Episode 1 Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

Hello, and welcome to the 2017 RHS Hampton Court Flower Show,

an event supported by Viking Cruises.

With the Palace on one side and the River Thames flowing on the other,

this showground is one of the most magnificent settings you will find

anywhere on this planet. It is. This vast 34 acre showground is home

to 21 showgardens across four different categories,

the Floral Marquee - packed with over 90 exhibits

from specialist growers, and it wouldn't be Hampton

without the Rose Marquee - celebrating the nation's

favourite flower. It's a big show, but don't worry,

you wont miss a thing Joe, we have other shows, what makes

Hampton Court so special? It is super grand, the space, it is

spacious as well. People are bringing picnics here, and you can

spread out. It is a full day out. I have been coming since it started. I

always feel the spirit of generosity, it makes you feel open

and celebratory. And people shop and eat, and have a good time. And a

whole new palette of plant are coming through this time. What

colours, spiciness in the planting. A spicy show coming up.

Coming up on tonight's show, Carol Klein takes a first look

at the stunning exhibits filling the Floral Marquee.

Designer Arit Anderson and I explore two of the conceptual gardens,

a category of gardens this show has become renowned for.

The next three nights, Adam will be taking plant that Weise see in the

Show Gardens and showing how best to use them in your own gardens.

Tonight it is all about roses. And you can share your thoughts

on anything flower show related with us on our Facebook page,

and on Twitter using the hashtag, And earlier, Rachel,

Joe and I went to see three of this year's

large show gardens. It's the height of summer, and

Hampton Court is the quintessential summer flower show. Paul

Hervey-Brookes's design, it encapsulates all the warmth and

atmosphere of the season. He was very much inspired by travel. This

structure at the heart of the garden, inspired by constant on's

arches in Rome, three of them here. It is very clever, cause he has made

the central one seemed very deep, because he has used a darker tone of

this lovely, soft blue. You have a wonderful sense of depth. Coming

through here, it is like you are in front of a stage, with a sunken

terrace will stop here, he has used Ceramica tiles, etched every so

often with this pattern, just enough, not too much. The wonderful

sandstone steps all around that take you up to the planting. Here in the

front corner, you have the magnificent Silver Birch trees. They

are multi-stem Tom not only do you have the white of the bark, but a

lovely softness from the branches, leaves almost trickling down to meet

the rest of the plants. You have a palette of soft blues and mauves.

You have a bright blue, and he mixes it all up and add a splash of yellow

with the phenol. You have a change of shape and colour. Everywhere you

look, there are pockets of flowers all summer long. It is perfect for

softening the edges between planting and paving. It is repeated down here

in this table. Continuing the rich palette of colours here, darting up

through there, to this rich, lovely blend of terracotta and Rasberry. It

is a garden with lovely details as well, but it all speaks of

travelling, the Ceramica pot has come from a lazy. Details from

China, India, a rich tapestry that brings in all the influences. For

me, this is very much a romantic garden. Soft colours in the

planting, a wonderful blue that is so restful on the walls here. It

brings to mind that golden hour that you get between daylight, and dusk.

This is the Children's Wild Garden, by Andree Davies. Unlike any show

garden I have seen, the paving slabs are huge. Then there is sand, and an

enormous sculpture. More than that, a child can come up to here, and

give it a shelf. Look... It turns. This garden is intended to be

ordinary for good reason, because it is designed for children on the

autism spectrum. As you come through, and you have this open

space that feels confident and big, you can then make a good tour. You

come up to a secret space, this is commenting closed. You can just sit

and gather yourself. I think this is probably a first for

a show garden, because there is a trampoline built in. It is big

enough for a wheelchair. You can put a wheelchair on and bounce it up and

down, feel the extraordinary sensation of floating. You reach a

crossing point, these enormous slabs that lead you on, crossing a stream.

And the path begins to change, and with it the textures. It is gritty,

and the stones are smaller. There is a familiarity, and a safe place with

different textures that you can put your toes into. It is important to

realise that people on the autism spectrum can be ultrasensitive to

sound or touch, or taste, or site. And this garden is very sensitive

about that. You are not crowding sensations. They come in one at a

time. What a great idea. I want to talk to the design is about how they

achieved that. -- designers. I love this garden. Almost all

gardens that have the word children associated with it, bright rivalry

colours, rubber matting so you can't hurt yourself, this is full of

spikes and stones, and places to get trapped. What is going on? It is to

represent the spectrum. A lot of people think autism is one

condition, and it isn't. We worked with a clinical psychologist, who

helped us develop the design in a subtle way, there are little areas

to discover and explore. We looked at our inner child and remembered

what we did as children, and that has inspired this garden,

discovering the landscape. I love the trees. I love the way it feels.

What we wanted were trees with personality. We have got a fabulous

weeping beech, and it makes a lovely dense space beneath it. I understand

the public will be able to walk through. Very much so. That was

essential. We want them to experience the garden from the

inside. Your last show garden here was ten years ago. Are you planning

to wait another ten years? 20. At least! I think it is a wonderful

garden. Thank you for coming along. Cheers.

Normally Show Gardens are put together like a military operation.

The designers have the plan with a sponsor in place, a construction

team and, of course, a brief, too. This one has but -- been put

together by Charlie Bloom, and it is called the Colour Box Garden. She

came up with an anarchic approach, coming up with a simple layout, and

not quite knowing what was going to end up in the garden. She put a

shout out on social media for people to donate plants, materials and

whatever turned up would be the garden itself. It is a very

refreshing approach to a garden. It has a simple layout, pure symmetry

with a water feature on the side of this path that runs down the middle,

and the perennial planting is what it is all about. There is no

structure in this garden, no trees or shrubs, but it doesn't matter.

This is for a show, it is all about colour. On this side, you have the

white lead actress. It is an un-assuming plant. It is not a

flower yet. It does so much for this border. It gives out vertical

accent, the white buds come out and that lime green foliage, which I

love, and it sets of the planting around here and ties it into the

planting back here and the taller phenol, too. It is amazing what one

plant can do in a border. One negative for me, in my opinion,

these three seats are a good focal point, but the colour is a bit too

strong in relationship to the planting. I think, otherwise, the

community has done a fantastic job. People coming together and creating

something different. Now, that idea is exciting.

There are lots more Show Gardens which we will show you tomorrow and

on Friday night. But it doesn't matter what a show garden is like,

how big or small it is, it is going to be dependent above all on its

plants. If you want to see the best plants at Hampton Court, the latest

fashion or the most unusual plants, then you have to go to the Floral

Marquee. There, of course, is where Carol has gone.

It's Hampton Court, it must be the height of summer. And what better

way to introduce it than with these gladioli, and soft violet, brilliant

scintillating lime greens. And they are so easy to grow. All you do is

estimate when you want them to flower, so track 90-100 days and

plant them. Put them in a couple of inches deep in fairly fertile

ground, and they are going to reward you with these brilliant spikes of

gorgeous colour, which last for weeks and weeks. Nothing could say

some more than a Gladio like. -- gladioli.

But you don't have two grown your Gladio like in straight lines, this

series from the Netherlands illustrates that brilliantly. They

come in different colours, they are small and dainty, and mix

brilliantly with Indigo dreams. And these gorgeous lilies, the colour

looks up at you. This whole stand with its rich and intense colours

proves just how dramatic high summer can be.

Sommer is all about vibrant glowing colours, too. Like this glorious

because mere. They are so easy to grow, but they

are totally hardy, unlike the Gladio like, which you need to lift every

year. You can leave them to ramble around, split them up every couple

of years. But there are other quite different plants, there is a

beautiful impressionistic feeling created by this flower, and the

dainty orange blooms of tango. They could be brushstrokes painted on

canvas. Surely, high summer is about the

spectacular, and you don't get much more jaw-dropping than these. They

are sentinels, head and shoulders above the rest of the madding summer

crowd. They come from the sun-drenched mountain slopes of

Turkey and the Middle East. They grow in practically no soil at all.

It's thin, really well drained. If you want to grow them successfully,

make sure that nothing else competes with them. They want all the sun to

themselves. Hampton Court is famed for its fireworks, but you could not

get a more breathtaking pyrotechnic display than that provided here.

Now, one of the must have plants at Hampden this year, the one on lots

of stands, the one you can buy and take home and put in your own

garden, well, I've spotted lots of these, these see Hollies. They are

not just here in the marquee, they are dotted in the gardens as well.

You can see how to use them nicely. It's a really great plant, great

structure mainly. I like the spiky foliage, and they last for ages,

even when they've faded and gone over, that structure will stay

there. They come in a range of colours, lots of metallic silver is,

right through to the blues, almost purple is. They almost look as

though they've been sprayed with a spray can. They had a really useful

form to the border and combine with other plants, too. Here we see it

beautifully intermingled with this. It's not just the colour

combination, it's the flower forms that are really interesting. We've

got the flat, soft heads, and the explosions coming through. They will

grow nicely together. You can go on holiday and forget about them. You

can literally pick up this combination and pop it in your own

garden. Flower shows are the perfect places to see old favourites like

these Eryngium come into fashion. Penstemons have been away

from the spotlight over the last couple of years but nursery women

Julia Mitchell is on a mission to To people who don't know

them I describe them They flower for a long time,

starting in June and lasting They come in a great range

of colours, favouring the red From deep purple, through to pure

white and every shade in between. We've got over 120 different

penstemon here at the nursery. One of my favourites, really,

is this beautiful variety called It's also known as Garnet,

which is a little bit Another one here, which is a little

bit more unusual, is one You can see the foliage

is quite a lot lighter. Another one which is looking really

beautiful at the moment is this Look at the amount of

flower on that stem. The oldest variety we've

got here at the nursery I've only got one large plant of it

here, which might not look very exciting, but for me

is incredibly exciting. It was bred in 1860 in the UK,

but is very rare in this country. As far as I'm aware there's only me

and one other person in the country I think it's really important

to keep the old varieties going. An awful lot of plants in the garden

have been around for years and years They keep getting lost to

the new varieties that come along. A lot of varieties being bred now

are really big flowered. I like the classic, small flowered,

but loads of flowers on each stem. My three main rules you need

to follow when planting First one is, don't plant in soil

that's going to be heavy The second one is you need to make

sure you don't cut them In the spring in your garden this

is probably something your What you need to do

is cut it back hard. Go right back down to these

ones at the bottom, It will start shooting again

as you get into the spring months. The third and final one you need

to do in order to get a flower When you actually look,

you will see a pair of leaves on the top which don't have

new side shoots. What you need to do is go down

to a pair where there Within a month at most these little

side shoots will turn into two long If you do that throughout the summer

you will have flowers on all of your The optimum time for doing

cuttings is September. Having said that, you can do them

throughout the summer months. You just have to choose

the right material. If you look, you can see

the leaves at the top They're no good because they're

starting to form flower shoots. You want to take cuttings

from growing shoots. Come down, cut, just below a pair

of leaves like that. You want it about three

or four inches long. You can either use your secateurs

to nick these side leaves off. I generally use my fingernail

and my finger to sort of rub it off. What that does is not leave anything

behind that can rot. It leaves you with a

completely clean stem. You just pop that into the soil

down to about there. We're going to have over 40

varieties of penstemon in our stand We're going to be showing

in a garden setting. We're concentrating on having a bee

garden because bees love penstemon. They are going to be used in plant

combinations with bee balm, monarda lavender, lupita,

and loads of other things that It is really difficult to get a gold

with flowering penstemon. They are very difficult

to make you look perfect. We're going to give it a go this

year, so fingers crossed. That question, what medal did you

get? Silvergilt, but we're really pleased, just to bits. It looks

perfect to me. You've got so many varieties, how many? Over 35 in

flower understand, lots of different shapes and colours. What do you

think is looking particularly good? The dark hours, the purple leafed

one, it's taller than some of the hybrids, really stunning. One of my

favourites, I have many favourites, they change all the time, I can't

help it, if this variety. An older one, quite tall. A really delicate,

delicate pink. Beautifully marked throat and a sturdy grower, what you

need in the garden. Why do you think it's so important to continue

growing older varieties as well as these lovely new introductions?

People still want them, which is important. They ask for the old

varieties. They are very different to the new ones, some are really

delicate looking, absolutely stunning. I think it's really

important to keep them going. We met someone this morning who bred one of

the varieties years ago that we got on the stand, it was really exciting

for me. What are the most eye-catching varieties visitors are

responding to, wanting to know more about? Definitely dark towers. Laura

as well because it's got those beautiful blush pink lips. And the

volcano series, shorter growing. Spoilt for choice. Congratulations,

it's obviously really popular with visitors. Good luck with the rest of

the show, it's beautiful. Outside the marquee, one of the

defining elements of the Hampton Court flower show are the conceptual

gardens. These spaces challenge our

understanding of plants and design. Like all of the gardens -

they have a message which they communicate

through the language Arit Anderson and Monty have been

taking a look at two Bill Wilder has designed this garden

to give this unique view, an opportunity, really, to see roots

and soil structure that would normally be hidden underground.

Congratulations on gold. Thank you. Well-deserved. What made you do your

garden design about soil and roots? I wanted to be an educational

exhibit about the soil composition. I just want to bring the viewer

under the garden to see what all the key elements in the soil are, listed

on the base. The bubbles on this is root osmosis going up into the

roots. If you get that right at the bottom, key elements in the soil,

you get an amazing garden. We want to encourage people to be aware that

with good soil composition you'll get an amazing garden. If you lack

those key element in the soil, it's not going to happen. We get soil

erosion in the world today. Agricultural practices. This is a

future problem, not for our generation, but future generations,

my children, our grandchildren. If we can't sort this out now, it's

going to get worse and worse. I think it's going to make people

think about what's going on underneath the ground. We have to

think about what is above as well. The fabulous tree up there. What did

you decide to use? In the end we went for the pomegranate, they say

it's the tree of life. It looks fabulous. From every angle. This is

the centrepiece of this garden, the actual tree. I love the stem and the

bark on it, it's amazing. How does the watering and weeding moment

happen when it is that high up? That is why I have a natural wild meadow,

main reason is because it tie you up, two and a half metres above

ground, we want it to be tolerant of the wind, the exposure up there, the

sun. If you look at the garden, we've got this amazing hedge around

it, because when you look at the structure, there is a lot of meadow,

massive water tank, massive root structure. We wanted real green

framework going around it. So it looks like a garden. It's great, I

really love it and I'm sure all the visitors will love it too. Well

done. This garden is a graphic depiction

of the effects of the illegal ivory trade. It's comprised of tasks of

the 80 elephants that on average are slaughtered daily for their ivory.

Now, that is, in itself, deeply shocking. So much for the concept.

But every conceptual garden has to do a number of things, it's really

hard. You have to have a good idea, a concept that provokes, and rages

all draws you in. You also have to make a show garden. So what we have

here is a profound message that I'm sure every visitor feels somehow

they should engage with. But does the garden pull them in? Actually,

like so many show gardens, that, in the end, is going to be a subjective

decision. Sometimes it's quite hard to decide.

This is an incredibly dramatic garden. I think everybody looks at

it with a mixture of shock and awe a shock because I don't think a lot of

people realise the extent of the ivory trade, and because in a funny

way it's very beautiful. It's a legitimate question, to what extent

is this a re-creation of a landscape and to what extent is a garden? When

we were designing the garden we had in mind the concept which we wanted

to get across, the ivory trade, what was occurring. To get the scale

across. Inside we wanted to develop the African Savannah, so the public

can come in and really feel a part of it. Tell me about some of the

plans you've used. Most of these are not ones we're familiar with. This,

you are telling me, is dormant rather than dead, yet you've never

seen a tree look more dead. It is the classic African umbrella tree.

They do go dormant in desert conditions for up to 12 months, they

go without water, then they drop leaves suddenly and quickly. It is

easy to get a hold of? Very hard. These travelled from command in the

Middle East. They got stopped at the UAE border because we had flight

problems getting them out of Oman. They spent five days there, then

they made it, eventually, to Heathrow on Saturday, the day before

judging. Cutting it fine. What about your leafy fronds? This over here

the elephant is particularly like eating, we wanted to put that in

there for that purpose. We just wanted to have that, the real sort

of classic picture of an African landscape. It's a superb setting,

congratulations. I do really like the conceptual

gardens. They are not easy to do. They are one of the hardest Show

Gardens to get a point across. But this year has good variety and they

are stimulating, which they should be. Stimulations can become

irritation! But I like a good conceptual garden, it should annoy

somebody. If you don't find one of them, and think, what is that about?

It is not doing its job. It has to be something of a garden, something

of a good idea that has legs, and a bit of drum and creativity, which is

not easy. The good ones over the years have stuck in my mind. They

are, for me, absolutely great. Still to come this evening,

we join international garden designer Andy Sturgeon

as he realises a long held dream to bring a show feature

with a difference to Hampton Court. This is really exciting because it

is basically a Chelsea graveyard. Award winning designer Adam Frost

shares his skills to ensure you get the best from your plants

in the design of your garden. And Carol Klein is in

the Floral Marquee exploring a fascinating group of plants

guaranteed to brighten any border, This year The Hampton Court Flower

Show is introducing a new garden category - the Changing

World Gardens. These spaces are designed to reflect

the more sustainable direction gardening is taking,

demonstrate new solutions, and highlight the importance

of the environment Rachel de Thame and Mark Lane went

along to investigate. It really is a changing world and I

think this category of gardens is going to be very popular with

visitors. First-time designer

Rhiannon Williams has chosen to design a garden that explores

ways we can make use of the increased rainfall we have

and will be experiencing due The garden is the Urban Rain Garden.

It is about clever rainwater capture and storage techniques, and how you

can put that into a residential setting. It features a front garden

and back garden, something everybody has. It has cool, innovative ways to

use water. Is it designed the storing all types of water and

rainfall? Or is it directed at the flash flooding we have been having

recently? It is extending the time between when it falls and sinks back

into the ground. It is moving that through planters and maximising it.

Talk me around the garden a little bit. We have our house facade, and

it works through different channels and planters, reaching different

points before ending up at the front. I love what you have done

here, parking the car, it is a water feature, plants growing through the

grill. Everyone needs a parking space, so it is trying to make it

functional, and also use the water. I am dying to see what is through

the front door, can we have a look? Of course we can! Excellent.

Oh, goodness. This is wonderful. I absolutely love this. It is a proper

garden, isn't it, the shape that most of us have. It is fantastic.

What about these groups that go across the patio? We have these

curves. They are a lovely design feature, and add shape, but any

surface rainfall that falls onto the patio gets channelled. As we go down

through the garden, beautiful planting again. Again, this follows

through and the water continues falling. It comes from the plant at

the top to the middle planter. It falls into this final one here with

a drainage point to the underground tank. You have been incredibly

clever, actually. You have a long, narrow space, and yet, you have

broken it up into different sections, so it never feels like

that. It is an interesting design. I wanted to create a functional space,

as well as beautiful. It is all first design, but you have helped

out on other gardens, how have you found the experience of having your

baby this time? It was a mix of nerves and excitement. There were

times when I was thinking, why am I doing this? You are, like, a busy is

the right choice, I am glad I am here. Are you happy with how it

looks? I love it. It is how I had it in my head, which I didn't think

would happen. It is a brilliant garden. It may be your first time,

but it will definitely not be your last. No, I hope to be back.

Another Changing World Gardens is this Perennial Sanctuary Garden by

Tom Massey. Perennial is a charity for people in horticulture, who have

hard times, but there, they have support. This garden reflects that.

So you have the hustle and bustle with the deep reds and deep oranges.

And as you go into the garden, it gets taller and more secluded. Right

in the centre, a beautiful, green sanctuary.

Tom, this is a beautiful garden, can you talk through design for me. The

idea is you are transported on this hectic, bustling showground

environment, you move through oranges, yellows, the colours start

to become happy and joyful. There is a really vibrant yellow, and a lemon

popsicle. In the red band, there is a really black foliage and red

flower. You move into purples, blues, and everything takes on a

progressive quality. Planting simplifies, there are less species

and mixes. You reach the central century, where we are now,

surrounded by the towering green mood, reflecting in the water bowl,

and the simple stone benches, which is quite Zen and meditative. It

really is. It represents in a calm and inner peace.

You have used grasses in a tremendous way because it links

everything together. What grasses have you got? In the blue mix, it

gives a tall and airy quality. The Orange gives a hazy quality to

the plants. Without it, it would feel quite stark. The grasses give a

sense of movement, echoed in the bamboo as well.

For me, this is a wonderful space, Tom. I could sit here for hours,

surrounded by this green. It is a real space the meditation and

reflection, it's brilliant. I love it. Thank you.

I think those Changing World Gardens are a great addition to the show,

and I look forward to seeing more myself.

Each night this week, Adam Frost will be sharing his designer knowhow

to ensure you get the most from your plants when designing your garden.

In his first instalment, Adam's focus is the perennial

For me, roses are a truly fantastic plant. When you think about it, Al

relationship with them goes back generations. Every single one of us

has a favourite. Mine is Rosa, but why do I like it?

For me, it is a hard-working plant. I can use it in so many different

settings to create different feels. When it comes to design, how we deal

without boundaries is incredibly important. Roses can really play a

part there, whether it is south, East, North West, you can find a

plant that works well in all of those conditions.

They are also great for adding height, whether it is over an

archway, like this, which helps to create tension and pull you through

to the next space. Or a border, or an arbour at the end of the garden.

Even if you haven't got a lot of space, just a few well chosen pots

that are planted around a seating area can bring colour and scent into

that space. From that slightly old-fashioned

formal feel back there, this is softer. This is the way that roses

can be used in design to add structure to a herbaceous border. If

you look, it is really clever. Look at the plant closely. When the bud

comes out, there is a red tinge, and it gets picked up. Then as they

open, they become softer, and that gets picked up in the peculiar.

I think, for me, in a sense, it demonstrates they can add structure

to the base it is planted in. But actually, you can more or less drift

goes into the flour setting. These plants will work in so many places.

-- We rock up here in this more modern

setting, and they really work. Look at this border in front of me, and

if I strip it back, you start building it up, put a tree in, so

you choose the right tree for the space. Then you add a shrub layer.

But the roses can work really well within that layer. The win GM look

crisp and modern, and give it an edge. They look comfortable with the

roses. We choose the rose first of all for the flour, but they bring

sent, so when you choose a plant that is going to add to the field

that you are trying to create. For most of us, summer is about

colour and how it is brought into the garden. There is one plant that

has risen to the top again, and that is salvias. Carroll has gone to have

a look. Salvias are everywhere you look this

year. They have several characteristics of their family,

square stems, and beautifully lipped flowers. This is a huge genius,

around 1000 different species, some shrubs, some hardy perennials, some

annuals. They all contribute so much to the summer display. They give you

long jeopardy of flour, flowering from June to the frost, and

brilliant colours, a kaleidoscope. Because these plants, these lovely

salvias are becoming so popular, what people really want to know is,

how to grow them. What do you recommend? Easy, plenty of sunshine

and wild soil. Even if you haven't got a garden, you can grow salvias.

Grow them in a container, perfect. They look gorgeous. You can move

them around and put them in the most son in the garden. Also, an

advantage of that is you can bring them close to your nose. Aromatic

foliage. Very much so. Once you have your salvias, you can propagate them

easily, can't you? Are you try to put me out of business now! Take the

cuttings any time from early May to July. Whenever you prune a salvia,

you regenerate the growth. Take the tip cuttings and they bud quickly.

Keep it humid, put a bag over the top or in a propagator. On a

windowsill or something. They want to route. This time of year, they

route in a fortnight. We have a question from Katie and Heather on

Facebook. They both want to know what is the best way to grow their

salvias. Leave them and the ground and don't put on them. Give it a

ride in a blog baron, if it is in a bowl, put it in a conservatory or

greenhouse. If it is in the ground, give it a prune and keep it ticking

over through the winter. Plant them out in the spring, but by this time

of year, some of them look leggy. They are, they are getting towards

the beginning of the flowering period, and Babel start to tip. They

need a prune. Take a third off them. One of my customers came in and

coined a phrase, you have heard of the Chelsea shop? And we ought to do

one around the Hampton Court time. It is now the Hampton hangar. It

describes it perfectly. The Hampton Hack doesn't only work

on Salvias - there are a number of plants in your borders that

will benefit from a July haircut. We're calling it the Hampton hack,

but of course it might be that in some years, such as this one,

because it's been very warm, plants are further ahead than you would

expect, so you might not choose to. Generally speaking, he would take a

plans like this, a perfect specimen. I would cut is probably a third of

the way down, just above a pair of leaves, like that. That diverts that

nanograms, instead of going straight up, it's going to produce more

growth from here. You will get branching stems, a bushy plant,

probably with many more flowers. I'll do this one here as well. You

can play with the proportions on the plant, leave some stems longer, so

they flower earlier, take some further down, they will flower

later. Experiment a little bit. I've also got some hardy geraniums.

Depending on the type of hardy geraniums you have, some of them,

particularly older forms, reach a point where the flowering is pretty

much over. With this you can be quite brutal, take them right back,

foliage and everything, remove it, just a few inches above ground

level. It looks brutal, but what you will get after a few weeks, then

threw into the autumn, is a nice new flush of leaves from the base, and

probably more flowers. At least it will look attractive in the border.

Some hardy geraniums keep an flowering, keep producing flowers,

so for those I prefer to take the stems down, the flower stems, you

can see the flowers have finished, take those down further into the

plant. Leaving most of the foliage on. It continues to produce more

buds, more flowers to the season. Sometimes deadheading is as simple

as pulling off the top of a spent flower, taking them down further on

the stem. The main thing is to keep doing it. You add lots more flower

power. Gardening is a playground of experimentation and great garden

designers are always looking for new ways of doing things. Award-winning

designer Andy Sturgeon has long held an ambition to build a very

different kind of garden. One using the recycled remnants of past

Chelsea show gardens. To help realise this dream and promote

garden design as a career choice, he recruited a band of volunteers and

students who were very keen to make their first foray into the world of

horticulture. We caught up with Andy as he began his journey to creating

this ambitious garden. Hunting for iconic Chelsea relics.

This is really exciting because there are places like this up and

down the country. It's basically a Chelsea graveyard. At the end of

Chelsea week, some gardens get relocated, but often they get broken

up in bits and go off in different directions. The reason all these

gems still exist is thanks to my good friend David Dodd, landscape

gardener extraordinaire and builder of many show gardens, two or three

of them for me as well. How long have you been collecting this junk?

How dare you, it's not junk, this is my lifeblood! Since we've been doing

Chelsea. Probably about ten years. It is loved, cared for, crafted by

skilled people, and I hate seeing stuff go in skips. There will be a

home for every piece of material down there. Go on, show me.

I've always had this daft idea of making a new show garden out of old

bits of other Chelsea Gardens, taking key elements and structures,

the iconic pieces, and reimagining them and making an entirely new show

garden. This is going to be slightly different because normally I might

spend a whole year doing perhaps dozens of drawings and making models

and really nailing down every aspect of the design. At this point I have

no idea what I'm doing. I have very little time, very little money. I've

come here to see if I can find some inspiration and find lots of things

to use. I've got these fantastic concrete

benches and they are absolutely stunning, they came from a garden

last year. He's never asked for them back, so we might as well use them

somewhere or other. I need to accommodate things where I

can. It would be a shame to pass over something like this. This was

one of the radio to gardens, designed by Matt Keatley. If I can

plug these holes, we've got an instant pool. Starting with this,

that is a pretty good place to be. This looks like it's from the beauty

of Islam garden from a few years ago. It's really, really brilliant,

quite a find. When you do a normal garden you spend a year worrying,

basically, sleepless nights, the rest of it. You've avoided the

sleepless nights by leaving it all to last minute? I like that, I like

that thinking. No plans, no drawings, so to call it organic is a

slight understatement. To call it chaos is probably slightly more an

accurate description of it. I think it's David who came across

the idea to use it as a way to promote landscaping as a career.

Because there is a crisis going on at the moment, people find it very

hard to recruit people into the industry because they are not seeing

it as the great profession that it is. We put a call to all colleges

and apprenticeship schemes and we have over 40 people volunteer.

It's a fantastic atmosphere and where learning an awful lot about

all the things we don't normally do. Ultimately I would like to become a

garden designer. Hopefully. Like Andy Sturgeon. These are the pools

that we found in David's Yard, it's amazing what you can turn some of

these things into that looked, in a way, like junk. Now they will be

things of beauty. Sam Ovens bench. What has helped it is as well as

having the stuff from David's yard, we've borrowed all sorts of things

from lots of other designers. These are some of the columns Cleeve West

used in one of his amazing gardens. One of Sarah Eberly's trees from

Chelsea flower show this year. Quite a happy band going on here. At this

point I don't quite know how it's going to turn out.

I recognise so many bits of your garden. Not our garden, it's other

people's gardens. It's like a trip down memory lane for me show

gardens. The columns, Andy's fins. Pearson's rocks. These benches we

had in 2014 from Adam Frost. Even from last year. You would normally

put this many different things into any garden really. The key features.

You wouldn't normally have this many, for sure. It works, it feels

cohesive. Thanks for saying that, I was terrified it would be a complete

dog's dinner. That is the reason for all these hedges. They

compartmentalised in a way you can't see one part from another. If you

had to choose one part of this garden that is your favourite what

would it be? I love water and construction. The planting is

beautiful, but for me, I love this paving. Going over the pool in that

sort of beautiful reflective water. I think it's really, really crisp

and clean work. I love it. Probably my favourite thing is the different

vistas, of all of them it is the longest list, coming down from that

bottom corner, winding through these plants to where we sit. You didn't

get a drawing? It was, how can I put it, a sketch. Loose. When did you

get it? We were already on the site, then it turned up. In my defence, I

didn't know what we were going to get, what stuff we had, I did always

say I would do it last minute. The whole idea of the garden is to get

more people interested in landscaping, more landscape is on

board. How has it been working with inexperienced landscapers?

Mentoring? The wonderful thing for me was seeing them as they started

the flag after the very heavy construction and digging and

lifting, mixing concrete, which they've learned how to do. Seeing

Andy come in and do the men touring of the planting was wonderful. Their

enthusiasm suddenly lifted again. The whole emphasis of this go

landscape campaign is to encourage people. What better place to start

than with the show garden, to see what can be achieved at such an

excellent standard. It's a great garden, but also thank you for

encouraging people into landscaping, and hopefully showing then it can be

exciting. Your enthusiasm shines through, I'm sure everyone will

really love it. You have to give credit to David and Andy encouraging

more landscapers into the world. I started off mixing cement for a

bricklayer and I loved being outdoors, I love the physical

engagement in landscaping. Actually watching a garden appear before your

eyes is better than shuffling a bit of paper from one side of the desk

to the other. The doing is really important. It's not a division. One

of these show gardens here at Hampton Court would exist without

collaboration between landscapers and designers. How does that work?

The designer comes up with the idea but they will always talk to a

landscape about what is achievable, how materials go together, and rely

on the landscaper to make it happen. Unpractical, I love working like

this. If we can get younger people not just be a designer, everybody

wants to be a designer, but doing it. Can you imagine if you're 17,

I'm going to train you to drive a digger. Such good fun. Ripping out,

moving, moving earth, creating. I know, it makes me want to have a go.

None of these gardens would be here without diggers. They are only here

for a week so we have to make the most. We have more time this evening

to make the most of anything. There is mass is more to see here at the

RHS and in Court Palace flower show. We'll be back tomorrow night at

9:30pm on BBC Two, Nick Bailey will be looking at the science of scent

and I'll be talking to a very special royal guest on a garden that

has been designed especially for the veterans of the Armed Forces. Join

us tomorrow night. Goodbye.