Gardeners' World 2022 S55E09

Hello and welcome to Gardener's World. We are at the glorious RHS Malvern Spring Festival and for the next hour we're going to indulge ourselves in the best plants the season has to offer. Also we'll be looking at some rather beautiful gardens but I'm not by myself. I think Arik could already be out there enjoying herself. I am like a kid in a sweet shop. This is a celebration of flowers and look at this, a camassia that is a deep amethyst colour. The good thing about camassias is you can grow them from seed. There's just so much to see. Also on tonight's programme, spring is all about blossom and Carol celebrates it in style on a recent visit to Batsford Arboretum. It just represents the whole cycle of life. Who couldn't just fall in love with these beautiful trees. We meet a nursery woman on a mission to introduce a new wave of plants to water features across the UK. You can have all range of texture, you can have colour and it is just like building the border in your garden. And Nick soaks up the flamboyance and fragrance of peonies at Burt's Morton Court in Worcestershire. Peonies aren't just the preserve of the traditional herbaceous border. Simple, single, elegant forms like this deep purple or pink over here can look absolutely fabulous in modern contemporary gardens. If you had to choose one place at this show that was stacked out with inspiration, it's got to be this floral marquee. It's not just about the plants. There are so many experts in here that really understand their subject. But today I've got a mission. There's a new border at home, starts in deep shade, comes out to semi-shade. I'm going to go pick a few brains and see if I can take a few little goodies home. Look at this. This is dysperopsis and I've got it at home and I was struggling what to put next to it in my new border and here there's a geranium which is called Catherine Adele. I don't know a lot about it. It looks stunning, that association, so I'm going to. Lynn, could I borrow you a second? I've never grown Catherine Adele. What do I need to do with it? She's just about to come into flower and once she's finished, typical geranium, straight off at soil level, nice little feed and then six weeks later we have a new flush of foliage. Eight weeks later she'll probably flower again. See, that's brilliant, isn't it? Because actually what I love is the foliage on these geraniums and that is what keeps coming again. Like you say, the foliage itself is really, really interesting and the bees absolutely adore the flowers. So it's great for pollinators too. Brilliant. Thank you. You're very welcome. So there you go. I'm sorting. It will be Catherine Adele, the geranium, that's coming home to go next to my dysperopsis. Somebody said to me, you've got to go and have a look at these. I suppose here's a way to describe them. They look slightly like a pile of oddly shaped peas. They're called conifitum and they haven't been at the show before. But interesting with these, they'll have to be grown in a greenhouse because they need protection, but they'll flower in the autumn and then start to grow because they grow through the cooler months and then what you need to do through the hotter part of the year is protect them and shade them. Eucalyptus. They're a plant I think that a lot of us think will just grow, grow, grow, grow and we think Australia. There's nearly a thousand of these to choose from and you can grow them. Yeah, you will get the tall trees, but there's smaller growths. You can pollard them, you can cut them back, you can trim them, shape them and interestingly, you know, something like the eucalyptus here, you would cut that back towards the end of March, just as the sap starts to rise and then a little bit later on, if you want that foliage for indoors after Chelsea, you would more or less trim the foliage back to a couple of leaf buds and it would go again and just do a little bit of research and you can probably find one of these beautiful things to suit your garden. Rob, right, I've got Valerian Pinaceae, which is that one there with the big leaves, but this has just caught my eye. Tell me about it. Nice, low-growing, shade-loving, exactly like the big one and it just spreads and seeds around as well, so it's ideal in woodland. That is beautiful. And ground cover, so it doesn't take over and look overpowering. So Valeriana Montana, I need about four. You need to look at this, it's Veronica Gentonoides Tissington White and it's beautiful, but the story is even better. Rob's granddad found it in a garden 120 years ago and these guys cultivated it in 1991 and bought it to the market and for me, that is what this place is all about, the passion, the knowledge. So if you come to this show, ask the questions. The floral marquee is certainly a treat for the senses, but we know it's not all about shows this time of year. Our gardens, our parks are really coming alive. It's starting to rock and roll. The colour is really building, which Carol found out a few weeks ago when she went to visit the Cotswolds. Could there be anything more exciting and life-affirming than when in spring the garden seems to awaken from its long slumber? At this time of year, there are some plants that give us a short, sharp burst of glory and then there are others that last and last, but one thing's for sure, from the canopy to the floor, there is so much to enjoy in our gardens during spring. Nothing captures the sense of new beginnings more than ornamental cherry trees with their frothy blossoms of pink and white. Here at Batsford Arboretum, they've got over 160 cherry trees and 55 cultivars are represented here, so we can really celebrate them in all their glory. Flowering cherries are native to several places in the world, but we always associate them with Japan. It's there that they have very special significance. They personify the meaning of life. There's a wonderful festival in Japan, Hanami, where cherry blossom is celebrated as it moves from the south of the country right up to the north. It's all about celebrating the moment when these cherries are at their peak and even when those petals fall, it just represents the whole cycle of life. Who couldn't just fall in love with these beautiful trees? Isn't this the perfect way to see a flowering cherry? Those white blossoms against the background of a brilliant blue sky. This is Prunus shirotai, sometimes called the Mount Fuji cherry. It's a very ancient cultivar. What I particularly love about it is the way that it's got its own personality. These branches are leaning over to one side and then counterbalanced on the other side by other smaller branches and it's a picture of utter beauty. While we think of cherries as pink and white, there are few that buck the trend. Gyoiko green is an ancient variety and one of a small number of flowering cherries to have pale green semi-double flowers which are offset by bronzy green leaves. Cherries are not the only blossom that we can enjoy in our spring gardens. Malus, or crab apples, make excellent trees for small gardens and they're also loved by wildlife. They're fantastic for bees at blossom time and the fruit offer an excellent food source for birds and small mammals in the autumn. Some shrubs just shout, it's spring! Look at me! And this is one of them. This is Janista pawlock. It's a broom and it's got these brilliant chrome yellow pea flowers. It belongs to the legume family, to the pea family. It loves to be grown in a very, very sunny position and it prefers acidic soil but it's quite accommodating. If you do grow it in a sheltered place, you're guaranteed not only these brilliant flowers in the spring, but also sporadically right the way through the year. And as if that wasn't enough, when you actually drink in that perfume, it's the essence of spring. Who wouldn't want this lovely ambling shrub to brighten up their garden? These glorious flowers are replaced eventually by these fruit. It's called the bladder nut and that's what they're like, these papery capsules. And when they get dry and drop to the ground, the minute somebody or some animal treads on them, they pop, burst asunder and the seed is spread far and wide. But for me, this has to be its glory. It's just so beautiful. But the real joy at this time of year is that life is surging up, even beneath our feet. Just a few weeks ago, this ground would have been bare and then suddenly, up come these shoots erupting through the dark, dank earth. This is one of the icons of the spring garden. It's now called Lamprocatnus spectabilis. It used to be Dicentra spectabilis. And the flowers have lots of common names. One of them is Bleeding Heart, because if you look at the individual flowers, they are distinctly heart shaped. But one of its other names is Lady in the Bath. And I think that's much more fun, because if you hold a flower upright and gently pull out its side petals, up she pops, this lovely little pale Lady in the Bath. By summer, it will have disappeared, but each spring, up it will come, reminding us of a season ahead. In spring, at every twist and turn, wondrous sights abound. But don't forget, this is just the start of what's to come over the following seasons. Am I still in Malvern? I feel like I've been transported to the tropics. It's absolutely stunning in here, but I can see plants that I recognise. So there's Peace Lilies, Calathea, and Begonias, and even a Philodendron. This theatre of plants has been put together to show us how indoor plants thrive in their natural habitat, giving us an indication of light levels and humidity. This huge display is divided into two distinct zones, the second of which focuses on tropical plants we can grow in our gardens here in the UK. It's the creation of designer Peter Dow. Peter, you certainly know how to create a bit of drama, don't you? It's all about the theatre with plants, isn't it? Theatre in the respect of how plants can take you somewhere. The fun we've had by exploring what you can do with houseplants in a native environment, feeling the humidity and saying, well, yes, that one would work in the bathroom or that one would there, but taking it back to where their roots are, if you like, pardon the pun, moving into this one here, where it's a selection of plants that we can grow in the UK that give us that sense of the exotic, you know? So it's hopefully more inspirational in that respect from an outdoor gardener's viewpoint. The idea of trying to create this in gardens, people can get a little bit overwhelmed as to where to start. What sort of plants would you say for them to focus on? Well, I think if you're looking for a hint of tropic, it's the type of leaf, isn't it? You know, the Truckee Carpus palm is quite a popular one with a very hairy trunk on it. That one is hardly down to minus 18 degrees, for example. It's just a great mainstay in a tropical garden. It's always great to use heights in a scheme like this, and the Truckee Carpus takes us up three and a half meters, but then you need other plants that will lock it down at ground level, and the one we've used, you know, in a few locations around here is the lovely Pitosporum tibia anana, which almost like green cushions. Not so well-known plant, but a great one for UK gardens. Well, that means there's no excuse, really. That's what I love, is the fact that we can get to this. I mean, I can also see some sort of pops of colour as well around, you know, that you've put in here, which are really nice. It's great. I like exploring that, just as you say, pops of colour. The Callistemon we've used here is, you know, a beautiful bottle brush plant from Australia originally. Very exotic looking, and the Callistemon for me is that one piece of drama that you come around a corner and it's there, but you only need just one plant to do that. That's the fun with working with them as a, you know, almost like a painting medium. There certainly is playfulness in this garden. I mean, to the point that you've even brought sand in, Peter. Yeah, life's a beach, isn't it? You know, we love it. I think it's something that you can explore and have fun with. A lot of these plants will have sand brushing up to them, you know, in their natural habitats. You know, you'll find that with the palms, you know, with things like your cordylines. The echiums will take a very freely drained soil, but the sand is not going to hurt the plant by just having a, you know, a light brush up to it. So the effect is very achievable, I think. Show gardens are inspirational spaces. They tell a story, even evoke an emotion. And the gardens here on display at RHS Malvern Spring Festival, and events supported by my pension expert are no exception. This garden is called Abigail's Footsteps, and the idea that's driving this garden is to create a place of solace, and I think it really does. What I like in here is the use of texture on the ground, because it pulls your attention to the floor. It slows your movement, and then as you move through the space, these water features just pause you, maybe just a moment to reflect. Then you look at the planting. You start off with the birches. They sit so comfortably with the materials. Then the taxus domes, they bounce through the space, which really leads your eye. And then the herbaceous planting. Orange pops all the way through and provides a smile. It really does feel good to be in this garden. But you know the best thing about this is it's going to be rebuilt at a hospital. Some show gardens can provide a real sense of place. They can transport you to maybe a place of dreams. This is the Longcroft Press Garden, inspired by childhood memories of a family orchard. I know this would not be everybody's cup of tea. Could be looked upon as a little bit scruffy around the edges. But me, personally, I think this is where we're going as gardeners. Those wilder areas that bring in the wildlife. In fact, since the war, we have lost 97% of our wildflower meadows. A square metre of this sort of planting has now become so precious. And it's got a great mix of wildflower, but the bits that have jumped out at me are the edibles. So you've got garlic mustard, sorrel, wild garlic. And what's great about this is so many of these plants now you can buy as plugs. Interplant into a small area, sit back and watch. And I tell you what, you will be gobsmacked as to how much wildlife it actually brings in. This is the Hyde Garden, and it's inspired by time spent down by the river. And I think the way that it's used water is really bold. It cuts the garden in half. You end up with soft planting, somewhere to travel, maybe have a moment. But on this side, you've got good usable surface. And this just ties the whole thing together. I think, interestingly, we come to shows like this and you look at features like this. I can never do that. But you could. Dig out, you're hollow, you've then got a pond liner underneath, probably a protective fleece, and the stepping stones work through. And then the planting softens either side with a wonderful marginal. I think when you're adding water to your garden, it is ultimately about the why. And what I mean by that is, what do you want? Is it sound? Is it movement? Is it wildlife? Is it just that reflective moment of calm? So there you go. Why not have a go? I promise you, a well planted water feature can be as beautiful as any border. As we discovered when we visited Dawn Fisher at Lincolnshire pond plants. The top three plants that everybody thinks that you would have in a pond is a water lily, yellow flag iris, or a marsh marigold. But there are so many things that could make your pond far more interesting. You can have all range of texture, you can have colour. There's a variety of different leaves. There's a whole range of different colours of flowers. So you're not seeing pots and just lots of water. And it is just like building the border in your garden. My son started growing pond plants seven years ago. And it's very much a family business. It began with polytunnels in the back garden and soon grew. So I was teaching computer programming at a college. And then I had to take over one of the spare rooms, helping by trying to grow certain seeds. I was coming in the morning to help him pick plants. And then I would go to work, then I would come back at the end of the day and help him pack them to send them out. So I gave up work and came to work for him. It's far less stressful than teaching. The plants don't answer me back. We're on this old RAF base closed down during the 80s. The buildings then all became a little bit dilapidated. And the Nissen huts offered us a perfect opportunity. We managed to take the tin off and cover them in cool sheets. Perfect environment for our plants. When choosing pond plants, it's not just how deep they sit in the water that's key. It's their role and their shape. We have the emergent groups, which are plants that come out of your water and encourage your dragonflies. And we've got your rafting plants for your frogs and newts. And we have the oxygenators. The emergent plants, the first group, are great for encouraging structure. So you can have something that makes it look very architectural. Things like your irises. Not only do they have the amazing leaf structure, they come in such a whole range of flower colors. So we have things like your versicolor iris. We also have sabirico. There are also some Japanese irises that we've got in here. These are the Japanese ensata irises, suitable for damp ground. So you could design your garden around a particular color theme, rather than having a yellow flag iris that would just sit there and just spread everywhere. I absolutely love these. This is a tie for minima. This is a miniature bulrush, which are ideal if you don't want things to spread very much. So these can go in a small pond, it can go in a little barrel, rather than your big standard bulrush that you get in your ditch. So your little bulrushes will appear around May time. And then what they do is they fluff up, and they become like little owls on sticks, and then they just send out seeds. So when you look at grasses, there are so many different types of grass you can get. There are so many variations in green. There are different seed heads. They offer movement from the wind. There are some tall ones that are very wispy. There are some variegated ones. So this is Carex muscumensis. They're striking green in spring. They are very good at producing like a background to actually showcase something else. So you could put this with something low that flowers profusely. One thing you can't resist when you've got a whole load of grasses in your garden together, you just can't help wafting your hands across the top of them. Rafting plants don't grow very high. So the beauty of these is they stay low, they raft across the top of your pond, and they're excellent for your frogs, your newts, your tadpoles as they change into little froglets can get in and out of your pond by using them. They also provide shade. They're just beautiful flowers as well. This is a Baldelia ranunculoides, and this is an exceptionally good one because it flowers profusely. But there are things like your cotulas, which are little brass buttons, and a lot of the sort of rafting plants will keep flowering over and over again. So this is a Marsala quadrifolia. This is an oxygenator. Oxygenators are exceptionally good for producing oxygen and helping with the water clarity that you've got and stopping stagnant water. There are a whole range of different oxygenators. Some have got flowers, and some that have little Christmas trees. You've got some that add just a little bit of texture to your water. And like this one, it puts a little four-leaf clover on top of your water. And the little newts will actually lay an egg on the underside of these leaves and wrap it up to prevent the predators from getting it. I love it because it closes up at night time and opens up to the four-leaf clovers during the day. All these plants are beautiful on their own, but they're even better when they get together. And your pond doesn't have to be big. So we have the rafting plant, which is a potentilla. We have your stem plants, such as your miniature bulrush, and we have little oxygenators that help keep your water good. It can go on a patio, it can go on a balcony, it can go in a big garden, it can go anywhere. Dawn, it's really good to see you here at Malvern, your very first show. It's very scary being in this wonderful floral marquee. Don't worry, you're amongst friends. And don't be scared because the stand looks absolutely fantastic. I really like how you've separated all the plants out. Yeah, the idea behind it is so that you can see each individual plant, you can actually see the reflections in the water. It looks really impressive. Now I would like to set up a small pond in my garden, so I want some extra tips on what sort of plants I could put in. So I'd put an oxygenator in, such as your Marsala quad, but also you can have some floral, so your Cardamom pretensis, and also over the far side is the Myosotis with the beautiful blue flowers. This though really catches my eye. I love this central piece that you've done. Tell me about that. So you needed some height in the pond because you kind of don't get a lot of height with ponds, but it also has lots and lots of different hostas in it, and slugs love hostas. And by putting them in pots like you would on a patio in the centre of your pond, they can't get in unless they're airlifted or learn to swim. That is a great tip. Thank you Dawn. Thank you. Still to come, Nick gets passionate about peonies and celebrates this varied and versatile group of plants. This is a really good example of the herbaceous Lactiflora group. It's a cultivar called Bowl of Beauty, and you can see why. It's really got the most spectacular flower. And Auriculars take centre stage as we visit a nursery preparing to take their collection of these little beauties to the show. They all have their own little personalities. They're scented. Once you start collecting them, well it's like collecting shoes. You can never have enough pairs. You can never have enough Auriculars. When you see peonies come into bloom, you know that summer is not far around the corner, and they have such a wonderful long flowering season. Now Nick has a passion for peonies, and he went to Burt's Morton Court just down the road from here to take a look at their impressive collection. With its sumptuous romantic blooms in shades of soft pink, white, crimson and even yellow, for many people the peony is the perfect harbinger of summer. Graceful, voluptuous and glamorous, peonies are all of these things, and that's just the flower. In a border like this, or even in a vase, they've got it all. The perfect balance of form, flower, foliage and sometimes even fragrance. Beloved from China, where it's a national emblem, to the UK, where it's the bell of the border. In its 4,000 year history of cultivation, the peony has captured hearts across the world. With a plant so ancient, it's no surprise that the peony is swathed in myth and legend. It was the Greeks that gave peony its name, because according to Greek mythology, Peon, the young physician to the gods, managed to cure a battle-wounded Pluto by using a peony, and thus enrage his teachers. Now according to some versions, Zeus then stepped in and in order to protect young Peon, turned him into the flower which will forever bear his name. There are three types of peony, herbaceous, tree and intersectional. The one that's the most familiar is the herbaceous peony. There are two types, hybrids, which are crosses of wild peony species, and lactiflora, which is a species in its own right with many different cultivars. This is a really good example of the herbaceous lactiflora group. It's a cultivar called bowl of beauty, and you can see why. It's really got the most spectacular flower, but starting slightly lower down the plant, it's got absolutely typical peony foliage. It's quite thick, almost looks as though it could be evergreen, and it appears in these sets of three. You get the occasional freak leaf here and there, but that's fairly typical. So it's good lush foliage which will last all the way through to autumn. Up the top here, the flowers are just looking beautiful at the moment. They're on quite long stems, elevated away from the foliage. Around the outside are these pink petals, which are known as guard petals, and they protect these rather strange looking structures in the centre. They look like petals, actually technically they're petaloids. And then right in the centre, you can see those pink stamens. What's really astounding about these lactiflora hybrids is that despite their exotic beauty, they're truly hardy and able to tolerate temperatures well below zero. There are all sorts of ways of making use of herbaceous peonies in the garden, and I think this is a particularly successful example. The plant is set just a bit back from the edge of this herbaceous border, and right now of course it's got these huge voluptuous blooms that look beautiful, which are associating with geranium phyllostemon behind it, and another geranium in front of it. Now the useful thing about peonies, although they have a relatively short flowering window, once these blooms go over you've got fabulous foliage. However, peonies aren't just the preserve of the traditional herbaceous border. Simple, single, elegant forms like this deep purple or the pink over here can look absolutely fabulous in modern contemporary gardens. You can just imagine a narrow strip of these plants emerging from some beautiful limestone paving. They look beautiful set off against their colours now, and then of course as the flowers fade you've got that wonderful lush foliage which goes right until the end of the year where it takes on a fabulous flush of autumn colour. In addition to herbaceous, the other peonies which are widely available are tree peonies, and don't be confused by their name. Tree peonies are actually shrubs which retain their woody stems when the flowers are long gone and the leaves have been shed. Tree peonies such as this one have several seasons of interest. They start out early in the year with huge and truly exotic looking flowers. Now whether you see this as a pro or a con, but they only last for a fleeting moment, maybe about two weeks if you're lucky. However, it does go on to different things. So as we move into autumn, these seed pods start to form, start to take on lovely colours. You get reds and blacks in the seeds, and then the foliage itself starts to take on fantastic colour. Now this particular specimen stands about one metre fifty, but they range between about a metre and three metres high, so you can easily find one to suit your garden. So with the combination of big glamorous flowers, exotic looking seed pods, and glorious autumn colour, this truly is a plant for all seasons. The third group of peonies are called the intersectionals, and they combine the virtues of herbaceous peonies and tree peonies. Compact in form and comparable to a herbaceous peony, but with a mass of large fragrant flowers that last for over a month. When it comes to cultivating peonies in the garden, they really aren't much trouble. They love moisture-retentive, free-draining soil, but if you don't have that, adding organic matter should do the trick. And the multi-petal forms, which can collect rainwater, will benefit from staking to stop them from collapsing. Now there are all sorts of myths attached to peonies, not least the fact that you can't move them. I've got to tell you, after 30 years of gardening, you absolutely can move them. I've done it many times, and they continue to flower very happily. The way to do it is to pick your timing and get that exactly right, which is just in spring as those red shoots are starting to emerge. At that point, you can lift the whole clump up, and then split away groups of three to five shoots, and they will make individual new plants. Then when it comes to the planting itself, you need to make sure that those buds are no more than five centimetres below the soil surface, and by doing splits and divisions like that, you can create repetitions of the same plant and create borders and looks like this, which I think are beautiful. The Greeks may have named this wonderful plant, but I like a Chinese legend which says a capricious princess once ordered that the flowers in her garden bloomed in midwinter. Only the peonies refused to oblige, so they were banished from the capital to a distant city, where they immediately came into flower. Although they defied her command, their sheer beauty and audacity meant that they were known forevermore as the queen of flowers, which seems about right. I love peonies, and that flower might only be there for a fleeting moment, but it has this ability just to catch the eye. These are the affordable gardens. I have arrived in the front. Over there, we've got a back garden, and the other side of this rather lovely building, we've got a side return. We all know that gardens can swallow up money, but this is the antidote. It is about affordability, but also it's about community. When you look at this planty, a lot of it can be grown from seed. It can be given away, potted on, put somewhere else. Down here, you've got geranium, fayum, samba. It'll stop flowering in a few weeks' time, and as a group, they work in so many conditions, but this dig and divides really easy. Actually, so much of this is about sharing. We're now down the side of the house, and here, you've got your fence, your paving, and these wonderful upcycled tanks. Look at the colour tonnage. It sits really well, and then that is picked up in the planting. If you come down and just pick out two plants in the digitalis in the aqua legia, because they will just start to seed about, but the key is maybe to collect those seeds for two and three years, propagate them yourselves, keep planting, and you get the sense that this side of the garden is all about that sense of freedom. I'm now in the back garden, and it holds real atmosphere. There's an eclectic charm. First of all, look down here. This is an old cattle water tank planted up, but also becomes an incredible habitat. Look behind me. That is a French lavatoire given a new lease of life, and it's planted up. It tones in really well, and then actually, if we come over here, these beams here, just old reclaimed beams, burnt, changed, adjusted. The chairs, I think, actually, these are the chairs that I was being told off for rocking backwards and forwards on at school. Design is not all about money. It's about stopping, thinking, sharing, looking around you. What can you give a new lease of life? Go on. As gardeners, we all know that gardening is good for us, but did you know it's been scientifically proven? Sheffield University, in conjunction with the RHS, have done some research, and you might have heard the word vitamin G, which is all about getting out there in your garden, in the green space, and physically and mentally, it's fantastic for you. This year, there's been a garden created to celebrate exactly that. Vitamin G, our daily dose of nature's benefits. Just 20 minutes a day in a garden can give us a boost with our physical energy, and the great thing about vitamin G is that you get to prescribe it. In this garden, the prescription includes a plunge pool. I mean, that's an extreme, but I think it's the idea from the designer that you make sure that the health-giving benefits of water can be brought into your garden. One thing that I really like is this border. The colours are so uplifting, and that's because the designer has used the purples and the yellows really zing off each other, and that makes me feel really, really energised. But in contrast, the gorgeous water feature, the soothing trickle of the water, is very calming. That's what's important about this garden, it's how it makes me feel, it's the sensations, it's the colours, it's the sounds. When it comes to choosing plants, make sure it's the ones that make you happy. It could be a favourite rose, a joyous gem, or even the scent of rosemary. Feeling good can be with our friends in a social space, or come from an activity of mindfulness or solitude. However you use your space, any time spent outdoors in nature will give you a dose of vitamin G. There are some plants that really capture the imagination and can lead some of us to an obsession. Auriculars, with all of their jewel-like qualities and beauty, certainly fall into that category. We went to visit Sarah Millington in Shropshire at her family-run nursery, where she was preparing to bring some of her gems to the show. They're beautiful, they all have their own little personalities. They're scented, and once you start collecting them, well it's like collecting shoes, you can never have enough pairs, you can never have enough auriculars. I'm Sarah Millington, we're at our family-run nursery, Hillview Hardy Plants, which is based in Warfield in Shropshire. One of the main things we grow, especially in the spring, are primula auriculars, and we have over 900 different varieties. So we've got two national collections, we've got a national collection of alpine auriculars, and we have a national collection of forest auriculars. Initially mum started the nursery in 1987, and we've always grown auriculars. We've always had a secret little thing for them. So there are different types of auriculars. This one is an alpine, you can see how beautiful she is. Then we have the striped varieties, which are obviously striped, and it almost looks like fairies have been dancing over them in the night. Then we move on to the doubles, and you can see that they're beautiful doubles, and on closer inspection they're just so exquisite. The border varieties tend to have additional farina on the leaves, which is basically suntan lotion for the plants. Farina is this white pasty meal you can see on the leaves, and you often get it on the flowers themselves as well. They just love to be stroked, they're so velvety and beautiful, and they do quite appreciate a little stroke now and again. This is Lottie Files. She's an alpine variety, she's really stunning. She's got this beautiful butter yellow centre with a velvety purple through to the shading of the pale lilac. She's absolutely beautiful. Well you've got my namesake, Sarah Millington, and how on earth could I not say that she is my absolute favourite ever. This is one of my forest collections, it's Forest Sleepy. It's a double, it's absolutely stunning. It reminds me of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, but then it is called Sleepy after all. This is Lilac Mist. For some reason, it always reminds me of those little biscuit sweets you could get with a dollop of hard icing on the top. It's so intricate and so delicate, yet so robust. It is just wow. The Green-Edged Auriculars are completely different from the rest. They have this beautiful green, which is a leaf as part of the petal. I love the fact that they're just a little bit odd, a little bit peculiar and a little bit wacky. They're really incredible. Auriculars are really, really, really easy to grow. An awful lot of people kill them with kindness. They don't like to be hot in summer or very wet in winter. They will tolerate sitting outside all winter as long as they're able to have any rainwater drain through them. In our compost, we personally use our own mix, which contains potting bark as opposed to grit. An awful lot of people like grit. However, grit is inert, so the roots can't use it and it makes the pots really heavy. We use a slow-release fertilizer, which covers them for 12 months of the year. It's best to repot every year or so, just so you can keep an eye out for any pests and diseases and you can give them a new food. If you don't repot every year, just a weak tomato feed prior to flowering is a really good idea because that'll encourage flowering. Right, so I'll show you how to split it. Dead easy. You just need to take it out of the pot and basically just rip it apart. It's as simple as that and there you have three plants that you could repot and you'd repot them up to the top of the carrot. Now that I've split them, I'm just going to pot them up into some fresh compost, so like that. I've just found a vine weevil grub and you can see they're characteristic by the c-shape and they've got a dark brown head. Vine weevil basically eat all of the roots, so it's pretty much a death sentence and I shall now be going to feed it to the robins. At the moment, there's only limited treatment you can use. It's basically nematodes. You just have to be aware that you know the life cycle of the weevil. There's no point applying nematodes, which aren't particularly cheap, if they're not going to be effective on killing the vine weevil. Malvern is an incredibly important show for us. It's the first one of the season and we just show auriculars there. So which ones do you think we should be taking with us? How about some of these big fat juicy ones? Yeah, that would be really nice. It really is such a huge effort for all of us. We all pull together, we all get things ready, make the auriculars look even more beautiful if that's possible. We're known as the girls with the hair. So when we go to the hairdresser, say we're going to be showing flocks or something summery with purples and reds, she'll do our hair to sort of echo that. This was a spring rainbow, I think, wasn't it? I think it was a spring rainbow, but obviously you can tell that we're related. We've both got the same hair genes. I'm hoping to take at least 350 different varieties of auriculars to Malvern. So it's a really good place for people who can't come to the nursery to see a really good selection in all in one place. They're all evergreen as opposed to a lot of other primulas that die down in the winter and they just have such stunning, amazing, beautiful flowers. And you tend to grow them in pots, so for a small garden they are absolute perfection. You can't wear all of your shoes all at one time, but you can look at all of your auriculars in one go. Ladies, lovely to see you both. And you. And as per normal, the hair does not disappoint. We try our best. I can see you probably normally from about 100 yards when I'm on the way to get my auriculars. But the one thing I've never asked both of you, how did you get into these? When I started the nursery, a gentleman came and he grew louisias and auriculars, decided he was getting too old, said would I like to buy his auriculars? And they were 40 pence each, so I said, oh go on then. And then I was hooked. If I'm a total beginner, I've never grown an auricular before, go on, pick me one out. Oh, I think something like Polestar here. It's a nice alpine, super, super easy and it's really pretty. How could you not seeing that and not fall in love with them? Flip it the other way. All right. You two have now got me hooked on these things. I've built my theatre. Actually, I've built two auricular theatres, I'll be honest with you. I'm not an expert, but push me a little bit. So, you know, I've got a bit of knowledge. Where should I go next just to develop it? You could try a show variety like Strawberry Fields. They're no more difficult, but you've just got to be really careful with the watering that you don't splash the flowers because they've got the white farina in the middle that's like a flower and it can spoil the look of the flowers. But you'll be really, really clever if you've got one of those in your theatre. Yeah. And I'll point out, they do look fab, don't they? And I think that's the point, isn't it? You know, you come down in the morning, that's going to put a smile on your face. Absolutely. Yeah. How long you've been doing this? Over 30 years. And it seems totally bizarre to me. That's your first gold medal? It is, first gold. Congratulations. Thank you. Who was the first one to find it? Well, I found it first and went to find mum and had to ring dad on speakerphone so I could tell mum and dad both at the same time. I think that is well deserved. Thank you. I think you're going to have a great show. I hope so. At this time of year, woodlands across the UK look glorious. They're rammed with wildflower. It's their moment just to shine. So sit back and enjoy as we bathe ourselves in the glory of the forest floor. Isn't that lovely? Just a moment of calm. Really lovely. And the same as this garden, the Legacy Garden. It's so peaceful. It has this calmness. It's the white and the green, the textures. But actually as well, look, shadeberry, blueberry. Wonderful edibles. They make great jams. Yeah. It's nice seeing them dotted in the border actually, isn't it? You know, really nice. But look how the colour palette just shifts up a notch. The mood just changes, doesn't it? Yeah, it does. Slightly more sort of uplifting. A bit more elevated. But I'll tell you what I've been loving to see. That cyanothus coming into bloom soon. Yeah, a couple of warm days and that will pop, won't it? But isn't that what this time of year is all about? It's anticipation, you know, what is to come. I mean, I love this place and I've had the best day. You? Oh, just the best. It's been brilliant. I love the setting. I love walking around the gardens and all the stands. And I went over to the school gardens and there's just this little detail that was on there. Bug Hotel, little plaque, Bug Inn and Palace. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. In honour of the Queen's Jubilee. Which is lovely, isn't it? But for me, I think that's partly what this show is about. It's about family, you know, and you get that feeling from it, don't you? But have you been to the allotment? Not in detail. I've seen elements of it, but go on, tell me. Yeah, I've got a bit of a food thing going on. I'm creating this new veg garden back at home. So every time I can see something, I'm busy making notes as to what I can put in. And I think that's one of the things that's lovely about these shows is they're stacked out with inspiration. It has been great. It has, hasn't it? It's been absolutely lovely. But I'm afraid that is it from us. But the show will be open tomorrow and Sunday. Next week, Gardeners World BBC Two at eight o'clock. We've got a houseplant special. The following week, Monty will be back at Longmeadow. In the meantime, look after yourselves. Take care. Bye. Bye.