Letter L

0:00:02 > 0:00:05Hello and welcome to The A To Z Of TV Gardening.

0:00:20 > 0:00:24Everything we're looking at today begins with the letter L.

0:00:26 > 0:00:29But first, we look at one of the true stars

0:00:29 > 0:00:32of the flower kingdom. Gorgeous, elegant

0:00:32 > 0:00:37and with a wonderful fragrance, it's no wonder gardeners find them so irresistible.

0:00:37 > 0:00:39'Our first L is for lilies.'

0:00:57 > 0:01:00I've been growing lilies for approximately ten years

0:01:00 > 0:01:04and I presently have approximately 2,000.

0:01:04 > 0:01:08Ten years. Ten years he's really loved lilies.

0:01:08 > 0:01:11When you grow one, you see how beautiful they are

0:01:11 > 0:01:14and you've got to have more, and that's what he does.

0:01:15 > 0:01:20I have got to the point where I'm really obsessive about lilies.

0:01:20 > 0:01:24Harry in the garden? Well, from about eight o'clock in the morning,

0:01:24 > 0:01:27five o'clock in the afternoon, with about 20 minutes for lunch.

0:01:27 > 0:01:29That's how long.

0:01:29 > 0:01:32Lilies are almost the perfect flower.

0:01:32 > 0:01:36Just what every flower should be. Six petals.

0:01:36 > 0:01:43They just look at you and they really say, "You've got to love me because I'm so beautiful."

0:01:43 > 0:01:47I can do all the hanging baskets, I can do all the boxes on the house

0:01:47 > 0:01:50and I can go and clear up the mess he makes.

0:01:50 > 0:01:54But I'm not allowed to plant.

0:01:54 > 0:01:58There's no question about it, they have a tremendous wow factor.

0:01:59 > 0:02:03Wonderful colours, they grow very, very well,

0:02:03 > 0:02:06quite tall, sturdy, they don't flop about.

0:02:06 > 0:02:09So they're just a wonderful flower to grow.

0:02:10 > 0:02:13- I can touch them, I can smell them. - SHE LAUGHS

0:02:13 > 0:02:17- But that's about as far as it goes. - SHE LAUGHS

0:02:25 > 0:02:27This lily is Conca d'Or.

0:02:27 > 0:02:31It's an oriental trumpet. Very easy to grow.

0:02:31 > 0:02:34Almost any good quality soil.

0:02:34 > 0:02:38My favourite colour for a flower, yellow.

0:02:38 > 0:02:41Looks you straight in the eye when you view it.

0:02:41 > 0:02:45And I'm also attracted by the anthers, the way they bobble about

0:02:45 > 0:02:47when the wind blows.

0:02:47 > 0:02:51He just loves the beauty of them, that they are absolutely perfect.

0:02:51 > 0:02:54And, of course, they have this wonderful perfume, as well, which helps.

0:02:54 > 0:02:58And, I mean, as soon as one comes out, it's, "Come and have a look."

0:02:58 > 0:03:02You can spend all day doing that, running and having a look at another one.

0:03:02 > 0:03:07At the peak of the hemerocallis season,

0:03:07 > 0:03:11I spend in excess of two hours every day dead-heading.

0:03:11 > 0:03:14What I love about them

0:03:14 > 0:03:16is the tremendous range of colour.

0:03:16 > 0:03:19And they are very, very easy plants to grow.

0:03:19 > 0:03:22No particular conditions.

0:03:22 > 0:03:25And they propagate very easily.

0:03:28 > 0:03:31Alstroemeria are quite easy to grow.

0:03:31 > 0:03:34They originated in South America, I think Peru.

0:03:34 > 0:03:37They like free-draining soil,

0:03:37 > 0:03:40flower continuously from late May

0:03:40 > 0:03:42right the way through August, September.

0:03:42 > 0:03:46When they've finished flowering, what you do with Alstroemeria is

0:03:46 > 0:03:48you actually pull the stem completely out of the ground.

0:03:48 > 0:03:51This encourages further shoots from underground

0:03:51 > 0:03:53and you will easily get second flushes.

0:03:55 > 0:03:57If you're very new to growing lilies,

0:03:57 > 0:04:00the one I would highly recommend is yellow star.

0:04:00 > 0:04:04It's easy to grow, looks wonderful,

0:04:04 > 0:04:06everything about it is lovely.

0:04:07 > 0:04:11The other good thing about yellow star, it is very easy to propagate

0:04:11 > 0:04:14from the bulbils which form in the leaf axils.

0:04:14 > 0:04:19And I have had plants in bloom within two years of sowing the bulbils.

0:04:20 > 0:04:25Each year, I find that my appetite for gardening is getting greater and greater.

0:04:26 > 0:04:30I'm trying to pack more plants into smaller places,

0:04:30 > 0:04:34which means eventually, of course, the lawn gets smaller, the beds get bigger.

0:04:34 > 0:04:38I just like a garden full of colour and flowers.

0:04:39 > 0:04:42His garden is his passion. He loves his garden more than me.

0:04:42 > 0:04:44SHE LAUGHS

0:04:50 > 0:04:53'Now we're moving onto a real grower,

0:04:53 > 0:04:56'because our next L is for leylandii,

0:04:56 > 0:04:59'a plant that's been at the root of some serious hedge rage,

0:04:59 > 0:05:02'as John Sargent's been finding out.'

0:05:02 > 0:05:06This is a war story set in peaceful Britain.

0:05:06 > 0:05:08It's a battle over hedges.

0:05:08 > 0:05:11Small hedges are one thing.

0:05:11 > 0:05:15But big hedges, really big hedges, can cause conflict.

0:05:15 > 0:05:19And the bigger the hedge, the bigger the battle.

0:05:19 > 0:05:24'The leylandii are the nuclear weapons of the hedge wars.

0:05:24 > 0:05:26'They were first bred here in 1888

0:05:26 > 0:05:29'at Leighton Hall in North Wales.

0:05:29 > 0:05:33'John Naylor imported rare plants from all over the world.

0:05:33 > 0:05:35'Cross-pollination took place

0:05:35 > 0:05:38'and the very first leylandii were born here.'

0:05:38 > 0:05:43- And that's from the original tree, isn't it?- Yes.

0:05:43 > 0:05:45So how old is it?

0:05:45 > 0:05:47That's roughly 50 to 60 years old.

0:05:47 > 0:05:51Now, tell me how it started, the leylandii, here.

0:05:51 > 0:05:54They were put together by accident

0:05:54 > 0:05:56in gardens such as this in large country houses,

0:05:56 > 0:06:01- and so you had hybridisation, which would never have occurred in the wild.- So what were the trees?

0:06:01 > 0:06:05That's Monterey cypress from mid California

0:06:05 > 0:06:11and then this is Nootka cypress, and that's from south Alaska down to north California.

0:06:11 > 0:06:15But they don't get any nearer than 400 miles in nature.

0:06:15 > 0:06:18They grew so fast with this hybrid vigour

0:06:18 > 0:06:22that they had an obvious potential in terms of timber production.

0:06:22 > 0:06:25- But then the garden centres got in on the act, didn't they?- Well, yes,

0:06:25 > 0:06:29because Mr and Mrs Smith come along to the garden centre and say,

0:06:29 > 0:06:33"We want something that will give us a hedge in two or three years."

0:06:33 > 0:06:37Prior to Leyland cypress, that wasn't possible.

0:06:37 > 0:06:41And hey presto, the monster is born. HE LAUGHS

0:06:41 > 0:06:45'Once they were accidentally invented, they couldn't be stopped.

0:06:45 > 0:06:48'From a blessing to gardeners in need of a quick hedge,

0:06:48 > 0:06:50'they soon became a curse to many.

0:06:50 > 0:06:53'In the 1990s, legal action was taken

0:06:53 > 0:06:57'and the first big case was won by Michael Jones,

0:06:57 > 0:07:00'a retired school teacher living in Selly Oak.'

0:07:00 > 0:07:03- Right, so this is the famous hedge. - This is the famous hedge

0:07:03 > 0:07:05which all the fuss was about.

0:07:05 > 0:07:08Tell me how it started and where it got to.

0:07:08 > 0:07:11When we came into the house, there was a fence and a beech,

0:07:11 > 0:07:13tiny beech saplings.

0:07:13 > 0:07:17And I didn't even notice my neighbour

0:07:17 > 0:07:20had planted these ten leylandii.

0:07:20 > 0:07:24- OK, so they started like that. - Ooh, down here.

0:07:24 > 0:07:28Right, they started like that. How many years was it before they were right up there?

0:07:28 > 0:07:30That would be about nine years.

0:07:30 > 0:07:34- And it's now about ten feet. - Ten feet, yes.

0:07:34 > 0:07:39And it was, at the time of the action,

0:07:39 > 0:07:41up to 40 feet.

0:07:41 > 0:07:45'The long, drawn-out legal battle cost tens of thousands of pounds.

0:07:45 > 0:07:49'But Michael triumphed and won the right to cut his neighbour's hedge.

0:07:49 > 0:07:52'He turned campaigner, creating Hedgeline,

0:07:52 > 0:07:55'a support group for thousands of victims of hedge wars.

0:07:55 > 0:08:00'Eventually, the government introduced a law to control high hedges.'

0:08:00 > 0:08:04It must've been an amazing, long, drawn-out row, this.

0:08:04 > 0:08:08Yes, it dominated our family for years,

0:08:08 > 0:08:10you know, 20 years,

0:08:10 > 0:08:14and the memory of it still rocks us when we think about it.

0:08:14 > 0:08:17The trees themselves dominated our lives.

0:08:17 > 0:08:22We tried so hard to come to some compromise.

0:08:22 > 0:08:26When I cut the hedge, he took me to court.

0:08:26 > 0:08:30- So we all have the right to complain. - Yes.

0:08:30 > 0:08:32But it still can be quite a business, can't it?

0:08:32 > 0:08:37The position is now that if you suffer from nuisance,

0:08:37 > 0:08:39you can complain to the council.

0:08:39 > 0:08:43It's that right that gives the impetus

0:08:43 > 0:08:47for the neighbour to take the trees down.

0:08:48 > 0:08:51The most significant hedge battle of our time

0:08:51 > 0:08:53was fought here and won.

0:08:53 > 0:08:57But the battle with the leylandii is never completely over.

0:08:57 > 0:09:03Unless you cut it back, it'll grow and grow and grow.