like is a loose soil it's not just sharp drainage like tulips but a loose almost fluffy soil
03:29and the best way to create that is by using leaf mold if you've got it this is a very
03:35gritty potting
03:36mix and that's part peat free bought in potting compost partly sieve garden compost and you can
03:45see the grit in it there's quite a lot of it now that would do that would be fine but
03:49if you've got
03:50leaf mold then add that and i'm going to add all that to it like that mix it up
04:01like that in the bottom of the pot you will need crocs so we just block that up
04:11okay and a half fillet
04:17okay that's good now the bulbs themselves this is a variety called claude fried which i've got in the
04:26paradise garden and it's tall it's sort of turks cap variety with wonderful sort of raspberry burgundy
04:34colors you know these are different from most bulbs because the scales have no outer layer so that
04:43they're they're scaly like an armadillo so i'll pop that in i'm going to put four in this pot which
04:51is
04:51plenty three would be fine but i think i can get away with four there we go
05:01and then use my mix to go over the top of that
05:14just put the last little bit in there we go
05:20there is room to water and this will settle a little bit now i will put this out of the
05:25way
05:25somewhere outside doesn't need to be protected at all and then put in position in june and we can
05:31really enjoy it once we hit mid and late summer and of course it's important to label it
05:41that is destined for the paradise garden but not for a bit
05:46now jamie has been to visit beth chatto's garden near colchester if you haven't been i recommend anyone
05:53to go it's one of our great gardens but actually he went for a very specific purpose which is to
05:58celebrate a plant which by and large he feels is underappreciated
06:12what else gives you color like this that incredible acid green it simply
06:22glows and yet the funny thing is this plant is so often completely overlooked
06:31there are over 1500 species of euphorbia making them one of the largest and most varied flowering
06:40plants in the world ranging from small ground covering perennials to large drought tolerant shrubs
06:47and even succulents that could easily be mistaken for cacti
06:55this is euphorbia wolfenniae it's one of the most architectural euphorbias and on a day like today
07:03where it's backlit it is literally a beacon it is glowing it's a really drought tolerant plant
07:11it needs next to no watering even in the driest of summers so it adores this gravel garden setting
07:18and a little bit of plant geekery what looks like these columns and towers of architectural flowers
07:25are actually bracts they're not flowers at all the flowers are hidden inside the bracts and they're teeny tiny
07:33but the plant itself is phenomenal and one of my absolute favorites a must-have for any drought tolerant garden
08:03this is a beast for euphorbia this is euphorbia cross pasteurii that means taking the very best bits
08:13of two different euphorbias euphorbia mellifera and euphorbia stygiana and in the next few weeks these
08:19flowers will start to emerge on mass now they're beautiful to look at but quite unusually for euphorbia
08:25they have an additional quality they smell incredible they smell of honey which also gives it its common
08:33name of honey spudge i love to use this one to create drama especially towards the back of a border
08:41and it'll hold the rest of the planting in place
08:54just spotted in this shady little nook something that's not quite out yet
09:01it's euphorbia griffii fire glow and it will do exactly what you think it will do with a name like
09:08fire glow it's gonna illuminate this dark corner with the most vibrant orangey red flowers
09:17it thrives in moist well-drained soil where fertile conditions bring out those rich tones
09:23i think even just the new foliage of the epimediums against the stems of the euphorbia is a beautiful
09:32thing and i so wish i could come back in about a week's time and see this just erupt into
09:39this fiery
09:40glow because you just know it's going to be really special
09:47from full sun to shade dry soil to damp they're far more adaptable than you might think and they're
09:55surprisingly easy to propagate which means you can multiply their impact across your garden
10:01emily ellard is the resident propagation expert here
10:05so one of the plants i'm obsessed with in the gardens today especially is the euphorbia
10:11wolf any eye it's just glowing when's the best time to collect the seeds so it's probably going
10:18to be about may june time because at the moment you've got the lush mop heads and soon they will
10:22start to create the seed um and then just before it's starting to dry out a bit we collect those
10:28mop
10:28heads you hang them upside down no put them in a in a box um a little bit newspaper on
10:33top because
10:33they will pig everywhere like popcorn and then all your seed will be at the bottom of the box you
10:38collect that all up and you can store some or you can sow some fresh it always amazes me that
10:45in
10:45each one of these seeds is the genetic information to grow that plant everyone it's real life magic
10:53so we've got the six mil gravel and then we're just going to sprinkle that on top this is like
10:58the big
10:59duvet that sits on top of the seed so it's like going in a cold frame basically yeah how long
11:04would you
11:04normally expect them to take to start to germinate yeah so i actually got some that were so in january
11:11time i hope it's okay i'm just going to grab one because i think these are amazing from that those
11:16teeny tiny little seeds we're going to get one of those beautiful euphorbia wolf anyway
11:31whether they're lighting up gravel gardens or thriving in dappled woodland these are plants which
11:38are great for wildlife rob byford is responsible for the biological control in the gardens working
11:45closely with nature to keep things in balance it's such a broad genus there's so many species to it
11:54they allow us to extend this flowering period from february almost to the first frost so the chance for
12:01the insects to get food and we need that now more than ever powerhouse of of the garden really they
12:08really are a lot of it comes down to this here which is their flower structure so it's a special
12:14inflorescence ceafeum and we can see in here the nectar glands now they secrete the nectar and we've
12:22got the answers here the pollen so for nectar feeders and for pollen feeders euphorbia has it all
12:29some of us we do get aphids in our garden but these will attract lace wings and parasitic wasps
12:34which are great defenders almost like our own little air force against those less beneficial insects
12:40it's self-regulating and just by adding it to your garden you're adding in defense to your garden
12:45as well against these less favorable critters it's such a beautiful plant so uplifting and smile inducing
12:54but it's also giving benefit to our it is they are like little beacons really flashing amongst it all
12:59to humans and insects to humans and insects alike absolutely
13:14the more you look the more you realize what the truly special plant euphorbias are they're tough
13:21they're resilient they're beautiful and they're full of life
13:26so i think it's about time we stop treating them as background plants and hiding them
13:31in amongst our borders and instead celebrate them and put them center stage
13:56this is the euphorbia caracchias wolfhenii it loves the dry garden it loves the poor soil and
14:05the good drainage and will seed itself in cracks in paving and up against the corner of a wall and
14:11paving but it really won't do anything else in the rest of the garden which is not suitable for
14:16it at all i've tried growing from the dual garden and it just flops and is very sad and doesn't
14:21last
14:22however here in the dry garden not only does it look good in itself but it's a really good foil
14:27for the tulips and the sweet rocket and also you know as a plant it's one of the most statuesque
14:34architectural plants you could have
14:47but i've got here some euphorbias live in shade
15:03this is the woodland garden which is the latest change and it's it's work in progress
15:10for the moment this year i'm concentrating on the area that we cleared last autumn and have started to
15:16plant this spring and it's coming through things are coming along and the euphorbias i've got here
15:23which goes by the tongue twisting name of euphorbia amygdaloides verrobii is perfectly suited to this
15:33kind of woodland environment because it thrives it positively thrives in dry shade and there are
15:39very few plants that do that now the shade comes particularly from these cherries this is a wild cherry a
15:45gin lovely blossom at the moment uh but the roots suck up all the moisture and the leaves cut out
15:53most of the light so 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 like almost like a satellite dish
16:08reflecting light with tiny flowers inside and in shade deep shade they'll grow taller so they're more visible
16:18they'll rise up above the foliage and give a really good display for weeks on end and then even when
16:23they die back the foliage will spread it spreads quite easily makes a really good ground cover plant
16:29as well as having this glorious display in spring and early summer now i'm going to start placing these
16:37and putting them in groups they're not plants to play singly
16:42like here go down there and then over here i put these in a group of three
16:48because i want them actually to grow together and spread and form ground cover
17:04that should do
17:07now it's worth saying at this point when you're handling euphorbias
17:11of any kind do be careful because if they break or crush in any way they exude a very milky
17:18thick sap
17:20and that can easily cause burns i 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
17:31and 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
17:40you get a little bit on your hands stop and wash it off and wash it off and wash it
17:50off
17:55now rosemary alexander started the english garden school and the whole generation of garden designers
18:03learnt their craft there and we had the opportunity
18:08to 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
18:23the owners will actually enjoy and you know you can actually 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 sandhill farmhouse in west sussex where i've been for the last 20 years or more
18:51the whole garden is about half an acre on 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
19:13the right i put the box balls to give this path structure and form so the repetition works well
19:20the 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
19:34i decided to put it at an angle so that i can sit and enjoy all the woodland plants in
19:39the lower level
19:40woodland 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 i realized that unless you went to
20:00wisley or q you couldn't really learn about plants so i thought i would set up my own school and
20:06teach
20:07people about plants i set up the school in 1983. i just wanted to teach how to redesign a space
20:18we're now in the woodland garden my overall aim was to have several different areas which would have
20:23different types of plants the contrast between dark green leaves and light green leaves and shiny
20:30leaves and matte leaves and also the stems of the plants because if you look here there's quite
20:35a lot of stem and then big groupings of things to make it look more natural
20:42i try to use plants to separate the the gravel from the soil because i don't like using timber or
20:48metal
20:48edges and so i use this ophiopogen here and then in other areas i use london pride saxifrauga umbrosa
21:11i think focal points and vistas are very important always 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 critagus laciniata at the very far end there which
21:30is a lovely deciduous tree and then four of the box balls were already here so i decided i would
21:36continue them leading down to look at the view i like focal points in the garden because it gives
21:43you a reason for sitting in a particular place and so all gardens should have focal points
21:48often i look at the background color you know for instance in the garden here you've got a brick
21:54wall so i'm looking at the brick wall and thinking what colors would go well in front of that
22:00the new hedge was here so we clipped it and it seemed a perfect backdrop for the blue chair because
22:05blue is actually a very good color of paint because there's quite a lot of green um in in blue
22:11blue you know my granddaughter's been coming here for years and she spends a lot of time down here
22:20with me we loved what she did and we knew that she was so talented and so amazing at what
22:25she'd
22:25created with the school i always thought oh that would be an amazing industry to be in
22:33granny invited me to come and study on the course and that's when i just fell in love with designing
22:39gardens and it was kind of opening up of a whole new world
22:46i'm definitely still always learning from granny she's always pointing things out in the garden but
22:51also i'm at a point now in my career where i can start to show her the work that i've
22:55created and
22:56we can discuss it together and that's a really nice thing to be able to do it's amazing having somebody
23:02in my own family that we've got a lot in common with and we spend quite a lot of time
23:07discussing
23:08things and what plants to use and so on no i'm very lucky with her
23:18if you're going to design a garden for the first time you first of all need to decide what soil
23:23type
23:23you've got that's really necessary whether it's acid or alcatine or neutral so that will depend on what
23:29you grow and then another thing is not to be over ambitious not to worry about having one of this
23:35and
23:35one of that and one of the next thing but to keep repeating certain plants that will do well in
23:41the garden
23:44i am immensely proud of granny i think that she's informed a generation of gardeners horticulturalists
23:53often people come to me and they have no idea where to begin what i like is building up their
23:58confidence and seeing them you know develop in their own right it still is exciting
24:18so
24:24so
24:51It's always good to see a new generation coming in
24:54and learning from us oldies.
24:56I have to say my grandchildren are beginning to get interested in the garden,
25:00so whether they go on and become gardeners or garden designers,
25:04we'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.
25:14You can barely call it a trench. It's more a groove in the ground.
25:19These are purple-podded peas.
25:21So the peas themselves are green, but the pods are purple,
25:25really decorative, and when you cook them,
25:27if you cook them in the pod, the pod then turns green.
25:35Now, I'm placing these about two or three inches apart.
25:39I don't need to be any wider than that.
25:46Personally, I think a double row works best.
25:49OK.
25:52And just rake over them.
25:54Very simple.
25:55And just go along like this, and then gently, gently, gently, gently.
26:03Like that, without disturbing the peas underneath.
26:08When those peas germinate, little green shoots should appear,
26:11marking the spot of each pea,
26:14depending on the weather, in about two or three weeks' time.
26:16But they will need support.
26:19Peas are scramblers.
26:21So the support needs to be able to take the tendrils
26:25whatever way they go.
26:26It does have to be something that is twiggy.
26:30The key prunings, dogwood will do it.
26:33Anything, really.
26:34Anything 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.
26:48Quite close together so they overlap.
26:51Like that.
26:56There we go.
27:09What you're looking to achieve is a tangle.
27:12And this is a perfect tangle.
27:16And somehow doing this, just like putting up bean sticks,
27:20feels to me like part of the development of a vegetable plot
27:24that is really part of summer.
27:26If I see the pea sticks going in, then we've moved on.
27:30We've moved out of winter forever.
27:32And we're on into the middle of spring
27:35and 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.
27:55It starts in February, particularly if you couldn't force it.
27:58This is Timpley early and that's a variety called Victoria,
28:00which is later.
28:02That's main season, if you like.
28:04Early 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.
28:15And all rhubarb should be left unpicked after the end of June.
28:18Leave it alone because otherwise you'll weaken the roots
28:22and you won't get nearly such a good harvest next year
28:25and 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.
28:35And if I pull it up 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.
28:47Now, whenever you're harvesting rhubarb, there is one really important thing to remember.
28:52Never cut it.
28:54You pull rhubarb.
28:55And 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 root
29:06and that heals very quickly.
29:08You need a little bit of this heal on the bottom of the stem.
29:12But you can see that's got a bit twisted.
29:13But it's paler than most rhubarb.
29:15And that will be sweeter.
29:17So I'll pop that in there.
29:24Now, obviously, these stems are unforced.
29:26So you can see they've got very green leaves.
29:28And the leaves are poisonous.
29:31You don't eat them.
29:32But it is absolutely delicious.
29:34And I love rhubarb crumble, rhubarb pie.
29:38Just stewed rhubarb with yoghurt for breakfast is a 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 me
30:08such 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.
30:36Nothing 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 noticed a
30:59shoot.
30:59And I'm so pleased and so excited.
31:03But I should know better.
31:05I've been gardening for many years, and I shouldn't give up on plants until June to give them a chance
31:10to see if they'll shoot.
31:11For this one, this 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 as a sort
31:39of 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.
32:00Ooh, so exciting!
32:02Look at that little shoot that's cracked open.
32:05And I'm going to pop that with the shoot going 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,
32:22and 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.
33:04And there we go.
33:13I'm so pleased with this.
33:16It's absolutely stunning.
33:18And 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 to 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.
34:14And this year I've kept it in the greenhouse, and it's survived.
34:18It's Echium piñana, and it derives from the Canary Islands.
34:23And I think it's going to be absolutely extraordinary.
34:40This is going to grow huge, up to four metres.
34:45And it's going to be covered in blue flowers, which are really attractive to bees.
34:50And the flowers are going to produce lots of little seedlings, and hopefully they're going to populate all the way
34:57along here.
34:58I might have to dig some up and shelter them into the greenhouse for winter to ensure their survival, but
35:03I will leave some.
35:04It's supposed to be a biennial. That means you plant the seed one year, you get the flower the next
35:09year.
35:09But in this case, this is three years old. So for me, it's a triennial.
35:14And the reason I put it here is because it likes a very sunny spot.
35:18And this is the sunniest spot in my garden. It likes free draining soil.
35:22And also it hides the ugly fence, and I can see it when I'm lying in my bath from my
35:28bathroom.
35:29And now, all I've got to do is water.
35:54A 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.
36:16And I want some more. And 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, you can see.
36:28And I'll cut a bit, and it's got quite a peppery flavour. But it'll regrow before you know it.
36:37This is twisted leaf garlic. And the leaves have a very subtle, not overpowering flavour of garlic, so nice to
36:45add.
36:46Twisted garlic is a perennial. That means it will keep coming back year after year. And that goes for sorrel,
36:52too.
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 to curries.
37:04And when you see this appearing, you want to get rid of it, because you don't want the plant to
37:09get the seed.
37:10So you remove that.
37:13They're also great in green smoothies.
37:16The nasturtiums don't usually grow over winter.
37:19It's classed as an annual, so the fact that it has 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, it's
37:40best to check.
37:41So I've got vibrant green zesty flavours. I've got lemon flavours. I've got peppery flavours.
37:49And 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.
38:18And that the walnut came from her father's tree, which came from a walnut from his father.
38:23That intergenerational handing on is something that taps into a longevity that we don't normally think of in our gardens.
38:31We want everything now.
38:34Right. These, as you can see, are lemons.
38:36I'm just taking the fruit off for two reasons. One, because if you leave mature fruit on the tree, that
38:44will inhibit the development of flowers and other fruits, even though they look lovely.
38:50And two, because these are particularly heavy and are weighing down.
38:54So, for example, this is fine. It looks nice and it's not weighing the branch down.
38:58But where they are, like there, I'm just going to take that off and that will spring back up.
39:06This is not pruning. Pruning citrus is something you do when the worst of the weather is over.
39:12So I would leave that till May.
39:14But it's good to get them outside as soon as you can because citrus don't like being indoors, particularly not
39:21in a centrally heated house.
39:22So that's fine now. I've got a lovely basket of fruit. I mean, you have to say, look at that.
39:29You know, there is something magical about having your own lemons or your own oranges from your garden.
39:35But now is a really good time to repot any citrus that you have to give it a fresh start
39:44to 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. So what I'm going to do is take it out of this
39:53pot, clean up the roots, get rid of the old compost, refresh the compost and put it back into the
39:59same pot.
39:59So the first thing I'm going to do is just take it out of the pot. There we go.
40:04I'm going to put that onto there. You need plenty of crocs. The same crocs can go in the bottom.
40:15I'm just going to clean off some of the spent compost on here. Now, this has been in this pot
40:21for 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 years.
40:32But 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.
40:47I'm getting my thumb in there and I'm just working free excess compost.
40:55Now, the compost mix. That is a bucket of sieved garden compost. Horticultural grit.
41:06And actually, I've got here a mix of potting compost with a lot of grit, leaf mould and sieved garden
41:17compost 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. In fact, I'm going to add all this grit to this mix.
41:32And then mix it up.
41:38Right. So we'll put some in the bottom of the pot. Like that.
41:47OK, that's good. Now, 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.
42:19And once they come outside and start to show signs of growth, citrus should be watered and fed once a
42:26week.
42:27I 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.
43:02For 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.
43:10And 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, grew anemone decaying in St. Piran, the local
43:26strain.
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.
44:00And 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.
44:19They'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 variety called Marron.
44:30And that's classified as a flower machine.
44:32What we have with the Marron is a very tall flower and quite a slender stem.
44:40Now we're here and 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 Emory coronaria Mistral Panda.
45:06And this is just coming into bloom.
45:08So look at this.
45:09You 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 and 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.
45:28Slightly 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.
45:45And the flowers will start flowering in October, November and December.
45:49There will be a short pause in December and January when the light levels drop and the weather gets poor.
45:53Only for them to restart again towards the end of January, February and go through into March.
45:59When 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.
46:20Any more and 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.
46:27So you could pick this, bunch it up and in two or three days that will be open.
46:32And it will stay open for another two or three days, maybe four or five in a cool kitchen window.
46:38When picking anemones, it's very important to get the stem length as long as possible.
46:42And try to cut it off as close as you can to the corm to stop any rot being left
46:47on the remaining stem that you've picked from.
46:49And like every cut flower, cut it off diagonally so that you have a bigger surface area of the stem
46:55bottom to take up as much water as possible.
47:02So when it comes to Chelsea, I'm trying to just slowly keep these going along until probably two weeks before
47:08the show,
47:09where then I can sort of accelerate their blooming by just adding some basic tomato feed.
47:15So the weather's going to be dull for the next couple of weeks and that will really help me
47:19slow 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,
47:48they're bought locally in a two mile radius.
47:52And it'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.
48:02It'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 counter-intuitive.
48:36And also I'm only just beginning to really learn about the ranunculus family with anemones of all kinds.
48:42We're very used to Japanese anemones and maybe sort of woodland anemones, but of course you realise there are so
48:47many more.
48:48And 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 that were grown in pots
49:08and we let them die back and they dried out and then take the bulbs and planted them in the
49:14orchard and in the cricket pitch at random.
49:17And 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.
49:50These 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 and sometimes not till the middle
50:12of 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 because 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, and I'm just going to put that in there, you will
50:35see 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, that'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 pot it on to that, and that's job done.
51:07The whole thing's finished.
51:09But it's not a good idea for two reasons.
51:11One, 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.
51:20And 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.
51:33So it's going to be too wet.
51:35That's about right.
51:36You 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 around it.
51:46And as a rule of thumb, it definitely doesn't want more than an inch space around the edge of the
51:52old pot.
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
52:05some 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.
52:24Don'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.
52:29Fill in around it.
52:33This might seem a bit bonkers, but just bear with me.
52:36It works.
52:41And we will push that down there.
52:44And having done that, gently lift out the inner pot, and what you're left with is a space that is
52:53exactly the size of the old pot.
52:58Now 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.
53:24By 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 upcycled plastic pot, where they can be
54:13set 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.
54:37Either 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.
55:44The Jewel Garden, by the way, is the last bit of Longbella 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,
55:58which will flower in a couple of weeks' time.
56:00But there is one job I can do, which means getting into the borders,
56:03and if I do it now it's going to make a dramatic difference later in the year.
56:13Right in the middle of the border here is this tree.
56:18This is a Paulonia, sometimes known as the Fox Club tree,
56:22and it does have wonderful flowers, sort of lavender-coloured, mauve flowers,
56:29which will grow on really quite a large tree.
56:31This will grow, if I left 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,
56:51it will sprout new growth, which in turn will carry extra big foliage.
56:56And they look really exotic and dramatic, and they're brilliant for setting off flowers around it in a border.
57:03Now's a good time to do it, just as it's starting to break into leaf.
57:07So, 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,
57:39and it will stand out.
57:40But I think that would look a bit odd.
57:42What I want to do is take it down, so that new 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.
58:03It looks drastic, it'll be fine, and we'll get new shoots coming in just a few weeks' time.
58:09They'll start to grow by midsummer.
58:11They 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 Longmeadow next time.
58:33So until then, bye-bye.
58:45Bye.
58:46Bye.
58:52Bye.
58:54Bye.
58:56Bye.
58:58Bye.
58:58Bye.
Comments