Episode 12 Gardeners' World

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Hello, boy.

Hello.

Hello, and welcome to Gardeners' World.

Well, spring has definitely moved into summer,

and it's brought with it

the most fantastic display of flowers here at Longmeadow.

I don't think I've ever seen it look better.

But as well as enjoy it as much as possible,

I'm also now planning for later in summer.

So, in tonight's programme,

I will be planting up containers for late summer colour,

working in the borders to make sure they come through well,

as well as planting out my tender vegetables.

Now, Carol too is thinking of later in the year,

and she's answering some of your dilemmas about propagation

by giving us a masterclass in softwood cuttings

down at Glebe Cottage.

It's so satisfying

when you see those little roots coming out of the bottom of the pot

and you know that your cuttings have been successful.

There's no question that one of the highlights

of last weekend's celebration was the flotilla down the Thames.

Rachel de Thame designed the floral decorations for the royal barge.

And we followed her preparations as she got ready for the big day.

It's a really huge team dedicated to make this happen,

and I'm just honoured to be one of them.

Before we do anything else, just have a look at this,

because these Meconopsis are giving me so much pleasure at the moment.

I bought these plants at Malvern last year.

It's Meconopsis sheldonii

and they have the most wonderfully electric,

slightly chilly blue flowers.

The idea is to get them to spread, but I'll do the propagation later.

But for the moment,

I'm just revelling in the beauty of their flowering.

These pots in the wall garden were planted up with tulips in November.

They flowered beautifully,

completely happy with their performance.

But once a tulip's done its stuff, it's a pretty raggedy affair.

There's a great debate

about whether to treat tulips as annuals or perennials,

and I think in a pot, you should treat them as annuals.

They do their stuff, they're fantastic, and then you move on.

But if I want to be able to reuse them at all,

I need to take them out carefully.

You want to try and leave the foliage on tulips if you can,

cos that's going to feed back into the bulb.

So, just the same reason as you don't cut them off when they're in the ground,

try not to break them when you're lifting them out of the pot.

This is a variety called Nicholas Heyek,

which had a slightly creamy cast

but were fundamentally white.

Really good tulip.

It's important to look after these tulips

to get the best from them next year.

The best thing that you can do is to keep them warm and dry.

They come from very shaley hillsides with baking sun,

and you need to replicate that - above 20 degrees, if you can.

Now, you'll see in here there are a number of different bulb sizes,

and we got an e-mail from Kathleen Brassington - I've got it here -

who asks whether she can grow on her small bulbs.

"How should I keep, look after or store them

"so they grow big enough to produce flowers?"

Well, like this, Kathleen.

When they've dried out, separate them out,

so you can see that this big bulb here

is going to be your main flower for next year.

Put the smaller ones into pots, label them

and grow them on in a sunny place next year,

taking off the flower heads as they come.

And then after about three years - it can take that long -

they will bulk out and produce really strong flowers

that you can use that bulb and plant it where you like.

Now, the tulips gave a really dramatic display,

but if you've got a big pot like this, you need drama.

And what I've got here is certainly going to do that.

This is a tray of annual climbers.

They're tender,

but they will give a really good show later on in summer.

I've got two types.

We've got Ipomoea 'Morning Glory'.

Now, this flowers for early in the morning,

they last till the afternoon, then the flowers die.

Next day, it does it all over again, and it'll do it every day for weeks on end.

But what I'm going to use for this pot is this -

it's Cobaea scandens, the cup and saucer plant.

It has beautiful flowers.

They start out white and green, and then as they age,

they turn a sort of mauvey purple.

Very dramatic -

and will grow to 20 feet tall,

from seeds sown in March or April,

and then they hit their flowering stride in August,

right through to the first frost.

They like a slightly more moisture retentive soil than the tulip,

so I want to swap the soil around a little.

A little bit more out.

There we go.

Now, this is sieved garden compost.

Annuals do all their work in one go, so they need food.

So, the best start we can give 'em, the best display we'll get.

Now, I've put six canes in to give it a bit of structural strength.

But in fact, I'll only put in three plants and that'll be plenty.

One plant would do the job.

But I'm going for overkill because I want maximum effect

AND because I've got the plants.

Packet of seeds gave me about 20, so I'll have some spare.

And I'm going to bring some along to Gardeners' World Live for the Living Wall.

That will have three aspects.

There'll be sunny, shade and a wildlife aspect.

So, if you've got any plant that would fit that bill,

and practically every plant does, then bring it along.

Got some spares, bring 'em along to Gardeners' World Live

and then we can add them to the Living Wall

and we'll build up this fantastic vertical garden.

Right, my vertical gardening is about to be fantastic.

I will keep that well watered, giving it a good soak

at least once a week, and if it's very hot, almost daily.

And then by late summer, it should be smothered with leaf

and, of course, those fabulous flowers.

I grew these from seed, but you can take cuttings in late summer,

and then overwinter those,

so I'll probably do that and use that as my stock for next year.

Talking about cuttings, Carol is down at Glebe Cottage,

answering all your questions on how best to take cuttings at this time of year.

It's just at this time of year that lots of we gardeners

think about taking cuttings from our plants,

and we've had loads of inquiries from viewers.

Miss A Moscrop from Northampton wants to know,

is it really important what time of year she takes her cuttings,

and does she put plastic bags over everything?

And she wants to know about lavender in particular.

But Colin Stanforth, from Northumberland,

has made an inquiry that's a bit more specialist.

He wants to know how you take cuttings of clematis.

Well, one of the reasons for taking cuttings of plants

is that you get uniform plants.

What you're creating is clones. There's some ideal material here.

Just little, short, stubby shoots

that are strong and robust.

And it's got a heel.

All I've done is actually pulled it from the plant.

So, if you nip the top out

to get the cutting to concentrate on making roots,

rather than spending all that energy going upwards.

And then just neaten the base of your cutting up,

and then just gently dibble your cutting in close to the edge.

Clay pots are porous,

which means these cuttings are going to drain really well,

and they need some air in there to take root.

So, you want nice, gritty compost.

And then what I'm going to do is dress the whole thing...

with some grit.

Keep weeds down, keep moisture in.

That's it.

I'm going to give it a thorough drenching

with a fine rose on my watering can.

But I'm not going to cover it with a plastic bag.

Sometimes that's a good idea with very fleshy leaves,

to keep the turgidity in the cuttings.

But with soft-leaved subjects, you're just encouraging rot,

so leave it alone.

You can do these sort of cuttings with sages, lavender, rosemaries,

all those sort of things, and lots of perennials at this time of year.

But clematis is a bit different.

In this case, you take your cutting internodally,

so in-between those two nodes.

And I'm going to cut it right back to there first of all.

And then this is the most important piece.

I'll cut it in-between the nodes

and we've got two brand-new clematis there.

I'm just going to plunge that right down in this pot

until those buds, that join,

is actually flush with the top of the compost.

That's really important

because the cutting will actually start making new roots

from just below that leaf node.

It's easy to increase most shrubs at this time of year too.

This is a beautiful Sambucus, an elder,

called 'Thundercloud'.

And it's full of lovely young shoots which are just right for doing this.

At this time of the year, wood on a shrub like this is quite soft -

you can bend the whole thing over -

and people refer to these as softwood cuttings

or sometimes greenwood cuttings.

So, all I want to do is snip right under there.

Big, beautiful cuttings.

Get them straight into the plastic bag

so they stay lovely and turgid and fresh.

Cut with a really sharp knife below a leaf node,

making a cutting a few inches long, and nip out its growing tip.

A pot this size will accommodate four cuttings comfortably.

Make holes with your dibber, right up to the edge of the pot.

Push each cutting in to below the bottom pair of leaves.

If you can provide bottom heat, it'll root rapidly,

but if you can't, just water it well

and make sure it's in a place where it's not in full baking sun.

Well, this is an example

of what that's going to look like in a year's time.

These were exactly like that - little short cuttings.

I'm just going to turn it all over.

Oh... Oh, look at that!

So, each one of these is going to be its own little shrub.

So, all that remains to do is to split them up.

And as long as each one ends up with plenty of root,

it should establish really well.

And even though they're in full leaf,

because they've got such established roots,

they'll hardly know that they've moved from one pot to another.

Let them establish in the pots for...oh, a couple of months

and then you can put them straight out in the garden.

And next year, you'll be able to take cuttings from them.

This time of the year, the garden's so bountiful.

There are so many plants you can take cuttings from,

whether it's perennials, sub-shrubs, shrubs themselves, or climbers.

And it's so satisfying when you see

those little roots coming out of the bottom of the pot

and you know that your cuttings have been successful.

I like the way the Jewel Garden is looking.

It's got real pizzazz and zing to it,

and yet still the colours are sumptuous and full and elegant.

And at this time of year,

this is where the famous Chelsea chop comes in.

Now it's called the Chelsea chop because the chopping

happens after Chelsea Flower Show which is always the end of May.

The Chelsea chop is pruning in order to extend the flowering period

of certain herbaceous plants, for example,

this Lysimachia, this is Lysimachia ciliata 'Firecracker'.

It has lovely chocolate leaves and then they have

small yellow flowers and they appear round about July

and will last for a month to six weeks.

but if I cut it back or parts of it back,

I can stagger that flowering. That applies to any of the late-flowering herbaceous perennials.

If you cut some of them back now,

you stagger the flowering and make it last much longer.

Now, of course, there are different ways of doing that.

If you've got a big clump like this, you can cut parts of it back.

so what I could do is take this area here,

and just cut it in half.

Cut across...

..and take handfuls and I'm just reducing it by half its height.

It's going to stimulate more side shoots.

Those side shoots will have flowers,

so there'll be lots of flowers but they'll take time to bud up.

So, when those are flowering, those buds won't yet be open,

but when those are dying down,

these will start to flower and that will grow up,

so immediately I've just got a bit of rhythm and extended the work.

Now what I could do, if I wanted to go even further,

is go across to this side,

and cut it harder, right down to the ground.

Now immediately this one clump has got three phases,

three phases of flowering.

Now by cutting the Lysimachia back, I've revealed the Helenium,

so I can see that more clearly.

Heleniums are a very good subject for the Chelsea chop.

You can see this is growing nicely

and will grow up to about this height,

but if I was just to take a little bit out,

that will stagger it cos I've got other Heleniums in this area.

I don't need to worry about where I cut, just take a handful,

and just trim off the top, like that.

I'll get more flowers as a result

but they'll come a week or two later..

..and you could do this just as easily with sedums, with phlox,

with Echinacea.

Any of the late-flowering herbaceous perennials

will respond well to this type of treatment.

Now the biggest event this season, if not this year,

was the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and whilst we all shared in it,

Rachel took an active role because she designed the floral display

on the Queen's barge in the flotilla last weekend.

We followed her progress as she prepared for the big day.

This is, without doubt, one of the most exciting,

but also most daunting projects I've ever tackled.

Certainly for the last seven-and-a-half months

I have been living, breathing, even dreaming about the Queen's barge.

It's taken over my life completely

and one thing's for sure, there can be no second chances.

It's got to be absolutely perfect on the day.

And at over 200 feet long,

this barge, called the Spirit of Chartwell, dwarfs these polytunnels.

With a team of planters and florists,

I've been in secret to adorn her with over 1,000 plants

and 90 floral garlands.

The deck is being embellished with plants and includes those

that represent the national emblems of the British Isles.

The side rails are being festooned with vibrant cut flowers.

At the stern, there'll be

a traditional knot garden of clipped box.

'To help bring my designs to life,

'I've enlisted the help of artist and designer, Kitty Arden.'

Kitty, it's so nice to see some colour, cos it's been so rainy.

-Fabulous! So these are the flowers for the garland.

-Yes, these are.

These are English garden roses, very nice and heavily scented

-and absolutely fabulous.

-Which is exactly what we want, isn't it?

I was initially a bit worried about these being a tiny bit pink,

but, actually, I think when they, with the peony...

-It'll make it a little bit darker.

-..it'll work.

I must say, the garland...

-because this is one we made for a trial on the river...

-Yeah.

..several weeks ago, and though it's dried to a crisp,

-it still looks pretty good.

-Even dried, it looks fantastic, I think.

I'm very pleased with that.

Of course, if it rains,

everything in the garland will thrive in the rain,

so we're not worried about that at all.

I'm feeling very positive about this, about this aspect of it.

I'm going to have a look now and see

how Mark's getting on with the knot garden.

Mark Fane, who's renowned for building gold-medal-winning show gardens

is mocking up the knot garden, here on the nursery,

before it's moved aboard the barge.

Dare I say, Mark, I can see a knot garden emerging?

I think so.

We were going to leave it until we get it on the boat to clip it,

-but I think you can get a pretty good feel...

-Yeah.

..for how the shapes are beginning to emerge.

This is looking good - I'm pleased with that.

-Excellent.

-I'm slightly more concerned about how we're going

-with the planted beds on the lanterns.

-Absolutely.

-Let's go and have a look at our plants...

-I agree with that.

-..and rather lack of flowers.

-We'll have duck and dive a little bit

on the plant selection, but we've got lots to choose from.

-As long as we represent all the different parts of the country, then we'll be fine.

-Yeah. OK.

Well, I'll give you hand and we'll try a few of these things out.

I think that will work very well, actually.

I think the height's looking good.

All we need now is to make sure it's in flower on the day.

Mark, it WILL be in flower, reassure me!

Yes, boss!

You heard it. It's on tape.

In a secret location, two days before the pageant,

the Spirit of Chartwell is undergoing its transformation into a royal barge.

'Since last autumn, a dedicated team of artists and craftsmen

'have been working towards making it the centrepiece

'of a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle.'

It's so exciting, the adrenaline's really pumping,

and I think we all feel it's coming along now, we're getting there.

I think if we have got enough, we could put them a smidgeon closer.

'Thankfully, all the flowers are in bloom,

'and Kitty Arden and her army of florists

'have been working round the clock

'to make up the garlands and the other floral arrangements.'

We've stuck to these colours of the rich red, with the peonies,

and coming through into the roses - this one is called Munstead Wood.

We've got lots of lavender, so we've got fragrance.

I really wanted it to be perfume for the Queen when she's on board.

We've got achillea here, which just brightens everything up.

'The plants are being glued down to stop them moving at all

'while the boat is in transit.'

The Thames is an aggressive river.

I'm not going to watch on television one of our roses just keel over.

Then we've got the two thrones here

for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

I'll do a bit of snipping later,

just to make sure there aren't any stray bits

that are peeking out behind people's heads.

I think it needs to come down a little bit.

That's it, a little bit more.

-Down a bit?

-Come and have a look.

It looks really fantastic.

One thing's for certain,

the eyes of the world are going to be on this royal barge

when we come to the pageant and it's incredibly exciting.

It's also been a labour of love for so many people.

It's a really huge team dedicated to make this happen.

I'm honoured to be one of them.

'The Royal Standard being raised to show the presence

'of the Queen.

'The Duke of Cambridge accompanied by Michael Lockett,

'inspecting the floral arrangements,

'on the royal barge -

'all designed by Rachel de Thame.

'And aren't they beautiful?'

Well, it was certainly worth all the effort,

because it would not only have been enjoyed by Her Majesty

and everybody present on the day but millions around the world, so really well done.

Now, not nearly in the same class is my top veg, but I'm pleased with it.

It's developing.

Now certain things inevitably happen beyond your control.

That's not a bad thing, so, for example,

the parsley, which is biennial, is desperate to go to seed.

Keep nipping it off, but actually that's had its day,

and I'll dig that out in a few days' time

and replace it with new seed.

Talk about going to seed, the garlic here is going to seed,

along with all the onion crops

and I notice other people have got the same problem.

It is a bit of a problem.

You can see here seed heads forming on these shallots

and that's because we had such a wet April,

followed by such a hot, dry period in May

and that irregularity of water supply has made it

put its energy into producing seed and if you leave it,

it means that the bulb won't form so well,

so it's a good idea to take them off.

That's simple enough -

just literally take off the top, like that.

The leaves of the potatoes are fine and they've come up through the earthing up.

By the way, a little tip about potatoes

don't waste time watering them until the flowers form,

when there's a decent show of flowers,

give them a really good soak

because the energy will go into forming tubers,

whereas at the moment, it will just go into forming more foliage.

Broad beans, in flower, they will form beans very quickly.

Now I've got one side of runner beans, 'Scarlet Lady',

which I grew in pots and planted out

and the other side...not,

and the truth of that is that quite a few of my seeds I sowed in pots didn't germinate.

Now it's not too late to sow

any climbing bean or any tender bean, for that matter, directly.

Doesn't matter if you don't have plants, they'll catch up.

The soil should be nice and warm and they will grow fast.

It is a temptation always,

with any tender plant,

to somehow feel you've got to get ahead

and you've got to be early.

It's to be resisted. Much better to make use of the back end,

as they say, the warm weather we get in October

than risk the chilly weather that we often get at the end of May

or even the beginning of June.

So I'm not to worry about this.

Now those are 'Scarlet Lady'.

I'm going to put in here 'White Lady' and that should up.

So just loosen the soil off a bit

and there's plenty of muck in there that I put, so once they get going,

they'll have a good feed and two seeds to each station.

So one...

..two,

and then I'll weed out the weakest of the two.

The great thing to remember about growing runner beans

is that they like moisture, particularly at their roots,

so always add plenty of organic material

in a trench under their feet, so the roots can get down in there

and that will hold the moisture to feed them

and if you are watering your vegetables,

make sure they get it first.

Now that's only a small job,

but it's done and here are some more you can do this weekend.

The beginning of June is the best time

to trim any box hedges or topiary.

This will give any new growth a chance to harden off

before the earliest possible frost

as well keeping your garden looking really trim

all summer long.

Now is the time to prune Group 1 clematis,

such as clematis Montana, Armandia, alpina,

or as I'm doing here, macropetala.

There's no special way to prune them -

shears will do the job fine.

Just tidy them up to suit the space that you have and the new wood

will ripen and produce next year's flowers.

Squashes and pumpkins look good and taste delicious,

but they do need a lot of room and sunshine

to grow successfully,

however they can be grown in a container if it's big enough.

Also make sure the compost is really rich -

rotted manure or garden compost is almost essential.

Choose a variety that doesn't grow too big,

and then give it room

either to spill over the container and spread on the ground

or support behind it.

I've got celery and celeriac here -

both of which are to be planted out now.

I don't know why celeriac has never caught the popular British imagination.

On the continent, it's grown and eaten everywhere.

It has all the flavour of celery and the advantages for cooking of a root vegetable.

Now next Friday, we're Gardeners' World Live at the NEC in Birmingham

and I'll be there with Carol, Joe and Rachel,

so come along, enjoy the show and see us.

So see you then. Bye-bye.

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