Letter E The A to Z of TV Gardening

Hello and 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 E.

Here's what's coming up.

We meet a self-confessed euphorbia fanatic.

I'm a euphorbia freak. I can't...

Euphoric about euphorbia just doesn't say it.

-Jay Rayner satisfies his taste buds.

-In my book, flowers are for eating.

Who will edge ahead in the Gardener of the Year competition?

-You're like a machine. You look like you've done it loads of times.

-I've got quite a few edges at home.

And there's no such thing as too much enthusiasm when it comes to eucalyptus.

What really does flick my horticultural switch,

what makes my chlorophyll boil with excitement is this one,

the world's rarest eucalyptus tree.

Just some of the treats we have in store.

There's nothing like a garden full of flowers,

but sometimes plants give us an amazing first season and then nothing.

Here's a flower that's not only very resistant to all weather conditions,

but also returns year after year.

Our first E is for echinacea

and to get us started, here's Toby Buckland.

Our coneflower, or echinacea, experiment

has come into full bloom and it's just stunning.

We started this off last year to compare 25 different varieties,

some old, some new, basically in response to the fashion

for growing late-season perennial borders.

In recent years, breeders have been working hard to produce new types of echinacea,

but, the thing is, the more highly bred a plant, the larger the flowers,

the more unusual or different it is from the species,

the less robust it is, the less likely it is to come through the winter.

Many gardeners have been disappointed with the newest or latest varieties

as they haven't done well in their gardens.

You've got to give them a five star planting treatment, and that's what we did.

We dug out the border, added lots of grit

and the border slopes from the back to the front, just to increase that drainage.

You can see how well most of these plants did,

despite the challenging conditions.

The planting wasn't enough for us, we experimented as well.

We cut down a certain number of the plants,

or at least removed the flowers, and the top third of foliage at planting time.

On some varieties, it made a tremendous difference.

The Green Envy, that's a prime example.

The plant that was chopped down is almost twice the size

of the one that was simply planted.

With echinacea Summer Sky, cutting down and made all the difference.

The plants that were left have completed kicked the bucket,

whereas the one at the back that got the chop,

look at it, full of flower and looking beautiful, and what flowers they are.

They've got these slightly recurved petals.

That means they point backwards down towards the stem. Lovely.

You've got to see this one to believe it. Tiki Torch.

Again, a good flower, but an amazing orange colour.

Lovely cones with orange in them so the whole plant matches together.

What I like about it is that it has particularly long flower stems.

If you like your cut flowers, this one would be perfect.

White Swan, on the other hand, didn't mind if it was planted or cut down.

It made no difference.

Full of flower, very robust,

no matter what the weather threw at it.

Conversely, Art's Pride,

the echinacea that so many gardeners have struggled with.

What we've found is that by cutting it back, sacrificing the blooms

in its first year, its first late summer,

it makes all the difference to how well the plant establishes.

Look how bonny these two are, chopped down at planting time,

whereas this row is spindly at best and dead at worst.

But like all echinaceas, to keep them going towards the end of the summer,

the old trick - dead-heading.

Snip back the blooms down to three buds from where the flower starts,

because, from there, you get nice strong regrowth

and healthy buds that won't flop or fall to the ground so readily.

So, on balance, our experiment has shown that it's definitely worth

cutting back echinacea at planting,

even if this means sacrificing the flowers.

This helps redirect the plant's energy underground,

increasing the chances of survival.

And if your garden is full of echinacea,

do you know about the medicinal uses there are for this flower?

Here's James Wong and how echinacea can help keep the stress of life at bay.

This is the undisputed king of herbal medicine, Echinacea purpurea,

and we've just caught it at the end of its flowering.

If you've ever heard of a medicinal plant, it is probably this one.

Traditionally used to help fight off infection,

echinacea has become big business.

It gets its Latin name from the Greek, "echinos', meaning hedgehog.

The centre of the flower head has these bright red spines.

You might already have it growing in your garden unbeknownst to you.

It's actually also an extremely popular garden plant.

They just use a different name for it. Purple coneflower.

Echinacea flowers look great in the garden.

It would be good to get a nice juicy one.

And when they die down in the autumn, you can use the roots to make you feel better.

-Do you want a go?

-Yes, go on.

I'm happy to eat a carrot with a bit of dirt on it.

It is surprising. When you first put it on your tongue, it's sweet,

-and then it starts to sting but not in an unpleasant way.

-Absolutely.

Echinacea is known for its strong metallic taste, which some people don't like,

so I've have come up with a fun way to help the medicine go down.

Echinacea contains immune-boosting chemicals called alkylamides.

Also, polyphenols, which are anti-viral.

I'm putting them in an ice lolly.

The polyphenols kill germs while alkylamides increase the amount

of white blood cells in the bloodstream

that fight off infection.

The first stage of my ice lolly recipe

is to make an echinacea tincture, which is an infusion using alcohol.

All parts of the echinacea plant can be used.

The roots, the leaves, the flowers, stems - whatever.

But the part that's traditionally used most is the root.

The older the root, the more concentrated the chemicals are likely to be.

And if you can't get hold of fresh fruit,

you can buy dried from big health food shops.

Add 20 grams of the chopped root and 80 millilitres of vodka.

All you've got to do is pour it into a container

and keep it in a cool, dark place, so your kitchen cupboard.

After two weeks, your vodka and echinacea will have become a tincture.

And instead of being clear vodka,

you end up with this slightly off-tea colour.

That's a sign the chemicals have come out and are floating around the vodka.

Now you need to strain the woody bits of root out.

And then you'll have a tincture that's ready to use.

Most people take echinacea as a couple of drops in a glass of water

and, apart from tasting miserable, it feels like taking medicine.

Today, I've decided to make an ice lolly to satisfy my sweet craving.

First, chop two chillies

and roughly slice about three inches of ginger.

It might seem strange to add chilli and ginger into ice lollies

but it creates a really sophisticated adult flavour -

something not unsurprising in a really posh cocktail.

Pop the ginger and chilli into a medium saucepan

and pour on about 800 millilitres of cranberry juice.

Stir in one pack of gelatine to give the lolly a soothing, slippery texture.

And then add 16 tablespoonfuls of honey.

Honey is antiseptic.

It was used in the mummification process to stop bacteria

breaking down the bodies of dead Pharaohs.

I'm going to pop these on the heat.

And let it simmer for a couple of minutes.

After about two minutes, take it off the heat, strain the mixture and leave it to cool.

I'm going to pop in the juice of two lemons, and it really complements the honey.

Honey and lemon is a classic combination for a cold.

Last but certainly not least, the real star of the show, echinacea.

To make eight lollies, add 16 teaspoons.

If you buy your tincture, only use the recommended daily dose.

OK, I know it's an ice lolly, but don't forget,

it's got a drop of alcohol in it, so it's not one for the kids.

Not the kind of way you'd expect to take your medicine,

but the kind of way I like to take mine.

It's hot and cold at the same time.

It's cold because it's an ice lolly,

but it's hot from the ginger and the chilli that give it a kick,

and the echinacea anaesthetises your whole tongue.

Each of my lollies has one typical dose of echinacea.

Take one a day for up to two weeks when you feel under the weather.

Roots have so many uses.

They can pick you up when you're feeling ill,

but they can also calm you down when the pressure of life gets just too much.

Gardening is a wonderful way to get rid of stress

and what could be more relaxing

than a plant that needs almost no care at all?

Our next E is for euphorbia.

Carol Klein is about to visit the national euphorbia collection

in Sheffield but, first, she's enjoying them in the wild.

In woodlands all over the south of England,

are hundreds of colonies of this native stalwart.

Euphorbia is one of the biggest genus in the world,

but of it, only about 140 species can be grown under our garden conditions.

We've got our own wild forms of it, of course.

This beautiful Euphorbia amygdaloides - the wood spurge.

You've probably seen it as you've been whizzing by.

It lines road verges and tumbles up and down the woods.

It's a magnificent plant.

First of all, in the spring, these stems emerge

with whirls of symmetrical leaves right the way up.

Gradually, the flower stem is thrust from them.

It's like a crosier.

It leans its head and, gradually, it stands up straight.

These big, vivid bracts come out.

They're there to announce its presence,

not to us, but the insects that it needs to pollinate it.

But the flowers themselves are contained deep within.

They're tiny. Minute.

What a glorious sight it is.

Euphorbia's cultivated cousins

are to be found in gardens all over the country.

But where better to savour the delights of euphorbias

than by visiting a national collection?

And this one has such an unlikely home,

on an allotment just outside Sheffield.

Here you'll find 134 different species and cultivars

that have been collected and lovingly nurtured by retired teacher Don Witton.

It's beautiful, Dom, it really is lovely,

but what were the first euphorbia you ever grew?

They're here, Carol, the first two I got.

Both freebies, being a Yorkshireman. Owt for nowt.

Euphorbia robbiae, with its deep evergreen foliage,

and cyparissias, the dainty little one.

-It's a thug!

-They're both thugs.

It wasn't love at first sight, obviously,

but when I realised the two different foliages were part of the same genus, I was fascinated.

-You got hooked.

-I got hooked.

I started tracking them down all over Britain.

Wherever you are, are you constantly thinking about euphorbias?

I'm a euphorbia freak. I can't...

Euphoric about euphorbias just does not say it.

There's a euphorbia for every part of the garden, whether it's sunny rockery,

scree, evergreen, because half the collection are evergreen,

the other half are deciduous, die down for the winter, out of the 130 I've got.

You've beautiful Euphorbia myrsinites over there

-and that's one...it's a hillside splurge.

-I've seen it.

I've tracked them down.

My euphorbia passion has taken me all over Europe

to see them in the wild.

I've seen them growing out of cracks in rocks and all sorts.

When they grow in my soil, they think they're having a birthday.

As euphorbias can be quite promiscuous,

Don takes cuttings to maintain the integrity of this national collection.

Because of the toxic nature of the sap,

it's a good idea to wear gloves.

Don dips the cuttings in a hormone rooting powder to encourage them to develop roots.

One of his top tips is always to leave the cuttings uncovered.

If you had to recommend, say three...

-It is horrible that, isn't it?

-That's a devil of a job.

It's like, what's your favourite plant? It's an awful question.

The polychromas is still my favourite species.

-Midas is my favourite one.

-Yellow.

-Polychroma "Midas".

It's got the Midas touch.

It's going to continue growing for another month and just swamp itself in those acid bracts.

If that's your best of the best, what else do you like?

If I had to list the next one, it would be another deciduous form,

one from the Himalayas that will be flowering at the end of June and July.

It has got fabulous foliage, as you can see. You want to know its name.

It's Euphorbia donii.

And I'm afraid, just like this Don isn't, it's strong and handsome.

-And upright and well behaved.

-Upright. Is it well behaved?

-It is.

It's a nice clumper. You won't get seedlings. It doesn't run.

And what about some of the ones that are like our native ones?

-What about the amygdaloides?

-I've got the red leaf version.

It looks absolutely fabulous at the minute.

I do have one or two cyparissias that we let loose.

You don't have any choice with that.

-It goes exactly where it wants.

-It's a mischievous little rascal.

You name a garden situation and I can tell you a euphorbia that will slot in there.

Dry shade, full sun, swamps, verges...

Do you know what? I think you could probably tell me several.

I prob... How did you guess, Carol?

Don's divine allotment demonstrates

the diversity and usefulness of this broad-ranging species.

There's everything from our native wood spurge that loves the shade

through to great towering Mediterranean beauties.

And exotic species from the Himalayas.

The it's not as though this was the end of it.

At the moment you can see bare soil,

but you give it a couple of months and this whole thing

will have exploded into this bounty of growth

and, what's more, it will go on looking wonderful.

Euphorbias providing their beauty right the way through until

the end of the autumn.

Still to come, flowers you can eat, how elm trees are returning to our landscape

and tips on making elderflower champagne.

But first, an E that is an essential addition

to any gardener's set of skills.

This E is for edging, and here it's competition time.

Four contestants, experts judging their edging techniques

and, taking on commentator duties, Joe Swift and Carol Klein.

And here are the rules of the game with supervisor Bernard Boardman.

The finalists will have a section of the Wisley late summer borders

to edge in exactly the same time as it is going to take me.

The best tools for the job are these long-handled edging shears.

There are some key things to remember when you are edging lawns

if you want to do a really good job.

The top blade is the cutting blade and therefore the one that moves.

The bottom blade is for guidance,

and you must keep that as still as possible.

Remember to use the whole blade, not just the tip.

You must pick up all the clippings to reveal a nice, clean edge.

We'll be marking the finalists on their technique,

their overall proficiency and the quality of the finish.

That's taken me four minutes. Piece of cake!

-Finalists, your time starts now.

-WHISTLE

It'll be interesting to see whether they go for speed or quality with this event, don't you think?

There's points for technique as well as getting the job done.

What would you do?

I think I'd go for three minutes of cutting and leave a minute for picking up at the end.

Three minutes to go!

Can you hear that lovely crisp, crunch sound of Bob's shears?

He's using the whole blade to cut. Great technique.

Look, Kandida's opted for tidying up the clippings as she goes along.

You're always going to be tidy that way, and she's got a good cutting technique too.

-Morris is going for quite a big angle.

-He's very upright as well.

His back's nice and straight. Look at him. He's steaming along!

Go on, Morris!

One minute to go!

He's doing brilliantly.

I don't think Chung is going to finish.

-But what she's done, she's done pretty well.

-WHISTLE

Stop what you're doing!

Bob, you like a little machine.

-You look like you've done it loads of times.

-I have got quite a few edges at home.

-You didn't tidy up all the trimmings.

-I didn't have time.

-How did it go?

-I have no clue.

-You cut all the way along.

-About two-thirds of the clippings. Nice and neat. Very neat edging.

-Thank you.

-Well done.

They were making different noises when they were cutting.

Yes, the two contestants I was watching,

I was quite confident that Bob was going to finish the task

because the noise his shears were making,

you could hear it crunching through the grass.

She was snapping at it and was much more erratic, like a pair of scissors, snipping.

-How did you get on?

-I think it was OK.

-You clipped all the way along. Did you clean everything up?

-Pretty much, I think so.

-Nice and clean and straight?

-That sort of thing, yes.

I thought Kandida had a lovely technique.

Very controlled, very methodical. Yeah, full credit to her for that.

Morris, you've clipped all the way along and you've tidied up.

-You time-management was perfect.

-Thank you.

-Are you pleased?

-Reasonably.

I could go again to get a few of the rough edges off.

-Not bad for four minutes.

-No, that's true.

-Well done.

Morris flew down that edge.

He did incredibly well to complete the task in the time.

Do you think you are going to take them on as staff?

Well, we've got vacancies.

Whoever would have thought that cutting the edge of your grass could be so exciting?

It was wonderful.

We've got a tie. Bob and Morris.

And hot on their heels, Kandida.

That leaves you, Chung, in fourth place, but I thought you were all absolutely fantastic.

Morris and Bob edged ahead there.

In case you were wondering, it was Bob who won the Gardner of the Year contest overall.

It's sometimes said that summer isn't truly here until our next item has come into blossom.

This E is for elder tree.

And we are Jay Rayner for some refreshing summer drinks.

If you take a few of these, add a large number of these,

and mix it all together with loads of water and sugar, you get this,

a long refreshing drink that tastes of summer.

In fact, the elderflower is believed to herald the start of the summer

and its berries, the end.

The elder is a very traditional English plant

that you'll find in hedgerows, on the edge of woodlands and even on scrubland.

It grows very easily, it's very English, its name comes from the Saxon for fire or kindling

and it's very good for starting fires with in winter.

We've got one here. Does it have any other uses?

It's been used in herbal medicines for many years.

A lot of organic gardeners use the leaves to make spray to deal with aphids.

At this time of year, we've got the flowers

with their fantastic perfume that comes off them

and later in the year you'll have the beautiful berries

which give a very distinctive flavour to any wines or pies you care to put them in.

Until recently, elderflower cordials or wine may have seemed like old fashioned brews

that your auntie might have made, but this is the year of the elderflower.

The flowers are free and it's easy to make, or so my wife tells me.

But here in the Beaver Valley, a small family business

has taken the ancient hedgerow plant and grown it commercially,

building up a thriving enterprise making the cordial from an old handed-down recipe.

It went out of fashion for a while, didn't it? Why you think that is?

Back in the 19th century, an awful lot more drinks were home-made -

lemonades, ginger beers and elderflowers were very popular.

In the 20th century, we had Coca-Cola. "Let's be modern."

Now I think there's a move back to some of these older drinks

made from real wholesome ingredients.

All the elderflowers are hand-picked.

-It's reflective.

-It is very reflective.

These cultivated fields are used for organic cordials,

but the ordinary stuff can be made from any old elderflower that grows along the road.

-And it is.

-People pick it on their farms, paddocks,

the back of industrial estates. It's all good stuff. It comes in beautifully.

Families go picking, fill the car up and send it to us,

and we pay them cash on the nail for a farm gate purchase.

Just down the lane, we found Robert,

who picks the flowers in his spare time.

Have you been doing this for long?

About two or three years now.

It's in the Grantham Journal,

the headline is, "Money does grow on trees."

-Do you like doing it?

-I enjoy it.

Someone who never stops working throughout the six weeks of harvesting is Phyllis Howard.

She's been making the cordial to the original family recipe for a quarter of a century.

What is the secret to a really good elderflower cordial?

It's quite a simple recipe. There's only four ingredients other than the elderflower.

-Water, citric acid, lemons and sugar.

-Very simple indeed.

-A very simple.

It's the pollen that gives it the flavour.

A good, fresh, clean smell when it's brought in is essential.

And a bit of tender loving care.

The cordial is all very well, but what I want to try are the alcoholic versions.

Tell me, how hard is it to make booze out of elderflower?

It's very simple. Elderflower bubbly is probably the easiest thing of all.

All you need for that is three of the flower heads, some sugar,

white wine vinegar and some lemons, mix them up with a gallon of water, it's delicious, it's refreshing.

-What is this?

-This is elderflower wine.

Slightly more complicated to make in that you need to get the petals off the stalks

and it's going to ferment for four to five months.

I could get a taste for that.

There's something wonderfully British about the aroma and the taste of elderflower.

Exploiting them is using something you might just find at the end of your garden or a country lane.

Did you know the elder tree is supposed to hold special powers?

Guess what Harry Potter's wand was made of.

Elder.

A tree that could have done with special powers is next on our list.

E is for elm tree.

Let's join Christine Walkden for a little history lesson.

The elm was once one of our most common trees

and was lovingly depicted by our best-known landscape painter,

John Constable.

But around 40 years ago, they started to die off in their hundreds of thousands.

They had fallen prey to Dutch elm disease.

-REPORTER:

-One more dying elm disappears from the skyline.

This one was felled today in north London.

In the end, millions of trees were killed.

These days, you hardly hear anything spoken about Dutch elm disease.

Is that simply because it's been cured or has every elm tree in Britain been killed?

So what became of Dutch elm disease?

Paul King was a tree surgeon in the '70s.

He chopped down hundreds of dead and dying Elms.

The Forestry Commission in the early days thought felling would hopefully try and contain it,

but I think that idea soon went out of the window.

It was near enough impossible to contain it, it spread so fast.

Could you see it in the landscape?

Look around now at the millions of oak trees in the landscape.

Imagine 20 million trees like that disappearing.

It was absolutely disastrous.

It was one of the worst environmental disasters the UK has ever seen.

It's called Dutch elm disease because the early research was carried out in Holland.

But what exactly is it?

Jonathan Hazell used to be the technical director

of the Arboriculture Association.

In other words, he knows a lot about trees.

Jonathan, a dead tree. Will it have been Dutch elm that has killed this?

Without doubt. That would have been brought down by Dutch elm disease.

So what is Dutch elm disease?

It's a fungus that is introduced to the tree by a beetle.

The beetle doesn't do any harm to the tree but the fungus

that's left behind blocks up some of the plumbing in the tree.

It causes the leaves to wilt and die and then the tree completely dies.

-Is it the fungus that kills the tree?

-Funnily enough, no.

It's the tree that thinks, "Heck, I don't want this fungus in my system."

-So it blocks itself.

-So it's trying to defend itself.

It's trying to defend itself and in so doing, kills itself.

The disease killed up to 99% of mature elms in the UK

and it hasn't gone away.

The reason we don't hear much about it

is that the vast majority of vulnerable giant elms have gone.

Saplings survive for a while, but largely because the beetles avoid immature trees.

The beetle likes a bark of a certain thickness,

trees that at least 15 feet tall.

Which means these smaller ones are safe for the moment.

These young trees have been cultivated by the man who once had

the job of felling dead elms.

Paul King now runs a tree nursery and he wants to revive the elm.

He took me into the heart of the Essex countryside to a magnificent

old elm that is one of the few to have avoided Dutch elm disease.

Paul has grown cuttings from this tree and they may be the best hope

that fully grown elms could once more be a common sight across the country.

Paul, why do you think this tree didn't succumb to Dutch elm disease?

There is a feeling amongst some of us that

the elm trees have been freely hybridising.

-So several elms together...

-Breeding together. Exactly.

We think this particular hybrid is not attractive to the elm beetle.

Why do you think it's worth saving?

The younger people watching this never had the chance to see

the tree in all its majestic glory.

Wouldn't it be great if we could bring that back?

Well, you don't have to answer that question, really.

Just look at that tree and it speaks enormously

about the English countryside, history, symbolism, strength.

And in his nursery, Paul now has trees that are old enough

to catch Dutch elm disease, but touch wood,

we may have got rid of it because so far, they haven't caught it.

It's early days, but there's real hope.

Work done by Paul King and a few others may mean that we can

reintroduce the majestic elm back into the English landscape.

But it could be a long time before we definitely know for certain

whether we've conquered Dutch elm disease or not.

Thanks, Christine.

Now, if you want your garden to look interesting all year round,

this next subject holds the key,

because E is for evergreens, and Joe Swift

is in a garden in Wiltshire where nothing is left to chance.

There may be death in the hedgerows

but the garden in winter can be full of untapped potential.

Iford Manor in Wiltshire is a perfect example of a garden

that doesn't just survive the colder months,

it positively thrives in winter.

It doesn't rely on flowers for impact.

Instead, it uses evergreens to create the structure

and all year-round interest.

Just like the stone statues and pillars,

the evergreens give architectural shape to the garden.

That's because Iford was home to architect and designer

Harold Peto in the early 20th century.

He was particularly inspired by Italianate style gardens.

The absolute key was getting the balance between planting

and architecture absolutely right or, as he put it, in just proportion.

So at Iford, we see structural plants and architecture working in harmony together.

But what tips can we steal from his ingenious planting of evergreens?

They can draw your eye through a space.

Act as a focal point.

Or they can stand alone as a show specimen.

And there's one in particular that at Iford does all of that

in just one corner of the garden.

This is one of my favourite evergreen shrubs.

It used to be very popular in the 17th century, but you don't see it around so much these days.

It's Phillyrea angustifolia, a member of the olive family.

It's got this lovely green foliage with a slight silvery shimmer to it.

Incredibly versatile plant too.

It can be clipped into any shape you want, but over here, it's been used in a different way.

It's been let to grow into a fully fledged shrub. Nice and loose.

Completely different habit. It looks great there too.

And just here, it is using a third way as a hedge.

I really like the way it anchors the building to the ground

and breaks up the line between the soil

and the wall behind, and the wall sets it off beautifully.

It is a tough plant and it can cope with really dry soils and strong winds.

So it's great on the coast or on a roof terrace.

Some evergreens add a natural form and structure to the garden.

These Italian cypresses echo the architecture of the pillars

and are a great way of drawing the eye upwards.

Clipping emphasises formality in the garden.

Here, they're clipped into shapes.

They create statements and focal points, but they are also

used as a stunning backdrop, almost like green theatrical set dressing.

But the failsafe evergreen plant for formality

has to be the easy-to-cut low-growing box.

You can play around with it and it falls back into shape. Nice and neat.

Crisp around the edges.

When it gets frosted or snowed on in the winter,

it looks absolutely beautiful.

Here, it's used in a very formal way

to create the whole of this parterre.

But of course, evergreens don't need to be used in a formal way at all.

This is a formal courtyard but the plants at adding the informality,

really breaking up the space.

We are looking at texture and form of the plants here.

What the plants are actually doing is breaking up the architecture.

We've got this wonderful juniper with a horizontal leaf that

contrasts wonderfully with that stone column.

And we've got that clipped choisya Aztec pearl.

Lovely, soft, rounded shape. Completely obscuring the wall behind.

It links up beautifully with that ball finial. It just picks up on that circle.

And then right in the corner, we've got a lovely Mahonia japonica,

which is coming into flower now, holding that corner beautifully.

It's going to fill this whole garden with scent when it comes into flower.

Who says evergreens are boring? Load of rubbish!

Time now for a tree that not only looks beautiful,

it can smell amazing too.

And when it comes to weather conditions, well,

it's not known to be too fussy, but overall it prefers a day like this.

Mild and lovely.

This E is for eucalyptus

and Tom Hart Dyke from Lullingstone Castle is the expert.

Out here, we've got a good collection of some 400 eucalyptus trees

and some of them, at the age of 14, I was planting.

A bit worrying. A bit early in life to do it.

I've got some great ones to show you.

This is just an awesome tree. This is the Tasmanian snow gum.

Eucalyptus coccifera.

This tree here was quite badly damaged in the last winter

but what you can see it's doing, look at all these at epicormic

growth points, and this is unique to a eucalyptus tree.

It's a fantastic way to adapt to a cold winter in this case,

but usually through fire that's gone through it.

What's amazing is these new growths appearing out of the trunk here

will be six to eight feet long by the end of this year.

What I can point out to you here is, look along here,

this is two or three weeks earlier to the growing points I've just shown you.

Look at them all bursting out.

So in three or four weeks time, this tree is going to be a mass,

like a totem pole, of leaves going up the stems.

And here we've got Eucalyptus citriodora, the lemon-scented gum.

The two names give it away. citriodora and lemon-scented.

Look at this peeling bark here. Fantastic!

Revealing this turquoise, jade-green colour.

It's a fantastic tree

because when you see it in the wilds of Queensland,

it has these glowing whites to greens to blue stems. Extraordinary!

And the smell of the Eucalyptus citriodora leaf, you can really smell it.

Crush it between your fingers.

Inhale that air straight down to your lungs and exhale.

It's really strong. One more time, I think, actually.

Fantastic smell. Gorgeous.

Straightaway you're smelling insect repellents

and your lemon-scented candles. That's where it comes from.

All these eucalyptus trees on this table

I collected myself in seed form in 1999 from south-east Australia

and in particular from Tasmania.

Most of these are going on our stand at Hampton Court this year.

One of my most exciting, most rewarding and most bizarre finds

was Eucalyptus vernicosa, or the varnish gum.

It's the world's smallest eucalyptus tree.

People say to me, "No, the label is wrong, it's not a eucalyptus tree."

But I promise you,

it's a eucalyptus grown to just two or three feet tall at the most.

And who would think you could say eucalyptus tree and rockery in the same sentence? I kid you not.

It's the only one suitable, but it is suitable for rockery.

What really does flick my horticultural switch,

what makes my chlorophyll boil with excitement is this one.

This is the world's rarest eucalyptus tree.

Eucalyptus morrisbyi. The morrisbys gum.

What I love about it is this quite circular foliage with the pink

growing points and indeed you can see from the side here

quite pinkish and reddish stems.

A fantastic plant that is hardy and not yet known in this country.

And another one which is very, very tender.

it's got the world's largest and longest eucalyptus leaf.

This is Eucalyptus tetraptera meaning square-stemmed,

referring to the square-stemmed fruit that it has.

It is too early for the fruit.

It's only a young seedling, this, but you can already start to see

these leathery, waxy, slightly glaucusly blue leaves.

Fantastic foliage. The foliage can get up to four foot long.

So you've got the world's rarest eucalyptus tree,

the world's smallest and the world's largest leaved eucalyptus tree.

Very exciting.

It makes my heart flutter with excitement that I actually collected

them myself to prove that modern-day plant hunting still continues.

Our next subject may leave you unable to look at your garden in the same way ever again.

It's all about eating,

because our final E is for edible gardens,

and it's time for another encounter with Jay Rayner.

Just marvel at these beautiful nasturtiums,

and these violas are simply stunning this time of year.

I'm a man who's not ashamed to admit how much he loves flowers

but I am not bidding for a job on Gardeners' World.

In my book, flowers are for eating.

In today's top restaurants, meals with flowers are very trendy,

unlike my food hygiene hat.

Now, major supermarkets are also offering

new ranges of salads with flowers.

It may sound a tad surreal, but there's a long culinary heritage behind cooking with flowers.

There are references to dandelions being eaten in the Old Testament

and the Victorians ate candied violets.

But what are today's flower foodies eating?

Normally, you grow salad leaves.

When somebody came to you and said I'd like you to grow flowers for food, what did you think?

I thought they were mad. But we were convinced when we started eating them ourselves.

We understood there's some colour and flavour that we can get from those leaves, so why not?

Are there any differences between the kinds of flowers you're growing here?

The violas, we've worked with our customer to make sure they actually get into the pack

and are looking good by the time the consumer gets them.

We are struggling with the nasturtiums.

They have a very delicate leaf with a lot of shape and structure,

and to wash those is quite hard at the moment.

But we are hoping we will get there maybe later this summer.

Flowers are all very pretty in their place

and there's no doubt that we eat with our eyes first, but do these

really amount to anything more than decoration on a plate?

Yorkshire-born chef Charlie Lakin is preparing me a real treat today.

There's mackerel salad with nasturtium

and a creme brulee with gorse-flower syrup.

Tell me, flowers and cookery, is it merely about what it looks like or does it have an important flavour?

I think first and foremost it's about flavour rather than the appearance.

It always looks great on a plate, but you should always look to flavour first.

-How long have you been cooking with flowers?

-Pretty much all my life.

My mum used to use them a lot in salads and making wine and jams and things like that.

It's a really exciting time of year as a chef.

Once your blossoms are coming in and your flowers.

summer is going to be here soon, and you'll be running around like an idiot!

So time to find out if flower power really delivers on taste.

The nasturtiums really are peppery, aren't they? They cut through it.

And it's a bit floral, if I'm allowed to say that. I hope I am.

-I would say so, yes.

-Creme brulee time. Good crack.

It's this sort of grassy, earthy taste, isn't it?

It's a bit like chamomile leaves.

There's a little bit of bitterness right at the back as well.

You are left with a finish of the gorse flowers, and it just lingers.

I would never have thought of flavouring a creme brulee with gorse flowers like that.

It's fantastic stuff. Thank you very much.

I would expect these genteel tastes to go down well in an English

country garden, but how about on an English country building site?

-Just stick it all in?

-Yes.

-Are you serious?

-I am serious.

Absolutely serious. Only real men eat flowers.

-Are they spiced?

-You've suddenly got the peppery ends kicking in.

-Could you imagine eating one of those in a salad?

-I don't do salad. I am not a salad man.

That's all right. Not too bad at all.

I'm not surprised that flowers can be delicious.

Their uses and flavours have been well documented in culinary history.

What surprises me is that they've taken a backseat in British cookery for so long.

Beware, British gardeners, the foodies are coming.

Mmm, lunch!

Lots of ideas there, so I hope you are feeling inspired.

That's all from us for now.

Join me next time for some more top tips on The A To Z Of TV Gardening.

Bye for now.

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