Letter J The A to Z of TV Gardening

Welcome to The A To Z Of TV Gardening, where we sift through your favourite gardening programmes

and dig up a bumper crop of tips and advice

from the best experts in the business.

Flowers, trees, fruit and veg.

Letter by letter, they're all coming up a treat on The A To Z Of TV Gardening.

Everything we're looking at today begins with the letter... J.

Here's what's coming up.

These juniper trees had better know how much people care!

Hanging out with Juliet Morris on a radical conservation scheme.

The benefits of using jasmine in your garden.

I'm not just doing it so I can have a nice time outside in the evening

but hopefully it will attract lots of moths.

Junior gardeners at Chelsea.

Find out how they got on.

There's thousands of people there so it's going to be exciting.

And Rachel de Thame on the joy of gardening.

I know it's only a border

but for me it's a really big deal and I've waited a long time to do it.

That's all to come.

But we start today with a journey into the wild.

Get your safari suits ready.

Because J is for jungle gardening.

Let's meet our guides Rob and Dave, aka The J Team.

We're at Desert Jungle HQ in Taunton.

Which is our little exotic plant centre that Rob and I have created here over the last three years.

We lived beside each other and we didn't speak to each other

for the first four years after I moved in.

Cos I was a milkman and worked unsocial hours.

And then suddenly noticed our gardens were beginning to merge.

-I had bananas, he had bananas.

-Yeah.

One night there was a power cut and our neighbours had an Aga and it was the only place anyone could eat.

-And erm...

-So we all met up over stew and...

And our lives have never been the same since!

-And our wives rue the day we ever met, I think.

-Definitely!

You can have an exotic garden with totally hardy plants.

You can put down a membrane, you can bark over the top.

There's no weeding. Or you can use the really difficult stuff

which gives a different dimension to your exotic garden.

But does incorporate a bit more work.

You've got to be prepared to be sitting at work on a December evening.

Weather forecast comes out there's a frost. Thinking, I've got to get home really fast!

Get the fleece out, cover up the tree fern, the banana or whatever.

That's just you. Most normal people don't!

We've got a huge range of plants, far more than we thought we would.

We specialise in bamboos, tree ferns, palm trees.

Cannas and aroids.

We do a lot of cacti and succulents.

We've probably got the best part of 1000 different things, I suppose.

One of my loves is bamboo. I think they're fabulous plants.

Evergreen, and the colour range on them is just fabulous.

You get this delicious yellow colour on some of them.

There's a bamboo for every garden. Some of them can be quite thuggish.

This one here for example is beautiful but it's big.

They work great in a jungle garden as a really good foil.

It just gives you that evergreen structure.

So in the winter there's always interest in the garden with bamboos.

It's just the ultimate plant.

This is my tree fern house.

It's my favourite place on the entire nursery.

This is possibly the most special of all of them.

Certainly my favourite one. It's Cyathea medularris from New Zealand.

Or it's called the mamaku.

And it's immense, it'll grow 60 feet tall.

What I think is incredible, you've got this frond coming up here

that over a period of weeks just grows and grows.

It's going to get this huge frond at the end of it.

And it's just an incredible marvel of engineering

how something, this little fist of frond,

can turn into this great big thing above my head here.

If you can get hold of a small medularris and love it, look after it,

it'll be possibly the best plant in the garden.

Certainly the best plant in mine.

If you want to take the plunge and have your own tree fern,

first thing to do is to choose a really good plant.

First of all just feel, put your hand in.

Have a good grope, bit of a James Herriot moment! Put your hand in the centre of the trunk.

See if you can find the fronds in the centre.

And you can feel them all tightly curled up. That's a good sign of a nice healthy tree fern.

Next one is have a look at the trunk. It should be heavy.

If it's really light, don't buy it, because it hasn't been looked after.

Then when you get it home, all you need to do

is to sink it about an inch into the soil. That's all you do.

Put a nice stout stake behind it to hold it in place.

And then just start flooding it with water.

And in the winter, handful of straw in the centre of the crown

and that will get it through the winter.

Don't worry about wrapping it. It's not necessary.

More often will actually cause the plant to dry out and you'll kill it.

We've won two silver-gilts this year and we've been really close.

A lot of our plants, the tropical ones, don't start growing until the end of May.

And so by Hampton Court it's almost at the pique of the growing season.

So we should be at our best, shouldn't we?

Yes, a gold for Hampton Court!

Thanks, fellas.

And in case you're wondering, they got another silver-gilt medal. Not bad at all!

Now we're staying with the exotic, but this time we're actually travelling abroad.

Our next J is for Jamaica.

We're going to be meeting the Jamaican Royal Society ladies

who dream of the gold medal at Chelsea.

But before we do, let's get a botanical history of the island with Wesley Kerr.

Jamaica has never been connected to any other land mass.

It boasts 1000 endemic plant species including 200 species of orchid.

This is an island of abundance.

Before Europeans first made contact with the indigenous Taino Indians

this island was already known as Jamaica.

A word meaning land of wood and water.

For most of the five centuries since,

much of Jamaica's wealth has come from the plants that grow here.

Jamaica became the most valuable colony in the British empire

thanks to cane sugar.

Wealth from sugar funded many fortunes back in Britain

and the industrial revolution.

Rum distilled from cane fired up the royal navy.

My ancestors toiled in Jamaica's cane fields and sugar plantations like this one.

Which are still mass producing sugar to this day.

Captured from Spain in 1655,

the colony was underpinned by slave labour.

It was also a place for young freemen on the make,

like the Irish naturalist and physician Hans Sloane.

He arrived here in Spanish Town in 1687

as the governor's doctor.

And through him the plants on this island were to have a profound effect

on British horticulture and world cuisine.

In 1707 his Natural History of Jamaica was published.

It's an astonishing record of Jamaica's people and plants.

-This is his map!

-Yes, it is.

So what's here?

A voyage to Jamaica with a natural history

of the herbs and trees and four-footed beasts and fishes.

As a Jamaican botanist, how useful is it to know that

all this work was done over 300 years ago here?

It's phenomenal

because it maps the natural history as it was back then

and know there were a lot of changes so you have this as a reference

for you to read, look back at these accounts,

and see what changes are happening between then and now.

Among his many achievements Hans Sloane has long been credited

with the invention of milk chocolate.

But his book suggests he may have got the idea from Jamaicans.

Chocolate is here used by all people at all times.

But chiefly in the morning mixed with eggs.

I found it in great quantities nauseous

though children and infants drink it here as commonly as in England they feed on milk.

And Sloane found chocolate more palatable mixed not with eggs but with milk

and took the recipe home to England.

Soon many apothecaries were manufacturing a medicine

Known as Sir Hans Sloane's milk chocolate.

And it was this recipe that was later used by Messrs Cadbury in the nineteenth century.

But it wasn't just the plants that Jamaica's given to the world

but the plants that have been brought to Jamaica

that have formed a key part of this island's history.

Port Royal became a safe haven for pirates.

In return the pirates gave British ships safe passage through the Caribbean.

And it was here that Captain William Bligh landed in 1793.

Six years earlier, Bligh had been appointed by the admiralty

to go to Tahiti on board HMS Bounty

to collect breadfruit trees.

The intention was to bring them to the West Indies

as a cheap year-round source of food for the slaves.

But en route to Jamaica, the Bounty crew mutinied,

casting Bligh and 18 loyal sailors adrift in the Pacific.

It's thought he used a disproportionate amount of water available

not to slake the crew's thirst

but to water the plants.

Bligh's second journey was a success.

On the south east of the island is Bath, where his breadfruit trees were first planted.

Today it's home to the second oldest botanical garden in the western hemisphere,

established in 1779.

Today breadfruit grows prolifically all over the island.

But here you can still see the direct descendants of those 2000 trees

that Bligh brought on that historic second expedition.

The breadfruit was boiled, roast, baked,

and even some cases fried.

And after slavery, what happened it became a bedrock in Jamaican society.

And currently a lot of export to places like the UK,

Canada, United States.

And just about every country where you find migrant population.

So it really was a great gift to Jamaica.

It was a real gift indeed.

Among the plant samples Bligh took back to London was this.

Jamaica's national fruit, the ackee.

In fact, it's a West African fruit,

brought to Jamaica by slaves

and later given the Latin name Blighia sapida

in honour of Captain Bligh.

Not a novelty exotic

but a mark of the fact that the horticultural histories of Jamaica and the UK

are inextricably intertwined.

Pearl Wright first brought Jamaica to Chelsea,

the crowds drawn to the vibrancy of her tropical blooms.

But after 13 years, gold eludes her.

So she's passed the floral baton to Blossom Levine.

Will their combined passion secure the ultimate prize?

The women's quest for gold is made all the more difficult

in a small country like Jamaica.

The Chelsea team consists largely of enthusiastic amateurs

with limited financial resources.

Here even professional growers

performed horticultural miracles in unusual settings.

This year Jamaica's pinning its hopes on showing endemic species of orchid

grown in a Kingston back garden.

World-class grower Claude Hamilton's lifelong love affair

began with a childhood trip to an orchid house.

I suppose they were just so stunningly beautiful.

They looked almost unreal.

It's the fact that they flower for so long.

In a day or two a rose is gone.

We have some of these plants that can flower for months at a time.

Wild orchids germinate on forest fungi

so artificially plants can only be divided to increase their number

until growers learnt how to recreate the conditions of the wild in bottles.

So you've mastered the art of micro propagation.

Cos previously you had to divide a whole mature plant, didn't you?

Yes, each little sprout here is a new plant.

Those are then transplanted

into a different medium.

Fertilisers, fruit juice. Pureed ripe banana.

-And a few other things.

-A bit like feeding a baby.

Well, sort of!

These seedlings are ready for transplanting

after two years in bottles.

Orchids are phenomenally slow growing.

So there they've been insulated in this micro climate. Now they're coming out into the world.

This is sort of the birth process.

They're coming from the womb here.

Where they have all the food and warmth and whatever else they need.

And they're coming out into this wild wondrous world

full of pests and diseases.

Most tropical orchids are epiphytes, absorbing nutrients from the air.

They're planted in a mixture of crushed Jamaican tree fern and charcoal.

Before being transferred to pieces of bark.

And this is sort of what you end up with.

How long did you pollinate the parent of this?

This was pollinated probably about 12 years ago.

It requires amazing patience, all this. It's a real labour of love.

I don't think so. I'm not a very patient person.

But you do what you have to do and when it flowers it flowers.

With Claude Hamilton's magnificent orchids

and the enthusiasm of the ladies of the horticultural society,

there's a sense this could finally be Jamaica's moment.

This year we are going full speed ahead for the gold.

Chelsea 2008.

13th appearance then. Still no gold medal.

We're hoping it's lucky for some this time, presumably?

Yes, and it will be lucky for us

because we will be getting the gold this year.

-You are determined this year.

-Yes!

I have to say, looking at it, it's absolutely packed to the gunnels with flowers.

There is one that I've never seen before. A hairy Heliconia. Where's that from?

That's from Montego Bay in St James.

So do you get people from all over the island sending you flowers?

Yes. Actually, we go and select from the growers.

To make sure that we get the best quality.

So you ladies from Jamaica, they must dread you coming when you say,

-"I want that, I want that."

-Yes!

And before, we go a few weeks before to make sure there are no insects.

Telling them make sure that there's nothing on it that will cost us the gold.

You're a terrifying bunch.

-LAUGHS:

-Yes, we are!

But it is a superb stand.

What does it mean to Jamaica? Why are you here at Chelsea?

Well, first of all we are here because we love dealing with flowers.

For Jamaica I think it helps to sell Jamaica as a destination.

Over the years I've spoken to people who have come to visit.

And hearing about Jamaica,

they have no idea that we have such fabulous vibrant coloured flowers in Jamaica.

Well, you've shown them that you have. We wish you well for that gold.

-I hope to goodness that you get it.

-Yes, I do.

And do you know, they just missed out by a whisker.

But they did get a silver, which is really well done.

Still to come, jasmine, juniper and even a lesson from some junior gardeners.

But now we move from the vibrancy of the Jamaican gardens

to ones that evoke calmness and meditation.

This J is for Japanese gardens.

And here's Monty Don exploring one of the finest at Tatton Park.

Sam, what's the history of this garden? The background to it?

The history of this garden was really that in 1910

they had the Anglo Japanese exhibition in London

when anybody who's anybody went there.

Saw what they were offering, particularly the gardens.

They were the things that were the main feature.

And people who could afford them just ordered one.

-So 100 years ago there was a big influx of Japanese gardens?

-Indeed.

Yes. Across the country.

Anybody who knows about Japanese gardens knows there are lots of different styles.

What style is this?

I think it's a collection of styles.

But I think it's designed really on the tea garden.

I think that was the idea.

Is there anything of the original garden still here?

Yes. Some of the lanterns here.

The Shinto shrine and some of the plants.

When you're working this and having to maintain it,

what's the essence of being true to the Japanese style?

Well, I think the essence of the Japanese garden is that unlike us we fill the space.

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

Is that meant to be Mount Fuji?

It is the sacred mountain. Every garden should have a Mount Fuji,

complete with snow on the top.

What about this seat? That somehow doesn't ring true to me.

No, this was one of the Egertons' favourite seats.

It's a little concession, you know, to the western whatever.

I like the way the garden could be modified to suit western tastes.

-It wasn't meant to be pure.

-No.

I don't think we understand, we don't have a concept, for purity in Japanese gardens.

We just westernise them.

But if anyone understands the Japanese garden, it's Sam.

And he's taken his lifetime's knowledge and used it in his Tatton show garden,

as Andy Sturgeon's been discovering.

Sam really has done a tremendous job

of distilling down that magical garden into this tiny space.

I've been a fan of Japanese gardens for years

and the thing that really intrigues me is their use of symbolism.

Things like this staggered bridge.

What this represents is 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.

As the birds took evasive flight, there's one particular bird,

a snipe, which had this staggered flight pattern.

So that's represented here in the bridge.

Three are also practical things in a Japanese garden. Things like this lantern.

Of course it's very beautiful but actually it's here just to light this bridge.

The stone which rises up out of the pool, that points away, it leads the eye to paradise,

which is found at the back of the garden.

One of the iconic plants in this garden is this cloud pruned tree.

And as the name suggests, it's literally been clipped in the shape of clouds.

Because it's bringing nature down from the sky and into the garden.

As far as I'm concerned, all great gardens must have meticulous attention to detail,

and this garden certainly ticks that box for me.

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

Because if a Japanese lady wearing wooden clogs

was to walk round the garden wearing a kimono,

she wouldn't be able to take big strides so these stones are all quite close together.

It's been carefully thought about.

And this fence, it's called a four eye fence,

because when you're outside the garden looking in, it frames four views.

But the detail that I really like

that Sam has placed at every entrance to the garden,

it's a stone wrapped and tied with black string.

And to Japanese people that means no entry.

Unfortunately there aren't too many Japanese people around here

so I'm not sure everyone will get that.

For our next pick, we're not looking at a specific flower or plant

but a theme that explores why people love their gardens and what they get out of them.

J is for the joy of gardening.

Let's share some joyful moments with Rachel de Thame

as she transforms a dull-looking border into a sea of colour.

The joy of gardening really is in putting different plants together.

And making really interesting satisfying combinations.

That's quite tricky because you've got to think not only

about scale and shape and form and texture,

and colour and scent,

but you've also got to think about creating that year-round interest.

And that's the tricky bit.

Anybody can get a border that looks fantastic in June.

It's making sure that it looks good enough in February.

-Which ones do you want to help me plant?

-Purple ones.

These ones?

I don't think that colour looks very nice.

Cos I like all these dark colours here.

It could all go funny.

The perennials are sometimes the most exciting thing

I think for me in the garden.

Partly because there are just so many!

There are so many for such different types of growing conditions.

That give you such different seasons of interest.

And whenever I set out to do a new planting,

I almost get to a stage where I'm overwhelmed by it.

Because I can't narrow down what it is I want to grow.

Because it's so easy to get carried away,

I'm an advocate really of trying to stick to a plan.

And then I think it's a case of being quite bold about numbers.

And this is something I'm getting better at.

Rather than buying something and buying three plants,

and not having it anywhere else in the garden,

I am trying to get better about having some repetition.

So I'll use the same thing and have three here and three there

and three somewhere else.

So that your eye sort of moves from one to the other.

That's very satisfying actually.

When you're looking at things. Oh yes, there it is again.

And it can just make the whole thing more cohesive.

I'm really happy with how this is looking, this area.

Think it's possibly my favourite at the moment.

It's just getting that balance right.

Particularly with the colours, the shape of the foliage as well.

Right the way from the Sambucus at the back.

With that lovely cut foliage.

And then that's obviously incredibly dark.

And it's picked up with the Eupatorium.

Which is Eupatorium rugosum Chocolate.

And then coming through to this Munstead Wood. It's fabulous, isn't it?

That really dark burgundy.

And then following it on with the Heuchera. This is Obsidian.

So it's just so pleasing

and I think it's because it's more tone on tone

rather than contrast.

It's just wonderful. It's that combination with foliage and flowers.

And it's so easy to forget the foliage.

But without it, it just doesn't work.

Achilleas are such wonderful plants in a border like this.

They've got this lovely airy quality.

Sort of very fine ferny foliage.

And best of all,

the flowers are horizontal because that sort of horizontal shape

it's quite hard to find.

And it's such a good counterpoint

when you've got a lot of strong verticals.

And I'm using a lot of them in the border.

They're often in these wonderful slightly offbeat colours.

And they also tend to open quite dark,

a quite intense colour, and then they fade

to this lovely sort of pale shade.

So they change and I really like that.

You often get two or three of the different shades on the plant at the same time.

That's really very effective.

And of course they're also wonderful

for attracting wildlife and butterflies just love them.

So my little girls will like that.

This section's nearly done now.

Just getting one more Heuchera in.

It's called I think Peach Flambe.

Yes, and it's the sort of Heuchera I would normally have ignored.

I'd have thought, I don't like that.

But then you see it here in this combination.

There's a sedum here called Chocolate.

Chocolate and Peach Flambe, all very delicious sounding.

And it's just got a red stem.

And just look at that with the leaf and the red stem.

I think that's wonderful. I love the way it goes into that rose. Jubilee Celebration.

This whole bit I think looks really pleasing.

Stipa tenuissima, Scabios Chile Black and Achillea Terracotta

will work well in full sun and they look a bit out of the ordinary.

Carex buchananii, Echinacea Art's Pride and Heuchera Peach Flambe

combine just the right subtle peachy pink overtones

that are perfect in the border.

Putting plants with similar tones together

like Scabios Crimson Cushion,

Eupatorium rugosum Chocolate and dark penstemons

will carry your eye through the border.

That's it. It's done!

All the plants in.

That's almost the gardening ambition of my lifetime I think.

I know it's only a border

but for me it's a really big deal

and I've waited a long time to do it.

And this is how the border looked a year later.

Now, just like Rachel, schools up and down the country

are getting children involved with gardening.

So our next J is for junior gardeners.

And we're meeting the next generation of garden designers

at their school in Hampshire.

It's hard to believe they're only seven.

They have a real passion for gardening.

Gardening committee started about five years ago.

At the time we felt a lot of the children really had no idea

of where their food came from or the names of fruits and vegetables.

And so we decided a vegetable garden would be a good idea.

We grow vegetables and fruit.

We grow lots of apple trees and pears, carrots, beetroot.

Rhubarb and radish. Lots of other things.

-Might be a bit tough.

-Me me me me!

Peas, please!

I go to Hampton Court every year.

I thought it would be a really nice idea

for the children to try to design a garden for Hampton Court.

I was very excited when my teacher told me.

Because I've never been to Hampton Court and I never knew what it was.

There's thousands of people there so it's going to be exiting.

The children have done most of the work.

They planned it on paper, cutting up bits to show the pond and the vegetable garden.

And then they planned it out on the playground.

I was just there pointing them in the right direction.

Come over here, see what we should be doing.

Fortunately a former parent is a garden designer.

And she offered to transfer their design

and make it look a bit more grown up really.

The pond's supposed to be in the corner.

From the beginning we've not wanted it to be expensive

because our school's based very much on community involvement.

Making things ourselves, doing it ourselves.

Not things costing a huge amount of money.

We've grown the vegetables and the sweet peas

and we've bought some plants in small

and then we've been growing them on.

Because that's a cheaper way of doing it.

That one's being really naughty!

They love being in the garden.

One of their favourite things is weeding.

They just love it. Weeding and digging.

If you could give them a hoe and a fork or a spade,

they would be in the garden all day.

I like picking vegetables and growing vegetables.

And planting seeds and digging up weeds

so we don't get loads of weeds in our garden.

I like the digging best cos when you first hit the soil with the spade

it's quite tough and it builds your strength.

We're not going to Hampton to build

because it would be quite dangerous for us.

Because we're smaller than everybody else.

And you don't actually know how to build and stuff.

The last thing the children can do is to box them up and wrap them up

so they don't get damaged and send the plants off safely in the lorry.

We are just youngsters and mostly the people that are there are grown ups.

I think it's going to do really well because we've put a lot of effort into it

and we're going to do really well.

ALL SHOUT

Think we'll definitely get first.

So everything got here in one piece then?

Yes, it did, it came up in a friend's van and it all arrived safely.

-It's quite an undertaking.

-It is. Very scary.

But it's brilliant.

Do you think it accurately reflects what you've done at school?

I hope so. It certainly looks like the design

and that's what they're very familiar with.

So hopefully they will think it looks exactly like it.

It's going to be lovely for them to see it in real life.

They're very excited, they can't wait to come.

I love this little vegetable patch.

But there are a few things about it that look strange.

Is this some sort of experiment?

Yes, it is. We garden organically so we don't use any chemicals.

And we set up an experiment to try and foil our slugs,

which keep eating our veg.

-They are dastardly!

-They are!

So they were convinced they would make their fortune

by discovering a new slug deterrent!

-So did the children decide what to use?

-They did.

So some are a big vicious. Pointed sticks was a little vicious I felt.

And holly leaves.

But jam was the best

and I wasn't convinced about the jam and I said why do you think jam?

They said we think they'll be so busy eating the jam, that they won't touch the lettuces!

-And did it work?

-No.

I don't think we'll make our fortune quite yet.

I think it's a fantastic experiment, the whole thing,

and a wonderful example to other people in schools too.

-And I just hope the judges agree with me.

-So do I.

-Sure they will!

What a great way to get children gardening!

And in case you were wondering, they got a gold medal that year.

Now, we all know the majority of plants love a bit of warmth.

But there are a few who can't wait to get a bit of fresh air.

So let's get our gear ready because up next we're abseil planting.

J is for juniper, a tree that loves a bit of altitude

as Juliet Morris finds out.

These guys may look like extreme sports enthusiasts,

but they are in fact part of a very special conservation effort.

Right, Dave, what's happening here today?

We're going to do a bit of tree planting today.

These chaps here.

-What are these?

-These are yellow juniper trees.

Right, so where are we going to plant them?

-We're going to plant them up there.

-Up there?

-Yeah.

Up on that nice crag, yes.

Get these to the other side of the wall.

Just down here. By the two little stiles.

And then the rest of it I'm afraid is a bit more vertical.

It's slippy ground.

So I'd like you to go in twos.

Jut in case one of you has a fall.

We've got a first aid kit.

Although probably not going to help you if you break anything.

I'm staying with you!

These hardy folk are part of the Cumbria Wildlife Trust project.

Around 3000 juniper seedlings have been planted already,

and today the team will be looking to plant about 100.

But getting to the site is a bit of a hike.

This is Long Crag on the lower reaches of Helvellyn.

Even on a rather lovely day like today, this is hard terrain.

But for these guys, whatever the weather, they've got no choice but to be out here planting

because they've got to get the juniper seedlings in before the end of April.

The common juniper is one of only three conifers native to the UK.

In the old days, it was grown for its berries,

which were used to flavour gin.

But cheaper berries from abroad and changing agricultural practices here in Britain

meant its numbers went into decline.

Since the 1970s nearly half of all juniper has gone.

And the species is now mostly found

in remote upland areas of northern England and Scotland.

So, Dave, these are obviously the junipers here.

How old are these?

These will probably be about three years old.

That's how long it takes to take them from the seed at the nursery

up to the stage where they're ready to plant out.

And just establish, is it a juniper tree or a juniper bush?

I've heard it referred to as both.

The juniper's a strange species in that it grows in both forms

depending on where it is and what sub species it is.

But up on the high fells they tend to be stunted

by the thin soils and the harsh weather conditions

so they tend to be fairly small shrubby things.

But they can grow to sort of eight, nine metres,

proper tree height, in different conditions.

And why is there such a problem at the moment with the juniper species?

It's not a new problem, it's a longstanding problem really.

In that the way that mankind uses the landscape has obviously changed.

And here in particular sheep grazing has been a major problem

in that the sheep can eat the young juniper while they're still tender.

As they get older they're a bit more prickly so they're less palatable.

But the problem is that the older shrubs get to a point where they no longer produce viable seed

and even when they do the seedlings get nibbled away by sheep,

rabbits, deer and other animals.

Hence planting them in these more inaccessible areas.

We're basically trying to get them into places

that the sheep can't easily get to.

How long do junipers live for?

They can live for 200, 250 years.

Again it depends on the conditions where they're actually growing.

So why is it important to try and preserve juniper,

to try and re-establish the species in the way you're doing?

I think any species is worth conserving in its own right.

But obviously conservationists like to have a nice diverse range of species and habitat.

Bio diversity is what we're about trying to achieve.

The juniper has a real niche in the habitat here.

It sort of was the area where the woodland

and the tree line started to fade away

and you got into the heathland and the like and habitats of the high fells.

So you get that shrubby juniper that would create a habitat between the two.

It's very good for supporting various birds.

The fruit, the seeds, provide food for passage migrants

in the autumn/winter.

Things like red wing and fieldfare.

In the breeding season it provides good breeding habitat

for song thrushes, stonechats, windchats, that kind of thing.

Right, well, these guys

have clearly got their work cut out so I'm going to give them a hand.

All for the love of a juniper tree.

Andy, I have never abseiled before in my life.

-And you're assuring me it's all right?

-Absolutely, yeah.

Let's get the harness on you first. Grab hold of that. Take your gloves off.

These juniper trees had better know how much people care.

So that goes round your waist.

Before you do the buckle up, reach down between your knees and pull that.

That was very polite! Between your knees.

That is absolutely safe.

Am I going in the right direction?

Now don't get your ropes mixed up.

Oh! Don't look down.

Never look down.

Yes!

I've made it.

-LAUGHS:

-Oh!

That's the practice run over.

Now it's time to do my bit for the juniper.

So what sort of a spot, Dave?

I can see a ledge further down below.

We can probably get on to that.

We should be able to get some plants into there.

Oh! I'm not a great expert at this, I'm afraid.

You're doing well for a beginner. You're doing OK.

I'm amazed that they can grow on something like this, to be honest.

-It is amazing but the roots will go down into the rock cracks.

-Right.

And they get the moisture from there. And hopefully they'll survive.

We probably only get two or three out of about ten that we plant.

-Oh really?

-So...

Two or three is better than none

and I challenge any sheep to try and get round here!

That's it.

So spots that have got heather presumably are a good find?

That means there's education there, and some soil and things like that.

-So I reckon I can fit one in this...

-One more plant.

-In this little crag.

Little crevice, even.

-What do you reckon, will he be all right in there?

-That'll be OK.

Put the soil back again.

-You did very well.

-Grow, junipers, grow!

Though not all of these seedlings will reach maturity,

enough of them should survive to ensure that this ancient and important plant

is part of the British landscape for centuries to come.

As we're reaching the end of today's programme,

it's time for a few more practical planting tips.

And for our last pick,

we chose a flower that will fill your garden with perfume all night long.

Our last J is for jasmine.

And Alice Fowler is a fan of both the plant and the insects it can attract.

One of the joys of summer is being able to sit outside in the evening

and that's made even more pleasurable

if you can sit and smell something lovely.

So I'm going to make a pot which has a really heady evening scent.

I'm not just doing it so I can have a nice time outside in the evening

but hopefully it will attract lots of moths.

Now, the thing about moths

is they need something which has got good strong evening scent.

And it's all the better if they're pale coloured flowers.

Because they're easier to see in dusk.

And I've chosen this jasmine, which just smells divine.

It's called Jasminum grandiflorum De Grasse.

And it comes from grass which is the centre of the perfume industry in the south of France.

And it's actually used in the perfume industry

and you can tell because it's got this very very sweet floral citrusy scent.

And beautiful very large flowers.

The only drawback with this jasmine is that it's not hardy.

So it can't be kept outside, hence why I'm growing it in a pot.

Because I can bring it into the conservatory in the winter.

It doesn't necessarily need to be a heated conservatory

but it does need to be frost free.

And the trick with jasmines is to be slightly neglectful over the winter.

So you see that they're dry, wait a couple of days,

and then water them.

And because they don't like to sit in winter water,

I'm making sure the compost is very free draining,

so I've done one part grit to three parts compost.

I'm just giving it a good mix in.

And the way to keep a jasmine happy is not to pot it up too much.

So you really just want to go the next size up.

This is slightly a bit of a leap.

So I'm adding Nemesia, an easy tender perennial bedding plant,

which provides loads of glowing blooms to attract moths.

And will help to fill in the pot until the jasmine gets established.

Jasmines flower on new growth

so for this year you don't have to do anything

but next year just once it finishes flowering, just a gentle haircut,

just to keep it nice and bushy in the right shape.

And then it needs a nice sunny spot for the summer.

And I guarantee that the moths will come and visit it.

As we've had quite an international feel today,

did you know that jasmine is the national flower in the Philippines and Indonesia,

where it's used in weddings because it symbolises purity?

Well, you do now.

We'll have more top tips on our next A To Z Of TV Gardening.

But that's all for today. See you soon. Goodbye.

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