Episode 5 - Complete Version (Including a One-Minute Silence) RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Before we start today's show, we want to say our thoughts are with

the families and victims of those caught up in last night's horrific

attack. In the next 45 minutes, we hope to bring a little bit of light

and calm on such a sad day. Hello and welcome back to the RHS

Chelsea Flower Show. After all the stunts,

celebrities and the Queen's visit yesterday you'd think today would be

a day to take a breath and relax. We'll be looking at those

all-important results in more detail We'll also be catching up

with Carol Klein for her global tour And I will be chatting to none other

than Anneka Rice on the Radio 2 colour cutting garden

which she is championing this year. And don't forget we want to hear

from you - simply tweet us your thoughts and views

on today's results on #BBC Chelsea. All that and much more to come

from the Chelsea Flower Show, an event supported by M

Investments. But first at 7 am sharp this

morning, James and I joined the RHS for the annual adrenaline filled

medal's dash - and as always It's two minutes to seven and the

day the designers have been waiting for. You can just feel the tension

as you walk down Main Avenue. This is it. Can't wait any longer.

That gentleman there is Darren Hawkes and he built a garden here

back in 2015 and won a gold for it. Big smile, big hug. Looks like a

gold. Massive relief. I've worked really, really hard for this one

and... I can hear it in your voice. I wonder if silver-gilt will run

through here. This is the first large one on Main Avenue. Here is

your medal. Thank you. Hopefully we'll be back next year to win a

gold. We hope you will. He's won six golds in total. This year, it looks

like he's won a silver-gilt. We are so thrilled. Looking forward to

sharing our garden with everybody. Here we go. Andrew Wilson and Gavin

McWilliam. Won a gold. Charlotte Harris has been working

behind-the-scenes to help others get their golds. Show everybody at home

what you've got. How do you feel? Absolutely delighted. James is new

to Chelsea, but in that time he's won three golds, four golds... Huhne

congratulations. Thank you very much. That's half of all the large

show gardens winning gold here. Is it a bit early for champagne?

It's exhausting just witnessing the awards being dished out - I can

only imagine what it must feel like to be a show garden

Especially when the margins between winning a Gold and Silver

You've been there haven't you James - what do

you think about the results on Main Avenue this year?

The first thing is sleep deprivation. These people will have

not slept all night. It can be a point difference between a medal

category, so it could be between a silver-gilt and a gold. That means

so much, not just to the designer, but sponsors and all the team who've

planted them. There's so much pressure that's on their shoulders.

We have an incredible array of show gardens here, not all being judged.

Eight if total, four got golds. Do you think it's been harder, easier

or the same? It's about the same every year. It doesn't matter who is

next to you, each is judged on their own merit. I love to see new

designers and their shaky emotional state and how they are genuinely so

passionate. Any surprises for you? Chris's garden was a huge surprise,

I mean that is a spectacular garden and he pulls it out the bag every

year, he's Chelsea's golden boy. He got silver-gilt. The judges judged

in a different way from people like me that are keen gardeners. I could

take that home! The person I was so pleased for was Charlotte Harris,

the Royal Bank of Canada. I would like to emulate little parts of it

at home? I nearly cried when I saw her crying. So many tears and

shaking, shows how much is at stake. Last night we paid a visit

to the Royal Bank of Canada garden garden before the medals

were awarded today Toby Buckland's takes a closer look at why he thinks

they hit the golden jackpot Not only has Charlotte Harris got a

very fine dress sense, she's also produced one of the finest gardens

I've ever been on here at Chelsea. I mean this patio, it's so cool, it's

gorgeous. Who wouldn't want to spend time in summer sitting on here

looking out of this magnificent landscape? The real genius, the

genius of this garden is that she's captured something very big in a

little postcard sized garden here at Chelsea. The forests of Canada. The

far northern forests stretch around the planet like a woolly green scarf

through Siberia, Alaska and Canada and they are magnificent and huge.

They're also menacing. Charlotte's captured that menace too. These jack

pines have this stocky belligerence, as if to say, I'm not going

anywhere, they are not cuddly trees are they, they're aggressive. They

stand up to the cold and they're tough. And that is counterbalanced

by the soft planting that rises from the soil every spring after the

snow's melted in Canada and covers the soil. Dog roses, it all looks so

soft and cottagey but it's really super tough. Of course, a lovely,

lovely decking leading back to the patio. In a garden situation, if you

want to make a garden look more natural, you have to add nor match

Ralls features. If you are a designer, the clever thing to do is

to counterbalance man-made clean lines with softness. She's done that

with the paving. The edge of the paving is ragged but then there's

clean lines between the joints. The same with the deck, straight lines,

all looks very man-made, a bit like a picture frame around the outside

of a landscape painting. Very smart garden. Not only does it capture the

wilderness but the imagination of everyone who sees it here at

Chelsea. Well worth a gold. Now yesterday we started our

'Class of 2017' profiles, where we reveal just what makes

the Main Avenue designers tick. Today we give you gold

medal award-winning I'm Darren Hawkes and I'm the

designer for Linklater's Garden for Maggie's. I would like to think the

three words that best describe me are, determined, hard-working and

caring. I fell into working as a garden

designer, I was a landscape gardener first and foremost but I wanted to

build my designs, rather than other people's, so I had to start

designing gardens. My earliest gardening memory is actually

escaping from my mum and dad's garden into the feeds behind our

house and playing surrounded by beautiful hedgerows and I think

that's had more of an influence on me than gardens actually. My top tip

for any budding garden designer would be to follow your instungs,

trust your gut instincts, they won't let you down, listen to your heart

and do it. Gardens comes from the heart and it certainly has for you

at Chelsea. Congratulations, your second gold! Thank you, huge honour

to get another gold and huge relief but also great excitement today, the

first public day as well so they get to see the garden in all its glory.

So popular already. We have a big queue. Your gold medal garden. You

can relax and be honest now, how was the build for you. The preparation,

the month of hard work? I thought it was going to be a really simple

build. It's reasonably level. I sort of forgot that by putting the hedge

in, there would be tiny access for the gate so it was a nightmare and

the hedge was... Was it something else? Taxing beyond belief, yes. A

nightmare but worth the pain? Worth it and the response has been great

from the public so I'm glad we persisted. At times I thought, why

have we done this. Anything you would do differently? Any problems

you have encountered that you can now share? I think if I had to build

the garden again, I would build it in Battersea Park and helicopter the

whole lot in just so that it was already done because trying to piece

it together was really, really difficult. You have some splendid

planting in here, the first time I've actually stood in your garden,

I've certainly admired it from the top. Any plant that you think

delivers that is overlooked? Yes. Tiny plant here, it's an annual and

I was desperate to use it and the first sewing we did was a very

similar plant but different foliage and it was touch-and-go until really

the second week of May and I knew that it was going to flower and I

was desperate to have nit the garden. I'm pleased it's here. It

looks like a pearl in the morning when it's closed up and scattered

throughout the garden. Delicate and beautiful and it does its job, as

does your garden. Huge congratulations, Darren, you can

enjoy the rest of the week. Brilliant, thank you.

All week Carol Klein is globe-trotting her way around

the Great Pavilion looking at plants from all over the world one

Today she's focusing on all the amazing plants

There are lots of plants in our gardens that we assume are British

through and through. But in fact, many originate from places all

around the world. Very many of them come from the continent of Asia.

What could be more English than a rose? Roses epitomise an English

summer garden. But the roses we grow in our gardens today owe their

heritage to roses from all over the northern hemisphere, but

particularly from Asia. It was a chance meeting between east and west

on the Isle of Reunion in the Indian Ocean which was a Trading Post.

Chinese traders brought their flowers, including their roses,

French traders did exactly the same thing. Eventually, those roses got

together, producing some of the most beautiful roses you can imagine. And

the very basis of many of the roses that we grow today, like this one.

This is Louise Odea, and the burr bounce rose has brought all sorts of

things to cross over now to the BBC News

Channel for a minutes' silence. We are in Manchester by the

Manchester Arena. We are in Manchester by the Manchester Arena

where 22 people died and 59 were injured. Now, at Buckingham Palace,

there's going to be a minutes' silence held at Buckingham Palace in

attendance the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales and

the Duchess of Cornwall. So, the royal family there leading a

minute's silence at Buckingham Palace. The Duke of Edinburgh, the

Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, the Duchess of Cornwall and Princess

Eugenie of York as well. They paused at the top of the steps to the

garden, and we heard the drum roll signalling the start of the one

minute of silence in memory of the victims of the Manchester Arena

bombing. And we have had a message from the Duke of Cambridge, who

says, like everyone, Catherine, Harry and I are left shocked and

saddened by the tragedy that unfolded in Manchester overnight.

The Duke of Cambridge saying hundreds of friends, parents,

children and partners are confronting an imaginable grief

today, and we send our thoughts to them all. We also send our thanks to

the people of Manchester, says the Duke of Cambridge, for their display

of strength, decency and community that is an example to the world.

Words of sympathy and support from the Duke of Cambridge. And the royal

family at Buckingham Palace observing a minute's silence in

memory of the 22 people who lost their lives here in Manchester and

the 59 who were injured. You are watching BBC News.

Welcome back to the Chelsea Flower Show.

There are so many wonderful plants from all over the world

which we in the UK have embraced into our hearts and gardens.

And James and Arit are taking a closer look at them in the Chengdu

Garden. It's only when you really start

looking at our gardens that you realise just how

many of the plants we grow in the UK And they aren't just in

the Great Pavilion, there are some spectacular examples of them out

here on Main Avenue. I'm joined by Arit Anderson

on the Chengdu Garden which solely What has caught your either most? I

am always looking around at the beautiful rhododendrons, and I see

them in Hyde Park, there I am in the most beautiful British place,

forgetting that they come from China. Yes, in Cornwall I was asked,

have I seen that incredible China Garden, 20% of the world's plants

from China. I know this in the UK as an ornamental plant, but my

grandmother would consider it an edible, you buy them in

supermarkets, stir-fry ingredients. But on the other side of this

garden, it is a whole different world showing the massive diversity

that China offers. From a design perspective we are

spoiled with all the flowers, but look how much interest is here. The

grasses, the shrubs that we know, and that is what is important. These

are the backbone plants within a garden design and planting scheme,

so it is interesting to see. A fascinating use of texture, you

don't just rely on colour. Absolutely, and I love the contrast,

this real sense of exuberance and foliage, and we can also focus on

that. I am fascinated by this. I can't see a single cultivated

variety, these are all straight species. Yes, and there are so many

hybrids and cultivars Alpe d'Huez. Man's Hand has created some truly

amazing Asian cultivars, and one king of those is Jonathan Hogarth.

He looks after the UK's national collection of small hostas.

Frances Tophill will be meeting him in just a moment, but first

let's find out about his path to cultivar glory.

Hostas come in all different sizes, but the particular type that take my

fancy are the Small and miniature ones. They are just sweet, and when

they start to flower, they look like jewels, little wonderful sweet but

you want to take home. There is always that one plant you can't

resist when you are out shopping, and you buy it.

When I got the collection, it was something that was suggested to me

that we should split the plants up so that should anything happen in

one area where the plants were displayed that the other area would

still save that particular plant. By splitting them, that is when the

problems started. I took a good-sized plant that was six years

old and I split it, and both plants died. They had lost that sparked a

live once you got to a point where you were splitting them, they were

just too small. I needed to find an answer, and quick. Really quick.

This is not that expensive, it takes a penny a day to run it, but the

results are wonderful. The plastic cover reveals a trade, and

underneath is the water pump. It has six little sprayers, and this

creates a moist atmosphere underneath and dry at the top. This

promotes the roots to start growing. And that is how the whole system

works. There is no secret, it is just tap water. The first step is to

cut the flowers off. You are sending the information to the plant that

it's time to make roots rather than the flowers.

Hold the plant with your fingers and tip it out this way. And I will just

gently tease out the root system. Each one of these can become a

separate plant. The genetic information that you need for this

plant to be this colour and this particular type is in fact stored in

here, so it's important to grab quite a bit of it. Over the next two

weeks, buds will start to burst out, rude buds, and from there, that will

then start to produce the plant. Here is your cutting. I am now going

to put that into the air, and I am going to put it up to its little

collar of the top, so the top will sit into the water and the damp

atmosphere there, the top will stay dry, and you leave it for two to

three weeks. So this one is now two weeks old. The roots are starting to

grow again. There were three existing routes, they were half that

size when it went in before. The fact is, that is now ready to pot

on. I am going to take the pot and put a little soil into it, and then

the magic ingredient, the micro riser. It is a fungus that grows in

the wild and it will extend the plant's capability of absorbing

nutrients. I will add some grit on the top and make it more difficult

for vine weevil to lay its eggs into my nice new plant, and that is it,

there is nothing else to it. Well, that's 251, so 251 reasons to

actually prove that you can take cuttings from small hostas, and here

they all are. And here are even more reasons to

prove it. Just look at your stand, Jonathan Fawzi yellow I am very

pleased to be here. The RHS have been so kind, and we do like to show

them off. A lot of hard work has gone into making these perfect.

There was quite a bit of worry, you have to be careful of the leaves,

they have to be perfect and the best, because this is the best show

in the world, so here we are showing off, and here are my friends. Any

new additions this year? Yes, miniskirt is the new one, and it is

in the centre of my stand. This is the first time it has been available

in England. It is a beautiful plant with a

wide. This is my habit and obsession. It looks lovely,

congratulations. Thank you so much. I do love a hosta, nearly as much as

the slugs in my garden do. Now all week we're looking

at the Radio 2 Feel Good Gardens and today we have a feast

for the eyes. I have just left the listening

garden. I'm heading over to the Colour

Cutting Garden dedicated to sight to meet its Radio 2 champion,

and TV golden girl, Anneka Rice. A keen gardener herself,

we caught up with her lending a hand What a blaze of colour, this is

beautiful. Isn't it just? You must be delighted. I am so in my element,

I am almost dribbling. To be told you were going to have a garden at

Chelsea was an amazing shock, and when they told me who I was doing it

with, and I can't tell you how Sarah Raven and Tricia Guild have both

been such a massive part of my life. The inspiration is the Colour

Cutting Garden, the opposite of the very formal stylised gardens you

might get. This is all about voluptuousness and just an Augean

colour. Are you a big Gardner yourself? I am pining for the garden

we used to have which was a beautiful Cotswolds garden. Now that

you have been here for the bills, what do you make of it? When you see

Chelsea and you see it so finished and manicured, you imagine all of

the big trees are always there, but every single blade of grass, tree,

branch, is brought in, so to see it unfold is gripping. Anneka, will you

give me a hand with the delphiniums? What was your thinking behind this?

It is a cutting garden, so everything is cut and come again to

a certain extent, so in a few mornings, all of the flowers you

pick will grow back again. But it has really come together, I couldn't

be happier. Anneka, look at you, still hard at

it. You are a lady who never stops. This has been such a joy. And a

little bird has told me you have been down here practically every

hour that there is. The thing is, I couldn't wear to put my name to be

involved with something and then just turn up at the end, so I kept

e-mailing Sarah Raven and saying, give me a task. I am such a fan of

hers, so to be in her wake doing menial tasks, I am very happy to

take anything to the skip, do some watering, copy runs. And this all

starts in childhood. You have loved gardening since you were little? My

family were great gardeners, so my memory is doing that thing little

children do, having a toy lawn mower and going up and down behind my dad.

And at school, we went to an inspired primary school that had

little gardens, so each child had a tiny area to tend, and that plant a

seed, literally. It does. How important you think that has been

from being a little girl to seeing it through, to having this passion,

and what it does for us as well. I think so, because my happiest

memories as a child were in the garden. I loved it so much, and it

is nourishment for the soul. And the most gratifying thing has been

seeing everyone come to this garden, and people yesterday were calling it

the goofy smile garden, because it reminds people of their life, and it

makes your heart sing when there is something so beautiful. There is

nothing fussy or pretentious or formal, and Sarah Raven who is such

a genius, we all decided when we sat down, her and Tricia Guild and I, we

didn't want a polite garden, and I think we can safely say this is not.

It is an explosion of colour, which we know you love. You have a lot of

colour in your London garden. While you're here, will you have a spare

minute to go out and explore the grounds and get inspiration? The

great thing about being here all this week and seeing everything

rising from the ground literally is getting to talk to a lot of people,

so I have got lots of ideas, and that's been such a privilege,

because usually I just come on press day, but now I have been here is one

of the workers. Any one thing you are looking at for? I am looking out

for things that are good for the climate change we seem to be having.

More Mediterranean? Yes, maybe a fig tree or an olive tree, and I have

spotted the most beautiful one. You are going to be De your homework.

Congratulations on this beautiful garden.

And we'll catch up with Anneka to find out how she's got on later

in the show but for now it's over to Rachel de Thame.

This year, she's showing us how there is something

for everyone here at Chelsea whatever your garden or situation.

Every day she's picking out a one metre square section on a garden

border in order to reveal how and why it works so well.

Today, in-keeping with the golden hue of medal's day she's focusing

Lots of plants love a south facing sunny garden.

And I'm not just talking about drought-tolerant plants.

If you pay special attention to watering there are several truly

wonderful plants that will thrive in a sunny position.

I love this corner of the garden, this square metre. It's a mixed

Matrix planting because they're repeated and dotted through the

planting. We've got things at the lower level, California poppy there,

and that lovely bright colour and this's picked up here as well. Then

we come through the planting with these plants which will take a bit

of shade, these are astranias. They're coming through the softness

of this one, which gives you that lovely flattened top to the flower,

a Pimpinelia. We have these tall vertical accent plants just poking

through, things like Beaujolais which I adore. We have irises coming

out into flower and this lovely tall spikes pale linkth pink of the

Lenaria. The whole thing is softened beautifully by plants that mould and

bring everything together. We have the bronze fennel towards the front

and that builds up into this lovely grass. Of course, this is Chelsea's

show garden planting, so there are lots of plants crammed in very

closely together. In your own garden, you would give everything a

bit more space to breathe and develop and become bigger individual

plants. So to create an effect like this will depend very much on how

you put the plants together. Here they're really very much just dotted

through making sure there is a lovely balance and flow. If you can

achieve that, you'll have this wonderful soft, romantic effect.

Plants come with their own likes and dislikes. If you get that right,

you'll enjoy the fruits of their labours for many years to come.

However, some plants aren't as picky as others and one we Brits all know

and love that can grow pretty much anywhere is the native Primrose.

Melvyn Jones reveals they're far from commonplace.

Primrose I found in Asia and Japan, I love the simplicity of them. These

Japanese with their love of plants are the ones that have made the

Siboldians what they are today. It's identified in the earliest garden

books of Japan, so it's an old, established plant form. There is a

Japanese flower translating along the lines of even grasses have

cherry Blossom flowers in Japan, the land of the cherry Blossom.

The Japanese Gods Jewth used to cultivate the most wonderful gardens

with the wonderful cherry trees that bloomed over the streams and lakes.

Unfortunately, the Blossom tended to fall too quickly and the Gods were

so upset after all their efforts that it was such a short blooming

that they Creted in future when it fell it would come over the grasses

and the grasses would flower and happen there would be a Primula and

that formed this. It's a wonderful plant. The blooms are so nice and

there is such a nice variation in them. It's typical of many of the

plants the Japanese like to grow. They'll look for the variety.

Primulas with good for that, they're promiscuous and variable but the

Siboldia, it goes from magenta, pink, through the blue shades up to

the pure whites like this. Because they feel almost pastelly in colour,

you can put any variety together and they'll look as if they're suited

and compliment each other. In the wild, the closest form we have here

is the Sumizomegenji. We have tried it in edge of woodland

conditions which they thrive in because they love the leaf mould and

they do well there. Obviously, you need a bit of light also for the

flowers to come out. Very popular form is this one, which is called

snow glaik. It looks really delicate but they're reliable, happy in our

conditions. They'll normally come into flower mid to late February.

You will have them flowering mid to end of June. Don't be deceived by

the fact they look delicate, they're quite forgiving and if the right

place, they'll reward you for years. We've been having a bit of an Asian

theme running through today's show and lo and behold here is another

plant with its roots steeped How's this year been for you? It's

been difficult. The season started early, the flowers were in flower

about five weeks earlier than we'd expect them to be. We have struggled

to get here but we have managed to bring a display here in a

traditional Japanese form. We have done it but it's not as nice as we'd

have liked. To me this looks spectacular, but through March and

April I was thinking about the exhibitors because there's only so

much you can do with nature, you are restricted by certain plants. Yes.

What did you do in the medal stakes? We got to silver. The judges were

right. I totally agree with them. We'd have liked more, but the season

prevented it. Next year we'll come back stronger. It's frustrating. I

heard you had the most spectacular new introduction that you almost got

to the show but not quite. Quietly fell out of flower four days ago...

Four days? ! Yes, it's one that we got from Alan Bloom's garden, one he

raised many years ago, it's been name and is being sold in support of

a charity for special Olympics, so we'd have loved to have brought it

here but unfortunately again we were beaten by the weather. You don't

have necessarily all the plants but you have all the information. I have

questions from Facebook. You love shady plants. Even else Sa asks,

moved into a house with a huge conifer, the soil is full of roots

and well-established weeds, no idea what to plant in the dry shade. What

a nightmare. Nightmare having a conifer next to you, totally agree.

We do have a couple of plants in the back of the display which would cope

with that. One is the Victorian Brooch. That will tolerate dry

shade. Another question from Melanie Louise Watson, she asks, the

opposite problem, a garden backs on to a river, very large trees from

another garden shading it, nothing but nettles grow there. Desperately

trawling the Internet for some nice colour and ground colour? Again,

that selection is a bit close to that. Moist shade and semishade. I

would recommend things like epimediums and nice spider flowers

in early to mid spring. If it's dapple spring, the Siboldeii would

be ideal. They'd be happy there as well. This is a plant of food

plains. Even if the garden floods, they'll survive and produce that

colour? In Japan, the rivers flood and bring up the silt which covers

the plants and then it drains away and that's how they get a lot of the

new nutrients and keep going. Thanks, Melvyn.

Earlier on we saw Anneka Rice who told us about her desire

to bring the Mediterranean into her London garden

and salt water problem due to living by the sea.

I've obviously been here a lot during the week because our Colour

Cutting Garden is just up there and I saw all of this take shape, being

planted up. There was one thing I saw in particular, I think it's over

there... When we first met on that Tuesday you were here and there was

just this olive tree at that stage. I have no idea about this, I had no

idea it was all going on. It's so sculptural. How many hundreds of

years old would that tree be? I think it's probably 100 years. It's

very hard to tell. It's such a beautiful character the tree. I'll

be keeping my eye open for the right tree and each one is like a piece of

sculpture I think. It is. It is architectural, it's beautiful. In

our London garden, the garden is set up as a Mediterranean garden with

bright orange walls and pots and herbs. I think an ancient olive

would probably be a good accent. I love the way you have contrasted

with the silver green with the under planting because you have Marguerite

and Salvias. That's right. The under-planting is important to

create a setting for theologiley and you can do this in your garden as

well. The olive will need large planters. There are plenty of

opportunities to under-plant. Because it's a dry zone plant, we

have used Mediterranean plants like the culinary herbs and there's

culinary sage down there and the ornamental sage we have used. The

Marguerite love it dry and it's a perfect environment for those. This

is a very good, dry grass called Prairie Fire. We are talking about

the dry climate the whole time. It will probably rain for the rest of

the year! We have to say congratulations. Thank you very

much. Thank you very much. Yes. I mean, that is your third? Third,

yes. I'm very pleased. They're still hard-won, you work very hard at

it.iful to think carefully how you are going to present your ideas and

we are thrilled -- you have to think carefully.

Monty and Joe will be back tonight. They'll be looking at the Best Show

Garden coveted award. That is it from us, see you tomorrow. Bye.

They want us there. It's for people who knew him, Kat.