Episode 6 The Beechgrove Garden

-Well, George, what do you think of this?

-What have you done to it?

-I mean, rain, sleet, snow!

-We could have a snowball fight, couldn't we?

-Let's go in the warm, come on.

-It is cold.

-Oh!

-You're in the right place, Jim.

-Come in and shut that door!

Welcome to Beechgrove.

I tell you, it's wild here!

Thank goodness we've got a bit of work to do indoors.

And I wasn't just admiring that for its own sake,

that little lobelia perennial. Very nice.

It's lovely - it doesn't set seed, so you've got to take cuttings.

That's the third year we've kept that.

It's the first time I've noticed it.

Speaking about the third year, the same with the amaryllis.

-They're gorgeous, aren't they?

-Absolutely fabulous.

This one, I was looking at it earlier when the sun was out,

and there's actually a bit of glitter on it when the sun's out!

-It's frost!

-Gorgeous.

I have to say, I rather like that one at the back there, Royal Velvet.

-Is that the winner?

-Susan's a pretty little thing.

She's nice as well.

We get lots of stories and lots of questions about how to keep them

and make them flower again.

As you say, they're in their third year. What's the story?

Very quickly, they had the winter rest,

they've been totally dried off.

Now, Susan has finished flowering, so you could just nip that off.

George, you were saying just nip it off there,

rather than the flowering spike?

Then all the feeding goes back down into the bulb.

That's what you've got to do now -

we've got to be feeding it, we let the foliage grow.

-But stunning, I think.

-Absolutely.

Well, we're going to have to face the elements,

and Chris is with us this week.

He's coming up roses!

Brr-rr!

And how do you successfully combine plants and art?

It's something I struggle with, but I know a man who doesn't.

Well, George, as you well know,

I've got a bee in my bonnet about trees, garden trees,

and this line of six different types of garden tree are meant to

demonstrate different shapes, sizes, different characteristics of them.

This is your choice.

It's an amelanchier, but I don't know this particular selection.

This is a thing called Rainbow Pillar. Narrow columnar form.

Normally, when we get those,

we're really wanting them to grow as the shape of a Lombardy poplar...

-And you're going to prune it?

-I'm going to prune it.

The interesting thing is, when we prune normal plants,

we prune them to get them to go outwards.

I want to prune this to go inwards.

When I prune these shoots, that one there, for example,

I'm going to prune that to an inward facing bud,

so that it grows inwards.

But the other thing that we've got to remember with this is,

we want to select a strong central leader,

so we're pruning some of these side shoots off,

and we're pruning them to inward-facing buds, like that.

-And we're going to leave this...

-To emphasise this pencil shape?

Yes, to emphasise the growth,

and we'll have this good form in the plant, which is really quite vital.

There's many a garden where there'd be room for that sort of thing,

but time alone will tell. Right, the next one.

This is Malus Royalty. This was chosen by the staff.

Each of us all had a choice, and was chosen for its gorgeous foliage,

and it does have very nice dark-pink flowers as well.

-But what a mess.

-It is a mess, isn't it?

You know, the nursery man has tried to produce a strong central leader,

-going straight up, and that's what we want.

-Yes, yes.

But we've got a lot of competing branches here,

and if we want to have this growing up, because that's what we want in

a small garden, we want things to go up and use the space underneath,

so what we're going to do is take off these shoot there,

and this way I am pruning to the downward-facing buds, like that,

so that we get the growth reasonably restricted.

I'll take that one off there, like that.

This one we'll take down to there.

-And the leader?

-And the leader?

Well, the leader itself, I am going to pull that right down,

and I'm going to take it to there. OK? That's it.

-This has definite potential, hasn't it?

-Oh, yes.

Because wide-angled branches coming out are strong.

-Yes, it's not like that one down there.

-No.

This is going to grow out and we've got the strong central leader.

The whole thing, then, the structure of this,

will stay sound for years to come.

We'll remember what you just said.

The cutting garden here at Beechgrove

has traditionally been the home of the bounty of colour.

And we've been adding to that

with a series of herbaceous perennial drifts

and standard roses.

In this particular case, weeping standard roses

that were added a couple of seasons ago, settled in,

gave us some good flowering last season,

but being weeping standards, now is the time to prune them.

The reason you leave it so late is that you want these long stems

to start to develop growth

so that the weight of that growth will bring the stem down.

So, this time of the year,

you really get a sense of where the growth is going to come from,

a young shoot like that, for instance,

and which wood is worth taking off,

where the previous flower has happened,

and also where a bud has been frosted.

So, the thing to do is get a sharp, clean pair of secateurs,

clean because you don't want to pass on disease

from one rose to another after you've been pruning.

Just go in and take off those tips,

just a centimetre or so above a good, healthy bud.

Once you've finished cleaning up the canopy of the plant,

you can then start to cast your eye down the standard trunk,

and here we have a grafted stem.

It's grafted at the base and budded up here.

So this is the dog rose, effectively.

You don't want any of that on there,

so go in and take that bud out altogether.

If you leave it on, it becomes super vigorous and will completely

dwarf the head of your rose.

Then you can look at the roots.

It's not a bad idea at this time of the year to apply

a specialist rose fertiliser.

Give that a good soaking.

It's activated, of course, by water, so the roots simply can't get

a hold of it if it remains dry on the surface.

Once that's soaked in, you can then add the traditional

top dressing to a rose,

which is well-rotted horse manure.

It has to be well rotted.

So, about two to three centimetres thick,

all the way around the rooting zone,

which will help to seal in the moisture and give the roots

a really good growing environment.

Whilst we've introduced roses on the edge of the garden,

what we thought we'd also try is to create

a kind of bounty of roses in the centre as well.

What we're going to do is create a disc of ground cover roses,

which will overlap these raised beds.

Then in the centre of each raised bed will be a shrub rose,

and then around the outside will be a whole kaleidoscope of colours,

which, when under-planted with herbaceous and bulbs,

should give us a year-round of colour and interest.

As with anything,

the preparation of the ground is the most important thing.

And that especially applies to the planting of roses.

They're a fairly versatile group of plants.

There are over 100 different species to choose from

but, generally, they all like very similar conditions,

and they like, first of all, a very free-draining soil -

that's why we've chosen to put them in these raised beds.

And then, well, it has got to be, strangely, a firm soil.

This is actually a little bit too light and fluffy.

If anything, it is too good a soil.

What happens is, as the rose grows up, it rocks in the wind.

The roots become damaged, and then the flowering is compromise.

So the thing to do is to make the soil a little bit heavier here,

and that's why we're putting organic matter on

in the shape of well-rotted horse manure.

Once you've got a good layer of horse manure on the surface

of the soil, fork it in lightly, especially if you've a light,

sandy soil, as we do here.

And then, because we've got a really light soil,

tread it down to give the roots a good, firm hold on the ground.

In a garden like this,

I want to try to take advantage of the diversity of roses.

So, the four spots that I've just put in here will provide me

with the bulky plants, they're the ones that are the good

and upright, the structural specimens, the old species forms.

And they will, in a way, provide the highest point of the garden.

And then, these little spots here, this is the contrast.

This is the lowest spot in the garden,

where I want to use ground-covering roses.

That's really what this garden is about,

to really enjoy the fragrance.

It gets trapped in this area so that in the summer months,

it's awash with the sweet smell of roses.

Anticipating that we were planting the rose garden,

we ordered our plant stock earlier in the season,

which means that we can buy them bare root.

That means you're getting much more for your money.

If you get them a little early and the bed isn't ready, don't worry.

Just heel them in in a bed like this,

a temporary planting bed, and the plants will be fine.

The thing to bear in mind is that what you're trying to do

is to keep the roots as moist as possible.

You can see we've got a good range of fibrous roots,

and some good structural roots on there,

and we've heeled in right up to the crown of the plant.

The only thing to remember is, once they're lifted,

they're then hugely vulnerable,

especially on a day like today when the warmth is coming through.

Keep these roots nice and moist, pop them straight in the ground.

Choosing your roses really is a matter of choice

to suit the colour scheme of the garden, the region you're in,

and also the structure that you're trying to create.

For instance, one of my large centrepieces,

sort of old-fashioned shrub-style roses,

I've chosen Roseraie de l'Hay,

which is a very elegant arching plant,

and has wine-crimson blooms on it.

It's a very elegant centrepiece to have.

And then, to come down into one of the smaller shrub roses,

this is Munstead Wood, which is a modern shrub rose.

It's one of the English shrub roses,

and this is really a great plant

which combines the old-fashioned sort of crinkled bowl-shaped roses

with sweet fragrance and long flowering.

And then this bowl in the centre here,

where we're trying to harvest the fragrance

and create a groundcover mix, I have used Kent,

one of the roses from the County Series, a really good groundcover.

It doesn't get any higher than this,

but it does sprawl incredibly well.

Button double white blooms.

Unfortunately not fragranced, but that's coming from elsewhere.

But it does create a really good carpet

around this particular part of the garden.

And then, just to try one of the new floribundas,

I've gone for Burgundy Ice.

Burgundy Ice is one of those relatively unusual plants

which is derived from another well-known rose.

In fact, it's derived from Iceberg,

which, during the...I suppose the 1970s, 1980s,

just about everyone had Rosa Iceberg in their garden.

Burgundy Ice has that burgundy tint to it,

and all of the health and vigour of the old Iceberg rose.

And just to help all of these roses take a hold in this garden,

what I'm doing is adding a couple of handfuls of seaweed meal.

Kelp meal is perfect, because the enzymes and the trace elements help

to really invigorate the rose, and just a spot of mycorrhizal fungi.

Mycorrhizal fungi are wonderful at being able to harmonise

with the roots of the rose.

The other thing is to plant really quite deep.

You can see here on Burgundy Ice, I'm planting it

so that the shoots are coming right down from ground level.

Traditionally, you might plant a little higher than that,

but the current thinking is, for the health of the rose,

just plant a little bit deeper.

Now, once the roses are all planted, you can get onto the watering.

Of course, it's essential in the first few months

to give them a good deal of water.

Whilst you're watering, you can look at the wounds on your hands

and count all the scratches and scars that the roses have given you,

and remind yourself that of course technically roses don't have thorns.

You might think they have, but they don't.

Technically, they're prickles

because they don't have vascular bundles.

Small consolation if your hands are in shreds after planting,

but just think of the fragrance!

-The parting of the ways.

-Definitely.

Well, at least we've found another job in the greenhouse, under cover.

This is all about fertilisers, and in fact Chris was talking

quite a bit about fertilisers in his rose garden.

I'm going to have a little bit of an observation here,

and looking at six different fertilisers.

So, when you do an observation, you need a control,

so my first one is just the compost with no added fertiliser.

The plant that I'm using, it's all about trying to produce flowers,

so I'm going for the number-one bedding plant, and that's a begonia.

The variety is Illumination, Apricot Shades.

It's the number-one bedding plant because whatever the weather

in the summer, it normally does really well for us.

So, my fertilisers. What have I got?

These two, I tend to call these the general-purpose fertilisers

that we tend to put in the vegetable patch, on the borders.

The first one just contains nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus.

So we've got equal amounts in that one.

Moving on, another one that I like to recommend to people is the

one that contains NPK, but also some of the trace elements, so it'll be

interesting to see, do those trace elements help with the flowering?

Then these two.

You very often see these being sold to encourage you to use them

for containers, hanging baskets,

because these are controlled-release fertilisers.

In other words, when the temperature starts to warm up,

and I hope it does soon, then that starts to release

the fertiliser, and you only need one application.

I should also say that we've got equal amounts in these troughs,

so about 15g to 5 litres of compost.

And my last two,

slightly more specialised -

this one is totally organic,

and Chris was mentioning about seaweed,

this has got the NPK, and the seaweed is also producing

those trace elements.

And we've got some of the mycorrhizal fungi.

And the final one,

this one is very high in potassium,

which should encourage flowers,

but interesting technology because, when you look at the grains there,

it's meant to release quite quickly,

but also slowly.

And the claim to fame with this one is that it might produce

as much as 400% more flowers.

It will be interesting to see.

When you consider the sort of day we've been having,

I was quite chuffed that my next job would be in the greenhouse,

and now look at it. I'm thinking of actually putting the shading on,

because it gets very hot in here very quickly.

And that's one of the problems as we approach the summer weather.

These small greenhouses have little ventilation

and you've got to do all that you can to keep the moisture level

in the air absolutely up to scratch.

One of the ways you can do it is, if you think about it,

and my greenhouse at home is the same,

all winter I've had a slatted staging,

in order that the little heating that we do have can circulate

and it gets round to all the plants in the glasshouse.

But now the emphasis has changed,

it's not heat that we're worried about,

it's dry atmosphere and it's high temperatures.

So, a bit of polythene down on there,

and then capillary matting

laid on top, which you can keep wet.

And you've got this nice moist air around the plants

keeping them healthy.

It saves the plants, really, from drying up,

and stop growing and becoming really floriferous.

There's still time to take cuttings of half-hardy perennials,

and these, for example, are pelargoniums. This is Lord Bute,

and you've got what looks like really very nice

close-jointed cuttings there.

But I tell you what, the growth is hard.

Really woody and hard.

Very difficult to root.

These plants need fed if you're going to take

some cuttings from them.

So they're fine, there's not a problem,

but they need a bit of nitrogen in there

so it softens up the growth and then you can get

some decent softwood cuttings.

Moving on now to just in front of that - one of the new plants

that we were introducing is a new salvia.

I can't quote what it's going to be like yet

but it sounds interesting.

Used as a bedding plant or perhaps in baskets and so on.

They are coming on nicely.

Now, two options here.

If it's going in a basket, the next move, without them becoming

pot bound, as we say,

full of roots, would be perhaps to put them straight into the baskets,

just like we did with these ivy-leaf geraniums there.

These were plugs, put them straight in the basket,

and then it may be some of these salvias will go on the top of that.

So they're moving along nicely.

If they're going to be used as bedding plants in the ground,

they will need another move yet into perhaps a 7cm pot.

Look at this wee cracker. This has arrived mail order

and it's called Chocolate Salmon.

No, I love geraniums, and I want to try this as a bedding plant,

in a basket, or possibly even as a pot plant

in my conservatory.

So this is looking nice and that's a good sample,

getting a taste of what the colour will be like.

But would you believe it, what can you say about that?

Another variety, Caramel Violet.

That's a disgrace. That's come through mail order as well.

That's going to take quite a lot of nursing

to get any sort of decent plants out of them.

But the daddy of them all is this one that arrived this morning.

Look at that.

Compost bin, and a sharp phone call to the people that sent it.

That's a disgrace, that doesn't do them any good whatsoever.

Now, moving round a bit, we come to this little argyranthemum.

I was potting that at the same time as the dahlias.

Absolutely lovely little thing,

making nice plants and starting to flower already.

Of course - they're getting sun, the days are getting longer.

I don't want it to flower just yet, I want to put on more growth.

So, right at this time, I want to nip these off, like that.

In other words, keep it growing

and you'll finish up with much bigger, better plants.

Then onto the shelf here, a variety of plants.

This is turning to the kitchen, as it were, and the salads and so on.

Here we have your sweet pepper,

three sweet peppers, £2.40.

That's going to be an absolute cracker.

Look at that. It costs a fiver.

But this one has been grafted.

So we'll see just how well that grows

and how many fruits we get off it. Is it worth a fiver?

Time alone will tell.

Well, today I feel privileged.

I'm in Morningside, which is a suburb of Edinburgh,

just to the south of the main city,

and I'm here to visit a beautiful garden

which combines specialist plants with unique artwork.

'This designer presentation of specially sourced plants

'and bespoke commissioned sculpture

'has been 35 years in the making

'for physician Tony Toft.'

So we are in the south-west of Edinburgh.

Now, what's the soil and climate like here, Tony?

-Well, the soil is acid.

-Uh-huh.

With streaks of clay here and there.

We're exposed to the south-west wind.

It's unusual to be able to sit in this garden for any length of time.

GEORGE LAUGHS

And March and April are particularly difficult, I think,

because it's dry, it's cold, it's windy.

But yet, when I look round here

and see the array of plants which are here,

many of which are unusual

and quite special.

What made you go down that route, because they are tricky?

Yes, well, we realised from the beginning

that rhododendrons liked an acid soil.

So we began to collect rhododendrons

and somehow you want things that are a bit different,

you're not wanting run-of-the-mill.

So we got them from a respectable nursery

and then you began to realise that other plants liked acid soils, too -

enkianthus, fothergilla -

and then once you get into this buying plants,

you begin to realise that there are some nurseries

which are really very special.

You might have gone to Aviemore for a gentian,

you've come away with a rockery full of plants in the book.

Now, that then makes a garden into a journey of social history.

When you have friends round, you walk round the garden

-and, "I got that from such and such."

-Yes.

-That's it.

-Yes.

I may not remember the name of it but I know where I got it.

GEORGE LAUGHS

Everywhere you look there are these specialist plants

but in amongst them you've got these fabulous pieces of sculpture.

Where does this come from?

That came from the final-year art college show

when I worked at the old Royal Infirmary.

I think it's rather nice, it reminds me of a meteor.

You see the shape of that and then the shape of the sedum there,

which is this wonderful globular form, so it's tremendous.

Look at these peony roses at this time of year,

that foliage is just....

And the rate of growth. That's in about the last ten days or so,

it suddenly shoots up. It's incredible.

And then that colour goes right through onto

the pea stakes at the back. Look at those.

Yes, these are a lovely colour, aren't they? That patina of rust.

The strength in the stems of those

and then you go to the thalictrum,

with the stems there, that is just...

-What are you feeding your plants on?!

-Just mulch.

Gosh.

Then we come right round here and we turn back

and you look through this at the blue sky

and that is just absolutely fabulous.

It's the first thing anyone notices when they come into the back garden.

It was planted about 32 years ago by my late father-in-law,

and I was standing there,

Maureen was in the kitchen window,

guiding us as to when it was to be put.

GEORGE CHUCKLES

-And it's she who looks at it all the time.

-That's right, yeah.

-She's enjoying the view of this from the kitchen window.

-Yes.

But the stem on that is just tremendous.

-Betula jacquemontii?

-Yes.

And then we turned round and there's the contrast,

-look, tulips. What else for this time of year?

-Yes.

It's so wonderfully even. That's a great splash of colour.

We treat them as annuals,

profligate, I know, but they look beautiful.

But look down the inside of that.

-Look at the colour in there. What variety?

-Olympic Flame.

Right, so what's round the corner? More excitement?

Yes, a surprise for you.

Gosh, a surprise, a hare!

HE CHUCKLES

Normally people complain about having hares in their garden.

We bought it at the Royal Scottish Academy.

It's been put together by a lady sculptor from the Borders.

It's not solid bronze,

it's bronze resin, so it's not worth pinching.

Look at the expression on its face.

It looks as though it's just seen us

-and is just about make off into the undergrowth.

-Yes.

Gosh, look at the colours!

A birch and yet it's that colour.

Where did that one come from?

That one came from a large nursery, again,

25, 30 years ago.

And I was told that the late Beatle George Harrison had ordered 50

for his estate, and this was rejected.

This was the only one left in the whole of the country and here it is.

-You fell for that one, did you?

-Yes, we fell for it!

THEY LAUGH

They call this Betula albosinensis

and we normally think "albo" - white,

"sinensis" - Chinese,

and here it is, coppers and gold,

-and almost...

-BOTH:

-Purples.

-Yeah!

-That is just stunning.

This is different, Tony.

There's been a form of rock garden here all the time.

The best use of a slope, really.

Come and see this, George.

A little speciality?

I'm always thrilled when we get a gentian out

for the first time.

-Gosh.

-There it is.

Deep-blue in the middle of the rockery.

That really shows it up.

The fact that we're just down at this lower level

and looking right into the face of the plants makes such a difference.

-Can we look at this here?

-Yes.

-Summer Snowflake.

-Yes.

Leucojum. Beautiful thing, isn't it?

This is interesting, isn't it?

Yes, it is nice, isn't it?

It's called Tumble. It's a piece again by Andrea Geile.

And it's made of what's called COR-TEN steel,

which takes this patina of rust,

but I'm told it doesn't go any further than the surface.

It was her idea to reflect the shape of the leaf of the acer behind it.

We've seen a lot of fabulous plants,

we've seen some wonderful pieces of art.

But my question to you is,

how have you managed to bring them all together?

How do you do that, with art and plants?

Well, I'm not sure. I certainly don't have a philosophy.

All I would say is that both Maureen and I

enjoy beautiful things,

we enjoy collecting nice art.

Plants are beautiful things.

And it's colour I enjoy,

and I think part of that is a reaction to

the dullness of the climate sometimes here,

and one's looking for colour, and we have it.

Well, we've been visiting this fruit house regularly

cos we're watching the progress of this gorgeous crop of cherries.

But I want to dwell with the vines today.

These rods, spurs, these are the names.

And then usually you get two shoots, we only want one.

If you get two, you might get twice as many bunches

but they'll be smaller. So it'll give the plant a chance.

Here we go.

Leave one, leave the strongest.

Here we go.

Take that one out, leave that one there.

I've got some more fruit for the decking,

perfect for small containers.

This one, for the first time, is a bramble that you can grow

in a hanging basket or a container,

so three plants there in about a 12-inch pot.

Also, I've got a framberry,

looks like a strawberry,

and the fruits also look like a strawberry,

but when you taste it it's meant to be a little bit of a cross

between the strawberry and a raspberry.

Now, there's a sight to gladden your heart.

That's a wonderful salad, isn't it, for this time of year?

Even on a cold day.

We sowed our seeds out in this small-space garden

round about four weeks ago,

and there is the result.

And already I can harvest these. There are some mizuna,

which I can just snip off with the scissors,

just below soil level like that,

and that will go into the salad and add just that little bit extra zing.

Well, you know, I really wish the viewers could appreciate

what we can smell in here,

because that perfume is gorgeous, isn't it?

It just fills the whole of the conservatory.

Possibly a hybrid of fragrantissima.

A beautiful thing.

Very reliable. I mean, it flowers like that every year, doesn't it?

-Yes, it does.

-Absolutely.

Hailstones at the moment, I think.

Yes, we could do a good job for the tourist board, you know.

Four seasons in a day, we've had.

I mean, it's absolutely amazing sort of weather, isn't it?

It is, but apart from the weather, if you'd like any more information

about this week's programme, it's all in the fact sheet

and the easiest way to access that is online.

Next week, Jim?

-Tomato time!

-And for me as well.

-Yeah!

I'm doing a little bit more formative pruning.

-Yes, the loppers are out again.

-Yeah, they are.

Oh, very staid. Well, anyway, until next time...

-ALL:

-Goodbye.