Episode 1 RHS Show Tatton Park

Welcome to the Royal Horticultural Society's flower show in Tatton

Park. This is one of my favourite shows. I love the way it has a real

identity of its own. It has fabulous flowers and gardens. Also

this year there is an element of fantasy too. The fantasy starts

right here created in the annual flower bed competition, always a

popular attraction here at Tatton Park. As well as the spectacular

floral marquee with its late summer colour. This year the show is

offering visitors glamour as well as gardens with its first ever

ladies' day. We're joined this year by the award-winning garden

designer Andy Sturgeon, making his first trip here. He'll be looking

at the show gardens. There are 15 this year, more than ever before.

There are 82 exhibits in the marquee, so there is masss to see

here. Over the next couple of nights on BBC two, we'll be

bringing you the very best of the show. So sit back and enjoy the RHS

Now, by Sunday night it's reckoned that over 100,000siesitors will

have come here and enjoyed the show. My guess is one of the things

they'll all have enjoyed more than anything else - because certainly I

do - are the intensity of the colours. You have these wonderfully

rich russets, oranges, blues and purples that to me epitomise the

very best of Tatton Park. But whatever it is on display here, you

know that there have been months of creativity, hard work and skill

just to get to this point. One of the things that we shall be looking

at tonight is where people draw their inspiration from - the

landscape. It could be local. It could be Parochial. It could be the

other side of the world, but to start off with, Andy Sturgeon and I

have been around the show gardens and found ones that particularly

caught our eye. So this is the Inside Out garden designed by John

Everiss Gold. It's my kind of thing because it's architecture,

sculpture and it's all about lifestyle and outdoor. I don't

think you like it, do you? I don't dislike it. I don't want to

overplay it, but no, I don't feel warm to it. I love the conjunct

shun between kitchen and outside. I love seeing a lot of herbs, but

it's designed as a sort of show home rather than show garden.

thing is the cedar will go silvery grey... You know about show gardens.

You know these things exist now. I agree. It could do with a little

bit more soul perhaps, but in part of a bigger garden, you could have

that. What's great is this idea and the kitchen are one - lots of

lovely herbs. It can look stylish, however you interpret it. And be

The horrors of knife crime is the unlikely subject for a show garden

tackled by prison officer instructor Glenn Jackson. This

garden called Save a Life Drop a Knife won a gold medal and Best in

Show. The first thing that strikes you especially as you come inside

is tackling a very, very complicated, tricky subject. It is.

Now, you've got to be honest - you wouldn't want this garden at the

back of your own house. That makes it difficult as a show garden

because you have to make it attractive to some people. There

are great planting combinations and things here, but you have to

deliver that message. The atmosphere as the are evoked here -

for example this hostile, aggressive environment down at the

beginning is perfectly, brilliantly done. It is. Actually, some of the

plant connections I think are lovely. They're beautiful. Although

this planting is aggressive, it does move into plant accommodations

here that people will be drawn to. I think it also shows that you can

tackle big subjects in a relatively small show garden, and if you do

them well, they will always do well. That's true. This garden called A

Stitch In Time Saves Nine really works. I like it. I like the way

she's taken the wild flower and this chaotic planting and made it a

formal garden. Meadows have to be a certain size to work, and I think

this is about as small as you can go. She's really pulled it off. I

think the reason it works is you have the structures of these hedges

and trues and then it allows for this unruly planting to be

successful. She's young too, isn't she? She is. I was part of the

panel that judged the young Designer category. I remember many

years ago we were excited about this garden. It's great to see it

come to fruition. I tell you, when I Dom a show, I am not looking to

see familiar performances. I want newness. I want youth. I want

optimism, all of which I get from this. Got it all. Over the years I

have seen lots of garden like this one that use water in a dramatic,

often very beautiful way, but I have never seen water used in the

way Dorry Miller uses it in her garden When the Waters Rise because

she's effectively created a flood. She's done this to highlight the

situation of the millions across the world that are having to

respond to rising water levels as a result of climate change. We went

around to see her in her Cheshire home as she prepared her garden for

The Oxfam garden at Tatton Park is going to show lots of adaptations

to flooding. It has a shelter on stilts, portable baskets with

plants and a green roof, which will have crops on it. All the plants in

the Oxfam garden have been grown in the north-west of England,

including this one which is a Bangladeshi gourd. This one

particularly likes the conditions here in our conservatory. It goes

up seven or eight feet and then along ten feet, which is what it

needs to do, and it has been growing like a triffid. It has this

huge gourd on it. Our next problem is going to be to get it intact on

to the show ground. I'm not quite sure how we're going to do that. It

could end up with us walking along the M6 carrying it. It's quite a

difficult thing to make sure that all of these edible plants are

going to be of sufficient quality for the show. The way we're going

about that is to get lots of people across the community to grow as

many thing ass possible. So we've got tins with beetroot in our

friends have grown. We've grown carrots in wellies. You can see

this one is a real recycled wellie, a very old one. These are from a

friend who's saved them since her friend was young. He's now 30. I

don't think she'd ever imagine they'd come in for a show garden,

but here they are. This is the Woodland Skills Centre where all

the woodwork is being made for the garden. Helen is making a basket

now which is going to be half finished and in the shelter of the

garden. We've also got here an empty basket. A basket that's

planted up with asparagus peas. We've got about ten in all. I think

this should be quite effective in the garden. This is the framework

for the shelter on stilts that Alan is making, and it's got to have a

green roof on it which Alan designed, so it has to be strong

enough to withstand a lot of weight that we might be putting on it.

It's got to look rustic but be very sturdy. I think it will set off

this before. If you'd have told me a year ago that I'd be sitting here

now telling you about this garden, I wouldn't have believed you. I've

got my fingers crossed. I think it's going to be great, and with a

wing and a prayer, we'll get there. Well, Dori, what a great garden.

The idea is this whole plot has been flooded. It's not a pond.

Absolutely not. So you have flooded the whole site with water.

garden is all about growing in adverse conditions, and climate

change means growing in very extreme weather conditions, such as

flooding. And growing you have - it's packed full of plants, lots of

edibles in the ground and baskets as well. Is that the portability?

It is. A group of volunteers made the baskets using willow, which we

have in the background of the garden, so we're using what we've

got. In Bangladesh, for instance, they'd use what they have. Our

rafts are used with polystyrene where they would use bamboo.

the gourd made it. You unravelled that from your conservatory. You

didn't think you would get it here. I know. It came in our neighbour's

horse box. We had all the planting done, but in the last couple of

days, there was still a bit to do. At one point I found myself in the

pouring rain planting in mud. It was a horrible experience, but

where I was doing it for a show garden, people in other parts of

the world are doing it for real. It's very interesting. You got a

gold medal. The juplgs loved it. Congratulations. Thank you. Tatton

is the last really big show of the year, and they say you should save

the best until last. One of the things that makes it unusual is

that you get lots and lots of northern growers here. In some

cases people don't exist any further south. One of the very best

is a true northern - this time from Scotland. They're renowned for

making these beautiful stands, but the plant we're really interested

in is this beautiful Wild Swan. This -- won Plant of the Year at

the Chelsea Flower Show. No wonder - it's an absolute delight. Because

its parent is probably a spring flowerer and an autumn flowerer it

seems to go through the season. If you turn the flower over you can

see this gorgeous blue reverse. It Another northern grower from

Cumbria - showing a plant that comes into its own at this time of

year - the hydrangea. The great majority of these plants are woody.

They're shruby plants, but not this one. This is utterly gorgeous, and

it's most unusual to see it. It's a cultivar of that plant, and it's a

shade lover from China. It loves damp, moist shade. It hangs its

head, has these lovely, waxy petals. It's when you turn them up you see

the full glory. It really is Once again, Hart Nurseries put on

this magnificent display of lilies. They're a very local nursery.

They're just 20 minutes down the road, and the great majority of

lilies that are grown - 90% of them, in fact, are grown for cut flowers,

but one of the problems has always been that they produce such masses

of pollen, and if you get it on your clothes, it's just about

intolerable, but to get around this, breeders have been working on an

idea of producing a Lily that doesn't have any pollen. Fazira is

just that, not a trace of pollen on these flowers, but when I stand

back and look at it, I am not that keen. It lacks some of the grace

and elegance some of the species have. I much prefer this pink

favourite, the pinnacle of the stand. It's so elegant. Although

all of these lilies are shown as cut flowers, the great thing about

it is you can buy the bulbs right Now, this is a very first year

exhibiting this flower, and what a totally brilliant job they made of

it. Although their plants aren't tardy, they certainly are. They're

from Derbyshire, and it's so great to come to Tatton Park and see so

many wonderful northern growers The flowerbed gardens stories of

pride in bedding plants. We went along to visit the designers Adam

Walcot and John Smith as they prepared Frinton-on-Sea's entry

into the competition. This is a fantastic resort on the east coast

of England. It is a town with history, and a town that people are

proud of. Looking around, you can see why. The beaches are immaculate,

you could almost be on the Mediterranean shores. By back in

the early part of the 20th century, this place was massive. It was

where the high society came. It had beach huts and it was really quite

something. The flower bed we have created is called taking a dip, and

it draws its inspiration from the Victorian era. The centrepiece is a

Victorian bathing machine, and we also have rocks, so we have a

simple but effective scheme. colours will be quite striking

because we are using orange and yellow, and different shades of

blue to represent the sea. We have only used a few colours, we have

not over-complicated it, so it will be simple but still striking, we

hope. David has been at the tour de force behind this garden. Once we

mentioned the idea, David contacted a local engineer, showed him the

design and immediately they were hooked. They came up with this

bathing Booth for taking a dip, and it had to be constructed. Being as

we are a community, we look to the community to see how we could get

this done, and we designed a beach hut on a frame so it could come to

me, and I put the finishing touches on it, which was all the woodwork.

It is rather charming actually, It is nice to be here on the beach

with the bathing machine with us, and to get some plants here seeing

how they work together. This is a selection of what we will be using.

The colours are not exactly right, but we are using different shades

of lobelia to represent the sea around the edge of the flower bed.

We have also got these dwarf marigolds in shades of yellow and

gold, and they are representing the sound. Another feature of the

garden will be rocks, and we are going to recreate them at Tatton

Park using sound, we will plant it up using this black snake grass.

The idea is that we mixed these two plants together and it will give

the look of rocks that have been colonised by animals and plants. It

is a nervous time leading up to the competition but we are hoping we

will do well. Now you are here, you have been judged, it is all over,

how do you feel about this? We are over the moon. Considering we

haven't done this before, normally we build wild and natural gardens,

so the discipline has been fun and amazing. We have had a fabulous

week and we have really enjoyed it. Do you feel you have brought fun to

the show? Definitely. These beach huts were used so we feel we have

brought a bit of Flinton up to Tatton Park. Would you do this

again? Definitely. The there are 14 of these flower bed displays and

they come from as far north as Dumfries and right down to Jersey

in the self. Each one is loaded with civic pride. Joe has been out

and about visiting them to find out some of the stories behind them.

really love the bedding displays here, they are just so much fun and

have a different story to tell. We start off in St Helier as in Jersey,

and we are celebrating the potato, of course. They produce 40,000 tons

of potatoes and have been growing them for-one hundred and 30 years.

We have potatoes growing here, and a backdrop of Tennessee to -- of

these purple plants. Heading off to Bournemouth, and this is a great

garden. It got gold, but also Best In Show in the bedding displays. It

is all about the Victorian writers who lived in and around the

Bournemouth area. Robert Louis Stevenson was one of the most

famous, who wrote Jekyll and Hyde, so we have the silver planting over

there and the Red Hot orange colours on this side. This is an

open book, and the detail in there is beautiful. Hundreds of plants

used, and all of these planting schemes are about detail. This one

has a bowling seemed I really like, Partington parish council, and it

is called Arthur's Waterloo. This man won the Cup three times, the

only person to do it, and we have this lovely picture of the bowling

balls going through on a double parsley. Beautiful. This one is

about as local as it gets, Cheshire East Council, and it is celebrating

the redevelopment of Queens Park. They put �6.5 million in, so well

done to them because Parks are really important. This shows the

park itself with the clock tower and the fantastic planting. There

is one garden that did not get cold, but I still want to show you.

Birmingham City Council have come up with this, a car covered in

flowers. I have always wanted one of these! These bedding schemes are

fantastic this year, a really good fun. Don't you reckon? A spin in

the car, maybe? Maybe not. It is 100 years since Frances Hodgson

Burnett, classical children's story was published. It tells the story

of a little girl who comes to live in an austere Edwardian household.

The garden is regimented and manicured, but she constantly

wonders what is behind this ivy- clad walls. One day she opens the

gate to find out, and inside she finds this secret garden. It is

this book that has inspired students to get together and we

create this wonderful garden. The students are from Reaseheath

College. It tells the story of how the children took it over, and

loved it. I really like the attention to detail. There is mast

in between the cobblestones, and a path. Perhaps the RHS judges, who

awarded this garden a silver medal, didn't approve of the holes in

these plants but you can imagine the children sitting there watching

these snails munching their way through the great giant leaves.

This garden was inspired by this classic book, but in the RHS front

to front competition, Cheshire children have been inspired by

gardens from all around the world. 26 different locations, in fact.

We designed a Russian garden and it won Best in Show, and I am

extremely pleased with it. Away from the Showground, but still on

the estate, lies a stunning Japanese garden. Built one century

ago by the former owners. It is there that I am meeting head

gardener to learn more about its ethos and origins. Sam, what is the

history of this garden? The history of this garden was that in 1910 we

have the Anglo-Japanese exhibition in London when anybody who was

anybody went there and saw what they were offering. The gardens

were the main feature and people who could afford them just ordered

one. So there was a big influx of Japanese gardens? Indeed, across

the country. Anybody who knows anything about Japanese gardens

knows there are a lot of different styles. What style is this? He it

is a collection of styles but it is designed on the tea garden. That

was the idea behind be told. there anything of the original

garden still here? Yes, some of the lanterns here, the Shinto shrine,

and some of the planting. When you are working this and having to

maintain it, what is the essence of having to be true to the Japanese

style? The essence is that, unlike us, we fill the space. A Japanese

garden is only complete when you can't take anything else out.

that meant to be Mount Fuji? It is, the sacred mountain. Complete with

snow on the top. This seat somehow does not ring true to me. No, this

was one of the family's favourite seats, a little concession. I like

the way the garden could be modified to suit Western tastes, it

was not meant to be pure. No, we do not have a concept for purity, we

just modernise them. But if anybody understands the Japanese garden, it

is Sam. He has used his knowledge in this show garden, as Andy

Sturgeon has been discovering. Sam has done a tremendous job of

distilling down that magical garden into this tiny space. I have been a

fan of Japanese gardens for years, and the symbolism intrigues me.

This bridge represents, in the Japanese gardens when birds used to

come down they would fire bows and arrows at them hundreds of years

ago for target practice, and there was one particular bird that had a

staggered flight pattern. That is represented here in the bridge.

Also practical things, things like this lantern. It is very beautiful

but it is here just to light this bridge. The stone which rises up

out of the pool, that points the way, leading the eye to paradise

which is found at the back of the garden. One of the iconic plants in

this garden is this tree, and it is literally clipped into the shape of

clouds because it is bringing nature down from the sky into the

garden. As far as I am concerned, great gardens must have meticulous

attention to detail, and this garden tics that box for me.

Everything has been thought about, even the spacing on these stepping-

stones. A Japanese lady, if she were to walk around the garden, she

could not take big strides so the stones are close together. This

fence is called a four I friends because it Frame's four views, but

the detail I really like is the stone wrapped and tied with black

string plaister at the entrance. To Japanese people, that means no

entry. Fortunately there are not too many Japanese people round here

so not many people will get that. I'm afraid that is all we have got

time for tonight, but we will be back here tomorrow night on BBC Two

at 8 o'clock, and we will be looking at edible plants and