Episode 30 Gardeners' World

BIRD SONG

Hello and welcome to Gardeners' World. Well, we've reached November

and it does feel like the garden is slipping quietly away

to the end of the year but there are a few bright moments both to be

relished and also jobs to be done.

And this week, I shall be gathering up fallen leaves

to make the perfect leaf mould.

Rachel will be celebrating leaves at East Bergholt Place in Suffolk,

where she glories in the beauty of the spindle.

And now we can't walk past this. That's so beautiful.

-It's very special.

-I'm coveting that one.

-I know.

And Carol visits RHS Rosemoor,

where she's looking at a host of hollies.

Of all the trees that are in the wood, the holly bears the crown

and the thing to remember is that a holly's for life,

not just for Christmas.

We'll also be planting too,

turning my copse into a full-blown woodland garden.

There can't be a garden, a street or a patch of park in the country

that isn't covered with fallen leaves at the moment.

There are two ways of looking at this.

You can either say, "It's one of those terrible seasonal chores

"that has all got to be tidied up,"

or you can say this is a harvest.

Leaf mould dramatically improves your garden.

Leaf mould is different to compost.

Compost is very rich in nutrients

and breaks down mainly by bacterial activity.

Whereas leaf mould is quite low in nutrients

but fantastic for improving the structure of the soil.

And I use it mostly as part of my potting compost.

For example, bulbs always do really well in this.

Dry leaves break down much slower than wet ones

so actually gathering them wet isn't a bad idea.

Having raked a pile of leaves, you want a couple of boards.

They make lifting leaves so much easier.

Because it's hold in your hand, pull them together, hey presto!

You can pick up a whole load and then you can just plonk them

into the wheelbarrow.

Now, there's one other really useful way of using these,

which is to protect wildlife.

If you've got a hedge and the leaves of the hedge are falling off,

what I do is scrape them back in along the base of the hedge

and that does a number of things.

Obviously, it acts as a mulch for the hedge, which is good,

but it also provides brilliant cover for insects, small mammals,

reptiles and if there are enough leaves, they might even hibernate.

So a very good form of cover.

You're making your garden a little bit tidier

but not too tidy to put off wildlife,

which of course adds to the garden.

The process by which a leaf like this

can reach leaf mould like that...

And this is the leftover leaf mould from last year,

so this looks like this exactly 12 months ago.

..is almost entirely fungal.

Just leaves and fungi and it will happen.

Now, we make a bay out of chicken wire

and chicken wire is absolutely ideal because it lets lots of air in.

But if they're at all dry, when you've a layer,

water it and get them wet

because the fungi needs moisture in which to work.

Now, this method is fine if you've got plenty of space

but if you are short on space, and you've got some leaves

you want to keep, there's another way of doing it.

Gather up your leaves as normal and then put them into a polythene bag.

Make sure they're thoroughly soaked and make some holes in the bag

so any excess water can drain away.

Don't seal the bag but just fold it over

then put it somewhere to one side where it can sit,

out of the way for at least six months and maybe up to a year.

At the end of that time, you'll have a bag of lovely leaf mould.

A really good way of collecting leaves off grass

is simply to mow them.

Run the mower over the ground as though you were mowing the grass

and that will collect the leaves up.

It has the other advantage of chopping them up.

It's often far too wet to mow at this time of year.

Nevertheless, if you've got a solid brick or stone path,

tip your leaves onto there and run the mower over them like that.

All this is very practical and necessary

but one mustn't forget that these leaves are beautiful

at this time of year, especially when they're still on the trees.

And Rachel has been to East Bergholt Place in Suffolk

to admire the foliage, particularly of the spindle,

and other members of the Euonymus family.

With so many of the plants here really at their absolute peak,

it's easy to be distracted but part of the reason for my visit is to meet

a man who has a very special interest in a particular group of plants.

Rupert Eley is the fourth generation of his family to garden here.

His great-grandfather began to lay out these 20 acres

at the turn of the last century.

Rupert is an expert plantsman

and serves on several of the Royal Horticultural Society's

plant committees and Euonymus are his passion.

Rupert, you hold the national collection of deciduous Euonymus.

What is it about them that you like?

Well, I mean, this probably says it all.

This is our native spindle, known as spindles

because they've got hardwood

and they were used for spindles is in the old days for spinning.

You only have to look at that wonderful pink fruit,

masses and masses of them, the orange seeds beginning to show here.

They look at you like eyes.

Also, very good autumn leaf colour.

A very, very good native plant.

I know you've got a very large collection here.

How many different forms, species and hybrids have you got?

We've got about 100 different forms.

-And now we can't walk past this.

-No, we can't.

-That's so beautiful.

What's that?

This really brings another dimension to the spindles, the Euonymus.

This is a form of bungeamus, from northern China.

And really, it's very graceful, as you can see.

Wonderful, airy open plant.

This fantastic hanging, glowing pink leaves really. Not troublesome.

Tough, Hardy. They don't mind the cold frost or anything like that.

You say they're very easy to grow

but what sort of conditions would you give them in an ideal world?

In an ideal world, I think they would like

a little bit of dappled shade, which this has got at the moment,

and quite leafy soil.

Looking through that with the light, it's very special.

-I'm coveting that one.

-I know.

-Now, this one is just showing off.

-I agree.

It's another one we can't walk past. This is the trouble.

-We could be here for days!

-I don't mind. I'm perfectly happy.

Tell me about this one.

This is a form of alatus,

which you see available in garden centres quite a lot.

Very, very reliable autumn colour.

This wonderful dark red but a tidy grower as well.

It doesn't get more than, at the most, six foot.

Presumably, this would be a really good plant for a small garden.

Very much so.

-This is a bit different.

-Yes.

This is Hamiltoniaus "Koi Boy",

with the white popcorn like fruits really.

-Yes.

-A great contrast and different to what we've seen so far.

Then, of course, behind it here,

we have another completely contrasting plant.

We have Euonymus oxyphyllus.

Look at the size of these seed heads. They're enormous.

-They are and very special. They're like works of art.

-Beautiful.

Broken into segments like marbles and then they burst open

and you get this wonderful orange seed looking at you.

What's your favourite plant for autumn colour?

-Probably Ostrya virginiana.

-I can see why you like it.

I like it for a number of reasons. A North American tree.

I've known this tree my entire life.

My great-grandfather would have planted about 1,900

when the garden was first started.

I, as a boy, used to walk past it frequently in my school holidays

and I shall always remember in the autumn and the spring,

when it has hornbeam-like flowers

and then the wonderful colour in the autumn,

and a lovely lacy layout of the branches.

-I love that butter yellow colour.

-It's an old friend actually.

Do you think this autumn, because we had a pretty dreadful summer

with all that rain, do you think this is going to be a good autumn for colour?

I think we're going to have a good autumn actually. I have to say.

All of the autumns are different in the garden but all are memorable.

Yeah.

Spindle is one of my favourite, most evocative woodland plants,

but if you want to see more of Rachel's recommendations

of different kinds of autumn colour,

you can go to our website,

where there is a wide range that you can see exclusively there.

Now, this is the copse, and it was coppiced last winter,

which means that it was cut right to the ground.

It's underplanted with all the normal British woodland

coppice plants - bluebells, primroses, wood anemones -

and they're lovely.

But, I want to add more garden plants, and the plants

I'm going to put in here are all adapted

to growing in the shaded woodland.

The first plant I'm going to put in is...

It's got wonderful, sort of bright,

lime yellow inflorescences,

that go from April,

right through into summer.

And it's a very robust plant, that thrives in dry shade.

Now, this is a spreader.

I'll put this down here, because that's pretty shady,

and that can spread out.

And I've got a few more which I'll make a group with.

My second plant is another native.

And this is an iris. Iris foetidissima.

Now, this is what you would buy

in a garden centre, or a nursery.

But, actually, a friend has given me

a clump, which they divided.

And it does show, really, the special thing about this plant,

and those are seed heads.

And that's what is so magical about this iris.

And I should be able to get half a dozen plants out of this.

OK, here it goes. Be brave.

Now, if I tease that out.

These are the feeding roots,

and these need to be underground.

But the rhizome needs to be on the surface of the soil.

If you are planting any of these shade-loving woodland plants -

and by "woodland" I don't mean to say that you have to have a wood.

It could be in the shade of a wall, or a fence, or a building.

All this applies just as easily

to a garden in the middle of a city,

as it does in the middle of the countryside.

If you're planting any of these, and you've got some leaf mould,

now is the time to use it.

Don't add compost - they don't need a lot of nutrition -

but leaf mould is absolutely perfect, so that's the stuff to add.

Now, the third plant that I'm putting in today is a geranium.

This is...

It's another one that thrives in dry shade,

and will spread and create carpets.

A really good plant, this.

Tough, adaptable, and wants to grow in these conditions.

Now, all this, everything we're planting now, is for next year.

We could wait six months to see this at its best.

And, of course, this applies to bulbs, I suppose,

more than anything.

November is the month of tulip planting.

And if you haven't yet planted all your tulips, well,

here's some inspiration.

I love tulips, because they are such a joy at this time of year.

They can flower from really quite early on -

the beginning of March, right through to the end of May.

You get these amazing shapes and forms,

and textures and contrasts, and subtleties,

and the ability to mix and match,

and treat it as an annual, or treat it as a permanent planting.

And, I just love them.

The most important thing about planting tulips

is plant them in numbers.

Cram as many as you can fit in, because,

if you dot them around, you won't get any impact, whatsoever.

If they're in a pot, put as many as you can.

If they're in bed, put as many as you can. Don't skimp on them.

In these two beds, we've got more formal kind of planting,

in the sense that we've got the box beds,

but we've actually planted them in a more loose way,

by mixing the colours.

We've got a very beautiful

'Couleur Cardinal', here,

with the purple carried up

from the stem, up through the tulip,

veining through the red,

which is picked up, fortuitously,

by this one which is 'Havran'.

And this is a good example, how we could actually pair this

combination of tulips elsewhere in the garden, or maybe in a pot.

And it's a way of experimenting,

and gives us ideas of things to do in the future.

These ones are actually planted quite shallow.

Because they're annuals, we've got to remove them

and get rid of them at the end of the season.

So, what we do in here, we actually lift whole blocks of soil,

place them all out, and then put the soil back over.

And it's about four inches.

Elsewhere in the garden, where it's more a permanent planting,

we plant them very, very deep.

When it comes to the mixed borders,

we know exactly the colour schemes we have, and then we'll add

different varieties, and leave them, and let them die down,

taking out the seed head,

to preserve the goodness within the bulb.

This bed is a much more subtle form of planting.

Because we've got the backdrop of the black barn so close,

we tried to use a very dark tulip.

And then we've got some more subtle ones, like the 'Angelique' there,

which is a good contrast with the dark.

I found, in the past, if I just plant dark tulips on their own,

the bed looks flat.

It needs another colour, just to lift it.

Have a go. As a first try,

I would really recommend 'Ballerina.'

It is the most beautiful, reliable,

lily-flowered tulip,

and it smells of tangerine, and it's just divine.

You can use them on a bright palette, a soft palette.

You can use them in so many different ways,

and to me they're just an incredible herald of things to come,

and full of joy.

Although I have already planted some tulips in pots,

I'm not ready to plant tulips in the ground yet,

because, most of them go into the Jewel Garden,

and that needs clearing and tidying up

before we can get the bulbs in.

But there's no real pressure.

November is the ideal month, but as long as you get

your tulips in the ground by Christmas,

they'll come up and flower fine next spring.

Now, I don't know if you know this plant, but this is a tree dahlia.

It's already been touched by frost, so, very soon is going to

have to be cut down, lifted and bought in, but, before I do that,

I just want you to see how lovely it can be as a foliage plant.

They do flower, but only in a really hot summer,

and then the flowers are quite small, in August and September.

But I don't mind.

I don't mind the fact that they're without flowers,

because they add something that no other plant does in the borders,

and they just get better and better, until the frost hits them.

Then you cut them down, bring them in to store them,

and pull them out again, and plant them after the last frost next year.

Now, if you're not planting tulips, and you're not growing tree dahlias,

here are some other jobs you can be getting on with this weekend.

At this time of year,

brick and stone paths can become incredibly slippery.

This is because of the algae that forms on them.

Now, there are lots of products you can buy two get rid of

this algae, but be careful to choose one that's not harmful

to plants or animals, and then simply follow the instructions.

As your rhubarb leaves finally die back, clear them away,

and take them to the compost heap.

Weed around the crowns, and then mulch as generously as you can,

either with compost or well-rotted manure.

But, be careful not to cover the crowns themselves,

cos that may rot or burn them.

However, the more generous you are with the mulch now,

the better your harvest will be next spring.

As we move through November, it's worth going through your borders

to remove any dying or fallen leaves that are smothering plants.

If they're left they can stop the light and air getting in

and cause the core of the plant to rot.

So clear round each plant and remove the debris to the compost heap.

I've got an e-mail here from Lee Dawson in Johnstone in Scotland

which says, "Last year, I tried to store dahlias for the first time.

"Out of seven, only one took

"and the flowers have been terrible, to say the least.

"Am I doing something wrong or missing a trick?"

Well, it is difficult to say about these things without seeing them,

but if you store dahlias so that they dry up,

the chances of them flowering next year or growing at all are slim.

And that's what you're looking to avoid when you're storing them.

So if you remember, last week, I lifted them,

and I've dried them out,

and the idea is not to dry them out deeply or properly

but just get rid of the superficial moisture.

So now that we've got these clean, slightly dried-off tubers,

the art of storing them is to keep them frost-free but not dried up.

I've got a crate here which, if I line it with newspaper,

just to stop any protective layer falling through,

and simply place the tubers,

either with a bit of soil around them or washed off,

doesn't really make any difference.

In they go like that.

And then just cover it over with old potting compost

or vermiculite or even sand will do.

And as long as the whole crate doesn't freeze,

these will store perfectly well.

Just pop that there.

A little bit of water.

Now those can go under there,

because this greenhouse is always kept frost-free but cool.

Ideally, the temperature will be between freezing -

doesn't need to be much warmer than that -

and say a maximum of about 10 degrees.

And if they can be kept in the dark, so much the better.

Check them about once a month,

give them another water if it's getting very dry,

and then next March I'll pull those out

and we'll start thinking about provoking them into growth

with a little bit of heat,

and then we can take cuttings and start that cycle again.

But we won't get flowers from these till next summer.

However, Carol has been to RHS Rosemoor in Devon,

where she is enjoying their collection of plants,

which are at their prime right now.

"Of all the trees that are in the wood, the holly bears the crown."

This is Ilex aquifolium, our native holly.

It's probably our most common evergreen tree.

It's a magic tree.

It's surrounded by all manner of myth and legend.

Pagans believe that the year is ruled by two tree kings.

In summer, it's the turn of the Oak King. He holds sway.

But as autumn changes into winter,

then the reign of the Holly King begins.

Gardeners love hollies for all sorts of reasons.

Sometimes it's for their beautiful foliage,

sometimes it's for the gorgeous berries that festoon their branches

in every kind of colour.

And sometimes it's for their architectural forms.

Holly is about so much more than a prickly evergreen with red berries.

To look at the incredible

and diverse range of hollies on offer, I've come to explore

the national collection at RHS Rosemoor in North Devon.

Jonathan Hutchinson looks after the collection here and knows

just what diverse characteristics hollies have to offer.

They're all very individual. There's a huge range within the genus.

-A plethora of hollies.

-Yes.

And as well as being different, you use them

-in all sorts of different ways, too.

-Yes, we do.

They've got quite a range of uses within the garden,

from the informal right down to the very formal.

I mean, you can use holly as a sort of ingredient

in your native hedge, and you can use it just as a hedge itself.

-Yes. Yes.

-But this is a most unusual way of using it.

Yes. I don't think it's something that people have often seen,

where you've got Ilex aquifolium 'JC van Tol'

and Buxus sempervirens,

and the fact that one seems to creep its way up through another,

it produces a really nice tapestry.

Occasionally you get the odd berry that's hiding in the foliage.

-A hint of red.

-In amongst the foliage.

-Which you would expect from holly.

-Yes.

So this is another of those more than 100 Ilex aquifolium.

Yes, this is Ilex aquifolium 'Handsworth New Silver'.

Variegated plants aren't always my favourite,

but this one I do like because it's just on the edge

and it really defines the green leaf.

And you've got lovely purple stems and fruits

-that are just starting to turn. It's lovely.

-Isn't this a holly too?

This is also another holly. This is Ilex verticillata.

It's a North American species

and not only doesn't it have prickles, it's also deciduous,

so it's like a sort of double whammy

of pretending not to be anything like a holly

that you would imagine it to be.

-And the sort of holly that you could grow in any ordinary garden.

-Yeah.

Perfectly easy to grow, and really good,

novel bit of cut stem for Christmas.

-And the blackbirds will thank you too.

-Yes. Yes.

Try and get there before they do.

Tiny leaves and a really short habit of growth and black berries -

would you take this for a holly? But it is.

It's Ilex crenata from Japan,

and this one's called Ilex crenata 'Convexa',

because each of these lovely little leaves is curved

both that way and crossways, so it's almost like an inverted spoon.

It's been used quite a lot as substitute for box

when box blight is a problem. I think it's absolutely charming

and it's the sort of plant

you can really imagine fitting into your garden.

Most of us want a holly that's covered in red berries.

Well, you really couldn't do better than this.

This is Ilex aquifolium 'Pyramidalis'.

It's been awarded the Award of Garden Merit by the RHS,

so you know it's going to make a brilliant tree.

And just look at it.

Dark glossy leaves and loaded with brilliant red berries.

In most cases, you need

both male and female trees to ensure a good set of berries on the female,

but in this case, it does it itself. It's self-fertile,

and almost invariably you get this beautiful set of luscious berries.

Some hollies have giant leaves, and some have tiny ones.

Some are dwarf trees and some are enormous great majestic specimens.

And the thing to remember is that a holly is for life,

not just for Christmas.

It isn't far till Christmas, but we have got Bonfire Night,

of course, coming this week.

And what I would say is that if you've been building a bonfire

over the last weeks and months,

just bear in mind that hedgehogs are going into hibernation now,

and if you've had a heap building up over the last few weeks and months,

it's the perfect place for them to go and nest in.

So just check it.

Have a wonderful Bonfire Night

and I'll see you here next week at our normal time of 8.30.

And that's the last programme of the series. Till then, bye-bye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

Email [email protected]