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Hello. Welcome to Gardeners' World. | 0:00:10 | 0:00:12 | |
Now, it's Easter weekend | 0:00:12 | 0:00:14 | |
and for many of us, this is our first venture out into the garden, | 0:00:14 | 0:00:18 | |
where we can take stock, start buying plants, planning, gardening | 0:00:18 | 0:00:24 | |
so that the garden will look as good as it possibly can | 0:00:24 | 0:00:27 | |
in the months to come. | 0:00:27 | 0:00:29 | |
Here in the damp garden at Longmeadow, | 0:00:29 | 0:00:30 | |
I have done some work over winter. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:32 | |
A bit of pruning, a bit of clearing and digging. | 0:00:32 | 0:00:35 | |
But now is the time to start moving plants around, dividing some, | 0:00:35 | 0:00:40 | |
putting in new ones, | 0:00:40 | 0:00:42 | |
giving this part of Longmeadow a new burst of energy. | 0:00:42 | 0:00:46 | |
This week, Rachel visits a garden centre to find out | 0:00:48 | 0:00:51 | |
what are the trends this Easter. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:54 | |
Viburnums! | 0:00:54 | 0:00:55 | |
There's been a trend very much for planting herbaceous perennials | 0:00:55 | 0:00:58 | |
and wild flowers and the more naturalistic look. | 0:00:58 | 0:01:01 | |
We get a masterclass in looking after one of our most popular | 0:01:01 | 0:01:05 | |
house plants, the orchid. | 0:01:05 | 0:01:07 | |
Probably where people go wrong the most | 0:01:07 | 0:01:09 | |
is getting the watering balance right. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:11 | |
And Joe goes behind the scenes | 0:01:11 | 0:01:13 | |
at one of the biggest growers of bedding plants in the country. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:17 | |
The thing about bedding is it's fun, it's not very expensive | 0:01:17 | 0:01:21 | |
and you can do anything you want with it. | 0:01:21 | 0:01:23 | |
The pond is coming into life in more ways than one. | 0:01:33 | 0:01:36 | |
There's a little bit of growth coming in. | 0:01:36 | 0:01:38 | |
It'd be nice to get in there with my waders | 0:01:38 | 0:01:40 | |
and start to clean out, cut back the old foliage, | 0:01:40 | 0:01:43 | |
and I was planning to do that but I was halted by a sound. | 0:01:43 | 0:01:49 | |
And that sound was the rumbling croak of scores of mating frogs. | 0:01:49 | 0:01:55 | |
Music to somebody's ears, probably other mating frogs, but it | 0:01:55 | 0:01:58 | |
means that if I get in there, splash about, I'm going to disturb them. | 0:01:58 | 0:02:03 | |
And you do have to take on board that if you're going to have a pond | 0:02:03 | 0:02:07 | |
that's occupied by wildlife, it does mean | 0:02:07 | 0:02:09 | |
that you have to work around them, rather than them working around you. | 0:02:09 | 0:02:12 | |
From the edge, I can start to take out leaves and things | 0:02:12 | 0:02:15 | |
and it's important to do that | 0:02:15 | 0:02:16 | |
because if you have rotting vegetation in the water, | 0:02:16 | 0:02:20 | |
that will decompose, that will enrich the water | 0:02:20 | 0:02:22 | |
and that will encourage algae later on in the year. | 0:02:22 | 0:02:25 | |
In this border in the front and you can see the camassias | 0:02:25 | 0:02:29 | |
are growing well, I've got, just appearing, hostas. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:33 | |
I've got three main types. | 0:02:33 | 0:02:35 | |
Sieboldiana, Sum And Substance and Snowdon. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:38 | |
And all three have got really big leaves. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:41 | |
And, over the last couple of years, they've suppressed other things | 0:02:41 | 0:02:45 | |
like primulas that were planted in there, so what I want to do | 0:02:45 | 0:02:49 | |
today is to move some, divide some and actually start planting hostas | 0:02:49 | 0:02:54 | |
around the back of the pond, so we pick up that rhythm of foliage. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:58 | |
And the time to do it is now. | 0:02:58 | 0:03:00 | |
Any time when you start to see these bullet-like shoots appear and this | 0:03:00 | 0:03:05 | |
is also a very good time to divide and move any herbaceous perennial. | 0:03:05 | 0:03:10 | |
And they are very easy to do. Right, out you come. | 0:03:10 | 0:03:15 | |
There we go. | 0:03:17 | 0:03:18 | |
Now, I have done this with an axe before | 0:03:22 | 0:03:24 | |
and you can do it with a bread knife, by the way. | 0:03:24 | 0:03:26 | |
An old bread knife is probably more accurate, | 0:03:26 | 0:03:28 | |
but I'm just going to chop, like that. | 0:03:28 | 0:03:30 | |
There we go. | 0:03:30 | 0:03:32 | |
And you can see the roots are cut clean. | 0:03:35 | 0:03:39 | |
If I replant that, I will get a big, healthy plant. | 0:03:39 | 0:03:42 | |
I could divide that easily into two again, | 0:03:42 | 0:03:45 | |
if I wanted to space them out more. | 0:03:45 | 0:03:48 | |
And I've got some compost in here and take them to their new home. | 0:03:48 | 0:03:52 | |
I'm digging a much bigger hole than I need for the hosta itself, | 0:04:03 | 0:04:07 | |
because I want to put plenty of compost underneath it. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:09 | |
Hostas are greedy, thirsty plants. | 0:04:09 | 0:04:12 | |
So I'm going to give it every chance. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
This is garden compost, but manure will do. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:19 | |
Anything that is rich and strong | 0:04:19 | 0:04:21 | |
will hold moisture and feed the plant. | 0:04:21 | 0:04:23 | |
Now we'll plant this at the same level it was in the ground | 0:04:26 | 0:04:30 | |
and we can backfill around it. | 0:04:30 | 0:04:32 | |
Last, but absolutely not least, give it a really good drink | 0:04:32 | 0:04:36 | |
and I mean a proper soak. | 0:04:36 | 0:04:37 | |
Although I haven't had to go shopping for these plants, | 0:04:45 | 0:04:49 | |
the truth is that most of us will go shopping for plants at Easter time. | 0:04:49 | 0:04:54 | |
Garden centres do a huge trade at this time of year. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:57 | |
It's by far and away their biggest commercial period. | 0:04:57 | 0:05:01 | |
And Rachel's been to a garden centre in the Cotswolds to see | 0:05:01 | 0:05:04 | |
exactly what people looking for this year. | 0:05:04 | 0:05:07 | |
I don't know about you, but I love the Easter weekend. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:17 | |
The chance to spend time with family, | 0:05:20 | 0:05:22 | |
the warm spring days...mostly. | 0:05:22 | 0:05:26 | |
And the gardening season starting in earnest, which of course, | 0:05:29 | 0:05:32 | |
for most of us, means a trip to the garden centre. | 0:05:32 | 0:05:35 | |
Every year, over two thirds of British adults | 0:05:38 | 0:05:41 | |
visit a garden centre. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:43 | |
That's around 160 million visits, spending nearly £3 billion | 0:05:43 | 0:05:48 | |
and the Easter weekend is when it really all kicks off. | 0:05:48 | 0:05:53 | |
But what I want to know is what exactly we're all going to be | 0:05:53 | 0:05:57 | |
buying this year and how our gardens are going to look as a result. | 0:05:57 | 0:06:01 | |
I've come to one of the country's most successful garden centres. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:06 | |
Glenn Sheldrake is the horticultural director, | 0:06:06 | 0:06:09 | |
responsible for filling the place chock-full with irresistible plants. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:14 | |
So this is the first thing I'd like to show you. | 0:06:16 | 0:06:18 | |
-Viburnums! -Yes. | 0:06:18 | 0:06:21 | |
So, there's been a trend over the last few years, very much | 0:06:21 | 0:06:24 | |
for planting herbaceous perennials and wild flowers | 0:06:24 | 0:06:27 | |
and the more naturalistic look. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:29 | |
And what we're seeing is a tandem trend springing up for people | 0:06:29 | 0:06:31 | |
that now realise that you also need structure and form in the garden. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:35 | |
We love viburnum because there are so many different types | 0:06:35 | 0:06:39 | |
and I particularly wanted to show you this one. | 0:06:39 | 0:06:41 | |
This is Viburnum Mariesii Great Star. | 0:06:41 | 0:06:45 | |
It has a great architectural form where you get layers of branches | 0:06:45 | 0:06:49 | |
-which are smothered in flowers. -Horizontal. | 0:06:49 | 0:06:51 | |
Absolutely smothered in flowers in the spring | 0:06:51 | 0:06:54 | |
and then incredible autumn colour. | 0:06:54 | 0:06:55 | |
You know, I'm so pleased that you said this. | 0:06:55 | 0:06:57 | |
Because for me, this is what's been missing for the last few years. | 0:06:57 | 0:07:00 | |
In fact, even longer than that, and I remember, as a child, my father | 0:07:00 | 0:07:04 | |
had lots of shrubs, philadelphus, viburnums and so on. | 0:07:04 | 0:07:06 | |
I'm so pleased. It's high time. | 0:07:06 | 0:07:09 | |
So, what's coming next? | 0:07:11 | 0:07:15 | |
This is a trend that we've seen becoming more and more prevalent, | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
for using your garden as an extra room. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:21 | |
And a lot of people have patios or decks | 0:07:21 | 0:07:23 | |
and that gives a lot of extra planting opportunities. | 0:07:23 | 0:07:26 | |
So, particularly for planting pots, we've got a lovely rose here. | 0:07:26 | 0:07:29 | |
This rose is Highgrove which is a climber, | 0:07:29 | 0:07:31 | |
so if you've got a pergola over your outdoor space, | 0:07:31 | 0:07:33 | |
it grows to about eight feet, with beautiful depth | 0:07:33 | 0:07:36 | |
and intensity of colour. It's a red and it's a really strong grower. | 0:07:36 | 0:07:40 | |
I'm so glad you said rose as well. Always my top trend. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:44 | |
Well, roses come and go but they're very back in fashion at the moment. | 0:07:44 | 0:07:47 | |
It's using your garden as another room. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:50 | |
You can bring plants into that and you can make those plants | 0:07:50 | 0:07:53 | |
-the central feature of your outdoor space. -I love that idea. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:57 | |
-Whether you're out or in, it's all plants. -Absolutely. | 0:07:57 | 0:08:00 | |
On to top trend number three. A magnolia. | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
So, again, sort of quite large, structural plants. | 0:08:10 | 0:08:14 | |
There's no denying that the real joy of being a gardener is taking | 0:08:14 | 0:08:18 | |
a seed or a tiny cutting and growing it into a large plant in your garden | 0:08:18 | 0:08:22 | |
over a period of 10 to 20 years. | 0:08:22 | 0:08:24 | |
But we see more and more people going for instant gardening, | 0:08:24 | 0:08:27 | |
for buying large plants that give impact in the garden straightaway. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:31 | |
Take this Magnolia Susan as an example, | 0:08:31 | 0:08:34 | |
you could wait a very large number of years for a magnolia | 0:08:34 | 0:08:37 | |
to grow that size, but by putting that into your garden straightaway, | 0:08:37 | 0:08:41 | |
you've got something instant and it has great colour, great form. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:45 | |
I can see why that's so appealing, but then how much is this? | 0:08:45 | 0:08:49 | |
-That's £115. -It is. That's quite a big investment, isn't it? | 0:08:49 | 0:08:53 | |
It is, but of course we sell, | 0:08:53 | 0:08:55 | |
as all other garden centres do, much smaller versions of the same. | 0:08:55 | 0:08:58 | |
So there's something to fit everybody's budget. | 0:08:58 | 0:09:00 | |
I can see that it's certainly very seductive. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:03 | |
I'm so glad that Glenn said that he thought shrubs | 0:09:05 | 0:09:08 | |
were due for a resurgence. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:10 | |
And they've certainly given this group of lilacs a really prominent | 0:09:10 | 0:09:14 | |
place here on the nursery. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:16 | |
We got a Souvenir de Louis Spaeth over there | 0:09:16 | 0:09:18 | |
and that's the one I think that's really caught my eye. | 0:09:18 | 0:09:21 | |
Glenn's final tip for what he thinks is going to be really big this year | 0:09:28 | 0:09:32 | |
is for plants with instant impact | 0:09:32 | 0:09:35 | |
and just walking around the nursery, it occurred to me | 0:09:35 | 0:09:38 | |
that I think the instant impact is also here in these conifers. | 0:09:38 | 0:09:42 | |
I love this, for example, this Cryptomeria, | 0:09:42 | 0:09:44 | |
and this is £35 and I think that | 0:09:44 | 0:09:46 | |
definitely creates instant impact. | 0:09:46 | 0:09:50 | |
I'd be happy to have any of these in my garden. | 0:09:50 | 0:09:53 | |
Whether you're planning to buy an instant-effect, expensive plant or | 0:10:09 | 0:10:14 | |
just a tray of bedding, do remember that garden centres are not open on | 0:10:14 | 0:10:18 | |
Easter Sunday, except in Scotland, or at least most of them aren't. | 0:10:18 | 0:10:22 | |
Now, Easter is traditionally the time when people planted potatoes. | 0:10:22 | 0:10:28 | |
But it's very early this year and the ground is very cold | 0:10:28 | 0:10:31 | |
and I shan't be planting my potatoes for a while yet. | 0:10:31 | 0:10:34 | |
There's no point, unless the ground is warm to touch. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:38 | |
However, you can start by growing some in a container | 0:10:38 | 0:10:42 | |
and if you don't have a garden or an allotment, | 0:10:42 | 0:10:44 | |
it's a good way to grow potatoes | 0:10:44 | 0:10:45 | |
and be able to have that delicious taste that you just cannot buy | 0:10:45 | 0:10:50 | |
of new potatoes freshly harvested. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:53 | |
Grow them in any kind of container. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:55 | |
You can buy specialist ones like this | 0:10:55 | 0:10:58 | |
and the important thing is it's got drainage holes in the bottom. | 0:10:58 | 0:11:02 | |
If you use a bag, it's got to be strong enough | 0:11:02 | 0:11:05 | |
to be able to lift it up without tearing full of soil. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:08 | |
You can grow them in a dustbin, | 0:11:08 | 0:11:09 | |
you can grow them in a big flowerpot, | 0:11:09 | 0:11:11 | |
you can have any kind of bag or container | 0:11:11 | 0:11:13 | |
and it will do the job just as well. | 0:11:13 | 0:11:15 | |
Open it out. Potatoes like really rich soil, | 0:11:16 | 0:11:20 | |
so a general-purpose compost will do the job, | 0:11:20 | 0:11:23 | |
but if you can improve it with some soil improver | 0:11:23 | 0:11:26 | |
or if you have got some garden compost of your own, | 0:11:26 | 0:11:29 | |
that definitely will improve the crop. | 0:11:29 | 0:11:31 | |
So, that is no more than one third full of nice, rich compost. | 0:11:31 | 0:11:37 | |
You need some seed potatoes | 0:11:37 | 0:11:39 | |
and I've got here some first earlies. | 0:11:39 | 0:11:41 | |
This is Duke of York. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:43 | |
Good, reliable grower and you can see that they have a shoot on it. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:50 | |
But if it hasn't got any shoots, | 0:11:50 | 0:11:51 | |
that doesn't matter either. You can still plant it. | 0:11:51 | 0:11:53 | |
In a bag that size, I only need one or two seed potatoes. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:59 | |
If I grow it with one, I'll get bigger spuds as a result. | 0:11:59 | 0:12:03 | |
If I put two in, I will get more smaller ones, | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
so you can... depending what you want. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:07 | |
In fact, I'm going to bag up two, one with one and one with two | 0:12:07 | 0:12:10 | |
and we'll compare the results when we come to harvest time. | 0:12:10 | 0:12:13 | |
And simply pop it in, in the centre of the bag. | 0:12:13 | 0:12:18 | |
So we will cover that up with soil... | 0:12:18 | 0:12:20 | |
..like that. | 0:12:22 | 0:12:23 | |
So the seed is covered, | 0:12:25 | 0:12:26 | |
but there's plenty of room to put more soil in, because what | 0:12:26 | 0:12:30 | |
we will do is, as it grows, we'll keep topping the soil up | 0:12:30 | 0:12:34 | |
until the soil level is nearly at the top of the bag | 0:12:34 | 0:12:37 | |
and then the foliage will come out at the top, | 0:12:37 | 0:12:39 | |
which means there's a nice, deep area of goodness | 0:12:39 | 0:12:42 | |
for the roots to get to and we'll get more tubers as a result. | 0:12:42 | 0:12:46 | |
So all we need to do now is to put this somewhere sheltered. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:50 | |
If you've got a greenhouse, that's brilliant, but anywhere where | 0:12:50 | 0:12:53 | |
it's out of cold wind and it's a little bit warmer | 0:12:53 | 0:12:56 | |
than if it's grown in the soil. | 0:12:56 | 0:12:58 | |
Water it, not so it's sodden, but so it never dries out | 0:12:58 | 0:13:00 | |
and, by the way, as it grows, it will need quite a lot of water. | 0:13:00 | 0:13:04 | |
That's a single one. I'm now going to do one with two potatoes. | 0:13:08 | 0:13:12 | |
So we'll pop them in, spaced evenly. | 0:13:14 | 0:13:17 | |
Cover them up. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:21 | |
I'll just pop those there for the moment. | 0:13:35 | 0:13:37 | |
Give them each a little bit of water. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:41 | |
Easter time, time to plant potatoes, time to go shopping for plants | 0:13:45 | 0:13:51 | |
and most people, this weekend, will be buying bedding. | 0:13:51 | 0:13:56 | |
Millions of bedding plants are sold over the Easter holiday weeks. | 0:13:56 | 0:14:02 | |
You may wonder where they all come from. Joe has been to find out. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:06 | |
This is one of the UK's largest growers of plants. | 0:14:10 | 0:14:13 | |
They are located on the Chichester plain, | 0:14:15 | 0:14:17 | |
where the quality and quantity of sunshine are the highest in the UK. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:21 | |
And that means that top-notch, sun-loving plants can be grown | 0:14:23 | 0:14:27 | |
quickly and with maximum energy efficiency. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:29 | |
I've been given a chance to look behind the scenes at this | 0:14:31 | 0:14:34 | |
huge operation that supplies nurseries, garden centres | 0:14:34 | 0:14:39 | |
and DIY stores with a constant supply | 0:14:39 | 0:14:42 | |
of ornamental protected plants. | 0:14:42 | 0:14:44 | |
Full-on, bright, colourful, in-your-face bedding. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:49 | |
The glasshouses cover thousands of square metres in excess | 0:14:53 | 0:14:56 | |
of 65 million plants, 5.5 million bedding packs | 0:14:56 | 0:15:01 | |
and another 4.5 million individual pots are produced annually. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:05 | |
Alex Newey is the managing director | 0:15:07 | 0:15:09 | |
and has an overview of the whole business. | 0:15:09 | 0:15:12 | |
Alex, this is a very impressive operation you've got here | 0:15:12 | 0:15:15 | |
but what I'm really interested in | 0:15:15 | 0:15:18 | |
is who calls the shots about what you are growing. | 0:15:18 | 0:15:21 | |
Ultimately, it's the consumer. | 0:15:21 | 0:15:23 | |
The consumer decides what they want to buy. | 0:15:23 | 0:15:25 | |
I think you got perhaps two different types of garden. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:28 | |
You got the very experienced gardener who might go out | 0:15:28 | 0:15:30 | |
and buy what they've always bought | 0:15:30 | 0:15:32 | |
but equally they're not afraid to experiment either. | 0:15:32 | 0:15:34 | |
And then you've got the newer gardener, or novice gardener. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:38 | |
They are looking for a new things. There are not so set in their ways. | 0:15:38 | 0:15:42 | |
They can buy new plants and have tremendous success with them | 0:15:42 | 0:15:45 | |
and over time, that may reshape what we're selling. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:49 | |
When we put something in the market and it's a new product, | 0:15:49 | 0:15:53 | |
it's got to be brilliant. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:54 | |
It's got to look fantastic and it's got to be trendy. | 0:15:54 | 0:15:57 | |
It's got to be trendy. Now, hang on a minute, what do you call trendy? | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
Buying a blend of products that looks interesting | 0:16:00 | 0:16:04 | |
and different, might be a mix of bedding | 0:16:04 | 0:16:06 | |
and some other things as well. | 0:16:06 | 0:16:08 | |
Might be a mix of bedding with some herbaceous or a bit of tropical | 0:16:08 | 0:16:11 | |
or whatever it might be. That is trendy. | 0:16:11 | 0:16:14 | |
There is no set way of doing it. | 0:16:14 | 0:16:16 | |
Feel free to go out and do it the way you want to do it. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:19 | |
Now, I'll have to admit, | 0:16:27 | 0:16:29 | |
I'm not the biggest fan of bright pink polyanthus. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:33 | |
They are a bit lairy, aren't they? | 0:16:33 | 0:16:35 | |
Perhaps a bit too traditional, but they do a great job of greening up | 0:16:35 | 0:16:39 | |
our cities and we'd certainly miss them if they weren't there. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:43 | |
Now, of course, these guys want you to buy as much bedding as possible, | 0:16:49 | 0:16:53 | |
but my advice is when you go to the garden centre, | 0:16:53 | 0:16:56 | |
just try and stay focused. | 0:16:56 | 0:16:58 | |
Don't run around like a kid in a sweet shop, | 0:16:58 | 0:17:00 | |
picking every single colour out. For me, this is a little bit too much. | 0:17:00 | 0:17:05 | |
Lots of different colours, clashing together, and in fact, | 0:17:05 | 0:17:09 | |
they're fighting with each other rather than being complementary. | 0:17:09 | 0:17:13 | |
Now, this is my sort of thing. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:20 | |
It's cool, whites and blues and purples, | 0:17:20 | 0:17:23 | |
all working together in quite an understated way. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:26 | |
And they're complementing each other. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:28 | |
It's a restricted palette which produces a strong colour theme. | 0:17:28 | 0:17:32 | |
I know, I know. Everyone loves bright colours, though, | 0:17:46 | 0:17:49 | |
and I am not the style police. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:51 | |
But my tip to get the most out of them | 0:17:51 | 0:17:54 | |
is to pick two opposite colours and keep it quite simple. | 0:17:54 | 0:17:58 | |
I mean, look at this blue and the yellow. They intensify each other. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:03 | |
And the great thing about bedding is it's fun, | 0:18:03 | 0:18:06 | |
it's not very expensive, you can personalise your garden and, | 0:18:06 | 0:18:10 | |
if you don't like it, change it as the season comes on. | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
Well, there's no question that whatever you think about | 0:18:27 | 0:18:31 | |
mass production of plants, it is incredibly impressive | 0:18:31 | 0:18:35 | |
and people do buy lots and lots of bedding. | 0:18:35 | 0:18:39 | |
But not all of it is ready to be put in the garden now, even though | 0:18:39 | 0:18:43 | |
it's on sale at the garden centres. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:45 | |
Some of the tender plants really will suffer terribly | 0:18:45 | 0:18:49 | |
and may even die if they go out, even if there isn't a frost. | 0:18:49 | 0:18:52 | |
Now, I've got a couple here. | 0:18:52 | 0:18:54 | |
I've got some surfinias and some calibrachoas | 0:18:54 | 0:18:56 | |
And you can see that they're sold in trays, that sort of size, | 0:18:56 | 0:19:01 | |
small plants, perfectly healthy but that will struggle in our wet, | 0:19:01 | 0:19:06 | |
cold soil, particularly if we have some frost. | 0:19:06 | 0:19:09 | |
So I'm going to pot them on. | 0:19:09 | 0:19:11 | |
And I've got a potting mix which is just general-purpose compost. | 0:19:11 | 0:19:17 | |
A little bit of our own compost and sieved leaf mould in it. | 0:19:17 | 0:19:22 | |
And I just take it out of the container like that, | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
and this is the calibrachoa which has got really dark, | 0:19:25 | 0:19:29 | |
almost black petals, which will be brilliant for the Jewel Garden, | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
particularly in the pots, and just pop it in like that. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:36 | |
Now, with some protection, all I have to do is just keep them | 0:19:36 | 0:19:39 | |
watered and they should grow perfectly happily. | 0:19:39 | 0:19:42 | |
So I'm going to pop these in the greenhouse. | 0:19:47 | 0:19:50 | |
Now, these don't need any extra heat, | 0:19:56 | 0:19:58 | |
over and above the protection of the greenhouse. | 0:19:58 | 0:20:00 | |
I'll water them in and keep them reasonably watered... | 0:20:00 | 0:20:05 | |
and, before planting them out, I will make sure that I harden them | 0:20:05 | 0:20:09 | |
off for a couple of weeks. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:11 | |
These won't be planted out until May at the earliest. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:15 | |
Now, even if you don't grow bedding plants, | 0:20:18 | 0:20:20 | |
here are some other jobs you can do this weekend. | 0:20:20 | 0:20:23 | |
Although it's a good idea to leave the dried stems | 0:20:26 | 0:20:30 | |
and seed heads of herbaceous perennials over winter, | 0:20:30 | 0:20:34 | |
because that provides cover and food for insects and birds, | 0:20:34 | 0:20:37 | |
it's now time to cut them back | 0:20:37 | 0:20:39 | |
and remove everything, exposing the new shoots of this year's growth. | 0:20:39 | 0:20:44 | |
Dahlia tubers are on sale now but they do sell out quickly | 0:20:48 | 0:20:51 | |
so it's worth buying them now | 0:20:51 | 0:20:53 | |
and making sure that you get nice, plump, firm tubers. | 0:20:53 | 0:20:57 | |
Put them into a pot with plenty of potting compost, water them well | 0:20:57 | 0:21:02 | |
and put them somewhere protected to grow into young plants | 0:21:02 | 0:21:06 | |
which can then be put into their final position after the last frost. | 0:21:06 | 0:21:11 | |
Easter is when many of us get the mower out | 0:21:15 | 0:21:18 | |
and cut the grass for the first time. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:21 | |
Resist the temptation to cut too hard too soon. | 0:21:21 | 0:21:26 | |
Lift up the blades on your mower and just give it a light trim. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:30 | |
And repeat this for the next few weeks, | 0:21:30 | 0:21:32 | |
until the grass is growing strongly. | 0:21:32 | 0:21:34 | |
Of all the flowers that are appearing in the garden this spring, | 0:21:37 | 0:21:40 | |
none are more exotic than the snake's head fritillary, | 0:21:40 | 0:21:44 | |
but it is a native! | 0:21:44 | 0:21:45 | |
This is a of plant of damp meadows | 0:21:45 | 0:21:48 | |
and it loves this part of the Spring Garden, because it floods. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:52 | |
And it's called snake's head because, | 0:21:52 | 0:21:55 | |
you can see, before the flower head opens, | 0:21:55 | 0:21:57 | |
it has the shape of a snake's head and then when it does open, | 0:21:57 | 0:22:01 | |
it reveals this amazing chequerboard pattern. | 0:22:01 | 0:22:05 | |
Occasionally, you get white ones | 0:22:05 | 0:22:07 | |
and, of course, they don't have that same pattern. | 0:22:07 | 0:22:09 | |
I much prefer the traditional, straightforward fritillary | 0:22:09 | 0:22:14 | |
But, if you want real exotica, particularly at this | 0:22:14 | 0:22:17 | |
time of year when it still can be pretty cold, then you need to | 0:22:17 | 0:22:20 | |
look at plants that come from the other side of the world. | 0:22:20 | 0:22:23 | |
And we went to Burnham Nurseries in Newton Abbot in Devon to see | 0:22:23 | 0:22:28 | |
a wonderful collection of orchids. | 0:22:28 | 0:22:30 | |
What draws people is their huge diversity. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:41 | |
There's so many different shapes and sizes, colours and patterns. | 0:22:41 | 0:22:46 | |
Really, there's something for everybody within the orchid family. | 0:22:47 | 0:22:51 | |
My grandfather started growing orchids back in the '20s | 0:22:51 | 0:22:55 | |
and '30s and our nursery really grew from there. | 0:22:55 | 0:22:59 | |
We're now in our third-generation of our family to grow the orchids. | 0:22:59 | 0:23:03 | |
And we're certainly very passionate about it as a family, yes. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:08 | |
Many years ago, the Victorians were growing orchids | 0:23:10 | 0:23:13 | |
in their stove houses, on big estates with their gardeners. | 0:23:13 | 0:23:18 | |
Modern hybrids are many generations now removed from the original | 0:23:18 | 0:23:22 | |
species and the more you breed with these orchids, | 0:23:22 | 0:23:26 | |
you get more hybrid vigour and that just makes a stronger, | 0:23:26 | 0:23:30 | |
easier plant and more free-flowering | 0:23:30 | 0:23:32 | |
and more colours and more varieties available. | 0:23:32 | 0:23:36 | |
Generation after generation, they get that little bit easier to grow. | 0:23:36 | 0:23:40 | |
People get bitten by the orchid bug very easily these days. | 0:23:40 | 0:23:44 | |
They're perhaps given a gift of a beautiful orchid, | 0:23:44 | 0:23:47 | |
like a phalaenopsis that will flower all the year round | 0:23:47 | 0:23:50 | |
and like to live like we do, nice and warm and cosy. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:53 | |
So the phalaenopsis, or moth orchids, | 0:23:58 | 0:24:00 | |
are probably the most popular orchids grown as a house plant | 0:24:00 | 0:24:04 | |
in the world today, but probably where people go wrong the most | 0:24:04 | 0:24:07 | |
is getting the watering balance right. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:09 | |
You should always water them from the top and let them drain through, | 0:24:09 | 0:24:13 | |
give them a good soak and then allow them | 0:24:13 | 0:24:15 | |
to dry out well before you water them the next time. | 0:24:15 | 0:24:19 | |
The roots should be a kind of silvery grey colour when they're dry | 0:24:19 | 0:24:22 | |
and then they turn green as you water them | 0:24:22 | 0:24:25 | |
and if they've gone brown, | 0:24:25 | 0:24:26 | |
then that's too wet for too long and they've rotted. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
We've actually got some plants here today | 0:24:29 | 0:24:32 | |
which have got similar sort of watering balance problems. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:35 | |
The first thing we're going to do is to remove the cane | 0:24:35 | 0:24:39 | |
and the clips from the dead flower stem. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:41 | |
And we're just going to trim the flower stem right to the bottom. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:45 | |
Pull it out of the pot. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:49 | |
We can see this plant has not got a very good root system. | 0:24:49 | 0:24:53 | |
It's lost most of the roots because it's been kept too wet. | 0:24:53 | 0:24:56 | |
So we're going to trim these back, | 0:24:56 | 0:24:59 | |
just to leave a nice anchor of roots. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:01 | |
You want to either clean your pots and sterilise them or use a new pot. | 0:25:01 | 0:25:06 | |
It just needs new compost to make new roots. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:11 | |
We're going to add just a handful of polystyrene chips | 0:25:11 | 0:25:14 | |
in the bottom which just helps to give a little extra drainage, | 0:25:14 | 0:25:17 | |
a nice layer of air in the base to allow the roots to dry out. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:21 | |
Then we're going to take a nice handful of bark, | 0:25:21 | 0:25:24 | |
pop that in the pot, | 0:25:24 | 0:25:25 | |
and then centre the plant in the middle of the pot, | 0:25:25 | 0:25:29 | |
position it so it's upright, | 0:25:29 | 0:25:32 | |
pushing it gently but firmly, | 0:25:32 | 0:25:34 | |
top it up with a little bit more | 0:25:34 | 0:25:37 | |
and now we've ended up with the plant just sitting | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
on the surface of the compost, which is just below the rim of the pot. | 0:25:40 | 0:25:44 | |
We want to give this a good water now. | 0:25:44 | 0:25:46 | |
We also want to spray the plant, to encourage new roots to grow | 0:25:46 | 0:25:49 | |
and that humidity is really important. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:52 | |
Phalaenopsis are really warm growing but there's lots of other orchids | 0:25:56 | 0:25:59 | |
that you can grow that like it really cool, | 0:25:59 | 0:26:02 | |
like, for instance, the dendrobiums. | 0:26:02 | 0:26:05 | |
Or the cymbidiums, liking to drop down | 0:26:06 | 0:26:09 | |
to about 8 or 10 degrees on a winter's night. | 0:26:09 | 0:26:11 | |
That cool drop in the winter helps them to grow well | 0:26:11 | 0:26:14 | |
and helps them to come into flower well year after year. | 0:26:14 | 0:26:18 | |
They love to stand outdoors in the summer, somewhere shady, | 0:26:18 | 0:26:21 | |
somewhere sheltered, out of the bright sun, | 0:26:21 | 0:26:24 | |
so their leaves don't get burnt and they will grow their new leaves | 0:26:24 | 0:26:27 | |
all throughout the summer months and then flower again in the winter. | 0:26:27 | 0:26:31 | |
These orchids are a little bit different to phalaenopsis. | 0:26:31 | 0:26:34 | |
They have a type of bulb which we call a pseudobulb. | 0:26:34 | 0:26:38 | |
The dendrobium has tall, narrow ones. | 0:26:38 | 0:26:40 | |
The cymbidium has short, fat, round ones | 0:26:40 | 0:26:42 | |
but they're full of water and food, | 0:26:42 | 0:26:45 | |
supporting the plant and giving it the energy | 0:26:45 | 0:26:48 | |
to grow more year after year. | 0:26:48 | 0:26:49 | |
Each year, they make new ones. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:51 | |
This one has got new shoots coming in here which is going to make | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
the new tall bulbs which are going to be the ones | 0:26:54 | 0:26:57 | |
that produce next year's flowers. | 0:26:57 | 0:26:59 | |
The old ones never flower again | 0:26:59 | 0:27:01 | |
but they stay on the plant as a food support system, | 0:27:01 | 0:27:04 | |
giving the plant the energy to do more growing | 0:27:04 | 0:27:06 | |
and more flowering in the future. | 0:27:06 | 0:27:08 | |
People don't realise that the orchid family is actually huge. | 0:27:12 | 0:27:16 | |
It's the largest group of flowering plants in the world. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:19 | |
There's about 30,000 species. Orchids are great survivors. | 0:27:19 | 0:27:24 | |
They will cope with all sorts of conditions | 0:27:24 | 0:27:27 | |
in their own natural habitats. | 0:27:27 | 0:27:29 | |
And the modern hybrids have been bred to cope | 0:27:29 | 0:27:32 | |
with our natural habitat, our homes. | 0:27:32 | 0:27:35 | |
Just follow a few simple rules and you'll get so much enjoyment. | 0:27:35 | 0:27:39 | |
My father always grew an orchid or two on the mantelpiece, I remember, | 0:27:48 | 0:27:52 | |
this exotic plant in our house. | 0:27:52 | 0:27:55 | |
In fact, I went once to the National Botanic Garden in Singapore, | 0:27:55 | 0:27:58 | |
which of course is famously full | 0:27:58 | 0:28:00 | |
of thousands of orchids, an amazing sight. | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
But, do you know, at this time of year, | 0:28:03 | 0:28:06 | |
I think nothing captures the spirit of the season better than a daffodil | 0:28:06 | 0:28:11 | |
and, my favourite of all those | 0:28:11 | 0:28:14 | |
is the wild native daffodil, | 0:28:14 | 0:28:16 | |
narcissus pseudonarcissus. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:18 | |
I planted the bulbs about 15, 20 years ago and it's just beginning | 0:28:18 | 0:28:21 | |
to mass up and it looks delicate and yet filled with light. | 0:28:21 | 0:28:26 | |
Talking about light, don't forget that the clocks go forward | 0:28:26 | 0:28:30 | |
this weekend so as well as Easter, with the extra day off, | 0:28:30 | 0:28:33 | |
we've got extra light to enjoy as well. | 0:28:33 | 0:28:36 | |
Have a great time and I'll see you back here at Longmeadow next week. | 0:28:36 | 0:28:39 | |
Till then, bye-bye. Come on, dogs. | 0:28:39 | 0:28:41 |