Don't Wait! Monty Don Prepares for Next Spring NOW! ｜ Season 4 Episode 6 ｜ Gardeners' World

Hello, welcome to Gardener's World. This is the writing garden, which I started to make about a year ago exactly. Of course, this means that the way that it looks now is fresh and new. It hasn't done a full 12-month cycle, so to see these white daffodils, this is a variety called failure, come through and looking really good is a thrill. The soil here is very heavy, and after last winter, it's also very wet. And mushroom compost is exceptionally good at lightening heavy soil. It's got lime in it, and it breaks down the clay. Any kind of mulch will keep in moisture, so what's in the ground will then work its way to the plants rather than evaporating, and also, it's the best way to suppress weeds. So if you haven't mulched your borders, I would advise that that was the single most important thing to be getting on with now. Auriculars are spring showstoppers, and this week, we meet a collector with a passion for these floral primadonnas. If you look at them, they're all little faces looking at you. They are the stars. From the elegantly dainty to big and blousy, camellias come in many forms, and Carol meets a world authority. It's not really a job, it's a way of life, and you wake up in the morning, and I look on the couch, and you think, wow, spring's on its way. Yeah, exactly. And I'll be starting to restock and rejuvenate my dry garden, with tips on how to select and place plants to maximum effect. At this time of year, the acid green of Euphorbia's is the richest, brightest color in the garden, and such a signal to me of April. This is Euphorbia caracias wolfenii, one of the biggest, and it's got these fantastic columns of bracts. These are not actually the flowers, they're bracts. The flowers are tiny. Now Euphorbia's will take as cuttings, and now as you've got new growth coming through, it's a good time to do it. But, wear gloves, because as soon as you cut into them, they exude a latex, and that latex is toxic, and your skin will react with them. So just be a little bit careful, this is probably the only time you'll ever see me wearing gloves for gardening. But, Euphorbia's are a special case. Okay, now I'm protected. What I'm looking for are nice, healthy, new shoots, and I'm just going to take a couple, so I'm not taking too much of next year's growth. Now can you see, as soon as you cut it, it's got a milky latex, and it's that that irritates, and that's what the gloves are all about. Not the plant itself. Okay, I'm going to take one more from here. Always when you're taking cuttings, use a polythene bag, because essentially, this is surgery. You're transplanting the plant, so you're cutting it off. The minute you cut it, that plant starts to die, and everything you can do to delay the dying will increase the chance of new roots coming and living. Taking Euphorbia cuttings is just like any other cutting, really, with one slight exception. So we have a shoot there, and you can see latex is smearing itself around. We remove the lower leaves. Where there are leaves, you have water leaving the plant, and we want just enough, but no more. Okay, that will do. Then make a clean cut with a sharp knife, and dip the end in some ground charcoal. This isn't essential, but it does help seal the wound, and stop the cutting losing vital moisture. For any cuttings, always use a very freely-drained compost, doesn't matter what type, and push it down the edge, or in this case, in the corner. And the reason for that is, is against the sides, it dries out less quickly. So pop that in like that. As soon as they're in the pot, water them, put them somewhere warm, but not in direct blazing sunshine. And then in about two to four weeks, you'll see signs of new growth, which means they've got roots. And when mine are growing, I'll show you how to pop them on. Now Euphorbia's are dramatic, and wonderful, but they're border plants. They mix in the hurly-burly of the garden. But some plants stand aloof, and alone, and even demand their own theatre. And at this time of year, none are more special than Auriculus. I am a freelance writer, and my garden is a great joy to me. So I'm devoting more time to the smaller things, which give a lot of pleasure, and the Auriculus are a perfect example. I love them because they are, in fact, living antiques. They have been bred to get them more and more refined, and more and more different. Some are very velvety, some are full of the farina, the lovely dust, which makes them sort of silver. This is one that's been bred by someone fairly recently, quite unusual, a new type of Auricula. They do require quite a lot of fussing, you know, but that is relaxing, that is part of the fun of having them, that they're almost more like having pets. These are the ones that are coming into flower, but to see them in their full glory, let's go to the Auricula theatre. There's a reference by John Evelyn in about 1690 or even earlier, where he describes Auricula as being shown theatrically. The need was there to cover so the rain didn't wash them and make them splodgy. If you look at them, they're all little faces looking at you. They are the stars. This is one of my favourites. It's called Mrs Cairns Blue and it's a border, which means it's one of the country cousins, it's not one of the very posh ones. But I love it for the colour and I also love it because it's quite rare. That's a good example of a double. It's a nice acid yellow and it's called Forest Sunlight. This is one of the much more traditional ones that were beloved of growers throughout history. It's White Wings. This one is particularly interesting because it's what they call a hose-in-hose. In other words, you're getting two flower formations. It's an Elizabethan term and that came from the stockings that they used to wear, which were one pair tucked into another pair. All these plants are extremely artificial and are arrived at by a grower just selecting what he wants. So if he wants stripes, he will find one that's a bit striped and then keep that and breed it with another one that's a bit striped and so on and so forth. All I really want to do is to tell people they're not difficult. They're very suitable if you've got a tiny place or just a backyard. They look fantastic if they're displayed en masse. People are a little bit scared of them and they think they're going to be difficult and they're going to kill them. They're quite tough. They're alpine plants after all. Auriculars are absolutely sublime and if you build a collection like Patricia's, they become a performance in their own right, quite separate from whatever else you may be doing in the garden. Now she says they're not difficult to grow and they're not, but they are particular. There are certain things you do need to know. If you buy them, you'll probably get them like this in a plastic pot and they both look and perform much better in a terracotta pot. So if you're going to the trouble of growing auriculars, get a terracotta pot. They're beautiful. And then get a loam-based compost and add grit or sharp sand and the result is perfect for them. Then gently take them out of the plastic pot like that and put them into a small pot. Don't try and pop them up too much. So I just need a little bit of compost underneath it. Pop that in and that will be fine. And that's all you have to do. You can see that what Patricia referred to as the farination, which simply means the rather flowery, waxy quality that you get on some auriculars and is highly prized. Now if you put that out in the rain or if you water it from above, that can wash off. So just water around the roots and it can take a little bit of rain, but protect it. And then in summer, don't let auriculars get too hot and whatever happens, don't let them dry out completely. And they will reward you with these completely unique flowers. There is nothing else that has that sense of delightful man-made artificiality in the garden. Come on. I know. Good, isn't it? I've been experimenting quite a lot recently with soil blocks. I've used them for years, but then I stopped. And I've come back to them because, well, it would be nice to do without the paraphernalia of all the plastic erasing seeds. And that's where soil blocks come in. Soil blocks are made using a soil blocker. And you can buy these online. This one costs about 15 quid. A pretty useful all-round size. And to use it, you have to make your own compost. But that's not complex because bought compost can be part of it. If you buy peat-free compost, that can make up 50% of the result. Then you have a bit of soil from your garden, but you need a binder. And this is where coir comes in. This is a block of coir. This is how you buy it. And you soak it in water and it ends up looking like this. It breaks down and it's a fairly friable, loose-growing medium. And I've worked out a recipe which is fundamentally half coir, plus some soil from the garden, a bit of leaf mold, and a bit of garden compost. Now this is where it really differs from using plugs or seed trays because then we make that into mud. So I'll water it. And you have to experiment with this to see how much water to add. And mix it up so that it's wet enough that when I squeeze it in my hand, water actually runs out. Yeah, there's water running out. And what I'm left with is holding together reasonably well. So wet the blocker. Hold it and push it really firmly and twist it around into your compost mud. Lift it and hopefully they'll come out clean. And this doesn't have to be in a seed tray. It could be just on a flat piece of wood. Now you can see that there's a divot in each one, designed so you can just pop your seed in and it won't roll off or roll away. Perfect arrangement. Now I'm going to put the next row a little bit apart from it because one of the great virtues of soil blocks is that the roots air prune. As they reach the edge of the block, they stop growing and will spread and you get a nice, solid, fibrous root ball. Whereas if you have plugs, and this is slightly unfair because this is a very old one, but it's a good example to see how they get root bound. Any plant grown in a plastic container will reach the edge of the container and then go round or up or sideways and it never recovers from that. It might grow, it might work, but it never performs properly. Whereas when you have a soil block and the roots are all contained within the block, you plant it out and it grows away much quicker. I still use plugs, I still use all kinds of different compost, but it all adds to the variety of your garden. Now talking of variety of the garden, Carol is continuing her series looking at the iconic plants that have made our gardens and the people that have given their lives to developing particular plants. Sat in a valley that tumbles down to the sea, historical Abbotsbury Gardens are a subtropical paradise. Within its 20 acres, it nurtures some exquisite specimen camellias. Camellias are familiar shrubs and yet there's something special, something mysterious, something eastern about them, hardly surprising since they come from the Far East. For several months of the year, they wait in the wings, this dark presence. But first thing in the spring, they step into the spotlight, covered in this myriad of beautiful flowers, some of them great big rosettes, some of them tiny dainty butterflies. They really do take centre stage. Jennifer Trahane, specialist camellia grower and world expert, has been visiting the gardens at Abbotsbury for over 40 years to admire their collection. You think of camellias as being shrubs, but a lot of these are trees, aren't they? Absolutely, this is how they grow if you don't actually prune them and keep them down to shape. But they've been at Abbotsbury for a long time, haven't they? Yes, these are all planted here in the 19th century. And this particular one... Which is beautiful! You love it, don't you? Yeah, I really do. And this is alba planer, one of the first two japonica varieties to be brought into Britain on a tea clipper. Right! They came in in the 1790s. It's still available now, actually, it's stood the test of time. And didn't your father have quite a lot to do with popularising them? My father was absolutely key. He collected 1,000 different varieties from all over the world and tried and tested them first. That was very important to see how well they performed in the British Isles. Yeah. And you've continued that work? Well, I've tried, because I love my job. It's not really a job, it's a way of life. Because they really do just light up. They do! And you wake up in the morning and I look out and you think, wow, spring's on its way! Yeah, exactly. One of the things I think is most endearing about camellias is the way their flower forms vary. Absolutely. I just love these formal doubles with their regular flower petals packed in together and beautiful. They almost look as though they've been drawn, don't they? Yes, they do! And they made wonderful buttonholes for the Victorian gentlemen. And you could hardly get anything more different than this, could you? Isn't it beautiful? It's so simple. It's a single-form flower, Carol. It's only got eight petals or less. And it has that wonderful simplicity, doesn't it? I just love them. This is different again, isn't it? Yes, it's a completely different flower form. It's an anemone-form camellia. And you can see why, because it has this very tight centre of petaloid stamens and this wonderful ring of true petals round it. It's almost like it can't make its mind up, isn't it? It is, it is! But it's very lovely. This is only one of several different flower forms, there's plenty more. Jennifer, you're at the hub, the very centre of the camellia world, which way do you think camellias are going? What are the coming trends? Well, I think there's a great movement away from the bigger-flowered, brightly-coloured, exotic-looking camellias to the more delicate, miniature camellias that are more garden-worthy. You know, they fit into the modern garden because they're compact growers, they're upright and they're disease-resistant. So, I mean, this has got loads of buds on it, hasn't it? And it's full of flower. Yeah, but it's been flowering since December. Jennifer, you're such a leading authority on camellias. People must ask you loads of questions about them. What are the most common ones? Well, one of the most common ones is, my camellia's got yellow leaves. It looks tired and sick. What can I do about it? If it's in the springtime, it probably needs feeding. And then people think, oh, I'll dash out with the feed now, immediately. No. Wait for the young leaves to start forming, and then you know that that's an optimum point to give it its breakfast, if you like, after the winter. And, of course, another question that I get asked is, is there trouble in the roots? Is your camellia in a wet position? Are the roots drowning? Maybe you've planted it in soil that's a little on the alkaline side, because camellias do like to be in a slightly acidic soil. So it could be that it's in the wrong site. And the other thing is that my plant's got too big. It's out of control. What can I do about that? Well, the obvious thing to do is to prune it. And the time to prune is just before growth starts, when the plant is still just dormant. They're tough. They like being pruned. It's stimulated by pruning. So it's very easy to do. But meanwhile, when you've tackled all these problems, what's your advice about what to do with them this weekend? I think this weekend I would be enjoying them. I would be looking at the blooms, as I do out of my kitchen window, and say, isn't spring a wonderful season? You've got all these various flowers, colours, shapes, sizes, all within the one genus, the camellia. I've got some kale here. There we are. That's that. If you want to be busy this weekend, here are some jobs you can be getting on with. Shallots are delicious, and now's the best time to plant them as sets. Prepare the ground by forking it over and add a little compost. Then place each set with the roots facing down so half of it is buried. This will then multiply and produce a bunch of new shallots for harvesting in summer. Space the sets about six to nine inches apart in rows or a grid, and then keep them weeded. It's now time to sow sunflowers. You can use pots, modules, or, as I am, soil blocks. Plant two seeds per unit and put them somewhere warm. When they've germinated, remove the weaker of the two seedlings. Many young seedlings, like these tomatoes I sowed a month ago, are now ready to be pricked out. Hold them by a leaf and carefully lift them, keeping as much root attached as possible. Plant them on into a module or seed tray, leaving plenty of room for the roots to develop. They will then grow strongly and be ready to pot on in a few weeks' time. This is Clematis paniculata. It's a semi-tender Clematis from New Zealand, and I planted it last spring, hoping that it would survive our winters, but to be honest, I'm a bit worried because it can be very cold here. And although it was so wet last winter, it was, of course, incredibly mild, so it's loved it, it's grown really well, it's flowering gloriously, it's very happy and I think very beautiful. This is the dry garden. So-called because it's got sun for most of the day and also the soil drains really fast. And two weeks ago, I began taking all the plants out. All these plants came out of just these two bits of ground and it's been dug over, weeded as best as we can, and it's now ready for replanting. And before I replant, I'm going to give this a little bit of refreshment. I'm adding compost. Not very much. A thin layer to add bacteria and fungi to the soil because that life provides the means for the plants to take up the nutrients. Half an inch thick and that's all you need. Having put compost on, I'm adding grit. The compost is refreshing the soil, it's not actually as a mulch, but the grit is improving drainage. Spread the gravel evenly over the whole area so it's on top of the compost. Finally, I need to work it all in. You can use anything to do it. You can rotavate it if it's a big area, you can use a fork, but I love using this tool. This is a cultivator. I remember my grandfather had one. And I don't get to use it very often, so I jump at the chance. And, of course, it's just designed to cultivate deeply and churn the soil over and mix it all up. Right. Having gone to all the trouble of preparing the soil, now it's important not to walk on it. So, let's put a plank or two back down so we can get on with the creative bit, which is starting to place the plants. This is why, by the way, it's worth putting plants in pots because it gives you the chance to move them around, take your time. And the other tip is don't plant anything until you've got everything out because you're going to alter things as you go along. Putting one thing down will affect another and you know that this grows four foot tall and that's only four inches, so it needs to be in front, and so on and so forth. Take your time. Now, I'm going to start with the iris, which are looking perfectly healthy, and I just hope these will flower. They don't want to be too far back, so we'll keep these fairly near the front because, although the flowers are quite tall, it is important they get sunshine. I don't want them blocked by too much. Don't dot them unless that's specifically an effect that you want. They'll be much more effective in groups, and if that means just one group, so be it. I like to do odd numbers because it looks slightly more natural. Sedums are designed to cope with nice, stony, well-drained conditions, and here they grow much shorter but healthy and upright. I should be putting back most of the plants I've taken out, but I've bought a few new ones, and I want to get them in position so I can work around them. Now, these are three very different plants. I've got a biennial, which is a verbascum olympicum, really tall, loves tough conditions and got wonderful felted, woolly foliage. I've got a perennial. This is an achillea, achillea moonshine, which is really my favourite achillea because it's got a slight luminous white glow to the yellow flowers. And I've got a cistus. This is cistus ladanifer, a shrub, which, again, loves baking sun and has got white flowers and slightly sticky foliage. Now, the cistus comes to be fairly near the front and getting all the sun, and the heat will radiate off the walls too, so somewhere around there. The verbascum, on the other hand, is really tall, so it definitely wants to go nearer the back. So this could go right back there, and it will grow six foot tall. It'll be really dramatic. The achillea is quite delicate. Its effect is luminous but subtle. So let's put this up there for the moment. Now, this is going to take time. It's not a job to be rushed. I'm only going to do it maybe once more in my lifetime, so I want to make sure it's right, and not until I'm really happy with all of them will I plant any of them. It'll happen over the next few days, anyway. Well, that's it for today. Bye-bye.