0:00:02 > 0:00:04Hello and welcome to The A To Z Of TV Gardening.
0:00:20 > 0:00:25Everything we're looking at today begins with the letter R.
0:00:25 > 0:00:26Here's what's coming up.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29The dark art of growing super-sweet rhubarb.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33It definitely feels like summer - it's lovely and balmy -
0:00:33 > 0:00:34but why is it dark?
0:00:34 > 0:00:38It's dark basically because we're tricking the plant into growth.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42And rhododendrons, a scent to die for.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45It really is very intoxicating.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48And you get pollen all over your nose while you're doing it as well.
0:00:48 > 0:00:51Just some of the treats we have in store.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54But, first, Britain's favourite flower.
0:00:54 > 0:00:56And judging by what we have right here,
0:00:56 > 0:01:00you've probably guessed it - R is for roses.
0:01:00 > 0:01:02And we're visiting John Adams,
0:01:02 > 0:01:06whose enthusiasm for old roses is bound to sweep your way.
0:01:06 > 0:01:11About 15 years ago, I went to a famous local rose grower to buy
0:01:11 > 0:01:14a couple of currently fashionable roses for my new garden.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17Because I bought two, they gave me, in a little black pot,
0:01:17 > 0:01:20this little thing for nothing.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22And I put it at the top of the garden.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25And this is what it was...
0:01:29 > 0:01:32And since then, I've been loving and growing
0:01:32 > 0:01:34old roses.
0:01:34 > 0:01:36Smell that smell.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50Here's a fine example of why I love old roses.
0:01:50 > 0:01:52This is an old French Rose
0:01:52 > 0:01:53called the Duc de Guiche.
0:01:53 > 0:01:55It is covered in buds, beautiful buds,
0:01:55 > 0:01:58that are going to come into flower over the next month or so.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01And the flower itself has a typical old rose colour,
0:02:01 > 0:02:04lots and lots of petals, a green button eye
0:02:04 > 0:02:06a delicious scent.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09It blends in very well with this geranium
0:02:09 > 0:02:10and other plants we put around it.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13And that will go on giving me joy for the next
0:02:13 > 0:02:15five to six weeks with its flowers,
0:02:15 > 0:02:19and then still look very good in the garden once it has stopped flowering.
0:02:19 > 0:02:21In order to help the plant every now and again,
0:02:21 > 0:02:24I shall say, "You're looking a bit tired."
0:02:24 > 0:02:26And I will give it a lovely piece of deadheading.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42Here is a very old rose, probably 14th, 15th century.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45It is called Rosa mundi. It is another gallica.
0:02:45 > 0:02:47Rosa mundi - rose of the world.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50And they think it's named after The Fair Rosamund,
0:02:50 > 0:02:51who was the mistress of Henry II.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54And it shows that an old rose doesn't need to be dull.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57Look at those beautiful colours, look at all of that bright,
0:02:57 > 0:02:59vibrant colour coming at you.
0:02:59 > 0:03:00They've been like this for many years.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04We pass through her to something that is much more modern.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07This is Madame De La Roche-Lambert. And is an example of a moss rose.
0:03:07 > 0:03:09The Victorians loved these.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12You can see the sort of mossy growth up the stem.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15And if you rub your fingers over the buds,
0:03:15 > 0:03:18you get a delicious scent of pine,
0:03:18 > 0:03:21of rosin, which adds yet another sort of texture to what you're doing.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24And over here, we have a great favourite.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27This is Tuscany Superb -
0:03:27 > 0:03:30perfectly aptly named, a superb rose, delicious colour.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32Again, full of health,
0:03:32 > 0:03:35but one of the top ten roses of all time.
0:03:43 > 0:03:48This lovely thing here I can only see in July.
0:03:48 > 0:03:51This is a great favourite of Constance Spry, the great cookery
0:03:51 > 0:03:55writer, flower arranger, and a woman who kept the old roses alive by
0:03:55 > 0:03:59insisting that you could not replace them with the modern hybrid tea.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02This is Nuits de Young, isn't he beautiful?
0:04:06 > 0:04:08You really should find space
0:04:08 > 0:04:12to put a few ramblers. This one is Auguste Gervais.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15And it is a Wichurana rambler, it's based on
0:04:15 > 0:04:16the Rose of Wichurana.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20It means it is very, very flexible, so I've been able to wind it round
0:04:20 > 0:04:22this post and wind it along the top of the post there.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25And it flowers all along very happily
0:04:25 > 0:04:28at this part of the year. And it puts on old roses, with the colour,
0:04:28 > 0:04:30the scent and the form of an old rose,
0:04:30 > 0:04:33because no-one has really managed to invent a modern rambler that is
0:04:33 > 0:04:34anywhere near as good as the old ones.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37Now, when my old roses, my summer-flowering roses,
0:04:37 > 0:04:39which are in brilliant bloom now,
0:04:39 > 0:04:41when they finish in about a month's time,
0:04:41 > 0:04:46I shall just take a hedge cutter and slice it through about halfway up.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50None of this messing with pruning this and pruning that, a quick slice.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54It will then regenerate itself with beautiful, green, spring growth
0:04:54 > 0:04:56and look beautiful throughout the year.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59What a lovely rose you are and what good value.
0:05:01 > 0:05:03People also worry about replant sickness, which is
0:05:03 > 0:05:06the rule that you should never plant a rose where another one has been.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09Well, I do it all the time, because I get my colour matches wrong or
0:05:09 > 0:05:11I don't like it where it is.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13I dig it up, I dig a nice, big hole again,
0:05:13 > 0:05:16but I move all the soil and put new soil in from some other
0:05:16 > 0:05:18part of the garden and maybe a bit of hoof and horn
0:05:18 > 0:05:20to give it extra slow-release nitrogen.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23So, you can move things around, you don't need to worry about that,
0:05:23 > 0:05:24when you've changed your mind.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26Isn't she lovely? Look at this.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30A lovely moss called Madame Louis Leveque.
0:05:30 > 0:05:35And she's got so many petals, she needs just a little bit of support.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44So why do I love old roses so?
0:05:44 > 0:05:47Well, it's partly beauty and it's partly romance.
0:05:47 > 0:05:51The old roses, the beauty of the flower, the form, has not been
0:05:51 > 0:05:54surpassed by anything which has happened in the 20th century.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56That is why we still grow them.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00And when I look around, I think, "Some of these Shakespeare knew."
0:06:00 > 0:06:03When Herrick said, "Gather thee rosebuds while ye may,"
0:06:03 > 0:06:06he meant these. When Strauss wrote Der Rosenkavalier,
0:06:06 > 0:06:08this is what he had in mind.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11And when you marry, you give your girlfriend or your wife a rose.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14It's romance, it's beauty. I love roses.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27Now, as a weather expert, I find this next piece fascinating.
0:06:27 > 0:06:29It is an example of a plant that is completely tricked
0:06:29 > 0:06:31into thinking it is summertime
0:06:31 > 0:06:33when really it is it all.
0:06:33 > 0:06:35This R is for rhubarb.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39And as Julia Bradbury finds out, growing it in bulk
0:06:39 > 0:06:42can be more complicated than you think.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46I'm in Yorkshire, in the shadow of the great mountain range.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49And as anyone living here knows, thanks to the Pennines,
0:06:49 > 0:06:54the weather is bitter and cold, with plenty of heavy rain.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57And it is precisely this climate which allows us
0:06:57 > 0:07:00to enjoy one of our most curious vegetables at this time of year -
0:07:00 > 0:07:02rhubarb.
0:07:02 > 0:07:04Rhubarb loves the cold.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08It thrives in the frost pocket east of the Pennines,
0:07:08 > 0:07:11traditionally known as the Rhubarb Triangle.
0:07:11 > 0:07:15These days, the hub of production is concentrated just east, in Carlton.
0:07:15 > 0:07:17Aside from frost and water, there is
0:07:17 > 0:07:20one more thing that rhubarb needs to flourish.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23It may not look like much, but this bag of dirty sheep wool is
0:07:23 > 0:07:26key to the success of rhubarb grown in this area.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29It is a bit grim.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31Waste not, want not around here.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33Shoddy, as it is known,
0:07:33 > 0:07:35is a convenient by-product of the textile industry.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39It is the unwashed, greasy wool and the dangly bits from the
0:07:39 > 0:07:43backend of the sheep that fall out of fleece as it is combed, scrubbed
0:07:43 > 0:07:46soaked and blow-dried on its way to the weavers.
0:07:48 > 0:07:49So, how does it help?
0:07:51 > 0:07:54Lindsay Hulme is doing a spot of weightlifting with these huge
0:07:54 > 0:07:55rhubarb roots.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58The plant has to sit in the frozen soil, growing slowly,
0:07:58 > 0:08:01for three years before it can be harvested.
0:08:01 > 0:08:03- Hi, Lindsay.- Hi.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06- They are big roots, aren't they!? - Certainly are.
0:08:06 > 0:08:08I didn't expect them to be so large. What does that weigh?
0:08:08 > 0:08:12- Roughly about 25 kg, and a bit more.- So that is hard work for you.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14Not half.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18So, what magic properties does shoddy have to help these roots grow?
0:08:18 > 0:08:21The magic thing about shoddy is that it is natural and it
0:08:21 > 0:08:25breaks down slowly over three years, releasing nitrogen slowly,
0:08:25 > 0:08:27the exact amount of time that the rhubarb is in the ground.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31And how does the frost help? How does this cold Pennine air help?
0:08:31 > 0:08:34- Yorkshire is renown for its cold. - Of course, yes, yes.
0:08:34 > 0:08:39The frost itself, each plant needs a winter or a shutdown period,
0:08:39 > 0:08:43in which the plant goes into sort of hibernation mode.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46When we actually lift the plants out of the ground, we take them
0:08:46 > 0:08:50into the shed and then the heat source there, it initiates summer.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53The balmy conditions inside the forcing shed shock
0:08:53 > 0:08:55the roots into life.
0:08:58 > 0:09:02The popping is the sound of rhubarb growing.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04The shoots sprout so fast,
0:09:04 > 0:09:07sometimes up to an inch a day, that they break their skins
0:09:07 > 0:09:09with a snapping noise.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14After five weeks in the humidity of these vast sheds,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17they're ready to be picked.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20Lindsay's mother, Janet, has got the knack.
0:09:20 > 0:09:21Well,
0:09:21 > 0:09:23the harvesting, basically,
0:09:23 > 0:09:25- we have to get the whole of the stick.- Right.
0:09:25 > 0:09:26- So it's the finger.- Yep.
0:09:26 > 0:09:28And you slide down the stick
0:09:28 > 0:09:30right into the root, you'll feel the root,
0:09:30 > 0:09:32and you pull and twist backwards.
0:09:32 > 0:09:34OK, so you've got to get the whole root out, is that the trick?
0:09:34 > 0:09:38You need the whole bud so we don't have it rot, basically.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42- OK.- Pull and twist back.- How's that? - Brilliant, brilliant.
0:09:42 > 0:09:43Oh, there we go. Good, all right.
0:09:43 > 0:09:48Now, Lindsay told me that it's meant to be summer in here,
0:09:48 > 0:09:51and it definitely feels like summer, it's lovely and balmy,
0:09:51 > 0:09:53why is it dark?
0:09:53 > 0:09:57It's dark basically cos we're tricking the plant into growth.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59We've built up that energy in the root
0:09:59 > 0:10:02and we're making it now grow from it.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06Forcing the plant to draw its energy from its own glucose stores rather
0:10:06 > 0:10:11than from the sun gives this indoor rhubarb a sweeter, more tender taste.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15Why the candles?
0:10:15 > 0:10:18We do keep it pitch black, but we need to see in here,
0:10:18 > 0:10:21so it's purely for harvesting.
0:10:21 > 0:10:23Rhubarb has long been a prized produce.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25In the 17th century,
0:10:25 > 0:10:28it was said to be worth three times the price of opium.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32Rhubarb was a medicine in ancient times, but they used the root.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35And they're looking at today making drugs,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38some of which are cancer-fighting drugs.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40- Can I keep what I pick?- Yeah.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43Right, let's pick some more then.
0:10:43 > 0:10:45Now we're returning to flowers,
0:10:45 > 0:10:48one that left the Victorians intoxicated
0:10:48 > 0:10:50with its beauty and scent.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54Our next R is for rhododendrons, and here's Chris Beardshaw.
0:11:01 > 0:11:03It is hard to imagine the effect
0:11:03 > 0:11:05that these plants had on Victorian gardens.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08Up until the mid-19th century,
0:11:08 > 0:11:12the majority of gardens were composed of very modest blooms and forms.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15But then came the rhododendrons.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18With their extraordinary blooms and intoxicating fragrance,
0:11:18 > 0:11:22it's the equivalent of introducing a harlot to a tea party.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25And by the way, they don't only come in white.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28# Keep us from temptation
0:11:28 > 0:11:32# Lead us not into temptation. #
0:11:32 > 0:11:33These are dangerous plants.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37Not only did they shock the very foundations of Victorian
0:11:37 > 0:11:41horticulture sensibility, but in order to get a good collection,
0:11:41 > 0:11:43you had to be willing to risk a family fortune
0:11:43 > 0:11:46and the lives of the plant hunters who were sent out
0:11:46 > 0:11:49to inhospitable places to bring them back.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52This flowering shrubbery may look, well, a little overgrown by many
0:11:52 > 0:11:55people's standards, but there is a very good reason.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59This Rhododendron arboretum is said to date back almost 150 years
0:11:59 > 0:12:03and be grown from the original seed brought into this country
0:12:03 > 0:12:06by the plant hunters who were exploring in the Himalayas.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08And at the time of planting,
0:12:08 > 0:12:11no-one actually knew how big the plants were going to grow.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16The plant hunters hacked through groves just like this,
0:12:16 > 0:12:20not only risking life and limb, but also having to contend
0:12:20 > 0:12:24with hostile natives and contagious diseases. The reason?
0:12:24 > 0:12:28To give the English aristocrats a great woodland garden.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32But it's the garden's collection of deciduous rhododendrons
0:12:32 > 0:12:35that I'm after. However, asking head gardener, Andrew, for one
0:12:35 > 0:12:38by name isn't going to get me anywhere.
0:12:38 > 0:12:40A lot of them were planted and obviously recorded at the time,
0:12:40 > 0:12:42but the names have since been lost,
0:12:42 > 0:12:45so we don't have the names for a lot of them.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47We just have a name for a few and we just propagate them
0:12:47 > 0:12:50by numbers when we need new plants.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53- We just select the best colours.- So they really are plants with no name.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56- Yeah.- At the moment, anyway. - At the moment, yeah.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59And the fragrance as well, where is the fragrance coming from?
0:12:59 > 0:13:02The scent is particularly coming from this yellow one, which is
0:13:02 > 0:13:04not so dramatic in flower,
0:13:04 > 0:13:07but more than makes up for it with the scent.
0:13:07 > 0:13:09Rhododendron pontica luteum.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12It really is very intoxicating.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15And you get pollen all over your nose while you're doing it as well.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18If you have that in the garden and a seat very close by, it would
0:13:18 > 0:13:19just be intoxicating.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23It would. You'd go and sit on it every day just to take in the scent.
0:13:23 > 0:13:24It's lovely.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28And the season of interest is not just about bud and flower,
0:13:28 > 0:13:31the leaves that you can see coming through under the flowering
0:13:31 > 0:13:34- canopy here give you really good autumn colour, too.- They do, yes.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36We get three or four months of them in flower
0:13:36 > 0:13:40and then we get the autumn colours, which are just absolutely
0:13:40 > 0:13:43stunning - all the colours that you can think of,
0:13:43 > 0:13:46from the palest colours right through the fiery oranges
0:13:46 > 0:13:48and reds, the scent...
0:13:48 > 0:13:51It's just everything about the plant makes you really want to think,
0:13:51 > 0:13:53- "I must have one in my garden." - If you had a garden,
0:13:53 > 0:13:55- would you plant one? - I certainly would.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57I'd definitely have one in the garden.
0:13:57 > 0:14:01Beautiful blooms, no wonder the Victorians were mad for them.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06And if that's not a nice way to end our look at the letter R,
0:14:06 > 0:14:08I don't know what is.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11Do join us next time on The A To Z Of TV Gardening,
0:14:11 > 0:14:13but, for now, goodbye.