Episode 15 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

The gates of the 2012 Floral Olympics have closed. The RHS

Chelsea Flower Show is over for another year. Before London sees

our athletes replace them there's time to look back at some of the

magical moments that made this year's events one of the

horticultural high points of our year. Coming up this evening:

Origin of the species. Tom Hart Dyke traces some of this year's

great plants back to their birthplace. They're for sure the

Kings and Queens of the deserts. Hugh's views, Hugh Dennis treats us

to his own look at the show this year. I have an urge to do that,

but I am worried if you push down on the tops somewhere else in the

garden something explodes. Diamond debutants, with the Jubilee

celebrations around the corner, we meet the new floral arrivals

Hello, thank you for joining us as we indulge in one last lingering

look at the best bits of Chelsea 2012. In spite of the predictions

to the contrary, this has been a vintage year, hasn't it? It's been

stunning. Plants bridled by the cold, we have seen plants around us

plants shivering and then suddenly the heat came on, winter finished a

week and a half ago and everything just burst. The flowers and foliage

faced the sun, everyone reracksed - - relaxed. It looks stunning. I

think it's a vintage year. I don't think I have ever started the week

in tweed and ended - and thermal underwear, you are right, and ended

in short sleeves. We had leaves dropping off the trees above us.

The heat has come too quick for them. It will all come right in the

end. Yes, everything corrects itself. All the plants catch up and

it's just perfect. As indeed it has been. The show gardens this year

reflected a mix of gardens, stretching back to ancient Persia

as Rachel and I discovered. The gardens of Persia emphasised

the preciousness of water and that's what Nigel Dunnett has done

here. This building at the end here, this

was inspired by those little houses you find in Italy and if you look

up inside you will see the most wonderful dry stone roof which is

rather like an egg made entirely of pieces of sandstone. It's truly

beautiful. Here the paving is more smooth. There is a practical angle

to this, as would you expect from Nigel, a man involved in the design

for the Olympic Park, all these beds here and their plantings allow

water to drain through them and into these canals on either side,

so they're part of the purification process. Also, a retaining water,

which as we know even in a drought is a precious commodity. The

planting is interesting. Grasses mixed with perennials but also

Here the white variety. In front of me bright orange which contrast

markedly with the turqoise bottom of the pond and water and I thought

who would put together orange and turqoise and then I will remember,

if you forget the name drop, when I last interviewed Claudia Schiffer

she was wearing those colours. It's the Claudia Schiffer garden really.

Well, this is a little slice of Heaven. It's the Arthritis Research

UK Garden designed about -- by Tom Hoblyn. He took inspiration from

rennaissance gardens. He has used stone and here it's rough hewn and

masculine and smooth along the bench and that side. The planting

is so beautiful. It's very much designed to cope with those arid

conditions. You have things that are silver leaf. And also little

bits of colour. The red poppy. And then at the back those five Cyprus

trees and they're balanced on the other side by the oak. This is also

a garden about water. You have three different forms. The lovely

still pool here with stepping stones.

You have the cascade at the very back. I think best of all, just

look at this, water shoots leaping across that box hedge with the

hedging as a background. Again, they just pop through the jets of

water in the back of the seating and they're lit, so at night they

really shine. It's a fabulous garden to look at, it's even better

the history in a garden, it begins with the ancient, this well head

but mixes ancient with modern. Here sits this well head on cobbles in

this forecourt with a lime tree, a good old-fashioned touch. As we

move forward, we start to get a touch more modern. Cleve says this

garden is geometical and it seems to mix all kinds of periods which

have been covered in 250 years. We come to a sunk area in the centre,

which has at each corner the most magnificent topiary spesmans on the

site this year. These are like great chessmen erupting among beds

of border perennials. Then two formal and old-fashioned gate piers

here, sitting attop them flaming stone with this wonderful rusted

ornate gate. Interests a -- there is a modern touch. At the foot of

the gate post you have skwruting out this wonderful channel

depositing water water and it runs down either side of this central

path. They seem to be the signature of Chelsea 2012. These are made of

wonderful cobbled sets. It's a wonderful mixture of 250 years of

old and new. Of the 16 large show gardens, nine

were awarded gold this year which gives you some idea of the standard

of execution. One of them went to Mr BeardShaw. Chris, I have been

looking at this all week and today it was go up those steps and I have

and it's magical! It's like those wonderful twisted tree paintings.

Great craftsmanship and planting. You are pleased? Thrilled and this

idea of this path leading you on, you don't really know where you are

going, it's encouraging you to explore. That's reminiscent of a

philosophy that teachers have back at Furzey with adults with learning

disabilities. They don't take them on face value. They allow them to

settle and encourage exploration of their own personalities to find out

how horticultural can mesh in to their requirements. Everybody is

best at something, and what they seem to do is find out what you or

I and people there are best at and produce something like this. To

watch this over the week it's changed. Amazing. Full bud at the

beginning of the week, now fading. This is coming on. It's the

choreography. That reminded me about Monday and the stars and

celebrities who turn up here at this choreographied vent all glam -

- event all glamorous. You wonder how many have come to be seen and

get their faces in the paper and how many are keen and interested

gardeners? One who was was Hugh Dennis and he gave us his take on

gardens. I like the kind of British obsession with gardens.

This is the Cleve West garden. He is a garden designer, not as many

of you probably imagine a suburb of Cleve, he is an actual man. I like

this topiarised yew, I believe it is. I have a touring do that with

one of the tops but I am worried if you push down somewhere else in the

garden something explodes. These gates, I think, are from a

salvage yard and they're absolutely beautiful. They have a slight

Mediterranean feel, Middle Eastern almost. They absolutely make this

little bit like a purple and green microphone, but mostly they look

like an enormous psychedelic dandelion clock, I think. Just

beautiful. That brings back memories, we had a

massive yucca in our garden and I used to ride my bike obsessively

around the track which went past this tree and most days I fell off

into it, it was right on the corner and it's essentially like nature's

upturned knife block. I wouldn't have one in the garden now,

That's what it is, holy vegetables. It seems to be easy to grow a

massively long parsnip than carrot, wonder why that is? Those leeks

look like things you would feed into a machine-gun, don't they?

They're fantastic. Not as fantastic as this, which is a Formula One car

made entirely out of hedge. You have to think, you know, with all

the advances in Formula One technology that's probably a bit of

a mistake. If you leave this car standing for too long it actually

roots, does it? Every 26 laps it has to come in for a prune. I am

freaked out by the hedge people. They're ever so slightly like

something out of Dr Who. This is Arnie Maynard's garden.

This walkway is fantastic. It's copper beech. Fantastic. There is a

big conflict in our garden between kind of herbicious and planted

borders and grass at the end of which is a massive football goal.

Both bits have to be there, you know. I am sort of on the football

side of it, mostly. Well, Hugh was visiting in the

daylight but as evening descends, Chelsea takes on a new magical

quality. Everything falls silent. The time we gardeners love, we

arrive, quiet contemplation and that's the best time of day. It's

extraordinary, you can know a garden so intimately during

daylight hours and just after dusk, just as the sun's gone, especially

if there is sa good moon in the sky or designers use subtle lights for

architecture or plants it takes on a magical feeling and it really has

a connection with the emotions, not just the gardens, it's like the

great pavilion as well. I was in there at 2.00am and there was just

me and a lonely blackbird who thought it was dawn because the

lights were on. The smell in there is just intensified. It's paradise

t really is. As the sun goes down we come inside, shut the door and

that's it, thank you and good night garden until tomorrow. We should go

out more and investigate, not great flood lights, but a little bit of

something as you say, just to highlight it and appreciate this

magical new world. That's definitely the key. It's all about

placing your light in a subtle way so that you almost don't know there

are lights in the garden and then you get the maximum effect. A light

goes off at 10.30pm and I go out to see them on. It's imagine came. We

have lots more memories to share with you, still to come:

Royal recollections. James Alexander Sinclair talks to

exhibitor who is played host to the Royal party this year. The Queen

was in your garden? That's right. She seemed to know what she was on

about, which is nice. Mary berry invites us on her own tour of the

show. Oh, gosh, it's a myriad of Great Pavilion is the diverse mix

of plants. You can see restios and Japanese maples next to each other.

The temptation to travel the horticultural world got the better

of Tom Hart Dyke earlier this week, when he had the opportunity to soak

up some of the Pavilion's great exceedingly fantastic place to see

a wide range of plants that have evolved so successfully in their

native habitats. These are commonly called air

plants and are a hugely diverse family from Florida all the way

down to central and South America. The most iconic example of

adaptation to air plants is that they grow as not parasites, they

simply use the host as anchorage for good light, air and drainage.

The good thing about a particular type of air plant, this old man's

beard or Spanish moss, is that it has no roots at all. It simply uses

its leaves to absorb the moisture and nutrients through special pores.

It's one of the most successfully adapted plant to a wide range p

conditions. Hats off to the air plant.

The cacti in particular are very adaptable to a wide range of

conditions. Instead of leaves they have spines, reducing their surface

area. They also have curious structures at the base of the

spines all areoles, where the new growth, flowers and spines come

from. At the base of that it's very furry. They absorb moisture from

the air. The moisture drips down the side of the cactus onto the

soil. The roots absorb this moisture. The other important thing

to mention about cacti are their curious shapes, which acts as a

reservoir in times of drought. There is no doubt to me, the cacti

are for sure the kings and queens of the deserts.

This picture plant has a fabulous mechanism for survival. It grows on

very poor, nutrient deficient soils. They produce modified leaves full

of water and enzymes. When the fly gets close to the plant ah, tracted

by the very meaty colours here, the insect will land sideways on the

edge of the lip of the picture. It's a very slippery lip. It's like

an ice-skating rink. It tries to scabl as it falls into the pitcher.

In there are water, and digestive enzymes. Flies, bugs and even frogs

are absorbed into the plant itself. They need to do this because they

live on such poor soils. In 1998, I saw a rat's tail sticking out the

end of this particular variety. Commonwealth will Join Together to

celebrate Her Majesty the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. On Monday, as she

made her customary visit to the show ground there was a feeling of

celebration in the air. James Alexander-Sinclair was on hand to

soak up the atmosphere. The gardens are ready, the hard

work is done. The flowers are prim ped. The rain has gone and the sun

has gone out. The atmosphere changes to one of anticipation, as

we wait patiently and quietly for the arrival of the patron, Her

Majesty the Queen. Since 1816 the society has received

royal patronage from the reigning monarch. Her Majesty follows in the

footsteps of Queen Victoria and her father King George VI.

This year is Her Majesty's 48th advise ut to the show. This time,

in honour of her Diamond Jubilee, the society have created a special

garden just for her. Then it's off to the Great Pavilion.

Once inside Her Majesty talks to children from the Knightsbridge

schools garden before making her way through Raymond Evison's

clematis stand. What did she like? Loved this. We put out a call to

the school where the children gave us their smelly trainers and we

made them smell better. She spent some time with the orchid society

of Great Britain having a special interest in one of the flowers.

same orchid was in her wedding bouquet. That's the one? That is it.

Back outside and onto the show gardens, where Her Majesty took

time to speak to the designersment The Queen was on your garden?

That's right. Did she take any cuttings? No, she seemed to know

what she was on about, which was nice. She enjoyed your bubbles.

did. She wondered if I put soap in it. I thought that was a great idea.

This year when we're all celebrating the Diamond Jubilee, it

feels extra special. To commemorate the Queen's 60

glorious years, the RHS launched a new Diamond Jubilee award, the

accolade goes to the best exhibit in the great paiflion. This year it

went to this one, greated by H W Hyde and son for their lilies. The

celebrations didn't stop there as many nurserymen arrived at Chelsea

with a plethora of new plants bearing a royal title. Carol Klein

was there to greet them. There's no doubt Chelsea's gone

Jubileetastic. It's a great opportunity to discover new plants,

bred especially for the Diamond Jubilee. What better flower to

celebrate the Diamond Jubilee than a rose. What a beautiful rose too!

This is a modern classic rose, one of a brand new series, which

combines all the qualities of the old roses, that sense of romance

and softness, with the robustness and solidity that you come to

expect from modern roses. The rose itself is called the Queen's

Jubilee rose. It's got shiny green foliage and the most gorgeous

scented flowers. It's a real belter! This rose is not just for

Chelsea. It's going to be planted all along the Jubilee greenway, so

people will be able to enjoy it this year and it will go on giving

them pleasure for years to come. I was lucky enough to be sent a few

sample seeds of this brand new variety of sweetpea. It's called,

of course, Diamond Jubilee, and it really is one of the most beautiful

sweetpeas I've seen. It's got these pale pink flowers, this gorgeous

picotee edge. Though the flowers have a delicate fragility, the

plants themselves are robust. They give long stemmed stalks with maybe

four or five flowers to each stem. The colours -- the colour's divine,

but when you lean over and smell, there's the most beautiful perfume.

What more could you want? With sweetpeas and roses, it's all about

flowers, but on this stand there's hardly a flower in site. Here it's

foliage that's important and what foliage it is - dark, dramatic,

truly exciting. And there's one new introduction, it's Diamond Queen.

There are lots of queens at Chelsea this year. Here's a fragrant one.

It's hosta fragrant Queen and it's got delightful lily-like pale lilac

flowers full of scent. Of course, the real reason you grow hostas is

for their magnificent foliage. In this case, big vair gaited, heart-

shaped leaves. One of the problems with growing hostas is that they're

very prone to attack by slugs. But in this case, off with their heads!

It's always refreshing to hear other gardeners' views and get

their take on Chelsea. Cookery writer and broadcaster Mary Berry

joined us on Wednesday to share her passion for gardening. Mary loves

roses. So there was a certain predictability about her route

around the show. Oh, gosh, it's a myriad of

different plants and colours. Oh, here's a friend. We've grown these

now for three years. They are wonderful smell, lovely for picking,

healthy foliage. We prune them in March really hard, took everything

out as thin as a pencil. They're looking very good now. But here

they are in bloom - what a joy. I just love this because you can

see how big the actual hostas grow. There are miniature ones, there are

big ones. I go for the big ones because I like a big show. I have

great success with hostas, but what I really want to know about are

hardy freesias. There is a new range of prepared freesias, which

means that they've been given the cold treatment, because freesias

are a native of South Africa, so they can be grown. The biggest

problem is drainage. They like good, well drained soil and they need the

cold period. Best to plant in the Autumn time. Let them sit in the

cold soil over winter, then they'll germinate in spring and the new

growth will start to come through. Oh, I can't wait to order some.

will be exciting. Thanks for your advice. You're welcome.

This is my favourite garden. It's got wonderful structure. This would

be lovely throughout all seasons. I like the way they've grown their

roses. I like the idea that you can weave Hazel into a nice dome. I

might have a go at making them. I've had such a wonderful day. This

must be the place Chelsea ever. I've got lots of new ideas, all my

questions answered and I can't wait to get in the garden this weekend.

You know, she even brought me lavender shortbread. It was

delicious Mary. Thank you very much. It's been a week of memorable

moments, something we've all come to expect from Chelsea. So, as this

year's flowers begin to fade, let's capture those moments just once

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 60 seconds

on from those memories, yet move on we must. The excitement for Chelsea

2013 is already starting to build as the royal horticultural prepares

to celebrate the centenary of the to celebrate the centenary of the

very first official show. Before then, there's a host of other

gardening shows to enjoy, Gardners' World Live kicks off at the

National Exhibition Centre in June. I'm building a small allotment