Episode 8 Gardeners' World

Welcome to Gardeners' World.

It's not often that planting plans exceed one's expectations

but it has done here, for me anyway, in the lime walk.

It's always been white in the past,

but I wanted to introduce yellow into it.

So we've added Nicholas Heyek, which is an off-white, ivory colour

to the White Triumphator tulips

and also lined it with a primrose yellow wallflower.

The whole thing is very simple, quite muted,

but really sings in early spring.

I'm very, very pleased with it.

I shall be spending most of tonight's programme in the pond

but I shan't be alone because Rachel is coming to join me

at Long Meadow to help me plant it up with marginal plants.

Carol celebrates euphorbias

and meets an allotment holder in Yorkshire that just can't seem

to get enough of them.

Where ever you are, are you constantly thinking about euphorbias?

I'm a euphorbia freak, you know...

Euphoric about euphorbias just doesn't say it.

Is that a lawn?

And Joe visits the garden of a fellow designer,

which, although it's right in the centre of London,

feels as though it could be in the middle of the country.

Oh! See I wasn't expecting this at all.

This is where we've got to.

I'm very, very impressed, I must say.

The stones are looking great.

It sort of beginning to blend in.

Already, the stonework is beautiful.

I love the way you've done it. It's irregular, it looks natural.

What I really need now is to get plants. I've got a load of plants.

-They will need potting up.

-OK.

-Ready for putting in the water.

If I tog up ready to go in the water, if you could pot up,

between us we'll do it.

He's got a good selection of plants here, very nice.

We've got gravel, we've got these aquatic planting baskets,

obviously with holes in.

Here we've got these fabric planters as well.

I think if we're going to start with something that goes in a bit deeper

like the iris here, then we're going to need a fairly deep basket.

Yep, that looks about right.

So, we're just going to put a layer of gravel here in the bottom.

The thinking used to be, and certainly I was taught,

that when you were planting marginals

into these sort of baskets, that you would use an aquatic loam

which had very low nutrient levels

but, nevertheless, some of that still does seep through into the water

and you get that algal bloom that isn't very desirable.

That goes in there, and the new thinking,

and this is backed up by the charity Pond Conservation,

if that you simply use the gravel or grit. That just goes around it.

The other thing is that this is much heavier than the loam.

It really acts as good ballast.

It makes sure that once that basket's in,

it's not going to move around.

Great.

That's ready to go in. It's such a lovely plant as well.

It's our native iris,

flag iris, Iris pseudocorus.

Bright yellow, it's a bit of a thug though. It's very invasive

so putting them in a basket like this is also a good idea, for that reason.

Right, how's that for fancy pants?

Wow! I wish I could whistle.

I would if I could!

-First one.

-Yeah.

All right, OK?

All right, here we go.

Perfect.

Now a marginal plant is one

that is adapted to growing in shallow water,

which means it can spend its life underwater all the time

and it can be out of the water, some of the time.

Fundamentally, its roots are in water

and the actual plant grows up out of it.

An iris is a perfect example.

By having marginals on ledges around the outside,

I'm softening it and you get this flow, this direct link

that's unbroken from the water through to the border.

A pond will bring in a rich diversity of wildlife to any garden.

Marginal plants are the key for this to thrive and flourish.

Now this is Caltha, a beautiful, beautiful marginal plant.

I'm going to put this hopefully in a shallow area,

just there.

One of the first plants to flower of the marginal plants,

a native, and that really has vibrant colour.

So we're starting to build the ideas about colour,

as well as shape and form.

Whoops! There we go.

To stock a pool, particularly quite a big one like this, you need

a certain amount of plants to make it look like anything at all.

Not many of these plants can you grow from seed.

You need to buy your initial stock. But they last.

Once you've got the basis, it starts to look good

and then you can divide them later and develop more plants

and then in time it can develop.

Right, thanks very much.

Now I know this as Scirpus

although it has apparently changed its name,

as so many plants seem to do.

Whatever you call it, it has the same effect,

these lovely porcupine-bounded stripes and they give good verticals

because it's all a bit horizontal and flat at the moment.

If we get this in here, and I'll put some more with it...

The effect I want are these spikes coming out of the water

and that's all part of the process of merging and blending

the flatness of the water with the uprights of all the plants that will grow up on the outside.

Now, how are you doing over there?

Good. I'm just planting up some of our native water mints.

It's absolutely so fragrant.

As you plant it, you can just smell the leaves, really strong

and actually you can eat them the same way as normal mint.

And like garden mint, it's actually very strong growing.

It sends out these creeping runners and it's very invasive.

Another good reason to have it in the basket.

Very attractive to all sorts of insects and bees,

a thing of beauty well worth having.

Very smart. Maybe I could put this down this end.

Yes, because you've got it starting to look really nice there.

While Rachel and I are paddling around in the pond,

Carol has got her feet firmly on dry land.

And, she's found glorious euphorbia growing in the wild

and also an amazing collection in a very unlikely situation.

Plants that can look after themselves are a huge boon for busy gardeners.

And there are euphorbias that will thrive in just about every position.

In woodlands all over the south of England

are hundreds of colonies of this native stalwart.

Euphorbia is one of the biggest genus in the world

but of it, only about 140 species

can be grown under our garden conditions.

We've got our own wild forms of it, of course.

This beautiful Euphorbia amygdaloides, the wood spurge.

You've probably seen it as you've been whizzing by.

It lines road verges and tumbles up and down the woods.

It's a magnificent plant.

First of all, in the spring, these stems emerge

with these whirls of symmetrical leaves right the way up

and gradually the flower stem is thrust from them.

It's like a crosier - it leans its head

and then gradually it stands up straight

and these big, vivid bracks come out.

They're there to announce its presence, not to us,

but to the insects that it needs to pollinate it.

The flowers themselves are contained deep within.

They're tiny, minute.

What a glorious sight it is.

Euphorbias' cultivated cousins are to be found in gardens

all over the country.

But where better to savour the delight of euphorbias

than by visiting a national collection?

This one has such an unlikely home

on an allotment just outside Sheffield.

Here you'll find 134 different species and cultivars

that have been collected and lovingly nurtured

by retired teacher Don Witton.

It's a beautiful, Don, it really is lovely.

But, what were the first euphorbias you ever grew?

Well, they're here Carol, the first two I got, both freebies.

Being a Yorkshireman, "owt for nowt" is our name for it.

Euphorbia robbiae with its deep evergreen foliage

and Euphorbia cyparissias, the dainty one that takes over.

-It's a thug!

-They are both thugs!

I say, it wasn't love at first sight, obviously.

But when I realised the two different foliages

were part of the same genus, I was fascinated.

-You got hooked.

-I got hooked.

As they say, I started tracking them down all over Britain, really.

And wherever you are, are you constantly thinking about euphorbias?

I'm a euphorbia freak.

You know, it's... euphoric about euphorbias just doesn't say it.

There's a euphorbia for every part of the garden,

whether it's sunny rockery, screening or evergreen.

Half the collection are evergreen, the other half are deciduous, die down for the winter.

Part of the 130 I've got...

You've a beautiful Euphorbia myrsinites over there

and that's one...

-It's a hillside spurge.

-I've seen it.

My euphorbia passion has taken me all over Europe to see them

in the wild.

I've seen them growing out of cracks in rocks and all sorts of things.

And, when they grow in my soil, they think they're having a birthday.

As euphorbias can be quite promiscuous, Don takes cuttings

to maintain the integrity of this national collection.

Because of the toxic nature of the sap, it's a good idea to wear gloves.

Don dips the cuttings in a hormone rooting powder

to encourage them to develop roots.

One of his top tips is always to leave the cuttings uncovered.

If you had to recommend, say three...

-It's horrible, that.

-Carol, that's a devil of a job.

-It's like saying, "What's your favourite plant?"

-Yeah.

-It's an awful question.

-It's got to be... The polychroma's still my favourite species.

-Yeah.

Midas is my favourite one.

Euphorbia polychroma 'Midas' - it's got the Midas touch.

-It's beautiful.

-It's going to continue growing for another month

and just swamp itself in those acid bracks.

If that's your best of the best, what else do you like?

If I had to list the next one, it'd be another deciduous form,

one from the Himalayas, that will be flowering at the end of June and July over there.

-It's got fabulous foliage, as you can see.

-Oh!

-You want to know its name, don't you?

-Yeah.

It's Euphorbia donii.

I'm afraid, just like this Don isn't,

it's strong and handsome and upright and well-behaved.

-And upright?

-Yes.

-Is it well-behaved?

-It is, a nice clumper, nice clumper.

You won't get seedlings, it certainly doesn't run.

What about some of the ones that are like our native one,

what about forms of amygdaloides?

I've got the red leaf version over there,

that looks absolutely fabulous at the minute.

I do have one to like Euphorbia cyparissias that we let loose.

Well, you don't have any choice with that, do you?

-It goes exactly where it wants to.

-It's a mischievous little rascal.

You name a garden situation

and I can tell you a euphorbia that will slot in there.

Dry, shade, full sun, swamps, spurge...

You know what, you could probably tell me several.

Yeah. I probably...

How did you guess, Carol?

And for Don's list of euphorbias for all sites and situations,

go to our website.

Don's divine allotment demonstrates

the diversity and usefulness of this broad-ranging species.

There's everything from our native wood spurge

that loves the shade, through to great towering Mediterranean beauties

and exotic species from the Himalayas.

And it's not as though this is the end of it.

At the moment, you can see bare soil here

but you give it a couple of months

and this whole thing will have exploded into this bounty of growth

and what's more, it will go on looking wonderful,

euphorbias providing their beauty right the way through

to the end of the autumn.

Now, you can go and see Don's collection of euphorbiae

because he's got an open day on May 6th.

If you go to our website, you'll get all the details.

I confess I have a connection to Euphorbia donii, too,

because it was named by a forebear of mine,

a botanist called David Don, from Forfar in Scotland.

But it's not my favourite euphorbia at the moment.

This must go to this one here,

Euphorbia amygdaloides 'Purpurea' which, in this position,

in the Jewel Garden, is just doing it stuff fantastically.

The best plant in the garden at the moment, I think.

The Jewel Garden is swelling, but one of the things

that I'm slightly concerned about, for June, is the absence of poppies.

If you remember, last year we had masses of poppies in here.

But we mulched thickly this February, a really good layer of mushroom compost.

One of the things that mulch does, as well as suppress weeds,

is suppress seedlings that you want.

There are some poppies there but what I'm going to do

is sow some seed on top of the mulch

and those should germinate and give us a display,

slightly later than otherwise but it should still work.

I've kept poppy seeds from last year.

I selected the flowerheads that I thought were particularly attractive

and tied a ribbon around them and you can see

there are hundreds, if not thousands, of seeds

from one seed pod.

Now the poppies will do their thing.

Nothing else I have to do with that, at all.

But there are other plants that will make the garden

filled with flower later in the summer

that need a bit of planning and sorting out.

I grow lilies in pots, as well as the borders

and last year I planted up these pots and they looked fantastic

but they didn't flower for months after planting.

This year, I thought I would try a different tactic

and plant my lilies in plastic pots and then plunge them.

Of course, it doesn't have to be lilies.

Anything you're growing that is going to go into a container

or a border that will flower later in the year,

but needs growing on, can be grown in this way.

Not only do I put them into plastic pots, but also plastic mesh pots.

The same ones as we're using for marginal plants in the pond.

I've lined it with newspaper and as the bulb put out roots,

these roots will work their way through and they can grow through.

Just the small feeding roots.

So crocks in the bottom, so you've got good drainage.

And lilies are woodland plants.

It's a good idea when you're potting something up

to replicate the growing conditions that they get in the wild, if you can.

That's simple enough. I've just added leaf mould

to normal potting compost.

If you haven't got leaf mould, a bark-based compost

or a bit of a vermiculite, perlite, chippings,

anything that loosens it and opens it out.

That'll sit in there. Then cover it over with more compost.

There you are, a beautiful terracotta pot, beautiful lilies

and it could be any other summer-flowering bulb,

looking great together.

When the lilies have finished,

which will be around about the end of July, I lift the inner pot out

and then I can replant the terracotta pot.

I'm getting maximum value from both the container and the flower.

Now, Joe has been giving us his design masterclass over the last few weeks

and now he's going to concentrate on mastering his own design

for his Chelsea show garden, so we shan't be seeing him until after Chelsea.

But, last week, he went along to see the garden of a fellow designer in the heart of London.

Charles Rutherford is an architect

and the newly elected chairman of the Society Of Garden Designers.

So you might think his own garden would have a precise,

carefully constructed designer look.

That's not the case.

What he's created is a plant-filled oasis

that's a real contrast to the city.

-I've come on a good day, haven't I? Look at the light.

-Isn't it perfect?

With this, what I was really trying to create was

an immediate impact of a break between

house and city and garden.

So, this is really a small evocation of a woodland garden.

Yeah, it's absolutely gorgeous.

I love the laburnum holding the whole area together, in a way,

giving a canopy over the top, a great sculptural form.

It's a beautiful form, isn't it?

I love the colours as well, the tulips and the wallflowers

and then... Forsythia?

Sorry, it's not one of my favourite plants. Especially when it's backlit like that.

-It's beautiful.

-It is absolutely gorgeous.

Then this quite strong boundary as well.

It's a very strong division, isn't it?

I wanted to make these very different gardens.

-Is that a lawn running through there?

-It is unexpectedly a lawn.

In a small space, the lawn is quite impractical.

Any introduction of a hard surface would emphasise

the fact that it is quite a small space,

whereas in a sense here, there is a sense of being able to dream.

It's not just in small spaces that Charles resists the use of hard landscaping.

In the larger section of his garden,

the only hint of his architectural background was his domed greenhouse.

There's barely a brick or a paving stone to be seen.

Ah!

See, I wasn't expecting this at all.

There's very little hard landscaping in the huge proportion of plants.

The paving that's here is absolutely to the minimum.

-but the majority of it is planting.

-it is.

Tulips, at the moment, we step over apples and tree peonies

and lots of colour.

It must just keep going and from now on in...

-It is, it's solid colour right through to the autumn.

-Yeah.

It's not solid colour everywhere, of course.

After the tulips, the tree peonies come out,

-then the herbaceous peonies, then the delphiniums, the Echium pininana.

-Of course.

A really good succession of plants that you've got in this space.

Not every area is in flower all the time.

To make impact everywhere, well, it's impossible.

I think, in a way, it might be disappointing in a sense.

If everything had a full year-round impact,

you perhaps wouldn't discover parts of the garden.

Charles's naturalistic approach even extends to the landscaping,

where he's used plant-covered mounds to create different levels.

At the back, a bull sculpture overlooks the garden

from a slight height, giving great focus to the space.

Even the seating area, to catch the morning sun, is surrounded by plants.

It's just that one moment of the day,

it's a really beautiful place to sit.

It's a great vantage point looking across the garden,

through the planting from here, as well.

It gives a completely different perspective on it, doesn't it?

It uses the maximum length that you can possibly have in the garden, of course.

I also like the feeling of being in the planting.

This garden doesn't have a designer look and that's the whole point.

All these plants create a wonderful lush, dynamic,

constantly changing space.

It is something that I've developed over 25 years

and so it's quite an old garden.

Actually, one of the best moments for me was when that mound,

which was meant to be stripes, horizontal bands of ceanothus

and cistus, failed totally,

when all the cistus decided to migrate to the top of the mound.

Plants do what they want. They live in their way.

That's what's so exciting to me.

I think that was what, really, suddenly catapulted me

into being a plantsman, was the realisation that

you are working with a living medium that's not completely controllable

and that does wonderful things.

And if you'd like to visit Charles's garden,

it is open to the public on 30th September.

Now I want to build up the planting in this area,

which is actually the boggiest piece of the garden.

This is where the pond overflows when we fill it.

It's also the shadiest bit.

So ideal for primulas. I love them. I love primulas of all kinds. I haven't got enough.

So the idea is we use the pond as an excuse to get more primulas.

And get more, I second that, definitely.

For gardeners, primulas are really divided into three groups.

There are primroses and polyanthus

and that includes our native primrose,

the Primula vulgaris and also cowslips.

Then there are the auriculas, very beautiful,

very much favoured by the Victorians and some people still display them

in an auricula theatre.

Now also the Asiatic primroses

and that includes the candelabra primulas.

Which is what I'm planting here. This is Primula florindae.

It comes from the Himalayas

and it is sometimes called the Tibetan cowslip.

Really big, tall, cowslip yellow plants in July and August

should look really dramatic and pick up the yellows.

Seeds itself well, so should spread pretty well. It can be invasive, I suppose,

if such a beautiful thing can be regarded as invasive.

That's a problem I'll be delighted to deal with in a few years' time.

Exactly. I'd like that problem.

This is a lovely one.

This is actually very early in flower, the first one into flower.

In fact you can see just a few little buds coming through there.

It's called 'Postford White'. It's a japonica.

I think it has that lovely simplicity,

the white flowers with the golden centre.

It's that lovely innocence that you get with a primula.

This third variety I've got is, I can never pronounce this,

it's Pulver... I'll say it again.

-Pulver...

-RACHEL LAUGHS

Pulverulenta?

You may laugh!

-It is the mealy primula.

-Easy.

-Easy way.

Easy way.

Pink candelabra primula, never grown it before,

seen it often in pictures, seen it in gardens.

I want it. I want it in my garden and now I've got it.

Even I can't pronounce its name.

If you want to learn about plants, and be inspired by them, the thing is to go and see them.

Go and see a collection, see them growing at their best.

We went to Harlow Carr to see their collection of primulas.

Wow, tends to be the main reaction.

There is just such a wide range of colours.

Over the years it's just been a collection of the seed

being scattered and dispersed naturally,

which has created the Harlow Carr hybrids.

The reason they're really pale this year is that we've had a dry spring.

If it had been a wet spring, the colours would be a lot more full on,

very deep crimson and scarlet colours.

To grow primulas, you're going to need damp conditions.

They enjoy partial shade to full sun.

Slightly acidic soils, full of nutrients and goodness.

We've just top-dressed this bed with our own compost.

They're loving it.

A full flourish.

With primulas, you can sow the seed in the autumn,

or in the spring, but what I like to do is sow them in the spring

and bring them on for the following year.

That way, we can plant out and get an instant impact

but also we can go through the plants and see what colour

they're going to flower and we can select out

a variety of different colours.

Water the compost first.

Then scatter with vermiculite, using a sieve.

Then disperse the seed using a piece of paper

over the top of the vermiculite.

Once you've done this, then recover with vermiculite

and put in a cold frame.

Germination time, should be two to three weeks.

Once you've established a display like we have at Harlow Carr,

to keep it maintained and going, you're going to need

to let the plants and primulas do what they do best and cross-pollinate

and just let them do the work and all being well,

it should look as fantastic as what it does at Harlow Carr.

I've got a few more.

Lovely, you can never have too many, I'd say.

The great thing about these, of course, is they are easy to divide.

You know, once they get going, they just rip apart and that works well.

Here are some jobs you can do this weekend.

Last year my squashes and pumpkins were a disaster

and that was because it was so cold.

So, hopefully, this year it will be warmer and they'll thrive.

In any event, now is the time to plant them.

I like to put two seeds in a small pot,

knowing that I'm going to weed out the lesser of the two.

Cover them with compost and then put them somewhere warm to germinate.

A window sill will do, but a heated mat, if you've got one, is ideal.

As soon as your peas appear above the ground,

it's important to give them something to climb onto.

You need a large surface area.

So, traditionally, bean sticks were used

and I've kept the brash from the coppice which I pruned earlier this year

but any kind of netting will do the job just as well.

At this time of year, clematis are putting on masses of new growth

but at this stage, it's not self-supporting

so it's important to go around your clematis and sort them out,

tie them up, untangle them and get them into a good position

so that the later growth, which is self-supporting,

will look at its best.

I think, one of the things I find actually reassuring,

rather than scary, is this is very much a work in progress.

-Yes.

-It may not come right, you know. Most things don't!

But the great thing about gardening is they're changeable and adaptable.

-Exactly, you dig them up and move them on somewhere.

-Yeah.

I have to say, Monty, this has made me want my pond absolutely now.

-You shall have your pond. You shall go to the ball.

-I want it right now.

Now, we shan't be here next week because it's snooker

but Rachel, Carol and myself will be at the Malvern Spring show

in a fortnight's time.

-So, we'll see you then. Until then, bye-bye.

-Bye.

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