Letter H The A to Z of TV Gardening

Hello and welcome to The A To Z Of TV Gardening.

We're on a mission to dig up the best advice and guidance

from all your favourite programmes and presenters.

So join me as letter after letter, one by one,

we explore everything from flowers and trees to fruit and veg.

Everything we're looking at today begins with the letter H. Here's what's coming up.

'Sarah Raven learns about healing plants at the Chelsea Physic Garden.'

If you think that your medicine has come from a plant and from the soil,

it is somehow less threatening than the thought of it being made up

in some pharmaceutical lab.

'Why keeping hens is good for your garden.'

No matter what colour chicken you choose, they're all green.

'And Joe Swift and Toby Buckland show us how to build a herb garden.'

Yeah, it's got a childish charm.

HE LAUGHS

'Just some of the treats we have in store.'

And we start with a flower that has a wide range of colours,

a very distinctive scent and it can look great in a bouquet.

This H is for hyacinths.

'And we're off to Cambridge, home of the Hyacinth National Collection.'

I think the thing that makes me a complete and utter hyacinth nut

is the fact that every spring

you see the first little coloured shoots

appearing among the green

and then two weeks later,

the whole of the world round you seems blazing with colour.

This is the little species hyacinth

that grows in the wild in northern Iran and Iraq,

brought over into Europe in 1573

and all the varieties of hyacinths

have been raised from this one species.

My national collection at the moment comprises 170 varieties.

Some of them are fairly recent.

Some, in fact, are seedlings that I bred myself.

But the most important ones are the very old varieties

that were around in the catalogues perhaps 200 years ago

that would otherwise, unless they were conserved, be lost forever.

Always the rarest category of hyacinths were the double yellows.

I was under the impression

that the last ones disappeared nearly 100 years ago,

but lo and behold, when I got in touch with the lady in Lithuania,

she'd got this beautiful sunflower

and this itself dates from pre-1897.

I think one of the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen and extremely rare.

This variety, Diana, is my own raising.

It's taken my 12 years to get from one bulb to eight bulbs,

so unfortunately, it will never go into production

because it is very difficult to propagate.

Normally in the last weekend in March,

I open up the fields to the general public

and they come along literally in their hundreds.

And to move around amongst them, hearing the comments,

the "ooohs" when they first smell the perfume,

and to couple this with the fact that I'm saving things from extinction,

is very, very rewarding.

Of course, to me, there is a great deal of irony in this

because a number of years ago, I lost my sense of smell completely.

But my memory does take me back to the days

when I could smell them,

particularly just before dusk

on a lovely, warm day, working among the fields,

completely immersed in this beautiful fragrance.

It's an unforgettable memory

that will live with me for the rest of my life.

'So, for how to plant hyacinths, here's Monty Don.'

The scent of hyacinths can be delicious but it also can be a little bit much,

and I think one bowl in the room is enough and it's dead easy to do.

Get yourself a terracotta bulb pan.

Put a crock in the bottom to make sure the drainage is good.

Talking of drainage, it doesn't really matter what growing medium you use,

because it's not providing nourishment for the hyacinth. That's all in the bulb.

What it is providing is a rooting material

and something that will retain moisture.

Now, this is Delft Blue.

You can pack the bulbs in.

I've got 12 and I'll get all 12 into this container.

These have been prepared simply by chilling them,

which tricks it that it's winter.

If we just put a little bit of extra compost in between them

and then water them lightly and put them into a cool, dark place.

It doesn't have to be extra cold

but it shouldn't be above ten degrees.

And just keep them lightly watered.

And when you start to see the shoots appear...

..about two or three inches long,

then you can bring them into light.

The bulb thinks it's spring, it puts on a spurt of growth,

the flower bud develops quicker

and then just at the point when it's ready to open,

you bring it indoors and that extra heat

will make the flower open faster and you'll pull out that lovely fragrance.

Then when they've finished, put the whole pan outside and forget about it

until the foliage has died down, then you can gather the bulbs,

keep them for next year and plant them out into the garden.

'Thanks, Monty. Now let's explore the edible part of the garden.

'Our next H is for herbs.

'Let's first join Toby Buckland and Joe Swift

'as they embark on a new project, building a herb spiral.'

Essentially, I've got a sunny spot that's 1.6 metres wide.

And I'm going to build a spiral of stone up into the centre

about, I suppose, just above knee height.

I'm going to use this lovely sandstone

stacked up in a drystone wall. You don't need any building skills to create this project.

And these concrete blocks,

they're just for the bits of the stone wall

that spirals up that are out of sight.

-All right, Tobe?

-Hello.

-Your garden's looking great, I have to say.

-Thank you!

-What do you think of the stone?

-Beautiful. Really nice.

-Love the colour.

-I think it's going to look really good.

They do do these in America quite a lot and they work really well.

-It's just the job if you don't have much space.

-Yeah.

The first stone is laid. I'm just tilting the top

so it sort of angles upwards.

OK. And then are you going to start back-filling straight away?

-If you mark out with that sand the spiral.

-OK.

You've got to go round a couple of times

before getting into the middle to give you plenty of beds.

I can't be held responsible if you're not happy with it.

I'm trusting your designer's eye now, Joe.

Oh, stop saying that, will you?

-That's something like it.

-Well done.

Yeah, it's got a childish charm. HE LAUGHS

I knew you were going to have a go at me! I knew it!

'You can use almost any material for this job.

'Reclaimed brick, large slates,

'stones or even bottles stacked on their side.

'Now, we're keeping our costs down by using sandstone for the visible parts of the spiral

'and concrete blocks for the parts that will be buried under the soil.'

-Right, I'm going to leave you in a sec, Tobe.

-Yeah?

Because I'm going to go and sort out some of those plants that we got from Gardeners' World Live

-for the prairie border.

-Oh, nice!

So I'm going to take my childish charm somewhere else.

-OK, mate. I'll expect the invoice through the post.

-It's already in.

'The key to success with this building project is getting the foundation layer right,

'as flat as possible and on well-compacted earth.'

Now it's all about building up the sides.

I'm going to start at the lowest point

and then stack my stones one on top of the other,

gradually, incrementally, getting taller.

Now, the trick to this is simply to make the stones lean slightly inwards

so that the weight of the structure is all leaning in onto the centre.

That's what makes it strong.

And packing with good top soil in behind the stones and in any gaps.

Of course, those gaps are going to make good little niches

for plants to grow, too.

Handsome and functional at the same time.

And I tell you what, once you've got your materials together,

a project like this, well, it'll only take you about a morning to build.

'With every stone layer added, I'm firming the earth

'around the stones to strengthen the final structure.'

Actually, the raindrops hitting the foliage of a lot of these herbs,

oh, it's bringing out the fragrance.

I've got half a dozen different types of basil here.

Absolutely wonderful. And I'll plant those in a minute.

But first, the herb spiral and what it's all about.

You see, it's not just decorative.

It's a way of tailoring the soil, tailoring the sunshine to suit different types of herbs.

So in the top where the ground is most free-draining

and the sun beats on it all day,

I'm going to plant aromatic herbs like thymes and rosemary.

Oily herbs. And a lot of these are wonderful in Mediterranean cooking.

They go great with tomatoes

and they cut through the fat in meaty dishes.

The first one I'm going to put in

is actually quite an unfussy herb, oregano.

Now, I know it's probably one of the most common garden herbs,

but I use so much of this in cooking.

It's a brilliant plant for a herb spiral

because it's spreading and herbaceous,

so it forms a nice cushion of foliage...

..that covers the ground, but also,

the spreading stems will creep their way in between the stones

and help lock the whole structure together.

Now, what I use this for is marinades.

I take great handfuls of the foliage.

It's got that lovely fragrance,

sort of really aromatic, almost spicy.

And I cut them up, chop them up on a chopping board

or put them in a blender, add a bit of garlic, a bit of paprika,

and then put them over chicken. It tastes just delicious.

On the shady side,

I've got a couple of brilliant herbs

that I think every gardener should have.

Chives, cos the bees love them so much and they're lovely in omelettes,

and that can go on this side where it gets a little shade

from the brickwork and herbs in the top of the spiral.

I've also got these things, a little bit bigger, they look like chives

and, again, they've got that lovely onion flavour.

These are Welsh onions.

They're perennial onions and they're tough as tough.

They'll survive outdoors and give you pickings right through the winter

when chives perhaps aren't looking their best.

A brilliant back-door plant, this.

As long as your back door's near your kitchen,

you can't go far wrong.

'In addition to some of the more exotic herbs, I'm including culinary staples like sage and marjoram,

'which always pair well with rich foods like pork.

'And then there's parsley for flavouring delicate sauces.

'The top of the spiral, where it's drier,

'I'm putting in sun-loving Mediterranean herbs like rosemary and thyme.

'And at the bottom, those like coriander that appreciate damn, cool soil.'

This gravel adds a decorative touch

but it's also functional cos it locks moisture round the roots of the herbs,

reflects a bit of sunshine back into the foliage

and it also stops rain splashing onto the leaves,

so I can just come out straight away and pick what I want for the kitchen.

I'm going to water these in, despite this summer rain shower,

paying particular attention to the alliums,

the chives round the back of the spiral, cos they like it moist.

'And from a big project with Toby,

'we check out an easier one with James Wong

'who's using his garden herbs to get rid of pests.'

This is wormwood. Although it's effective against a range of insects,

it's particularly deadly to clothes moths.

Its Latin name is artemisia absinthium,

which really betrays the fact that it was the key ingredient

in the 19th century drink absinthe.

The plant contains a hallucinogenic and addictive substance called thujone.

What I think, however, is way more exciting than its hallucinogenic properties

is the fact that it's insecticidal and insect-repellent.

You can tell I was cool in high school.

'To ensure maximum deadliness,

'I'm going to tag-team this guy up with two other herbs

'which moths hate, sage and rosemary.

'But I'm not using them fresh. These have been drying out for a week

'which gives them a longer life.'

The thing that really repels insects is the scent of the essential oils.

So if you're buying these dried herbs,

it's important you're able to sniff them and that they produce a smell.

Making these is the dictionary definition of a no-brainer.

All you've got to do is crumble up some of these dry herbs.

By using a deadly cocktail of ingredients, these guys are not going to know what's hit them.

'For one bag, I'm using approximately

'two tablespoons each of dried rosemary, wormwood and sage.'

All you've got to do is pop this stuff into a little muslin bag.

What you're effectively creating is potpourri stuck in a bag.

'A few splashes of vodka will help release the essential oils,

'making it stronger smelling and more repellent to the insects.'

I never thought I'd catch myself making potpourri of all things.

But potpourri was originally developed as an insecticide

and it was effective and continues to be effective.

If you hide it in one of these muslin bags, your masculinity stays intact.

You hang these up and they'll last you about three months in your wardrobe.

And the great thing is, once the smell starts dying down,

if you give them a quick scrunch, you'll break up some of the cell structure,

releasing a second wave of the essential oils.

Who would've thought that chemical warfare against insects would come in a package like that?

Thanks, James. We've still got loads more to come.

Holly, hydrangeas and the power of healing plants.

But now we're looking at a feathered phenomenon

that's hitting the world of gardening. This H is for hens.

'And here's a man who couldn't be happier with his ones.'

# I'm singing boom, chick-chick, cluck-cluck-clucking

# All day long, don't you know?

# Yeah, don't you know?

# I'm singing boom, chick-chick, cluck-cluck-clucking

# All day long, don't you know?

# Yeah, don't you know?

# Now, sometimes you give me loving and sometimes you give me dough #

As far as chicken-keeping goes with me,

it started as a hobby when I was ten years of age.

It became an occupation,

I'm not going to say a great living,

when 14, 15 years ago, I took two heart attacks with cardiac arrest.

They actually gave me three months to live at one stage.

And I just had to have something to do to keep me going.

And in honesty, the chickens have kept me going.

I have a great saying. "You don't have to live in the country

"to follow a cottage economy."

You can have a small garden,

you can grow your veg and you can keep your poultry.

The food miles - nil.

No matter what colour chicken you choose, they're all green.

I'm old enough to remember when everybody had a vegetable garden

and a pen of hens in the garden. The knowledge was passed over the hedges.

Everybody... I'm not saying they were experts,

but they were knowledgeable poultry keepers.

And consequently,

-it's a thing we're losing.

-CHICKEN CLUCKS

-Oh, Flash.

-HE LAUGHS

# Everybody's talking about chicken

# Chicken's a popular word

# Everywhere you go you're bound to find

# Chicken ain't nothing but a bird #

The only thing you really need to keep a chicken happy

is, I would say, water before food,

because if they are ranging, they'll find a fair bit of food.

But it'd be water, food and a small amount of grit.

One of the things that people ask, "Are they going to wreck my garden when I get them home?"

Chickens will wreck your garden if you don't use a bit a common sense.

I think when you've got small seedlings, yes, they'll be tasty, so protect those.

They clear up all the slugs in the garden.

We also have the droppings, which we use as an accelerator on the compost.

I wish something had happened when I was 30

to kick me into touch and make me do this.

I've never been so happy in my life.

I'm so content here.

And in an evening, when everybody's gone home

and I can get a pint of shandy

and just sit down here and listen to the birds and look at the chickens,

I am so delighted. There's nobody happier on this earth.

'Don't some of those hens look amazing?

'Next in the pecking order is H for hedges.

'And here's Chris Beardshaw looking at how they can transform

'the look and feel of your garden.'

One of the most essential design tools in the garden is a boundary.

Now, suspend thoughts of blockwork and brickwork and consider hedges.

For instance, fagus sylvatica,

used here in the traveller's garden.

This may look as though it's been here a generation,

but actually it's been here about two weeks, and it's possible to buy a permanent hedge from a nursery

and all you do is nip out, mark how much you need

and they deliver it on the back of a truck.

By the time you come in from work, you've got a permanent hedge

to completely enclose the garden.

But it's not just the surround. You can also buy the divisions for the garden, as well.

For instance, these taxus baccata or common yew cubes

are used to divide the space up and create a rhythm in the garden.

And the other interesting thing is the way that they've been assembled.

Smallest through to largest.

That means that the eye dances along the top of these dark green cubes,

takes you out into the freedom of the space beyond and up into the vegetation.

You're borrowing trees from your neighbours

and the result is that this garden appears much more spacious.

'Now for a totally different style of hedge.

'The traditional countryside one.

'Adam Henson will be getting a quick crash course in how they're made.'

Hedges are a very important boundary.

They provide shelter for farm animals, for crops

and, of course, for wildlife.

Birds nest in them in the spring and they eat the berries in the winter.

And I've heard it said that there's about 100,000 miles of hedges in the UK

and they're described at the stitchwork

that makes up the patchwork quilt that is the British countryside.

A very lovely way of thinking of them. But they do need maintaining,

either trimming or laying.

'And hedgelaying takes a lot of skill, something I'm keen to learn more about,

'so I'm meeting up with Robin Dale who's working on a hedge at a neighbouring farm.'

-Robin, hi!

-Good morning.

-How are you?

-Very well.

-Isn't it beautiful for hedging?

-Super day today. Cold.

I've been told if there's any man in the country who can tell me about hedgelaying, you're the one.

I don't know about that, but yes, I'm chairman of the National Hedgelaying Society.

I've been hedgelaying for 47 years.

Goodness me. How did you get into it?

One of the key factors is, the first competition I went in, I was second.

And I earned £6.

My father was paying me £5 a week. HE LAUGHS

-So you can see that...

-That's when temptation took over.

I got into it pretty quickly.

So, not understanding hedges fully,

you've got all the brush all this side but this side's smooth.

-What's going on there?

-It stops the animals for that side, especially cattle,

from leaning over to eat the young shoots from this side

and it keeps them away from the hedge.

And when people look at a hedge,

they see the bushes growing up and they think, "That looks lovely,"

and then the next day, they see it all hacked down and chopped down.

-But there's a reason to it, isn't there?

-Well, if a hedge just carried on growing up all the time,

it would get very gappy in the bottom. That's a problem.

-The animals won't get through there.

-There's no way a sheep can get through.

-That's the whole idea.

-Go on, then, teach me how to do some hedging.

-Right, here we go!

-Gloves.

-Gloves. Lovely.

-Is that very sharp?

-Yep.

Goodness me. You could shave with that.

-Right.

-I'm going to do this one cos it's a bit stronger for you.

-So you chop it in.

-Yeah.

So you're not cutting right through so that it stays alive,

keeps attached to the root.

It wants to pull down itself.

-There, see?

-Beautiful.

-Can I give it a go?

-Yeah.

-This one?

-Yeah.

-You've cleared it round at the top.

-I don't want to get it wrong,

cos if I chop it right through, this thing's dead.

-So just down there somewhere?

-You're going to cut into it quite strongly.

Yeah, go on. Just keep...

It's hand-eye coordination. HE LAUGHS

-That's it! Absolutely brilliant.

-Whoa!

-HE LAUGHS

-That's it!

-You've done it, boy!

'Next we knock in some stakes at elbow's width apart.

'We then finish off the top with some binders.'

You use one binder per stake.

You go over

and back this side, like that.

-Over and down.

-Well, that is very impressive.

I can see why they think you're an expert. And you're really keen on teaching young people.

Well, we've got to introduce young people because they are the future

and Howard's been working with me.

-Hi, Howard.

-How you doing?

-Yeah, good.

-How did you get into it?

-I was in my mum's shed and I came across my grandfather's bill hook,

which I didn't know it was at the time, and I've been doing hedgelaying with Robin ever since.

And is it a good living? What do you charge per metre?

Well, you can charge anywhere between £7 and £15 per metre,

depending on the density of the hedge,

and obviously that includes your stakes and your binders, as well.

Wonderful. Well, I'll come back in six months' time

and see how my bit's getting on.

-Fantastic.

-I think you owe me seven quid.

-THEY LAUGH

-Thanks very much.

-See you.

'You can make a hedge out of our next subject, too,

'because our next H is for holly

'and here are Monty Don and Joe Swift again

'with the mammoth job of moving a fully mature holly tree.'

This is the spring garden

and I've got a holly that I want to move,

but it's a two-man job. Here it is.

I planted it actually as part of the hedging. It was just a loose holly,

part of a job lot I bought, but it did have a nice stem

and over the last three or four years I've been cutting off the lower branches

-and clipping the top vaguely.

-It's a nice shape.

The idea being to get a lollipop, but I think it'll look great in a pot.

-You don't like it where it is? It'd save a lot of digging.

-It would, but now you're here, we can do it.

OK. I'll go round this end.

It's a perfect time of year to do this

because the soil's moist and the plant is dormant,

so you can do this any time through the winter as long as it's not frozen solid.

The first thing we're doing is digging a trench all the way around the root ball.

It's a way of root-pruning it

and getting the root into a manageable size so we can lift it

and put it into a pot.

And the better that we look after the roots when we're extracting it, the better it will transplant.

# Have a holly, jolly Christmas

# It's the best time of the year

I'm glad to see you're sweating away, as well, cos I certainly am.

-It's very mild for this time of year.

-It is.

It's not the hard work or the unfitness, it's the weather.

THEY LAUGH

# Oh, by golly, have a holly, jolly Christmas this year #

A nice, compact mass of roots

neatly cut all the way around and underneath

is going to give the plant a fighting chance.

Ooh, yeah, go on. If you do that, I'll...

That's almost it, Monty.

-I'll lean it this way.

-OK, I'll just...

-I think that's almost there.

-Ooh, yeah, there you go.

-Has that gone?

-Yeah.

-Brilliant.

-Beautiful, isn't it?

-Let's have a look at that.

-See, that's good, isn't it?

-That's a really nice root ball, lots of fibrous roots.

And not too deep. We've got to get it into there.

Do you really have to get it into that? Is it going to stay in there forever?

No, that's just to hold it until I find a nice pot and then we can make a feature out of it.

My concerns are that we've got a nice root ball, we'd have to trim it back even further,

put the plant under more stress, and with a lovely root ball like that, you don't want to lose it.

-Erm...

-OK. Plan B.

If you find yourself, as we have here,

with a really good root ball on something that's been a lot of work to take out and you value highly,

there's no reason why you can't heel it in.

Put it somewhere, in the vegetable plot if need be,

until you find the right container,

rather than destroy the root ball just to fit a pot that you happen to have.

-That plastic pot is worth a 50th of what the plant is worth, isn't it?

-Yeah.

One, two, three, go.

Lovely job! Now, I've got bad news for you.

-HE LAUGHS

-What?

-It's got a flat tyre?

-It's got a flat tyre!

-No!

-Oh, no! Always check the barrow!

-Try it.

-It should be all right, it's got a bit of air in it. Have you got it?

-Yeah.

Ohh.

It's not going to go through the gap in the hedge!

Right!

-Here?

-Now, obviously...

Normally, if you're moving a tree,

you prepare the hole you're moving to

before you even begin to dig it up.

But because we thought it was going in a pot, we haven't done that. So, more digging.

There we go.

And what will happen is, the roots, because they've been pruned,

will grow a fibrous extension. They won't grow out as they were before.

Now, that's really good news. In fact, all nurseries do this to trees they're going to sell.

They root-prune them, dig them up and move them,

get a nice, compact root ball as a result.

So this will do no harm at all to making it suitable for planting into a container when I get the container.

Right, if I hold that, will you fill round it?

# Have a holly, jolly Christmas

# It's the best time of the year #

It goes to show that even the most experienced gardeners need a plan B sometimes.

On our next item, we're finding out how the world of plants

and the world of medicine sometimes overlap.

This H is for healing plants.

'Here's Sarah Raven visiting the famous Chelsea Physic Garden

'to find out about nature's healing secrets.'

'Back in the 17th century,

'plant medicine was surrounded by myth and folklore.

'But thankfully, good practice prevailed,

'and the founding of the Chelsea Physic Garden

'on the banks of the Thames in 1673 marked a significant advance,

'with the key purpose of training apprentice apothecaries.

'Curator Rosie Atkins explains.'

It's very important to put it into the historical context.

1665, you had the Black Death,

and then 1666, you had the Great Fire Of London.

-Yes, absolutely.

-And London was in economic collapse,

as well as in a terrible state health-wise.

And the apothecaries had been given a charter by James I

and they were looking for somewhere to grow their plants

to make their medicines.

So it really always has been and is still a teaching garden.

Absolutely. I think Sir Hans Sloane described it beautifully as

a garden dedicated to the study of useful plants.

And I call it London's oldest outdoor classroom

because, of course, now we teach children as well as adults

about the value of these plants in our everyday life.

'Rosie took me to see some of her favourites.'

-So this is the opium poppy?

-Yes. Papaver somniferum.

It's such a lovely plant. I love it. I love the flowers and the pods.

-It looks so innocent, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

Where does the opium come from?

Well, they actually scratch these pods and the gum comes out of them

and then it's collected.

But this is another, like the pomegranate, a very ancient herbal remedy.

This was also used by the Arabs when it was decreed

by their religious laws that they could not drink alcohol.

So they would then smoke opium.

And then that was how the whole thing started.

And they were trading opium with the Romans.

But it's been an immensely helpful plant in medicine.

Mainly the anaesthetic properties are what we use it for now.

Absolutely. It's morphine, as well, that comes from the opium poppy,

I don't think people often realise that, which is vital in medicine.

I don't think we've actually come up with anything that works quite so well.

So this is the pomegranate.

Yes, Sarah. It's a beautiful plant, actually.

-There's last year's fruits still on the branch.

-Isn't that brilliant?

And there's the new flowers,

which are just the most fantastic colour.

This will be covered in flowers soon,

it's just a bit early in the season for it.

It's full of vitamins, it's a dye plant,

the rind is used for worming.

In some cultures it's used for snake bites.

It's got an absolute multitude of uses.

I didn't know that a pomegranate was hardy enough to grow in the UK.

It looks so exotic and extraordinary

that I just assumed that it was not hardy.

Well, it's a lot hardier than people think.

I think as the weather seems to be getting warmer,

it's a plant people should be trying in their garden.

But the Chelsea Physic Garden is about two degrees warmer

than Kew up the river, probably because of the buildings here,

and the river does increase the temperature slightly.

So I wouldn't say north of Scotland it would do so well,

but I think in the south of England, I think it should be much more grown.

'Although the Physic Garden doesn't supply plants for medicinal use,

'the enormous range of species,

'not only provides visitors with a history lesson in medicine

'but is also a feast for the eye.

'But amongst the beauties, there are some more down-to-earth plants.'

So you've got quite a bit of rhubarb in the garden.

Well, we don't have that much compared to some of the commercial growers,

but when this garden was created, this was called the roots of the barbarian,

-hence rhubarb, which is...

-Oh!

And it came in dried roots from China and Russia.

And it was very, very precious because it was such an effective medicinal plant.

What is the therapeutic use of rhubarb?

It's been used for absolute centuries to treat diarrhoea and constipation.

-So the two opposite things.

-It's absolutely extraordinary.

And it's very easy to self-administer, because we probably all know when we cook rhubarb,

it exudes this wonderful pink juice,

and obviously the darker the juice, the more concentrated it is,

and it has almost the opposite effect.

So if you have a little rhubarb,

you're doing yourself a good spring clean,

and if you have an awful lot of it, you'll find yourself in dire straits.

-Oh, really? So it blocks you up, or...

-Gets you going.

-Yeah.

So I think it was the 18th century idea of colonic irrigation, really.

I've got something else to show you which is also interesting.

-Can you smell the smells in here, Sarah?

-I certainly can.

-A delicious mixture of pelargoniums and...

-..a table full of sages.

This is salvias in their variety,

and, of course, a very well-known medicinal plant,

particularly in folk medicines, mouth ulcers, mouth wash,

gargles, for laryngitis, for sore throats.

All sorts of things. It's sort of anti-bacterial.

It's said to be really good for memory, isn't it?

Yes. Absolutely. And I think we could all do with that from time to time.

A bit of something that stimulates the memory. And I think it's also good for hair wash.

A lot of people are still able to mix a salvia tincture yourself and put it on your hair.

-Very good for brunettes, I'm told.

-Oh, really?

'By the 1700s, the Chelsea apothecaries had initiated an international seed exchange system,

'which continues to this day,

'enabling them to bring together miraculous medicinal plants

'from all four corners of the globe.'

This is an incredibly pretty, amazing magenta flower.

Isn't it a strong pink? It's catharanthus roseus.

And it's a real miracle drug.

A lot of people owe their lives to this plant.

It's particularly good for treating childhood leukaemia.

Do you know what the active ingredient is in it?

-It's vinblastine and vincristine.

-Oh, yes, I remember.

-Do you remember those?

I remember those in chemotherapy and chemotherapeutic treatments. Absolutely.

We have about 2,000 children come to learn about the importance of plants in the garden,

and when the head of education comes across a child who will recognise this plant, they'll say,

"Oh, Madagascan periwinkle," and some even use the Latin name,

catharanthus roseus, and then he'll know that they've probably had

childhood leukaemia and have been treated with this plant.

It's very touching because they have a relationship with this plant forever.

I think it's true that somehow, if you think that your medicine has come from a plant and from the soil,

it is somehow less threatening than the thought of it being made up in some sort of pharmaceutical lab.

I don't know why, but somehow it does feel more, kind of, back to one's roots, doesn't it?

There's something about a plant remedy that I think is what brings people here,

because if you're being treated with a drug, it sometimes feels very invasive,

but this is, I don't know what it's like to be treated with it,

but I hope it's a kind drug.

'So, there we find out about the many uses of flowers.

'Now let's finish by focusing on just one.

'Our final H is for hydrangeas.

'There'll be some tips from Joe in a minute,

'but first, we're going back to basics,

'with Colin Crosbie at the RHS Wisley Gardens.'

The hydrangeas are wonderful. They've got a long flowering period.

They can start in July time and then as you go through the summer

to this time of year, their colour changes

and you've got different shades of pink and almost like metallic colours

that come into them, really elegant.

The hydrangeas are a wonderful group of plant.

The two most popular forms

are hydrangea paniculata, that's round about me,

and hydrangea macrophylla.

Now, they're quite distinct.

The main differences are in the way that they grow and in the type of the flower,

and the paniculatas, you can see, a long spire, a panicle,

whereas in the macrophylla, or the mop-head, it looks like a mop.

Now, when you look at the hydrangea flower, it's quite unique,

because these white things that you see here

are not the actual flowers, but those are sterile.

The actual flowers are right in the centre

and they're tiny and small and look almost insignificant.

For growing hydrangea paniculatas, to keep them small and compact,

you need to prune them February time back to two buds,

it seems hard but you get these lovely big panicles in July time,

which then change colour all the way through the autumn and winter months.

Hydrangea macrophylla is the mop-heads.

The pruning is quite different. You leave the flower heads on all winter

because it acts like a kind of thermal blanket,

just giving the plant a little bit of protection.

But March time, take the flower head off,

but only prune it back to a couple of buds below the flower,

a couple of healthy buds.

I love all plants but I think if I was to choose one hydrangea,

hydrangea paniculata, the most beautiful and elegant of all flowers.

And to see it, even in the midst of the winter,

with a brown stem, still looking lovely in the garden,

it's just wonderful.

My favourite hydrangea paniculatas, the first one, this Pink Diamond.

A lovely, old variety,

big panicles, lovely shades of pink when it ages.

It really is a star plant.

The next one's a much more compact plant,

Pinky-Winky, small panicles

that turned bright pink at the end of the summer.

It would be ideal for a small garden.

Hydrangeas are easy to grow,

they can stand up with a lot of different weather conditions.

Look at the wet weather that we've had this summer

and see how the blooms are still looking beautiful.

They prefer acidic soils.

You can grow them in a woodland garden, semi-shade, in a border,

they can thrive in many, many different situations.

And now is the ideal time to plant them.

Well, I'm taking Colin's advice and I'm planting one right now.

But I'm not planting macrophylla or paniculatas.

There's loads of hydrangea species

and I'm planting one of my all-time favourites.

This is hydrangea quercifolia,

quercifolia meaning oak-leafed,

and as you can see, it's got these large oak-shaped leaves.

Absolutely beautiful but also a wonderful autumn colour, too,

sort of a burnt reddish colour, just starting to turn now,

and that will go right through into the autumn till it drops its leaves, but also wonderful flowers, too.

And here underneath this tree, it's a pretty shady spot,

and also it's quite dry because of the roots of the tree,

so that's why I've got to prepare the hole really well before planting

cos it's going to be here a long time.

And incorporate plenty of organic matter.

But what's great about this one is it's not too fussy about its soil.

It doesn't have to be acidic or limey, it will tolerate both.

And also it will do well in shade but also do well in sun at the same time.

So I've just got some compost here.

I'm putting some in the bottom of the hole.

And this really is a very low-maintenance shrub

because it doesn't really need any pruning, either.

Just prune it in February or March if it needs tidying up a little bit,

but otherwise leave it, let it do its own thing.

If the pot is a little dry when you get it, water the pot before,

soak it, ideally the day before it goes in.

And then the roots are nice and moist and just ready to go.

Now, it will ultimately get to about six foot tall.

So it'll fill this space really nicely.

But remember, it's deciduous, so once it's dropped its leaves,

it'll be nice and light and you'll be able to see through into the plant and beyond.

Isn't that a nice way to end today's show?

Do join us next time for some more top tips on our A To Z Of TV Gardening.

But for now, goodbye.

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