Episode 1 RHS Show Tatton Park

Tatton Park flower show is the last of the big RHS shows that we cover.

And talt ton's special. It hasity own atmosphere, which is a glorious

deer park, also by the exhibiters, some are local and others come from

all over the country. The plants are different, they celebrate a new

flowering season. Jo, Carol and I will bring the best of the show

tonight and again on Friday, at 8.00 on BBC Two. As a Lancashire

lass, comeing to Tatton fills me with pride. I especially love the

floral marquee. I will be looking at a huge family of plants,

Asteraccea the daisy family, which there are many examples right under

this roof. There are more Show Gardens than any other show. Five

categories and 36 gardens in total, including those in unique in Tatton

Park, the back to backs, a hit with the visitors, and with this elbow,

I will barge them out of the way. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the

very best of the RHS Flower Show, Tatton has always had a distinctive

character. I was here, 14 years ago when the show first opened and from

that beginning, it felt separate, in the best possible way. The

people, the accents, displays, they were local and proudly of the place.

This year, 26 out of the 36 show gardens are local. And Reaseheath

college exhibited a garden here, made by the students every year.

And this year is no exception. think it is good to have a presence

here in the north west, at the Tatton show because it is our local

show. The theme of the garden is to display different habitats for

different wildlife, insects, mammals, reptiles. This is

reflective of planting? We have different colours to reflect

insects like bees and butterflies. We had a marginal Bulgaria, for

frogs and toads. Why the ivy code? We wanted to put lovely big green

living structures in the garden to give it nice structure and provide

habitat for nesting birds. This provides screens that provides

interest all around. This is fantastic, thank you very much for

telling me about it. The designer of Making a Splash close to come

here, even though it is her wedding anniversary. When I looked at the

application, I thought, should we do the show or celebrate in Rome,

but, the pull of Tatton dragged us here again. We couldn't resist.

Now all this work into what is a come employee kaited garden. Talk

me through it? We have the rock and water garden which is traditional,

and a pond. I wanted to make it slightly more contemporary and

appeal to the younger market with this. This great orange gentleman

kuesy? - Jacuzzi. Do you work in as much as possible or restrict your

theme? I try as much as possible, get the right plant the right place,

and work the colour scheme through. I use the orange planting this year,

to bring in the tub. I wanted it to make a statement. If you want your

garden done, you want to go "wow." The care home garden is done by a

first timeer. I made myself I was going to do a garden at Tatton and

that would make it happen. The garden is very much about trying to

find ways to help people, enjoy the garden and interact with it. The

planters that are in the garden are different heights, so for some

people could work at while they're standing or some from a wheelchair

and some sitting even. I suppose a key aspect about it is memory and

memory prompts. And familiar plants are really helpful in that. There's

research that gardeners are less likely, I hope it is true, to

develop dementia. And yet anyone, I can imagine myself if I have to go

in a care home later, as well as the hard thing about losing

independence, it would be heart- breaking to no longer garden. To

help ways helping people continue must continue. It is fascinating

The floral marquee is full of the exquisite exhibits. But I'm on the

lookout for specific plants. It is astonishing to think that one in

ten of the flowering plants on the planet is a daisy. Belongs to the

daisy family, Asteraccea. And they come in all sorts of shapes, sizes,

colours, it is incrediblely diverse family. I suppose when you say

daisy, this is the sort of flower that springs to mind. It is a kind

of flower that kids draw. This central disc is composed of

hundreds of little flor receipts, all separate flowers, that go

together, and this means this there's loads of food in there for

visiting insects. But even within one, there can be all sorts of

variety. This is Rudbeckia, it is grown from seed. Just five seed

pods made this immensely diverse range. Everything from simple,

single flowers, splashed with mahogany to these complex doubles,

Another simple daisy, it is an old favourite and no wonder, it does

amazingly well. You can tell how much it loves the sunshine. But,

would you have thought, that Achilleas belong to the same family.

Here there are no outside petals, but if you look carefully at the

head, it is composed of what is an expanded centre, lots of separate

individual little daisies. Each with their own tiny stem. They're

of this time of year but fade well too. They're one of my favourite

flowers, simple, straightforward and really easy. Perhaps the daisy

that's really most familiar, and cherished by many people, is a

little tiny daisy that pops up all over our lawns, it looks similar to

this, it is a simple, single flower. Of course this would be no good in

the lawn. This is Erigeron, a Mexican daisy and the place's

eating halls is walls and crevices, its seeds fly in and it makes the

cascades of growth. It is all over the place in my garden. But if you

do want to make a lawn out of daisies, how about this. This is a

double form of Chamaemelum. It is wonderfully scented. If you crush

this foliage, and these flowers are I haven't seen this for ages! This

is Stokesia, a plant from the States. It is truly perennial, it

is an absolute delight. It should be for widely grown. Look at that.

I'll tell you what on this stand, if you took all the daisies away

there would be little left. Isn't it true of all our gardens, remove

the daisies and they would be much poorer places. Every year I look

forward to seeing the back to back gardens, these are baisd on the

small back yards, typical to a town in the industrial north. They are

tiny little plots, six metres by six metres, so a designer has to

think carefully how to maximise The Space. There are nine of them, and

this one caught my eye specifically. It is called Urban Escapeism.

You're shaded out by trees, and buildings, so the shady planting

works beautifully well. It is simple, but I like the way it cuts

across the rectangle yar, it dedivides it up and breaks up The

Space. It is picked up well with the box hedging. I love the tree

ferns, fantastic specimens in this garden. Hairy trunks and great

plants to use in a small space like this. When you look down in a

garden and you need the spread of them which break up and divide The

Space. Detail is absolutely everything in a garden like this.

This bench is beautifully made. Of course it gives you somewhere to

When I think of Vincent Square I think of the HQ of the RHS. In the

jail house was suffragettes, this garden represents a hundred years

since the movement turned militants, so we've a postbox here with the

Flame Thrower coming out of it, if someone set fire to the mail there.

On this wall, we have the motto which is "purity, dignity and hope".

A window smashed with a rock. And here a literal reference to

chaining yourself to the iron railings. And the planting, picking

up on lots of women's names throughout. On this corner, we have

Sylvia, two of Emily pank Hurst's daughters. There's thought and

themes running through it. I'm not the only one it must be time the

women did get the vote. One of the things I particularly like this

year's back to back gardens is their inspiration has been drawn

from a diverse range of sources. So you have a wild flower meadow

converted here. A garden without a single straight line, all circles

and curves. For three first timers they've chosen the inspiration from

the Peak District and disstill the essence in a small garden. I love

the Peak District because it is a diverse place. I've never seen

anything else like it. I love the scenery. I love the

landscape, everything, it is what I am, I'm a home boy, a Peak District

boy born and bred: I love its changing landscape. It can look

great, even in the pouring rain and Our gardens called peacekeep

reflections and it is about the Peak District and hopefully we

captured a lot of the enelse featureed all around this glorious

landscape. And we're hoping to show the legacy of the past as well, the

traditional skills involved in all of what you see around you. This is

our finished design. This is the surrounding dry stone wall which

gives a sense of history and enclosure. This is a driving energy

force, the water reel which used to be used in industry to drive the

cotton mills. We have the Peak District stone here in the wall.

And the embankment comes up here, which is taken from the railway

lines, that are all around the Peak District now, now used as ramblers

I've always had a passion for plants. The plants that we

particularly went for is to get the colours and natural look of the

Peak District. It is lovely and changes throughout the year, even

in different weather conditions. The oranges and reds, also gone for

different colours within the grasses, we have the Stiverss tried

to pick different ones. Which again they have the pink tips on it. Even

though I work with plants every day, I'm blase about getting them in and

getting them to the right stage I want them to be. The condition is

harder than I thought to be honest. The most important thing about

capturing the Peak District in our design was the dry stonewalling.

Because no matter where you go in the Peak District there's dry stone

walls everywhere. It is going to be the basis and foundation of our

design. We've got eight linear metres of dry stone wall, two

metres high, and we're aiming to do it in three days. That's

incorporateing all the features, so it will be difficult. There's a lot

of work, but with decent weather and a bit of luck, we can pull it

off. Secretly, we would love to get a medal Gold. A medal would be fine.

It is the second most visited National Park in the world. We're

hoping to bring awareness about our surroundings and how lucky we're

here to be here. That's a challenge, to put it in about a six by four

plot. It was distressful at times but we managed it. You got a Silver

Gilt and Best In Show, first garden ever. We're very pleased. Couldn't

be happier. The planting is lovely. And it is to get the essence of all

the seasons and colours, that you see in the landscape, as you go,

right throughout the year. I think we've done it. The wall is a

triumph. I'm over the moon with it, the wall is my favourite part.

there any friction during the build? It was a little bit heated

every now and again. What was the low point? Friday was low, when we

were wet through. Planting is tipping down rain. When the medal

came around, you must have been over the moon! Yeah. Next year,

coming back? Already drown it. We were up at 4am. I was up this

morning at 5. Are you going to get the two on board. We'll see.

Tatton always welcomes first-timers, but there are lots of people

exhibiting here who have been coming here for years. Harts

Nursery have been exhibiting their gold medal-winning lilytor ten

years, last year we visited them to see why they're so passionate about

growing these beautiful flowers. Lillies are special because they're

beautiful in colour, they smell absolutely wonderful. There really

is a lily for every sight and situation. We're into the third

generation of Harts Nursery, and if you want to include our

grandchildren, that's the fourth generation. It is a family affair.

We do RHS shows all year. But, I suppose my favourite has got to be

Tatton. We keep the bulbs on cold storeage. As soon as we go out of

cold store, people want them to grow and people can have them at

the end of September. I'm always asked which varieties I love, which

ones I would chose, and that tends to make up people's minds, which is

a hard question, because there's a lot of varieties that I like. These

oriental trumpets, is called rub beana. It will grow in any soil,

next year it could be at least seven foot tall. Abundance of

blooms. Stems become very thick and sturdy, so you have no danger of

them blowing over in the wind. They're a really good all-rounder.

Another favourite is Miss Lucy, double oriental, so it needs an

acid soil. The nice thing is it has no pollen, if you're worried about

it staining your clothes and is really pretty Some people don't

like the scent of oriental and oriental trumpets, so I advise them

to buy Asiatic lillies, they're vibrant in colour, they like an

alkaline soil. This one is called Forever Susan and grows well in

orders or pots. What does Nani hate most? Lily beetle. They're a

nuisance and you need to get them off as soon as possible. A good

remedy is to use a garlic solution, sprayed on them every few days and

that keeps the lily beetle well away. Just pick off every evening

or morning, or use your grandchildren. We've been at this

nursery for 30 years. And this year, we've moved to a new nursery, where

we wanted to expand growing the lillies. So that our son Jonathan

would be able to take over for the future.

It is the first year that we've been able to grow our lillies in

the new nursery for Tatton Park. It is an important show to us, it is

our local show, so it is extra special. Logisticly we use cut

flower because they take up less room when transported and less

damage done to the flower than if we were to use pots. Mum with our

flor restry background that is a flare for arranging flowers, so she

makes the displays beautiful. We'll take 700 stems of the flowers that

have been grown to Tatton Park. One of the problems with transporting

the lillies is the flowers getting marked by the stains, we protect

them by wrapping them with cling film to make them easier to

transport. One of the plants we're hoping to take to Tatton is a new

introduction to us, auld the Torch. It is touch and go if it is going

to be perfect but hopefully it will be in tip top condition, and a

centrepiece for Tatton Park this year. Well, despite the huge

upheaval moving nurseries, you've not only one gold but best exhibit

in the floral marquee? It is lovely, because we live locally and all our

customers are here to see it, so it is hugely special. Torch made it?

Torch made it, after wrapping it in cotton wool, basically and made it

to the top of the stand. pinnacle. It looks beautiful.

of the things that people get concerned about lillies is pollen.

The best thing for geting it off your clothes or carpets is using

sticky tape, press the sticky tape on to the pollen and it comes off

all in one go. Never touch it with your fingers, because the moisture

will make it stay permanently on the clothes. Alternatively wear

something like this, and then it doesn't show. Thank you very much.

Now whether it is sharing tips about pollen or just spliting a

packet of seeds with a friend, sharing things is one of the great

pleasures with gardening. The Cheshire Garden Trust do that.

Whilst doing really important work preserveing the north's

horticultural heritage this. Year they have a show garden at Tatton.

It is designed by one of the fellow members, Jaquetta Menzies, it is

called Time and Tide. It is a coastal garden and we went along a

few weeks ago to meet Jaquetta Menzies as she made our

preparations. This year, special garden trust is about called we

wills nursery, it was founded by William Caldwell, in 1780, and it

supplied all the big gardens that you go and visit nowadays with

their plants. So here at articley, a few of the trees, shrubs and

herbaceous will have come from Caldwell. It is the first time, and

what I took for motivation, is the logo, which is King Canute. King

Canute is strongly related to Knutsford. It used to be called

that, it is a legend that Canute visit there. That disarmed to put

King Canute himself in the centre of the garden.

Today I'm excited because I'm meeting Barbara from the trust,

she's bringing artefact and material to inspire me of my design.

I brought artefact that we clebted. These include some of the old

pictures of the family. That's 1908. They are a fine family, look at the

hairdos. This is one of the Caldwell, there's six of them, it

was his grandson who was the last one. For 200 years they were there.

But really we have fragmentry things that remain. Most precious,

there's a customer ledger, dating back to 1789. In here, among all

the records, is a record for Peter wash ton, and this is the list of

all the vegtables they would have ordered for the gardens out here.

This is over00 years old, so it is incredible to have these records.

This is so fragile this is why they're transcribeing these, and

put them in a database, so everybody can share them. That

would be so interesting. I'm using the Peter to give it a blue,

because it is useful and has the connection with Caldwells, because

the Nepeta, was the same solid to Caldwells many years ago and it is

still flourishing. These, he canian do well on a dry sandy soil. Well,

the structure of the garden is based on the spiral. It emanates

from a large statue of King Canute which is made of woven measure, so

you will be able to see will you him. He dominates, with memories

and historical facts, just swirling away from him, like the flow of the

sea. I'm hoping the judges will be delighted with it. I don't know

whether they will be or not but I'm hoping they will see it, and be,

really pleased. It's a garden that should bring a smile to your face,

that's the idea. Congratulations. You've got a silver, how has it

been? I'm so pleased we have a silver at the end of the day. It

was a wet and muddy build. You've chosen doing a coastal garden,

which is about light, drainage and sun. How did you set about trying

to capture that effect? Wanted to use the silver-leafed plants,

because they reflect the light and move with the wind and resilient as

well. You had this whopping great sculpture, dominating your quite

small garden. It somehow works doesn't it? He's light and airy,

like the light and airy plants. He is dancing on the waves. Caldwell

is an important part, both the sculpture and the plants. Are you

looking for more material? Definitely. If anyone has any

memories of Caldwells, or artefact from Caldwells, please get in touch

with the Cheshire gardens trust. You can get in touch via our

website. There is a link to the trust. Well,

that's it for tonight. I hope you like this taste of Tatton. But

there is more to come. On Friday night BBC Two, we will be back at 7

pment. Iming looking at a new category, the Orchestra Gardens.

will be looking at the floral marquee, at plants that extend the