Episode 14 Gardeners' World

Hello. Welcome to Gardeners' World.

We've had a week of incessant heavy, heavy rain.

But it's been warm.

And the wet and the warmth has made everything just rush away.

The beans have reached the top of the poles.

The lettuces are bolting, the chard is ready.

It's wonderful.

I'm really pleased to see the arrival of the purple-podded peas,

these lovely deep purple, almost chocolaty pods,

and very quickly the peas themselves will be swelling

and we'll be harvesting and eating those.

Now, in today's programme, as well as my veg,

I'm going to be celebrating and troubleshooting my roses.

I'm also planting clematis.

Not your standard climbing type, but a herbaceous clematis that will

ramble along the ground and up through neighbouring plants.

Come on. come on.

Carol is back with her series on choosing the right plant

for the right place. This week she's looking at plants that thrive

in wet and damp conditions.

This is water crowfoot,

surely one of our most beautiful native water plants.

And we're off to Norfolk to see a wonderful collection

of tall bearded irises.

We've got blues, we've got whites, we've got peaches. And if you want

something orange at the front of your garden,

have a blast and shock people.

The clematis have been fabulous this year.

They were last year, too, and it's because we've had wet winters

and clematis love lots of water and lots of food.

As long as they've got a nice loose root run

you can hardly feed or water them too much.

Of course, what they bring at this time of year

is an incredible intensity.

These great big flowers of these Group 2 clematis.

And next to the orange of the Kniphofia there,

perfect for the dual garden

where we want as intense colour as we possibly can get.

These Group 2 clematis start flowering around the end of May,

and carry on for another few weeks.

Group 1 clematis are the armandii, montana, alpina,

which do their flowering in April and May. However, if it flowers

in July you have a different type of clematis altogether.

The late flowering group, like Clematis viticella or this one here,

which is Julia Correvon,

have smaller flowers and they appear at the end of June and the beginning

of July and will go on flowering right into autumn.

So we're now at that point where the large flowering group and the later

small flowering ones briefly pass, like ships in the night.

But there is yet another type of clematis which I'm going to plant.

I've got here a clematis to plant under the pear tree

in the orchard beds,

called Clematis jouiniana Praecox.

One of its parents is old man's beard, our native clematis.

And it's smothered with small white flowers

touched with a little shade of blue.

Now, this doesn't climb to great heights,

it's never going to work particularly successfully climbing

up a tripod or cloaking a wall, but it scrambles.

It can scramble along the ground, it can go over a tree stump,

it can hide a manhole cover.

It's really good for working its way in,

under and amongst shrubs in a border.

Big leaves, and these will turn a good golden colour in autumn.

So a really good plant but an interesting one and an addition

to the armoury of clematis you can grow in your garden.

You do need to give it rich soil and dig a bigger hole than you might

normally for other plants.

And you can see we've got quite a deep pot.

Clematis roots grow good and deep so you need a deep hole.

And in the bottom of the hole...

..I'm going to add some compost.

I've added biochar to the compost, too.

And this is really, as much as anything else,

to retain moisture and create a nice open root run.

We are going to put that in the bottom.

Take that out.

Typically yellow clematis roots, but a good root system.

That will go in there like that and the soil back in.

And, with all clematis, give them a really good soak.

A bucket of water when you plant it and if it's at all dry,

and bearing in mind this is under a tree,

it is going to get dry quite quickly.

For the first year or so give it another bucket of water

every few weeks. Don't let it dry out.

Now, although clematis do need plenty of water,

they won't thrive in boggy conditions.

However, there are plants that have adapted to grow only in bogs

or in running water or even in a pond or a lake.

And Carol has been to discover the very best of them.

For any plan to thrive and flourish in our gardens

it needs the right conditions.

A happy plant is the right plant growing in the right place.

There is one place in our garden that needs a unique type of plant,

and that place is water.

Whether it's a crashing waterfall, a bubbling stream

or a tranquil millpond,

water brings a magical dimension to any space.

This is water crowfoot,

surely one of our most beautiful native water plants.

It has a very fine roots.

They are just there as anchors to stop the whole thing drifting away.

It gathers its food and oxygen through its stems and its leaves.

If you look at these stems they're completely floppy.

It's got no structure at all

because it derives all its support from the water

and they can wave around in the water, however fast it's moving.

And the only bits of the plant which is above the water are these

beautiful white flowers, held on what are stiff stands,

unlike the rest of the plant.

They've got to hold those flowers up

so any pollinating insect that's passing by can stop, do its work,

the plant can set seed, and the water carries that seed

right down the stream, making bigger and bigger colonies.

In the midst of this wondrous meadow

is a particularly damp piece of ground

and in it is one of our most iconic native wetland plants.

It's Iris pseudacorus.

When I get in here I can actually hear the ground squelching.

-GROUND SQUELCHES

-There it goes.

And that's exactly what this plant loves.

The iris has stiff stems that hold its flowers well above

the surrounding foliage and well above the water to make sure

that they can be pollinated.

If you were to plant a germanica iris,

one of those big, blousy bearded ones in here, it would die.

Its tubers, its rhizomes would actually absorb water

and the whole thing would rot.

On the other hand, with this iris it has rhizomes too,

but they are impervious to water and from them extend big, thick,

white feeding roots which sink themselves into the mud and bring up

nutrients and water.

All these plants which grow here in the wild

have similar characteristics to water-loving plants

we can grow in our own gardens.

Here at Westernbury Mill Water Gardens they've created bog gardens,

meandering streams and a glorious pond.

This beautiful area is divided into small, shallow ponds,

but around the edges are marginals

of every description living in shallow mud, really.

One of the most spectacular are these Asiatic primulas.

We often call them candelabra primulas

because of the way in which they grow,

with whirls of flowers right up the stem.

Often plants that live by water have large leaves,

like this great glorious Rodgersia.

Because the soil is constantly moist

that means they can maintain those leaves, they never wilt.

But, at the same time, it can also mean that that soil is waterlogged,

it becomes anaerobic - there is no oxygen in there.

But the plant has a really clever way of dealing with this.

In its internal structures are big air spaces

where it can store oxygen and air for when it's really needed.

So what happens if you haven't got a damp patch in your garden

but you absolutely must grow these beautiful plants?

Well, the solution is simple.

Just excavate an area, line it with compost bags,

puncture them with your garden fork, return the soil,

water well and go ahead and plant all these delightful bog plants.

The leaves of some plants float on the water.

The classic example is the water lily.

Its leaves have air chambers, providing buoyancy.

They are big, taking advantage of full sun.

Buds are formed underwater but push up to the surface where the petals

open into the beautiful flowers we all recognise.

All these plants, with handsome, bold foliage

have enormous ornamental value in the garden,

and none more so than this giant Gunnera manicata.

And it, like all these wonderful water plants we've seen today,

are brilliant examples of the right plant in the right place.

There's no doubt about it that a plant in the right place

will be happy, and plants here in the Cottage Garden

are zinging with happiness.

Now, at this time of year it's important that pollinators

can go around and pollinate our plants and look after themselves.

And to that end the RHS and the University of Bristol are doing

a survey and they'd like you to take part.

We want to know what plants you use to attract pollinators.

And if we can tap in to all the experience and knowledge

of the millions of gardens across the country,

the plan is to come up with a list of the best pollinating plants

that we can use in our gardens and that will be published later on

in the year. But go to our website,

and if you want to take part all the details are there.

The roses in the Cottage Garden are really taking hold.

This is a new thing. This was a vegetable garden only four years ago

and some of the first shrubs to be planted were these two beds.

And there were six roses

and they are French roses from a certain periods.

Now, this one is called Chapeau de Napoleon.

You get these mossy growths growing up the top that look a bit like

a Napoleonic hat. Sometimes you can see this referred to as cristata,

ie, crested rose,

and it's got beautiful pink flowers.

Now, in the rain that we had,

a lot of these are rotting and you can see that the outer petals rot

and the thing never really properly develops.

And sometimes it can look pretty bad.

But if you keep deadheading, you still get a really good display,

it doesn't affect the flowers that haven't yet opened.

However, there are certain varieties that suffer more than others.

And here's one called Souvenir de la Malmaison.

Absolutely lovely flower, given the right conditions.

It doesn't like it too wet.

You can see we've got these rotten flower heads that are

a direct result of the rain,

and Souvenir de la Malmaison is very susceptible to fungal attack.

And you can see there is already some black spot showing on this.

Black spot tends to occur after flowering,

and get much worse and can totally defoliated the plant.

It doesn't tend to affect the flowers, but it'll weaken the plant

and therefore you will get fewer flowers next year. The best way

to treat it is to gather up all the foliage and burn them.

Don't leave them on the ground cos then the spores fall on the ground

and they'll reinfect the plants next year.

But, next to it, Empress Josephine,

completely happy, completely healthy,

growing in exactly the same soil.

By the way, the best thing you can do for any rose for its health

is to feed it, give it rich soil,

a really good thick mulch every spring.

And if it's ailing you could give it a liquid feed of the seaweed

or comfrey would do the job perfectly well. Further along...

..this is called Agatha.

Agatha is an old rose and it's got beautiful pink flowers.

All these roses flower once.

They're not going to give you endless colour throughout the year.

This is like Christmas and your birthday.

It comes but once a year but does last for weeks.

However, you'll notice what I've got here is a problem that I bet

lots of you have had to face this year, which is balling.

And this occurs when you get a mass of petals,

particularly in these old roses, and the outside gets wet and rots

and it forms a kind of shell,

particularly if there's bright sunshine.

That crisps it up and you can't open it.

You can sometimes tease it open.

Just break the outer shell a bit, like that.

Tease it back. Sometimes that's enough to let it open.

There we go. See, it's opening in front of us now. Quite often

when you do this and the whole thing comes apart in your hands,

but we'll just give it a go. It's worth certainly, every few days,

to deadhead as much as possible so, when you deadhead,

go from the flower right back to the next point.

Don't just cut the head off,

but go right back either to a leaf or the next flower side shoot.

There is a Damask grows here and this is called Kazanlik.

And what I love about it is it makes brilliant potpourri.

So these ancient plants have been throughout history,

and here they are, in our gardens.

We are continuing that lineage and that history through colour

and scent and delight.

And last but not least an alba called Cuisse de Nymphe.

Or the Victorians called it Maiden's Blush,

which magically manages to both sanitise it

and make it seems a bit rude. What's she blushing about? We don't know.

But it is the most beautiful rose.

Wonderful fragrance, beautiful, clear pink flower.

This glaucous leaf and, like all albas, really healthy.

Now, it's possible, but remote,

that you don't grow roses and you won't have to deadhead them,

but here are some other things to do this weekend.

It's very common at this time of year for broad beans to be attacked

by black fly. But you can cure this and prevent it happening

by cutting off the tops of each plant.

This deprives the fly of succulent fresh growth

without in any way harming your harvest of beans.

Warm, wet weather makes brick and stone paths very slippery,

particularly if they are in shade. A good way of dealing with this

without using chemicals is to get some sharp sand and brush it

thoroughly into the surface.

This absorbs moisture and acts as a scourer,

removing the algae which is making the path slippery.

I've planted a line of bearded iris

called Bel Azur behind this lavender hedge

about a month or so ago.

Bearded iris do need dividing every few years.

These are too small. We'll wait a little while.

But I have got the one that is absolutely perfect for division

down here in a pot.

This is an intermediate bearded iris.

Unknown. It came from a garden and the friend who has provided it

for me inherited it. Lovely rich, purple flowers.

And you can see it if I lift this up, and this is part of a clump,

you've got a clump of lots of foliage,

one flower stem and quite a few rhizomes.

And the rhizomes are these bits here

that look like a Pink Fir Apple potato

and the roots are hanging down.

And the idea is to break up

so that you've got at least one of these

growing points attached to a rhizome.

If I put it out onto the table you can see...

I've got in there. This wants to come away.

So I'm actually just going to pull that gently away

with as much root as I can. There we go.

So I've got the rhizome there, root down below, and some foliage.

I plan to that at that level

so the rhizome is sitting on top of the soil and the roots

are down in the soil with really good drainage and maximum sunshine.

The hotter and the sunnier, the better it will flower.

And what you can do to help it get established is just cut it across

like that and that will do two things.

One, it will relieve the stress of the roots cos there is less foliage

and, two, it will stop it acting like a sail, and until it gets

new roots and gets established, its less likely to blow over.

Now, when fully grown this intermediate iris will reach

two to three feet tall. And it will be magnificent.

But they do get bigger. You can get tall group irises

and Simon Dodsworth has a huge collection in Norfolk.

And we went to see him.

Tall bearded irises, as their names would suggest,

are irises that really are tall.

These are 35 inches to 45 inches high.

It has a beard, as distinct from other irises,

that don't have beards.

Iris, after which the flower is named,

was the goddess of the rainbow and we've got a range of colours here.

We've got blues, white, peaches.

And, if you like magenta, go for magenta.

If you want something orange at the front of your garden,

have a blast and shock people.

Irises have an amazing perfume, which you notice,

particularly in the evenings, when it's nice and hot and warm.

We've got lemons, we've got passion fruit, we've got loads of others,

even some sort of really terrific chocolaty smell.

Between the middle of May and the middle of June,

you have something sensational in your garden.

This collection of irises is rare,

it's very much the thoroughbreds of the iris world

and they were all grown by my father over a sort of 40 to 45 year period.

During that period, my father won 12 Dykes medals.

And the Dykes medal is the Oscar of the iris hybridiser's world.

And, in the medal's 90-year history,

nobody had previously won it more than four times.

So this makes him unquestionably the most celebrated 20th-century

hybridiser of British tall bearded irises.

This is a picture of my old man in his iris garden.

Really nice, actually.

He looks relaxed on a hot summer's day.

There's a lovely picture of a greenhouse.

It looks rather beaten up and worse for wear.

He spent loads of time there,

particularly on foul, wet weather days.

As children, we'd always known that the iris collection was important,

but, quite clearly, we'd not realised how important it was.

My father was very particular about people he named his irises after.

He only named irises after the ladies in his life.

The chaps, he obviously didn't think we were good enough.

This is Eileen Louise, named after my father's mother, my grandmother.

Somebody he was really fond of.

Really special iris.

It's got everything that a perfect iris should have. Just look at it.

It's got a crown flower and two flowers flowering on two branches

that are evenly spaced down the stem.

That allows the flowers to flower openly, away from the stem,

and to be seen as individuals.

He wanted you to enjoy each flower.

That was the whole ethos behind my father's hybridising programme.

It's got terrific toughness, substance to the petals.

It's a cracker.

Over his 45 years,

he produced close on 40,000 to 50,000 seedlings.

And yet he only registered 50 varieties.

This means that, actually, he was a real stickler for perfection.

The irises have got to be just right.

They've got to have this form and they've got to have the structure.

They are very easy to grow.

They are hugely tolerant of extremes of heat and extremes of cold.

Relatively few pests, but, basically, they are hardy,

they are tough and they are very difficult to kill.

This time of the year, they seem to take up most of my time.

I think my wife would probably kill me if I actually explained

precisely how much time I spend on them.

I have my father looking over my shoulder most of the time.

He's observing whether or not

I'm looking after his irises appropriately,

whether they are presented properly and whether or not they are getting

the care and attention they deserve.

It's an extraordinary thing.

I feel very privileged to have been presented with the challenge

of taking this legacy on.

We've got this extraordinary collection.

My father was still hybridising actively into his 80s

and producing fabulous things.

At a time when many people are looking back in their lives,

he was constantly looking forwards.

And he had something to look forward to.

That's what's really good about gardeners.

That's a lesson I will learn and I've learned from him.

And it's something I will cherish.

Well, the bearded iris season is coming to an end.

And so is the elderflower season, so, if I don't hurry up,

I won't have any flowers to make elderflower cordial, which I love.

And it's really easy to make.

And, I guess, if you live in the South, you haven't got any left.

And if you live north of, say, Manchester,

you'll have weeks of this left.

And this is the wild elder - Sambucus nigra.

Now, I've got enough here to steep

and soak and make some cordial.

For as long as I can remember,

we've made elderflower cordial.

And what you start with is these elderflowers.

You just shake them to get rid of any insects.

And you want 20 good flower heads.

And what we are essentially making is a syrup.

And we want to soak that.

But first we want to add some lemon.

And you great zest of six unwaxed lemons.

And it's important they are unwaxed, cos you are going to grate them in.

I don't quite know why I've chosen to use this tiny little grater,

but there you go.

I thought it was rather sweet.

In fact, it would have been much easier to use a bigger one.

Elderflower cordial is one of the most refreshing drinks

I think you can have on a hot day.

Then, when you've done that, slice the lemons up.

And add them to the mixture.

And you also need to add 50g of citric acid.

And then, last but not least, sugar.

1.8 kilos of sugar.

And then, finally, add 1.5 litres of boiling water.

Stir the mixture until the sugar has dissolved.

And then leave it for at least 24 hours.

We cover it with a cloth, just to keep any insects out.

Put it somewhere cool and then you need to decant it.

It will keep for about three months in sealed bottles.

But you can freeze it. And one tip that we do is to freeze it

in ice cubes. And you take out one cube of elderflower cordial -

remember, this is very intense -

and you put one cube in a glass, top it up with water and, as it melts,

it cools the water. And you have a delicious elderflower drink.

But, however you use it, it's delicious.

That's it for today. I will be back next week at Longmeadow.

But, until then, bye-bye.

Come on.