Photinia Red Robin || Christmas Berry || RHS Award of Garden Merit

Hi everyone, it's Jeanette here again from Enthusiastic Gardener and today I'm very pleased to show you the plant that is finally going in the corner bed, my new corner bed which I've been looking for. For a very long time I went to about five or six different garden centers because I wanted something tall, I wanted something big, I wanted something budget-friendly, most importantly and something striking. I saw so many different things, I saw topiaries, four ball topiaries, I found one of those which was nice, I found olive trees and I found bay trees, lots and lots of different things. I did want a big shrub, I wanted something striking and possibly red color. I looked at Aces, Aces are incredibly expensive and not really in my budget, not for the size that I wanted, so this is what I have ended up with. It's a Photinia, a Photinia Red Robin, just the sort of height that I wanted, the sort of shape that I wanted for this corner, I wanted something to stand out and I think this will do the trick. And of course the funny thing is it's a bit like I think probably getting a new car, you get a new car and you drive around and you see loads of that car, well this is what's happened to me with this Photinia Red Robin because just on my dog walk alone, every corner that I've turned there's a Red Robin, I turn left there's a Red Robin, I turn right there's a Red Robin, look up in the distance there's a Red Robin, they're everywhere and they are glorious, really really beautiful, bright red, when the new tips grow they're always bright red and I found out that they were awarded the gold merit for garden plants by the Royal Horticultural Society, they are that fabulous, you can have them in hedge form, you can have them as shrubs and I have it as a beautiful standard and they are hardy, very hardy, down to minus 12 so that's good and you may notice that in the pictures that I've just shown you they are bright bright red, now what happens is the new tips that grow are always bright red but they love to have full sun and they're happiest then, this one has been kept in the shade for I don't know how long so these leaves have turned slightly darker brown, they're browning but what you can do every time you trim them and cut the tips new ones grow bright red so I'll plant this and then give it a week or so to settle in then I'll give it a nice trim and new bright red leaves will last and they last all the way through into autumn which I think is going to be a perfect perfect thing in this setting, need a little bit of bread, what else can we say about the red robin, they like full sun, they're not so good in shade as I've just said because you want the red vibrant tips, they are disease resistant, they can be toxic to dogs but of course this being a standard no way my dogs are going to get near this and I always think that pets and animals they tend to know anyway, I have plants in my garden that are supposedly toxic to dogs, my dogs are fine, my dogs have never been ill I think but dogs have an instinct, they know what they can and what they shouldn't go near so I don't actually worry about that, they enjoy most soils, they're very very easy and you can tell that by how many are planted just around my local area, they're everywhere but I love them, now I'm going to plant this, we are not going to go over to Richard for an update today on his workshop, the workshop cupboards benches and everything else are all in situ now, it looks amazing but he just wants a couple more days because he wants to do some finishing final touches before the big reveal, so the big reveal is going to be in the next episode and I may even devote the entire episode to Richard because he has done a fantastic job, so instead we are going over for a special garden tour to my good friend Debbie, Debbie is my friend from comments on YouTube, we've become very good friends, we share gardening knowledge, tips and advice and as I say we've become great friends and Debbie lives in Peterborough which is in the further up north than me, it is about an hour and a quarter by train into London into King's Cross, it has a beautiful cathedral which is 12th and 13th century, a beautiful city centre, some gorgeous surrounding villages and it also is on the coast so it has everything in Peterborough, I need to go and visit Peterborough which I may well do that at some stage, so let's go over to Debbie, she has done an early May garden tour for us, she is one of the people who inspired me to shape my lawn into an oval because she has a beautiful oval lawn and they had it completely landscaped very recently, maybe a year ago, so this is her first or second year of really getting into gardening and she's given me tips actually on what to do, how to cut the grass, don't scalp it, you should just take off the very top tips and you should apparently not have a grass box because the clippings is feed for the grass, so I'm going to try all those things, so let's go over to Debbie while I plant my beautiful new Botinia Red Robin. Good morning, May the 1st, so it's a month since we had a walk around the garden so I thought it'd be interesting to see what's coming to life, dahlias to begin with are coming through and the first of the calla lilies as well, nothing in those pots yet, I have done my hanging baskets, tiny yet though, no lilies yet, look at these beautiful white tulips, aren't they gorgeous? The Acer has sprung back to life, lots going on here, clematis, buds are just about to open and my black lace I chopped right down to the ground last year because it had gone completely straggly and that's coming back really lovely, look at this Acer, it's huge, beautiful, the colours on there, stunning, I've got another hosta coming there, I seem to have hostas coming everywhere, there's another little tiny one in there, can you see it? My pittosporum has gone crazy, the azaleas just about to spring into flower, look that'll be pretty when they're all open. Good morning Teddy, hello Teddy, having a look around? So another hosta and this, I'm in the sun, this is the hydrangea that I rescued, I bought it from a shop and it was practically dead but I could just see some green shoots at the bottom, look at that, that's gorgeous I can't wait for that to flower, your olive tree, aquilegia, that's just about to flower as well, look I haven't got a lot of colour in the garden at the moment but it's all there, remember the box that I split into three, that's doing all right, I didn't kill it off, another hosta, bamboo, tulips, I love tulips, there's another hosta, look there seems to be a theme in this garden doesn't there? Ted what are you eating? I hope you're not eating my grass seeds, that's mint, I need to clear up those twigs, I need to get rid of those, my other hanging basket, these are tomato plants but they don't look as if they're doing very good do they? And that's it, so there's a lot more coming out isn't there, than there was last month, I'm really pleased all those next door dogs are saying hello to Teddy So there we are, it's all planted and beautiful and I think it will be very happy here, it looks nice and sturdy, oh I've walked all the way around, it looks straight from all angles, I may just cut this one little thing off here because, because, and as I say I will probably trim it in a week or so's time just to shape it up again, I put slow release fertilizer in, it's very important always for any plant to plant it at the depth of the pot, don't pour a lot of soil on top, sometimes it's even more beneficial to have it raised up just a little bit because of course when you've dug a hole and added more crumbly compost the plant can sink, so I'm delighted with my petunia red robin, we'll see how it does, I think it's just the perfect plant that I was looking for, so I can always take cuttings with this as well, so I might try that There we are, it's all in, I think it looks beautiful and I think it looks straight, I think I will go and tweak in a moment and next episode will be Richard with his workshop update and you are going to be amazed, you are going to be amazed at what he's done, he just is doing a few more tweaks and finishing touches, so I will see you soon, thank you so much for watching and take care everyone, bye for now, bye!