Episode 2 RHS Flower Show Tatton Park

Hello and welcome back to the Royal Horticultural Society's Flower Show,

Tatton Park for our second programme of highlights from this great

It's a really good show. One says that all the time, but I think it's

extra good this year. Tatton Park aged a few years ago, but now I

think it's back to full strength. The quality across the board and

everybody is having a good time. What we have come to expect for the

past few years is years, more than any other show. 20 to 25-year-olds

wood John Everiss, I followed his career, he had a couple of gardens

at Chelsea and he has done a fabulous garden here, and he won

best in show in the show gardens category. It isn't just people

chucking money at it. This garden, which is based around Crohn's

disease and the charity which goes for that it only cost ?6,000. And

it's got a gold medal. Everywhere you go, whether it be the show

gardens or the Floral Marquee, its quality.

Coming up on tonight's show from RHS Tatton Park, an event supported

by Bruntwood Properties, we'll be taking a look at the three

gardens designed by this year's RHS Young Designer of the Year

contenders, and revealing who has won this prestigious award

A feature of Tatton which has been here four back-to-back gardens. They

reflect the way that most of us garden at home. We will be seeing

which one of those has been voted best of the show.

Carol Klein plays detective as she uncovers the plants

and people making headlines in the Floral Marquee

I am sure you have thoughts and opinions, maybe you have been to the

show yourself, so get in touch on our Facebook page, or tweet us. Time

now to meet the next generation of gardening talent in the RHS Young

Designer of the Year competition. This year, the three finalists

have been challenged to create a garden office,

inspired by the idea First up is Anca Panait

from Glasgow, whose woodland-inspired design is called

Prospect and Refuge. Earlier, I went to see

the finished garden. It does seem remarkable to me that

this is Anca Panait's first show garden, because it is amazingly

assured. It is based in a woodland, and the idea is it is a retreat from

the hurly-burly to create a space where you can work, so the planting

reflects the light, dappled shade of woodland, the colours are muted, the

touches of what you get from the anemones, with ferns coming under

the silver birches. It's a very bright, white half. And then the

level changes, and a lovely oak wood, rich and warm, and you come

down steps. The inclination is to sit here and think I don't want to

do any work, it's too nice! We've got lovely planting, looking out

onto crocosmia. But you can go across, and he is your desk. Sit and

connect with nature as you work. This would beat any office I've ever

been in. There is only one drawback to this garden, and it's quite a

serious one. I know for a fact that, if I had to come and work here, I

wouldn't get any work done at all. I'd just be enjoying the garden.

We'll be walking you through the remaining two young designer

The Back to Back garden category is unique to Tatton,

Every year, the small gardens may be limited in space, but they always

have big ideas, and there is the scope for presenting a wide range of

planting concepts. Toby has been to see two of them.

The back-to-back gardens really are tiny, just four metres wide by six

metres deep, but the peace garden by Matt Campbell is a vivid example of

how bright and colourful your garden can be if it's small and it has

sunshine. It is inspired by the 1960s, a decade that frankly I don't

remember. But I do know it was the time of the peace movement, Bohemian

beauty, and the planting is suitably psychedelic, with the most placid

yellows combined with pink Luke Evans and lobelia. It's

extraordinary. There is a trick that you can take from this garden, which

is useful if you like your garden to look bold, bright and beautiful,

which is using darker colours to frame the brighter flowers. It is

done here with chocolate coloured dahlias which really make the

flowers above them pop. It's got what it says on the wall, flower

power. This designer has done the garden

design equivalent of a garden grabbed by taking two back to backs

differently, but inspired by the gardens of Cholmondeley castle. The

further north you live in the country, the more it thrives and the

brighter its foliage. My favourite of the two is the front garden, god

I love the symmetry provided by these box balls. They create a

formal hello, along with the frothing Russian sage, the lab and

do -- the lavender, it hasn't just got colour, it's got class.

What all the Back to Back designers have achieved in such compact spaces

is to be truly admired, but it is a competition after all,

and only one of them could be awarded the title of RHS Best Back

Lara Behr, with the Macmillan Legacy Garden. Lara, congratulations. First

garden, gold medal and best back-to-back. How do you feel? I'm

thrilled. It's been a lot of hard work but great fun. This garden is

serious and important. Run us through the main features. I had to

come up for a design for MacMillan Cancer Support for them to

demonstrate how important legacy giving is to them. My starting point

was the wishing well, because I wanted to portray legacy giving

positively, and I remember that excitement as a child when you put a

coin in a well and thought, it's really going to come true. The

design started there, and then the poles represent the work of

Macmillan. They come round to this clay seating area, which is a

reflection of the work and comfort and support that MacMillan offer to

cancer patients and their families. We have some words from people who

have been helped engraved on the copper discs. ! Circuits a cohesive

thought process, but beautifully excited -- a cohesive thought

process, but beautifully executed. Over in the Floral Marquee,

the exhibitors have been pulling out all the stops to impress the judges

and public alike with Never one to miss out on the action,

Carol has been amongst the crowds, seeking out the heroes and headlines

in her Tales from the Tent. This superb display has won best

exhibit in the Floral Marquee, and no wonder. It really is exquisite,

and what it says to you is, this is late summer, this is Tatton Park.

It's packed full of the most glory or -- glorious perennials. And

another valiantly deserved gold medal, Sue Beasley. Congratulations,

it's your first, isn't it? My thirst in the marquee. But this time you

come for both sides, the exhibiting and the garden out. I had a

four-year break into the RHS approached me and said, would I

consider building another? I said I couldn't because of the timing is

overlapping, so they sorted that out, and I was in a meeting

thinking, I'm just so tired, I need a sleep, and that's where the idea

came from to build a garden with a bet on it. Did it turn out to be a

dream or nightmare? Mostly a dream, the occasional nightmare, but it's

been wonderful and I'm looking forward to having a chip on it

before we break it down and say goodbye to Tatton. -- having a kip

on it. What a trip there are other things to celebrate, too. There is a

wedding in the family to mark the occasion they have named two new

plants, one after their son, Thomas, and the other after his wife,

Madison bright. They are gorgeous, and plants are going to be given to

all of the guests attending the happy occasion.

I'm not new to Tatton, at this Carol Klein is. It is clematis Carol

Klein, and it's been introduced here at the show. It's a herbaceous

clematis. You can grow its sprawling through shrubs or up some sort of

support, and it would be great in a pot, too. It flowers from April

right the way to the end of September and, do you know what,

just like me, it's very low maintenance.

Continuing now with our look at each of the gardens in contention

for the RHS Young Designer of the Year award, and Monty's been

to cast his discerning eye over the Business and Pleasure garden

His office design has been inspired by the rooftop gardens typical

Jake has taken inspiration for his garden from a modern space. It's the

high line in New York which, if you didn't know, is a park perched atop

a redundant railroad, hence the outside of the pond and the

naturalistic planting. Jake has cleverly put seating in every

corner, and particularly inviting RVs, the boulders, which are likely

to sit on. To my mind, the gravel is a bit of a curate's egg. I love the

way it's divided into two different sizes, nuggets and horticultural

grit demarcate the borders, but the colour is quite minty blue and cold

and I can't help but think it would have been warmer if it matched the

boulders in the borders. That said, the borders are gorgeous, and they

are full of life. I love the way the bees are working this equinox. Just

lovely. They also use a clever trick of mounting up the soil, which is

good for some lovers like Echinacea. There is also a plant I've never

seen initial garden before, this one. It's a plant that happily self

sews and it finds its own moisture. Just a lovely thing, a beautiful spy

among this froth of colour. For a first time show garden, is a

triumph. -- a beautiful spire amongst this froth of colour. That's

a lovely garden, and later I'll be reviewing the final contender ahead

of the big announcement of the winner at the end of the show.

Over in the show gardens, established names continue

to return each year, and one such designer has been drawn

back by the challenge of creating a garden

This is Michael John McGarr's 2101, and it's his vision of how climate

change may have impacted our planet over the next century and how

Things will be drier and hotter, we will have flash floods, so the

bottom areas, we will need plants that can cope with dry and wet. We

have this in the corner, and these wonderful cacti, so the planting in

containers. In a way, they will replace the box balls, the

ornamental plants we grow now. Because we grow will be spikier,

they will be non-hardy plants we can grow outside, so things like this

dramatic architectural plant. And the wonderful Mexican blue palm. We

will be looking for shade, like here with tomatoes, to keep the fruit

sweet. At the back of the garden, it's a standout feature, and I'm

going in. OK, it is very different in here!

We've got great finds again being shaded. These windows are looking

out on to the garden, adding different framed views, it is really

nicely put together. Michael has got a theme, he has run with it and

executed it beautifully. One of the stars of this garden, the

cacti, there's been a great rise in the popularity of cacti. Carol

decided it was time that these low maintenance exotics got some extra

love, and she's over in the Floral Marquee.

Cacti are unique plants. They developed over thousands and

thousands of years, along with the habitat they come from which is

almost invariably hot, dry desert. Some of them are tiny, intra Kate,

detailed. Others are giants that can be as big as 20 metres tall. A lot

of the plans behind me and me and youngsters, just 45 years old. --

they are mere youngsters. A newcomer to Tatton with an interesting array

of plants of William's cactus. How long have you been interested in

these plans. I followed my dad in the late 70s, it was his hobby. You

must have been a little lad. Six or seven. As a business I've done it

for three and a half years. What do you like about them. Just a

different shapes, forms, structures, they all have their own character

and individuality. Yeah. I love this one, so soft and fluffy. This one is

very easy to grow, nice and soft, good for children, like cotton wool.

We've got some questions from social media for you. Julian Keely and Emma

Hatton would like to know, are there any hardy cacti that can be grown

outside all year around in our British climate. Quite a field

species, like the great big woolly one at the back. What is that fluff

for. To keep it warm during the night like a sleeping bag, doing the

day it will lift up to let the heat out. It comes from Peru, 4500 metres

so at night time when temperatures are called that one would be very

popular and easy to grow. Drew Carpenter asks how often he should

water is cactus. Every two weeks between March and October, feed them

once a month, make sure that you don't water in winter because that

will rot them. Thank you for your lovely stand. I'm really glad you've

turned your hobby into a business. Thank you.

Now moving from planting where water is scarce to something different.

Name Micro has been to see a garden which copes with ways of preventing

potential flooding in our front gardens.

On a glorious day like this thoughts of flooding are far from my mind but

this garden comes into its own when it rains. Incorporating practical

ways of how to deal with storm water in garden design is becoming an

increasingly popular theme. We saw this at Hampton Court in the urban

rain garden. Here, this garden is called Slow the Flow and does

exactly that. Hi, John, good to me too. Storm

water is a big issue, your take on it? It's a massive issue, we all

have to cars, nowhere to park so we pave over the front garden. I've

tried to come up with ideas that can be practical and absorb water and

also recycle in the garden. The design clearly has details that

address these issues. Pretty much everything is permeable, we have

gabion walls which led what are true, the poorest driveway, concrete

beams that let the water through and a roof which will help 50% of the

water evaporate. The water will travel down through these containers

and they harvested in a 10,000 metre tag. You can either use it to

irrigate your garden or pump it out to the mains. I expected more bog

plants, why aren't there any? I didn't want to use them because it

is a garden where you can put your own plants, we're not saying it's

about training and freely, it is about managing, controlling recycled

water around the plants that you have in. It has clearly done that

and the judges felt you hit the nail on the head what with you getting a

gold medal and best in your category. It has been a real team

effort, I have designed it with Peter and my crew, everyone has

worked so hard, I am pleased for them, we've worked hard here. You

should be really proud, well done, congratulations.

Time now to review the third and final contender in the running

for the RHS Young Designer of the Year award.

It's designed by Ula Bukauskaite and it is called Studio Unwired. The

idea is that people can come together and hot desk here but you

are looking out onto the garden, it is set in an urban environment, you

have this wonderful wild planting, which has been inspired by Ula's

homeland and memories of the Baltic landscape where she grew up. I like

the way she has arranged this with different layers in the planting, we

have the wilderness with pines that have dropped cones on the gravel and

some have self seeded. There are also manic you and areas that have

been garden, we have these wonderful plants planted in block to add shots

of colour as well. But do not manic and areas. The idea that this garden

is somewhere to escape and connect with the natural world, something we

all love to do. This design feels very accomplished, it is pared down

and is quite sophisticated. I think that Ula has done a really good job.

Now we've seen all three designs in contention and, earlier,

I met Sue Biggs, Director General of the RHS,

And delighted to announce that the winner of the R HSE and designer of

the year 2017 is Ula. Ula Maria. Many congratulations. Well done,

Ula. Congratulations. Ula, when you set out to design this garden did

you look to win this award? I didn't. I always wanted to make a I

would be proud of, and that would be really a motive to me. I think that

is a good way forward with garden design, design something you are

happy and proud with. When you vanished it did you think you had

something special? I think I have something special because it is

personal to me and the concept is driven by my ideas and childhood

memories of where I grew up so it's a very personal space. I just hope

people will love it as much as I do. This is what I love, it is personal

to you and feels fresh and different. Is it a big step in your

future garden design career? Definitely, it's the most amazing

opportunity to start something new, get your name out there and present

what you love to do. I think I have this connection with nature and just

working with it is exciting for me. You were on the side for two weeks

with the other guys, did you get to know each other. Definitely, we

become so close and worked together to achieve the best three gardens we

could possibly do. Will you share this with them then? I'll think

about that one! I don't blame you for keeping it. Will you be able to

relax and enjoy the week. I think so, now everything is done I can

relax and talk to people and really show them what the garden is about.

Congratulations again, lovely to meet you and to see your great

garden. Thank you so much. I do think Ula's garden was the

stand out garden that category but the standard was very high. It was

the best of three that was superb. I love the way that year after year

the General standard at Tatton has been raised by designers of all

kinds and the whole show has been lifted up by youth. How good is

that. Couldn't agree more, totally. We are running out of time but with

God just enough time for our last stop. Earlier Monty and I had fun.

Well, I tried. You loved every second of it! We looked at some of

the more unusual exhibits at this year's show. Here we go, Monty, this

is Bus Stop Boulevard. Are there other things to go and see? Give it

a chance, it might be fun. Make me laugh. When you wait for a bus the

grass grows and your feet and by the look around the back as well. You

begin to rest in places you don't want to rust. Monty, you're famously

have a passion for begonias. Everyone knows about it. This is the

way to do it, if you're going to do it, do it at a bus stop. If this was

the last bus stop in the world I wouldn't grow a begonia! But is it

art, Monty? It's the Monty Lisa. A bus stop with a fridge, Monty, what

do you fancy. I have a strawberry. This was all going to landfill so

you have a fridge, you can pay for it, what you think it is worth, and

cut your bus. Good chap. -- catch your bus. There is a very precious

plant in here going through a dormant period.

Well that brings us to the end of the show and the end of the RHS

Shows season but it has been a busy summer. Monty, what has been your

highlight. You said it was busy, we've seen a lot of shows but I keep

coming back to one at Hampton Court, the autism garden which I loved on

lots of different levels, I liked the way it was done and why it was

done and I loved the trampoline and the swing. That swing was not only

fun, it was beautiful. It was beautiful and I remember you on the

swing. For me, not one garden that stands out, lots of quality but the

weather at all the shows this summer has been fabulous. It has been hot

weather. People have made fun of me for my hat back at Chelsea we got

you in a hat or two, didn't we. Let's look at this. I think this is

the one. How about that, the new Monty look. How about that. Monty,

we finally found you. You've arrived. The real me. I don't think

we can take it any further because we'll be out of a job. I reckon we

cut a dash. Well, that brings us to the end

of the show and the end of our coverage of the RHS

Flower Show season. The flower show season

here on the BBC may be over for another year,

but Gardeners World will be back So, until next time,

it's goodbye from all our team