Letter U The A to Z of TV Gardening

Hello, and welcome to The A-Z Of TV Gardening.

Now, most of the plants we show you on The A To Z Of TV Gardening

are things of beauty, for you to admire and desire.

But not all, because our next U is for Undesirable Plants,

those you'd normally want to avoid outright.

Christine Walkden's found a very good place to get us started.

Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, built in the 11th century,

and now home to a very unusual garden.

I'm surrounded by a rather sinister collection of plants -

ones that you'd do well to avoid.

Eating this can cause an agonising death,

just a taste of this can make you vomit,

and this plant contains one of the most toxic chemicals known to man.

Welcome to the Poison Garden.

This garden is so dangerous, the gates are kept locked.

It's monitored round the clock,

and visitors are not allowed in without a guide.

All this is down to one woman - the 12th Duchess of Northumberland.

She's been fascinated by poisonous plants for 15 years.

Jane, why are you so passionate about poisonous plants?

The same plant almost always kills and cures.

And I saw gardens around the world, mostly which were apothecary gardens,

and I just thought, this is a bit boring, let's try and do it differently.

Let's focus on the kill rather than the cure.

There are some notorious killers in here,

such as belladonna - Italian for "beautiful woman",

but you'll know it by another name.

Deadly nightshade is one of the biggest nasties here,

and if you were to eat just one leaf, it could kill you.

But centuries ago women used it as a beauty aid, in the form of eye drops.

This plant contains atropine, which paralyses the muscles in the eye.

So the eye drops dilated the pupils, making them appear more attractive.

But overuse of belladonna could cause blindness.

Jane, which plant turns you on the most?

The datura, without a doubt.

Beautiful, beautiful flower,

but every part of the plant is poisonous.

Datura was used by the Aztecs to prepare human sacrifices.

It would leave their victims numb to their gruesome fate.

You have to take special precautions in this garden.

Gloves are essential. A little while ago one of the gardeners had blisters all over their arms,

caused by the sap of this plant, known as rue.

Otherwise known as ruta graveolens,

rue causes light-sensitive burns which can flare up whenever they're exposed to the sun.

The Duchess has sourced her plants from all over the world.

This is the castor oil plant, a native of India,

but I used to have to take the oil of this as a kid,

and it tasted just like poison!

It is. It's disgusting. Revolting smell. But once you've extracted the oil,

-you're then left with a really poisonous residue.

-Right.

You then have a really strong and very potent poison,

and there's no antidote to that.

The plants have really developed their strengths

to keep away their natural enemies - insects, not really us -

and it's how we've decided to use the plants to suit our means,

and that's where we've had trouble.

This is obviously a labour of love.

I love this garden. I love the stories about poison.

When I'm dead, I'm going to have some of my ashes scattered here,

probably against one of the walls,

and I plan to come back and haunt this garden and keep an eye on it!

I'm normally at my happiest when I'm surrounded by plants,

but this Poison Garden leaves me on edge.

But it is absolutely fascinating.