Letter C

Download Subtitles

Transcript

0:00:02 > 0:00:04Hello and welcome to The A To Z Of TV Gardening.

0:00:22 > 0:00:24Our first encounter is with a climber.

0:00:24 > 0:00:30This C is for clematis, and here's Glenis Dyer, of the British Clematis Society.

0:00:36 > 0:00:41There are at least 150, probably nearer 200,

0:00:41 > 0:00:44different varieties of clematis in the garden.

0:00:44 > 0:00:46You get very attached to them.

0:00:46 > 0:00:50Or they get very attached to you, I'm not sure how I should put it.

0:00:50 > 0:00:52But I do love them.

0:00:57 > 0:01:01Each one that comes out is different, because actually

0:01:01 > 0:01:05they're all your old friends and because we've got so many

0:01:05 > 0:01:09in the garden, you've got something that comes out every month of the year.

0:01:18 > 0:01:20But they're all so different.

0:01:20 > 0:01:25You see the huge ones like dinner plates, but there are medium-sized ones,

0:01:25 > 0:01:30and tiny, wee ones with little bells of about an inch or so long.

0:01:32 > 0:01:37The ones which are easiest to grow are the herbaceous ones.

0:01:37 > 0:01:42And the later-flowering ones, which is all the Viticella types,

0:01:42 > 0:01:48the Texensis types, are very reliable and the later-flowering large, flowered hybrids.

0:01:49 > 0:01:54These, along this section, are mainly herbaceous.

0:01:54 > 0:01:58This particular one has a huge flower.

0:01:58 > 0:02:02It was bred in Russia about 1970, I think.

0:02:02 > 0:02:06And this one is called, Pamiat Serdtsa.

0:02:06 > 0:02:09And it's just starting to flower.

0:02:09 > 0:02:13It will go on, and on, and on, because the herbaceous ones do.

0:02:13 > 0:02:17If you want to keep herbaceous clematis short,

0:02:17 > 0:02:20or indeed any of the clematis short, you can chop them down.

0:02:20 > 0:02:24We call it the Chelsea Chop, because you do it round about Chelsea week.

0:02:24 > 0:02:26Reduce them by a couple of feet and that way,

0:02:26 > 0:02:31you get twice as many flowers and they flower that little bit lower.

0:02:31 > 0:02:35You can more or less control the height of your border.

0:02:37 > 0:02:43I think most of the people who come round are quite surprised at the variety.

0:02:43 > 0:02:45They see the large-flowered ones in the garden centres

0:02:45 > 0:02:48and some of them probably have got them in their gardens,

0:02:48 > 0:02:53but very often they haven't seen the tiny ones, the species.

0:02:53 > 0:02:57These are the ones I love showing them because they need a wider audience.

0:02:59 > 0:03:03Eric, we need some string over here to tie this one up.

0:03:03 > 0:03:04OK, I'll be round.

0:03:10 > 0:03:13Look at this.

0:03:13 > 0:03:16'My husband Eric is maybe not

0:03:16 > 0:03:21'so obsessive about the plants as I am, but he's so cooperative.'

0:03:21 > 0:03:25He builds all these structures that they can ramble over.

0:03:25 > 0:03:33He gives them their heads. He puts up ladders and supports for them.

0:03:33 > 0:03:36We've got cones, all sorts of things in the garden.

0:03:39 > 0:03:42This is an integrifolia that I grew from seed.

0:03:42 > 0:03:45It's extremely vigorous. Huge, great leaves.

0:03:45 > 0:03:49They're much bigger than a lot of the integrifolias

0:03:49 > 0:03:53that you see but you can grow these so easily yourself from seed.

0:03:55 > 0:03:57That'll do for now anyway.

0:03:57 > 0:04:00Next year, taller support.

0:04:05 > 0:04:09Some people call them clem-ATIS. Some people call them CLEM-atis.

0:04:09 > 0:04:13In America, they call them cle-MATIS and in France,

0:04:13 > 0:04:15they're called clematite.

0:04:15 > 0:04:18It doesn't matter what you call them as long as you grow them.