Episode 2 Gardeners' World

Hello. We're nearly through winter.

Beginning of next week, we've got the vernal equinox

and, officially, that's the beginning of spring.

From now on in, things just get better and better. And we've got a lot to do.

I shall be planting pots full of glorious summer bulbs

and also lifting and dividing perennials in the Jewel Garden.

Carol is catching the first flushes of spring colour in a spectacular Cornish garden.

Oh! Got it. Look at that.

And Rachel goes behind the scenes and lends a helping hand

in a garden that once belonged to one of our greatest children's writers.

I'm lifting an Acanthus spinosus here as part of our revamp

of the Jewel Garden, cos we're trying to sort the plants out.

You see, I've got under there, cut under the roots,

but they've got really fleshy roots.

And Acanthus spinosus,

which is a spiny version of the bear's breeches,

has great zigzag leaves which are very spiky,

and wonderfully rich and lustrous.

And then it throws up flowers

with a slightly sinister purplish hood over it.

But Acanthus can become quite invasive.

It's got these fleshy roots which, if they break off...

If I left that in the ground, it's a bit like bindweed, it will grow back.

I'm going to take all the bits of Acanthus out and move them to another part of the garden.

The Jewel Garden, it is the heart and the soul of Long Meadow.

And it's called the Jewel Garden partly because my wife Sarah and I used to be jewellers

and that sort of connects to our lives,

and partly because we wanted a garden that was really rich,

had lots and lots of rich, strong colours.

So there's no whites, no pastels, no pinks, in this part of the garden.

Of course, dividing herbaceous perennials is part of the upkeep

of any herbaceous border.

Some plants like Acanthus you chop with a spade.

Other plants divide much easier. I've got over here...somewhere...

..a geranium.

Now, geraniums have a different root system. If I take that out ...

We did have hundreds and hundreds of pots. All the plants came out.

You can see that... that divides up very readily.

I can make lots of plants from this.

It's like getting a piece of string and sorting it out. There we are.

We've got new bits. Put them on the ground.

Now, straight away, I've got three, four, five good plants there.

And I can either replant them in a group

which would give them new energy, vigour and much better flowering,

or I can move them to other parts of the garden, or I can give them to friends.

But there's no waste here at all. And it's so cheap.

You buy one plant and over the years,

you end up with hundreds and hundreds,

plus really vigorous flowering.

I have noticed, as I have been working through the Jewel Garden

over the last few weeks and months, that we've lost a lot.

We've lost a lot to the cold. It was minus 18 here at Christmas time

and that's uncharted territory.

I guess that a lot of people around the country will find that precious plants haven't survived,

even in places where you would think winters are mild,

like Cornwall, for example.

Carol paid a visit to Glendurgan Garden, beautiful garden down there,

Falmouth, to see how they have come through winter.

Glendurgan Garden is a beautiful Cornish valley garden

that runs down to the Helford River.

It's placed perfectly to take full advantage of the warmth the Gulf Stream brings,

which means that all sorts of exotic and special plants really thrive here.

But this year, even the might of the Gulf Stream couldn't fend off

the effects of this past harsh winter.

However, things are beginning to wake up.

There are splashes of colour here and there.

The rhodies are just beginning to peep through.

But lots of the colour comes from these glorious camellias.

This is a real beauty.

It's called Winton and its elegant branches

are just sprinkled with these sugar-pink flowers.

But perhaps this is more the sort of thing that springs to mind

when you are talking about camellias.

This lovely thing is called Inspiration.

Aren't those flowers perfection?

But it's not really camellias that I'm here to see.

It's something even more special than them.

Well, I think they're really special.

It's magnolias.

And assistant head gardener Ned Lomax is lucky enough to spend his working day

with some of the most fantastic specimens.

Just look at this.

Whoo-hoo!

It is magnificent, isn't it?

-Yes, beautiful, beautiful.

-It's huge.

You just have no idea of the scale of it until you stand underneath it.

Which magnolia is it, Ned?

This one is campbellii 'Alba'.

-From the Himalayas?

-That's right.

-How old is it?

-Not as old as you might think.

This was planted in the mid '60s.

It's a decent size, won't get bigger.

-And what you're interested in is this flower production, isn't it?

-Exactly.

They're so lovely up there, but it's a shame I can't actually see one...

Well, if I can reach, I can get you one down.

Can you? It was thinking of climbing up the tree, but...

-How's your catching, Carol?

-Oh!

-Are you ready?

-Yeah.

Oh! Got it. Look at that.

-It's heavy.

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

-Of course, beetles pollinate it, don't they?

-That's right.

Cos they were around magnolias long before bees were ever on the planet.

Millions of years they've been around, yes.

Well, I love to see it like that, but in the distance, perfect.

-It's beautiful.

-You can really appreciate it.

We're a couple of weeks behind the rest of the plants flowering in the garden.

Usually, this would be out in full flower by now. But, as you can see, it's getting there.

-Another week or so.

-Yeah. Which one is it, Ned?

-This is a long one. It's a Magnolia sargentiana robusta 'Alba'.

-Right.

-"Robusta", cos it really is strong.

-It is robust.

It's not the sort of plant that you can really imagine in...

-No, not many people have space for it, I think.

-No, they wouldn't, would they?

But we've got two magnolias at Glebe Cottage -

stellata and then Leonard Messel.

And the great thing about them both is that, you know,

-they flower from being young plants.

-That's right.

And also they are on a scale that most people could...

Yeah, exactly. They will fit in most gardens and you won't have to wait a lifetime for results.

The flower bud will take nine months to develop.

This bud has to go all the way through the coldest part of winter.

This furry cover sort of protects it. As soon as you get the sun on it,

the bud will swell and the casing will drop away.

-These just peel back.

-They do.

They are like little mice.

They're just lovely.

We're lower down in the valley. It's quite protected on all sides

and it's got its own little micro-climate.

Quite cool, damp conditions.

This is where we have chosen to make our New Zealand garden -

temperate New Zealand plants really love the wet conditions here.

Usually, this is very leafy and green and there's a lot of overhead cover, but, particularly this year,

where we have had the hard winter, some of the tree ferns are looking brown.

Quite a lot have lost all their fronds

and they look dead. This is something we get asked a lot by visitors.

"Is my tree dead because it's lost its fronds?"

-How do you tell?

-There is a simple test.

If you can get your hand up into the crown -

this is the growing point where all the new fronds will come from.

Have a good feel around in there.

-Yeah.

-There are hairy tarantula legs there ready to unfurl.

-They're solid, like knuckles.

-Curled up for winter. Once we get warm weather,

those will unfurl, push all this leaf out of the way and then we'll get a new shoot of growth on there.

Right, so for people whose fronds have gone...

What should you do if you've lost your fronds?

Don't panic - they are a lot hardier than people give them credit for.

But if you reach in and it's mushy?

-Then it's not quite so hopeful.

-Get a new one.

-Still, leave it, give it a chance, but start saving up for a new one.

-Right.

'Despite being damaged in the recent cold,

'ferns obviously love it in this part of Glendurgan,

'which is why Ned is expanding the collection.

'And guess who's doing the digging?'

You've got all sorts of different tree ferns in your new Zealand garden.

Yes, that's right. We've got the Dicksonia antarctica, which is what

most people will be familiar with. That's the hardiest one -

perhaps the only one you'd want to try much outside the south-west.

-Right.

-We also have Dicksonia squarrosa, which is this skinnier black one behind us.

Again, that's slightly more tender...

-Black and brown at the moment!

-Those should be OK. They should come back,

they're in a sheltered position. This one is more tender still, but really quite spectacular.

-This is a Cyathea dealbata, the silver tree fern.

-Oh, look at that.

That is just so beautiful, isn't it?

This is the fern that's on the All Blacks rugby kit.

-Right.

-An emblem of New Zealand.

Right, so in the right place!

I should think so, yeah.

But it's really tender, is it?

It is. It needs the best conditions you can possibly give it, really.

It likes to be cool and damp but this one really will need protection through the winter.

If you can get it somewhere with a little bit of evergreen overhead cover and just wrap it up -

make sure you protect the crown of the fern in the winter - then it's worth a go.

If you can get it to survive, it does look absolutely fantastic.

I think that's well and truly planted.

Do you know, that's the very first tree fern I have ever planted.

First of many, I hope.

I'm looking forward to coming back and seeing it up here.

-Give it a few years.

-Well, I'm pleased I did it. Thanks, Ned.

-Thank you.

Other fantastic gardens around the country

that are thriving in their own micro-climates

are the Logan Botanic Gardens in Dumfries and Galloway,

nestled in the warmth of the Gulf Stream.

This garden is arguably the most tropical landscape in Scotland.

The Portmeirion sub-tropical gardens in Gwynedd, Wales,

hold over 5,000 species, which thrive in this protected coastal gem.

And Abbey Gardens at Tresco, Isles of Scilly,

provides the perfect climate for the most tender of Mediterranean plants to flourish.

And for more gardens that are in their prime right now,

go to our website.

I've visited all those gardens and they are superb,

although when I went to Glendurgan, the magnolias were absolutely at their best.

But I couldn't grow half the plants that they grow there.

That fern wouldn't stand a chance in this garden,

so it is important to grow what will be happy where you are.

The Acanthus will be fine here.

I'm not going to enrich the soil at all

because Acanthus flower much better if the soil

is not too well nourished.

In fact, my soil is plenty rich enough, but the trees,

this lime here, and the box, will be taking some goodness from it, so we should get better flowers.

The idea in this part of the garden, which is called the Long Walk, is to have greenness.

It should be like a cool green corridor.

So we have the green of the Acanthus, the green of the box

and then the flowers will arch over.

Now, Acanthus can be divided in two ways.

The easiest way - which I shall be doing mainly,

cos I need about 40 plants to go all the way down here

and get the mass effect I want -

is simply to split it with a spade. And if I put that down there,

you can see that I could just chop.

Be brave, because it's a fairly fleshy thing.

Like that.

We've got a nice growing point, we've got lots of fleshy roots,

another growing point there.

That will make a vigorous young plant.

It has cost me absolutely nothing.

The other way is with a pair of secateurs or a knife.

You can see here I've got a bit of broken-off root.

And that will make a root cutting.

So that's the bottom and that's broken off from the plant.

Get it the right way up and when you take your root cuttings...

I can probably get two out of that.

If I just cut the bottom at an angle...

and cut the top straight...

The reason why I cut the top flat and the bottom at an angle

is precisely so that I know which is the bottom and which is the top,

because it can be easy to put in your cuttings upside down.

So all I have to do with these

is put them vertically into a pot of compost, get four or five or six around the outside of the pot,

and put it in a warm place, water it, let that grow.

That will grow into a new plant and then each one can be potted up.

It won't make a substantial flowering plant for perhaps two, three or even four years.

But that's fine. I'm gardening for the long term.

So put that to one side and start planting up the bigger clumps.

We've grown all sorts of things on this piece of ground,

from sweet peas to pumpkins to cardunes.

The acanthus will be a new development.

Over the years, you build up memories of the garden

and that informs what you do in the future.

I remember practically week by week

what I've grown here over the last 20 years. So it should work well.

Rachel has been on the road again.

She's gone to Buckinghamshire to help out in a garden,

and it's a garden that used to belong

to one of my favourite authors when I was a small child.

"You enter through a funny old lychgate.

-Rachel!

-You must be Jacky. Hello.

Welcome to Old Thatch.

I'm so excited to be standing in a garden

that belonged to one of Britain's best loved children's authors.

Enid Blyton, herself.

Yes, Enid Blyton lived here from 1929 to 1938.

And she loved the cottage, she loved the grounds,

and when we moved in about 16 years ago, the gardens were derelict.

So, what was in this space we're walking through when you moved here?

When we moved in, this was all lawn

with a beautiful old yew hedge, which we still have.

And Enid Blyton does write about

the wrens darting in and out to the nest,

nest feeding the young and then leaving,

and they still do that these days.

This is very impressive, the lavender.

Masses of it.

And it looks as though when you've cut it back,

which you've obviously done hard,

but not going into the old wood here,

you've left the seed heads so it self-seeds into the gravel.

-That's right, yes.

-You've got babies everywhere.

It's working a treat. What does it look like in the summer?

Well, as you know, plants don't necessarily come true from seed

so we have a beautiful array of colours

from the palest blue through the traditional lavender,

and even into the darkest blue at the other end.

Just beautiful.

Of course, when you think of Enid Blyton,

you think of her very famous books - so, Famous Five, Noddy.

But what else? Did she write much about this garden?

Oh, Enid Blyton wrote constantly.

She published a series of books called the Old Thatch series.

So, lots and lots of writing about the garden.

These are a really good size, these beds. All herbaceous and mixed.

Jacky, I love the way you've left this top growth over the winter,

because had you cut this back in autumn,

there would be nothing to look at.

-Look at that lovely phlomis, the shape.

-Yes, beautiful.

I like this, the Iris sibirica.

I can see you've started cutting back a bit

so you've got the grasses gone there.

What do you think about the echinops?

Do you think it's still earning its keep?

No, the echinops has probably suffered a bit from the wind.

So I think it needs a bit of TLC.

I'm glad you say that.

There's lovely new growth coming from the base.

-Shall we chop this off?

-Yes!

I'll go and get the barrow.

What do you think, shall we get in and go for that one?

Yes, good idea.

This is very cathartic, don't you think?

This is a really lovely length, this rose arbour.

-You can get lots of plants on it.

-And most of these are ramblers.

-Yes, they are.

-We have Albertine,

which is a beautiful, beautiful soft baby pink

and really full flower.

We also have American Pillar, a single flower

and it's red, with a pale base to the petal.

That spreads and spreads and flowers for a long period of time.

We have a stem here, but it doesn't look happy at all.

What do you think, Rachel?

I see what you mean. For a lower stem, it's a bit feeble.

You know what we could do,

on the other side, you've got this lovely, nice, young stem.

That's pretty vigorous.

You've got two, so we could take those down

and tie them along this way to replace this, take this one off.

-OK. Let's do it!

-Happy to do that?

The lower we can take it down, the better,

because we'll encourage all the energy

that normally goes into growing straight up

into breaking the buds all the way along here,

so we'll get lovely flowers from each of these.

Do you think we should tie another one along here?

That would really hold it down.

That's a good idea.

-Very good.

-That'll be good.

-That was an excellent day.

-It certainly was.

If I had bit more time, I'd quickly clip your Viburnum tinus,

these lollipops.

I can see a problem on these leaves.

The holes there. I'd say that's viburnum beetle.

That's interesting, because that's, at the moment,

number one on the RHS list of pests people are asking questions about.

Knocked slugs and snails right off the number one spot, so...

It doesn't look very nice now,

but once the larvae hatch, in April, May, that almost turns to lace.

If it were me, I'd probably spray it with an organic spray

but also it will help when you do the trimming,

because you'll cut off a lot of that as well.

-Yes, good.

-And clear it all away.

On a brighter note, I have got something,

-a little going-home present.

-How lovely!

-Enjoy it.

-Thank you very much. Wonderful day!

if you want to visit Enid Blyton's garden,

it is open to the public from 14th May.

Before you go, check our website for times and details of opening.

I loved those broad box hedges, they looked fantastic.

What we're all doing, whether in an herbaceous border

or in the potting shed, is preparing for a good show in the summer.

I'm making up a mix for planting lilies into pots.

This compost mix is a bark-based compost,

and I have added lots of leaf mould to it.

They prefer an ericaceous soil or compost.

Leaf mould will be fine. Neutral is OK.

If you don't use peat, which I don't,

leaf mould is a really good substitute.

If you haven't got leaf mould,

add some vermiculite to a bark-based compost. That's perfect.

And the lily I'm going to put in the pots...

is this. Isn't that magnificent?

This is Lilium regale,

which has huge great white trumpets with a sort of bruised interior.

That's quite expensive, about a fiver.

So we want to look after it and make sure we grow it as well as possible.

But it will last a long time. It's a good investment.

I've put crocks in the bottom of these pots

and just put some compost in the bottom,

and I can't over-emphasise the importance

of having light, loose compost.

Lilies are woodland plants.

They like a cool root run.

Place these carefully in, not damaging them.

Quite deep in the pot

and no more than three in a pot that size, I don't think.

And these will grow through and flower at their best in July.

One of my favourite summer flowering bulbs are foxtail lilies

or eremurus.

They don't look like bulbs at all but like mad spiders or octopus.

They come from high grassland in the mountainous areas of South Africa.

What they love is really good drainage

and lots of summer sunshine.

So I'm adding plenty of horticultural grit to my compost mix,

it doesn't matter what compost you use

as long as it's really well drained.

Plenty of crocks in the bottom of a big pot.

A layer of compost and then carefully spread these roots out.

Cover it with more grit

and put it somewhere where it can quietly grow.

I'll place it in bright sunshine

to get the maximum effect of the flowers.

Finally, I've got another South African bulb, this is eucomis,

which has got a spectacular, green, pineapple-like flower.

It's a bit tender, not as tender as we used to think,

but it won't take a really cold, wet spring spell.

So I'm going to bring it on in a pot and plant it in June in the garden.

I'm using a potting mix with plenty of vermiculite in it,

but if you're going to grow them in pots permanently,

use the same mix as you have for eremurus.

This is the perfect time to be planting up summer bulbs.

But here are some other ideas for jobs you can get on with right now.

It may not officially be spring yet,

but the weeds have already started to grow vigorously.

Now is the time to get on top of them before they get on top of you.

Especially before they start to swamp your precious seedlings.

If, like me, you have wet ground,

it can take a long time for it to dry out enough to be ready for sowing.

But if you put cloches down, it'll be ready for action much sooner.

If you haven't got any cloches,

a piece of clear plastic is a good substitute.

If you've got a cold greenhouse, it won't be ready

for planting tomatoes in for another couple of months.

You can use that time by broadcasting in the beds a salad mix.

There will give you a harvest which can be cleared

to make room for the tomatoes.

A job that I must finish this weekend

is the pruning of my soft fruit.

This area has been through various changes but it's always been edible.

I had vegetables for a while and moved the soft fruit into it,

so those plants are already quite old.

I did start the other day, pruning back these redcurrants

and you can see the sort of shape I'm looking for.

This is a good example, because it's on a leg.

That gets ventilation around it and it helps control sawfly.

They don't like wind.

And so it's open, nothing growing inwards,

I've tipped it back, a nice, strong structure,

and we'll get good new growth.

I can make these look like that.

To start with,

just prune away the middle.

Because the big problem of redcurrants,

white currants and gooseberries

is sawfly and mould.

And both of them are best dealt with by good ventilation.

Look at this.

That is dead.

We need to take that off.

Get right in there.

Now, what we have is an open disshape

with these ribs, these strong structural branches splaying out.

When you're happy it's nice and open and evenly spaced ribs around it,

and you've removed anything that's crossing or dead or rubbing,

you can start to reduce it.

Because this is a very old plant I'll cut this back hard,

because that will rejuvenate it.

If it was a young one and healthy, I'd cut it back by about a third.

Gradually, it would get bigger and bigger.

This is going to have the chop.

We'll take this back like that.

Like that.

You can see I'm leaving a little bit of new wood everywhere.

As long as you cut to something, ie. a bud,

it doesn't matter terribly,

because this fruits on...

older wood.

We probably won't have a lot of fruit this year,

but we'll have some. We've got enough bushes to see us through.

There we are.

It's not a thing of beauty, but it'll work.

It's rejuvenated, it's open,

nice, strong framework,

and the new growth will grow amazingly vigorously off that,

because it's got a good root system.

-So, I've got, what...

-HE COUNTS

12 more to do.

Lots to keep me occupied this weekend, along with everything else.

I hope you have a really good weekend in your own garden.

I'll see you back at here Long Meadow next Friday. Bye-bye.

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