Rhododendrons and Carnations Great British Garden Revival

There's no doubt that Britain is a nation of very proud gardeners.

Our love of flowers and plants goes back centuries.

But there's a problem.

Not everything is rosy in our gardens.

Our iconic plants are under attack from foreign invaders.

Ancient woodlands are at risk of being lost forever.

And our favourite flowers are disappearing right before our eyes.

So we need you to help us in our revival campaign.

We'll be inspiring you to dig deep

and celebrate the best of British.

As we reveal the country's most stunning gardens.

And sharing our top gardening tips.

It's time to rediscover our passion for plants.

And bring new life into our gardens.

The rhododendron, with its large exuberant flower clusters

and intriguing foliage,

is, for me, the king of shrubs.

It was once a favourite in our parks and gardens.

But their lurid, pastel colours, that were so popular in 1970s suburbia,

have now fallen deeply out of garden fashion.

Some of them also have a reputation for being a garden bully

and have been slowly but surely blacklisted by gardeners.

But to dismiss a whole genus of plants for the crimes of just a few?

I mean, it's absolutely insane!

And I think it's time to give this colourful beauty another chance.

To rediscover the love for this plant, I'll be putting on a lab coat

and bringing some ancient Victorian rhododendrons back from the dead.

Wow! A whole forest of rhododendrons just from one, tiny flower bud?

See species of rhododendrons

that have been saved from the edge of extinction.

This garden owes a lot of its present gorgeousness

to having been lost.

And share my tips on how to recreate

the magic of the Himalayas at home.

Can you imagine what our cities would look like

if we planted prehistoric craziness like this?

This is the magnificent Harewood House, just outside Leeds.

It has acres of award-winning gardens

and over 100 different varieties of rhododendron.

Rhododendron means "rose tree" in Ancient Greek

and with really good reason,

because they give you all the things of the best garden trees -

the structure and the form - as well as the colour and drama of roses.

And for those reasons, rhododendrons and azaleas

dominated British garden design for decades.

Species in the genus Rhododendron

are native to Asia, North America, Europe and Australia,

with the greatest diversity found in the Himalayas.

It was first introduced to Britain in the 1650s

and their popularity gathered pace,

reaching an all-time high in the 1970s.

But, sadly, there came a day

when we all fell out of love with the rhododendron.

But I have seen the light.

If you pick the right varieties, everything changes

and even super-flouncy ones like this,

if you just train them right as a standard, elegant tree

with a straight-up trunk, rather than a low hummock,

they can suddenly become all kinds of exotic and wild.

To get my campaign under way,

I've come to The Lost Gardens Of Heligan in Cornwall,

where an almost forgotten collection

of rare and wonderful rhododendrons

have been rescued from the brink of extinction.

And there are all sorts of amazing varieties.

Here we have Rhododendron falconeri.

And unbelievably, this was raised from seed

from one of the original collections made by Joseph Hooker in the 1850s

from his first expedition to Darjeeling in India.

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker

was one of the most prolific British botanists and explorers

of the Victorian era.

He gathered 45 new species of rhododendrons

on his expedition to India and the Himalayas

and many of them found a home right here at Heligan.

But, at the beginning of the last century,

the grounds were tenanted out and the rhododendrons ran wild.

Ivy and brambles took hold.

In fact, the gardens of Heligan were lost for 80 years.

In 1990, a massive project began to restore this lost collection

to its former glory.

Tim Smit was one of the men who headed up the restoration.

Tim, look at this.

You couldn't draw, as a landscape artist, a more perfect picture.

Well, you've got to imagine this place

with 2,000 self-seeded sycamore and ash trees.

Well over 60 feet high, most of them.

It was completely dark and dank.

The only reason these mature specimens had survived

is that they were so tall they were still photosynthesising.

It's like a million miles away from that 1970s suburban kind of look.

That's absolutely right.

And the really nice thing here is

that most gardens with a lot of rhododendrons,

you get this kind of blousy Barbara Cartland effect,

whereas here, with all the jungle around it,

they're set like jewels in a kind of an essay of green,

of all the different leaf shapes and whatever.

But it's green, green, green, green and then...bang!

Ironically, this garden owes a lot of its present gorgeousness

to having been lost.

It's rare heritage specimens like the ones here

that I want to see revived in our back gardens.

But there's one variety that you need to be aware of.

This little fellow might look mild-mannered

but it's a rhododendron hybrid, superponticum.

In other words, public enemy number one for many conservationists.

Introduced to our gardens in the 18th century,

it's often described as a real Frankenstein's monster of a plant.

With toxic roots and lots of seeds,

it spreads quickly, allowing nothing else to survive.

Head gardener Mike Friend

attempted to clear it from the Heligan collection four years ago.

But removing the super-invasive eco-vandal is a never-ending battle.

-Let's get rid of this, Mike.

-Right. OK. I'll pass you a shovel.

Excellent. You must have some kind of Pavlov dog association with them.

You see it and you panic.

So, what a lot of people do with superponticum

is they just cut them back to ground,

but that doesn't kill the plant at all.

In fact, it can improve its vigour.

Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of like giving you a haircut.

Sometimes it encourages more growth.

But we've actually found that we've chopped it down to ground level,

-..waited for regrowth...

-Yeah.

sprayed it off,

and it still comes back, even after spraying, so...

And the really ironic thing is that, by spraying it with herbicide,

you're potentially killing off

the very plants you're trying to get to grow back, the natives,

and not the thing that you're spraying.

-Right.

-There you go.

-That's incredible how shallow-rooted they are.

-Yeah.

When people want to chop them down,

that is probably easier than chopping them down and so much more effective.

There's so little root on that compared to top growth.

Yeah, it's...

If you can get them at this size, all the better, really.

-Good stuff. Well, that's one less.

-All right.

A couple of hundred thousand more and we'll have done it!

While there's no denying that superponticum is a pest,

dismissing all rhododendrons because of one very specific hybrid

is, in my mind, utterly ridiculous.

I think you just need to get on board and love rhododendrons.

I'm back at Harewood House

to meet modern-day plant hunter, head gardener Trevor Nicholson,

whose passion for the rhododendron is second to none.

Trevor, you've been all over the world

hunting out these things in some pretty inaccessible places.

What drives you?

I just love rhododendrons.

The variety.

I love growing them from seed and from cuttings

and I like people to enjoy them, really. They're such a lovely plant.

What are we planting here? I don't recognise this one.

Erm...well, we're not quite sure yet.

We think it's Rhododendron triflorum.

They came from Arunachal Pradesh,

which is next to Bhutan in the Himalayas

and they came from an exhibition there in 2011.

Wow! So, these were previously potentially unknown...

-That's right, yeah.

-..just three years ago?

-Yeah, yeah.

One of the characteristics of the species that we think it is...

..it's very aromatic.

Hey, what's that?

And the... It's used in incense in the Far East.

That is so familiar.

Kind of myrtle, eucalyptus.

Maybe, like, with a hint of blueberry in all at the same time.

So, you've got evergreen. You've got low-maintenance.

You've got flowering. You've got, potentially, new to science.

And on top of that, you've got aromatic.

I mean, really, asking more from a plant would just be greedy.

Yeah.

Trevor's rhododendrons are truly spectacular

and if you want them in your garden, there are some basic conditions

that they will need to thrive.

Rhododendrons come from regions in the world with slightly acidic soil

and they have specially adapted roots

that allow them to get hold of nutrients in those environments.

All you need to do, though, really, is figure out,

first of all, what kind of soil you're starting with

and then there are all types of tips and tricks to get around it.

To do this, you need to pick up a soil pH testing kit.

First thing you need to do is take a sample of your soil

from about a trowel's depth under the ground,

just to get a representative sample.

Pop it on a windowsill overnight, just to dry it out a little bit.

And here's a little bit I've got earlier.

I'm going to put a tiny pinch in this little vial.

The next thing...

It will come with this barium sulphate

and what that does is it effectively gets rid of any of the larger solids,

so makes them fall to the bottom.

This is the magic bit.

This is your pH tester,

which acts exactly like a litmus test,

just like you did at school.

Except, in my case, without being poked by a Bunsen burner.

Right, give it a quick shake... And that's all you need to do.

Within a few minutes, that will change colour

and give you an indication.

The soil pH testing kit will come with a colour chart

to help you determine the soil's acidity.

This is seven, so that's pH neutral.

And anything below that, you can easily grow rhododendrons in.

And that's, really, probably, I don't know...

6.5, 6-ish,

which is only just, just slightly acidic.

And if you think about it,

if a garden like this with world-class rhododendrons

can be created just off-neutral,

really, they're not that fussy at all.

But, if your soil is alkaline, don't worry, I have a solution.

In a pot, you can control the alkalinity of your soil.

All you need to do is make sure you go for this stuff

called ericaceous compost.

It's basically a compost without lime added,

which means it's slightly on the acid side.

Any garden centre will sell it

and they'll have a big picture of a rhododendron

splashed all over the outside.

You cannot miss it.

Pop the little fellow in.

Pat some of this compost down.

Water it thoroughly.

And in any garden,

this beautiful dwarf 'Lemon Dream' is going to look fantastic.

So there is no excuse to not have rhododendrons in your garden.

Rhododendrons have not only had it rough

in the popularity polls in recent years.

Back in the early '90s, a disease known as sudden oak death

swept across North America and Europe,

threatening the survival of many rare species of the plant.

But, fortunately, science has come to the rescue.

I'm trying to extract a bud from this ancient Rhododendron decorum

to take to a lab and get it cloned.

For the next part of my revival, I'm in Cornwall,

visiting the Duchy College in Rosewarne

to meet Ros Smith, who's an expert at micro propagation,

a technique used to create multiple plants

from the smallest pieces of plant tissue.

-Ros...

-Ah!

I've got you a bud from Heligan.

Set up in 2004 to counter the effects of sudden oak death,

the project has developed some very interesting propagating techniques.

We first started off with what you'd normally use for propagating,

which would be shoots,

but found there's just so much contamination there.

We ended up with pots full of mould,

rather than pots full of growing plants.

So, we looked on the internet and read journals

and found you could use the floral tissue.

So, we started with this and tweaked it a little bit

and we found it works very well.

It all starts with a closed flower bud,

washed multiple times to get rid of any nasties.

Once sterile, it's carefully dissected

to reveal the crucial part of the floral tissue.

It's actually the little flower stalk that we use

and that regenerates shoots, which can then be grown on.

Tension...

Yeah. I'd never make a surgeon. Look at that.

Talk about cack-handed. So, do you reckon I could get a job?

Well...a bit more practice needed.

That's a very polite answer right there!

How many plants could we potentially get from this tiny, little floret?

Well, we say ten from each. We might have 60.

Wow!

A whole forest of rhododendrons, just from one tiny flower bud?

It really is mind-blowing stuff

and vital work, if we're going to help save our ancient rhododendrons

for future generations.

And it's all down to a nutrient-rich jelly,

which encourages the buds to shoot.

-So, where do these go now? A sunny windowsill?

-No.

They go into a growth room,

where the controlled conditions and the environment

is ideal for them to just continue growing.

You have a growth chamber? It's like being on a space shuttle!

Here, the tiny buds are left to grow

in a constant temperature of 22 degrees Celsius

and 16 hours of fluorescent light,

before being potted on into rooting gel and then compost.

So, here's my little sample.

And this, over here, is what it could look like

in as little as three months.

Right here, you see these tiny, little pinheads

of cress-like growth underneath the gel.

Six months later, we've got this.

But it's not until two years later

that you have, not quite mature,

but definitely established, little plants,

potentially hundreds of them that you could pot up.

Which is exactly what Ros has done

in a living library of all her rescued plants

that will, hopefully, ensure their survival for years to come.

What is it you most enjoy about your work?

I think it's the fact that sometimes

you've saved something from extinction

in the garden where it originally was.

We've had material sent where the plant has fallen down

or where it's been put on a bonfire.

We've just had a little shoot sent through the post

and that's all that they have left of it

and they didn't realise how important it was

until it was on the bonfire

and we've managed to save it.

It is miraculous and you work in a living ark.

-It doesn't get any better than that.

-No, it's wonderful.

Ros and her team have successfully cloned over 500 rare plants,

the majority of which are fabulous rhododendrons,

making her a true champion of my revival.

I'm back at Harewood House to show you

that you don't necessarily need a high-tech lab

if you want to try your hand at a bit of propagation.

I want to show that anyone can propagate and grow

their own crop of rhododendrons and cuttings,

giving you plants for free.

The best way to propagate rhododendrons in my book

is semi-ripe cuttings.

That may sound really technical.

It just refers to the type of growth you're going to use.

Semi-ripe growth is this new growth that's along here.

Green and firm.

Nicely established.

Not woody, like this.

This is ripe growth

and this is semi-ripe growth.

All you do now is pop it in a bag,

just to maintain the moisture in it to stop it wilting,

and you're good to go.

First thing you need to do to spark your little cutting into growth

is to fill a little pot with a bit of cutting compost.

Now, for a rhododendron, what I'd like

is maybe a 50-50 mix of ericaceous compost,

the perfect thing for acid-loving plants like rhododendron,

mixed with this stuff.

These little white granules. This is perlite.

It's a volcanic mineral.

And what it does is two exactly opposite things pretty amazingly.

It allows the compost to retain water

but, at the same time, keeps it really well-drained

and that drainage is essential

to stop the bases of your little cuttings from rotting off.

So, speaking of little cuttings...

I'm going to take off the semi-ripe wood,

which is this green, new but yet firm stem.

I'm going to take off some of the leaves here.

Leaves are the bits of the plant that breathe

and when they breathe, they lose moisture from the plant itself.

And it looks brutal, but will actually help them out a little bit.

Now all I'm going to do here is scrape off,

almost like peeling the bark -

and under here, it's called the cambium layer -

just away on one side.

This damages the plant ever so slightly

and exposes the part where they root just that little bit more.

And then...

..a little bit of HRT.

Now, this stuff is hormone rooting powder.

Dip the stem into the powder

and it will help encourage the cutting to grow roots.

Then create a hole in your compost, ready for your cutting.

I'm going to pop it in right up to its neck,

where the compost meets the edge of the pot.

And the reason is, at the edge is where the drainage is at its best.

The worst thing that can happen is this sits in heavy, wet, cold soil

and bacterial and fungal infections cause them to rot.

That's one. I'm going to pop in another four

and then we're good to go.

All I'm going to do now is completely saturate the pot.

You want to get it as wet as possible.

Now all you've got to do is pop a plastic bag, a clear plastic bag,

over the top and pop it on a windowsill.

Preferably a north-facing one that doesn't get too much bright sunlight,

indoors, in a cool room.

And within as little as two months,

what you'll start to notice is these tips here

will start to produce new leaves

and that's a sign you've got healthy root growth underneath.

You take them out and you pot them up individually.

You'll have effectively made four clones of the same plant.

And within two or three years,

you'll have a handsome, young specimen like this

ready to go out in the garden.

And the only thing it will have cost you is patience.

Some people think that all rhododendrons

are big and over-bearing.

But that's not actually the case.

I want to show you that you can grow them, no matter how small your garden.

Rhododendrons and azaleas, a member of the rhododendron family,

come in all shapes and sizes.

Here at Trewithen Nurseries in Cornwall,

they grow all manner of dwarf varieties.

And manager Luke Hazelton has some of his favourites to show me.

-Hey there, Luke.

-Hello, James.

What have you got in store for me?

I'm looking for smaller dwarf rhododendrons.

I've got some nice varieties here.

Erm...some nice azaleas.

It's incredible to think

that this miniature bonsai Barbara Cartlandy type

is in any way related to this tropical monster that...

I don't know, either in a jungle

or in a fancy five-star hotel in South-East Asia,

could possibly be related.

I mean, it just shows you the variation of what you can go for.

It just shows you the complete range that we have.

It's surprising with the rhododendrons and azaleas

on how far you can go.

Colour ranges, sizes and even scent, as well.

What I love about them is,

in particular in some of the older species types,

is that they've got these kind of bronzes and dark, motley greens.

I mean, it looks very traditionally English

and, at the same time, unbelievably exotic.

And I can't think of a single plant that does that.

With so much choice out there,

there's no excuse not to grow rhododendrons at home.

So, I'm taking to the road with an army of Luke's dwarf rhododendrons

to change people's perceptions of this misunderstood plant.

Well, we've got our own little rhododendron forest here

and let's hope it'll start changing some minds.

Some say there's nothing more Cornish than a cream tea.

So what better place to promote my rhododendrons

than a bustling Truro tea room?

We're here. Wish me luck.

It's time to see if these little guys will win over the people of Cornwall.

For one day and one day only,

I'm taking over this Cornish tea house

and turning it into The Rhodo's Return.

Helping me set up is owner Joan Pollard,

who's been serving afternoon tea here for 18 years.

-Are you a fan of rhododendrons?

-Yes, I am. I've got quite a few.

And what kind of rhododendrons?

Big ones and small ones, like that.

-Excellent. So a multiple rhododendron collection.

-Yes, multiple.

Who wants a miserable spider plant

when you can have year-round structure?

You've got colour at the end of it.

And you've got scent on some of the indoor ones, as well.

Definitely. Yes.

I didn't realise, actually,

how much scent there was on all these different rhododendrons.

Out of all the ones we've got here, which one's your favourite?

I've got more than one. I like that one and that one and that one!

Now, let's see what the afternoon tea lovers of Truro think.

Are you a rhododendron fan?

Well, I must confess, I'm not all that knowledgeable.

A sheltered position, acid soil, even moisture.

You're fine.

-Have you got a garden?

-I've got a balcony.

-Can I grow a rhododendron on a balcony?

-You absolutely can, yeah.

-You've converted me. We need to track down some plants.

-Excellent!

Recently, there's been some press about certain rhododendrons

not being particularly good.

There are hundreds of rhododendron varieties

and there is one that's invasive.

If you don't like rhododendrons, frankly, you don't like life.

There's just... It's so...

It's like saying you don't like dessert.

-Deal? You're going to plant a rhododendron?

-Yeah.

Fantastic. Another one sold.

We're going to the garden centre now on the way home.

Cheers to The Rhododendron Return.

Exactly! Exactly!

Now, I'm really pleased with that response.

And the thing is with rhododendrons, there are so many,

hundreds of varieties.

I guarantee there is one for you,

no matter your site, no matter your style.

This garden is like a slice of the Himalayas

that's just been dropped into Yorkshire,

with this dazzling colour palette of plants

that have been collected from seed

by modern-day plant hunters.

And they've got orchids,

they've got cobra lilies,

they've got primulas

and 50 different kinds of rhododendrons.

In a word, it is spectacular.

I'm going to show you some Himalayan heroes

that you can grow at home,

starting with my favourite rhododendron.

Rhododendrons have got to be the hardest-working of all garden plants.

Like this little fella. He's been crammed in.

Clinging on to life in the middle of rocks and with almost no soil,

and he's still perfectly happy.

And even once the flowers are long withered,

I mean, they've dropped off ages ago,

the remnants of them are almost as beautiful as any exotic flower.

Still got loads of colour and fantastic new growth.

Like a yeti's hand.

This is my undisputed favourite.

Rhododendron sinogrande, meaning "giant Chinese".

And the "giant" bit comes from the leaves.

They can be 60cm, two foot long,

right throughout the year.

They're evergreen, with a beautiful underside.

It's got flowers, as well.

And once those are gone,

right from the inside here,

you have a flush of new growth that's silvery and powdery.

Like little lambs' ears coming out of the top of it.

It forms a massive tree.

Can you imagine what our cities would look like

if we ditched boring old staples

and planted prehistoric craziness like this?

And if you have the right soil for rhododendrons,

there are loads of other Himalayan gems

that will look awesome in your garden.

Walking through a field of this incredible Primula pulverulenta

is like some kind of enchanted meadow.

It's called Primula pulverulenta because of this farina.

It's this dusty, white substance that covers the stems.

It absolutely loves boggy, wet conditions,

making it perfect for the UK.

Anywhere near a pond or a water feature,

or even in a damp meadow like this,

and it will self-seed itself all over the place.

Or how about the spectacular Himalayan blue poppy,

which is easier to grow from plants rather than seeds

and loves cool, damp conditions.

Just look at this... Eremurus.

The Himalayan foxtail lily,

with these beautiful, white stars.

And you can see why it gets the name foxtail.

It's hard to believe

you can grow it in the UK.

And all you need to do is you get a bulb in the autumn,

you pop it into the ground in a well-drained site in a sunny position

and every June you're rewarded with a five-foot spike

of unbridled exotica.

Himalayan plants, especially rhododendrons,

will offer you an unparalleled diversity of interest

right throughout the year.

And despite their exotic origins

are perfectly happy to thrive right here in the UK.

And this couple's home in Staffordshire

is a shining example of just that.

Phil and Diana Berry have spent the last 12 years

transforming their north-facing garden

into a Himalayan paradise

with the help of over 70 rhododendron varieties.

We have er...a passion for our rhododendrons here.

There's usually a rhododendron, whichever direction you look in.

When we first moved here

it was, basically, a field with the established trees.

And we'd sort of been around different places

and identified rhododendrons that we really liked.

Like azalea 'Gibraltar', that's dazzling orange when in full bloom.

Or 'Morning Cloud', that starts off bright pink

and then gradually fades to creamy white.

People tend to think of rhododendrons and azaleas

as being in big stately homes, in great big areas.

And we've just packed them into a relatively small area

and they work just as well.

So, you can have them in a really tiny garden.

They're so lovely, because you get...

The buds are one colour

and then they open out and the flowers are a different colour

and then they fade to a different colour.

And then you've got all the different types of flowers.

You can have little, tiny, really delicate ones

and big, blousy look-at-me ones.

We just love our rhododendrons and the beauty that they give us.

Whether you're an exotic plant junkie like me

or someone who's into powder puffs and frills,

I promise you the shear diversity of rhododendrons

means that, no matter who you are,

what your taste or what your garden,

there is a rhododendron for you.

Across the series, our revival team

are travelling the length and breadth of Britain,

celebrating our gardens,

flowers and plants

in all their glory,

with one important mission...

to champion our rich gardening heritage.

Next, Christine Walkden is on the campaign trail for carnations.

I'm a passionate flower lover.

The colours, the forms, the scent

are the great joys of gardening.

But of all the flowers in the garden,

there's one having a really rough ride.

And this is it...

The Dianthus or carnation.

To many of us, the carnation is nothing more

than a cheap garage flower, unworthy of a place in our garden.

But that is all about to change.

On my revival, I'll be whiffing some delightfully-scented blooms.

Get your nostrils in there!

Turning some of London's city boys into real gentlemen.

-Pick your colour.

-I'm going to go cream.

And showing you some simple ways

to grow carnations in your garden.

The joy you'll get seeing these grow

will go on for years and years.

This wonderful parterre

is the centrepiece of the gardens here

at Hanbury Hall in Worcestershire.

And it's home to some great Dianthus.

The hardy border carnation, Dianthus caryophyllus.

The plant we know best is a key feature

for this marvellous parterre.

Carnations, pinks and sweet Williams.

Just a few of the common names for Dianthus

and my favourites are the old-fashioned pinks.

But what seriously sets me on fire are the alpine Dianthus species.

The first time I saw Dianthus

was in the Picos de Europa,

the Spanish mountains,

and I was walking in this beautiful valley

and me nose started twitching.

I could smell this sweet aroma

and I couldn't see anything.

And I just looked down

and there was a carpet of Dianthus monspeliensis

and that's when I fell in love with Dianthus.

But, for many of us,

a bunch of carnations are about as romantic as a night in with a curry.

But I want to show you why I believe the carnation

should come back into our hearts and our gardens.

So I'm taking my revival to the streets of London.

Covent Garden, the spiritual home of these lovely flowers.

But what I want to know is,

what do the public really think of these beauties?

-Do you recognise these?

-I do not.

-You don't, at all?

-Could you please tell me?

This is a carnation.

Do you think they're still as popular now

as they were in the past?

In the gardens, I don't see them very often.

Do you think they're still in fashion?

Not so much now, I don't think.

I think they're quite '80s.

I do sort of think of it as an older person's flower arrangement.

-Did you have them at your wedding?

-Absolutely not!

I think they're '70s filler flowers.

Do you think they've suffered a bit of an image crisis

over the last few years?

Yeah, I reckon they have.

I reckon roses have taken over.

They're still in the consciousness of the public and that's great.

But they're suffering from a bit of an image problem.

I'm going to go and try and change that.

So I'm heading to what some would consider

to be one of the most influential gardens in modern British gardening.

Gravetye Manor, in Sussex,

the home of William Robinson

and the home of naturalistic planting.

William Robinson was a famous British botanist and gardener.

He bought Gravetye Manor back in 1884

and made his mark on the garden.

Now this is megally exciting for a horticulturalist.

To come to the home of the originator

of naturalistic planting.

William Robinson perfected the drift-like styles.

And just look at it!

It looks like an artist has taken a palette knife

and spread the colours over the garden.

Robinson's influential style made use of traditional flowers

planted in an informal way.

And he was particularly passionate about carnations.

Twigs Way is a garden historian, who's been researching the carnation

and knows all too well how Robinson championed this wonderful flower.

He was the father of the English flower garden

and he was trying to guide people back

to the beauties of the hardy flower border.

So, away from those bedding plants

that they'd been in love with during the Victorian period.

And what about his love affair with carnations and Dianthus?

He refers to them as one of his favourite plants,

the best plants for the garden.

It was the carnation that he felt, you know, linked us

back to those cottage gardens that he loved.

And do you think that he would have stuck his nostrils

right in there and taken on that fragrance and clove-like richness?

He was the sort of man that would have got down on his hands and knees

and actually taken up that scent.

-We don't do that enough now!

-We don't.

We should get down on our hands and knees and whiff!

I think whiffing is very important, but people have stopped whiffing.

William Robinson was actually on his own 19th century carnation revival,

reigniting the British love for the flower

that was prolific back in the 18th century.

And there are some lovely examples here today.

It's a beautiful walled garden.

-Yeah, well, there! Straight away.

-Yeah.

There's some here.

You see, Twigs, these are my favourites.

My heart bleeds when I see these little ones.

There's so much...

Delicate. A whiff...

-Get your nostrils in there!

-OK.

God, they do, don't they? They're just so nice.

There's a subtlety of the fringe petals.

You know, to me, this is where my love affair comes from.

My love affair is with the names.

Those traditional names

that come through from the 17th century.

So, we have things like Lustie Gallant

and Ruffling Robin,

Tuggie's Princess.

It's not just that you're looking at a green heap of foliage.

There's history. There's romance. No.

I mean, one of the most famous, of course, is Mrs Sinkins.

And I planted Mrs Sinkins in my garden just a couple of weeks ago

and, boy, is she flowering her heart out already.

William Robinson's naturalistic planting ethos

brought the carnation back to our gardens.

But the flower's popularity had already peaked

back in the late 1700s,

when it was incorporated into a very different style of garden.

These formal gardens at Hanbury Hall in Worcestershire

didn't always look like this.

This space, previously, was laid to lawn

but, in the mid-1990s,

the area was carefully restored,

utilising the original 18th century plans.

Neil Cook has been the head gardener here for over 20 years

and has been responsible for the 18th century restoration.

So, Neil, how did this great parterre come about?

Well, really, as a restoration idea for the property

to try and attract more visitors to help us with our conservation.

But it's very particular in its type, isn't it?

Because you don't normally see this sparse planting.

No, no. This is what attracted us to it because it was unique.

I'm amazed at how much bare soil there is here.

It's part of what they used to do at that period.

You wanted to see the plant on its own.

Nothing should be as of nature, is one of the sayings.

And what are the type of carnations, in particular,

have you used in this planting?

-We've got, in the parterre, we've got hardy border mix.

-Yeah.

So, they're up now and they're ready to flower.

And we've also got the sweet Williams,

which are, obviously, not a carnation

-but they're, obviously, doing the business for us now.

-Yeah.

Also, we've got some in urns in other places in the garden.

They're very important to us.

-Are you a slave to history?

-No, certainly not.

All this garden is about showing off to your peers,

how wealthy you are and how knowledgeable you are.

So, to have the latest, newest varieties is all part of that.

And we grow in the urns, around the side here, a modern variety.

The level of maintenance with this is huge.

How many volunteers have you got?

-In the gardens, we've got nearly 80.

-80?!

We do. And we need every single one of them.

80?!

The maintenance here has really got to be spot on.

So, Neil, would you like to see more carnations in here

and in the garden generally?

I mean, I want to bring back the carnation. Are you with me?

I'm certainly with you on that.

The scent, no-one can deny, is one of the best scents in horticulture.

I would want that sweet aroma drifting on the wind.

This beautiful parterre is very much in the spirit of the 1700s,

displaying not only older varieties,

but showcasing the new and exciting.

There are a lot of new Dianthus on offer.

Here are a few just to whet your appetite...

This is 'Green Trick', with its full pom-pom-like bloom.

It's great for borders and containers

and lasts for ages in a vase.

And why not choose 'Memories',

which was a runner-up in the Plant Of The Year Award at Chelsea

a few years back.

It's beautifully scented and it's a repeat flowerer.

And what's not to love about Dianthus 'EverLast'?

Available in colours like burgundy, blush and lilac

and with an ability to keep flowering until late summer.

For the next part of my revival,

I'm visiting a legendary nursery

that has been renowned for carnations since 1910.

It's now run by Emma Sumner-Wilson,

who took on the carnation crown in 2000.

Oh, Emma. You see, Allwood's, that's a name that I grew up with.

It is.

And it was synonymous with excellent and beautiful blooms.

That's right. Carnations were their speciality.

They bred a huge range of different ones.

We've got nearly 100, 150 different varieties of carnations.

Pinks, as well. We've got about 200-300 different varieties of those.

Some of those are pre-1800s.

The ones that we have,

we're very passionate about keeping alive and keep going,

because, without them, that's a huge chunk of history gone.

And what I like, I mean, just ruffling through old names

that, you know, have been part of my life all my life.

Yes. Yes.

And here they are, still alive on this nursery, for people to buy.

I mean, it's fantastic.

They make very interesting reading.

I mean, that's the Edward Allwood that we still grow today.

The Edward Allwood carnation was created

and named after the original owner of the nursery, back in 1950.

So, I'm on this revival.

I want everybody to grow carnations and pinks and species.

How do we do it?

Well, the actual growing of them is incredibly easy.

It's more a choice of what kind of carnation you want to grow,

because there's more than one choice.

You can either have a garden carnation or a greenhouse carnation.

The greenhouse carnations are the easiest. They flower longer.

Some of them are scented, especially the older varieties.

They have a lovely scent.

And the colours can be absolutely stunning,

that you will not find in your florist shop.

If you want a garden carnation,

slightly more care and attention required.

They like a particular kind of soil.

Flowers, amazing.

But they only have one crop of flower each year and that is it.

So don't be expecting bunches and bunches for your vase.

It won't happen. You need the greenhouse variety for that.

So a bit of homework before you buy

will solve a lot of problems.

Definitely. Definitely. But you'll be well rewarded with the flowers.

They are stunning.

All these carnations are propagated form cuttings

and when they're firmly rooted,

they're ready to post to the very lucky carnation-loving customer.

So, we get a nice rooted plant, as you can see. Well-rooted.

Put it in the bag

and then we put that round,

so the customer knows what plant he's got.

-So, that's all ready to go now.

-Great.

-Carnation revival, here it comes!

-That's it.

Fold that over.

And then...

So, I'm going to send this person

-a special message...

-Excellent!

..about enjoying the revival.

Fantastic.

-That will entertain somebody.

-Definitely will!

When it comes to Dianthus,

I just can't get enough of the alpine varieties,

with their beautiful scents

and their vibrant colours that explode from rocky mountain slopes.

I'm back at Hanbury Hall to show you my wonderful technique

for recreating the Alps on a small scale in your garden.

One of my favourite ways of growing Dianthus

is to use the alpine species in a sink

because what I want to do is replicate a piece of landscape

out in the mountains.

These plants need sharp drainage,

so I'm using compost with as much as 50% grit.

I'm then going to position rocks to make that strata

to look like the Pyrenees or the Alps.

I'm then going to drop my plants in and then dress the surface

to make it look like it's growing through scree.

So, as natural as possible.

I'm using here various pieces of rock

to just try and create a visual perception of a ridge,

of mountains.

And I'm going to create some planting pockets,

because I want to raise the surface slightly

so it looks like it's actually got a bit of texture and a bit of height.

So, I'm going to just play around.

And then, at this stage,

I start looking at my plants.

And these are alpine species and cultivars of alpine species.

And I will just get a flavour of what I want to achieve.

And if I don't like it, you then can actually change this.

And you can move them around to...

You see? I don't like that.

I'm going to, perhaps, do something...

Yeah.

So, once I'm happy with my plants,

I can then start thinking about popping them in.

Things like Dianthus alpinus 'Albus'.

A very beautiful, tight, compact grower.

And the longer this is in the sink,

the tighter this mound gets

and the more floriferous it becomes.

A plant like 'Whatfield Joy'.

A delicate, beautiful, little alpine.

And that's going to sit in there,

looking like its just erupting from the rocks.

And the colours of the foliage vary

from a nice, little olive-green

to the silvers and the greys.

So, not only will this sink look good when it's in flower,

but it will, actually, look very good in the winter,

when those flowers have gone.

Because you've got the contrast of different foliage.

So, I'm just going to take them out.

These plants should have been watered the night before

so the root balls are nicely moist.

And once I've positioned where I basically want them,

then I'm going to put in a little bit more compost

around those plants.

When you're doing the corners,

make sure you bring the plant forward

so there's compost going into the corner.

So often, we find the actual corner is fresh air

because you haven't trickled compost in there.

That can allow that side of the plant to dry out and then it dies.

Just firm those plants in when you're happy with the position.

And then, here comes the scree.

And what you're aiming to do is to trickle those pieces of stone

under the neck of the plant.

That means the water will drain away,

but it also makes the plant look like

it's erupted and grown through that dressing.

For me, the beauty of alpine Dianthus can be appreciated

in this habitat of the mountains.

The joy you'll get seeing these grow

will go on for years and years.

Growing carnations will bring fabulous colour,

form and scent to your garden.

But they can also work wonders for the home,

arranged beautifully in a vase.

Despite the fact that the carnation

is one of the most suitable of cut flowers,

it's in that role that its popularity has declined.

McQueens in London

is working with some amazingly beautiful cut flowers,

but I wonder what they make of carnations.

I love flowers.

Doesn't matter whether in the garden or in the vase.

Look at this...

I mean, wouldn't you just die to get that?

Lovely flowers.

Alchemillas, clematis, peonies, roses.

But where's my carnations?

There's not one. Now, that's a shame.

Duncan McCabe has been a florist for 23 years

and I'm hoping that he has some tips

to help me with my carnation revival.

-We're not actually a carnation shop, really.

-OK.

We're not really known for that sort of flower.

-Why?

-Well, carnations have a bit of a bad press, really,

because, when I first started doing flowers years and years ago,

-you could buy them in a yucky pink...

-Yeah.

..a yucky yellow.

And those are the kind of colours that you see

-in a greengrocer or in a garage forecourt.

-Yeah.

But, actually, if you take a closer look

to some of these newer varieties,

they can be really interesting.

Well, I'm very pleased to see that Duncan has some lovely carnations

and I can't wait to see how he'll use them.

That doesn't look like a carnation.

That looks like a hydrangea head. How do you do that?

-You're going to have a go at putting this together.

-Oh, yes?

-Grab some of those carnations over there.

-OK.

We need to just remove some of these leaves.

They're just going to get in the way.

So, is it still the old rule that, if you have foliage in the water,

you've got contamination and then the flowers don't last as long?

-It starts to degrade and you get this build-up of bacteria.

-OK.

It just prematurely ages them.

So, to keep all the foliage out of the water

is quite an important thing to do.

-OK, so this is a very simple technique.

-Right.

-The idea is to try and spiral the flowers.

-OK.

So they're all going in one direction.

You're doing brilliantly there, Christine. I'm very impressed.

One of the most important things is to perhaps avoid

-cutting at the node area.

-OK.

If you cut actually on the node,

it's difficult for water to get up to the flower.

You'll probably get carnations to last as long as weeks.

You just need to keep the water really clean.

If I can do that,

any of you can do that.

Because it was simple.

Duncan's modern carnation twist is spot on

and he has one more trick up his sleeve,

which may help to revive an old, but fabulous gentleman's tradition.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

It's time to take to the streets with some of these little beauties.

Madam, do you believe that the carnation

makes a man look elegant and stylish?

Certainly. Especially if they look like that.

How often do you wear a buttonhole?

Never.

Come on, gentlemen. I want you to pick your colour.

No, I'm going to go cream.

Look how this colour would pick up your nice shirt.

Yeah. I think that would look beautiful.

I will give you a buttonhole so you can enjoy it later on.

-Look how elegant you look!

-Yeah.

CHEERING

Yes, we think that there should be a revival.

Especially in new colours like this.

-It would work, wouldn't it?

-I think it would but...

It would make somebody look at you.

An absolute brilliant tradition to bring back to Hackney.

I'm amazed at this.

Yeah, it would turn heads.

-And that's all you want to do in the office.

-Absolutely. Indeed.

So, are you with me on my revival?

-Do you think we should all be wearing more carnations?

-Absolutely!

I agree!

Wa-hey!

Yay...!

Of course, you can pick up your buttonhole from the florist,

but why not try starting from scratch?

I'm back at Hanbury Hall to show you how easy it is to grow your own.

All Dianthus can be propagated from cuttings

but, if you want an awful lot of plants,

the best thing to do is sow from seed.

And you can do that by collecting the flower head

once it's started fading.

Leave the flowers to dry out on the plant before cutting,

then place them in a paper bag.

And then, hang this somewhere cool and dry.

After about a month, open it up.

Empty the contents of that bag out

and you'll see that you've got seed

that's already come out of the capsules.

And when I'm talking about a capsule,

I'm talking about these individual heads,

inside which will be hundreds and hundreds of seeds.

Separate your seeds and pop them into a paper envelope for storage.

Remember to label it with a date

and the seeds should be kept cold, dark and dry.

I love sowing seeds because it's the most magical bit of gardening.

But Dianthus seeds need specific requirements

and one of them is the compost should, ideally, be

a soil-based compost.

So, I'm going to use a John Innes seed and cutting compost.

Dianthus in the wild don't have a lot of food

and the more food you put in the compost,

the less the seeds will germinate.

So, a good-quality, low-nutrient compost.

And I scoop this up

and allow it to fall into the corners of the seed tray,

because what I don't want is air pockets in this seed tray.

Because the seeds need intimate contact with the soil

to allow them to absorb moisture.

I'm going to over-fill the seed tray

and then I'm just going to strike it level with a board.

And just straight across the top,

to get it roughly level.

And then, I'm going to firm it

so it's round about a quarter of an inch deep.

If you don't do that,

the seeds will germinate very quickly on the high end,

but will then dry out.

And if you've got it too deep at the other end,

you bury the seeds and they pop their clogs.

Once you've got the seed pan filled, I then use grit.

And this is sharp horticultural grit

and I'm just going to pour this over the surface of that compost.

Now, this isn't what people would normally do,

but this is my top tip for you.

And then, I'm just going to level that off.

And then, I sow the seeds on top of here.

Now, to make sure that you sow the seeds evenly,

just run up and down the seed tray

as if you are sprinkling salt on your dinner.

If you get to one end of the seed tray

and you've still got some seed left,

turn the tray

and go up and down

in the other direction.

That just makes it easier

to distribute the seed evenly.

If you've got a bit of seed left at the end,

just sprinkle it over.

And now there's a clever trick.

Get yourself a washing-up bowl

and fill it to the same depth as your seed tray.

So, whatever depth you're using,

fill it so the water will just come up

to the level of the surface of your tray.

Then, I'm going to lower

this very gently into that water.

And you're going to leave it there for about an hour.

Once its properly soaked, then you need to extract it.

And this is the clever bit,

because what you want to do

is to have the water draining

and taking the seed down into that gravel

in exactly the same way

that happens in Mother Nature.

And then, just place it somewhere to drain.

That can then be positioned in a cold frame

or at the base of a north wall.

Make sure it's kept moist.

Remember to label it and wait for the magic.

In the heart of the Suffolk countryside lives Jim Marshall,

a man who is truly passionate about carnations.

I love all Dianthus.

It's a very wide genus but, really, there's only one

and that's the one that I love and that's the Malmaison.

And up until a few years ago, I was the only person who grew them.

We brought them back virtually from extinction.

Jim now officially owns the national collection of Malmaison carnations.

You'll see that they're quite short

but they're blousy, lovely, large flowers and heavenly-scented.

And that would make a lovely buttonhole or a corsage.

Oh, wonderful!

Fantastic!

I'm so lucky that we've been able to bring them back into cultivation.

But my prize one is this one.

James Muir, called after my grandfather,

and we launched it at Hampton Court last year.

We should all be reviving British cut flower

and the aristocrat of the cut flower is, of course, this one,

the Malmaison carnations,

because of its scent, because of its opulence,

because of its shape.

Everything about it is over the top and I love them.

They're completely over the top and they're my flower!

I think carnations are one of the most under-rated plants

grown in our gardens.

Their delicacy and fragrance wins me over every time.

I think we should rekindle our love affair with carnations once again.