Episode 13 Gardeners' World

Hello, welcome to Gardners' World. And tonight's programme is a full

hour-long. I'll be working here at Longmeadow, then I'm off to

Birmingham to join the rest of the team at Gardners' World Live. Along

with Carol, Joe and Rachel, I'll be bringing you the very best of the

show. There are show gardens with great ideas to take home.

Particularly love this mound where there's a tunnel going through

underneath and it's covered with wild flowers. Children just love it.

A floral marquee packed with inspirational planting combinations.

How about this one, great big black holly hocks, contrast so

beautifully with this salvia. It's really dramatic. And there might be

time for some shopping. Before I head off to Birmingham, I'm making

sure that my roses flower for as long as possible. I'm keeping my

tomatoes growing on the straight and narrow and potting up some

I'm starting off by planting a number of different dahlias.

Dahlias weren't fashionable for a long time, but I love them. They

give a fantastic range of colour and texture from July right through

doesn't really have any flowers at all, at least not in this garden,

because it's not hot enough. But it is an astonishing plant for foliage

and texture. This is a species dahlia. It's a tree dahlia. It

grows five metres tall. Here it will grow as tall as this hedge. I

will put one on the other side. That will give real structure.

This plant is a dahlia in its pure wild form. Its flowers are very

small and they're only produced if we have a long, hot summer. But

nevertheless, hundreds of incredible flowers of every shade

and form are all bred from this original plant.

Of course, dahlias are fascinating plants, because they were

introduced from Central America by the Spanish, at the same time as

potatoes and tomatoes. They were thought of as a food plant. People

bought them over to eat the Tubeers. You can eat them. They won't kill

you, but they're horrible apparently. I haven't tried. It

wasn't until the 18th century that people started to grow them and

breed from them. There's a Swedish man And ers Dahl, who started work

on them and they were named after him, zaila. So it was -- the

dahlias we love are bred from this type, which was a potential food

crop. Frost will blacken and kill this back. The Tubeers we have to

protect. They're fed by the foliage and storing up goodness. Then I

will lift that later on because I can't overwinter them in this

garden. It is amazing to think that what we grow here would have been

laid eyes upon by those Spanish adventurers, when they found the

new world. This is one of these original links

dahlias in this form, which are plants created from large and

healthy tubers, which go into the ground and bulk out and produce a

mass of flowers, completely predictable, because they'll be

from named varieties. They will give colour right from July through

to November. I've got a small selection here that will work well

in The Jewel Garden. Some of them will be very familiar. This one,

for example, is the bishop of Land aff. I remember when people were

snoby about dahlias, "We don't like dahlias, but we like the bishop of

course." It is good. It has chocolatey stems and a Ferny

foliage. The flowers are a simple intense red with a yellow interior.

The combination works well in itself and as part of a border.

Another one I particularly like is this one Arabian Knight. That's got

green foliage, much more robust, but very intense wine-coloured,

slightly in-curving flowers. Both of them superb for The Jewel Garden.

I'm going to take this to The Jewel Garden to plant out. If I can get

dahlias and various places to put them. The important thing is they

work in with the garden, but also work for dahlias. I have a few

obvious spots that I can plonk them in. I know the colour is going to

work because I picked them right. I've left that area for a dahlia. I

will balance it on the other side. When choosing suitable places for

dahlias, the soil's got to be good. They like rich soil. They respond

much better to a well composted, nice rich, well-drained soil. If

you've got a sandy condition, beef it up with compost. And also, they

want sunshine, but not scorching heat. Well scorching bright

sunshine any way because the flowers can fade. The final thing

about their positioning is dead heading. Because, you do want to be

able to get to the plant to dead head it regularly. By regularly, I

mean every two, three days. If you don't dead head them, they put

their energy into producing seed and then you lose flowers as a

result. You keep dead heading dahlias, they go on and on

producing more flowers. So I need to be able to reach it. About the

furthest I can get at is in there. Other than that, most of them will

be along the edge. So, if I put that one there, and

make that the first I plant. Planting them is simplicity itself.

Pop them in the ground. The main thing to do is plant them the same

depth they are in the pot, so the tubers are buried. Chuck that out,

there you see, a nice root structure, a healthy, good dahlia

plant. Also make sure there's enough room for it to grow. Most

dahlias get to between three foot and six foot tall. They need room

for height and also to spread. Let's pop that in the ground. Now

I'm not quite ready to go to the show yet, but earlier this week,

Joe went along for a preview in the pressure is really on. The show

opens in a couple of days and this marquee will be packed full of

visitors. Now the exhibitors are putting final touchs to their

stands and detail is everything. But why go to such extraordinary

lengths to make your stand, well, stand out? The best stands will win

a prestigious RHS medal, but for these plants people is a medal the

icing on the cake or the cake itself? How important is a medal to

you? Does it matter? The medal, anybody that says a medal isn't

important is fibbing a little bit. At the end of the day, if the

public love it, then that's what it's about. They're always

important. It's recognition of what you've done over the past six

months. I come to a show like this, I want to go away with the best

medal I can. It's not always possible because sometimes you just

don't have the plants available. Wow, you have a stream in your

exhibit here, running through the middle. That's incredible amount of

work, with the moss on the rocks. It looks like it's been here for

years. We always put a lot of attention into the displays. We

want to put together plant combinations that you can achieve

at home. And we want to show the right growing conditions to grow

the plants. Have you won golds at Gardners' World Live before?

have. We have a lot of loyal customers. They actually get us

almost as excited as we do when we win a Gold Medal. Let's hope it's

gold this year and let's hope that the stream swings it. I hope so!

Now Mike, you're always at this show. You are, of course,

Birmingham City Council, so it's local to you. You got a silver at

Chelsea with a similar display. You had feed back from the judges,

how have you tweaked that to get a better medal? One of the things

they raised was an issue over a tree Fern, which we made to look as

if it had just collapsed. We thought the best thing to do was

take it out all together. What does gold or silver gilt mean to you and

to everybody who works on it and the council in general? I think

it's a reflection on everybody who works within the organisation, but

ultimately, we would like a Gold Medal. Of course, wouldn't we all!

We would! Exhibitors are always looking for new ways to attract

attention to their stands. Frank, who has travelled from Germany,

uses Origami baskets to display his I've never quite known the

difference between the two. flowers and become more of a shrug.

The other is more of a tree form. As simple as that? Simple as that.

You haven't got a medal from the RHS yet, what would it mean to get

a bronze or even a silver? It would mean a lot, definitely. We'd be

some of these guys and seeing how much work goes into these exhibits.

It's about business, of course, it's about pride, but what's

running through all these exhibits here is the passion, the passion

for plants and the passion for basil is suffering, I'll tell you

why. It's because of moles. There's moles get in here in the bed,

rummage around and -- and very often they collapse when I hit a

mole hole. He comes in, hits the wood at the edge and turns right or

left and runs down under the basil. In the morning, when I come in,

it's as though someone's been pulling the basil out. That darn

mole is uprooting it. It's never getting a chance to grow properly.

I don't want to kill the mole. I like the idea of them. But I really

tomatoes. I do this about once a week, looking to take outside

shoots. Side shoots on tomatoes are actually very clear. You have a

leaf and the main stem and the side shoot grows in the gap between the

stem and the leaf at 45 degrees. There's a good example. You can

just usually just flick them off like that with your fingers and

pull it off. Keep a sharp knife with you, if it doesn't want to

come, cut it cleanly, rather than ripping the stem. The reason you do

that is because when you're growing a cordon, you want just one stem

going up, foliage and then truss of fruit. If you have side shoots,

it's trying to become a bush. Those side shoots are very vigorous.

Although they can bear fruit, they don't bear as much fruit as if the

stem is controlled. Now, if you look here, at the back, I've left a

side shoot. That's no more than about ten days old. It's already

bigger and stronger than the stem that it's shooting sideways off.

It's developing its own side shoots. You can see that's a problem that

compounds and very quickly you can risk breaking the main stem. It's

falling. The whole thing becomes unruly. So I will cut that O I

won't attempt to break that with my fingers. Using a sharp knife, get

across sooner or later. This tomato plant seems to have lost its leader.

It has stopped at about a foot high. I love just about to pinch of that

side shoot. If I leave it to grow, it will become the leader. The

great thing about tomatoes is they are tough and they will regenerate.

If you break one, met the next side shoot that forms below the break-

point form past it and there is your new stem. When you grow

tomatoes as cordons, that is supported by a straight cane or

poll, it is important to tie them up regularly. Use the soft twine.

You do not want to cut into the tender growing to sue. If you do

not tie them up regularly, they bend and it is hard to straighten

them. I have snapped a really beautiful plant in two. It is a

regular job. The family vegetable garden is starting to provide

produce for the table. It is based on a four bed quotation. One for

carrots and celery, another potatoes, a third brassicas, and

the last has peas and beans. As for the beans themselves, they have

been a fantastic harvest. I like to eat broad beans when they are young.

That is a lovely sized board been! They are really delicious. -- broad

bean. You can still get the best from it. The secret is to peel it.

Like that! I think that is too big to cook and eat like that. If you

parboil it, it has a leathery skin. Peel it off, puree it, add a bit of

oil, add garlic and pepper and it makes a really nice dip. Even the

big ones, without the skin, they autumn and winter should be planned.

If you have not planted cabbage seeds, it is not too late. Once the

young plants are sturdy, lift and transplant them to their final

growing position. Now, this bed in the new vegetable garden is for

brassica. At the cabbages in here. It has had a bit of a compost as

the dressing. Before you plant cabbage, it is important to make

sure the soil is firm. If you know you're going to plant them, tread

it down with your feet. Firm it down like that. What we want to do

is get the roots really firmly established. It makes a big

difference to the stability. These have grown well. Take a couple of

plants out. Where we have a weedy one, we can ditch it. That is fine.

Do not let these dried out to match. Make a hole, get this in. Put it in

deep and as firm as possible so the roots are anchoring it in. These

plants of big and heavy and they can topple over. If it is firm they

will not be stressed by moving around too much. I find this really

exciting. We are planting cabbages for the winter - a product of a

little packet of seeds we had. That continuity is great. As well as the

pleasure of knowing they are going to be well-grown and we're eating

them fresh from the garden. You can also see how the runner beans I put

in a week or two back have mostly germinated and are growing well.

Where they have not germinated, I can move the second one to fill a

gap. The one thing to watch out for, in summer, with cabbages or

brassica or any kind, is the cabbage white butterfly. As soon as

you see that, you know it is laying its eggs. Caterpillars will eat

your brassica. Net it as soon as you plant them or just keep an eye

on it. If you see caterpillars, knock them off. If you do that

every day there is no problem at all. You do need to be around and

you need to do it at least every good moments, bad moments, good

bits and bad bits that you can always correct it. There is always

next year. With a show garden it has to be perfect, dead right on

the day. Rachel has been to see the show gardens at Gardeners' World

Live as they get ready for the gardens are always the big draw

with visitors. Gardeners' World Live may not have the class for the

budget of Chelsea. It does have masses of really good inspirational

ideas that would work in any garden. In his garden There is an

attractive painted, metal seat which doubles up as a plant support

with plants going over the arch. In this instance it is a honeysuckle.

Here is an obelisk with a sweet pea threaded through it. This wonderful

fragrance will surround you. That is one really good tip. Let me see

suggesting you should have the supermarket trolley in your garden

but you could use an old wheelbarrow or a series of broken

buckets and give them a second life housing a mini garden, planted with

succulence and featuring lots of Heidi holes for insects. This

garden proves that sometimes the very best thing you can do is let

natured get the upper hand. If you can have a wild space like this

summer in the garden, not only will wildlife benefit because you're

creating all these habitats, things like leaving a loch where it has

fallen, children just love it. You do not need plastic toys, you can

have fun in the garden. This Mount, with the tunnel underneath, it is

covered in flowers. It looks beautiful, benefits wildlife and

this is where we nurture the next by all means enjoyed the gardens as

a whole. Take the opportunity to explore the nooks and crannies to

see what might work in your own home nowadays, this fits the bill

perfectly. I think my top tip from this garden is, if you have to have

the building of any sort, whether it is a shed for your tools or the

Home Office, make it as attractive as it can be. There is no place to

hide it. If you can bring the plant right up to the structure, like

these, so much the better. The show has not opened and I have found

brose season. It has been quite early this year. Hopefully they

will last a long time. The worry with early flowers of any kind is

they will be over early. We need to keep the flowering going as long as

possible and keep them healthy. I pruned this one on March 11th. It

is a galloper. I like all roses. I liked them for their style,

voluptuousness, beautiful. This is single flowering. It will not

produce any more, even if you cut them off. They will produce hips.

At the back, we have got the climbing rose. She is repeat

flowering. It is well worth dead- heading or the old flowers and that

will stimulate more. If we take a flower head which is going or gone

up over, that one is one, the petals are all falling off. With

secateurs prune right back to a junction and take that off. That

will stimulate more growth and more flowers from beyond that point. Go

back as far as you need. Sometimes you have to take off the great long

stem. Dead-heading is a form of pruning. If you see it like that,

there is a logic to it. I pruned my roses hard and late to their only

just coming into flower. Two are looking particularly good. This has

lovely compact, pink flowers. This one manages to combine

voluptuousness and elegance. As neither needs dead-heading, all I

need do is simply enjoy them. Mike early-flowering species roses do

need attention right now. This rose has completely finished flowering.

It was covered with a mass of primrose yellow, a single, very

charming flowers. One of my favourites. It has completely

finished. It would be a very good time to prune it. Early flowering

roses and species roses are like ramblers. They make their flowers

on of what they produce in the previous summer. All the New Grove

-- the new growth will provide next year's flowers. If I prune now, it

will have flowers. It will help me control where the flowers are on

the bush. If I leave it, the flowers will get higher and higher

and the base will get barer and bearer. It is a good idea to

rejuvenate the shrub. You will get new growth from the base. Buchan

clear the tangle. The wood is getting cold. We can give it a

fresh start at the base. That comes out. I would like to get this done,

partly because it is crowded and tangled and it is old wood. You can

see it has lost its shape. Because I want to get new growth coming

from the base, you take the oldest first. There we go! It is all the

same, whether it is radical pinning -- pruning or dead-heading. It is

about preparing them for looking magnificent next year. There are a

number of other jobs are want to get down before I go to the show.

Now high-summer is nearly here, do remember to give your containers a

regular watering, even if it has been raining. It is also a good

idea to feed them regular -- regularly as well. I'm giving these

liquid seaweed. However, do not be tempted to feed lavender plants.

That will encourage soft, sappy growth with all sorts of problems

as a result. Give them a regular water, treat them rough and they

in flower now is agapanthus. It's great to see the colour of the bulb

that you're getting. Agapanthus flower best when the roots are

tightly constricted. But even they need repotting from time to time.

They need good drainage, so mix a peat free compost 50/50 with grit.

Pack them into the container. And if you do have to divide them,

which is a good idea to do every four or five years, put them in a

pot just the next size up - there's a lovely bee. He's come by my nose.

That likes it. Put them in a pot a bit bigger. Don't be worried if

they don't flower the next year. They may take a year or two to get

sufficiently constricted. If you're growing chilli plants move them to

the hottest spot you've got. They do like harsh conditions. I use

terracotta pots, partly because they look good, but also because

they're porous. Don't put them in too big a pot. You want the plants

to grow under a bit of stress as that way they don't produce too

much foliage, but lots of fruit. Use a free-draining compost.

A little tip about chillies and peppers, never water them after 4pm.

That way they go to bed dry and that reduces the risk of any fungal

infection. OK, it's showtime. I'll get dressed,

get cleaned up ready to go to the show. I must gather some plants to

take with me. I have a few tomatoes here. I want to bring a few bits

and pieces for the bring and buy there, see you later. Good boy. No,

no, wait there. Hello you two. How are you doing?

How's it going? Nice to see you. I've just got here, dumped my

plants and haven't seen anything at all. You have been here for ages.

And the show gardens are excellent. Really good things to see. I've

been in the floral marquee mainly and the standard is very high.

it? I'm itching to go in. Did you bring any plants? I bought a plant

on the train. It wasn't easy. I brought some cash as well. Good, so

you can buy plenty and take even more home. People are here already

and they're carrying all sorts of interesting looking bags. Let's

join them. That's fantastic. It's clematis,

isn't it? Yes. How many have you brought? Four. Are you taking them

to our stand? Yes, course I am. What are you looking for? Foxgloves.

Do you know what it is? No. It's an astrantia. My wife did. It's

beautiful. You have brought these for the bring and buy? I have. I

have about 40 of these. I have a big streptocarpus that needs

dividing. It's wonderful. Is this for the bring and buy? Yes. What

are you looking out for? I don't know. Inspiration. Gardners' World

Live, you can bet your life you Now the place is filling up fast.

People are pouring in. Before it gets too full, I want to look round

myself. There's one garden in particular that I want to see.

This is a show garden called the Spirit of Longmeadow. It's the

first time that I've seen it. It's quite an odd thing. It's like

catching sight of yourself on the corner of the street. You do a

double take and say "I know that person." It's awful live like the

one that I've got back at home. Yet, there's no one bit of it that

is exactly the same, but it has absolutely caught the basic

essentials of Longmeadow. Of course, essentials of Longmeadow. Of course,

it's quite simple. It is formal structure, you have the paths, just

like we've got and the mixture of stone and brick. Then the hornbeam

hedges and the limes behind. I say they're cracking limes, much better

than my own in the garden. In amongst that formal structure, you

have planting that is allowed to just go free. So you've got

vegetables, mixed in with anuals, with grasses, with perennials.

We've got bulbs - all working at once. Things like this geranium,

running through, sprawling and climbing with those incredible

magenta flowers. The chocolate cosmos, they have got one ahead of

us with that. Ours hasn't yet flowered. As well as The Jewel

Garden, we have hostas from the damp garden. We have the Hazel

wigwams, very typical. We use them in the vegetable garden and the

flower garden. They as a wonkiness that I like very much indeed.

A lot of these plants you can buy at the show. Some of them will be

at the bring and buy stall. Bring some plants along, then you can

exchange them, perhaps, for a piece of Longmeadow. Come any way, come

and see all the gardens and get a glimpse into Longmeadow, but here

packed with plants, but for me, it's in the floral marquee where

you can see plants in their full glory. This year, there are some

particularly exciting combinations combination, but on this stand,

it's used in a really refreshing and different kind of way. You've

got this wonderful combination of plants, different textures,

different sizes and they're all mingling together. So you come up

from this glorious one with dark blue Bratz with ak yum, a native

plant this. (echium) It's exquisite with the aquilegia. You feel as

though everything is jostling together. They're all doing it

happily, viing for your attention. Over here, how about this for

attention catching? Here the whole idea is contrast. These big black

poppies, peony flowered poppies, contrasting beautifully with this

glorious salvia. Look at those brachs. This layer makes a sort of

carpet from which arises these great big black holly hocks. It's

really dramatic, a real contrast. The combinations on this stand are

very refined. I think it's exquisite. You've come down from

this glorious acer, classic plant with these big, dark leaves, into

this libertia. What an unusual one too. Normally they have green stems.

Here they're dark and they make this lovely contrast with those

white three-petaled flowers. Across the little path to this, what can

you call it, ethereal plant. It's a North American woodlander. It

adores a shady site. Then flowing through this lovely soft line is a

plant you could never describe as being a fairy -like plant it's a

bit of I thug really. It ramps and rambles all over the show. But the

brilliant thing is how two such different plants can emphasise the

quality of their partner. Combining plants isn't just about

the way they look, it's about the way they feel, their texture and

the wonderful scents that they emitt, as you wander along this

stand with the melee of beautiful herbs, you could also of on a

Mediterranean slope, drinking in those aromas.

It's easy enough buying plants, but the magic begins when you get them

home and put them together. This is just such a wonderful arrangement

with these flat heads of akilla. And the spikes of purple saflya.

The whole thing goes together so wonder thri -- wonderfully well.

It's set off by this scintillating dahlia. That's a really bold

statement. You're not always dependent on

scent or colour for combinations, occasionally you can do something

with just one colour. Gertrude Jekyll said green is also a colour.

This stand proves that. Look at these marvellous differences in

texture, glorious leaves on this euphorbia. How about this, really

prickly, offensive, it's quite violent, this plant, it's a

relative of tomatoes and potatoes. And the shiny texture of this one

there. The whole ground floor of this stand is just decked with

Ferns and impatiens, all manner of plants. When your eyes finally

moves up to the paddle-shaped leaves of the banana, you realise

it's also all about scale. Whatever it is that excites you about the

relationship between plants, whether it's their colour, their

scent or their scale, you'll find so many brilliant examples of all

were putting their finishing touches to them. Have they changed

much? I was here yesterday. It's so interesting to see, now they're

looking pristine and perfect, and the judging of course. This got a

gold. Tony Smith has a raft of gold medals over the year. He gets a

narrative and he refines it down and he ends up with these amazing

gardens, like this. This one is about grass and man's

interpretation of the word and relationship with the word. We have

natural grass, plastic grass and rice in the bowl in the middle,

which is a form of grass. He follows that narrative through.

It's very good. There are ideas you could take home as well. This idea

of digging down and having a lower level, I really like. That would

work. The quality of the build is just fan tafrtic. It is immaculate.

We better go and see some more, hey. Rachel was on Yvonne Matthews'

garden earlier in the week. She's a regular at Gardners' World Live,

renowned for zany designs and bright colours. For me, this design

is a bit safer than her usual, but the judges obviously liked it, as

they gave her a Silver-Gilt. Congratulations, Chris, great

garden, but what exactly is a bother? In my world it's someone

who messes things up? A bother is someone who doesn't exist any more

really. They used to be a group of about a dozen men who worked around

the High Wycombe area, making chair legs for the chair industry, for

the Windsor chair industry. Why did you want to create a garden around

that concept? I was commissioned to come up a shore garden around a man

you'll worker. I was stumped. I was in a local wood at Bolton Abbey. I

came across Richard in the wood. I saw his setting, how beautiful it

was, the lovely planting, the canvas and tools. Now I thought

he's my kind of man you'll worker. You won gold and you won Best in

Show in a small garden category. Congratulations. Are you here all

gardens because it's a real garden. It's partly the hard landscaping,

which uses the good contrast of different materials, but not so

many that the whole thing becomes a muddle. I love the simplicity of

this pond. And then the planting, you have this pallet of rich

purples and bright acid greens, a bit of grey-green as well. That

combination of shrub, some of them everygreens, grasses, perennials,

roses. It works on so many levels. It won a rich live deserved civil

guilt medal. The designer of this garden,

Rebecca Govier, was aiming for a dream-like quality in her garden.

She's succeeded brilliantly, not only in the landscaping, but in the

planting, which is a wonderful pallet of soft mofz and silvery

foliage. It has unusual plants, this euphorbia, called white swan,

you don't see very often on show gardens. There's height in the

planting too. These lovely ones, which are tall, but they're airy.

You get a sense of transparency that. Height is picked up in the

wonderful stems of the trees, which are reflected in the shadows on the

wall. The garden won a silver medal for Rebekah, which is a result.

This is her first time showing a saw it yesterday. I'm delighted

that it won a Gold Medal and Best in Show. But do you think the

visitors will be confused by why this type of garden has won that

accolade? Yes, possibly. It's because this is so realistic. I

feel like I'm back being a cub at the scout camp. It all feels so

authentic here. That is hard to achieve with wild flowers and this

bivouwac. It's the execution that has won the gold and Best in Show.

I'm impressed by the show gardens this year. This kind of range from

the conceptual to this is fantastic. chatting to a few exhibitors in the

flower marquee as they put finishing touches to the stands.

The judges have spoken and awarded medals. This got the gold and best

exhibit. All the hard work paid off. Birmingham City Council will be

delighted and they were awarded a change the blue one for a brown one.

The that will be very generous of you. Thank you. Anyone bringing me

some plants? Fantastic! Really good for us to have you have cronies

from seed yourself? Yes. -- grown bees. That is generous. Fabulous!

What a well-grown plant. It is one I bought last year. I decided I

would save the seeds. I have four plants. It is really beautiful. It

is only an annual. I did not want to lose it because it was so pretty.

Those colours are gorgeous together. That goes wonderfully with your

jumper, doesn't care? Just the job! So, you have bought lots of gifts.

-- brought. Have you raise these yourself? This one especially. You

tip cuttings from a plant you bought last year and have grown

them on. What are you looking for? Something different. This is a

cutting I took in April, March. It will grow into quite a substantial

shrub with incredible blue flowers. Lovely! These are geraniums. It is

a geranium that will die after it has flowered but it is gigantic.

Huge! I am impressed with these. They're really quite difficult.

They are difficult. I lost a few. They were tiny. Thank you their

match follows. They will get snapped up. -- very much for those.

I was looking at the East. I am a horrible people who cuts my plants

and uses them in flower arranging. That is a gorgeous colour! What do

you think would be a fair contribution? I will give you a

fiver for it. That is absolutely wonderful. Thank you very much

indeed. I could be here all day. People are coming and going the

whole time. To choose the right plants from Longmeadow, I need to

browse around the flower marquee. I have come with a purpose. There are

four beds which need planting out. We want the Jewel Garden to drift

away to the edge so it becomes looser. Those are the plants I am

right for that piece of the garden. When you are choosing plants,

listen to your gut. If a plant feels as if it will be the right

thing in the right place, it almost certainly will. The small flowers,

and the weight it tangles in through the cornflowers. Exactly

that feeling of looseness, abandoned and beauty all coming

together. The right plant in the exactly the feel and kind of plants

award for those bottom beds. They are tall, elegant. These small

flowers are on strong stems so they can mingle without crowding each

other out. If you are trying to create a gentle, drifting look, it

is important not to get too cluttered. You need plants with

height and elegance. These worked beautifully. I'm going to get some

grasses. That one is going on my shopping list. You have any? Yes, I

do. Are they as big as the show plants? They will be. They are

�6.50 each. That is 20 quid. That will cover it. Well done! 50 pence

Exactly the right thing. What alike about grasses in a border, if you

choose the right ones, they provide a sifting feel. You can see through

them. This one is perfect. I want some of those. I can put them near

the front of the border then behind, above and through, I can have more

colour. We have not got this at Longmeadow at the moment. It is

almost the perfect grass. This is very adaptable. It will grow really

tall. I love this layered sensation, that will Ide drives through them,

it dodges pass them. -- eye drifts through them. I will definitely get

that. Three each please. That is brilliant. Thank you very much

more, I cannot carry any more. I need to get back to Longmeadow and

lookout for a good plant. There is lots of shopping in the bring and

takers? This is my tomato plant, grown from seed. It is a heritage

tomato. Are you interested? It has a very funny name. It is a little

bit stripy and it is very good for cooking. Get mummy and Daddy to

cook it for you. Stuff it with something and Phuket. That is for

you. -- cook it. Are you bringing a plant? Yes. It is a deja Tardis. I

did not have time to put label on it. I have just brought my plant on

the train. You have seen it all over Chelsea this year. It is from

my garden. I have loved it, nurtured it, potted it on. Where

does it like to grow? In the sand. Good drainage. He drives a hard

bargain. Lovely! That is a bit snazzy. Are you bringing that? That

is lovely. Thank you their match. What Pink is it? -- very much. The

parent plant is well over 50 years old. It was growing in my mother in

laws garden when I was 15. My plant looked ill last year. I took some

cuttings and that is one of ah of them. What colour of the flowers?

They are white and purple. How much is that? About 50 quid. I will give

you that. Is that all right? Put it in the bucket. There are endless

retail opportunities at Gardeners' World Live. Hello. Can I just ask

you about your roses? You certainly can. Are they the same variety?

That is beautiful. I think it is a lovely rose. We had two standard to

go with it. Very beautiful. When rhubarb first comes up after the

winter, it is really nice. Then it does not really do much after that.

They have been and spindly. Next winter, dig it up and chop it in

great chunks. Even that will grow again. What have you got? It is not

just these. I have brought loads and loads of vegetable seeds. I

have got peace for flowers and that covers the flowers. That is

beautiful. It is a lovely idea. it is beautiful! I can smell it

from here. It is a beautiful rose. It is a modern roads with an old-