Episode 2 Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

Hello and welcome back to the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show. An event

supported by Viking Cruises, it has been really busy here this week, we

have had people pouring in to enjoy the show. Yes, because we have some

the best plants men and women from up and down country showing the

finest plants, but of course, at every flower show, there is an

important element of competition and everybody who shows here, whether

it's a great big garden like this, or just a small stand in a marquee,

knows they are going to be judged. But the biggest prize of all is best

of show garden and the winner this year was here. This is the Zoflora

and Caudwell Children's Wild Garden and earlier on, we were present when

Sue Biggs the director general of the RHS presented the award. Many,

many congratulations. Thank you so much. Such a beautiful garden. This

is for the volunteers who have helped and for the children who

inspired us to spend seven months of our lives making this happen. It is

stunning. It is impressive. It is for children on the autistic

spectrum, for them to engage in, for them to explore in. There is lots of

interactivity, but there is quiet spaces. We tend to think of

children's gardens adds bright. This is subtle and really detailed. I

hope they are celebrating with great enthusiasm.

Coming up. Carol Klein is going to the rose marquee looking at roses

both old and new, and also, announcing the winner of the Rose of

the Year. We have a double hit of fragrance for you, as Nick Bailey

explores the science of century and Toby Buckland looks at one of the

most popular plant, the lavender, And Adam Frost is going to continue

his series of advice, taking key plants from the show gardens and

showing how you can use them to their best advantage at home. We

love to hear from you via Facebook or our hashtag on Twitter, and that

is bbchamptonflowers. For all of us who grow fruit and veg

we know as July progresses, the harvests increase. Hopefully they

will go on increasing right through into autumn, but it is timely, to

have a really interesting display, this is by Juliet Sargeant and she

has got an RHS garden feature here, and earlier on I went and talked to

her about it. At this time of year those of us who

grow vegetables are starting to reap the harvest of all the sowing and

planting we did earlier on in spring, so it is great to see here

at Hampton Court an RHS display of everything that we can grow for the

kitchen and variety is the key, so there are conventional wildlife

cabbages growing in among dahlias, so what looks like an old smile of

straw is growing tomatoes the and elder flower, berries, the wine,

cordial is one of the glories of the English kitchen. And it is really

good to see displays like this at Hampton Court, to inspire people.

So, I thoi thought I would talk to the designer Juliet Sargeant, of how

she set about putting this together. Juliet, you are Chelsea Gold Medal

winning garden designer, this is a slight departure for you. Why did

you decide do this? Well, I was delighted to have been asked to do

this garden, which is different from what I have done before, a

conceptual garden. This is practical. I have set a challenge of

making every plant in the garden, even the trees and the hedges

edible. As a population we are becoming urban, does that mean that

growing good food, good ingredients is becoming more difficult? I think

we just have to be imaginative and resourceful. Have a go, I think. We

have an example of recipe pots, so if you have a small space but you

can have a planter, you could plant everything you need for a pizza or

risotto. We have vertical growing, so if you have a wall but not much

floor space you could grow herbs in pockets. What have people been say

something It is lovely to see people enjoying the garden and people have

enjoyed reading and just thinking, well, maybe I could try that at

home. If one person tries it it is a 100% success, and I know it will be

more than one so congratulations. One garden getting a lot attention

this year is this one. The Blind Veterans Garden and the idea is to

create a community atmosphere round a village centre. So here we see

lots of bright colours in the planting, we see a a vegetable area,

an Orchard, a beer making area and places for relaxation too. Earlier I

mitt the Patron of the charity HRH the Countess of Wessex.

Thank you for taking time out to talk to us. The charity has been

established since 1915, I believe, and it supports anyone in the forces

who has significant sight loss. That is correct. In what way do they get

support? It is mainly practical. The main aim of the charity is to keep

people living as independently as possible for for as long as

possible. It is a question of trying to help them, to find out what they

can do, rather than what they can't do. OK. So the message is if you are

suffering from significant sight loss, regardless of how it happened,

then you are a veteran of any of the forces, real there is, this charity

is there for you. I know that some of the vet van rans have been

designed in the build of this garden? They have. There has been

over 20 veterans working in the garden, in setting up during the

last week. Has anything caught your eye in particular? If you look at

the bench over there, where they have the little metal birds on it,

that somebody who is visually impaired might be able to touch and

feel, you know, everything is very texture al. There is lots of colour.

It feels like this wonderful virtual circle. I don't think I have seen a

garden more beautiful. Fabulous. I think this garden will

help raise the profile and awareness. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. I am here with the garden designer

Andrew and one of the veterans John. John, how has your visual impairment

affected the way you garden at home? From having a very sort of general

garden, with lots of colour and variety, I have condensed down to

blocks. Of sharp colours. Yes. It catches you eye, because basically

my residual sight is 2%. Century is important to you as well. Yes,

century, it is the one thing that leads you into the different areas

of the garden. That is what I like about this one, is that there is

century spread all over the garden. You are drawn nose first through it.

Yes, definitelily. Century is so important in any garden. It is a

fabulous design. A triumph. This willow work is exceptional. Yes, we

discovered in the design process blind veterans looked after the

great vine at Hampton Court Palace after the First World War, they made

baskets to sell the grapes in, so it was natural for me to give Tom a

ring who is an old friend, and design this, and he has been working

on it with four guys for six months. It is a huge structure, so

beautifully done. It is great to meet you both. The garden is a

wonderful success, and enjoy the week. Thank you.

One plant that regularly tops the nation's favourite list is the rose.

And whether you are looking to add to an existing collection or start a

fresh one, Carol is here with some suggestions, looking at old classics

and New Kids On The Block. Nowadays, rose hybrids are at the

peak and hundreds of new varieties of produced every year. This is a

glorious rose. Fairly modern. No more than ten years old. It is

Abbey, a climbing rose. Normally with a hybrid tea you would be

advised to leave your pruning until all danger of frost is past so frost

doesn't damage the new buds but in the case of climbing rose, you can

really attempt it any time during the winter. Because frost is most

unlikely to get right up there into the branches.

I think it's a delightful rose. There are two distinct kinds of

climbing rose, true climber, and ramblers, this is Bob James a

rambling rose. It is quite old. It dates back to the 1930 they have

gorgeous bunches of flowers. Flowers. But their only disadvantage

is they only flower once, once they have flowered, be bold, take your

scissors and cut the shoots right back. Apart from that, you don't

need to do any other pruning, except every couple of years, you can take

out some of that old growth, and replace it with a new stuff that has

arisen from the base. Big new shoots that will bear many, many flowers.

Every year, for the last 15 years, in the rose marquee at the Hampton

Court Flower Show, the winner of Rose of the Year is announced. This

year's wonderful worthy winner is this. Rosa Love Struck it is a

Florrie bun da and flowers right through, from May until September.

Think it is going to be enormously popular. -- floribunda.

One of the most splendid things about plants, who had long

association with human kind, is the stories that attach to them. This is

a rose with a real story. It is called Peace. It was developed

during the late 1930s, by a Frenchman. He had the feeling that

the German invasion was about to take place. As a sort of insurance

policy, he sent cuttings to friends, in Turkey, Italy, Greece, all over

the place, but the very last cuttings he sent went out with the

last plane that depart for the United States. There, it was

nurtured and after the war it was returned to France, and was

released. And ever since then, it has been known as Peace. It is such

a beautiful rose. I feel you can never have too many

rose, although they were limited on the climbing roses by the walls we

have. I do grow some and those are carefully trained along a wall,

pruned back and they give us as well as beautiful colour, fabulous

fragrance, I grow more rambling roses that scramble up into trees,

and that is the best way to grow honeysuckle too. It wants to weave

in along hedgerows and into trees and doesn't really like being

tightly controlled and trained. But its fragrance with that fruity tone

is one of the great highlights of summer. If you are going to plant

it, give it cool roots, it doesn't like to be baked on a south facing

wall. East or west facing walls, coot roots then it will find the

light and give you beautiful flowers and delicious fragrance for weeks

and weeks on end. Of course, however much we may revel

in a plant's delicious fragrance, it is not made for us. The evolution of

century is much more complex than that. And Nick Bailey went out to

discover the science behind century. The human nose contained around 400

olfactory senses and each of us have a different scent, meaning we

perceive scent in different ways. -- each of us has a different set.

Lily, Jasmine, and sweetly fill our summer days with scent. -- and sweet

pea. But when the sun sets, a whole new group of plants begin to emit

their fragrance. This little beauty is a tobacco plant which comes from

South America and grows on the woodland edge. The special thing

about it is that it turns on its scent at dusk. The reason for that

is that it wants to attract moths to pollinate it and only one particular

species of moth has a tongue long enough to reach into the base of the

Corolla so it is a wonderful plant to emanate scent at night in your

garden. Plants don't just produce pleasant

scents to draw in pollinators, though. Some, like this one from

southern Africa, reduce a carry on smell, something like rotting meat,

to draw in their pollinators like flies and beetles. It smells

absolutely repulsive! But it works to pull in the pollinators and has

got another trick up its sleeve. The surface of the flower looks a bit

like rotting flesh and that is a guaranteed way to keep the flies

interested. But it is not just about flowers when it comes to fragrance.

Leaves are also a major part of plants' Centre. The volatile oils

produced by herbs like this rosemary act as an insect deterrent to stop

the plant being attacked but it is also thought they have a secondary

function and as the oils vaporise and hover around the leaves, they

actually protect it from being burnt by the sun.

Scent is a superb way to add an extra dimension to your garden, both

day and night. But if you want to guarantee scent up to nine months of

the year, then there's one plant you should absolutely use. This is

Daphne eternal fragrance, a relatively new cultivar that has the

most incredible, sweet scent. It works brilliantly as a patio plant

and will guarantee a delightful perky from spring through to the

autumn. -- delightful perfume. Lavender is such a summary plant.

When most flowers are going over, come July, Lavender just gets better

and better, not simply because it comes into bloom but also, the

foliage produces more of its camphor, sweet, aromatic oils. The

hotter the spot you put them in, the more fragrant the foliage is and

that is the key to growing them, plenty of sun and free draining

soil. If you have a heavy clay that it's wet, stick them in a pot. The

other thing is the pruning. Alison on Facebook has been in touch about

this. Really, it is all about the number eight because you prune the

plants back in the eighth month, on the eighth day, by an eighth, so

that means an eighth below where the flower stalks finish and that tidies

up the lavender for autumn and winter and then in late winter, you

prune them back to little tussocks. When you go to most garden centres

and nurseries, you will see five or six varieties for sale. But this is

Hampton Court, where there are a whole lot more than that.

The diversity of lavenders is astonishing and wonderful. In part,

Simon Child 's worth from Downderry nursery is responsible for this

diversity. Thank you, yes, we have been breeding lavenders for about 20

years now. We have got lavenders from Oman, Yemen, West India, really

weird stuff but also some of the brilliant purples, pinks and whites

you can stay on the stand. Are many varieties on the stand? About 40

which is probably 10% of the entire collection. You have 400 lavenders?

Yes. As a breeder, what are you trying to achieve from crossing

different lavenders together? We are trying to present plants which

produced themselves better, which are more study because many

lavenders flop, a larger flower, better scent, good foliage,

especially for the winter. Considering most of the year you

have foliage to look at rather than flowers, with anything from pale

green to rich, dark green, grey and then wonderful silver foliage

lavenders. Any favourites? We have one called Gorgeous which is

fantastic. The foliage is a beautiful, soft, summery grey which

is a great contrast of hours. That has been part of your show here?

Indeed. Lavender always struggles because our soil is too heavy and

winter too wet for it ever to be really happy but I do persist in my

garden because it is so redolent of my childhood. Like the talk of

Hampshire where I grew up, the lavender grew easy, large and just

filled with that essential perfume of summer. Now we all want advice on

how best to grow plants and who better to give it than Adam Frost

who is looking at the plants growing here at Hampton Court and then

telling us how we can make the most of them in our own gardens at home.

For me, trees are incredibly important part of any garden design.

But we do need to be careful about what we choose. First, we need to

think about the size of the tree. After that, it's rude requirements.

But then you get into the ornamental properties, what do you want from

it? Do you want the bark, flowers, autumn colour, fruit? There's lots

to think about. This space, for instance, three birches worked

through it and on a day like today, they provide dappled shade and after

that beautiful bark. They are multi-stemmed so you get more bark

for your money. When you are flicking through your books and you

are trying to choose the tree, you might come across and you think, "It

is too big for my space", but a lot of trees can be manipulated. Look at

this hornbeam, a wonderful English native which can be grown in so many

different ways. It could be a hedge and here it is grown as a multi-stem

and you can clip the top but you could grow it bleached, like a hedge

on stilts, so there are different ways of manipulating the trees. --

you could grow it pleached. When so many of us design gardens, we

concentrate on the surface area and had to deal with it and we forget

there is so much space up there which is where trees really come

into play. Here, the silver birch can break space and take you through

into a different area. You know, if you have only got a small space and

you are worried about adding trees to your garden, there's a whole

range of larger shrubs and small garden trees. Something like this,

if you just left it, it would grow from the base up but here it has

been manipulated, the canopy has been lifted and on the day like

today, find a bit of shade somewhere and it is a lovely place to sit. So

trees can bring so much structure and interest to any space. And also,

they are not bad for the planet. This garden is called London Glades,

winning a gold medal and the best garden in a changing world category.

It is a beautiful lush garden with some great topography going on but

actually, what is going on Underground is just as important. In

fact, the most important thing. Here we have any old garden waste, logs,

twigs, leaf litter and even lawn clippings. Over about three months,

that will break down and create the nice hummocks and hills. That is a

Hugo and this is a Hugo garden and it is a form of permanent job. This

garden is really in a city setting, foreign urban environment and it is

designed by Jonathan Davies. Lovely to meet you. And you. This is really

interesting, this permit Chipping is taking off. How does it work? This

is based on an edible forest garden, using Perma culture techniques from

around the world to bring them into an urban setting to show it is

achievable and you can make your own oasis, a wild place but also very

productive. You have to pick the trees carefully. In an urban

environment, you have to make Schrott but not too deep roots, make

sure your neighbours are happy, etc, pollard in when needed but overall,

you can get nicer screening, shade in hot weather like today. And the

trees all productive so we're working on gourmet produce, so crab

apple for Jenny, Queens for cheese, and this halesia has a beautiful

edible flower. Is that they are creating dappled shade and the

understory of the perennials. Bees can both be heated like wilted

spinach -- eaten like wilted spinach and then we have some spirit and

Chinese artichokes where you can take the roots. Most things have an

edible ability throughout the year, even this firm is edible when it

emerges in the spring. How really easy is this to maintain and create?

Does it need a lot of work? We are exploring a self sustainable system

here so the idea is to let it be, let it go, lose a bit of control and

see what happens, we'd where necessary but they'll perennial

edibles knitted together so most of the time it should look after

itself. I like the idea of losing a bit of control. We are all busy in

the city and this is what we need. Thanks for bringing it in. A

pleasure. And congratulations. We are really proud. I think

permaculture, especially in the cities, is going to be a big thing

in the future and flower shows are the place to go when you are trying

to find some new trends in gardening and Rachel de Thame has been in the

floral marquee to find out what is new and exciting.

Before I even start looking at the new plants, I have already made an

exciting discovery which is that this display of orchids as won the

very coveted prize for the best exhibit in the floral marquee. When

you look at the diversity, the beauty, the perfection of these

plants, you can see immediately why it won.

This display is being shown at Hampton Court for the very first

time this year. Possibly the best known is this one in the middle, the

money plant which we are very familiar with as a house plant but

succulents are so hot at the moment, kids are wanting to grow them. They

are perfectly adapted to drought. The fleshy leaves are really water

storage systems. I love the display. It looks like a chocolate box. I

feel like a kid in a sweet shop. This dazzling agapanthus is being

introduced at Hampton Court this year. It is a fabulous colour,

really intense indigo. Very slender and elegant, too. The stems,

however, are strong and can withstand being buffeted by the wind

and it is fully hardy, will withstand temperatures down to minus

15. It is called flower of love and how could you not fall in love with

that? If you're after something a bit more

exotic, well, look no further than this gorgeous ornamental pineapple.

It would be very happy in a nice, bright conservatory and you could

even take it outside in the summer. It takes a couple of years to reach

the point at which it produces fruit. After it has finished, the

whole thing dies down but already at that point, you have these little

offsets at the base which means you start the process all over again.

And best of all is the fragrance that you get from the fruit itself.

Rachel's dead right about succulents, even I've got into them.

At the moment we have a big table covered in them. I would not have

done ten years ago. They are a holiday plant, and you can go away

and they will look after themselves. Plants that don't need gardening!

That is the answer! These waves of fashion come and go. Before

succulents, what was it, cacti? When I was a kid, everyone had like a pet

cactus. It gets people into gardening, doesn't it. You don't

even need a garden to have a view succulents. Do you still have pet

cacti? That's true. We have not got any more time. But is it for today

but we will be back tomorrow at 9:30pm on BBC Two for an hour-long

programme and amongst many other things, we will be looking at plants

for... And we will explore the world of orchids and look at more of the

Show Gardens, too. Until tomorrow, bye-bye. Goodbye.