Episode 12 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

here at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The event, supported by M&G

Investments, has been celebrating a very special birthday this week. But

it's not the only anniversary taking place. So stay with us as we raise

our glasses to a few more special celebrations. Coming up: Joining

Forces - the two nurseries tied in holy matrimony thanks to a bag of

moss. I said, are you stealing my mask when and I said, someone is

that I could have its, so I picked it up and walked off.

Grand Designer - I'll be sharing memories with David Stevens, the man

dubbed the UK's first celebrity gardener. And Hardy Favourite -

hailed one of the most successful plantswomen in today's Great

Pavilion, Rosy Hardy shares her own rain all week, but it is finally

coming down now, so we have taken shelter. It is perishing, but a good

moment to talk about protective cultivation. Tregothnan Gardens in

Cornwall, they have discovered the only surviving Ward Ian case. This

is a little greenhouse structure invented by Nathaniel Ward at the

beginning of the 19th century and used to transport plans successfully

from overseas to our shores, because previously they were being bashed by

waves and salt spray, and not making the journey. This case allowed

condensation to form inside which was recirculated into the compost

beanies, and kept the plants in a snug environment. A simple but

brilliant invention, not to be confused with a rabbit hutch.

not unless you wanted your rabbits to be very soggy. And the RHS is not

the only one celebrating a centenary. 100 years of

Kirstenbosch, I went there and spent three hours there we had to move on.

I was doing a film for Chelsea a few years, and we ran out of time.

right underneath table Mountain at Cape Town, and it is beautiful.

going back. And East Manning research station, they are

celebrating their centenary. They give us the root stocks for apple

trees, and the Gardening club of America are also 100 years old. I

doubt whether any of them will receive a telegram from the Queen,

but you matter to us. For the past 22 years, one perennial favourite

has graced the Great Pavilion with stands of intoxicating blooms. I'm

talking of course about Rosy Hardy, one of the most successful

plantswomen in her field, with 18 gold medals under her belt. And in

this centenary year, Rosy and husband Rob have another special

occasion to celebrate, as Joe found Rob and Rosie, a little birdie tells

me there is a double celebration going on around here. There is

indeed. It is her 25th year as a nursery woman, and it is also our

silverware in. Congratulations. And your exhibit here, it seems to get

bigger every year. More and more plants, is that right? Sort of. It

is not really getting bigger. I am trying desperately to get the stand

to be a little bit smaller, but there is quite a lot of plant

material in here this year. And I love the way you have a plant

through it so that the visitors can walk through as though they are in a

garden. You are so good at putting them together. It makes so much

difference the BBB able to get into walk around the garden, a completely

different feel to being just on the outside and looking in, especially

with an exhibit of this size. what have you got new for us?

have a grandiflora, large flowers. It holds itself upright, and doesn't

flop. It's just flowers and flowers and flower is right the way through

the summer, so it is really good. That one looks absolutely stunning.

They do have a tendency to get straggly. And it will look wonderful

into the evening, too. The colour stands out when you get that evening

light, and the bees love it, too. couple of years ago, you had the

plant of the year, wild Swan. Has that now been bulked up, you being

able to make it available to more people? It is much more accessible

now to everybody. We have it here on the stand again, and it is looking

really good. It is looking well in your garden, I trust? It is. And how

about you, Rob? One of my favourite plants is the one in front of us

here, Lady in red. It only grows five to six feet tall, a pale pink

flower, and once it has finished flowering, cut it hardback, and the

new growth coming through will be next year's flowers. A brilliant

plant. Congratulations all round. Nice to see you both.

If you want to know about how plants can adapt their shapes and colour,

not only to look beautiful but also to survive, join Tom Hart Dyke over

on our red button after the BBC Two show. Congratulations to Barnsdale

for its 30th birthday. They grow plants for both their own pavilion

but also for others, too. Designer Andy Sturgeon has been to ask them

garden of many parts. You have lots of different gardens. How on earth

did you decide what to distil from that into the display here? What we

have done here is taken two of our more popular gardens and brought

them here to Chelsea for our celebration to chime with Chelsea's

celebrations. It is all about growing flowers, fruit and

vegetables all together. Tell me about this integration. It is the

modern thinking in growing plants these days. It is, although my

father developed this 25 years ago, so he was ahead of his time. It is

traditionally the way cottage gardeners used to garden. The more

modern slant on it is the pollinators, they attract the

beneficial insects into your garden, so things like the Lavender

we have got, a great pollinator. if this garden was outside, it would

be swarming in insects and bees and all sorts of things. Just like

Barnes Dale is! -- Barnsdale. really is a wonderful celebration of

Barnsdale. But this isn't all you have this year, is it? We have grown

all the vegetables for Adams garden, with Barnsdale. I have, yes. I

trained with Geoff Hamilton when I was 21. He sent me off to train in

design. He is the reason I am here. What have Barnsdale grown for you in

this garden? Thousands of plants, literally. They have grown all the

vegetables, even some of the fruit they have helped with. The rasp

Riz, the booze breeze, all the shrubs. And after that, carrots,

fennel, peas. They have taken inspiration from the ornamental

kitchen garden. I think it is great that Barnsdale continues to be so

30th birthday. Who would have thought that as Geoff was starting

his garden and nursery, yours truly was starting here at Chelsea? As I

recall, it rained quite a lot then? Are we downhearted? No! For most

exhibitors, Chelsea is a love affair that brings them back again and

again. But for one couple here this year, that affair stretches beyond

the flowers themselves. Carol Klein My name is Heather Gothard key, and

my speciality was and is the Australian bottled, which I have

exhibited for many years until one day I needed a bag of moss, and

everything changed. My name is Richard Godard-Key, and I specialise

in ferns and Heather. My life turned upside down because of moss. What is

all this about moss bringing you together? I needed some moss to

finish off an exhibit. Somebody waved in the general direction of

some bags of moss and said, help yourself. It wasn't very good moss,

and it was right next is a beautifully laid out stuff, so I

helped myself to some of that instead. And I said, why are you

stealing my moss? So from that mossy encounter, romance developed?

Heather moved her nursery to my nursery in Stratford-upon-Avon, and

we got married. And lived happily ever after! What you think about

petals. I like the Parisien, a growing them successfully are to

remember that they come from South Africa. They love sunshine and they

love living in a loam -based compost. If they are not flowering

well enough, then feed them. What they love is a high potash food.

Tomato food is ideal. And you can't overfeed them. Once a week should be

enough. It is really easy to take cuttings from them. Take them in the

spring and the autumn, short growth is underneath a leaf node. I always

Chuck mine onto the greenhouse bench and let them hard and, because they

don't rot. They are so versatile. You can grow them in window boxes,

hanging baskets or pots on your windowsill, so you can grow them

heaven. Who'd have thought a bag of moss could lead to matrimony? The

power of gardening! Like a Hollywood red carpet, Chelsea has helped many

talented garden designers on the road to horticultural fame. But,

while today names like Andy Sturgeon, Cleve West and Tom Stuart

Smith attract a mass of media attention with their Main Avenue

gardens, back in 1977 one man dominated Chelsea's show garden

designs. That man was David Stevens, an eleven times gold medal winner

and someone who I'm delighted to say joins me now. Good to see you. When

you look back the late 70s, what is the difference between gardens and

gardens then? In those days, we were coming from a suburban garden, and

garden design was becoming well known. We had come from Rose Benton

Square lawns. Hard landscaping was becoming fashionable. Someone to put

your barbecue, somewhere to sit outside. So that was prevalent. But

from there, it moved on and became softer. You probably remember the

wildflower craze. And then things became much more planted, with

grasses and herbaceous plants. And I suppose my only criticism now would

be that some of the gardens are beautifully construct it, and

possibly more well planted than ever, but their raise sometimes not

quite enough room to live in them. -- there is sometimes not quite

enough. Remember Chelsea is an ideas factory. Don't copy a garden. It

will never work. I do remember banks and banks of rhododendrons and

azaleas. Things have moved on plant wise. You had a chance to meet the

Queen? Yes, and her mum was probably the best gardener of all. We were

the only garden built that had to be done badly, because it fell to bits

and was bombed out. Inside the Imperial War Museum, there were all

these old artefacts of kitchen materials, tools, and it was the

Queen's period, and they couldn't get her out. They were trying to

move her on, and they couldn't get her out. There were pranks played in

those days. Health and safety have gone a bit mad now. One day we came

in on the first day, and we came in at about half past six in the

morning, and we couldn't see the garden. It was full of bubbles. We

had built a Watermill, and somebody had put a whole bottle of fairy

washing up liquid in it. It took us five hours to wash it out, and when

the Queen came around, you could still see the odd bubble. You were

helpful to me when I was doing my gardens here. I came in one morning

and somebody had put a noose over the swing that I had put up. A lot

of that went on. Landscapers and gardeners are friendly people, and

we take the Mickey out of each other. David Stevens, thank you.

We're halfway through tonight's coverage of the RHS Chelsea Flower

Show. Still to come: branching out - grower David Austin and his daughter

Clare share their separate plant passions with us. And a sad goodbye

- we pay tribute to Peter Beales, one of this country's greatest rose

growers following his death earlier say that there was no rose that

chance to see several generations of one family work under the same roof.

One such family is the Austins, David and Claire. David is known

across the world for his prize-winning roses. Claire has made

a name with her irises. We caught up with them earlier in the week. What

is it about roses? I know they are your life and work. The very first

thing, I saw the opportunity, looking at the modern roses at the

time, and the old Rose, and the old Rose was superior. I had the idea of

crossing the two. Clear, it is obviously about the roses, but you

have gone off in a different direction. The roses went sky-high

at the time. We had this wonderful collection so I stepped in and to

cover the perennials, and the irises, I set-up my own nursery.

that continuing? Knob at the moment, started early. -- not at the moment,

this is my son, we had to bring the children in when we were working. We

had no childcare, this was the only way. I know you are introducing a

few new roses at the show. Which one is your favourite? Thomas a Becket

is extremely nice. It does not show well. Some of them are very

difficult to show. It is a nice big shrub. It is more natural than some

of the others. I will definitely look after it -- and look out for

it. I am in drawers heaven. Surrounded by them, the fragrance

rose growers without paying tribute to another towering nurseryman who

died recently. Peter Beales led the field. His nursery in Norfolk has

produced a thousand varieties which sold around the world. Here are some

of our favourite moments with the was particularly impressed with

that. She was so pleased to be in amongst roses, you could tell by her

body language. She was looking around and seeing all these roses.

What can we do to prevent them getting diseases? I cannot say there

is no rows that will not get a disease, but what is a bit of black

spot between friends? Some of them get damaged and broken, people

touching them, they are things to be touched, smell, and that is what we

try to create here, getting people hat is, and so is his son, Richard,

who joins us now. It is so sad not to see your father. He was always

here. He brought so much to the world of roses. That's right, he has

been a custodian of roses for many years, but also, he tried not only

to keep the passion alive but wring some of the characteristics of the

older roses into the newer varieties. You are following in his

footsteps? Absolutely. We had our moments. Working with mother nature,

it is not easy but it is hard to resist. It must have been tricky,

the first time in all these years, 45 years, doing it without your

father, he was probably here in spirit. Yes, wherever we go, even

when he was with us, if he was not there physically, he was there in

spirit. It has been difficult but it is a poignant year. The staff

rallied round so much. The loss -- he was very great within the family

and the company, and they pulled out all the stops. What types of roses

do people like? There is better taste for the old-fashioned. We have

to take all the boxes. It is a challenge but it is an eclectic

mix. You have new varieties here, taking those boxes. I know you have

three particularly good ones. they are part of the modern Classics

range, they have the characteristics and the appeal of the old-fashioned

rose, but the strength and vigour of the modern shrub rose. There are

three new varieties. That is beautiful. Yes, it is coral pink.

This was introduced by the husband for his wife, Gisela's Delight.

There is also Pippin, which was my father's nickname as a boy. It was

like the apple. We think the blush of the rose reminded him of himself.

He was a great man. His father -- your father's roses still grow on in

my garden, you lives on in his roses judges declared this to be the best

in show. What did you think? Was it a worthy winner? Once again, the

Royal Horticultural Society has been asking for your votes for the show

garden you think is best. I can now announce that voting is closed and

we will reveal the winner on tomorrow's programme. One garden

that would not be out of place in nurserymen who made the gardens, and

you are keeping up that tradition. Yes, my father would keep up a

collection of pines and conifers. Have you got the same nursery going?

Yes, we are still based in Doncaster, the same family business.

My hand he created this lovely sculpture celebrating the centenary.

UART displaying the conifers in amongst perennials and other plants,

is that trying to get people to see them in a different way? Yes, I have

tried to give its structure, so the herbaceous perennials, you will get

this strong structural shape, a different style. A modern take on a

cottage garden. You have a fantastic time. It is cracking, isn't it? --

fantastic pine. It was bought from the nursery 14 years ago, a customer

has nurtured it. He came back and offered it back. I bit his hand.

love this as well. It is fantastic booting them up through the new

growth. I love how you planted them in amongst these other plans to give

it real structure. It gives it a frostiness. It is a nice contrast

with the density. I was very pleased with the mixture of plants. And the

garden was made in tribute to your grandfather? Yes, to emphasise the

family business, that we all stayed together. He originally started

growing on the site 60 years ago. would be a very proud man. I think

for Chelsea Flower Show. Ray Emerson has brought 3000 plants here from

Guernsey. It is nearly time to change channels. Centenary

celebrations are about to start on BBC Two. Just before we say goodbye,

just time to remind you of the wonderful memories made throughout

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 68 seconds

people and the plans. You must have seen stuff you want to take home.

have. I'm trying to add more structure to my garden. I need

something that will give me a little bit of height. I've seen a fantastic

plan. It has an arching spreading habit. It is a great plan. Also in

the Japanese garden, the little Japanese maples, and some of the

larger ones as well. You cannot get enough. It is the perfect setting.

They look great in the autumn. felt a little bit like Queen Mary,

she would go around admiring things, they would feel obliged to give them

to her. I admired this wonderful valerian I had not seen before, he

brought me one round the back, so I feel a bit guilty. That is why I'm

never a writing -- inviting you around. I did part with a few bob

they are, because these specimens, wonderful. There is a highlights

show on Sunday, now it is time to switch over to BBC Two, where there