Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello. Welcome to Gardener's World. I'm planting out some rocket. You can see that some of
00:18these plants have got a purplish, almost chocolatey colour to the leaves, whereas rocket really
00:23should be bright green. And this is not uncommon if you have very early rocket like this. This
00:29was sown in early February, and it's been sitting around in plugs for quite a few weeks.
00:35And this is just signs of stress. But don't worry, because the new growth, once it's in
00:39the soil, will be absolutely fine, and you'll get that lovely, buttery, peppery taste. This
00:47is one of the essential vegetables of any vegetable garden, and I absolutely love it.
00:57In today's programme, we meet a gardener who has had a lifelong love affair with peonies.
01:05And Nick Bailey celebrates one of the nation's favourite spring flowers, the daffodil.
01:28The pond has had a fairly quiet winter, I think is the best way to describe it. It's
01:34been frozen over maybe three or four times only. I've mulched all around the outside
01:39because that keeps the moisture in. And the main thing with a pond and the surroundings
01:45is that you want to encourage plants that like damp. Now, what you can see at the moment
01:51are the camassia leaves. Camassias are one of the very few bulbs that really like damp
01:56conditions. And you get these lovely blue flower spikes, sort of from mid-April here
02:03to mid-May. But you can just begin to see the little pointed heads appearing about the
02:10ground of the hostas. And the hostas here are really vigorous. But I want to get some
02:15colour in, and so I've bought some candelabra primulus. Now, I did actually plant a load
02:21in here a few years ago, and they looked fantastic for a year or two. But then they got rather
02:26swamped out by the competition. But you can buy candelabra primulus that are really quite
02:34big and strong. And I've got three varieties here I'm going to plant, which should rise
02:37up above the hostas and the camassias and give me the colour that I want in here. Now,
02:45candelabra primulus, above all else, like moist conditions. Now, the first is primula
02:51anisodora. And like all candelabra primula, it has these tears of flower. This will grow
02:58two to three feet tall with these layers of flower in the most incredibly rich burgundy
03:06with a little yellow eye. And I'll put them in groups of three. These candelabra primulus
03:14will spread by seed quite readily if they get the right growing conditions, which is
03:21damp soil in semi-shade. And the more sun they have, the damper the soil must be. The
03:28next one is pulveralenta, the mealy primulus. And the flowers are a magenta. I'm going to
03:36put these in a group over here. Now, these are slightly taller than the others. These
03:43will grow a full metre tall. So that's quite a statuesque plant. The final one is primula
03:52bulliana or bullies primrose. And they have wonderful orange flowers. So if I put this
04:02in here, this is going to look really spectacular. And when I've planted these, I will give them
04:22a really good soak. These will flower round about the end of May into June. But the crucial
04:38thing with all candelabra primulus is to give them plenty of moisture. So if you're planting
04:43them somewhere that isn't reliably wet, then you will have to water frequently. Other than
04:48that, they're very robust plants and they'll die down in winter, be cut back and then reappear
04:54next year. But of course, when you plant anything at this time of year, there's a certain amount
04:58of faith because there's never much to look at until it gets going. But last summer, we
05:03went down to Langport in Somerset to see peonies at their very best in the garden of a passionate
05:11peony lover. My name's Susanna Applegate, and I've grown peonies for about 25 years
05:31and been an avid collector since I started growing them. When I saw my first peony, I
05:39thought, I've never seen a flower like this. And it was just, I use the word awesome, but
05:45I don't use it lightly. And it was absolutely awesome. I thought, right, this is where I
05:51want to be with these plants. Peonies are great because of the colours, the shape of
05:59the flowers, and they bring lots of joy between the middle of May and right through to the
06:06end of June. There are five major flower forms of peonies, from the very simple one,
06:13which is the single, then you have the imperial flower, or otherwise known as the anemone
06:18type, the semi-double, the double flower, and then finally you've got the bomb or the
06:25triple decker, and that's a distinct three-layer flower. One of my favourite singles is called
06:41Buckeye Bell, and you can see here the guard petals, these are the outer petals, and as
06:48they open, they reveal the stamens, and in the centre, you've got the carpels, which
06:55are the seed pods. With a double or a semi-double flower, you've got many, many more petals
07:01in the centre. There are myths associated with growing peonies, one of which is that
07:12they're fickle to flower, but all you need is plenty of sunshine and the right planting
07:17depth, so no deeper than about two centimetres below the surface of the soil, and that's it.
07:27There's another myth that persists to this day, that you cannot move a peony,
07:32but there's no detriment to the peony at all by digging it up and dividing it.
07:37If you've never grown peonies before, the best plant to start with, I would say,
07:49is Bowl of Beauty. It's very floriferous, so within a short space of time, you're going to
07:55get a lot of flowers, and that will give you the confidence to carry on and collect a few
08:01more cultivars. If you've got a patio or courtyard garden, you don't need to worry
08:09about planting peonies in the ground. You can just stick them in a pot and they'll be quite
08:14happy. And I've had peonies in pots for 15 to 18 years, and they just grow and grow and fill the
08:21pot and look fabulous. They are virtually maintenance-free, apart from cutting them
08:33back in the autumn when the foliage dies back with the herbaceous peonies. That's not the
08:38case with the tree peonies or the intersectional hybrids. It's only the herbaceous peonies that
08:44need cutting back. One of the things that people worry about with peonies, as the flowers are
08:53opening and the colour's beginning to show, is the appearance of ants on the buds. Some people
08:59think that they're actually eating the buds. This isn't the case. What actually is happening is,
09:04as the bud opens, it's under such pressure that it squeezes out nectar, and that's what the ants
09:11are after. So once the flower's opened and the pressure's off, the nectar won't be available to
09:16the ants and they'll be gone. So it's nothing to worry about. What I really love about peonies is
09:34that they react to their environment. And we've had a recent downpour, but the flower has closed
09:39up to try and prevent the rain from washing the pollen off the stamens. But what actually happens
09:44is that the rain drains down to the guard petals and it tips the flower to one side and empties
09:50the flower of water. I feel that peonies are a part of my life that has become essential. I think
10:08without peonies in my life, I would feel bereft. And it's wonderful to have companionship with
10:15them. Not ownership, companionship. They just fill me with wonder.
10:38Certainly, peonies are easy to love, but they do have a slight reputation of being difficult to
10:54grow. Not true. Anybody can grow a peony, and I've got some to plant here. I'm going to start
10:59with this. Doesn't look like much now, but this is an herbaceous peony called Karl Rosenfeld,
11:06with lovely, big, rich flowers. Now, before you plant a peony, in fact, probably before you buy
11:13a peony, you really do need to know what type it is. And there are three types that you need to
11:20really be aware of. The first are tree peonies. And that's a good example there, the Peony Lutea.
11:26And you can see it's got many straight stems. In fact, they're shrubs rather than trees. But the
11:32important thing is they're woody. And those stems can carry really big flowers, and they are very,
11:39very easy to grow. But the one thing you have to do when you're planting a tree peony is to put it
11:45in deep. And then you have herbaceous peonies, of which this is one. And there are also intersectional
11:53peonies, which are a mixture of the two. And I'm going to plant one of those in a minute.
11:55Now, a herbaceous peony must be planted shallowly. I'm looking at a level about like that. So the
12:11soil level wants to be about flush with the top of the compost in the pot. There. That is perfect.
12:20If you've got any qualms at all, better to be a little bit too high than too low. Peonies flower
12:29best in full sun. They will take some shade, but as a rule of thumb, it needs to be sunny for half
12:38a day. And they don't like drying out too much. It will need a little bit of support because herbaceous
12:44peonies can flop a bit or get bashed by wind or rain. So you need to think about that before, as
12:50always, with any support it needs it. Now, this is another glorious red peony called Scarlet Heaven,
13:03and it has superb flowers produced quite late in the peony season. But it's in the third group.
13:12They're called intersectional peonies, and they are a straight cross between tree peonies and
13:18herbaceous peonies. And they are much value because they combine the qualities of both sorts. So they're
13:25very robust. They don't need any staking. They're smothered with flower, but they are really
13:31eye-wateringly expensive. This plant costs £70. However, if you bought one of these to mark a
13:39birthday, I would say it will give you pleasure all your life. But if you're going to spend that money, you've
13:43got to get the planting right. I'm going to plant it just like the herbaceous one on the other side,
13:52i.e. shallowly. The flowers won't appear until early June or even mid-June. If you've got very heavy
14:03soil or even very light soil, then do add some compost to the mix. So we'll take it out the pot carefully, gently, gently.
14:22Pop that in. There we go. So you can see the depth. The top of the compost is the same height as the soil.
14:31Unlike tree peonies, this doesn't grow tall. It's got a maximum height of about three foot.
14:39And I give both these peonies a really good drink.
14:52Now, a flower that has been lasting for weeks now and is still going strong in many of our gardens
14:58is the daffodil. Everybody loves a daff. And Nick has been to Lincolnshire to see daffodils on a grand scale.
15:17There's nothing quite like a field bathed in golden daffodils. These beautiful blooms
15:24have been inspiring artists, poets and plant breeders for generations.
15:29And they're more popular today than they ever have been.
15:36Commonly known as daffodils, the genus Narcissus are hardy perennial bulbs which originate from
15:41Europe and North Africa. Today there are thousands of cultivars which all have distinct individual
15:48characteristics. This is Narcissus culton and it's a true heirloom variety of Narcissus. It's
15:57been around for nearly a hundred years. Now it's a particularly useful plant for naturalizing.
16:03So you can plant it into long grass and allow it to do its own thing and gradually spread over time.
16:09Now the blooms themselves are quite special. The outer perianth segment has this slightly
16:15sulphur tone to it and then a really strong golden cup in the center. So that two-tone means
16:21that the flowers beautifully stand out and pop in the landscape. So if you're looking for an easy,
16:27reliable Narcissus that you can plant and leave to do its own thing, this is the one to go for.
16:35This is just one of over 500 cultivars produced by Taylor's Bulbs,
16:40a Lincolnshire family with an impressive history. It began back in 1919 when ex-serviceman Otto
16:47Augustus Taylor took on a humble smallholding of just two acres of land.
16:53A hundred years later his legacy lives on through a fourth generation of Taylors.
17:00So Adam, your great-grandfather was a real pioneer of Narcissus. How did it all begin?
17:06Well, Otto Augustus Taylor was an artillery man in the war and he was gassed and it was
17:11recommended that he retired from his job as a pharmacist in London. So he moved to this area
17:16and he had seen the opportunity with flowers. Coming from London, he had seen people decorating
17:20their home with flowers and so that's where it started. When somebody buys a packet of bulbs,
17:27what sort of age are they? You know, how big an investment has been made into that bulb?
17:31It depends on the variety and the size of the bulb but probably about five years old and then
17:35they get into the packets into the garden centre. In terms of people growing them in the gardens,
17:40are there sort of broad tips that you can offer? The biggest error people make is cutting the
17:45foliage too early because the foliage will feed the bulb for the following year and that will
17:49give you a flower in the following year if you leave the bulb undisturbed in the garden.
17:53One of the questions I'm asked consistently by gardeners is why do daffodils go blind?
17:58After a certain amount of years they might suddenly stop blooming. What are the triggers
18:02for that? They can become overcrowded so sometimes the bulbs just need lifting and
18:07separating out and replanting but spread them back out again because if they're on top of each other
18:11they can't get enough moisture, they can't get enough nutrients.
18:17Despite the many new cultivars of daffodils that are introduced year after year,
18:21it's the old stalwarts that remain ever popular.
18:24This Mount Hood has really distinct qualities from other daffodils. It starts at the beginning
18:30of the season with this Corona that's very distinctly yellow and then it fades over time
18:35as the pigments deplete and takes on this lovely creamy ivory or nearly white tone.
18:41But one of the things worth noting is that it's not just these trumpets on the front
18:46of Narcissus that are worth looking at, it's the beautiful colours that happen on the backs as well.
18:51And so there's a pickety green which suffuses into this lovely flame yellow which comes up the back
18:57of the perianth segment. I think it makes it a really sophisticated daffodil.
19:05Daffodils need lots of water so it's important to keep the soil moist during the growing season
19:10and they should be planted about twice the depth of the bulb to ensure they grow away successfully.
19:16This handsome looking chap is Narcissus jack the lad and it was introduced about 20 years ago
19:23and you can see they're really double peony type blooms with a mix of both yellow and orange petals.
19:30And what's useful about this plant is once it's mature it can produce
19:33a really beautiful pinkish-yellowish colour.
19:36And it's also a really beautiful flower to look at.
19:39With a mix of both yellow and orange petals and what's useful about this plant is once it's mature
19:45it can produce two or three flower heads from a single stem and those colours are spectacular
19:51but they're cranked up even more by the fact that the foliage has this bluey-grey tone
19:57and so something happens called simultaneous contrast by putting an orange next to a blue
20:02they both appear more vibrant and more exciting. What a fantastic daff.
20:10If you're looking for an easy to grow bulb that's beautiful, returns for you year after year
20:17with minimum effort, then Narcissus is the plant to go for.
20:21I know that when it comes to daffodils yellow is by far and away the favourite colour
20:27but I do love these white thalea daffodils.
20:31And I'm adding a white camellia here to the writing garden
20:34so that it's got a little bit of a colour to it.
20:36I'm just going to take off the top leaves and put a little bit of yellow underneath
20:40and then I'm going to add a little bit of green.
20:43And I'm just going to add a little bit of green underneath
20:45and then I'm going to add a little bit of green underneath
20:47and I'm adding a white camellia here to the writing garden.
20:51If I ever knew its name, I'm afraid I've long forgotten it,
20:54but it's covered in buds
20:56and will be looking at its best, I guess, in about a week or so's time.
21:09Although I've got these nice big beds
21:13waiting to be filled with vegetables,
21:15you don't need lots of space to grow a whole range of veg.
21:21I've got this container. It's a water trough.
21:24And as long as you drill the drainage holes,
21:26then this is nice and deep and I can grow good, long root crops.
21:31I could grow parsnips in there if I wanted to,
21:33but actually I'm going to sow some carrots.
21:37Now, carrots do need really well-drained soil,
21:40so I've mixed quite a lot of gritty sand into the compost
21:44and don't add too much goodness.
21:46Carrots tend to fork in fresh manure.
21:50It is worth noticing that I've raised this up on bricks to help the drainage,
21:55because even if you have drainage holes,
21:57if you put it on paving and then water it,
22:00the water can't escape and it basically sits in a puddle.
22:04I've got a variety here called Nigel.
22:07And we did grow it last year. It was really good.
22:10So I think, in honour of my furry friend, we should sow some Nigel.
22:15So just sprinkle them thinly, like that.
22:20The general consensus is, to avoid carrot fly,
22:24the less you thin carrots,
22:26the less you sow.
22:28The general consensus is, to avoid carrot fly,
22:31the less you thin carrots,
22:34the better they are.
22:36Just go over it like that to lightly cover them.
22:41And then finally, water them.
22:46You don't need to soak them too much at this stage.
22:50All you're trying to do is wet the seed,
22:52and that will provoke it into germination.
22:54But as they grow, they will need more water,
22:57at least once a week a good soak,
22:59and if it's very hot and dry, maybe every two or three days.
23:02And I think they'll be ready for the first harvest
23:04of the small baby carrots,
23:06maybe round about June, early July,
23:10and the major harvest, August, even into September.
23:14Now, here's another way to grow seeds.
23:21On this little corner, I've made a seed bed.
23:24It's all part of trying to cut back on plastic,
23:27and if you can sow straight into the soil and then transplant,
23:31you don't need seed trays or pots of any kind.
23:35Now, with a seed bed, you do need to dig it,
23:38remove all bigger stones and all weeds.
23:41That's really important,
23:43because you don't want anything competing with your little seedlings.
23:46And then rake it over so it is a fine till.
23:51And that just means making sure the soil is quite fine
23:56and there are no big lumps or bumps in it.
24:02The seeds that adapt best, certainly for vegetables,
24:06tend to come from the brassica family.
24:08And by brassicas, I mean cabbages, kale,
24:12cauliflowers, broccoli, these are all the brassica family.
24:17The beauty of the timing is that you sow now,
24:21and they're ready to transplant
24:23about the time that your broad beans and your first peas are going over.
24:30You have to sow them in rows so that you can see them and you can weed them,
24:34but the rows can be very close together, and they can be short.
24:37They can just be that sort of length.
24:39This is black Tuscan kale, or cavolo nero,
24:44which is a real family favourite.
24:47Always grow it.
24:49Now, you do want to put them in thinly,
24:52because these are going to be thinned down
24:55to about an inch or two inches apart.
24:58So I'm just going to put two rows of those in.
25:01That's all I need.
25:04And now I'm going to put a row of Brussels sprouts.
25:09And, of course, when you've finished any particular batch of seeds,
25:14lightly cover them over,
25:16water them well, and keep them watered.
25:20And do be sure to keep them weeded.
25:25That is really important.
25:27And then when they're ready, they'll need thinning.
25:30And while I'm doing this,
25:32here's some other jobs that I'm going to share with you for this weekend.
25:45Mediterranean herbs, such as thyme or sage,
25:49can very quickly get woody,
25:51and it's important to cut them back hard at this time of year.
25:55This can seem a bit radical, but be brave.
25:58Go right back to the bottom shoots,
26:01and this will let light and air in
26:03and encourage fresh new growth,
26:05which is much better for cooking with.
26:15This is now the best of the rhubarb season,
26:19so keep picking it to allow new stems to come forward.
26:22So keep picking it to allow new stems to come through,
26:26but don't ever cut them,
26:28as this will leave a wound where disease and infection can get in.
26:31Instead, grasp them firmly at the base
26:34and give it a good yank,
26:36and it will come away cleanly in your hand.
26:47By this stage of the year,
26:49the old growth of deciduous ferns like these Dryopteris
26:53is looking very tired and raggedy.
26:56So now you should remove it all,
26:58clearing it away to reveal the basic knuckle,
27:01which will very soon unfurl into bright new green crozias.
27:20The imperial fritillaries are looking good here in the jewel garden.
27:24This is rubra, and we have the yellow one in the spring garden,
27:28and they both have this rather foxy smell.
27:31Some people don't like it.
27:33I love it because to me it's the fragrance of spring.
27:37And on a warm, bright day like today,
27:40they shine out as the most exotic thing in the garden.
27:44And they also have a quality that is very unusual,
27:47insomuch that they are pollinated by birds.
27:50Bluetits get in there looking for the nectar
27:54and take the pollen and pass it on to the next flower.
27:57So if you see a little bird
27:59what looks like attacking your precious plant, don't worry.
28:03It's doing you good service.
28:05And I'm afraid that's it for today,
28:07but I'll be back here at Longmeadow at the same time next week.
28:10So until then, bye-bye.
28:12Come on.
28:17© BF-WATCH TV 2021
28:47© BF-WATCH TV 2021