Episode 22 Gardeners' World

Hello, welcome to Gardeners' World.

One of the things you can normally rely upon in September

is that the quality of light

will get better and better over the next few weeks.

As it gets thinner, it becomes more elegant somehow.

You've still got the energy and the brightness of high summer,

but there's a kind of crystalline purity that goes with it

and I love that.

Today, I will be splitting and moving herbaceous perennials,

getting them in the best shape and position for next spring.

Carol will be revelling in the enormous family of daisies

and choosing her favourites.

The daisy family offers us

some of the best and the most beautiful plants for our gardens.

And garden designer James Alexander Sinclair

has been down to visit a new garden in Cornwall

that's ambitious and expansive

both in its planting and also in the artwork it's got in the garden.

If you like plants, my goodness, you can come here and be happy for hours.

If you like art, there's enough to keep you going

and if all you really want is a wonderful walk in a Cornish garden,

then this is a jolly good place to be.

And I'll also be in the veg garden,

where I'll be planting and sewing crops that I'll harvest next spring.

Now, come and have a look at this...

..because, just this morning,

the first flower of Nymphaea 'Chromatella' -

this yellow water lily that I've put in

and it's been there all summer,

quietly growing and not doing much to be honest

and now, bit of sunshine, it's come into its own.

It's everything I wanted from it.

It's got a radiant form, but it's delicate, it's subtle,

it's got that primrose yellow

which works in beautifully with the rest of the colour scheme here.

So, I'm completely thrilled about it.

That Chromatella exceeds everything I expected. Lovely.

This is the spring garden

and for much of the summer, it's dormant

and you know, I don't come in here for weeks on end.

But round about mid-August, it starts to regrow

and its life cycle picks up, and it sort of gathers up its energy

to produce its best from January through till May.

And it's exciting, seeing familiar friends.

Slightly bonkers too, because obviously,

having a rose going right across the path,

this is Rosa 'Cantabrigiensis', lovely primrose little flowers.

But I like it. I could cut it back but I don't want to.

I like the way it's sort of leaning and slouching across.

And this euphorbia, it's got beautiful foliage,

really soft and fresh.

And of course it needs cutting back,

but I'll delay that - I'll step over it.

However, there ARE things I can do now and it would be sensible to do.

The most important is to divide and split

and replant some of the herbaceous perennials.

This will give them time to grow strongly,

so that when they hit their flowering period

next February, March and April, they'll be in a really good state.

This is Tiarella, foam flower,

and it's a really good groundcover plant, but also pretty.

It likes light shade, fairly moist woodland conditions.

See, that makes a very nice clump.

But if I did break it down,

all I do is with my hands, just pull it apart.

It pulls apart quite easily - just tease the roots out.

There's a good clump, that could be planted separately.

If I really wanted to propagate it,

each one of these will make a new plant.

I want to put a clump of Tiarella over here.

All these spring plants love a nice cool root run.

A lot of them, like the Tiarella, are essentially woodland plants.

Woods are filled with leaf mould -

as the leaves fall, that builds up the woodland floor.

It's the environment that they thrive in.

This is a perfect chance where you use leaf mould, not compost.

By the way, that is made from last autumn's leaves.

Just add that in there...

That's a nice little clump. I don't need to divide that up any more.

I can just pop that in, like that.

Little bit more leaf mould round it...

make it feel at home. And then I will water that in in a minute.

This is Pulmonaria, or lungwort.

And it was called lungwort because of the bludges on the leaves.

People thought it looked like lungs.

This one has got little blue flowers

that flower and flower from, if you're lucky,

February right through into mid-April.

And very, very easily divided up to make new divisions.

There we are, that's a good example.

There are the roots, one, two, three, four shoots on there.

I could divide those up, but I don't want to,

that makes a nice little clump.

I've got a Pulmonaria growing over here,

so I'll put another clump between that and the Tiarella.

That will just balance the planting either side of the path.

Everything about the spring garden

is about compaction and intensity - from when the first colour appears,

with the aconites and the snowdrops at the end of January,

to when it disappears at the sort of end of May.

It's really crammed in, and you want that kind of intensity,

because there's not much else in the garden at that time of year.

However, the garden designer James Alexander Sinclair

has been down to visit a new garden in Cornwall

that's ambitious and expansive,

both in its planting and also in the artwork that it's got in the garden.

When you imagine Cornish gardens, what do you think of?

You think of fresh sea air,

mild winters, a bit of bracing breeziness.

You also think of rhododendrons and camellias,

all laid out in lush spring valleys.

Well, I'm here to see a new garden near Penzance called Tremenheere.

This garden, apparently, takes that idea and twists it around a bit,

and gives it a bit of attitude, injects some very fine art

and comes up with...

Well, we'll see.

Tremenheere is an 11-acre sculpture garden

set in a deep gorge that provides two distinct microclimates.

I'm starting at the bottom,

where lush green planting sweeps the valley floor.

Well, I'm not sure what I was expecting,

but I wasn't really expecting this.

I thought it would be a bit of natural woodland,

but this is much more.

This is enchanting. This is...

It's a magic jungle in the making.

It was originally an overgrown, bramble-infested site,

but one man single-handedly decided to transform it.

GP Dr Neil Armstrong bought the site 15 years ago

when he began to tame the wild.

Well, the land came up for sale and it's so wonderful,

it was irresistible really.

I'd been looking for something as a project

and this sort of hobby has obviously grown completely out of control!

It's fine, it's just grown quietly.

What I see it as, I see you've sort of taken the natural woodland

and you've augmented it

-and put other things in there that you wouldn't normally find.

-Yeah.

There is, obviously, this friction and frisson

between the natural habitat, the native trees,

and the slightly more exotic planting

that we've found ourselves in here.

Which is more your speciality and what excites you?

I am interested in it and the integration is quite a challenge.

Keeping verdancy and keeping it reasonably simple

and natural-looking has been a recurring theme, really.

I like to think of it

as a contemplative or a sort of wild retreat

with which I can restore myself after my day's work,

and I decided to go for it, really.

At the top of the valley, above the lush vegetation

and shady woodland, the garden changes dramatically.

Mass planting of Restios sweep the natural camber of this landscape.

This is Mediterranean, South African, Mexican,

anything you like, as long as it likes sun and lots of air.

-So this is really, really hot?

-Yeah.

-And dry?

Good drainage, excellent drainage, hungry soils, quick draining,

quick to heat up and it provides me with an opportunity

to grow more structural, architectural plants en masse.

So, we've got lots of wind whistling around

and these grasses provide quite a bit of drama and movement.

The most important thing I try

to remain true to

is the concept that the planting, the landscape and, importantly,

the artwork, all harmonise with each other and complement each other.

Was that your idea right from the beginning?

When you first saw this valley, did you think, "This is what I want to make"?

To create a giant, exotic, subtropical planting

could appear an indulgence.

-A glorious and wonderful indulgence.

-Possibly, it is.

But lacking a house -

a big house, formal drive -

fantastically liberating.

But the lack of focus

is quite important to address.

And a major work by James Turrell has arrived on this landscape,

as pretty much the centrepiece of this garden,

in terms of the artwork.

'You cannot view this garden without acknowledging the remarkable collection of art.

'A James Turrell skyspace,

'currently a work in progress,

'allows you to view the Cornish sky

'in all its magnificence.'

You come here when you're not weeding, and just sit here and gaze at the clouds?

It would be quite an indulgence, but I do, occasionally.

JAMES LAUGHS

'There's also work by renowned artist David Nash

'and, scattered in nooks and crannies around the garden,

'tiny sculptures which you may be lucky enough to spot.'

If you like plants, my goodness, you can come here and be happy for hours.

If you like art, there's enough to keep you going.

If all you really want

is a wonderful walk in a Cornish garden,

this is a jolly good place to be.

Now, the garden is open

on the 15th and 16th of September.

There are details on our website.

I have to say

it does look fantastic.

Probably less artistic and romantic

is my veg garden here.

But it's doing fine,

and I'm now

giving a little bit of compost to this patch,

because I shall plant it up with some kale.

That will be harvested at the back end of winter,

but the end of winter, next spring.

I'm trying to keep the succession going.

And legumes,

which is what beans are,

are best followed by the brassica family,

which is what all cabbages are.

Look at the amount of worms in this compost!

Look at that.

Masses and masses and masses of them.

Just a top dressing of compost, like that,

which I will rake in.

Brassicas like a nice, firm soil.

I normally never tread on anything I've raked and prepared.

But by just treading over it relatively lightly - you don't have to stamp,

you firm it down, so when the roots get in,

they're held nice and secure.

Because these will be quite big plants.

Then the winter winds can blow over and rock and damage,

and that will not only potentially knock them over,

but also affect the way they grow.

Just firm that over.

I shall be planting this out. This is a new one for me.

For years, I've grown an Italian kale called Cavolo Nero.

Or "black kale".

This is called Jagallo Nero.

The only difference, as far as I can see,

is it has these much more finely serrated leaves,

which will be decorative, and look good.

I gather the taste is very good, too.

Now, I set these out -

two foot apart.

Probably get four in a row.

Kale is

one of those brassicas that the more you pick it,

the more fresh leaves come.

So you can afford to have a really big plant

and go back and back to it.

You'll probably get four or five pickings from it

throughout the course of the growing season.

Which, in the case of these,

will be about November through till May.

I sowed these from seed,

and it was in June - the 26th of June, actually.

So, two months to raise them to plants of this size.

So if you sow your seed now, it'll be too late.

However, you can buy young plants,

and those can go straight out.

A kale is a substantial tough plant.

This is red kale, and you can see this is growing well, and will get bigger yet.

The great advantage of its toughness

is it will withstand cold weather.

In fact, it's often improved by it,

and will stand prolonged cooking.

A really useful, delicious plant.

But a much tenderer one

is spinach, which is meltingly soft.

One tends to think of that as a spring or early summer plant,

but if you sow spinach now,

you'll get a picking from the young leaves

at the middle to end of autumn,

and that will overwinter,

and you'll get a fresh flush of leaves in spring.

Last year I did it, and we had a really good harvest,

from March, right through to the end of May.

I'm sowing a variety called Giant Winter.

A little bit coarser than some of the spring varieties,

but a bit tougher, too.

Sow in a shallow drill,

ideally about an inch or two inches apart,

but it's better to be too thin than too thick.

Right, just mark the rows...

Before the rain kicks in.

That timing is good,

because those two little jobs are done.

My third piece of preparation for next spring's vegetables

is under the cover of the potting shed.

It seems that rain didn't develop - it's been an odd day.

Showers, coming and going.

This is what I want to show you.

This is the spring cabbage

that I suggested sowing a fortnight ago.

They're just ready for pricking out.

If I prick these out now,

that'll move them on quickly,

and we'll get the maximum opportunity of growth

before winter comes.

MONTY WHISTLES

As a rule, seedlings are ready to be pricked out

when they've got some true leaves,

because every seedling

has a pair of leaves

that are withheld within the seed itself.

But then when roots develop,

they develop leaves of the mature plant.

The guide is, really, that they look like the mature plant.

I could put these out into plugs, and often do,

but actually, I'll fill a seed tray, like this,

and put them out into that.

Partly because you can get more in,

and also, there's a little bit more room

for root growth.

I really do want to give these

every possible chance.

There we go.

Never hold a seedling

by its stem, but always a leaf.

And just get in under, and you can see

it's got a root system.

And, if we go to a corner and start,

pop it in.

Of course, I shan't eat these

till next spring.

Almost everything I'm doing at the moment in the garden is about preparing and planning

for next year.

But Carol is visiting a garden in Sussex.

And celebrating a flower of the moment.

Dog daisy, moon daisy, ox-eye daisy.

This daisy has as many names as there are counties in the UK.

That's because it's so widely distributed.

It really is ubiquitous.

It's such a familiar, lovely plant.

Such a simple flower.

The kind of flower that we all think of as a flower and we all draw first of all.

It's a real success story and belongs to one of the flowering plant families

that's the most successful of all -

Asteraceae.

There are more than 22,750 species,

and it inhabits every corner, with the exception of Antarctica.

It's hardly surprising, with that incredible number of species,

that the daisy family offers us some of the best and the most beautiful

plants for our gardens.

Asters,

heleniums,

echinacea,

rudbeckia and dahlias

are all familiar garden plants.

And they're all daisies.

It was just 12 years ago

that Graham Gough found this site

to start a nursery and establish

a beautiful garden.

Although it has its challenges,

it also has several enormous advantages -

not least amongst them

the fact that the view is incredible.

It faces the South Downs, and this means

that the whole place is bathed

in wonderful light,

enabling Graham to grow all those plants

he's madly passionate about,

including a multitude of daisies.

Daisies are a very important part of a gardener's vocabulary.

You'd be unwise to turn your back on them, really,

and when you think of the colours that they embrace,

the height that they embrace, the richness of tone

that you get within them is almost unmatched, I would say.

Just look at that big, vivid splash of orange - isn't that beautiful?

Yeah, it's looking absolutely fantastic, isn't it?

That's of course one of the Sneezeweeds,

and it's one called Sahin's Early Flowerer,

and I think one of the best - even the Royal Horticultural Society

decided to award this plant its highest award, an AGM.

And what's so lovely - look at the tonal range through it.

I like the way it's this big plateau,

-and I love the way those petals just hang down.

-It is!

I always think they're like velvet doorknobs.

Oh, that's very eloquently put, I must admit.

What's that very quiet little aster in the background?

That's one of the American asters, that's Aster umbellatus,

and I find it an absolutely charming little plant.

It actually put itself there, self sown.

It goes to prove, doesn't it, that it's not just these big,

obvious daisies that make a garden?

Graham's planting, his use of daisies, is an education.

It's so accomplished,

but it's so easy to achieve and to kind of emulate.

If you've got loads of space,

you can go for some of these big prairie plants.

Lots of the daisies we use in our gardens are from the North American prairies.

Look at that great mass of Helianthus 'Lemon Queen' in the background.

It's a backdrop to this whole border.

It's such a straightforward plant, if you've got room for it.

And Heleniums, too - another accommodating, straightforward plant.

This time they come from one central crown,

and in early spring you can just dig the whole thing up,

use old flower stems and pull them apart

and you'll get individual rosettes.

I love Heleniums, cos every one of them is different.

So many of these prairie plants are just things we can all use.

But there's a plant down here that's from a different part of the Americas.

From Mexico, dahlias are daisies, too.

Look - the centre's just the same,

and here are these ray florets around, drawing in those insects.

Well, lots of us can accommodate dahlias,

but perhaps not some of these prairie plants,

but there are so many daisies that are just absolutely

the bees knees when it comes to small gardens.

There are lots of smaller versions of rudbeckias

and other prairie plants that'll do the trick in a small space,

but I think this has to be the perfect example.

It's a cultivar - a hybrid between

a European and an Asian species.

This is Aster x frikartii 'Monch'.

Each of these multi-branching stems sort of clears the rest of them,

so always you can see it in its full beauty.

It hardly suffers from any disease or trouble of any kind.

It is the perfect plant, and it personifies

what wonderfully useful plants daisies are.

A year ago, I took some hardwood rose cuttings.

Now, the whole point about hardwood cuttings is they do take a while to develop.

A number of you did so at the same time,

and it's interesting to see how you've got on.

And Martin Lock has done incredibly well.

Look at that - those roses are from cuttings taken just last September.

And then another letter, which perhaps applies to a more common experience,

which is that, "We took our cuttings,

"we have a number that have rooted or are in leaf,

"but what do we do with them now - do we pot them on, or do we leave them?"

Well, I would say it depends on what you intend to do with the plants that have struck.

If you're going to plant out this autumn -

and November is a good time, when the leaves have died back and they're dormant -

I would leave them where they are, don't disturb the roots.

But, if you're not sure, or you think you'll plant them out

next spring or even later, lift them and pot them up,

and that's what I'm going to do.

Right, just lift that up, try not to tread on the lettuce...

There we are, we've got a good root system in that.

You can see a really nice root system growing off it.

I don't want to disturb it too much, so I'll gently put that in there.

Now, you do need to act quite fast,

because these delicate little roots will be drying out quickly.

I've got a compost mix which has got good drainage.

They're not going to stay in these pots for very long -

six months at the most - but there's plenty of nutrition.

I'll pop that in, disturbing those roots as little as possible...

..and then potting around them.

Remember, when you're moving anything,

it's the fragile little hair roots that do the feeding,

and they're the ones that dry out quickest,

so either be prepared to stop them drying out

by covering them instantly, or else be quick.

And it is exciting to think that you can develop a new rose plant

from cuttings taken just last September.

Well, it is a good time if you are to take hardwood cuttings,

but here are some other things you can do this weekend.

Now is a good time to divide any large primulas.

Lift the plant and divide it into different sections,

each of which will make a new plant which you can set out about 6-9 inches apart.

Water them in well, and cut the leaves back

to give the roots chance to develop,

and then they will all flower next year.

Hardy annuals, like Nigella, marigolds, cornflowers, are tough,

and can be sown now for an extra early display next year.

You can either do this direct in a border where they're to grow -

but remember not to mulch over the top of them - or in a pot.

Fill it with normal potting compost, sprinkle the seed

lightly on the surface, and then put them in a sheltered place outside.

Camellias are now forming their flower buds for next spring.

If they get dehydrated, it's quite common for the buds to fall off before they open,

particularly if they're exposed to cold weather.

So, give your camellia a good soak

and repeat this every week for the next five or six weeks

to make sure the flower buds are fully hydrated.

I'm a real fan of species roses.

They are so easy to grow, they're tough, they grow in almost any condition,

they have a wonderful set of flowers, and also,

many of them - like this one, Rosa moyesii - fabulous hips.

So, now, September, is the perfect time to take rose hardwood cuttings.

You want to look for a green shoot,

it doesn't want to be brown and woody,

about the thickness of a pencil, and cut one off like this.

So, if I cut it just below a leaf node,

that's where leaves come out, and I cut it straight across,

and then you want them to be about nine inches long, so I'll cut one off there.

I'll come back to that.

And, so you know the top is the top -

and believe you me, it's easy to forget -

cut it at an angle.

So, that's the top, that's the bottom,

and that's the sort of size we're looking for.

And a tip to improve rooting is to damage the leaf nodes.

So, you can either nick them with a pair of secateurs,

you could bruise them, but if I just give those a nick like that

it'll provoke roots from that point, so if they're buried

I'll get roots all the way up and, hopefully, a healthier plant.

I'm going to take a number of these, but I'll be back next week.

Don't forget, next week we're back to our normal time of 8:30pm.

So, I'll see you then, bye-bye.

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