Episode 2 Gardeners' World

Hello. Welcome to Gardeners' World.

Now, most plants start to die back around about October

and by November,

they've done almost everything they're going to do,

and by Christmas time, the garden has gone to bed.

But a few plants are actually at their best in autumn.

And almost all grasses fall into that category.

And even in February, on a bright, frosty day,

they can look absolutely magnificent.

So you don't cut them back at all, you leave them

to give you everything they've got to give right up till spring.

But we've reached that point now.

Now is the time to cut all grasses back and give the new growth

a chance to come through, and that's what I'm going to be doing today.

This week, we're paying the first of several visits

to that jewel of British gardens, Sissinghurst in Kent.

This isn't just any garden, it's Sissinghurst,

it's one of the major gardens

that people have copied and tried to emulate across the world.

In the second instalment of Joe's series exploring the garden tree,

he looks at the best method

of ensuring that they are perfectly planted.

-Look at that, perfect. Spot on.

-And we start by filling it?

Yes, fill it in.

It's important not to have any air gaps between the roots and the soil.

And Rachel revels in the delights of winter scent

at RHS Rosemoor in Devon.

Oh, that fragrance is almost overpowering.

Some of the grasses form really dramatic sort of bamboo-like growth.

This is a miscanthus. Sacchariflorus.

They all have different qualities.

You've got the calamagrostis, which is terribly upright.

Deschampsia, which splays and is lighter and airier.

There are two types of grasses - evergreen and deciduous.

The evergreen has some green in it left over from last year.

For example, this here, this Pheasant grass, is a mixture of

brown and green, which means

that it is evergreen and shouldn't be cut back.

I'll show you how to deal with those in a moment.

But if you've got a miscanthus, or a calamagrostis, say,

all the previous year's growth will be brown and that can be removed.

Cut right at the base of the plant.

But if there is fresh green growth there,

cut above that.

Because, of course, grasses don't grow from the top,

and if you cut them, they're going to have a cut line as they grow up.

Looking at a bed of grasses,

to me is like feeling a beautiful fabric.

It has that lovely quality.

And the second aspect is sound.

Grasses sound fantastic.

They pick up the wind

and you get this beautiful musical sound from them.

That's the first pass of the deciduous grasses.

But the evergreen ones have a very different technique

for clearing them out.

And they do need a tidy-up, you don't just leave them.

So, all you're looking to do is put your hands in

and just tease out the dead growth.

Now...

See, there you are.

You come out with a handful of dead growth

but you haven't removed any of the green, live stuff.

And go through them all.

Just tidying them up, really.

If you've got Pheasant grass, like I have here, hands are good.

If you're doing pampas grass, for example, which is an evergreen,

use gloves because you can cut your hands to ribbons on grass.

Now, inevitably, you have a huge amount of material to clear up

and may wonder what on earth to do with it.

But it will all compost.

If you've got a shredder, that's brilliant, push it through that.

Otherwise, just get a pair of shears, clip it up,

try and reduce the size of it, increase the surface area.

Don't be tempted just to chuck it away or even burn it. Use it.

The best way to get inspiration for your garden

is to go and visit other gardens.

And certainly one of the most famous,

most visited gardens in the UK is Sissinghurst in Kent.

Sissinghurst was the creation of the novelist and poet

Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson.

And their original vision combined a strong structure

with a carefree abundance of colour and planting.

But over the years,

particularly as the number of visitors has grown hugely,

the garden gradually moved away from these guiding principles.

However, the head gardener, Troy Scott Smith, is now setting out

to reconnect the garden with the spirit of Vita and Harold.

I first came to Sissinghurst 25 years ago...

as a young sort of novice gardener.

And I do remember, today still, that very much haunting atmosphere.

So much so that I knew I wanted to return.

I feel immensely privileged to be in a position of head gardener

here at such a fascinating, interesting, delicate period of time.

Sissinghurst is a wonderful place,

but it's different to Vita's Sissinghurst.

It's just subtly lost its way, it's too precise.

And we've tried to fit in too many plants

to make it appeal to visitors for the whole year.

You know, we're trying to make the garden suitable

for up to 200,000 people,

whilst also perpetuating Vita's garden

and all the qualities and romance that has.

This isn't just any garden, it's Sissinghurst,

it's one of the major gardens in the world.

We have to present Vita's garden in as true a sense as possible.

You know, gardens do evolve.

But it needs to be for good reason.

It's a very tenuous position to be in, you know,

this fine carelessness is very hard to achieve

and it's almost always on the edge of tipping over into chaos.

Vita loved roses and, over the years, she amassed a collection

of around 300 different types of roses here at Sissinghurst.

And she planted them in all kinds of ways.

These wonderful dome structures, up pyramids and tripods,

fruit trees and over walls,

to really give a really immersive, emotional experience.

In 2013, when I arrived back at Sissinghurst,

there were only about 100 roses of Vita's collection.

And so, slowly, we're building up Vita's collection again.

This is actually quite a unique part of Sissinghurst

because it's the part that Harold, Vita's husband, planted

and designed himself, and he called it "my life's work".

Vita called it "Platform 5, Charing Cross",

something very different.

But actually, it's a planting based around the spring flowers

they saw together on their travels to the Alps and to the Dolomites.

What we have from Harold is 16 years' worth

of quite detailed plans and notes

about the planting that he carried out in these beds

here in the spring garden.

So, this is 1956, and we have a tulip here called Artist.

We no longer grow that at Sissinghurst, so here,

when we're replanting parts of this border,

we're trying to source those same plants that Harold had growing here

and planting them once again in the borders here.

Sissinghurst is really a collaboration of Vita and Harold.

It was very much a joint enterprise.

Really, the garden was much more than just a place where

they created a garden, it was really a love story for them both.

When Vita and Harold bought Sissinghurst,

the first thing they ever planted, even before they signed the deeds,

was this rose here, Madame Alfred Carriere.

It's a lovely, creamy white rose.

And it's still here today, the same rose, 80 years later.

So even though we're making quite a few changes at Sissinghurst,

I suspect this one will be staying.

These are the first few roses we're planting this year,

that we just brought over from our nursery.

This is a rose called Tuscany Superb.

And it's a rose that we have had at Sissinghurst,

but we've lost it recently.

And it's one of Vita's...

She has many, but it's one of Vita's favourite roses.

Primarily because of this lovely colour -

this lovely, rich, dark maroon colour,

which she really loved, particularly in this end of the rose garden.

What we found is that, actually, throughout the garden,

there are subtle changes in the planting

which has caused just the overall tone to be different

from Vita's garden of the '40s and '50s,

you know, really as a consequence of trying to make the garden

look good for a longer period.

There's actually quite a lot going on in the rose garden, florally,

so it flowers from March through to October.

Now, you might think that's a good thing,

but actually it takes away something from Vita's garden.

Vita's presence in the garden was everything.

A garden is an expression of a character, a personality,

and Vita put everything into the garden, I believe.

So it's really not too far fetched to think that somehow

she's still there, you know, within the garden, within the soil,

within the leaves of the plants.

So, one very special place at Sissinghurst,

and one I'm sure Vita and Harold would be very interested in,

of course, is the White Garden.

It's their last creation at Sissinghurst,

one that they worked on very much together.

And for me, it was one of the most underwhelming spaces.

It should be this really... highlight, this zenith

to your day out at Sissinghurst.

This arbour was designed and put in by Nigel Nicolson. Does it stay?

Should it go because it's not authentic to Vita?

You know, that and many other questions

we have to ponder constantly. We won't please everybody.

I'm gardening fairly instinctively,

you know, what I feel the garden needs.

And, yeah, I'll be judged in several years' time.

Come on, girl.

Good girl, that's it.

We'll be following Troy's progress as he works to make the garden

a little bit truer to Vita's vision.

And if you want to visit it,

it's opened tomorrow for the first time this year.

And if you haven't already visited it, it's a must.

It's an absolute gem.

And I know that it's influenced me hugely.

You can see touches of Sissinghurst all over Longmeadow.

Come on, what have you got? What have you got?

I've got a rose here that's got a bad case of the diagonals.

And the reason that it's growing at this slant is because, right here

where I'm standing, there used to be a large Sambucus, an elder.

And this winter, I dug it up

and moved it to another part of the Jewel Garden.

So I want to train this poor rose and prune it

so we get a decent shape back to it.

It's a rose called William Shakespeare.

And it is what's called an English rose.

And I'd say that if you're pruning

any rose, relax, you're not going to kill it. Roses are tough.

So I can afford to be ruthless.

And if I get in there, I think I'll start by cutting just there.

And take that out.

It's a bit thorny.

By pruning it hard, I'm stimulating new growth

that I will then keep.

So, really, this is not for the sake of the plant,

but just to get a decent shape.

If you can see a bud, or a shoot coming off sideways,

cut above it, that's all you have to worry about.

Now, I've got two branches crossing here.

They'll rub in the wind, they'll cause a wound

and that's where you can get problems.

So one of these two has to go.

And we'll take that there.

That can come there. That can go there.

From these stubs, hopefully a new framework will grow.

It may take a year or two to get the effect I want,

which is a large plant growing out evenly to fill the space.

And the beauty of this rose, they start in June

and the flowers will be produced right through till October.

Of course, I'll have to wait until summer before they appear.

And wait for summer for their fragrance too,

cos they do have a good scent.

However, you can find fragrance in the garden at this time of year,

albeit you do need to know what plants to look for.

And Rachel has been to RHS Rosemoor

to find the very best of winter fragrance.

The winter garden is a beautiful place.

Full of detail, with textures,

colours and sounds all vying for our attention.

But there is something else here playing with our senses.

You can't see it, hear it or touch it.

But it's all around us - and that's scent.

Here at Rosemoor, they have some really distinctive

winter-flowering fragrant shrubs,

many of which are perfect for small gardens.

Sometimes, that fragrance is so strong,

it pulls you in across the garden.

And that's certainly the case with this sweet box.

It's one of my absolute favourite shrubs.

I think it's very much underrated.

Not only does it look good,

you've got this lovely, neat, evergreen foliage.

But then, at this time of year, these small flowers,

they absolutely pump out this really strong perfume.

For me, it's something like almost a cross between gardenia and honey,

it really is that intense.

The plant really invests heavily in producing lots of flowers

to attract those pollinating insects.

It's all about reproduction.

And you can see it's working,

there's a lovely, sleepy bee just here,

just enjoying all that fragrance

and warming its back in the sunshine.

And it works - because here's the result.

These lovely black shiny berries appearing already.

One of my favourite groups of winter flowering shrubs are the daphnes.

This one is Jacqueline Postille. And it's quite popular, and justly so.

It's well worth getting out an eyeglass

because then you can really scrutinise the flowers close up

and begin to understand how they produce that fragrance.

And they have a layer of epidermal cells, either over the petals,

the sepals sometimes, the reproductive parts of the flower.

And they produce a volatile essential oil.

And as that warms up in the winter sunshine, it evaporates,

and that vapour just then passes through the plant

and out across the garden. It's really quite magical.

Where you get a slightly thicker layer of those cells,

then you get an almost waxy appearance to the flower,

as you have here in the daphnes.

And I can actually see those oils just glistening on the surface.

That's absolutely fascinating.

One of the most eye-catching shrubs

in the winter garden is the witch hazel.

They have the most unusual,

beguiling flowers. Almost like strands of orange or lemon zest.

And they have an earthy, really deep, dark note to their scent.

Almost like frankincense and myrrh.

The scent comes from the volatile essential oils within the petals

and also the rich, sticky nectar.

And on a day like today,

it's sufficiently warm for that to reach me just standing here.

But on a cooler day, if you cup your hands around it

and just breathe on it...

Oh, and then breathe in that fragrance, it's almost overpowering.

In their native habitat, these are actually pollinated by fruit flies.

And you can see why they are so attractive to that smell.

You've got horizontal form, you've got the colour of the flowers

and that fragrance. It's a plant with absolutely everything.

Seeing those witch hazels has really brought home to me

the diversity of different fragrances

you get in the winter garden.

And also, that they're not just here for the benefit

of the pollinators, because we can really enjoy them too.

I think it is essential to garden for all the senses.

And though everybody loves a delicious fragrance,

probably most of us don't plant specifically for scent quite enough.

So this year, I'm going to make a real effort

and I shall be planting on the Mound, exclusively,

plants that give me the best fragrance

for as long as possible throughout the year.

So, starting in the spring, going right through into winter.

And I'm going to make a start now by planting some lilies in pots.

If you've got alkaline soil, it's probably a good idea to grow

scented lilies in pots because they don't really like alkaline soil.

And I find here that, growing them in pots,

and also with a slightly special compost,

it's not essential, because they will grow,

but if you can get either an ericaceous compost, bracken-based,

or people have said that lilies do very well in a wool-based compost.

What I've got here is a mixture made up from a leaf mould,

which we make here, which I find lilies love,

a bit of a proprietary compost, a bit of wool compost,

a bit of garden compost, all mixed together, and that does the job.

You need a nice big pot.

You can buy specific lily pots which are splayed outwards.

Give them good drainage, so a crock.

So half fill it with this compost and then we'll plant the lilies.

Now, this is Lilium regale,

one of the most popular lilies of all

because not only has it got

these beautiful white flowers flush with a bit of pink,

but also the fragrance is exquisite.

And you plant them - I'm going to put three in a pot of this size

- quite deep, about 4 to 6 inches deep.

Like that.

If being a gloriously beautiful flower,

AND having one of the best fragrances in the whole

of the floral encyclopaedia wasn't reason enough to grow Lilium regale,

the fact that it's pretty resistant to lily beetle should clinch it.

Put the pot outside, somewhere vaguely sheltered,

but it doesn't need feeding, shouldn't need watering -

rain will do the job - until it starts to grow.

Then, when it reaches about a foot or so height with the foliage,

I will take this to its position on the Mound, it'll start to flower

towards the middle of June and give me six weeks or so of glory.

Now, this is just one plant that I shall be growing amongst

the scented collection on the Mound and I'll try and cover

as many different types of plant as possible, including a tree,

or even two, but choosing exactly the right tree for a small space

that's going to do the job you want from it -

with the right colours or form - can be quite a challenge.

Last week, Joe gave us a guide to the range of trees you could have

and, this week, he gets expert advice

on how best to plant your tree.

Today, I'm going behind the scenes at a tree nursery

to discover how trees are cultivated and how to give your tree

the very best start in life.

'By the time a tree is ready to sell,

'it'll already be several years old.

'At this nursery just south of Bristol, Simon Scarth is responsible

'for making trees grow healthily from saplings to specimens.

'I caught up with him in the field

'where they nurture their younger trees.'

-Hi, Joe.

-What a beautiful day! What a beautiful location!

-It is!

-A lovely day, isn't it? It's cracking out here.

-Great spot.

How old are the trees here?

Um, well, these trees are going to be between three and five years old.

What has to happen to them here? How do you look after them?

Well, we do a lot of pruning work, um, caning,

making sure they get a good shape. A lot of the formative work

you need to do to a tree in the younger years.

Once they've grown out in the field for a few years, what happens next?

Well, we'll dig them up, and we'll either plant them out somewhere else

in the field or we'll take them back to our other site to be potted on.

This is the part of the nursery where the trees are brought

once we've dug them out of the field.

And we bring them in here and heal them into the wood chip,

to keep them moist, the roots moist and wet throughout the winter.

-So it's like a series of trenches? All these huge trenches?

-Yeah.

-SOIL CRUNCHES

-Wow!

-We just heal them in woodchip,

-then out they come.

-There it is. A very compact root ball, isn't it?

Not a lot of roots on it!

Yeah, well, transplanting it helps to stop it creating big,

solid roots and have more of a mass of these more fibrous roots,

which helps absorb more nutrients and water.

And can you buy these trees bare-rooted here?

You can buy them bare-rooted, yes. They're cheaper to buy bare-rooted.

But you can only plant them between November and March, so if you wanted

-to plant after that, you'd need a container-grown tree.

-Yeah.

And how much would something like this be bare-rooted?

Um, something like this, there's a 10-12cm girth, would be

between £70 and £80, dependent on the species.

So a bit cheaper than container-grown?

-Yeah, about 20-25% cheaper than the container-grown plants.

-Right.

-Now, if you can just hold that for me.

-Sure.

-I'll do a bit of pruning.

'Back at the barn, our first job is

'to trim off some of the thicker roots.'

So, would you do this to this bare-rooted tree

if it was going straight in the ground?

Um, you'd still want to prune off any damaged roots, and maybe

lightly prune any big roots to help encourage some root growth,

but ultimately, you want to leave as much of it on as possible.

'But for the trees that will stay on the nursery,

'it's important to make sure the roots have room to grow

'in their new containers, that there are no air gaps around the roots,

'and that the base of the trunk is not buried.

'This all helps keep the plant healthy as it matures.'

-In here?

-Yeah, just pop him in that.

'After a minimum of six months, this tree will be ready for sale.'

-That's good to go.

-There you go. Happy as Larry!

So, what are you looking for in a really healthy tree in a nursery?

Obviously, look at the foliage and make sure it's looking healthy.

If it's in flower, that the flowers are looking healthy.

But also make sure it's been pruned appropriately,

so a cherry like this would be fairly evenly balanced.

You don't want something with the whole top pruned off, cos that's

probably happened to get it into transport somewhere along the lines.

See, what I do with trees -

I'm a bit of a nightmare in a nursery, ha! - is have a...

Tap it out and just check that

there's a nice balanced root system in there, it's not pot bound.

Yeah, you want to see a nice fibrous root system on the outside,

-without any too-big, strong roots going around.

-Yeah.

As you get bigger, the trees do obviously get more expensive.

Basically, you're buying time as well as availability.

To get a large tree in most varieties isn't always possible.

So, how old do you think this tree is?

This tree will be somewhere between 20 and 25 years old,

-I'd have thought.

-So how much is this one?

-This one's actually £680.

OK. So, if you think it's 25 years old - 680 quid - well, that's...

That's under 30 quid a year.

'This tree was destined for a local hospice, so I went along to help.'

If you put it in the middle here. We'll get it off and have a look

-how it looks and then, you know, reposition it and go from there.

-OK.

'A big tree needs a big hole.

'And what's most important is making sure the depth is correct.

'The level the tree has been growing at in its container is

'the level you want the tree to sit in the ground.'

-Oh, look at that!

-Perfect!

-Spot on.

-Then it's all about filling it?

-Yeah, and filling in.

It's important not to have any air gaps between the roots and the soil?

-They've got to be in contact with each other?

-They have.

It'd be the same, whether you're planting a 130-litre tree,

like this, or a 10-litre pot you've got from your local garden centre.

-There's just a lot more digging with the big tree.

-Yeah.

-Ha-ha!

-There's a lot more work the bigger the tree gets.

'Lastly, you need to stake your tree.'

It's all to do was stopping those roots, as they grow out.

The new fibrous roots will snap off if the root ball's rocking,

so you want to anchor that in the ground really firmly,

so those routes can grow out and, you know, over time themselves,

anchor the tree to the ground, then, after two years,

you can take the stakes off and the tree should be fine.

'After mulching and watering in, the tree is guaranteed a good start

'and this one should grow happily at the hospice for many years.'

So, this is Acer griseum. It's a tree for all seasons, really.

-WOMAN:

-Hooray!

I think planting a tree is a significant act,

not just in the life of a garden,

but in the life of a human being too.

It's always a really big connecting thing to do.

But if you're not planting a tree,

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

Buddlejas produce their flowers on growth made

in the current spring and summer, so, if you don't prune them,

the flowers just get higher and higher up the shrub.

Cut them back. If you're growing them in a border,

leave a framework a foot or two tall. But if it's in open ground,

you can take all the growth down to the bottom couple of buds.

For many of us, our soil is still very cold and rather wet

and it's too early to plant or sow much.

However, you can speed up the process of drying out

and warming up, by covering it.

Cloches are excellent. You can use polythene sheeting or garden fleece.

Simply pin it to the ground and that

will help prepare the ground, so you can get to work sooner.

Now, that doesn't look very handsome,

but it will help warm up the soil. If it rains, it doesn't matter.

The water will go through, the fleece gets wet and then it will

dry out, but what you're looking for is to get that soil warm.

Cloches, by the way, are much better.

If you can get hold of cloches, they're fantastic.

And as soon as the soil warms up, then we can grow masses of veg!

And more than ever this year, because I have started

to make a new area of the garden and expand the vegetables

we grow here out, so we can grow twice as many vegetables!

Lots of different varieties and cook them and eat them

and enjoy them as much as possible! But not today.

In fact, not anything today, because we've run out of time.

But I'll see you back here at Longmeadow next week.

Come on! HE CLICKS HIS TONGUE

Come on!