Bodnant Rising Garden in Snowdonia

Bodnant Garden stands on a dramatic hillside

in North Wales overlooking the mountains of Snowdonia.

Known to keen gardeners for its stunning collections of rhododendrons and azaleas,

its gorgeous laburnum arch and its Italianate terraces,

for most people it's a well-kept secret.

But with visitor numbers in decline and much of the garden overgrown,

the plan is to give Bodnant a much-needed makeover.

The National Trust has been running Bodnant Garden for 60 years.

The Aberconway family, which donated the garden, still owns Bodnant Hall.

Family member Michael McLaren manages the garden for the trust

and he's on a mission.

I'm completely determined that we're going to raise the profile of Bodnant.

We're going to attract many more visitors than we have at the moment

and I'd love it be on the top 10 gardens in the world.

Michael appointed a new Head Gardener, Troy Scott Smith,

tasked to make Bodnant world class and put it on the map.

I'm passionate about Bodnant being a good garden, and I'd like to think

in 20 years time people are coming to Bodnant, being wowed.

There's another important person in the unusual management structure -

Michael's mother, Lady Ann Aberconway.

It's been my life for nearly 60 years

and I couldn't bear not to have input and know what's going on.

Over the coming year,

the trio at the helm is embarking on a £2 million improvement plan.

When Troy began working at Bodnant in 2006

he couldn't believe his luck. He'd visited the garden as a boy

with his family from Yorkshire and worked here as a student.

It was always his ambition to return.

The first thing that you see at Bodnant is the view, isn't it?

And I think that's what strikes many visitors.

And the lasting impression

is this fantastic view over the mountains of Snowdonia.

You know, it's a fantastic setting.

Those terraces are just amazingly designed.

And then from that transition between that formal garden

and the very dramatic, yet highly artificial dell.

You know, where you've got this tumbling torrent of the river,

the rocks and the very lush planting

in between all these native oak trees.

Let's go and have a look up here.

I love these steps, that mill stone set

with the concave steps and the convex ones here.

Michael McLaren's dedication to the garden is all the more remarkable

because he gives his time for free.

He's a high-flying London barrister - a QC.

..try to get the architecture straight first.

I think the architecture here needs, to some extent,

mirror the architecture there.

If you have a focal point at the end of this grass path,

then I think one ought to do the same over there.

So, getting the architecture right then deciding on the planting might be the right way round.

I'd like to raise the horticultural profile of Bodnant,

I'd like to make it more of a well known tourist attraction in North Wales and beyond.

I would also like to

be making more of a profit so that we can spend more on projects,

more on garden equipment and put more away

for the rainy days which are likely to come.

Over the next 12 months, there will be great change at Bodnant

in the way the garden looks and in the way it promotes itself.

Work has already begun in some areas.

The upper rose terrace has been transformed from shabby looking beds

into a stunning display of 34 varieties,

flowering from June to September.

Lady Aberconway lives for a large part of the year at Bodnant Hall

and enjoys spending time in the garden.

Sometimes, if I've been picking flowers and I've got my basket,

like now, people will say, "Oh, are we allowed to pick flowers?"

And I say, "No, as a matter of fact you can't.

"The public can't but I'm allowed to because I live here."

She came to Bodnant as the new bride of the third Lord Aberconway, Charles McLaren.

I was born in Paris, lived in London and then lived in America in New York.

And flowers were something you went and bought at the florist.

I hadn't a clue of the difference between a rose and a daffodil.

So I was dropped in at the deep end, big time.

But I loved my husband and I loved my father in law.

And I learnt a great deal, very quickly,

in order to please them.

Visitors can't visit Lady Aberconway's house

but she's glad that the garden is open to the public.

I like having the visitors, too.

I think if you've got a place like this

it's nice to share it with people.

'And it's so special and so beautiful

'that it would be absolutely mad not to have people enjoying it.'

Hello. Is this your first visit here.

It is. It's absolutely beautiful.

The terraces were laid out by my father in law when he was a young man.

And it used to be a sloping field, going down to the river.

And he carved the great terraces out of this field and put in the lily pond and the canal.

-He was a genius.

-It's amazing.

Anyway, lovely to meet you.

-Buy a guide book!

-We will.

We should have got it on the way in!

Come again! Bye bye.

In the past, there was criticism of Bodnant's lack of summer colour.

So one of Troy's first priorities was to bring in more

imaginative and colourful planting up on the terraces.

This is a border that we planted one year ago and I think it's come on really well.

We've got this lovely salvia coming through the stipa.

Nice contrast of textures there.

Also the colours, you know, you've got this slight

amethyst colour picked up in the grass as well.

It is quite a modern planting style, I suppose.

But it's one that I feel very comfortable with.

Of course Bodnant, when it was laid out,

would have been doing new things.

So there's nothing wrong with doing new things now, You know.

The joy of Bodnant is that we don't have to keep it at a certain stage.

Troy is very proud of the planting scheme,

approved of course by Michael and his mother.

What we did is, you know, I came up with the scheme

and I drew a planting plan out and offered it to Michael and to Lady.

And they had a few comments and suggestions at that stage.

Certainly Lady would say, you know, "Not sure about that plant."

You know, "If we have to have that can we limit how much we have?"

And so then I adapted the planting scheme.

Last year, when it was its first year, Lady had a lovely phrase.

She said, "It looks like somebody's hair hasn't been combed."

Which is a lovely sort of way to have put it.

When visitors first arrive at Bodnant,

they call at the modest little ticket office.

Now, work has begun on an ambitious new visitor centre,

more in keeping with the character of the garden.

Bodnant received European funding to transform the whole entrance area.

They're using local materials, Welsh stone and slate.

Because we're hoping to have lots more visitors we need to have

a larger visitor centre to cater for them.

It's a lot more welcoming and so on.

It's a great building. It has a wow factor.

So when they come out of the building and into the garden

they're already half saying, "Wow." They'll say wow even more as they come out

onto the range and see the Carneddau mountains ahead of them.

It sets the tone for their whole visit.

They're hoping a royal visit will mark the start of the new era.

Prince Charles is coming to Bodnant and, with luck,

his visit will coincide with the completion of the visitor centre.

It does give the garden good publicity which obviously one always wants.

And it makes people who maybe haven't been to the garden think,

"Oh, well, if Prince Charles has been there, maybe we ought to go."

And that's no bad thing.

When Bodnant Hall was built in 1792 there was no garden.

A hundred years later,

the industrial chemist Henry Pochin bought the property

and planted the great conifers to create a spectacular woodland walk.

Well, that was the cedar which old Pochin put a sign on to say 1874

as if he had planted it when he bought the place.

Actually it was clearly older than that. He was trying to aggrandise himself a bit.

Pochin's daughter Laura married the MP Charles McLaren

and became the first Lady Aberconway.

She was a talented artist and gardener and her designs

still provide inspiration for her great grandson Michael and for Troy.

The amount of effort in construction that must have gone on,

but still the attention to detail.

There's all the building work going on but there's also really choice plants at the same time.

Your grandfather was collecting his plants and also building things. Quite incredible, really.

It's incredible that it was done without JCBs or anything like that. All manual labour.

There's pictures of masons working along the wall.

So that was May 1905. Gosh they got on with it, didn't they?

Because they didn't start until not long before that.

Three generations of the Puddle family,

all head gardeners, helped realise the vision.

Those are the beds where Charles Puddle was saying that they used to have tulips,

with the roses to provide colour.

We bought some last year so we can plant them out in spring.

Oh, good!

Bodnant was a world renowned garden.

It still is, but it's lost some of its gloss.

And it's just a case of putting that back now.

So that's what we're all working towards.

The garden has come in for some strong criticism

from outside Bodnant, too. It's most vocal critic

has been the Times gardening correspondent Stephen Anderton.

He's here today to research his book on the Great Gardens of Wales.

I think Bodnant has needed a bomb under it for a long time.

Beautiful though it is, you know, it's been dying on its feet.

And you look at a garden like this and you think, "Oh, isn't it delicious?"

And if you're used to running gardens you realise what a slippery slope it's on.

It's an old man's garden, you know?

Nothing getting thinned enough.

Scratty, moth-eaten old conifers were being hung on to.

Big trees were getting so out of scale

with what was wanted underneath them

that the kind of gardening underneath couldn't survive properly.

Michael McLaren is taking these harsh comments to heart.

It's his criticism of it being an old man's garden

or old person's garden which I don't think is fair.

It's presumably a criticism of my father,

who was an old man at the end of his life, he died aged 89.

If what Steven Anderton is basically saying is that there are areas

of the garden which are over mature and need to be revitalised,

I'd entirely agree with him.

And indeed I've been saying for some time.

And that's exactly what Troy and I are now trying to do.

Stephen acknowledges that Troy's professionalism has improved Bodnant,

but he's still sceptical about the hereditary donor family's role

in a National Trust Garden. Troy disagrees.

I think we benefit now from Michael directly managing the garden.

I think we do definitely have the upper hand

-rather than being just a Trust garden.

-Why?

I think because his family made it.

There's that phrase we both know, the ancestor worship garden.

Are you saying just his genes will keep it on the same tracks?

-What's he actually adding?

-I think it's passion, isn't it?

It's passion rather than a garden advisor saying, "Once a year do this, do that."

I think having somebody whose family made the garden...

-I think passion's bollocks, Troy.

-Do you?

I really, really do! I think you have to...

You have to have some gut excitement about something

and you have to be really, really rational.

With the knowledge that he has got, allied with mine,

with Lady Aberconway's, with the team, I think up until now

I think we've made some good decisions as a collective.

Stephen's book won't be published for nearly a year.

It remains to be seen whether Troy has convinced him

to change his mind and give Bodnant a good review.

Meanwhile, Dave Edwards the operations manager

takes a call to confirm the date of Prince Charles' visit.

It's exactly the high profile publicity Bodnant needs.

But they're going to have to get cracking. It's in 10 days time.

We've had many visitors come to the garden who we regard

as special, although all our visitors are special.

But as far as a royal visit is concerned, this is new to us.

There is one person here who's welcomed royalty to Bodnant before.

This is when the Queen and Prince Phillip came to Bodnant in Jubilee Year.

It was our last royal visit.

What I do remember about the Queen

was we had to fly the Royal Standard from the house.

And we found a flagpole and I remember waiting for them to arrive.

And the moment they came into the forecourt the flag was flown.

I remember thinking, "I really...I can't handle this."

It was just so exciting.

These are the trees that the Queen and Prince Philip planted.

And Prince Charles, when he comes,

is going to plant one exactly the same very nearby.

There's lots of work to be done to get the garden ready for the visit.

Truckloads of freshly prepared mulch to be spread on the beds.

Pruning, weeding and clearing.

Every area of the garden has to be perfect.

The daffodil season is almost over and the staff are busy deadheading.

It usually takes six weeks,

but with the royal visit approaching they've got to speed up.

So, all 20 gardeners have been drafted in

and even some office staff.

Extra pair of hands!

We try and drag everybody in even the operations manager!

Even the operations manager!

Troy introduced the policy of deadheading daffodils when he arrived at Bodnant.

Is there a technique?

As quick as you can, both handed.

It really does help with the flowering.

I mean, we've been doing it three years now

and we have noticed the difference.

Prior to that, the flowering was really diminishing.

There wasn't really much of a show.

You've got a lot of leaves but not many flowers.

It's a job no one loves - especially supervisor Dave Larter.

It's an awkward position, that.

I could do with shaving a bit off my legs.

Mind numbing job really, is doing this, as well as back breaking.

It's quite nice that we're all doing it. We're all in it together.

So we keep each other going.

Dave's now worried that Troy might introduce this laborious process

for the bluebells which are out next month.

Don't suggest it to him, will you?

Me back won't take that as well!

That's this area done. You got four there, Dave.

Yeah, four. Come on, keep up!

The building work on the new visitor centre is behind schedule.

There's been a series of delays.

It's going to be very difficult for Michael to ask the Prince

to open the unfinished building.

Sadly the visitor building isn't going to be ready

so what we're going to do is ask the Prince of Wales to use his

imagination and we're going to ask him to unveil a couple of plaques

which, in due course, will be mounted in the visitor reception building.

A compromise they could have done without on such an important occasion.

Cause of immense frustration. It's nothing to do with Bodnant,

it's just the whole programme, whole project has been delayed

for causes which lie with others.

Best put tactfully, like that.

Troy and trainee gardener Fiona Braithwaite are recreating

a formal parterre garden known as the Square Garden.

Originally designed in 1876,

it was neglected for many years and disappeared half a century ago.

They're eager to finish the Square Garden before the royal visit.

Dave Edwards, the operations manager, is checking on progress.

Hi, Troy. How's things going?

Time's running out fast but you seem to have made progress.

Yeah. We've got a day and two hours I think left.

Not that you're counting.

We've done three beds today. So if the weather's dry tomorrow we can get

that one done quite quickly and then just concentrate on the planting.

Pretty pleased, really. Fiona's help, she's been a good help today.

So, yeah. All being well, one day and two hours. Well, one hour 59!

Keep ticking, we will.

Excellent, thank you.

The Square Garden must look perfect.

Fiona is meticulously planting the new box trees,

making sure the space between each tree is identical.

OK. Thanks then. OK, bye for now.

Presentation is all, even for Troy himself.

Would you believe it's my wife

trying to find me a pair of shoes for Friday.

I thought, I've got a nice smart jacket and trousers but no shoes.

Usually work boots are sufficient.

But I thought I'd better have a pair of shoes so she's looking round town.

Throughout the garden, it's now all about the detail.

Every blade of grass must be removed from the paths where Prince Charles will be walking.

Got to tidy everywhere you can see. The path the Prince will be taking

on Friday, got to make sure that they are nice and tidy and clean.

Even though he might not notice a lot of them.

Back in the Square Garden there's a problem.

Troy and Fiona have nearly finished planting the box trees

but there's a five centimetre difference in their measurements.

It's a significant margin of error.

Someone is going to have to replant.

I got called away a little moment ago to look at computers.

And so, in my absence, Fiona's put them in

at a different measurement to mine.

Not critical, we're only talking a few centimetres.

But we want to get it right so really just deciding now whether

we leave it as it is, a few centimetres out, or whether we

just take the plants back out and replant them spot on.

You won't notice it but we know that it's wrong.

And you can see, even though its only five centimetres,

that five centimetres will make a big difference because everything's got to be so exact.

So I think the decision is to move my few.

Move yours? OK.

The big day has arrived at Bodnant.

The garden is gleaming, ready for the Prince.

The box hedging is planted to perfection

and every last blade of grass has been removed from the paths.

I've walked the route, hopefully everything is OK.

Everybody's in place.

It appears as though it's going to be a lovely day,

which is what we've been praying for for the past week or so.

It's business as usual for most of the staff.

Bodnant is open to the public,

who might be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of royalty.

Troy is making sure that everything's ready

for Prince Charles to plant the commemorative tree.

As you can see it's...it's a...

it's a young version of the two that we've already got there.

Those two were planted by his mother and father back in 1977.

So they're quite slow growing.

But very attractive shape as you can see up here,

the arrangement of the needles is nice.

Hopefully this one will have a chance of catching up.

Maybe in 30 or 40 years time this one will be the size

those are and these two might not have grown ever so much more.

So the balance should correct itself.

And here's the sign.

Must give it a polish, I suppose. I think that will be a...

a fitting sign for the tree.

As the security team makes its final check over the garden

there's great anticipation on the ground

as the dignitaries prepare to welcome the Prince.

And Troy's wife delivered the new shoes.

Important day, isn't it? It's nice to make the effort.

We've worked hard presenting the garden.

Just as important, I think, to present ourselves smartly, too.

However smartly dressed the guests may be,

they can't avoid the embarrassment of the unfinished visitor centre.

But Michael couldn't be happier.

He knows that a royal visit will attract a lot of publicity

and raise the profile of the garden.

The Prince is in a chatty mood

and two visitors are in for a pleasant surprise.

-I'm sorry we're interrupting you.

-It's a beautiful garden, isn't it?

Isn't it wonderful?

-We come up so often because we only live 10 minutes away.

-Oh, do you?

I knew I'd come you see the time when they'd all say I should have come next week!

THEY LAUGH You should come more often, actually!

He was so pleased to see us and asked if we came often.

And we said we do because we live in Glan Conwy.

-It's been a lovely experience this morning.

-Unexpected as well?

Never spoken to royalty before!

You're still all right? The back's all right?

-Yes.

-No knee injuries?

-Yes.

-I look after this area, all the way up to the hall.

-Marvellous.

-I hear there's all sorts of new things being done.

-Oh, there is.

-Yeah.

-So, you're now going to have to plant the yew hedges again?

-Oh, yes.

It was also very nice for the Prince of Wales to take the time

to acknowledge their long service and to indicate just how vital it is

that you have people who are prepared to devote their lives

and thereby accumulate a wealth of experience to gardens.

And to produce gardens as wonderful as this.

-Where does it come from?

-A nursery in Scotland.

Troy's big moment has arrived,

as Prince Charles plants the commemorative tree.

Three for luck.

Wonderful.

APPLAUSE

Troy is pleased to introduce his wife and young son to the Prince.

-Thank you very much.

-First one?

It was nice wasn't it?

Much more relaxed than I thought it was going to be.

But it's much more tense as the heir to the throne

prepares for his final duty of the day.

He can inspect the plan for the visitor centre

but there's nothing more than a plaque to unveil

on some rusty scaffolding, though he's much too polite to comment.

APPLAUSE

PEACOCK HONKS LAUGHTER

Luckily, George the peacock is there

to attract attention away from the unfinished visitor centre

and the press has something perfectly finished to snap.

Yes! It's all over!

It's been absolutely fantastic to have him here.

Everything seems to have gone very well.

He thoroughly enjoyed it, from what I get feedback wise.

It was a great day.

The trepidation was not needed because he put one at one's ease.

One thing he kept on mentioning, time after time,

was all the mulch which had been put on the beds.

And I must say I've never seen so much mulch on the beds at Bodnant.

I wish he came more often!

At Bodnant Hall there are new memories to treasure.

I'm doing a scrap book of the Prince of Wales's visit to Bodnant.

I do lots and lots of scrap books.

This is a special one of royal visits.

There's Troy. He was terribly sweet.

He said, "Do I need to get dressed up?"

And I said, "Absolutely, and shave!"

And he was the smartest looking man there. He looked great!

A great honour for the garden

because he is such a very keen gardener

and I think it must have been a lovely experience for him.

He swears he'll come back again, but who knows?

It's really set us up, I think, good for the season.

It's created a buzz around the garden,

created a lot of interest in the press and locally.

And so I'm quite excited actually about this year ahead.

We'll have a springboard now, due to the visit and the fact

that we're developing the new building and projects in the garden.

I think it will be an exciting time.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

E-mail [email protected]