Lawns and Tropical Gardens Great British Garden Revival

Britain has a long and proud gardening heritage.

And a passion for plants that goes back centuries.

But all is not well in our once green and pleasant land.

Front gardens paved over.

Our lawns lack lustre.

And rare wild flowers on the brink of extinction.

So we need you.

To help us.

In our campaign.

To help rediscover.

Our passion for gardening.

We're going to give you the best gardening tips.

And reveal British gardens

that will quite simply take your breath away.

-It's time to plant.

-And prune.

And sharpen your shears.

Let the Great British Garden Revival begin!

On tonight's show,

James Wong celebrates the wonders of tropical plants.

But first, I champion the Great British lawn.

Close your eyes and imagine the Great British lawn.

You'll probably be thinking about a close-cut, velvet-green carpet,

but for me, the British lawn means so much more than that.

Our lawns once made the world green with envy.

But today, this emblem of national pride flies at half-mast

as lawns disappear from our gardens

and the only greenery are the weeds

sprouting from the cracks in the concrete.

I'm Sarah Raven and I think it's time to let the grass grow back

for the Great British lawn revival.

On my campaign, I'll be showing you

some of the greenest grass in Britain.

The sort of depth and perfection of that green. I'm drooling!

I'll be putting several types of lawn to the test.

It's what you'd imagine our lawn to look like.

As well as giving you great advice

on keeping a traditional lawn looking fantastic all year round.

Honestly, these bulbs will embellish your lawn for years.

I'm at Polesden Lacey in Surrey.

A 1,400-acre estate with this beautiful Edwardian house

and 30 acres of formal garden.

What better place to start my revival of the lawn?

These grass terraces were designed as manicured showpieces.

Status symbols on which to entertain royalty

and frame these majestic views of the North Downs.

While these lawns are immaculately maintained,

in the households of Britain, we've lost seven million front lawns

to car parking since 1996.

And our back garden lawns

have also been deserted for ease of maintenance.

I believe this dangerous fashion threatens our wildlife,

our environment

and treasured childhood memories of the freshly-cut grass.

My first memories of lawns was when I was quite a young girl.

My father taught at the University at Cambridge

and there were these very stern signs saying, "Keep off the grass."

But when we were with him, we were allowed to run

right the way across the middle of these amazing quads

and it always felt rather naughty, but terribly exciting

and I have loved lawns ever since.

They're such a quintessential part of the British garden.

I can't stand by and let this

treasured institution slip into obscurity.

The time for, "Keep Off The Grass," is over.

I want us to run on it, jump on it

and celebrate the green, green grass of home.

While most of us no longer aspire to having the perfect patch of green,

there are some people still really dedicated to their lawns.

And just wait till you see this one.

I'm visiting Gay and Chisholm Ogg to take a peak at the garden

which was awarded Best Lawn in Britain for 2012.

-Hello.

-Welcome. Good to see you.

-Hi.

-Come and see Chisholm.

-Thank you.

Look at the lawn!

It's absolutely magnificent!

Of course, if you want to know what goes into growing the perfect lawn,

you don't ask the gardener, you ask his wife.

How much time does he spend out here?

Well, obviously, when the lawn is growing

and summer periods when it's been raining or so forth, a lot.

The idea was that I should work with him in the garden,

it should become a joint hobby.

However, he didn't like my work.

LAUGHTER

I cut things the wrong way.

And so by mutual consent, I don't help him.

And you don't mind him spending so long out here?

Not at all. It works very well.

Sometimes we meet for lunch.

LAUGHTER

As a retired doctor, Chisholm tends his lawn with surgical precision.

He spends up to 10 hours a day in his garden

and much of that edging, mowing and perfecting the lawn.

Well, I'm obsessional, I'm sure. I was obsessional when I was working.

And I don't think I've changed.

What are the key guides to success?

The important thing is a good mower.

By that, I mean a cylinder mower rather than a rotary.

It gives a much nicer finish.

I use a very old cylinder mower

which I inherited from my mother.

I'll mow twice a week.

Very occasionally a third time, but twice a week is pretty standard.

And how would you describe the perfect lawn keeper?

Has he got to be male?

No, but it's commonly male.

Lawns are very much a male area.

And when I...started to meet lots of gardeners,

I realised the people who know about the plants tend to be the women

and the people who know about the lawns tend to be the men.

The lawn in this garden is used as a carpet

that guides you through the beds,

but I'm glad to say not all the grass is so closely cropped.

You've got these areas of longer grass here.

-Basically bulbs.

-Right.

The majority are daffodils, but there are other bulbs in here.

There are hyacinths, there's some tulips, there's also some anemones.

Anemone blanda. There's quite a lot. You can't mow down in a hurry.

These areas are going to explode with colour in the spring

and can be achieved so easily.

Chisholm, what would you say to people

who were thinking of putting concrete or gravel over their lawn

and really giving up the lawn altogether?

It would be a great shame.

They are missing out on something which is very beautiful.

It's another plant. If you're going to have a plant, you want it in good condition.

It holds it all together

and, er...I...I love it.

Chisholm's passion is reminiscent of a bygone era

when we put in the effort and took the time

to make our gardens places to be proud of.

I want to reignite that passion.

And Chisholm's garden has reminded me of the perfect way of doing it.

Here at Polesden Lacey, one of the most traditional ways

of livening up a patch of green was by planting bulbs.

And it really couldn't be simpler.

When you're planting bulbs in grass,

it's really good to go for the edges of your lawn.

So I'm going to go in here under a tree.

But if you've got a hedge or fence,

that's a really good place to go, too.

And the reason for that is it means you can mow in the middle

all the way through the spring until June

and then you can mow the edges, too,

when the bulb foliage is dying back down.

What you want to do is get...

a good handful or two,

and then almost like when you're playing skittles,

you just want to throw them

and scatter them in a very natural way.

And then, if you plant them where they fall,

it will just look really as if they've always been there,

not kind of rigid and artificial.

Where two fall like that, that's not going to work

because they're going to compete with each other

for all the food and water,

so you just want to space them a little bit. They'll then work fine.

Get a bulb planter. I really love using these

because if you're planting loads of bulbs,

you really start doing your back

if you were just using a hand planter or even a trowel.

So you just push it in with your weight

and that will cut the core out of the grass.

That's what we want.

Once you've made your hole, put in a handful of compost

to give your bulbs a nice soft bed to grow in.

I'm putting daffodils in here.

And they're one of the loveliest things in grass,

but also, I really like snowdrops in under a tree.

In the dappled shade, they do really well.

And crocuses are wonderful out in the full sun

because crocus in full sun open right out like a star

and they just look really incredible,

like a sort of painting, in February and March.

You always want to plant three times the depth of a bulb.

And so, for something like a daffodil,

you're going about that deep and you don't need to feed them.

That's the beauty of bulbs

is all the food they need is stored in there.

Pop that in...

..and then the plug just goes in over the top.

You can see the scars now, but they close over

and they'll be totally invisible by spring.

And then onto the next.

This feels like quite a lot of hard work now,

but really, honestly, these bulbs will embellish your lawn

for years, decades even.

And then in the spring, it's just wonderful.

You come out one morning, the leaves have started

and then within weeks,

there's this wonderful, wonderful tapestry of colour.

And that's what's so lovely about bulbs in grass.

Bulbs are a simple way to restore some pride into a tired lawn,

but there are places where the grass is always greener.

I'm meeting Tom Fort, an author and self-confessed lawn fanatic,

in the gardens of Worcester College in Oxford.

We've come to see one of the last bastions

of the perfect British lawn

and one of the most important pieces of turf at the university.

Now, Sarah, I want you to prepare yourself for major excitement.

-Good.

-We're going to go through this entrance here

into another grass world altogether.

Well, I can't wait.

Wow! What a place! Look at that!

It's incredibly beautiful.

I mean, you couldn't get more perfect than that, could you?

Nothing more quintessentially British than that sight, is there?

-I'm drooling.

-Yeah.

The sort of depth and perfection of that green.

To have grass like this is a fulltime job.

The reward is when you get a spectacle

and people like us wandering around saying how fantastic it is.

So, when was the great moment of the lawn?

When would you say was the heyday?

Maybe the '50s and '60s.

When mechanical mowers became cheap enough for everyone to have one.

Before the invention of the lawn mower in 1830,

you needed a flock of sheep or an army of men with scythes

to keep your grass closely cropped.

In the middle of the 20th century, there was a boom in cheaper mowers

and Britain was given the incentive to give grass-growing a go.

This machine makes all of this possible.

The mechanical mower enabled people to have lawns

big and small all over the place.

But for the sort of billiard-cloth effect, you need this.

My goodness, I wish I... Can I have a go?

What a machine!

Nowhere else in the garden

can boys have so much fun with their toys.

A lawn could be the perfect way

to get your man outside in the fresh air.

Today, the task of keeping this spectacular lawn looking pristine

falls to the head gardener, Simon Bagnall, and his team.

Is there any way that one can have a lawn, not as perfect as this,

but that is quite low-maintenance?

I think there are key points that you need to remember.

Grass needs to be cut regularly.

If you can water it, then that helps.

If you can reduce the wear on it, then that clearly helps, as well.

Tell me about your lawn at home.

I imagine it's not that sort of standard, but is it good?

I have to hang my head in shame here a little bit,

um...we've actually dug our lawn up at home.

No, you haven't!

So you're part of the trend of getting rid of the lawn!

And there you are looking after this and at home, you've got rid of it.

Yeah. We have a small garden, two children

and the two don't mix, so...

You're meant to be one of the people helping me on my quest

and then I find you're a traitor to the cause.

I know. I'm sorry.

With even expert groundsmen replacing their lawns with hard surfaces,

it's clear my revival has come just in time.

Polesden Lacey take great pride in making their lawn terraces sparkle.

I'm meeting the garden and countryside manager, Simon Ackroyd,

for the ultimate masterclass in lawn care.

Simon, I imagine on this sort of scale,

you don't look after the lawns with hand tools.

You must use machines.

Yeah. Thankfully, we have got a whole load of really fancy kit,

which is perfect for using on all these lawns here.

But in a small garden, there are certain things that you can do

which would replicate exactly what we do here.

To start with, we're just doing a little bit of scarifying here.

Just scrapping the rake over the grass

just to remove some of the dead material.

OK, so this is sort of opening it up

and that's really important for the grass to grow well.

Yes. Basically, it's the first stage of what we call aeration.

So it's just allowing the air just to get around each blade of grass.

It's a good idea to scarify every three months,

but the key time is in the autumn,

before the grass goes to sleep for the winter.

Once clear, you can begin the rather brutal process of spiking the lawn.

There are special tools to do this,

but a pitchfork works just as well.

It may look a bit severe, but this will give your lawn

a much fuller finish and encourage new root growth.

I do love lawns

because you've got millions and millions of plants

all just in one little space.

So even if you've got a small garden,

I think there should always be an opportunity for a lawn.

Well, I reckon between us, we've aerated this quite well.

-I think we probably have, haven't we?

-So, what's next?

Now we've created the holes, we want to put some top dressing into it.

So this is the top dressing here.

So sand, garden soil and a bit of organic matter.

And you just flick it...like that, on the surface.

Yes, yes, yes.

-Um...

-Can I have a go?

You certainly can. There you go.

So, it's all in the flick of the wrist?

It's all in the wrist, so just bring it behind yourself...

OK. You did it in a very nice...

..in an arch, and just as it comes forward, flick it over.

-Oh!

-Very good. That's perfect.

This final step will improve the soil

and Simon uses a brush to get the mixture into the holes

and as close as possible to those shallow grass roots.

Within a few weeks, you'll see fresh shoots

begin to give your lawn a whole new lease of life.

On this revival, I want to find out what we really want from our lawns.

So I've come to a turf grower in Hampshire

to put three very different types of lawn to the test.

A traditional turf,

a wild flower turf

and some artificial grass.

To see which would work best in a typical British garden,

I've enlisted the help of a typical British family.

This is the Skeet family, and they're having lawn issues.

Our garden has been ruined by these.

-By the boys?

-Yes.

Um...we recently had a paddling pool and that has killed the grass.

Um...ball games, everything.

It's...it's ruined.

We've armed them with a picnic

to see which of the three lawns the Skeets will favour.

The first is a traditional lawn,

using a hardwearing mix of grasses.

It's kind of what you'd imagine our lawn to look like.

It's soft on your feet. I like it.

Yeah, it is quite.

Costing £5.00 per square metre,

this lawn needs looking after and regular mowing.

My only thing about this,

I don't want to be spending all my life mowing.

Well, you never mow, so I wouldn't worry about that.

Clearly, mowing is an issue,

so maybe our second lawn will be more appealing.

Grown from a mix of wild flowers and less vigorous grasses,

this lawn would only need mowing annually,

as well as being hardwearing and great for the environment.

Instantly, it kind of looks like you just haven't bothered.

It is quite nice wild, but it's not what I would class as a nice lawn.

I think this would be quite good as a front lawn that you don't really use,

but I'm not sure it's like a kid lawn.

No. And also bugs.

Well, Melissa, those bugs are huge bonus

and help create a really biodiverse garden.

At just £10 a square metre, you, too, could have a wild flower meadow

rolled out in your garden.

Leaving the wild flowers behind, our family moves to our final lawn.

This one needs no mowing or maintenance

and is perhaps the most hardwearing of all,

but unfortunately, it's completely artificial.

I think I can fall asleep on this.

At over £30 a square metre, it's the most expensive surface.

And while it'll keep that evergreen appearance,

it does nothing for wildlife or insects.

What do you think of this grass, then, boys?

It's good when you're itchy.

It's good when you're itchy. Why is it good when you're itchy?

Because it's scratchy and it tickles.

Having had a good roll around on all our lawns,

it's time to find out where the grass grows greenest for the Skeet family.

It's decision time. You've tried all three lawns,

so when I say go, run to your favourite.

OK? Go!

LAUGHTER

Well, there we are!

LAUGHTER

I'm very proud of the boys, who've got in touch with their wild side

and chosen the lawn that does the most for the environment.

Melissa and Michael, however, have a little explaining to do.

From a practical perspective, with young kids, this would do the job.

Are you not worried about this being a completely sterile environment?

I mean, it's not as bad as concrete because it's water permeable,

but this has nothing for wildlife at all.

I think it would be a concern,

however, we've got a front garden that's more for wildlife.

It would be a concern if the back garden was the only garden we had.

Have you been influenced by what the two boys have decided?

No, to be honest.

LAUGHTER

The boys might not be getting their own way this time,

but as we continue to lose more and more of our green spaces,

then lawns like these are key in helping to protect our environment.

I'm meeting Steve Head,

an old friend and expert in biodiversity in our gardens.

As someone keen on biodiversity,

what do you think a lawn should look like?

If you'd asked me 20 years ago when my children were young

and, frankly, a pain in the neck,

what I had was a lawn that they could ride bikes on,

they could run around on,

they could try and knock a tennis ball about on.

It had to be strong and it had to be fairly low cut.

And you're not going to get a lot of flowers under those circumstances.

Now, I'd like my lawn to be manageable,

but to be full of colour and flower and particularly movement.

Because what I really like to see is the insects using it.

The butterflies, the bees.

And if you've got a conventional lawn,

if you've got the guts to stop mowing part of it,

you'll be amazed what comes up afterwards.

You get all kinds of plants coming up.

People are taking lawns out of their gardens

and replacing them with paving and decking.

-And is that an issue? Does it matter?

-Yes, it does matter.

Because the only thing that decking encourages

in terms of biodiversity is rats,

which really like the space, they can hide underneath it.

But if you put concrete down or decking,

then you're essentially denying that area of garden for wildlife.

And if we cover more and more of our city and urban space with concrete,

then the water runs off rather than soaking into the soil

and replenishing the soil resources

and you get floods downstream.

So there's a lot to be said against concrete.

So it's definitely hooray for the lawn.

It's hooray for the lawn, but there's all sorts of ways

of making an ordinary, British, boring lawn

more interesting than perhaps it is now.

The gardens here at Polesden Lacey have 300,000 visitors a year.

That's an awful lot of feet on these beautifully-kept lawns.

Your lawn might not have that problem,

but it still may well be in need of some TLC.

I'm in the peony garden

and this bit of grass looks like it's in need of its own revival.

It gets a lot of footfall here and that's why it's got so worn.

But you may have patches in your own garden.

So the first thing you want to do is break up the soil surface.

And I'm going to do that with a rake.

Or you could do it with a hand fork.

You just want to get a rougher texture...

..so that the seeds can take in the soil.

So that's fine.

And then I'm going to use not just rye grass,

which I've got here, the seed,

but I'm actually mixing in something really exciting,

which is a micro clover.

And what that means is it's basically a really tiny-leaved clover

and they've become very fashionable

because they have lots of advantages over grass.

They look great from a distance, tiny leaves

and they're green throughout the whole year.

They're a clover, so they fix nitrogen,

so the grass does not need feeding at all.

And then I'm just going to sprinkle my seed in.

Not too thick.

About a handful per square metre.

And also, you want to scatter a bit around the edges, too.

Thinner than in the main part.

But that then merges the whole thing,

so you don't get a really green bit and then less so around the edges.

And it's really as simple as that.

Then all I need to do is just rake it again.

Just rake the seed in and then just a little bit of water.

And the final thing...

..is just to cover it over with some netting

to protect it from the birds.

Because otherwise, they'll come and eat the seed.

Within four to five weeks, it will germinate and fill in the patch

and the lawn will look as good as new.

And how long did that take? A matter of minutes.

It couldn't be easier, it couldn't be quicker

and I've now got an immaculate lawn.

You could sow a whole lawn this way.

And although cheaper than turf, it'll take about six weeks to establish.

If you like the idea of finding more unusual species within your lawn,

then there is a very modern option, too.

Wow! This is it. And it's flowering plants in a complete carpet

and no grasses at all. And that's the point.

This is Avondale Park in London,

where Lionel Smith has spent the past four years

developing a new type of garden cover.

It's hardwearing, colourful

and only needs mowing three times a year.

I approached this as a horticulturalist.

I wanted to make something beautiful.

You can look out of your window and see a plain green square.

And I wanted that space to be full of colour and life

rather than just the simple, standard

monoculture that we would normally have.

So I think there is a way forward for very low management,

very high floral, very high biodiversity approach to lawn space.

A bit more exciting, really.

Yeah. It's a lawn for the 21st century. Definitely.

Another huge advantage over a traditional lawn

are the incredible aromas this garden creates

as they entice you to explore the flora in more detail.

This is mentha pulegium, a Corsican mint.

-A good rub and a smell.

-Oh, yeah. That's incredible!

I mean, that smells so minty, doesn't it?

This one is lawn camomile.

So, how many species are there in this small area?

We've got 65 species and their cultivars.

When you compare that to a little patch of your garden lawn,

which is usually made from between two and five species of grass,

none of which produce... nectar,

um...you can see how there is a big improvement for certainly the bees.

All these low-growing flowering plants

were grown individually in their own trays

and then planted randomly, like tiles on a kitchen floor.

This allowed the plants to move

and mould themselves into a seamless tapestry.

The whole thing continually evolves

in response to the environment and the location you find them in.

In a few years, we might be able

to walk into any garden centre around the country

and be able to buy 10 of your tiles

and go and lay them out in our garden.

I'm hoping so. I really am hoping so.

Lionel is not the only person experimenting with the lawn.

This is Carol Pashkevich

and this is her heavily-scented, low-maintenance alternative to grass.

Camomile.

This is the true camomile lawn.

It only took maybe one season to be as you see it now.

Anybody could grow a camomile lawn.

I think it's much more simpler than having an ordinary grass lawn.

You plant camomile treneague, which is the traditional lawn camomile.

As long as you keep them watered,

they'll spread into the mat of camomile that you see now.

Straightforward to plant and easy to maintain,

this is a lawn that will always impress.

-It's just like going in the sea, I think.

-Yeah. Yeah.

I feel as though a wave is going to come any second, don't you?

-Making tea, that would be a bonus, wouldn't it?

-Yes, it would.

It's quite amazing how people absolutely love the camomile.

It's just such a wonderful sort of springy sensation

when you tread on it and then the scent's released.

It's quite a surprise to a lot of people.

Anybody could do it. It's very easy to look after.

You don't need to mow it.

And that's as simple as it. That's all you really need to do.

Really, it's something that ought to be revived,

so I hope that a lot of people will want to be inspired

and have a go at growing one themselves.

For me, this has been an enlightening journey

that's shown me how versatile the lawn can be.

The cornerstone of the British garden,

these green swathes should be a source of national pride.

It's time to put the lawn back where it belongs.

I hope you're all ready now

to give the Great British lawn a second chance.

So join the revival and help to make ours

a green and pleasant land once more.

Next, James Wong is on another garden revival campaign.

Exotic gardens like this one

can transport you to anywhere in the world.

Step in amongst these monster gunnera

and you're in South America.

With this congo cockatoo, you could be in Africa.

With these incredible tree ferns, you could even be in Australia.

For me, there is nothing more intoxicating than a tropical garden.

Fuelled by the exploits of the early plant hunters,

these little corners of paradise were treasured by the Victorians.

But our love for the exotic has diminished

and sadly, tropical gardening is perceived as unfashionable,

expensive and hard work.

But I completely disagree.

No other gardening style is ever going to match

its sheer spectacle,

the thrill of innovation and its sense of fun.

So join me, James Wong, in the Great British tropical garden revival.

I want to find out why we fell out of love

with wonderful tropical gardens.

All gardens change over time. These became old-fashioned.

Meet those as passionate about tropical planting as I am.

Wow! Look at that!

Look at that! Isn't that something special?

And I'll show you how easy it is

to create your very own piece of paradise.

It's the ultimate maintenance-free plant.

Tucked away in the middle of the Dorset countryside

is what feels like a miniature rainforest.

We could be anywhere in the world,

but we're in Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens,

my favourite exotic escape without the plane ticket.

Over 3,500 species from around the world

thrive in this sheltered spot on the South Coast.

Making it the ideal location from which to launch my revival.

I've always been totally obsessed with exotic gardening,

but the strange thing is,

I haven't always been mad keen on tropical plants.

That's because when I was growing up in the tropics in Malaysia,

an exotic plant to me was stuff like a sweet pea.

I was desperate to grow them aged five.

Exotic plants can be what you make them. There are no rules.

Just go out there and do it.

In Britain, our idea of a tropical garden

is scientifically a little bit loose.

We're not necessarily restricting ourselves to this narrow band

that technically constitutes the tropics.

We're really pinching plants from all over the world

and combining them to get the look and feel of a tropical paradise.

Any plant, no matter where it comes from in the world,

needs a particular climate to survive.

Hardy plants can cope with lower temperatures

and more harsh conditions.

Less hardy or tender plants require more warmth to survive.

I think that tropical gardens have fallen out of favour

because we think that all exotic-looking plants

require milder climates and lots of care.

But that simply is not true.

This guy over here, the elephant ear,

with his enormous heart-shaped leaves,

comes from the jungles of Malaysia.

And according to every expert,

should not be growing in Dorset by any stretch of the imagination.

Here it is! The amazing thing

about tropical gardening, you can break rules.

To start my revival, I need to rediscover

our nation's fascination with the rare and the exotic.

And where better than the Royal Botanic Gardens?

This is Kew.

And it might look like just a pretty garden,

but it's really a living arc of endangered plants

tracked down by intrepid plant hunters from all over the globe.

Sent far and wide, their daring exploits brought home plants

we've never laid our eyes on before.

Resulting in this amazing collection.

They're horticultural spoils with a fascination of high society.

Including the British royal family.

Author Carolyn Fry tells me about where this all began.

Where did our love of hunting out exotic plants first come from?

Where did it all start?

Princess Augusta, who set up this beautiful garden here,

she wanted her garden to contain all the known plants on earth.

It's like a rivalry, you know, to try and show

the most exotic things, the most unique things you could find.

It's really thinking about plants in a totally different way.

These were the status symbols of the day.

Nowadays, any multi-billionaire could buy a yacht,

could buy a plane off a production line,

but it's an entirely different kettle of fish

finding something that people have never even heard of.

Well, that's true. And also, I mean, having found this plant,

you've got to work out what it is

and put it in the whole family tree of plant life, essentially.

So that's really where botanical gardens came in

because they wanted to categorise these plants

and know how they were related to each other.

-Botanical bling.

-Exactly.

Growing subtropical plants in Britain

was the exclusive preserve of the mega wealthy.

That was until 1863, when Battersea Park

brought these plants to the masses in an entirely revolutionary garden.

The Subtropical Gardens were created

by Victorian plant collector, John Gibson,

who wanted the public to enjoy the exotic plants

he'd encountered on his travels.

You know, when I first wandered along this path,

I noticed a couple of exotic plants

dotted around and it was nice to see,

but if you're not a serious gardening geek,

you could easily walk down this and not even bat an eyelid.

But to Victorian eyes, this type of planting

was so shocking, it caused national sensation.

This is a restoration of the original Victorian garden

which was carried out in 2004,

headed by chief parks officer, Jennifer Allman.

Jennifer, people think about tropical-style gardening as really trendy.

This looks totally tropical and not trendy at all.

No, it's not trendy at all.

This is what we'd expect to see at the Bournemouth seaside,

not in a central London garden these days.

But when this garden first opened,

it would have been the trendiest thing people had seen.

Because they would never have seen large-leaf tropical plants before.

Or subtropical, as we call them.

This would have been absolutely mind-blowing.

These gardens remained a feature of the park until WWII,

when many of the gardeners went to war

and much of the land was turned over to allotment gardens

to grow vegetables to meet the demand for food.

The restoration has seen the garden

returned to its original Victorian glory

with the aid of some fascinating vintage postcards.

The incredible thing is when you look at the size of some of these,

these are proper rainforest, completely non-hardy things

and you can even see the pots where they've just sunk them into the ground for the summer.

Absolutely. Each winter, all of the plants would have been taken out,

put in the greenhouse. We don't have that luxury today.

These are 30-foot high. You must've had a 30-foot-high greenhouse.

Did they have a horse and cart to drag this thing out of here?

Absolutely.

How come you don't see tropical plants or exotic-effect plants

as much today as you would have done in those times?

All gardens change over time.

These became old-fashioned

in the way that we now perceive them as a bit seaside.

A lot of people stopped using them.

Most of these plants would transfer extremely well

to many people's gardens, as long as there's a little sheltered corner

or if they give them winter protection.

You can take these Victorian ingredients

and the Victorian sense of innovation,

combine them completely differently

and get this totally cutting-edge look,

which you just never get from begonias and petunias.

Absolutely. So, you know, ironically,

this garden could set future trends the way that it set trends before.

The key to a successful tropical garden like this one at Abbotsbury

is all about choosing the right plant.

Many exotic and tropical plants

are far more hardy than you may think.

People often think it's impossible to grow exotic plants

outdoors in our blustery north Atlantic island.

Think of bamboo and instantly, images of tropical Asia

and southern China come to mind.

But they actually come from all over the world,

including the southern tip of Chile,

which has a soggy, miserable climate, much like that of the UK.

By selecting more hardy, exotic or tropical plants,

you can make caring for your garden a breeze. And I can show you how.

I'm joining curator, Steve Griffiths,

to prepare a real tropical giant for the winter months.

Got to love gunnera, Steve. It just makes you feel tiny,

like a kid again. So exciting!

Great scale plant, isn't it? Putting things in proportion.

You just don't imagine you could grow them in the UK.

The thing is, these plants are quite hardy.

You'll see them in various gardens all over Britain.

The only tender part that can get damaged

is this wonderful flowerbed on the front there.

It looks like a face-hugging alien is going to step out of it

with these pink, almost like a sea anemone kind of frills.

All summer, it's producing these massive great big leaves

and then it starts to die down towards the end of the season.

We were quite concerned about protecting that piece.

Apart from the leaves coming out,

-you've also got these wacky big flower spikes.

-Look at that!

Everything we've been looking at has just been thrown up in one year.

-It dies down, right down to this every year?

-Yeah.

That's great. So, what do we need to do to protect that tip in winter?

It's just a matter of folding the leaves.

As they collapse, they start to lose the sap, the energy.

-You can see them falling down already.

-Yeah.

And as they collapse, we cut the leaf off

and we can just pack it around the crown for the following summer.

By cutting around it like that,

it's almost forming a frame around it already,

so then what we'll do is start to layer it up.

On an average winter, gunnera's fine,

but occasionally, you get a throwback

and if you get minus 12 degrees all around the country,

they might start to suffer, so...

It's just an insurance policy

to protect the bud in case we get a horrendous winter.

Exactly. Just in case. You never know what's going to happen.

Gunnera is a clump-forming herbaceous perennial

that grows over eight feet tall

with some of the biggest leaves on the planet

giving a jaw-droppingly exotic look.

A lot of people would think,

"You're on the extreme south of the UK and it's all right for you."

What would you say to them?

There's a whole range things like the trachycarpus fortunei,

the palm trees that you see around this garden here.

That type of plant will still be able to grow anywhere in Britain

and is a suggestion of the tropics.

And things like bamboos, of course.

And some of the bamboos have fantastic-coloured canes on them.

You know, lovely golden stems or black stems.

You've got a tropical looking plant

you can grow in any county in Britain.

'It just goes to show that, if you do your homework,

'you can find the right tropical plant for most UK conditions.'

So that's all you've got to do, cut a couple of leaves.

Make a pile and it just gives you enough insulation

to protect that bud.

20 minutes for a whole year

and that's all you need to do to get this look.

It's the ultimate maintenance-free plant.

'I'm heading north to see if the Norfolk climate

'will lend itself to tropical gardening.'

When I was 18 I was given this book that would totally

change my life about a guy who had managed to cheat

the laws of nature, effectively, and create a garden that anyone else

would say was virtually impossible to do.

'It's a garden I've only seen in books and I can't help but feel

'like I'm on an expedition to a lost world.'

There's a big old tree house and everything!

'This is the aptly named, Exotic Garden,

'created over the last 20 years by Will Giles

'who, like me, has a deep obsession for tropical plants.'

The crazy thing about this is, is it doesn't look like

some English guy's interpretation of what the tropics looks like.

It actually feels like you're there.

Well, it does.

People always say, "What are you trying to do?

"What's your aim?" And it's exactly that.

It's to make my garden, which is in Norwich, supposedly on the

chilly east coast of England, feel as though it's in the tropics.

I've just been searching for plants, as you can see, that give that feel.

It's all an illusion.

It's like Carmen Miranda has exploded in your garden.

It's amazing!

'Will's garden is phenomenal

'and everywhere you look there's a plant from every part of the globe.'

You've got bananas from Ethiopia. You've got bananas from Japan.

-Siamensis from India.

-Yeah!

-All combined and they just, yeah...

That's the thing about this style of gardening.

That's why I call it exotic because exotic means plants which

aren't indigenous to the UK, so they could be anywhere in the world.

People can be quite snobbish about exotic-effect gardening and they

say, "That's not native to Britain, can't we have some nice roses?"

If you could beam everything out of England that was introduced

since the Roman times about three-quarters of our plants

would vanish instantly, including most of the very common things we know.

-Apples... Roses... Wheat...

-Exactly, buddleia.

-Potatoes.

-Yeah. Everything. Oh, certainly potatoes.

So it would be very different.

'With such a diverse variety of exotic plants,

'the big question that everybody asks is how on earth does

'this all grown in Norfolk?'

Here, I've created my own microclimate.

I've got tall trees to the west, to the east and the north

which stop the prevailing winds,

slow it down and trap some heat.

And when you say microclimate what you mean is

within the context of quite a colder climate outside,

-you can change the climate in your back garden.

-Absolutely.

I mean, it's probably four or five degrees difference.

And in the plant world, four or five degrees difference makes a lot.

-That's a couple of hundred miles further south.

-Yeah.

It makes a lot of difference between what's going to grow and what isn't.

'And Will clearly knows the right place for the right plant.'

Wow! This is what they call Tetrapanax rex, isn't it?

This is Tetrapanax rex. It's a beautiful plant.

Also called the rice paper plant, and, it's dead hardy.

When you say "hardy," what do you mean?

How low can it go in terms of temperature?

Well, this went through the cold winter for me and we had -11...

..for a long time. That's how cold it could get.

Look at the size of these leaves.

You feel like I've just dropped into Honey I Shrunk The Kids.

-The plant gets a T-Rex, don't they? Tetrapanax rex.

-Absolutely!

It looks as though you should have a dinosaur walking underneath it.

One of the great things about tropical gardening

is you get that kind of sense of trickery,

like you've broken the rules. It's quite subversive.

Like where are the strings? How do they get away with it?

'Not all tropical plants are as hardy as T-Rex,

'but this hasn't prevented Will from growing

'more tender tropical treasures.

'This greenhouse provides important shelter

'and warmth for his more delicate exotics.'

Do you need a greenhouse to grow these because I don't have one?

If you haven't got a greenhouse you can grow the hardy exotic.

Then you can maybe grow things against the side of your house,

where it's a little bit warmer. Then you could put a bit of polythene

over the plant at the side of your house and expand it beyond that.

I mean, somebody last week contacted me

and said my wife won't like it but my purple bananas can live

in the bathroom for the winter.

So, there are always ways and means of doing these things, you know.

Will has achieved nothing short of a miracle here.

He has effectively cut his garden out and towed it

thousands of miles further south and he's done it just by having a go.

Doing a little bit of experimentation

and breaking a couple of rules.

There are no barriers here,

anyone can do this.

'Back at Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens in Dorset

'there's a vast wealth of varied exotic plants

'that are all thriving outdoors in our UK climate.'

The key is not necessarily searing heat.

It's usually more about drainage and shelter and here

these Mediterranean plants are thriving

because they're sheltered on this bank,

which allows the Great British rain to drain right off 'em.

'But if you don't have a slope like this in your garden,

'I've got some tips to help you achieve excellent drainage

'on a smaller scale.'

The best way to virtually guarantee good drainage is growing in a pot,

particularly a terracotta one like this.

These non-glazed terracotta pots are porous. They actually breathe,

which allows water not only out of the hole in the bottom,

but out of the sides.

Just so that hole doesn't get clogged up I'm going to pop a crock

over that to stop any soil blocking it up

and then start filling it up.

But to really improve that drainage, I'm going to add in some of these.

This is effectively just ground up charcoal.

It's called biochar and it's becoming very trendy nowadays

and it does this incredible job of both improving drainage

and improving water retention which are two exactly opposite things.

And, yet, it's really successful at doing both of them.

I'm going to pop this guy in here.

One of the most reliable and iconic of all tropical plants

to grow in the UK is the Chusan palm.

It comes from southern China.

You would never imagine that this is as hardy as it was.

Trachycarpus palms are the kind of thing that you see

on seaside locations and people say that you can't grow them in the UK

and they always look tatty.

You can't grow them on the seaside if you expect them to look good

because wind tears through all these leaves making them look

a little but yellow, a little bit dog-eared on the ends.

Plant them in shade, in a sheltered location

and the leaves double in size.

The petioles, the leaf stem, this bit here, doubles in length,

spreading them out in all directions

and they look like something straight out of the Amazon jungle.

'The important factor with anything exotic

'is to know what kind of conditions suit it best.'

All of these guys over here will relish baking in full sun.

These guys, will not only put up with shade,

they actually grow and look actively better in shade

than they will in sun.

Things like tree ferns, as you might imagine,

most ferns look better in shade and this guy will kick out

enormously much bigger fronds,

and will look so much more convincingly tropical

in damp, shady situations, than it will if roasting in full sun.

Right up at the front here, this guy.

The Pineapple lily couldn't look more exotic if it tried.

'Although this tropical beauty will flower better with sunshine,

'it will happily survive in a partially shaded spot.'

This guy is the Honey bush.

Proper enormous shrub if you can keep it over the winter

but, usually, it dies back down to the ground

and pops up every year in the spring.

Right at the front, a native to the Amazon.

It's what they call Queensland arrowroot.

It has these enormous rhizomes underground

which means, in milder parts of the UK with a little bit of mulch,

you can keep them in the ground and they pop back every year.

And those rhizomes are used in places like Vietnam

as a source of starch.

If you've ever been to a Vietnamese restaurant

and eaten those glass noodles,

those transparent slightly elastic noodles, they're often made out of the root that this comes from.

So whether you've got a shady patio, or a sun-drenched border,

pick the right tropical plant and you're good to go.

'Less hardy, or tender exotic plants, can be beautiful

'but will require more care and attention.

'Some of the larger specimens can also be rather pricey.

'It is possible, however, to achieve that tropical look on a budget

'and without the hard work.

'I'm in a garden centre in Cambridge

'to show you some of my inexpensive hardy favourites.'

People think that rain forests are all about bright flowers

pouring out of everywhere.

Really there are very few. It's mainly about foliage colour.

So I love this guy, Nandina, heavenly bamboo.

Incredible pink new growth

and this greying foliage as you go underneath.

You can even take unusual looking forms of common garden plants.

This beauty, believe it or not, is a hydrangea.

It looks like something you'd get in the jungles of Vietnam.

Form is also important so look for interesting shapes and sizes.

This little guy over here looks so tropical. He's called a fatsia.

It's got these enormous, unusual-shaped leaves

but also a glossy shine to them

and it holds the water in little beads on its surface,

just like plants do in the rain forest.

'Some plants look really exotic and don't even need loads of light.'

People think about tropical gardens as baking in hot sunshine

but that's just not true.

In rainforests, at the lowest layer, it's really quite dark

and it's all about shade plants.

All you've got to do in the UK is wander over to the shady

section of your garden centre and the works done for you.

You've got this brunnera with really mottled, silvery leaves.

You've got an incredible hellebore over here

with these crocodiley leaves.

You've got some fantastic hostas and even some ferns all in the mix.

'By choosing the right hardy plant you can achieve a tropical look

'without the tropical climate and no-one would be the wiser.'

Come on in, guys.

'I've invited some local students to check out these

'tropical-looking plants to see if they can tell the difference between

'those that are hardy and those that are tender.'

One of them is from the jungles of Japan

and another one is from the UK and will handle down to -20 degrees.

Can you tell the difference?

-I think...

-That's very well watered.

'Because these plants look very similar,

I think these guys may find it a bit tricky.'

-It looks very..

-foreign and..

-Japanese.

-Waxy.

-I think this one looks more common.

-This one looks quite woody.

OK, why does woody mean cold?

Maybe so the water doesn't freeze as it's coming up the stem.

Oh, OK, I like it, yeah.

'They're having a go but because a plant has a woody stem

does not mean it's hardy.'

These two, one comes from the jungles of Taiwan

and another one really cold areas of Mexico.

So which one would you put outdoors in a freezing cold winter?

-Er...

-That one.

-Oh, hang on.

I think this one is cold.

-I think they're both the same otherwise they wouldn't...

-Do you?

'I think their confusion proves my point,

'that differentiating between the hardy

'and the tender plants can be tough,

'but they have made some lucky guesses.'

Well, I've got some very bad news for me.

You got eight out of 12 and, statistically,

if you guessed you should have got six out of 12.

-You're obviously botany geeks, you just don't know it.

-THEY LAUGH

'The truth is that all of these plants look fabulously exotic

'but, by choosing the hardy ones,

'you can have the tropical look with very little effort.

'The key here is to do your research.

'Your garden centre will be happy to help.'

Come on up and grab one.

You're all too polite and English about this.

See in Malaysia we'd just be pouring in and picking them up.

So they managed to see through a lot of my trickery

but I'm sticking to my guns.

They found it tricky.

In combination, in a garden, you can totally pull off a tropical look

with hardy plants that's really hard to tell the difference.

'A tropical garden wouldn't be complete without some

'beautiful, tender exotic plants,

'so here are my tips to get them through those winter months.'

Cold winters need not scupper your plans.

Beautiful house plants like this aeonium from the Canary Islands

can be sunk into the beds to cheat that tropical look.

That's what they do with a lot of things here at Abbotsbury.

All you need to do, when winter threatens and frost's on the way,

is dig the guy up, instant house plant.

Back out next spring.

'Some exotics do need a warm home in the winter,

'but it may surprise you that with some handy tips even the less

'hardy tropicals can survive in the garden.'

This little guy is a baby banana plant.

One of my favourite tropicals and, a great way to take

the edge off winter for him, is basically to wrap him up

in a little furry jumper

that will allow him to get bigger and bigger every year.

The first thing I need to do, though, is snip off its leaves

and this may look a little harsh but, effectively,

they're just going to rot inside of this soggy jumper,

so I'm going to go for it.

It always pains me to do that but now you're gone.

The next thing I'm going to do is pop over this chimney pot.

You can pick them up in any builders' merchants

and they effectively work like a big, insulating chamber.

And to make that even more insulating,

a couple of fist fulls of straw.

As this little guy gets bigger you can stack up these chimney pots.

All you need to do is shove a couple of bamboo canes round the edge just

to keep them together against harsh winds

and really all you need to do is do this for two or three years

and you may never have to do it again.

A little lid on to keep out the worst of the winter wet.

If you get this bit right, this plant will eventually form

your own little banana grove

and each one of those can kick out a six-foot long paddle shaped leaf

throughout the summer.

You don't get any more tropical than that.

Another way to protect your plants from the ravages of frost

is with a bit of a mulch.

Basically, a mulch is anything, a bit like this.

It can be compost. It can be chopped-up bark.

Whatever you want to use, organic matter,

and you just chuck it on the base of them.

There you go, that helps bulk up fertility.

It helps keep the water in, in the summer and protects them

from the worst of the winter cold.

It can't be easier than that.

'In the heart of Yorkshire lives a man who is a true

'ambassador for my revival.

'He's crafted his very own tropical paradise in northern suburbia.'

Tropical gardening, it's an attitude.

It's all about mad, big, huge leaves

with searing spots of colour to give you a highlight.

'Nick Wilson's day job is as a software consultant

'but in his spare time he's turned the back garden

of his Leeds semidetached home into a veritable urban jungle.

When you actually step through the back gate

and you're greeted by this, it's quite incredible.

You've entered another world.

It's not north Leeds suburbs anymore,

you're actually out in the jungle.

The inspiration for this garden was Canal Gardens,

at Tropical World in Leeds.

It's all wooden deck board, walk ways over deep black ponds

with koi carp and huge tropical plants.

Obviously theirs is under glass.

I came away with the idea I wanted to do it outside in my own garden.

'Because Nick has chosen lots of hardy plants,

'his 30 by 85 foot plot unbelievably

'is no more work than a typical garden with a perfect lawn

'and immaculate flower beds.'

It's about fooling the eye to create a jungle garden.

There's standard ferns, hostas...

There's black bamboo.

If I can do it, anybody can do this.

It's dead easy.

If you would like a space where you could leave reality behind,

even if it's just for ten minutes,

then make like a Victorian plant hunter

and bring paradise to your own doorstep.

That is what exotic gardens can give you.

Now it's time to put the Great British tropical garden

back on the map.