Gardeners' World - 2023 Episode 95 -The secrets of the peony are revealed

Nestled in the suburbs of West London are 320 acres containing one of the most amazing plant collections in the world. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It's absolutely amazing how wonderful nature is. From the historic glass houses. Wow, what a nice view. To the ever-changing walks and vistas. This is this tree's children. We've been given special access to capture a year in the life of this unique place. With 17,000 species of plants to nurture. You were like a kid in a candy store. Oh look what I've got, look what I've got. And two million visitors to enchant. The greenhouse is actually quite tall. The staff are busier than ever. So we're almost nearing the end of loading the kiln. Creating vibrant public displays. It's addictive to work with just so many beautiful flowers. And doing vital work behind the scenes. This unit is our big drone. In here is a laser that spins around. Throughout the months and whatever the weather. This is the cycle to have when you're having a bad day with the view of the palm house. The gardens and the people who keep them alive. Never stay still. This is Kew. A year in bloom. Summer is now bursting out all across Kew Gardens. With visitors arriving in droves. Eager to breathe in the scents and bathe in the atmosphere of this spectacular place. This time of year one plant gets a lot of attention. As its flowers last for just 10 days. These are the stars of the new Peony Garden. The thing I like about peonies is the aesthetic look of them. They look really beautiful. There's a reason why people paint roses and peonies. Because of the structure of them and the colors that they give out. Peonies have always been something from my childhood. My mother was a keen gardener. And I just remember this time of year these enormous great flowers came up. With huge great globes of purple crimson color. And she would pick them and make these wonderful flower arrangements in the house. There are 35 accepted species of herbaceous and tree peonies. And the man responsible for this riot of color is botanical horticulturist Joe. They are fantastic flowers. They're just so showy. They have had cultural uses over the years. Particularly in Asian cultures. Chinese medicine has some uses for the roots I believe. But it's largely because they are of interest as a garden plant. People love to grow them. They love to have them in flower arrangements. So we wanted to have a place to display them. Peonies grow wild throughout the world's temperate regions. But it was with the arrival of the first tree peony from Asia in 1789 that Kew's collection began to really take shape. 230 years later, Kew decided something needed to be done about its jumbled peony displays. Peony garden runs roughly from the center path in the pergola to the wall by Kew Road. So it's about 45 meters long. The amount of times that I've been working in here and someone has walked past the sign and said, Oh, the peony garden. I can't see any peonies. Part of that is because the majority of plants in this part of the garden aren't peonies anymore. At the end of last summer, Joe was put in charge of turning this jungle into a spectacular showcase for these wonderful flowers. So what we're hoping is that the peonies will just be much more visible. In this area, you can't see any peonies at all. If you come around and you can see a part where I've cleared and revealed two peonies right in the middle of the bed. That is what we're hoping to do with this project. Reveal the peonies in the collection. The entire project will take a couple of years to complete. So in here, we've got an example of quite an important type of peony. This is called an Itto hybrid or an intersectional peony. This is a cross between the woody tree peonies and the herbaceous peonies. And as you can see, it's just completely swamped. So of the things that you can see from this angle, almost everything will be coming out. So it will be a big, big change, hopefully happening in the next two weeks. Peonies are notoriously tricky customers, which means there's plenty resting on Joe's shoulders. Peonies are known to be a bit sulky when you move them. So I'm trying to do it just as they start to die down for autumn, so that they've got a chance to establish themselves over winter and hopefully flower next spring, but there's no guarantee that they will. It's exciting to think what it might look like, but then it's also terrifying to think if things go wrong. We'll be back later to see how Joe's getting on. In the meantime, a short distance from the peony displays is the kitchen garden, a place where amazing vegetables are grown. Different crops are tested for their climate change resilience, along with produce galore for queues, cafes and restaurants. When George III lived here, this garden supplied his kitchens. This was the site of the original Georgian kitchen garden, which shut down at the end of the 1800s. This year, just like the peony displays, Helena is watching the winds of change blow across her kingdom. Her kitchen garden is being renovated, but only after everything was removed. So it was really sad, it was really hard to pull out 10 years' work, but I am now really excited, the contract is due any day, and it gives me so many more opportunities to grow. And Helena has plenty to be excited about. No more grass paths, we're getting some hardcore paths, which means we can have more visitors in here, so that's going to be great. Once the landscaping is complete, planting can start, and Helena is already one step ahead. We're going to have a whole bed full of chillies, so I've got about 200, there's about 200 there, and then I've got a few more actually propagating here. We've got some aubergines, which are only just germinated, so I've pricked those out, but I love aubergines, and in a hot year, I think it's going to be a hot year, they grow really, really well. For Helena, and for thousands of visitors, the kitchen garden's grand re-opening can't come a day too soon. People come here all the time to ask how to grow their vegetables, to see what we're growing, so over the last 10 years it's been in place, there's been more and more need for making it a permanent space, and I am very, very excited that it's happening this year. We're celebrating food this year at Kew, I couldn't be happier. But with the builders due any day now, Helena is going to have to find something else to occupy her. Despite what visitors might assume, like the seasons themselves, change is a constant at Kew. And inside the Princess of Wales Conservatory, a very unusual attraction is being upgraded. There are flies knocking about the place, I'm sure some of them, you know, meet a gruesome end. Death from plants is usually associated with the poisonous ones, like hemlock, foxglove or nightshade. But there is a category of plants no threat to us, but a deadly foe if you happen to be an insect. And Helena is building them a new home. So this bed hasn't been done in a number of years, we're not too sure exactly what time span that is, but it was definitely in need of a change, I think. Helena's plan is to bring clarity to the displays, with new specimens planted in perfect soil conditions. They're kind of as good as they've adapted, because naturally they have, they live in low nutrient soils. Excited children often try to feed these plants, which is why they have glass panels to protect them, the plants that is. One of the most common questions we get is, do you feed them flies? Or, you know, people are very intrigued about, like, what can you actually put in them? We don't actually feed them anything. With all the old plants out, all Eleanor needs now is some new ones. And she knows a man who can help. And I think it's pretty much done. And then the exciting part, we get to go pick up the plants from the tropical nursery. Come back, as we see which hungry young carnivores are ready for action. The leaf snaps shut, and it traps the flying insect usually inside. Discover how difficult replanting peonies is. If we put them too deep in the soil, they'll just put up really nice foliage, but they won't flower, at least for a very long time. And meet some very strange visitors. I like the fingernails. They are quite terrifying. Hi, Tom, you all right? Hi, Eleanor. We've got the trays ready of carnivorous plants. Oh, they're looking amazing. They're looking all right, aren't they? As the days in Kew Gardens get warmer, in the Princess of Wales Conservatory, work is underway to revitalise their display of nature's wildest survivors. And Tom is an expert in all their fiendish ways. The plant that people probably most think of when they think of carnivorous plants is the Venus flytrap. So on the inside leaf surface, you have three hairs. And in order to close, those little hairs need to be touched twice within about 10 seconds. The leaf snaps shut, and it traps the flying insect usually inside. Tom's job is to select plants that will not only thrive in the new display, but also showcase the range of devilish weaponry at these plants' disposal. The plant we've got here is Drosera bernata, and this is a carnivorous sundew from Australasia. It has these amazing modified leaves with glandular hairs, and they produce a sticky fluid on their tips, which attracts the insects, but also when they land on it, they get stuck on it. The plant is then able to produce enzymes which break down that insect's body and allow the plant to absorb the nutrients through the leaf surface. With the new beds ready and waiting, Eleanor is itching to get planting. Great, thanks a lot, Tom. No worries. Cheers, Eleanor. It should take Eleanor two or three days, after which a curious public and unwary insects will be able to visit. Work is underway to completely redesign the garden's neglected peony borders. Like many things in gardening, it's not a job to be rushed. The project kicked off last autumn when Joe and his team started clearing out the beds. So we're just replanting the first of the peonies to go back into the beds. We've lifted almost everything from this bed, just leaving a few of the peonies that we'll hope to move directly to their new positions to minimise the disturbance on them. So these are the first ones to go back in. They kind of form the central spine of the new design and we're just getting them back in the ground. Peonies can be difficult to transplant. Joe must tread carefully. Peonies like a really moist but nicely drained soil. I'm incorporating organic matter. We've got soft mulch that we've got down from our yard and I'm just incorporating that with the soil that I'm taking out just to make sure that we've got a really nice organic rich mix to go back in the hole. The UK has a long tradition of peony cultivation and they've been growing at Kew for centuries. So Joe probably knows what he's doing. So this is what a peony looks like underground. You've got these really nice tubers, a good root system and then at the top here, this is the buds for next year's growth. So that's the kind of the key thing that we're looking at when we're replanting them because they really don't like to be buried too deep. If we put them too deep in the soil they'll just put up really nice foliage but they won't flower at least for a very long time. So we've washed all of these off. We've got out all the bad weeds and now we're ready to put them back in the ground. The plan for the new species layout is ambitious. So we've got the design down conceptually. We know that starting in that corner we've got peonies that come from North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, the Balearic Islands. We move this way until we get to sort of the Black Sea, that kind of area. Crossing over will then be the Caucasus moving into Asia and then far east of Asia up there. Peonies are remarkable not only for their almost universal popularity as a flower but also for their known medicinal properties. For the Chinese, the peony has been at the heart of numerous treatments since at least the fifth century. And Professor Monique Simmons at Kew's Economic Botany Collection knows why. This is a species of peony, Lactiflora. It's the white peony and it's the root material that we've got in this jar. This plant has a range of different uses. We've got scientific evidence of its use in things like antidepressant, et cetera, because it's known to modulate serotonin. There are other uses like anti-inflammatory, antioxidant that are more general use. In recent years, as more people in the West have turned towards traditional Chinese herbal remedies, there was a concern that not enough was known about them. The experts at Kew were called in to help. More patients were taking traditional Chinese medicines but also westernized drugs and sometimes they were getting reactions to them. We were asked to help assist with the identification of the herbs that were being used. And we realized that we actually hadn't got a good collection. The result is this 7,000 strong reference library of medicinal plant specimens. So this is a modern day collection of plants used in traditional Chinese medicine that reflects the current use in China but also reflects the material that is coming into Europe and into UK. The creation of the NHS in 1948 hastened the end of our use of herbal treatments in the UK. But Professor Simmons believes that Kew's work with often forgotten remedies is a vital part of our healthier future. If we were having this conversation 100 years ago, I would have most likely been able to rattle off the whole lot of uses of herbals because I would have had experience of using it. It wouldn't be secondhand and it wouldn't have been what I've acquired by talking to people. That's why it's very important that we don't lose that information. There's lots of questions here that justify further research. As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said, everything changes except change itself. At Kew, change is constant and some new arrivals are proof of that. This summer, Danish artist Thomas Dambo has been invited to create an installation that highlights food waste. These two trolls here, they are like on a dumpster dive picnic. They're walking around London, picking up all the different dumpsters and bins and then they are putting them out between them as a little picnic and then they're sitting there enjoying themselves in like this. Starting with Hector the Protector on a Puerto Rican island in 2014, Thomas has built over 90 giant trolls out of discarded warehouse pallets in far-flung locations around the world. I like to cast a light on the potential in our waste and in our trash that changes people's perspective from trash being something that has no value into something that's like super cool and awesome. And I think you can do that by bringing it into people's life and bringing it into Kew Gardens here. While her kitchen garden is being renovated, Helena has been seconded to help Thomas realise his vision. Hello. I'm Helena. I'm the kitchen gardener here, so I'm going to be planting these guys up with some plants. Nice to meet you. These are amazing. Thank you. So this summer at Kew, we've got the Food Forever Festival. It's looking at the work that Kew does towards helping the food crisis. Our scientists do a lot of work looking at food problems around the world, new crops that might be really useful. And this is our festival just highlighting that. How long did it take you to make them? I usually say between 500 and 1000 working hours for one. So to build a hand like this here, somewhere between one and three days. Wow. I like the fingernails. They are quite terrifying. Thomas is passionate about Nordic fairy tales, hidden adventures and recycling discarded wood. I like to play really big and make really, really big things. But I would never send somebody to just cut down the rainforest in order for me to be able to play around like this. So I think that was the first step for me why I like to recycle because it allows me to just play. Thomas and Helena are hoping to make a serious point. But the goal is to make people smile whilst they do it. It should feel like something that had been discarded. Yeah. Because it is in a trash can, so it shouldn't feel like a trash can with flowers popping out of it. It should more feel like, hmm, what's in this? Maybe I can use and eat some of this. Helena's brief is to introduce a little chaos to the proceedings. I thought I'd see if the sweet pea would climb up his hand. I'm becoming quite a child. It's like, can I colour him in with plants? Whilst planting in the kitchen garden is all about regimented straight lines, here, Helena can let her hair down. Yeah, I mean, I feel like a complete rebel today. This is like, my mentor should be shaking her head at me. There's just no... I've literally just planted a cabbage on top of a fennel and there's not even 25 centimetres. It's just, it's all kinds of naughty. But it'll be so interesting to see how they grow with each other. So it's basically companion planting, but with absolutely no plan. So yeah, it's great fun. But I do feel like someone's going to come and tell me off. Come back as we discover the ancient craft of charcoal production. The first phase of the burn, up to about 200 degrees centigrade, is forcing out all this water. Meet a family who call Kew home. I feel very, very grateful to be here. And to be able to bring the children up here is something very special. And discover whether the carnivorous plants are a hit. The pitcher plant is huge. So I'd hate to see the kind of bugs that that kind of catches. In Kew Gardens, Princess of Wales Conservatory, Eleanor is busy planting her new arrivals. Dozens of deadly carnivorous plants. This species mostly grows in boggy, acidic conditions. So getting their new soil right is critical. So this is Hydrolacca, which is basically compressed clay. It's just in order so that we can water the trays rather than the actual pots. Because as you can see, they're so tiny. And if we watered them from above, we'd run the risk of overwhelming the roots or even just the tiny flowers. It's just a better way of enabling watering to happen. How and when most plants are watered is key to their health. But carnivorous plants are especially sensitive. Over in the nursery, Tom treats them like VIPs. Carnivorous plants are a particularly challenging group of plants to grow. They require very pure water. So just watering them with London mains water would kill the plants. So you need to either use treated water, which has had its impurities removed, or use rainwater, which is actually really, really good for growing carnivorous plants. So pretty much done here. Just a few more plants to go in. Yeah, it's really coming along quite nicely. With the plants finally nestled in their perfect new home, what do the crowds of visitors make of Eleanor's hard work? I like the ones, the carnivorous plants that were like leaves, but they had like false flowers on top. I haven't seen that kind of plants never before. I just feel really fascinated by carnivorous plants and how it kind of reverses them being the producer to being the predator. I found it really interesting that they were so varied in nature and I was actually surprised by the climate in there. It was a lot cooler than I would have thought it was. The pitcher plant was huge and so I'd hate to see the kind of bugs that that kind of catches. Judging by the public's reactions, Eleanor has reason to feel pleased with herself. It's nice to let people finally back in and they can ask questions and quite a few recognise that it's something different and new. So yeah, it's really nice to see. 30 miles south of London are over 500 acres of diverse landscape. It's Kew's sister site, Wakehurst, home of the Millennium Seed Bank, where every kind of seed is stored for future generations. And for horticulturists like Alice, who is producing a guide on reintroducing endangered plants back into the wild. The work is painstaking. So this is a Lisebrum verticillatum, also known as coral necklace, and it grows in the New Forest. These are really nice and healthy and got good roots. The protocols that we'll create for growing these will show how we can best convert our seed collections, which are in the bank, into actual plants. A bit like a character in a plant-based Jurassic Park, Alice is reanimating forgotten species. This is Glasshouse 4, and we've got a lot of South African plants in here. And this particular plant is very special because it was grown from 200-year-old seed that was found in a wallet at the National Archives. And this is the end result. It's a Leucospermum conocarpodendron. Also known as tree pincushion. It's found around Cape Town area of South Africa. Only 10 minutes away from Alice's glasshouse, in one of Wakehurst's quiet woodland glades, an ancient craft is being kept alive. Charcoal production. There is evidence of charcoal being made around here by the Romans. 2,000 years later, the charcoal Stephen produces isn't used in blacksmith's forges, but does help manage the estate's woodlands and maintain biodiversity. So this particular kiln has six ports on it. So three will be chimneys and three will be fireboxes. So this one is going to be a chimney, which is going to draw all the moisture out through the pipes. And then this one is going to be a firebox. And this is where we're going to light one of the fires to get the actual kiln going. Charcoal is essentially wood reduced to its pure carbon condition and was prized as a heat source because it burns at over 1,100 degrees Celsius. Perfect for working metal. So the fireboxes are dressed with some charcoal and then the chimneys. The chimneys we leave open so we don't put any charcoal in there. And then we put these half moons over these tunnels just to keep them open. So when we light the kiln, it doesn't drop down and block out the chimneys and the fireboxes. The wood Stephen is using has been air dried, but he wants to force out all the remaining moisture. So these are brown ends from a previous burn. So we always need a few brown ends to light the next kiln. So the brown ends will then go in the center of the kiln to enable the fire to get going. In the 16th century, charcoal was so popular it contributed to a national timber shortage. Today, it's just Stephen and a few logs. So we're almost nearing the end of loading the kiln. The trick to making perfect charcoal is knowing how much air to let in. So when I first light the kiln, so this is the firebox where I lit it, so we can let this burn. To prevent the air being drawn in through the chimney, I'll block this off. This part of the burn is really important. With the fire now taking hold, the logs start to lose all the water in them. So the kiln's only been going for about 15 minutes and already we're starting to force out the water from the wood. And by putting the shovel over the smoke, it's already starting to drip. So the first phase of the burn, up to about 200 degrees centigrade, is forcing out all this water. Confident he's got the air flow right, Steve can leave the fire to burn until morning. Back at Kew, things are also shutting up for the night, which means it's time for some of the animals that live here to stretch their legs. Along with half a dozen families who live on site, including head of tree collections Kevin, his wife Laura, and their two children. Oh, this is nice, where we go. We have been here for about eight years and yeah, it's lovely. Such a privilege to live in such an amazing place that's so special to so many people. Ethan's 18 months, Oscar's six coming up seven. And Oscar's very fortunate, he loves the log trail, he got to see the log trail being built. He loves playing on it and he can go there when it's quiet and it's his little place. Oh, big jump, well done. This is actually the best back garden a kid could have. But every now and then, Kevin's peaceful domestic life is disrupted. You're living in a visitor attraction and you do get the random visitor that will not look through the kitchen window while you're there or try and get in the back garden. But it's all part of the experience and it makes it so unique. There are over 30 listed buildings on site, many of them built for the staff of Kew's regal occupants, like George II and Queen Caroline, who forged the first royal connection with Kew. Richard, Kew's current director of gardens, also lives above the shore. Some of the other properties along Kew Green, for example, were also under the ownership of the royal family and had brothers, sisters, cousins of the royal family living in them from time to time. And then over time, they've gradually become more sort of Kew staff properties, although the director's residence has been the director's residence for at least 150 or so years. For Kevin and Laura, every day is a chance to experience something new. I think for me, just by being here 24-7 over the years, I've just learned so much, season in, season out. You just learn so much about what grows and what seasons and I feel very, very grateful to be here. And to be able to bring the children up here is something very special, very special. Come back as we discover if Joe's peonies have survived. Peonies don't like being moved and there was a risk that some of them wouldn't take and they'd start rotting off under the ground. The hard work begins in the kitchen garden. So squash and pumpkins, that should be finished in the next few days. And one man gets a well-deserved meal inside. I need to sample the quality of the charcoal with a good bacon sandwich. At Kew Gardens, work began last autumn to completely redesign the peony borders. It's not been a project without risks. Peonies don't like being moved and there was a risk that some of them, they had big root balls on them that maybe those root balls wouldn't take and they'd start rotting off under the ground. But actually, because all of them seem to come, every clump that we've moved, there's at least some coming up already. So that's really, really positive. It's now mid-May and it's time to find out just how successful Joe's grand redesign has been. Everything that you see from there, round to the tree, has been redone in autumn last year. And amongst all the things Joe was expecting are some lovely surprises. This particular plant really symbolises the success of this project. This is a peony species called Peonia tenuifolia. And as you can see, it's got the really fine leaves that the rest of the peonies don't have. In fact, the ones behind it are a real contrast to what it has. This was kind of really hidden underneath a lot of the other plants that we took out. It's obviously a very delicate little plant and it's never flowered before in this garden. And I think that just, that really shows that we did the right thing. Joe had been hoping to complete the peony garden remodelling this year, but it was not to be. We thought that maybe we might get all of this done in one year. That was very optimistic, as it turns out. We hit some snags along the way, big patches of ground that we had to dig pernicious weeds out of, that kind of thing. But in a way, it's good to do it properly. And the fact that it's been so successful is really encouraging and means that we go into the next year feeling good about doing that next phase of the project. The peony garden is not the only area getting a makeover. The contractors have been completing the hard landscaping in the new kitchen garden. It's now Helena's turn for some hard work. So we've got the new kitchen garden, which is pretty much ready to go. We've got some very fancy new paths. It's completely porous. The water still runs into the beds. We've got this new metal edging as well. So all my beds have become neater and tidier and I have right angles, which has been a lifelong dream in this kitchen garden. Although the end of the old garden was like saying goodbye to a favourite friend, Helena looks like she'll get over it quickly. So squash and pumpkins, that should be finished in the next few days. And we've created the beginnings of what will be a mushroom bed, which we're going to sort of put some wood chip down. We're going to put some logs, hopefully from trees that fell in the storm earlier in the year. And we'll inoculate those. And over the next few years, we'll progressively have different mushrooms. The garden even has its own microclimate. It's got the wall, which gives it twice as much heat as everywhere almost. South facing. So it's a really, really great place to grow things that you might not be able to grow elsewhere. We're going to have some benches here. People sit and look at what's going on. And I've got some sweet peas, which, although not edible particularly, are just a really nice part of a kitchen garden. These arches were salvaged from the centre of last year's kitchen garden. So they've been here for about eight years and they had apples growing up them. And I didn't know what to do with them, but I refused to throw them away. So they're now here to grow our beans up. And we ripped out a really nice, well-established asparagus bed. And we've started again, but it'll be another three or four years until we really get a good harvest out of it. And this is going to be our salads bed. So this is a bed that I harvest to go to the kitchens and I'll do that on a weekly basis. Once I've got some plants in it, but we're not there yet. There's a huge amount yet to do, but it doesn't look like it bothers Helena. There's still a lot to plant out. It is all sat somewhere ready to go, but it's really exciting. It's a new challenge. There's going to be further stages over winter. I've got a lot of places where I'm going to put some climbers and more fruit, and it's going to really evolve over the next few years. But for this summer, we just got to get the rest of the beds planted up, start harvesting for sales and for the kitchen, start our tools again. Just time to get going again. 30 miles south at the wild botanic garden at Wakehurst, Sussex, the kiln has been burning since yesterday. Time for Stephen to collect the charcoal he's created from the surrounding woodland. So what I'm looking for is good quality, brittle charcoal that's going to break up quite nicely into lumps. So a nice even burn through the kiln. We're looking at a reasonable good burn here. Stephen is not the first charcoal burner in these parts. So charcoal is actually one of the oldest human crafts in existence. So the amazing thing is what I'm producing today, the Romans were producing a couple of thousand years ago. So charcoal historically is what sort of molded the woodlands we're in today. The charcoal industry at its height in the 19th century was producing thousands of tons of charcoal for the iron industry. This is about 85% pure carbon. So it burns really hot. Today it's predominantly used on our barbecues. To produce burnt sausages, washed down with cold lager. If the proof of the pudding is in the eating, Stephen probably deserves to find out. So I'm going to have a well-earned bacon sandwich cooked over some of my fine charcoal that I've just emptied out. In some ways, it's almost like working in a brewery and not sampling your ale. And it's a bit like here's with the charcoal kiln. I need to sample the quality of the charcoal with a good bacon sandwich. While Stephen tucks into his bacon sandwich, back at Kew is the Trolls that are settling down for something to eat. So the Trolls is the one installation that's really based towards children, families. It's a very light touch, but I think in many ways that's more engaging because sometimes if you're too serious, it can really turn people off. They're not listening. Whereas two Trolls, who are having a fantastic picnic out of bins, I mean, that's great. And we're really encouraging families to come and picnic with the Trolls, take their pictures with the Trolls. I think they're going to be the celebrities at Kew this year. The question is, does Kew's discerning public agree? I think that the way they're made is really cool out of all the wood. I think it looks really effective. Did you think they were friendly? Yeah, I did. A lot of people take food for granted and then it normally ends up in those garbage bins over there. So it shows how much food is wasted every day. I think they'll be nice because they're not wasting the food. They're keeping it. Thomas has many more installations planned for far-flung corners of the world, but he can leave this project confident that these Trolls are a hit. I hope that when people come and see my sculptures here in Kew Garden, that they'll remember that there is enough trash to fuel a giant. So you cannot throw it out because then you'll kill that giant and the giant is our world. Boom! And how big are they? Show me how big are they? This big. Next time, it's back to the future with a Victorian tree transplant. Its nickname is the devil because every time someone used it, someone got injured. The Parterre team rush to make thousands of flowers bloom. This takes absolute minimum two weeks to do and that's with a lot of extra help. And a rare tropical plant causes a big stink. It's so smelly. It smells like feces. And that's new. Same time next Tuesday as we return to Kew Gardens, a year in bloom. On Thursday at nine, Cannon Hall's Robin Dave experienced farming through the ages and incredibly, they learned some new skills in brand new A Farm Through Time. Next and new tonight, Alan and Yvonne bought their new home online in the remote Scottish Highlands without ever seeing it. What a daring thing to do. Ben Fogel finds out how their new life in the country is shaping up after the break.