- 10 hours ago
Gardeners' World - Season 1 Episode 7
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00:07Come on.
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
00:51white 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.
01:11This 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 edge 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.
01:46It's just in here so the other hand, that makes all the magic, so…
01:56…TIME moor got a job at all times.
02:00Just to push it up a little bit.
02:12And we'll get something crazy.
02:12There we go and grab it.
02:19now you can't stay here because I've got to plant stuff all right unless you want to lie
02:25down here go 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 plop that up
04:12okay and a half fillet
04:17okay that's good now the bulbs themselves this is a variety called clawed fried which I've got in the
04:26paradise garden and it's tall it's for 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 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 and then use
05:02my mix to go
05:03over the top of that let's put the last little bit in there we go there is room to water
05:22and this
05:22will settle a little bit now I will put this out of the way somewhere outside doesn't need to be
05:27protected at all and then put in position in June and we can really enjoy it once we hit mid
05:34and late summer
05:36now of course it's important to label it
05:41that is destined for the paradise garden but not for a bit
05:45now Jamie has been to visit Beth Chateau's garden near Colchester
05:50if you haven't been I recommend anyone to go it's one of our great gardens but actually he went for
05:56a
05:56very specific purpose which is to celebrate a plant which by and large he feels is underappreciated
06:12what else gives you colour like this that incredible acid green it simply glows and yet the funny thing is
06:24this plant is so often completely overlooked there are over 1500 species of euphorbia making them one
06:37of the largest and most varied flowering plants in the world ranging from small ground covering perennials
06:44to large drought tolerant shrubs and 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 it needs
07:12next to no watering even in the driest of summers so it adores this gravel garden setting and a little
07:19bit
07:19of the plant geekery what looks like these columns and towers of architectural flowers are actually
07:26bracts 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 pasteurion that means it's taking the
08:12very best bits of two different euphorbias euphorbia mellifera and euphorbia stygiana and in the next few
08:19weeks these flowers will start to emerge on mass now they're beautiful to look at but quite unusually
08:24for euphorbia they have an additional quality they smell incredible they smell of honey which also gives
08:32it its common name of honey spudge i love to use this one to create drama especially towards the back
08:40of a border and 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 it's euphorbia griffii fire
09:04glow and it will do exactly what you think it will do with a name like fire glow it's gonna
09:10illuminate this
09:12dark corner with the most vibrant orangey red flowers it thrives in moist well-drained soil
09:19where fertile conditions bring out those rich tones i think even just the new foliage of the
09:26epimediums against the stems of the euphorbia is a beautiful thing and i so wish i could come back
09:35in about a week's time and see this just erupt into this fiery glow because you just know it's going
09:43to be really special from full sun to shade dry soil to damp they're far more adaptable than you might
09:53think and they're surprisingly easy to propagate which means you can multiply their impact across your
10:00garden emily ellad is the resident propagation expert here so one of the plants i'm obsessed
10:08with in the gardens today especially is the euphorbia wolfenniae it's just glowing when's the best time
10:16to collect the seeds so it's probably going to be about may june time because at the moment you've got
10:20the lush mop heads and soon they will start to create the seed um and then just before it's starting
10:27to dry
10:27out a bit we collect those mop heads hang them upside down no put them in a in a box
10:32a little bit
10:32newspaper on top because they will pig everywhere like popcorn and then all your seed will be at the
10:37bottom of the box you can collect that all up and you can store some or you can sow some
10:41fresh
10:43it always amazes me that in each one of these seeds is the genetic information to grow that plant
10:50oh it's magic it's real life magic so we've got the six mill gravel and then we're just going to
10:56sprinkle that on top this is like the big duvet that sits on top of the seed so it's like
11:01going
11:01in a coal frame basically yeah how long would you normally expect them to take to start to germinate
11:07yeah so i actually got some that were so in january time i hope it's okay i'm just going to
11:12grab one
11:13because i think these are amazing from that those teeny tiny little seeds we're going to get one of those
11:18beautiful euphorbia wolf anyway
11:32whether 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
11:59so the chance for the insects to get food and we need that now more than ever how a house
12:06of of the
12:06garden really they really are a lot of it comes down to this here which is their flower structure so
12:13it's a
12:13special inflorescence ceafeum and we can see in here the nectar glands now they secrete the nectar
12:21and we've got the answers here the pollen so for nectar feeders and for pollen feeders euphorbia has it
12:28all some 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 it's
12:40self-regulating and just by adding it to your garden you're adding in defense to your garden
12:46as well against these less favorable critters it's such a beautiful plant so uplifting and smile
12:54inducing but it's also giving benefit to our insects it is they are like little beacons really flashing
12:59amongst it all to 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 so i think it's about time we stop
13:29treating them as background plants and hiding them in amongst our borders and instead celebrate them
13:35and put them center stage
13:56this is the euphorbia caracchia swulfenii it loves the dry garden it loves the poor soil and the good
14:05drainage and will seed itself in cracks in paving and up against the corner of a wall and paving
14:12but it really won't do anything else in the rest of the garden which is not suitable for it at
14:17all
14:17i've tried growing from the jewel garden and it just flops and is very sad and doesn't last however
14:22here in the dry garden not only does it look good in itself but it's a really good foil for
14:27the tulips
14:28and the sweet rocket and also you know as a plant it's one of the most statuesque architectural
14:34plants 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 and it's it's work in progress for the
15:11moment this year i'm concentrating on the area that we cleared last autumn and have started to plant this
15:17spring and it's coming through things are coming along and the euphorbias i've got here which goes
15:24by the tongue twisting name of euphorbia amygdaloides verrobii is perfectly suited to this kind of woodland
15:34environment because it thrives it positively thrives in dry shade and there are very few plants that do that
15:40now the shade comes particularly from these cherries this is a wild cherry a gin lovely blossom at the
15:47moment but the roots suck up all the moisture and the leaves cut out most of the light so this
15:55whole area
15:55here here is going to be dry shade you can see that it has these wonderful bracts which are like
16:06a collar
16:07like almost like a satellite dish reflecting light with tiny flowers inside and in shade deep shade
16:15they'll grow taller so they're more visible they'll rise up above the foliage and give a really good
16:21display for weeks on end and then even when they die back the foliage will spread it spreads quite
16:26easily makes a really good ground cover plant as well as having this glorious display in spring and early
16:34summer now i'm going to start placing these and 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 because i want
16:49them
16:50actually to grow together and spread and form ground cover
17:03that should do
17:07now it's worth saying at this point when you're handling euphorbias of any kind do be careful because
17:13if they break or crush in any way they exude a very milky thick sap and that can easily cause
17:22burns
17:23i hate gardening in gloves and never do it unless it's very thorny but if you are happy to wear
17:29gloves
17:29then i definitely would wear them for euphorbias and if like me you don't wear gloves and you get a
17:34little bit on your hands stop and go and wash it off
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 to visit rosemary's private garden at home
18:18one of the first things i 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
18:4520 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
19:11woodland garden down to the right i put the box balls to give this path structure and form
19:18so the repetition works well the box balls pull you through and you can walk past those until you
19:24get to the blue seat at the end instead 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 i started changing gardens and changed
19:57my own garden quite a bit i realized that unless you went to wisley or queue you couldn't really learn
20:03about plants so i thought i would set up my own school and teach people about plants
20:08i 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 leaves
20:30and matte leaves and also the stems of the plants because if you look here there's quite a lot of
20:36stem
20:37and then big groupings of things to make it look more natural
20:41natural i try to use plants to separate the the gravel from the soil because i don't like using
20:47timber or metal edges and so i use this ophiopogen here and then in other areas i use london pride
20:55saxifrauga ombrosa when people walk into the garden i want them to feel oh my goodness this is going to
21:02be a
21:10wonderful garden
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 so first of all
21:25it
21:25looked straight out at the critagus liciniata at the very far end there which is a lovely deciduous tree
21:32and then four of the box balls were already here so i decided i would continue them leading down to
21:39look
21:39at the view i like focal points in the garden because it gives you a reason for sitting in a
21:44particular place and so all gardens should have focal points often i look at the background color
21:51you know for instance in the garden here you've got a brick wall so i'm looking at the brick wall
21:56and
21:56thinking what colors would go well in front of that the u hedge was here so we clipped it and
22:03it
22:03seemed a perfect backdrop for the blue chair because blue is actually a very good color of paint because
22:08there's quite a lot of green um in in blue
22:15you know my granddaughter's been coming here for years and 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
22:24amazing at what she'd created with the school i always thought oh that would be an amazing industry
22:30to be in granny invited me to come and study on the course and that's when i just fell in
22:38love with
22:38designing gardens 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 we
22:56can 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 things
23:08and 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 alkaline or neutral so that will depend on
23:28what you grow and then another thing is not to be over ambitious not to worry about having one of
23:35this
23:35and one of that and one of the next thing but to keep repeating certain plants that will do well
23:41in
23:41the garden i am immensely proud of granny i think that she's informed a generation of gardeners
23:53horticulturalists often people come to me and they have no idea where to begin what i like is building up
23:58their confidence and seeing them you know develop in their own right it still is exciting
24:51it's always good to see a new generation coming in and learning from us oldies i have to say my
24:57grandchildren are beginning to get interested in the garden so whether they go on and become gardeners
25:03or garden designers we'll see but it'd be nice um this is very practical i'm sowing peas what i do
25:11is i make a very shallow sort of trenches you can barely call it a trench it's more a groove
25:16in the ground
25:19these are purple podded peas so the peas themselves are green but the pods are purple
25:25really decorative 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 they 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 and just go along like this and then
26:01gently gently gently gently like that without disturbing the 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 but they will need support
26:19peas are scramblers so the support needs to be able to take the tendrils whatever way they go
26:26it does have to be something that is twiggy so keep prunings dogwood will do it anything really anything
26:35that'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 like that
26:56there we go
27:09what you're looking to achieve is a tangle and this is a perfect tangle and
27:16somehow doing this just like putting up bean sticks
27:20feels to me like part of the development 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
27:33and we're on into the middle of spring and very quickly that will be followed by summer
27:50the rhubarb season is in full flow it's it's a fairly long season it starts
27:55in february particularly if you couldn't force it this is simply early and that's a variety called
28:00victoria which is later that's main season if you like early is february and then that will run through
28:06till june late doesn't really kick in until beginning of may but may and june is fantastic
28:14and all rhubarb should be left unpicked after the end of june leave it alone because otherwise
28:20you'll weaken the roots and you won't get nearly such a good harvest next year and gradually it will
28:26diminish the reason why you force it is because the stems are sweeter now if i take the lid off
28:33you can see that there's a lot less foliage and if i pull it up like that you can see
28:39that
28:40it looks rather anemic but 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 never cut it
28:54you pull rhubarb and if you cut it you can get infection and rot in the stem if you pull
29:01it it
29:02comes away with a little piece of the base where it's attached to the root 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 got
29:13a bit twisted
29:13but it's paler than most rhubarb and that will be sweeter so 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 and i love
29:35a rhubarb crumble rhubarb pie just stewed rhubarb with yogurt for breakfast is a really good way to start
29:42the day and of course the leaves are brilliant on the compost heap once they're composted then they'll
29:46do no harm whatsoever now earlier this month we went down to south wales to join sue kent in her
29:55garden
30:01after a very wet winter here in swansea springtime in my garden is the time of year that brings me
30:08such
30:08joy and hope look at this this is the first fruit tree blossom of the year in its damson plum
30:24it hasn't got much of a scent but it really lifts the spirits
30:32over here i planted walnuts nothing 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
30:52nothing happened for
30:54months and i was about to put it in the compost bin yesterday and i noticed a shoot and i'm
31:00so pleased
31:01and so excited but i should know better i've been gardening for many years and i shouldn't give up
31:07on plants until june to give them a chance to see if they'll shoot so this one this lovely little
31:13shoot
31:14is going to go in a pot and grow i'm going to use a petri compost it likes a nice
31:26light soil and the way
31:27i do this is use a local product which is crushed cockle shells so i'm going to sprinkle them in
31:35and
31:35they will be very slow release calcium as well as a sort of soil aerator it'll slightly alkaline the soil
31:43and walnuts prefer that anyways i'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 so exciting look at that little shoot that's cracked open
32:06and 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 so this walnut is from a
32:18tree
32:18that my father gave to me from a tree that his father gave to him and i am giving it
32:25to my son
32:25to grow in his garden so it really is a family tree and it's rather lovely to think it'll carry
32:33on through
32:33the generations i'm going to top it off with some pistachio shells so i eat a lot of pistachio nuts
32:40and i love the smell oh gosh they 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
33:13i'm so pleased with this it's absolutely stunning and it's lighting up the garden when not much else is
33:22here it's spirea bridal wreath and you can see here some beautiful small white flowers already open
33:29but lots lots more to come and it's almost got red branches on it it looks good in summer and
33:36although it's deciduous the branches look great in winter i am a bit of a fan of spirea and here
33:43i've got them free flowing but around the garden i've used them more structurally and have clipped them
33:48quite tightly but this one is the star of the show at the moment it's a great time for me
33:54to plant
33:54anything tender being coastal the sea air is warmer keeping the frosts away the key is to know your own
34:02climate and use protection like fleece if needed this is going to be a case of third time lucky i've
34:10tried three times to grow this and twice the plant's been got by frost and this year i've kept in
34:16the
34:16greenhouse and it's survived it's echium pinana and it derives from the canary islands and i think
34:24it's going to be absolutely extraordinary
34:40this is going to grow huge up to four meters and it's going to be covered in blue flowers which
34:48are
34:49really attractive to bees and the flowers are going to produce lots of little seedlings and
34:55hopefully they're going to populate all the way along here i might have to dig some up and shelter
35:00them into the greenhouse for winter to ensure their survival but i will leave some it's supposed to be a
35:06biennial that means you plant the seed one year you get the flower the next year but in this case
35:10this
35:10is three years old so for me it's a triennial and the reason i put it here is because it
35:17likes a very
35:18sunny spot and this is the sunniest spot in my garden it likes free draining soil and also it hides
35:24the
35:24ugly fence and i can see it when i'm lying in my bath from my bathroom and now all i've
35:31got to do is water
35:54a lot of my edible crops are winter hardy they cope with low light and start to regrow
35:59as the days lengthen and warm
36:06i like to pick a salad every night and i've already started here i've got parsley mint
36:12lamb's lettuce a bit of normal lettuce some beetroot leaves and i want some more and it's amazing
36:18this looks a bit of a mess but it's full of food and here i've got landcress which is a
36:24bit like
36:24watercress but it roots itself in soil you can see and i'll cut a bit and it's got a quite
36:30a peppery
36:30flavor but it'll regrow before you know it
36:37this is twisted leaf garlic and the leaves have a very subtle not overpowering flavor of garlic so
36:44nice to add twisted garlic is a perennial that means it will keep coming back year after year
36:51and that goes for sorrel too this is a stalwart of the salad this is french sorrel and it just
36:58keeps
36:59giving when they're smaller they're great for salads when they're bigger they're great for adding to
37:03curries and when you see this appearing you want to get rid of it because you don't want the plant
37:08to
37:09get to seed so you remove that they're also great in green smoothies the nasturtias don't usually
37:18grow over winter it's classed as an annual so the fact that it has survived in the greenhouse is a
37:24stroke of luck
37:28i'm going to finish the bowl with primrose flowers which are rather beautiful and delicate and you
37:36can eat the flowers but not the leaves and of course if you've got any health conditions it's best to
37:40check
37:41so i've got vibrant green zesty flavors i've got lemon flavors i've got peppery flavors
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
38:30think of in our gardens we want everything now right these as you can see are lemons i'm just taking
38:37the
38:37fruit off for two reasons one because if you leave mature fruit on the tree that will inhibit the
38:46development of flowers and other fruits even though they look lovely and two because these are particularly
38:52heavy and are weighing down so for example this is fine it looks nice and it's not weighing the
38:58branch down but where they are like there i'm just going to take that off
39:04and that will spring back up this is not pruning pruning citrus is something you do
39:10when the worst of the weather is over so 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
39:20particularly not in the centrally heated house so that's fine there i've got a lovely basket of fruit
39:25i mean you have to say look at that you know there is something magical about having your own lemons
39:33or
39:33your own oranges from your garden but now is a really good time to repot any citrus that you have
39:43to give it a fresh start to grow and this one for example has been in this pot for quite
39:47a 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
39:55get rid of the old compost refresh the compost and put it back into the same pot so the first
40:00thing i
40:00do is just take it out the pot there we go i'm going to put that onto there you need
40:08plenty of crocs
40:09the same crocs can go in the bottom i'm just going to clean off some of the spent compost on
40:20here now
40:20this has been in this pot for probably a couple of years if you're keeping it in the same pot
40:25you need
40:25to do this at least every other year if you're putting onto a bigger pot then you probably need
40:31to do that about every three years but either way just using your fingers take any compost off that you
40:39can don't worry if you break the roots a little bit because they will regrow i'm getting my thumb in
40:49there and i'm just working free excess compost now the compost mix that is a bucket of sieved garden
41:03compost horticultural grit and actually i've got here a mix of potting compost with a lot of grit
41:14leaf mold and sieved garden compost in it but i'm going to add a bit more garden compost not a
41:20lot
41:20just a little bit in there and quite a lot of grit in fact i'm going to add all this
41:27grit to this mix
41:32and then mix it up
41:38right so we'll put some in the bottom of the pot like that
41:47okay 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 on top of that
42:08leaving enough space on 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 i come outside and start to show signs of growth citrus should be watered and fed once a
42:26week i feed them on a quite dilute seaweed mix and so that we combine the watering and the feed
42:32at the
42:32same time now it seems amazing to me but rhs chelsea flower show is just a few weeks away it's
42:40racing
42:41up on us and we went down to cornwall to visit andrew mills as he prepared his exhibition for 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 burn coos nurseries and they're a big nursery with
43:06rare unusual plants they sell magnolias rhododendrons camellias predominantly and so
43:10we've done many many chelsea's before but this will be the first time that actually my plants
43:14will be on display at chelsea for the whole world to see
43:20when i started out in horticulture as did many other farmers
43:23locally grew anemone decaying and st pyrrhen the local strain
43:28anemones originate from the eastern mediterranean so they like it warm
43:31cornwall 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
43:40and 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
43:51would be taken to covent garden so that was very important industry for cornwall many many years
43:56ago but that all petered out probably at late 80s early 90s and this is just a nod back to
44:01that
44:03so what i've got here is i've got five different types of anemone ground i'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
44:17the stem length they've increased the flower size they've also increased disease resistance
44:21by the thickness of the leaves hardy outside not just only grown in a glass house
44:27bred from that variety called marron and 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 misrael varieties of the italian ranunculus these are my favorites
44:45and they will give you a constant supply of anemones over a long period of time so what you won't
44:52have
44:52is a flush and then gone and they are very consistent in their quality and they are very consistent in
44:58their
44:58stem length and the colors are quite exceptional my overall favorite would be an enemy coronaria
45:05mistral panda and this is just coming into blue so 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 which means there's even
45:18bigger flower heads even thicker stems and the plant is a little bit more compact they would be
45:24perfect to grow in your garden the other variety i have is the levante double slightly shorter stem
45:30which is common but also a very very elegant flower when you get up close
45:37these anemones are historically planted in july in cornwall both inside and outside that will
45:43establish the plant before it flowers and the flowers will start flowering in october november and
45:48december there'll be a short pause in december and january when the light levels drop and the weather
45:53gets poor only 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 they will come back in
46:05next year in a bigger corn but they won't be as good as the first year because the best anemone
46:10flower
46:11will come from the smallest size corn
46:16i usually pick two or three times a week i get to about 50 or 60 bunches
46:19any more and i just won't be able to cope with it to pick an anemone you need to pick
46:25them when the
46:26flower is still tight and not open so you could pick this bunch it up and in two or three
46:31days that
46:31will be open and it will stay open for another two or three days maybe four or five in a
46:35cool kitchen
46:36window when picking anemones it's very important to get the stem length as long as possible and try to
46:42cut it off as close as you can to the corn to stop any rot being left on the remaining
46:48stem that you've
46:49picked from and like every cut flower cut it off diagonally so that you have a bigger surface area
46:55of the stem bottom 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
47:08before the show where then i can sort of accelerate their blooming by just adding some to basic tomato
47:13feed so 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 what i intend to display at chelsea
47:24is uh
47:25anemones in this stage of opening so hopefully on the flower stand at chelsea you'll see just a riot
47:30of color and as long as i'm pleased with how it looks the medal is a bonus nervous at all
47:36or not
47:37no i don't do nerves apart 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 it's quite remarkable to see something which is smaller than a piece of
47:55gravel to 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
48:29that andrew said the smallest corn produced the biggest flower now that is really counterintuitive
48:35and also i'm only just beginning to really learn about the ranunculus family and with
48:40anemones of all kinds we're very used to japanese anemones and and maybe sort of woodland anemones but
48:46of course you realize there are so many more and i'm very much looking forward to seeing how he fares
48:51at chelsea
48:52see them at their very best talking about their very best i do think the orchard is looking really
48:58good at the moment i don't take much credit for that because what we started to do a few years
49:03ago was
49:04take all last year's tulips all grown in pots and we let them die back and they dried out and
49:11then take
49:12the bulbs and planted them in the orchard and in the cricket pitch at random and some come up some
49:18flower well some don't flower and it's pure luck well a i think it looks great and b it makes
49:27me very happy
49:51these are gardeners delight tomatoes destined to be planted outside in the vegetable garden i've got
49:58other tomatoes i'll grow in the greenhouse but these will do perfectly well outside but i need to get the
50:03timing right here at long meadow it's really not feasible to plant tomatoes out much before june
50:10and sometimes not to the middle of june so i've got at least six weeks and maybe a couple of
50:16months
50:16to go and the pots that they're in are not going to be big enough to provide the nourishment or
50:23the
50:23moisture they need because before they plant out the plants could be three times as big so they need potting
50:29on now if i take this out the pot i'm just going to put that in there right you will
50:35see there's more
50:37root than compost this is exactly the right moment to pot it on now having established that you do need
50:45to put it on then the question is what size pot uh if i was to plant this in a
50:53pot not out in the garden
50:54and there's no reason why you can't grow tomatoes in a pot that's roughly the sort of size that would
50:59do it doesn't want to be much smaller than that but it doesn't need to be much bigger and you
51:04might
51:04think well the logic is is put it onto that and that's job done the whole thing's finished but it's
51:09not a good idea for two reasons one it means that you've got to store much bigger pots undercover and
51:16that's going to use up a lot more space for another month at least and two it won't be good
51:21for the
51:22plant because the plant fruits grow outwards like the spokes of a wheel so that most of the compost
51:30in the pot is acting as a sponge to hold moisture so it's going to be too wet that's about
51:36right you
51:37can see the difference it's distinctly bigger but not a lot bigger and if you place it inside you know
51:43it's probably got quarter an inch all around it as a rule of thumb it definitely doesn't want more than
51:49an inch space around the edge of the old pot now here's a trick and it always works take your
51:57new
51:57pot put compost and by the way you need a really good compost so peat free add some goodness to
52:05it
52:06if you can a bit of grit and if you've got safe garden compost the plant will do better put
52:11soil in
52:12the bottom like that place the plant in maybe take a little bit more soil out
52:20and make enough room place that in its pot don't take it out the pot and then and i'm going
52:26to do
52:27this on the table to show you it'll be messy fill in around it
52:33this might seem a bit bonkers but just bear with me it works
52:41and we'll push that down there and having done that gently lift out the inner pot and what you're
52:51left with is a space that is exactly the size of the old pot now you remove it and just
53:01pop it in that's it that's all you have to do and the beauty of this system is that the
53:08plant
53:08barely knows it's been plotted on there's no stress whatsoever on the roots don't try and force the
53:17soil around it just water it and then that will give it enough goodness and enough moisture to see it
53:23through at least another month by which time the plant will be that big and we can consider either
53:28planting it out or putting it on to its final home right well that's certainly one job you can do
53:37this weekend but here are some more
53:52as the spring bulbs end their flowering season they need to be left so that the foliage can slowly
53:59die back but if they are in a handsome pot that means the pot can't be used for months on
54:05end so i lift
54:07them out of the good pot put them into an upcycle plastic pot where they can be set to one
54:13side and it
54:14frees up a really nice container for summer display
54:26courgettes are the hardiest of the cucurbit family and you can start to sew them now there are lots of
54:32varieties to choose from but whichever ones they are you grow them in the same way either place
54:38individual seeds in generous sized plugs or a couple of seeds to a pot cover them over and then place
54:46them in water for about 15 to 20 minutes so that they soak up moisture they must go somewhere warm
54:53in
54:53which 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 so snap off spent flowering heads just below the seed heads leaving the
55:19stem and let the leaves die back naturally to feed into the bulb for next year
55:41i've got one more job to do here in the jewel garden the jewel gun by the way is it's
55:46the last
55:46bit of long weather to get going yes we have the tulips and the wallflowers and pots but actually in
55:51the borders there's very little happening yet because it's dominated by the foliage of an allium
55:56allium purple sensation which will flower in a couple of weeks time but there is one job i can do
56:01which means getting into the borders and if i do it now it's going to make a dramatic difference later
56:07in
56:12the year right in the middle of the border here is this tree this is a paulonia sometimes known as
56:21the
56:21fox club tree and it does have wonderful flowers sort of lavender colored mo flowers which will grow
56:29on really quite a large tree this will grow if i left it 50 foot tall a really big proper
56:36tree
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 compass it i prune it back really hard
56:51it will sprout new growth which in turn will carry extra big foliage and they look really exotic
56:58and dramatic and they're brilliant for setting off flowers around it in a border
57:02so now's a good time to do it just as it's starting to break into leaf so 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 pollards are when you leave a straight
57:35bare stem and then the new growth will grow from here and it will stand out but i think that
57:41would
57:41look a bit odd what i want to do is take it down so that new growth comes from about
57:46this height here
58:00well i don't do that very often it looks drastic it'll be fine and we'll get new shoots coming
58:08in just a few weeks time they'll start to grow by midsummer they should be a meter long and these
58:14huge leaves will appear they'll be at their best in august september and into october and i can either
58:20repeat that next year or just do it every few years but it's a really good way of adding drama
58:26to a
58:27border and that's the end of the drama for today i'm afraid well i'll see you back here at long
58:32miller next time so until then bye-bye
58:37so
58:45so
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