Episode 8 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

made Chelsea special. Its ability to reeffect the horticultural

zeitgeist, but I would rather say mood of the moment. In the early

days, that made it a show case. But as the years have gone by, Chelsea

has turned its attention to our delicate environment, picking up the

message about conservation and the forgotten allure of our native

plants. Coming up: Return of the native. Christopher

Bradley-Hole celebrates the English woodland at its best. I really

wanted to use some of the key elements of the English native

woodland and so we have used box and hornbeam.

In Love with the Lily. We meet the nursery dedicated to the iconic

flower for a century. Breaking the Habit, Judy Parfitt, alias Call the

Midwife's Sister Monica Joan. was all concrete. It was a farmyard.

So it is wonderful to be able to start from scratch.

Welcome to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the event supported by Energy

Investments and tonight we are looking back at how Chelsea has

managed to reflect the spirit of each decade while keeping an eye on

the natural world. The natural is brought to us courtesy of Nick

Nickychapman. Nicky made that?The white flowers were there, but she

put the blue ones in. Well, the pot made out of rosemary with moss.

That's a lot of construction. No, she didn't make the pot. That

was already there! That was already there. Did she put the ribbon on it?

Somebody put their finger on the knot. She died the ribon. In the

early 1900s, earnest encountered a sea of white flowers in the Sichuan

province of China he went on to collect 7,000 of them. They were the

regal regal gal lilium. They have been grown by Hyde and

They are fantastic because there is a wide colour range. You get soft

a wide colour range. You get soft pinks. You get reds, whites and

yellows. The sizes, you can get medium sized flowers and really big

flowers. There is a wide range in perfumes. Some people find the older

ones too heady. The newer ones are lighter. More floral. And really,

really nice. Once you have started growing one, you want to grow more

because they are so easy to grow. They are exotic to look at and they

in the 1920s. He had been a gardener and then after the First World War,

he decided he wanted to go out on his own. He looked around, found

some land and started a nursery. He grew a lot of vegetables and then he

went on to dahlias and other things. He just got in and grew on. We

started growing a bulk of lilies after my father died. There is only

three of us that work on the nursery. Sarah, my older sister, my

brother, Richard and then myself. My brother's lily obsession started

years ago when he had a packet of seed.

The first ones I got sewn got thrown away by the staff because they

thought they were grass. Then I tried again! The most common mistake

people make is to take an oriental lily and put it in soil. The second

year, poorer. I wonder why? The third year, next to nothing and the

answer is simple. It is a lime hater. Normal multipurpose compost

it goes downhill. The right soil for the right lily, it is very

important. The most important thing about a lily is to plant at least

six inches deep. This is a good example. This is a second year bulb.

The white roots or stem roots. The stem roots are feeding the stem and

feed your flowers. You need good good. This is our Chelsea. The

slowest ones were started at the very beginning of February and the

fastest ones were planted in March. Some of the buds are a little bit

smaller than we would like at this time and some of them are not

showing through their leaves. So we are trying to get them to mature

faster. The sun will help no end. You can't beat the sun. You can try

with heating and lighting, but you can never totally get it just the

right balance for the plants. They Last year, because we knew it was

going to be the 100th year of Chelsea. Richard said for a joke, we

are going to do 100 new lilies and everybody jumped on it. We thought

oops, now we have got to find them. Actually we have got 100 and I think

it is 48 grows growing so the best 100 will go to Chelsea. They are not

all named. Some are numbered and some will never be seen because they

are trial varieties, but there is 100 ones that have never been seen

vision! And you will be able to take in the perfume. In here, this

central feature, we have got 100 new lily stems looking beautiful.

Elizabeth, thank you. 100 new varieties, they all made it here,

but within the p rest of the xabt -- within the rest of the xabt, where

are they? They are all around. A mixed with older ones? Yes, a

mixed with older varieties as well. Which do you think will make it

long-term? Some will get discarded I guess and not make it. About 75%

will get thrown away. Out of the 25% that's left, which do you think are

going to make it and which are your favourites? I like snowboard and as

soon as it came here, the first two plants have pink flesh. We have no

idea what it will do in the garden. It is brand-new. We had a beg the

bulbs. We only have ten bulbs. Things rik like this one -- things

like this has character. It has more than one colour in it.

They are choosy. I like the way it is outward facing, you can see the

flower? And what's the name of that one? It hasn't got a name yet.

It hasn't got a name? No. They have got Ms so we nicknamed the motorway

series, that's M 95. It is just amazing, all these lilies

date back to 1914 when the first lily came on the scene. Yeah.

Thanks for bringing them here. Nice to meet you.

Well, since they stormed on to the Chelsea stage, there has been a

wealth of award winning bulbs attracting attention in the Great

Pavilion and this year is no exception. Here is Carol with great

offerings. Bulbs give our garden so much from

the first snowdrops that announce the beginning of spring through to

all the bright, blues, purples and yellows that we have come to rely

on. They go on through the summer and into the autumn. Where would our

Oh, I had to bring you here so I could indulge on in the scent on

your behalf and you could enjoy this stand. These are such formal flowers

and to see them like this so you can appreciate each one a marvellous

experience and what Chelsea is all If you asked anybody what flower

epit misdz spring, announces it, it has to be the daffodil. The Narsois

and they bring such joy with their yellow and white flowers.

Most of them are like this one with the gorgeous trumpet, but this for

me is the classic daffodil. This is You know, I never thought I would

get to see the tulips. Aren't tulips splendid? Look at this range of

colour. This is what they give you at that time of year when everything

is rather drab or rather green. Suddenly, there is this huge

explosion of colour, splashes of reds, oranges, purples, yellows, all

These are Chelsea stars with their gorgeous shapes and their star

bursts of flower. Everybody loves them. They are always spectacular.

They announce the summer and go right the way through that season.

Bulbs are such lovely portable little packages that even if you

haven't got a garden, you can still get spresh colour from them --

superb colour from them. How about All wonderful flowers, but what's

the difference between a bulb? A corn? A tuba and a rye zone. These

grow from bulbs and a bulb is a condensed shoot. The leaves are all

sort of scaly and packed together in the middle and the tops of the leave

The flam boyant spikes of glad owl yi -- gladioli. This is a condensed

stem. If you cut it in half, you will find that it is solid. There

are scale leaves growing on the outside, but the main leaves come

out of the top and the roots out of the bottom. As owe opposed to a

daffodil where you can see the leaves packed inside the condensed

Society's allotment, it re minds me of the song called She Sits Among

The cabbages and Peas. The Lord Chamberlain got hold of it and said

you can't sing that. The tune was changed to See Sits Among The

Cabbages and Leeks. These are two tubas. These are different kinds of

tuba. The potato potato is a stemmed tuba. It has buds all over it, we

call them eyes and the dahlia is a root tuba because the shoot here is

just at the top and at the bottom, the swollen food storage or

January's and that's what tubas, swollen tubes that store food and

sometimes we take advantage of them and eat them!

All these underground storage organs serve the same purpose, to get a

plant through extreme or severe conditions whether it is a hard

winter or a hot, dry summer, depending where they grow. But there

is one storage organ that I haven't mentioned and that's this one. The

swollen and extended stem because it has on it, both roots and shoots.

This is ginger. Perhaps the ones we are more familiar with are those of

irises. Most of them lay under the surface of the soil and love a good

baking in the sun. Some of them, of course, are aquatic plants and there

they stay underwater. It seems there is never a hard and fast rule with

plants. It is rather like another plant. This is a British native and

that gives rise to a whole new argument what is a British native?

There's a deal of confusion over what constitutes a native plant.

Maybe the best explanation is that it's a plant that is naturally in

this country rather than brought in by man. Others think that native

plants which were growing natural naturally on our island when we

separated from the mainland in the Ice Age. The end of the 1990s saw

designers bringing native wildflower gardens centre stage. This year, our

native Flora is being celebrated again by Keegan Bradley. Christopher

returns to Chelsea after an eight-year break with a garden that

celebrates the English landscape. We caught up with him a couple of weeks

In the last few years I've become really fascinated by the patterns

you find in the landscape, almost obsessed. I think we find it

reassuring because I think we recognise the human scale. We feel

comforted to be in this environment. What do we see in front of us? The

vestige of the ancient woodland, but a lot of it has been cut away and

it's become fields. Those patterns of fields have built up over time.

You can see a logic to the way the fields have been created. But then

there are these very interesting other pieces where the logic has

been broken and one field has joined another for one reason, so you get

eccentricities in the landscape which I really enjoy. If you think

of Ben Nichol son, that's what I'm trying to do at Chelsea, to create a

modern, contemporary abstraction which represents the field pattern

Generally in my landscape work I only plant native trees because I

think there's such a wonderful variety within those trees and they

are under threat. Unless we do something, our landscape is going to

change quite dramatically. I thought wouldn't it be wonderful

to do a garden which encapsulated the idea of the English landscape

within the confines of a Chelsea plant. The experience should be as

though you're flying over it in a plane, you're looking down on these

wooded areas. For the wooded areas I've chosen plants which would be

the understory in an English woodland and two of the plants are

yew and box. I've used those to create blocks of planting to show

the vestige of what would have been the woodland. Within that there are

strips between them which indicate both field patterns and roads driven

between the woodland. Also, we have Hazel. When you think of a managed

forest you would grow Hazel and you would coppice it and use it for

making objects or for fuel. Then it regrows. It has wonderful leaves and

I think it has a wonderful structure. These trees are three

trees which have been pruned. They emerge as a single stem and then

they branch above the ground in a very sculpt churl way. They have a

humble quality and very much an English quality. It's amazing to

return to this place because this is a special experience. It was three

months ago we were chopping oak trees for the project. Of course oak

has been very much part of the way that we've constructed both

buildings and ships in this country and so, I've constructed an oak cool

nayed and then -- colanade and behind it a wall of oak panels which

have been charred that. Brings the resins in the wood forward which

acts as a form of preservation. Also we have a stream and when you fly

over an nish woodland and there's a stream -- English woodland and

there's a stream flowing through, it the stream tends to come and go, it

disappears. The way that's being expressed is in a series of three

pools which will gently overflow. I think they will bring a depth to

that landscape composition. Byron wrote, " There Is a pleasure in the

pathless woods." I think we all know what he means really.

Christopher, are you pleased with the way the garden has turned out?

Yeah, I'm thrilled with it. Yes, it's really come together

beautifully. It was quite an exercise to build it. But we've

achieved wonderful precision, I think and the quality of the plants

and the way it's come together with the water, the feeling of the pools

is so good. It's beautiful. It's a garden to be looked onto really.

It's a contemplative space. Exactly. It really follows the rock and

gravel garden from the 15th century, which is a garden you contemplate.

You look at it from outside. It's something that reveals itself

gradually over time. It's amazing how some people get it straight

away. Other people stay around and work at it. They pick up the subtle

details and that's... For me, it's one of those gardens that I keep

coming back to and seeing different things. I love the oak collonade.

Some people will wonder why you were cutting down and using green oak,

was it the right thing to do? wanted to use elements of the

English native woodland. We have used box, yew and hornbeam for the

blocks and the Hazel for the trees. I wanted oak on the garden. To put a

big oak tree, it's too big for a Chelsea plot, but how wonderful to

make this from it. This has worked incredibly well. The columns line up

beautifully. The contrast between the natural oak and the charred oak

on the back wall and we set light to this with a blowtorch and each is

charred individually. This is a wonderful contrast. This was a

tradition in Japan and in medieval England as well. I love the black

back drop. It's a brave thing to do but it sets off the rest of it, as

you look through the garden, the planting, the wonderful back drop.

This is your sixth gold, is that right? I think it is.You've lost

count! I think it is, yes.Have you really enjoyed making it garden?

Yes, I loved it. What's most struck me, we've had a lot of people making

the garden. I've just been a very small part of it. I've been a

catalyst for the idea. But I'm amazed how everybody who worked on

it has got the idea, has really enjoyed. There's been a wonderful

atmosphere. And people have really come together to make a combined

compilation. It's a beautiful space. Congratulations. Thank you very

much. She's currently delighting audiences

as Sister Monica Joan in Call The Midwife. But actress Judy Parfitt

can boast a string after claimed theatre and film performances

spanning over 50 years. She's also an enthusiastic gardener as we

discovered when we joined her in her court yard garden on the South Downs

last month. My garden is an escape to me. It's

so quiet and still. When the sun's out, it's just wonderful just to sit

here and listen to the birds. I suppose it is a solitary thing

except that you're never solitary in a garden, are you? Because things

are growing and they're alive. Of course, I'm never alone with him.

We've been here about 14 years. It was newly converted when we moved

in, so this was all concrete. It was a farm yard. It was wonderful to be

able to start from scratch. I'm a fair weather gardener. I'm very good

at cutting back and things like that, but because of work, it's

very, very difficult. The hours are so long, if they pick you up at 5am

and you get home at 8. 30pm, it doesn't leave much time for the

garden. I would plant up the pots and the hanging baskets and things

and there was nobody to water them. You can't expect people to come in

every single day and water them. They've got enough to do. I can't

in a garden is know knowing the individual care that each plant

requires, because they all require something different and that's what

I find really difficult to remember, all the different things. This

really is my biggest problem. This bamboo was sold to me as non-invase

non-invasive. It whittled in the wind and it was wonderful. Then it

got totally out of hand. The only thing to do was to try and cut it

down because as you can see, the roots, it's just impossible, you

can't dig it up because it's under the ground like that. It's just

impossible! (She chuckles) I mean, there's nothing you can do about it,

really. There was nothing here when we first came. This is all created.

I wanted these raised beds, but I wanted to sort of cover it up and I

didn't know what to do. Then I remembered seeing when I was in Los

Angeles on Sunset Boulevard, this big house and they had these gar

lands and I thought, that's what I'll do. I got some thick wire and I

stuck it in the end and put semicircles all the way along and

got Ivy and twist today round. I'm afraid it's not very even, some of

them have dropped down. They need attending to. I quite like it. I

like it because it's just a bit different. One of the reasons I want

to go to Chelsea is I'm hoping to get some inspiration and ideas for

something to replace this. I wanted something here that would give this

area some height and I saw this in a shop in Brighton and I got it.

Unfortunately, the wind has blown quite strong strongly and he looks

as though he's been in several fights. He goes down with a great

bang. That's what I'm hoping to see something like that and then I'll

have to put him in a different area because I wouldn't want to get rid

of him. Because I quite like him. I've only been to the Chelsea Flower

Show once and it was the most wonderful experience. I just

absolutely thought it was marvellous. It's a place where you

get all the top people and you can get wonderful ideas. I want to go to

learn, really, that's why I want to as I'm interested in gardens, I am

at this moment more interested in knowing whether we're getting more

Call The Midwife? You're a smart man, that is important. Yes, I start

rehearsing the next lot on June 10th. I'm looking forward to it

because it has been amazingly successful. Due think it would catch

on as much as it did? No, none of us did. We were totally taken by

surprise. The amazing thing is it's across the board. An enormous amount

of men watch it, which is surprising. You're talking to one

here, who can't watch. It has that effect on us all. It's lovely. Back

to the gardening. You're standing by roses and roses seem to be a

particular passion. Roses are a complete passion with me. I would

like a larger garden primarily to grow more roses because I don't know

how to choose them because I want them all. I'm greedy. Is it these

old fashioned ones with particular strong scents? It's the old

fashioned repeat roses with the strong scent. Daufd Austin

specialises in keep keeping the old rose form and keeping the repeat

flowering. I noticed topiary as well in the garden. Yes, I love a lot of

that. I've been looking forward to going to the top year stall here to

find out -- topiary stall here to find out if I'm doing it right.

will get lots of hints and tip off him. I am most concerned with the

giraffe with the bent nose. Yes! I wanted a sculpture in the garden. I

couldn't afford the sort of thicks I -- things I really wanted. I was in

a shop and there was this giraffe. She said it's stainless steel, it

will be perfectly all right in the garden. I took it home and of

course, it's rusted. The wind blow it's down. Every time the wind blows

it down, it goes like that. He looks as though he's gone with Casias Clay

a few rounds. Metal is very fashionable. We're halfway through

tonight's advise the to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show supported by M&G

Investments. There's plenty to come. Razing the roof, we look at the

rooftop gardens past and present. Supergrass from new arrivals to

perfect planting combinations. Join Joe for a Chelsea master class on

grass. Don't chop them back in the Autumn.

Leave them on through the winter and it will get frosted and add

it will get frosted and add it will get frosted and add

it will get frosted and add structure to the garden. Right

plant, right play. Andy looks at native plants for different garden

native plants for different garden situations. This foxglove, they're

woodlanders, if you have a shady woodlanders, if you have a shady

woodlanders, if you have a shady woodlanders, if you have a shady

spot they're the ideal plant. Information about tonight's

programme is available from our website.

Before we join Andy here in the Great Pavilion, tob Toby Buckland

has been looking at native plants. This garden looks quite corporate.

You have got this pinstriped path and even the boundaries have what

could be a logo em emblazoned across them. You scratch the surface and

you will soon see this garden is wild at heart. The tree layer or the

penthouse is made of native plants. This is a tree that's wonderful in

any garden soil, but particularly good on chalk because you get white

flowers in spring and strong autumn colour and red berries that are

loved by the birds. But it is the ground floor I find interesting. It

contains lots of plants that might blow into your garden at weeds, but

Robin has brought out their orn thatmental qualities. -- or

thattental qualities. These natives are not only good looking, they are

loved by the bees. It is grasses that give this garden its designer

good looks that are used en masse. I like this one. This is a cultivated

cousin of our native tufted hair grass and it is as tough as old

boots, but so graceful forming these lovely silver clouds through every

border. What's particularly lovely is that it is combined with this and

this is a cultivated form of our native hedgerow cow parsley which

happens to be making an appearance at this year's Chelsea. And it is

here, a design that's naturalistic. It is only a four by five meter plot

this one, but divided up into different habitats. In this cosy

corner where the veggies are growing, there are hedgerow

favourites like foxgloves. As you move across the garden, things get

wilder and wetter. The idea here is to replicate, not modify nature.

There is a brook and on the banks, are plants are having like having

their feet in wet soil. But as you move up the slope it gets harsher

and more breezy. This is a flower that decorates the whole of the cost

of the UK, but right at the top in the windiest conditions of all, is

the green cushions of heather. A p plant from Dartmoor to the Highlands

of Scotland, is at home on the hills.

Well, today many show gardens carry a conservation message using

indigenous plants to keep their popularity alive. By 1982 right

through to the early 90s, John Chamber was a regular face in the

marquee and show gardens with displays devoted to wild flowers.

John joins me now. What got you into wild flowers then, John? I spent ten

years in the packet trade and then I left. Yes, ordinary seed packets for

gardeners and selling species suitable for gardens. I loved wild

flowers. I created a small range which grew

and grew, but initially it was to try and let people know just how

suitable and attractive and how conservation important they were in

gardens. So to prove this, we put on exhibits and that finalised in the

four gold medals for outdoor gardens where we did a very big garden and

hopefully we are getting that message across.

Well, people are still using it today. There are wild flowers

everywhere. It is down to you starting it off.

You provided me with cow slips for my gold medal winning garden. Do you

look back fondly and think it was worth the work? That little message

that we had has been taken on by sew many other people in so many other

different ways, but we are still selling wild flower seeds for that

purpose. We are selling to everybody. We are selling to

merchants and landscapers, and designers.

So you have seen it grow out of recognition? Yes and today is proof

of that. How many wild flowers have we seen today? We have a lot. Long

may it continue. John's wild flower displays may have delighted

visitors, but over in the Pavilion, there are many examples of native

plants to suit any garden and Andy Sturgeon has been to find some of

Our native plants are as varied and beautiful as any of their exotic

cousins and no matter what growing conditions or habitat you have in

your garden, you can always find the perfect wild flower to suit. The

foxglove has to be one of the most familiar and striking of our

natives. They are woodlanders so, so happy amongst trees so if you have a

shady spot in your garden, they are the ideal choice, but the

interesting thing about these foxgloves is that they have been

selected from nature. They have not been bred. So these colours have

resulted from the choices that the pollinating insects made and all

these different colours mean there is always going to be a native

is always going to be a native is always going to be a native

is always going to be a native foxglove to suit your colour scheme.

There is shade and then there is deep shade. The large leaved red bed

nettle will put up with really difficult conditions under trees, in

almost any soil. It will spread a little, but the flower is so exotic,

little, but the flower is so exotic, particular one will grow in sun and

don't be fooled by appearances because it is not nearly as delicate

as it looks. It actually loves hot, exposed conditions on a limestone

cliff with water running through it. So if you can replicate that in your

garden, it is the ideal plant. Sometimes the name tells you all you

need to know. This is the water avens. It is a great little plant.

It is sophisticated. I love it and I used it in my garden last year at

The marsh marigold. This glamorous plant has to have its feet wet at

all times, buzz don't worry, if you haven't got room for a pond, it is

fussy. This one has never fallen out of fashion and one of the reasons is

that it will grow almost anywhere. And it also suits almost any

situation. A herbaceous border, a gravel garden, it somehow looks

right almost anywhere. This British native is a prolific self seeder so

you will probably find that it chooses where it wants to grow for

Andy Sturgeon there. Joe Swift. Now I did four candles candles yesterday

made out of Hornbeam. This has been shortlisted for the garden product

of the year. This is a great product. Look, it works on the push

and the pull like that. It has a lovely handle.

That looks really comfortable that handle. Well, it works beautiful on

the carpet. Are these wheelbarrows down here. A

picture of a lot of older men pushing older wheelbarrows and

finishing with a wooden one. This display of up turned ones. Tell us

what you think it might be, the funnier the better you can tweet us?

It is art. It is installation art and it is telling the history of the

wheelbarrow and the garden at Chelsea. It is making that

connection. Don't you get it? is a load of wheelbarrows turned up

side down. You have had good news. Tell us.

2am, we are a grandfather, yes. Youngest daughter had a

granddaughter. I hope she likes gardening. She will have no option

in my family. A lovely bit of news. I thought I would share that with

you. We are just chucking out the bottles out now.

Designsers and exhibitors have taken up the call for greater

sustainability in our towns and cities and come up with many

ingenious ideas on how to green them.

In 2008, Chelsea visitors were treated to their first green wall.

Created by Robert Myers. Vertical gardens have been

incorporated into designs ever since including this Nature Garden in

2009. James Wong and David Cubero's garden in 2010. And this Life Garden

last year. Chelsea saw its first roof garden appear in 1992 with Top

Of The World Garden. That same year, saw another designer take the

concept literally with a garden on a roofment another examples include

this striking London roof garden with its domed light wells in 1996.

And this Monaco Monaco Garden in 2011. This year, Professor Nigel

Dunnett has scooped a gold medal with a rooftop garden with a range

Congratulations on your medal, you must be thrilled? That's an under

statement. It is such a convincing space. I

really do feel like I am on a roof? It is a roof garden, but it is a

different type of roof garden. What we are trying to say is that you can

have meadows and woodlands and fantastic wildlife features of

water, but first and foremost, it is the most beautiful place to be to

come and relax and to look at. Everybody is standing around the

garden as you do at Chelsea and they would be in the building.

So you are experiencing it as you would in a real space? It is real

and you would be looking on to it the same as everybody is now.

That's an inclusive Chelsea garden. It feels very contemporary. I always

imagine wildlife spaces as being rustic. I am really glad you said

that because that's the thing I'm trying to achieve. To make a

beautiful, contemporary garden, but it is doing so many environmental

things. We have planting here which will attract, bees, pollinating

insectsz. We have got water. Is the rainwater being captured from the

roof? We have our garden building which has a roof on it. This is a

roof garden. You need a strong building to take it. This is a green

roof. You can put it on a garage or house extension. I love your wall. A

low maintenance green wall? It is the type of wall that needs little

watering. It is like hanging a painting. A bit of artwork.

It is stunning. A lots of native planting? We are

mixing natives. We have ragged robin a mixed with lots of really flowery

garden plants. Beautiful, but again, attracting lots of really beneficial

insects. And people could do this at home,

this doesn't have to be on a roof? It would work well on the ground. A

lot of ideas such as our habitat panels on the wall, the intention is

that people can say, " Ah, I can do that. I can copy that." I am happy

happy for people to copy everything in this garden. A wonderful guard

wonderful garden at home. Can I stay here for a while? You are very

welcome. Thank you, Nigel. Judy Parfitt has

been spending the day with us here, a lovely lady. It's four years since

she's visited the show. She's come armed with plenty of questions for

the experts. Did she get any matter that the sun's not shining

because there are so many exciting things to see. I can't wait to get

started. James, hello, I am so fascinated by all these beautiful

shapes that you have here. When I try to do something like that, it

gets woody. Scorched on the end. The reason that the plant is getting

scorched is that you do it on a sunny day. The sun is just drying

out the edge of the leaf. Very much. Oh, roses. The scent! My passion. A

David Austin rose. Hole low.Could I grow a standard rose in a pot?

Big would the pot have to be? as big as possible. 18 inches square

or something like that. So quite big? Yes, water is the secret and

feed. Potting compost that you buy from a garden centre has enough food

for about six weeks, then nothing. wanted to visit the show this year

is I'm looking for a piece of sculpture for my garden and

something here might just fit the bill. I'm totally in love with your

horse. I want it desperately. I'm sure I can't afford it. This piece

would take five days to put together. It would be another three

days of preparation. I have a court yard garden and I'll tell everybody

that due it and maybe you'll give it to me. I have a feeling that you

won't! But it's worth a try. It's that could make it better is a nice

glass of fizz. Madam. I thought you'd never ask.

Madam. I thought you'd never ask. Cheers! Judy Parfitt, now I've been

coming here for quite a while, but sitting next to me is a man who's

been coming here a lot longer Edward Cape. When did you first come?

You were making a garden here? Correct. What sort of garden?It was

a rock garden, pretty well in the location where we are right now.

have a picture of it. We have a picture of the one you did the

following year. This was in 1952. That's correct. This is an enormous

great water-worn limestone. It's from the isle of Pervic. Long did

you have to make it? About two weeks. Not as long as now.No, this

was between 30 and 40 ton. Of stone? How did you move it? We moved it,

like a little Railtrack. You know, a little wagon. It was hoisted by

lifts and then swung over. So all man handled? Yes, and using a lot of

crow bars. But this is what you won. You got a Gold Medal. That is

correct in 1952 as well. Did you enjoy it? It was a lot of fun.Old

are you now? I'm 92. Good gracious me. It bodes well for the future of

gardeners. Yes, it is activity.I love this is down Main Avenue,

Keegan Bradley think about their gardens, look what used to be down

there. This was another Gold Medal winning garden. How astonishing is

that? It looks like an arrangery. They used to concentrate on

herbaceous borders in those days. Did you last come here? '68.So your

first visit since then? Yes and amazing changes. I mean, everything,

yes. Some for the better? Well, I have to see more to make the final

judgment. That's a very diplomatic way of putting it. It's a delight to

have you with us. Thank you very much for coming. Thank you very

much. Congratulations, I'll let you take your Gold Medal away again.

Stay there for a second. You may think the notion of planting grasses

in the boreder is a relatively modern trend, but you'd be wrong.

Back in the early days of Chelsea, specialist grower James MacDonald

was championing ornamental grasses. Between 1913 and 1939, his displays

appeared firstly in the marquee and from 1920 onwards as show gardens.

Sadly, by the late 50s and 60s the most innovative approach to grass at

Chelsea was how to cut it. In 1992, Dan Pearson incorporated grass and

relaxation with the verdant seas. Things changed again with the

evolution guard anyone 2000. Grasses were suddenly the must-have border

accessory. One man that avoided that trend until now was Roger Platts.

But I've seen grasses sneaking into the garden. Are you converted now? I

am. I could hardly do a section of the garden without using some

grasses. Wonderful. Everybody has been admiring your planting here.

Congratulations on your Gold Medal. Right from the old at the back,

celebrating the centenary, to the conteam Prince Harry at the front,

this is where your grasses are. You -- contemporary at the front, this

is where your grasses are. This is a plants which has come into gardens,

been used in recent times. More so. Absolutely. They've worked well with

the meadow area, the wildflower area. I saw them as a link to take

me from the con contemporary... the meadow. I find them hugely

useful at home. If you have two disparate plants in the boreder that

clash or don't sit comfort yaebl by one another, grass is a great glue.

They seem to join the plants together comfortably. And they're

very easy to grow too. And they give you such a long period of interest.

Even when they're dying down in Autumn, they look good. You have fab

varieties here. What's this one? This is -- this has just started to

show the flower heads now. It's amazing how plants move in a week.

At the back there that blue, greeny grey one. That's a real really

copper bottomed grass. Self-supporting. Very tough and

again a good link through to the meadow. It's going to give you some

interest and in the wind, it just moves. Yes, you get movement.That's

what I love. If you have no room and you want something at the front the

blue fescue grass. It's a great ageing and a great foil for whatever

is behind it. I think you'll be using grasses more now. I think I'm

converted. I'm glad we've done a conversion job here. If you're

planting ornamental grasses on your borders for the first time, what

variety should you choose? Here's Joe with his own master class.

I love the versatility of grasses. I use them in pretty much every garden

design. There's one for every setting and every soil condition

too. Think of a shape and think of a size and there'll be a grass out

there you can use. This one at the back there, it adds plenty of height

to the garden. It likes a well drained soil and plenty of sun. Next

to, it we have one again very upright. That will stay evergreen

all the way through the winter until it flops over by itself. That's the

key with these grasses pt don't chop them back in the Autumn. Leave them

through the winter and they'll get frosted and add structure and

interest to the winter garden. Now I love the way the stand has been laid

out. They're tiered down to some of the grasses to use at the front of

the border down here. We have the lovely steeper one here, ponytails.

It's so delicate. Often used here at Chelsea. That one's perennial. But

this little baby is an Annual. You'll have to grow it from seed

every year. Once you have got it, it can self-seed around the garden it

self-and come back by itself. Beautiful. I'm here on the oak tree

nursery where cliff has done a fantastic display of a time line of

grasses when they were introduced or when they first got their AGM, is

that right? That's right. The AGM is the sign from the RHS the award of

garden merit. What better recommendation can you have than

that? It looks beautiful. Give me your top three here. I know a cup of

them pretty well that I would put in my garden. This one is a fantastic

plant. Fantastic as you say. Got its AGM in 1962. That's fairly new.

Lovely sunny site, free draining soil. For us in the north, it will

probably disappear over winter. Down here, you'll find it stay there's

all the time. Yes, it's semi-everygreen. Great in a pot or

raised bed. The one in front takes some beating. It's got the AGM. Part

shade rather than a sunny site. We lose that in winter, but can you

keep it? It stays pretty much evergreen. It's so graceful. When

you plant it in bulk and the straight green variety is gorgeous

too. Very popular too.I'm trying to get hold of those at the moment.

Come round here. What have you got here then? This is a really reliable

plant. It will do sun, part shade, evergreen, stays all year round.

Obviously it has a seed heads as well which last about a month or so.

It grows as a little plant so you can split it up. Being a northerner

we can keep some in the garden and in a pot. I'm loving your outfit.

Lovely to meet you. And you. Lovely costume. Never catch on will

it! What has caught on which is great news is in 2011 the RHS

launched get your garden buzzing which was the Perfect for

Pollinators to put in your guard ton help bees which are suffering. It

seems to be taking off. It working a treat. Some great garden plants.

Like the scabiuos and the geum. inquiries that the RHS have had

about pollinators are up to 130% and wildflowers by 70%. So the campaign

is working. We need to keep it working. We'll be back here on BBC

Two tomorrow night at the same time when we'll trace the rise of

cutting-edge Chelsea and the era when Main Avenue behind me said

goodbye to the traditional stands and welcomed a new age of show

gardens. Before then join Steve Chapman and Daniel Sturridge at