Episode 10 Gardeners' World

CHIRPING

Nige, come on. Nelly-belly.

Hello, welcome to Gardeners' World

on a lovely May day.

One of the interesting things about this year

is that it has been so late and so cold

that things have been delayed and concertinaed together,

so most of the blossom here in the orchard has arrived all together.

There is a real chance that all these trees

will pollinate each other, and we should get a really good apple crop.

Now, I won't be doing anything with the apples today,

but I will be working in the grass borders,

moving grasses around now they are growing.

I will also be replacing the pots in the Jewel Garden.

I'm going from phormiums to fuchsias.

This week, Carol continues her series

on selecting the right plant for the right place.

She is off to the Yorkshire Dales to see plants

that thrive in exposed and tricky situations.

It is a little encrusted saxifrage.

Did you ever see a better example of a right plant in the right place?

And Zephaniah Lindo goes to South Wales

to see the national collection of Primula auriculas.

Oh, wow.

They are amazing, Pat.

Look at those. Look at the colours. They are stunning.

At last...

here at Longmeadow, anyway,

we are getting some warmer weather coupled with wet,

which means everything is growing.

But grasses are always one of the last things to get going in spring.

It's really important that you don't move them

or divide them in any way

until they are growing strongly.

What I want to move are the pheasant grass.

Now pheasant grass, for years, has been known as Stipa Arundinacea,

but it has had its name changed to Anemanthele lessoniana,

but horticulturally, it behaves exactly like all the Stipas.

So these here, this little growth, have seeded themselves last year.

They are a lovely plant, I want them,

but not here, so I'm going to move them.

Now, they have got fairly shallow roots,

so, if I just get the spade in and ease them out...

There we go, I can hear the roots going.

That is a very healthy young plant that I can transplant.

There you go.

That is another nice one. That's a cracker.

That's a seedling from last year.

While it's up here, I'll just weed it a little bit.

I'm going to place these before I plant any.

Let's take a decent-size chunk.

These ones here are clearly on the way out

and they won't be here next year.

I think I'm going to plant one close to them,

essentially to replace them.

I might just pop that there for the moment.

There is a gap in there.

How about that?

What I've got to be in mind is that these don't get much bigger.

I don't want them to be completely swamped.

I just need to dig a shallow hole,

but a little bit deeper than I need,

because I want to put some grit in underneath it.

You can't really overdo the drainage

when you're dealing with Stipas of any kind.

They do like it, and also full sun, of course.

There we go. Put some soil back in around it.

Hopefully that will hardly know it has moved.

Oh, look, there's a frog. A little frog.

Can you see? I hadn't expected that.

It's so exciting to feel the whole garden is being used

by all kinds of creatures -

that it's their garden as much as ours.

The Cottage Garden is awash with blue,

it's a froth of blue,

floating and shimmering above all else.

Of course, this comes from the forget-me-nots, the Myosotis.

They seed themselves everywhere.

At their peak, they dominate the garden

without in any way overwhelming it.

They have this lovely light touch.

They will die back and they will seed themselves everywhere,

so be ruthless if you've got it.

I would say three quarters of all our forget-me-not plants

go on to the compost heap,

but what's left is enough to spread for next year.

You can get the seedlings and replant them.

Last week, Carol looked at plants that find places

in awkward corners and will seed themselves.

She said, you know, they'll be happy if they do that.

This week, she's gone to North Yorkshire

to Parcevall Hall where she looks at plants that have adapted

to thrive in exposed and demanding conditions.

For any plant to thrive and flourish in our gardens,

it needs the right conditions -

a happy plant is the right plant grown in the right place.

Here in the Yorkshire Dales,

we are looking at plants and how they cope out in the wild.

They can give us a clue as to the type of plants

we can grow in our own gardens,

with exposed areas where there is nothing

between them and the elements.

The great majority of the plants around here are ground-hugging.

Of course, it's no accident,

because if you're sticking up in this kind of wind,

you get blown to bits.

In the case of this dainty little saxifrage,

it's got tiny fine leaves.

The more slender the leaves are, the less it's going to transpire.

The less moisture it's going to lose.

It needs to hang on to every drop

because there's not a lot of it about.

Its flowers point upwards -

that's to ensure that any pollinating insects

that are getting whizzed by the wind see it,

home in on it and pollinate it.

Welcome to Windy Corner. Just look at my hair.

You can tell what it is like here

and what these plants have to put up with.

When they're a little taller, like this grass,

then they allow the wind just to pass through them.

But here is one little plant that does something quite different.

This is a fern.

It is Asplenium trichomanes,

the maidenhair spleenwort.

It's got nothing in common

with all of those big, gorgeous soft ferns you find in woodland.

It's actually really stiff. These stems stand up for themselves.

The pin eye, the tiny little leaflets all the way up it,

are really minute, they are hard.

Almost sort of brittle.

It finds its home in these cracks and crevices,

and it stands up there not just in the wind in the summer

but right the way through the winter.

You can grow this little fern at home.

Of course, it will put up with any amount of exposure.

If these plants are happy growing here

then we should be able to grow plants with similar characteristics

in exposed areas in our gardens.

Here at Parcevall Hall is this glorious courtyard garden.

Up there is Rhodiola rosea, roseroot.

It has got succulent leaves and each one of those leaves

acts as a tiny reservoir for when droughty conditions persist.

It's very easy to propagate.

You can just snap a piece off,

take the bottom leaves off and shove it in some gritty compost.

It will take rooters - easy as pie.

This is Iberis sempervirens,

otherwise known to most of us gardeners as candytuft.

It's a sprawling plant from the mountainsides of southern Europe.

It makes these great big mats that cover the rocks.

As it's doing so, it keeps the back of the plant cool,

but it also allows these flowers to open.

They are composite flowers -

they are made up of lots of little flowers.

It's got tough leathery leaves and it's evergreen too.

Just here on this corner - I nearly sat on it,

which is just as well because it's a true cushion plant -

is a little encrusted saxifrage.

Did you ever see a better example of a right plant in the right place?

There are so many plants we can choose from

when it comes to the exposed areas in our own gardens.

The rock rose, Helianthemum nummularium,

is a native plant that occurs all over the British Isles.

It's been widely hybridised

and is available in a kaleidoscope of colours.

At the end of the season, it's a good idea to trim it back.

Mossy saxifrages are easy to grow.

They thrive even in dappled shade.

There are numerous cultivars with jewel-like flowers

that adorn our gardens.

Up on the hillside, there were hawthorns

and other trees shaped by the wind.

I think it's such a lovely idea to have a shrub or two

in amongst the low-growing plants.

This is Salix Boydii. It's a willow.

It's as soft as can be.

Both the top and the underside of the leaves

are coated in tiny hairs,

which means that the cuticle of the leaf

is protected from hot sun.

It's also got this glorious habit -

its branches move around and allow the wind to pass through it.

It's easy to grow and it will last for years and years.

I think it's just gorgeous...

and in common with all these plants here.

They are all the right plants for the right place.

If you want to visit Parcevall Hall,

it is open all summer.

As I was walking down,

Nelly was walking off with one of the supports for these fuchsias.

Nell, can I have my stick back, please?

Nelly, come on. Bring it here. There's a good girl.

Thank you very much indeed. No, I need it.

I put the fuchsias in to replace the phormiums

and to give us a fresh summer display

in the four large pots here in the centre of the Jewel Garden.

I'm going to try a new combination this year.

Although these fuchsias are not new plants,

I planted these three years ago.

They've been here in the Jewel Garden,

I've had them in the Cottage Garden,

so I'm recycling them.

But before I can do that, I need to take out the phormiums.

Right.

There we go. Come on, you. There we are.

So that's the plant.

What I'm going to do is put it in a bag...

which acts as a pot.

Now, never plant into old compost

if you want the best of plants.

The nutrients are used up.

To give the best opportunity for the best display,

you need fresh compost.

So I'm going to at least half empty that

and put some new in.

But I am going to use it to keep this happy

for the next few weeks until I find the right place for it.

This can be put to one side

until I am ready to give it a new home,

that will be completely happy.

This can be planted out.

This is fuchsia called voodoo.

This has been growing in the greenhouse all winter.

That's about the right sort of depth to put it.

Of course, the first fuchsias had very small flowers.

It really wasn't until the 1920s and '30s,

when American hybrids came in,

you got these large flowering hybrids.

Now, of course, there are hundreds of different fuchsias you can grow.

OK, let's take this out.

There we are. Lovely.

I'm going to put a strong support in here,

because I've learnt the hard way that these need good support.

It's hit the drainage at the bottom,

so if I put that in there like that...

Temporarily, we shall just tie that in so it's reasonably upright.

Does that look upright to you?

I'll do a proper tie later.

I'm just going to loosen the soil off around the edge

and add in some fresh compost

which is based much more around leaf mould.

Fuchsias like a nice loose root run,

and yet which holds some moisture.

I have prepared some here.

This is a mixture of 50% our normal potting compost

and 50% sieved leaf mould.

That should provide fuchsia heaven for the rest of the summer.

What I'm trying this year as an experiment, I'm adding in a grass.

This is Imperata cylindrica, Rubra. Blood grass.

As it grows, you have these blood-red tips.

Of course, the idea is to pick up the colours of the fuchsia

and around it form a kind of fringe of grass.

They are happiest with really good drainage.

I am going to put four per-pot.

I might well add something else in there later,

but I'm not quite sure what.

These will grow and get denser,

but, for the moment, we'll leave that in place.

I love auriculas, but I have always grown them in pots -

not particularly successfully. I admire those that do

and have those extraordinary auricula theatres.

Zephaniah Lindo has been to Wales to meet someone

who is passionate about auriculas

and also considers different ways of growing them.

I'm a lecturer in horticulture, so my job is teaching others,

but I'm always keen to learn new things too.

I've been growing plants now for a number of years.

One of my absolute favourites is the Primula auricula.

They add such a splash of colour in the garden.

At this time of year, they are at their absolute peak.

This would have to be anywhere but my garden, though.

I've had limited success with auriculas,

so I've come for some advice from Pat Fisher.

She's the holder of the plant heritage national

collection of border auricula.

I really do need a little bit of assistance here

to get my reputation back as a horticulturalist.

These do sometimes have a bit of a reputation

for being a bit tricky or a bit difficult to grow.

What's your experience with these?

The ones that you see here are the garden or border auriculas.

They're growing in a little raised bed.

-They like free draining material, grit to allow that drainage.

-OK.

I don't need to look after them

other than do a slug count now and again.

They don't mind cold, they don't mind sun,

as long as they are not sitting in it all day.

Where did you grow them?

-I was growing them in pots and containers.

-Right.

If you're growing them in pots, they need a little bit of extra care.

Germinating them is pretty straightforward.

It's when they are potted on that things start to get particular.

Every auricula grower has their own recipe, and Pat is no exception.

Although some ancient concoctions were rather more eccentric.

There was a very famous recipe using bull's blood

and baker's sugar scum, goose dung...

Yellow soil they used to gather from the fields.

Mix it all together. It was a weird concoction.

Apparently it did grow very good auriculas.

And add a certain fragrance as well, I should imagine.

Yes, I'm sure, yes.

I generally use an ordinary multipurpose compost.

I use ordinary compost.

John Innes number two, equal amounts.

And some grit.

-Equal amounts of all?

-Yes. One, one, and one.

-And that's it? As simple as that?

-I have a secret ingredient.

Ah! Here we go. There's always a secret...

As you know, there's a big secret to growing auriculas.

-Go on.

-I can pop it in now if you turn away, please.

OK. I'll turn away.

-So...

-Have you done it?

-I've done it, yes.

'With the secret ingredient in, everything is given a good mix.'

This is probably why my ones didn't work.

You didn't have a secret recipe, did you?

I didn't have the secret ingredient.

What you have got to remember is they are Alpine plants,

so they will need to stay cool.

Of course, putting them in a pot will make the roots warm up

quicker than they would in the soil.

I have areas around the garden where they are out of the sun,

they're north facing,

and also they get plenty of air and plenty of light.

This is the main pavilion where we keep all of the auriculas.

Oh, wow.

They're amazing, Pat.

Look at those. Look at the colours. They're stunning.

This is what I love about them. There are so many varieties.

Of course, the beauty of the bees crossing them is you never know

what you're going to get, because they don't come through to seed.

But if you want to breed your own,

you crossbreed, you hand-pollinate your own

and you develop your own plant, which is lovely.

When the seed is sown and when they come into maturity

and give you that first flower,

and you don't know what you're going to get...

-This one is interesting.

-This is one of mine.

This is called Patti's girl.

How did you come up for another name for that, then?

Well, we all give them a greenhouse name.

We know what we would like to call it,

but that has to go on a show bench.

The judges will look across the bench,

and if that plant gets a first, second, or third,

you then name it and that becomes its name

in a classified directory of names of auriculas.

Somebody calls their plants all the names of stations,

-underground stations in London.

-Right.

I have one here which is known as Trim The Velvet.

It's bred by Cheryl down in Cornwall.

She said it reminds her of pinking shears

that cut round purple velvet cloth.

You can see where it gets its name, definitely.

They are so amazing.

They are an absolute wonderful plant to play with.

You know what? It's made me think that I should give it another go.

Really try and give it the attention that it so deserves,

because if I can come out with results half as good as this,

I will be extremely pleased.

Thank you.

'In case you're wondering,

'the secret of Pat's success is good old-fashioned

'fish, blood and bone.'

The coppice here is full of primroses in March

and early April, but I have never thought of growing auriculas -

which after all are a branch of the Primula family -

in anything but a pot.

Maybe it's time to try them in a border too.

Last week, I started planting up the mound,

ready to create a scented garden.

I'm going to put in, behind the lavender hedge that

I planted last autumn, some irises.

Irises do have scent, or at least some of them do,

but that is not really what they are doing.

These are there because this is a perfect opportunity to

grow them where they like to grow best. I love them. They are great.

But they need to conditions that are very hard for me to give them.

Irises love full sun and really good drainage.

Between the pears and the lavender is the perfect place for irises.

As you can see, I've put down some grit to improve the drainage.

I'm just working that very lightly in,

so that they won't sit in water.

OK.

This is an iris called Bel Azur.

As the name suggests, it's blue. A pale blue.

In the pot, they are slightly buried.

But if I take it out of the pot...

like that, you can see, if I move the compost away a little bit,

that there is the rhizome.

It looks like a ginger.

For this to produce flowers next year, it must bake.

That is absolutely critical when you're growing irises.

This must have a summer of as much heat

and direct sunlight as we can possibly give it.

And it follows from that, it must be above the soil.

If I...

..make a hole to plant it in...

That's about the right height.

If in doubt, make it higher rather than lower.

You can see that I've got the rhizomes pointing at the sun.

We don't want them hidden by the foliage of the iris itself.

Then we can pull the grit back round it...

..and that's fine.

If you can get that right with good drainage, irises are easy.

They are really easy to grow and they will perform

and produce these beautiful, spectacular plants.

Right, now to plant the roses.

I've got three roses for this top scented area.

They're all albas.

Albas all tend to have fabulous scent.

The old roses, they're tough.

They have slightly bluey-grey foliage, but they are easy to grow.

They grow in almost any soil in any condition.

They do have fabulous fragrance, so it's a no-brainer, really.

They have got to be part of the garden.

Whatever rose you're planting, I think there's one thing you need to

bear in mind, and it's the exact opposite of planting the irises.

You do want to give roses a bit of depth.

Now this is the pot. You can see that's quite deep.

That's on purpose, because roses are grown on a graft.

In other words, the roots belong to one rose

and the top section another.

Before I plant it,

I want to add a little of mycorrhizal fungi,

which is mixed up into charcoal. This is biochar.

You can buy this with the fungi already in it.

I'm just going to sprinkle it on the bottom of the hole there.

That goes in there.

It's important to have the point

where the graft meets the top section buried below the soil level.

It doesn't matter what rows you're planting.

Bury slightly deeper than it is in the pot

so that the various stems appear as though they are growing

from the ground rather than from a central graft.

Right, we've planted that like that, it's nice and deep.

With all roses, give them a really generous soak when you plant them.

So that is Rosa Alba semiplena -

one of the very best roses for a wonderful fragrance.

Beautiful white flowers, and tough.

They'll grow for almost everybody almost anywhere.

But if you're not planning on growing roses this weekend,

here are some other things you can be doing.

The weather is warming up,

and aquatic plants are starting to grow vigorously,

but so too is algae.

It's important to regularly skim this off your pond.

Don't get rid of this completely, but put it on the side of the water

and let tadpoles and frogs,

beetles and newts crawl back into the water.

After a couple of days, then you can add it to the compost heap.

If you have sown cabbages or any other Brassicas from seed,

plant them out as soon as there is a decent root ball

with roots showing clearly on the outside of the potting compost.

Plant them deeper than they were in the pot and firm them

in really well so there is a good anchor

to hold a full-grown cabbage or cauliflower head.

Water them in and leave them to grow.

Broad beans need supporting now, not as individual plants,

but by wrapping twine or strong string between canes

or sticks spaced out along the row.

Keep this string taught,

and that will hold the growing beans upright and make them

easier to pick as well as stopping them flopping all over the place.

As the broad beans grow, you just add extra layers of string

so that they are not individually supported but they don't flop,

and you can get at them to pick them.

It has been cold and the vegetable garden has been late,

but it's happening.

It's coming. My radishes are starting to grow.

I haven't picked any yet, so this is a first.

I think that the real good thing about growing your own

is that suddenly you feel food is something

that is elemental and personal.

There is that deep satisfaction.

You have some radish and then you just pick some rocket,

which I have growing around the potatoes here.

Nell, come here.

Well, rocket, radish, hot and spicy, a little bit of olive oil,

some lemon juice and that will be a lovely salad. That's it for today.

We shan't be back here at Longmeadow next week, because it's Chelsea.

But myself and the whole team will be there.

Join us at Chelsea,

and then we'll be back here at Longmeadow the week after that.

Come on, Nelly. Come on, you come here. You can take this for me.

Good girl. Take the basket. Good girl. Off we go. Come on.

Come on, Nell.

Come on. There's a good girl.

Good girl. What a good dog.

Good girl. Come on.