Episode 6 The Beechgrove Garden

Hello there, and welcome to Beechgrove Garden

on an absolute cracker of a day.

But I have to say, the wow factor today are these rhododendrons.

Here we have polar bear. And I just wish you could be with me,

because the smell is overpowering. It's wonderful. Really looking good. Polar bear.

There's a clivia, just as a contrast, and then over here Lady Alice Fitzwilliam.

Two different plants.

I have a difficulty telling the difference, but I'm not a specialist.

It too has the most wonderful perfume,

and is enjoying this atmosphere in the conservatory.

Other plants that are enjoying it here are our citrus

and our camellias, and I'm going to do some potting of this citrus.

And for a period of the summer,

they will be outside on our new terrace, our summer terrace.

The top layer is where the camellias will go,

and the bottom is where the citrus go for a short time in the summer.

And head gardener Jane and I spent a lovely day out

looking round garden centres to find the pots,

because I was very anxious that we get them with plenty drainage

in the bottom so that they don't have any problem of waterlogging.

We also chose, I thought, a nice Mediterranean colour suitable for the citrus.

And, believe it or not,

I still put in crocs in the bottom of the pot

to cover the holes, to prevent them from getting blocked up.

Now, I understand there has been some work done somewhere,

read a report which talked about ham-fisted pot boys.

Having been a pot boy in my time, I object to that, I can tell you.

Thousands of pots have been dealt in this fashion.

Cover the holes and then a bit of roughage,

and I'm using leaf mould from our garden here just in the bottom.

In the old days when I was probably doing

thousands of pots for chrysanthemums,

it was cow muck that went in the bottom,

a wee bit of encouragement.

Then the compost, remember I was mixing it couple of weeks ago,

two parts ericaceous multipurpose,

two parts John Innes Number Two, and one part grit.

So we're also guarding this business of drainage,

making sure it is a nice open compost.

No extra fertiliser needed at this time, there's plenty in there.

Now we come to the pot itself.

We have a lovely lemon - fruit, flowers

and fruitlets in between as you will always find with these.

Looking a little pale, perhaps,

that's because of the light values in winter.

Now that we're into better weather, fingers crossed, they should be OK.

So, pop it out the pot.

There we have it. Looking quite good.

And I'll take away this rough soil,

stale soil round the top,

and then with my knife I'm inclined to do a little bit of root pruning.

Just run it up just to slacken them off,

encourage them to come away, break, and then we're into the pot.

Level of potting is actually crucial. That would be too low.

I want to leave just about an inch or so.

You prefer 2.5 centimetres? OK. Fair enough.

Needs a bit more.

And then fill up gradually. Get it up to the right height.

Isn't that nice? It's going to be good.

And by the way, I put these here

because when we go back to this business of drainage, its most

important to stand the pot on pot feet when it's on a solid surface.

That too aids the drainage. So there we go.

Meanwhile, whilst I finish this off,

coming up in the rest of the programme...

I'm revelling in 60 hectares of plants with such glorious names

as Shorshar, Keswick codlin and Cornish aromatic

here at the National Fruit Collection in Kent.

And normally you'd find me in a community garden, but this week

I'm in a very different location with a very different challenge.

Well, take a look at this, isn't it a lovely colourful display?

And I wish you could smell it too,

because these are the fragrant garden hyacinths,

or Dutch hyacinths, and you know we've got 17 different varieties here.

But first of all I'd like to start off with these three rows,

which are in fact forced hyacinths from not this Christmas

but the Christmas before, and we wanted to put them

in the garden just to see if we would get a little bit of flower.

Well, it is slightly disappointing.

To me that looks more like a bluebell than hyacinth,

but it does show that you can plant them again.

However, if you want a bedding display with the hyacinths,

basically you have to start from fresh new bulbs to get the flower like this.

I can't mention them all, but starting off here with the two whites,

this is the one that I would pick

because that has a superb head on it, and really is a bright white.

That variety is called Aiolos,

that's I think it's pronounced, anyway.

An unusual colour here. This is Gypsy Queen.

You might like it, you might not.

It is rather unusual because it's a pale apricot orange.

For me, though, I think the best one,

the one that has the most consistent flowering, a real head on it,

is the Delft Blue. Just take a close look at the flower itself.

Bell-shaped blooms, and then these little petals,

they are kind of reflex, so they bend back on themselves

and so you have this full, fragrant flower head,

and then lovely glossy foliage.

And then moving on, I know that George has got his eye on this one.

George loves to show some of his hyacinths,

and this variety is Anna Liza.

Quite an unusual colour.

A lovely pink, and there is a little stripe on it,

so you get lovely little stars.

I'll mention one more. China Pink. A real pale pink. Lovely.

Then we move on to our grape hyacinths.

These are miniature bulbs, and they are fantastic for the rock garden,

lovely in containers. I think that is a beautiful display.

What would want to do is lift some of these

and put them into our wild area. Now, again, what do I pick?

I'm going to go for a favourite which am sure you can see

just in front of me there. That's latifolium.

So, lovely blue heads on the top and then moving down to navy blue.

A lovely contrast of colour.

Big flower heads there, with Blue Magic,

and then if you like pale blue, Valerie Finnis.

But there are whites and there are pinks as well,

so loads of varieties to choose from.

And I'd like to finish off with my layered bulb pots.

I looked at these a few weeks ago because we were five weeks behind with flowering

from last year, but these two bulb pots, this one has been

kept in the sunshine, this one has been in the shade.

And you can see the sun has really helped to bring out these hyacinths.

So at the moment, this one is ahead,

but I'm sure the shady one will soon catch up.

Now, from our lovely spring blooms, we're going to move on to

cut flowers, and we're visiting Glasgow Flower Market.

My name is Lynn Harris. Normally you'll find me as a garden designer

in the community gardens at Beechgrove,

but today I'm wearing a very different hat.

-Morning, Joe.

-Morning, Lynn. How are you?

-I'm very well, very well.

I've been given a task by Beechgrove.

It's their 35th anniversary this year and they've asked me to do

an anniversary flower arrangement for a dinner.

-Bit tricky in terms of colours. Coral, jade...

-Ooh!

-..and emerald.

-Right.

So, I'm going to need some help, Joe.

Well, coral is a fun one, because depending who you ask

you'll get different answers about what colour is coral.

Pinky coral? Peachy coral?

-There are roses which you can get which are coral shaded.

-What about Jade?

-Well, the difference between jade and other shades of green...

-Green jade, blue...

Well, if you look at... Here is green.

Some people ask for thistles as if there are a foliage,

-because you pick up...

-And these ones in particular.

Yeah, look. These are the same flower.

These are both varieties of Eryngium, and people think they are blue thistles,

but of course they are not blue thistles.

There are shades of blues, shades of greens.

And you even get them in white, as well. Greeny white.

Again, some people call them white, some people call them green.

Basically, if you want white, we'll call it white,

if you want it green, we'll call it green for you.

What is big for florists? What are they looking for these days?

To be honest with you, it depends what they are asked for.

Carnesias are still popular, roses are still popular.

Lisianthus are always popular, but what changes is colours.

The first thing I'm going to do

is choose the greenery for my arrangement.

What I want to try and do is use as much greenery that could be grown up at Beechgrove.

I've decided to use these Eryngium cos I like the green tip on the end.

I know the blue isn't technically part of the scheme,

but I also need some other colours to balance out the coral and

the emerald, so I'm going to use some cream lisianthus

as a contrast. I was going to use this Viburnum, but in actual fact

it doesn't make as good a cut flower as something like this,

which is a Shamrock Bloom.

Now, for me, that is more emerald than that,

so I'm going to change my mind and I'm going to use Shamrock Blooms.

I actually asked Joe if he could get me some Peonies in,

and this is what they call coral.

Now, I would call it pink.

I'm hoping that when they open up, actually, that they

are going to be a bit more coral on the inside than they are at the moment.

So, fingers crossed for that. And I couldn't not have roses.

And I've spotted these.

I think this one is actually called Miss Piggy,

and this is what I would call coral.

I've spotted a similar rose but a very different shape.

I think I might just have five of these,

and these ones are called vuvuzela.

So that's it, I'm off back home to start making this arrangement.

The first thing I'm about to do is condition the flowers.

I want to strip all the leaves off I don't need,

cut the stems properly and put them in lots of water so that they

stay as fresh as possible until I can get them into an arrangement.

The arrangement I'm making for Beechgrove is for a table arrangement,

so it's going to be quite low. And this is my interpretation of jade.

As you can see I found a couple of other things as well,

so, like the coral it's very subjective what colour jade is,

but because this was flower shaped, because it was nice and low

for the table centre, that's why I have gone with this one.

The next thing is to get the container ready,

so I'm going to take this through to the kitchen and get the oasis all sorted.

I actually soaked it earlier today to make sure it was soaked all the way through,

and in actual fact, I've just noticed that it's not.

So what I'm going to do, which won't take terribly long,

I'm just going to put a couple of little holes in there,

and you might be able to see that there's bubbles coming out.

One of the first things I'm going to do is kind of establish

a height and a width, and the first thing that you always

put into an arrangement is the greenery.

It gives you your basis.

I'm going to put the flowers in blocks, so all the roses will be together

in one colour block, the shamrocks in another colour block, and the peonies.

This is quite a traditional greening up,

but the way I'm going to arrange flowers is a bit more contemporary.

Colour blocking has become quite popular over the last few years

and there's quite a trend within bridal work

for single colour bouquets and single flower bouquets, just all roses.

The only thing I want to do now is just turn it around and see

if I think I need to fill in with any more greenery,

but in actual fact, I don't think I do.

I'm pretty happy with it.

I think it's time it went on its way

to Beechgrove in Aberdeen for their 35th anniversary dinner.

Ho ho ho! Look at that, Jim, is that not splendid?

-Well done, Miss Harris!

-Absolute brilliance.

She's excelled herself with the design.

-That would grace any table.

-Worthy of the occasion, dear boy.

Whilst you get rid of that, perhaps we should recap on this strawberry cropping.

-Yes, aye.

-A couple of years ago we set ourselves the target of trying

to pick fresh strawberries from end of May, June right through to

-the end of the series in September.

-And it worked.

-And it worked.

The way we did it was we planted runners in February,

they started to fruit at the end of May, June.

Then, of course, we started picking out of doors,

and in the meantime the early fruiters were removed

and a new lot were put in their place

and they fruited all the way through to the autumn.

-Now then...

-This is them, isn't it?

Yeah, last autumn we left them here after fruiting

because the intelligence was that they would produce a decent crop

the following spring, and here we are.

The variety is Sonata, and they are coming away nicely.

-They've been fed.

-The blossom is on them.

-We can look forward to a...

-SMACKS LIPS

-So when will they be ready?

-I think in another month.

Maybe less than that.

But once we finish with this lot, we'll take them out,

because I do believe you have a few plans for this.

Well, yes, there's the old controversy about the peach,

whether we take it out or not.

Once it's fruited we should think about getting it out.

I'm happy that we reach that decision, but however,

we may have to discuss it with the distaff site. Moving on...

Moving on, then what we'll do is have some pots of apricots, peaches, nectarines

and things like that which other folks can grow in the patio.

And there's some nice, new dwarf varieties coming on.

That's what we're all about, boy.

-That it. Now, the vine.

-Yes, it's a bit late.

Aye, a wee bit slow. But it's starting to come.

In another fortnight that'll be full of leaf

and we'll be ready to thin out the shoots.

We were talking about this cracking cherry.

We want to keep her performing, don't we?

Jim, this was absolutely stonking last year, it was fantastic.

Now, it's two years since it was fed,

so I think it's time it was fed again, and all we need to do

is take back the fabric underneath the gravel, take that fabric back.

There's lots of young roots which are here.

That's where I want to put the compost.

Either fresh compost like that or into this hole here...

-HE STRAINS

-G'on yersel!

What I can do is just putting in what I would call slow release,

but you've got different name for it.

It is slow, but it's triggered by temperature. It's temperature release.

So that going into each hole

and then I'd maybe put some of that compost in the top as well.

That will just give it that little boost, because it's now starting

to want to put on lots of leaf and growth, so it needs a wee bit of a feed.

Well now, the pot apples in full flower.

They were fed last year. And you see the difference?

-I wonder if Chris will find as much blossom at Brogdale.

-I wonder.

THEY LAUGH

Few experiences gladden the heart, put a positivity in your step

and raise the spirits in quite such a way as standing under

a tree in full blossom.

Suddenly the leaden skies of winter

are transformed into a tapestry of colours.

This is Brogdale Farm in Faversham, Kent,

home to the world's largest collection of temperate fruits,

including apples, cherries, damsons, plums and quince.

And my guide to this national collection of fruit is Mike Roser.

It seems every time I visit Brogdale,

there's a few more trees and bushes and fruit plants being planted.

What's the current status?

Current status, Chris, is that you are in the mature apple orchard here.

2,000, 2,100 cultivars.

This is the mature collection, been here about 36 years.

Plums and cherries.

Looking around there's not too much leaf and bud at the moment,

but nonetheless over 300 varieties of each.

But it's not just about numbers, it's conservation of the diversity

of the genetic resource that we have here.

-This is a working environment.

-Very much a working environment.

All the trees are managed as if they were in a commercial orchard.

Yes, remembering of course that it is a collection.

Two trees of every cultivar

and the husbandry will probably be somewhat different.

But nonetheless, all the trees here in the mature apple orchard are M9s.

And what's fascinating for me

is the point at which the collection started to form.

That's the very point at which, as a nation,

we had the broadest possible range of fruit on our tables.

And, of course, if you look round the various counties of Britain,

then certainly there are varieties of apples particularly, pears and plums,

that you would very much associate with those different geographical locations.

Anyone who visits Brogdale is more or less coming to

a delicatessen where they can select a plant of their requirements,

and then they know that it's going to grow in that area.

I love that idea that you can come along here,

and it's almost bespoke gardening.

It's lovely walking up some of these rows with the names -

Robin, Pippin, Red Millet, Seedlings, St Everard...

All sorts of glamorous, very evocative names. It must be possible

because of the breadth of the collection here to almost

chart our relationship with apples.

Well, if you consider within the collection, certainly

if you walk through the first few rows, probably 30 countries

of origin, and the oldest variety in the collection is decio. D-E-C-I-O.

Named after a Roman commander who I think in roundabout 250 A.D. was fighting Attila the Hun.

So there's history to go with all the varieties in one form or another.

And certainly the traditional heritage varieties,

as opposed to what you see on the supermarket shelf now,

have got their place within the collection.

And whether it's historical or whether it's part of their genetic value,

which is extremely important when you look at potential breeding into the future,

the apple collection represents Britain's contribution to

the genetic future for our food products.

Why do you think the apple is so linked with the UK?

What is it about our psyche or our conditions that mean we love the apple?

I think that being where we are in geographical location,

that part of the northern hemisphere in the temperate band,

very conducive to apple growing.

Certainly the cooler nights as you get into summer,

the colouration coming up in terms of how the sugars change,

and you've got this great diversity of product, as well.

So longevity, certainly, of the apple as a fruiting body

later in the season is very, very attractive.

It's always surprising in the cherry orchard just what

extent of orchards there were in this part of the world.

In Kent it was virtually wall-to-wall cherries.

There would have been about 15,000 acres of cherries in Kent.

At millennium, circa 1,000 acres.

-To see them en masse is so unusual now.

-Yes, it's absolutely true.

We've got over 320 varieties of cherries,

but of course if you go back to the days when the workers were coming down from London,

and indeed before that, I could have walked, if mum would have allowed me,

from the Medway towns down to Faversham, through Doddington,

toward Lenham, and I'd never have been out of sight of a cherry tree.

That social connect with the migrant workers

coming down from London to harvest may have long since gone,

but one of the lovely things you're doing here at Brogdale is

you are trying to reconnect society with the plants that you grow.

I mean, I can see over here the flowering cherries of the Hanami.

It's just wonderful to see these ornamentals in flower,

and, of course, so much earlier than the commercial varieties.

That's completely true, Chris. Particularly this year.

Brogdale Collections are organising the Hanami,

which is the blessing of the flower festival. Ancient history in Japan,

goes back 1,300 years to the initiation of that ceremony,

which included from the emperors court down to the commoners,

so we're hoping that the Hanami when it happens will bring a lot of people onto the site.

Well, it's just starting, and it really is right on that tipping point

where it starts to take your breath away, doesn't it?

It would be easy to think of somewhere like Brogdale as being

nothing more than a museum piece, a collection of out of date varieties,

but of course it's far more than that.

The orchard we are just passing through now is the mirror image of our mature orchard.

Just planted three years ago. And this represents, if you like, the future.

But it's not only the future that is important here at Brogdale

within the National Fruit Collections, it's the individual, as well

that can do so much for the conservation of that diversity of cultivar.

We can certainly help in the respect that appropriate plant material

can be taken, in general terms, from the collection,

and if you, the gardener, wishes to have certain

varieties in your garden, depending upon your geographical location,

that tree can be built for you over a period of a year.

You know, the biggest problem I have is choosing

which of the 2,100 apples I want to graft and take home with me.

George, you know, I think we've a better day here than they've got in Kent.

I think so. Far more blossom.

This is true. Anyway, this is the big raspberry riddle.

It is. This is Autumn Bliss, along there is Glen Ample.

These over there, they should be away up this height.

These have just recently been cut back. Now, there's nothing in that soil

that you have discovered that gives me any cause for concern.

No, the only thing is that once we get down to two spades' depth,

-I'm into gravel and quite solid.

-Fair enough.

Whereas at that other end I'm going down the same depth

and it's still topsoil, so when this was graded, it was all shunted.

There's a bit of variety there, but the fact, I was worried,

you see, this area was maybe water table coming up and damaging

the roots of the raspberry in the winter, because they have not succeeded at all.

There's no sign. So what I thought we would do, sir, is

-I'm going to fill this hole in, now.

-Famous for things like that.

But that's beautiful stuff.

There'd be many folk would be potting with less stuff than that!

Don't spill it on the path, George. Come on.

-Be tidy.

-Be tidy, be tidy.

Now, if you could lift that bottomless pot.

Because you know when you come up the motorway...

It's a mystery now, eh? You can see right through it.

I'm glad I've got something to do.

So when you see these poly tunnels as you're coming up the road,

they are often full of raspberries,

and the raspberries will be planted in pots.

Now, see? The shoots are coming away on that.

The root system is perfectly healthy, and looking good.

-So we'll put that in there.

-Bit of a puzzle, George.

-Top it off.

-Top it off.

That should give it a bit of a boost,

because that's fortified compost that's in there.

-We've got some fertiliser.

-How much?

-Well, a fair bit.

You see... That should do it.

So we'll do the same with the one at the far end,

that's Glen Ample that's at the far end.

Do the same with that.

We'll do another one at this end and we'll see if that works.

And if it doesn't work... we'll think of something else.

-THEY CHUCKLE

-I think I'll start collecting stamps.

We've decided to add to our fruit collection a couple of Kiwis.

Both the varieties are self fertile.

One of them is the variety called Jenny,

and that's going to stay in a pot cos it's not particularly hardy,

and the one I'm just potting at the moment is a variety called

Issai. Now this is really hardy. It should be hardy down to -25,

so once it goes on a bit we'll be planting this one outside.

Well, this may be the last time we'll see the over-winter brassicas.

The ones outside there, I've written them off.

They really have over-wintered very, very poorly.

On the cabbage side which we grow from seed ourselves,

Offenham and Advantage look quite good.

We're going to get some nice heads in the next day or two.

Over this side, this was a seedsman's collection of kale,

broccoli, cauliflower and winter cabbage.

The broccoli is stunning.

Just look at that - absolutely gorgeous.

Purple sprouting, called Rudo. It's lovely.

And I've never been a fan of this, because grown outside

you're never sure what it's going to do, but grown inside, it's gorgeous.

The clump of rhubarb we forced earlier is looking

a bit sorry for itself, but this one has got plenty on it.

There's some wonderful fresh stalks there to use.

Now, if you want to keep the rhubarb in the garden going,

now is the time to get down and to take out the flower heads.

These are the flower stalks which are going to eventually

take away all the goodness from the plant.

Now is a good time, too, to plant more varieties,

and what I'm going to do here is plant these ones

in order to extend the season.

Well, conditions are absolutely bang on for planting the sweet peas, aren't they?

Absolutely, and these roots are good on these, Jim.

Yes, they are. Pity the weather isn't the same!

-Yeah, they are one of my favourite cut flowers, I think they're beautiful.

-Stunning.

And we'll have quite a display this year, cos it's not just cordons,

we're going to let them scramble in one of the trial beds.

-Are we really?

-Mmm.

-All over the place. We'll be covered in sweet peas.

Are we celebrating some sort of anniversary?

Well, the seedsmen have used it as a sales point,

-they've said it's the year of...?

-The year of the sweet pea.

Well, I'd go for that. Like you, I think it's a cracker.

Yeah, they are good to look at.

Anyway Jim, what are you doing next week?

-Planting tomatoes, indoors, of course.

-I'm grovelling in the gravel.

Oh, yes, I think I'm doing that as well.

And I'm also going to be sowing some grass seed.

So, if you'd like any more information about this week's programme,

it's all in the fact sheet,

and easiest way to access that is online.

Don't forget it'll have all the plant names on it, too.

And you can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

-That's it for this week. Until next time, bye bye.

-Bye.

-Bye.

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