How they Keep this Heritage Manor Thriving! | Monty Don’s Great British Garden Revival | S1E09

Christine’s campaign begins amongst the elaborate floral bedding displays at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire. On her revival, she meets the passionate people working hard to keep this heritage alive.

Show/Series: Great British Garden Revivial | S1E09
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Britain has a long and proud gardening heritage and a passion for plants that goes back centuries. But all is not well in our once green and pleasant land. Front gardens paved over. Our lawns lackluster and rare wild flowers on the brink of extinction. So we need you to help us in our campaign to help rediscover our passion for gardening. We’re going to give you the best gardening tips and revealing British gardens that will quite simply take your breath away. It’s time to plant and prune and sharpen your shears. Let the Great British garden revival begin. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] On tonight’s show, Christine Walton gets behind ornamental bedding. But first, I want to return fruit trees to all of our gardens. For me, one of life’s great pleasures is picking fruit from a tree and eating it. Not just apples, but pears, plums, damsons, medlas, cherries, and more. Britain is brilliantly suited for growing the most amazing range of fruit trees. And yet, we’ve turned our backs on wonderful old varieties like this crawly beauty in favor of less tasty varieties from further a field. 90% of all the fruit that we eat in this country is imported. And as a gardener with a passion for homegrown produce, I find that statistic so worrying cuz not only are we losing our orchards, but we’re in very real danger of losing our fruit growing heritage. I think it’s time that we put homegrown fruit back on the menu. So join me, Toby Buckland, for the Great British Fruit Tree Revival. [Music] I want to find out why some fruit tree varieties are facing extinction. Just 100 years ago, there were 500 600 varieties of pear. I’ll be tasting some of the rare and wonderful fruits that have almost been forgotten of the and I’ll show you how easy it is to plant these wonderful trees at home. That is all there is to it. This is Westine Gardens in the heart of West Sussex. A fabulous, magical place with what’s to my mind the finest collection of fruit trees anywhere in the country. Built in 1804, this kitchen garden is home to over 200 varieties of apples, pears, and plums, many of which line the mileong garden wall. One of my earliest memories is of sneaking under the fence into next door’s neglected garden with my brother and sister to steal the apples. When we first went in there, I didn’t know there were any fruit trees growing, but my sister explained it all. I must have been short cuz I couldn’t reach up to the branches. I felt so excited. And it wasn’t just the thrill of the mischief, although it was always like that. It was this feeling of wealth and sheer abundance. It was like we’d struck upon an edible treasure trove. And you know, to this day, when the fruit comes to ripen in my garden, I still get that feeling of excitement and that thrill of having food for free. Sadly, we seem to have lost sight of these simple pleasures, much to the peril of our fabulous native fruit trees. I say it’s time we reverse this trend and put these wonderful fruit trees into our own gardens. To begin my campaign, I’m heading out to discover why great British orchards are rapidly disappearing. time was when orchards were dotted right across the country. And you could mark what time of year it was by what was going on in them, whether it was pruning in winter, the blossom billowing on the trees in the spring, or the fruit swelling to fruition in the autumn. And now they’ve nearly all gone. And it’s such a shame that the trees are being lost. In fact, the National Trust say that 60% of England’s orchards have disappeared since the 1950s. By the end of the century, we could lose small traditional orchards altogether. Derek Tolman has spent the past 25 years preserving our fruit tree heritage by hunting out the rare and almost forgotten. Toby, nice to see you Andy as well. He has an old orchard in Buckinghamshire to show me containing some very interesting specimens. But on route, he spotted something by the roadside. Is this the sort of thing you do, D? Drive along, see little parcels of neglected land, and then just spot the fruit trees. Well, sometimes you can just find them traveling around, and that’s always great. But often people come to us and say, “Look, I’ve got these interesting old trees, or I’ve got an old orchard. Can you tell us a bit more about it?” So, we’re only too happy to go and poke around in grump here in Fruit Loop. What is it then? I don’t know. Try one. I’ve not not tried it yet. I don’t think it’s fully ripe, but we shall see. Quite dry, isn’t it? Certain amount of sweetness. It’s very sweet, isn’t it? I I think this is a cider sweet. A cider apple. Yeah, it’s gone very brown. There’s a lot of tanning in this one. Well, that would normally cause it, but mine hasn’t. I think you must be using the wrong toothpaste. On arriving at the orchard, Derek is keen to show me one fruit tree on the verge of extinction that desperately needed his help. What’s the story with this old cherry then? This old cherry, well, this is the epitome of what we do. You come along, you find a tree which is either dead or dying, come and take a bit of a cutting off it, the last bit you can find that’s alive, and you take it back, produce a new tree, and we bring one back for the owner, replant it, and go through a whole another life cycle. And this rare plant then survives. It survives. Yeah. Neglected orchards like this one would be doomed without Derek’s passion and commitment. You’ll see the spaces around. I mean, a lot of trees would originally have been in here, but we’re down to just a few cherries, few pears, one apple over there. Um, that’s it. They they dwindle year by year. They disappear. So, this is an old pear tree. Yeah, it’s a lovely old pair, isn’t it? It’s in fantastic. Stilling. Still fruing. So is this a variety that isn’t seen in contemporary cataloges, you know, nursery cataloges and the like? Nursery cataloges have very very few pairs. Just 100 years ago there there were maybe 500 600 varieties of pear that were known. But why are these old trees that survive here in this orchard good for gardens and gardeners? You’ve got an ornamental tree. They all have fantastic blossom in the in the spring. They give you food. They take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. What more could you want? It shocks me to think that there are fruit tree varieties out there like these pears that are in danger of being lost forever. And I’m starting to comprehend the scale of the task that Derek is undertaking. That’s amazing. How many different types of well fruit have you got here? I I think something in the region of just over 1500, but it’s going up all the time. They they keep coming in. We can’t can’t stop ourselves. To give new life to an old tree, Derek uses an ancient technique called grafting. There’s so much jargon around this, but it is simple, isn’t it? It’s just joining two bits of wood together. All you need is a chute from the tree you want to reproduce and a living root system of a similar variety. Right, take it away, Derek. First, Derek prepares the new cutting to be grafted. Um, always angle the blade as I’m doing here. Keep your fingers well away. The secret is to get a complete plain cut so that it’s not actually got a scallop in the middle. The next bit is to prepare the rootstock to receive the the scion and to attempt to cut a mirror image. Squeeze them together with your thumb and then take them up. This technique will result in new growth on the recently joined stem. And using this simple method, Derek has ensured the survival of many almost forgotten fruits. So with 1500 varieties of fruit tree under your belt that you know what they are how many left there to discover. I honestly believe somewhere between 10,000 till to discover or 100,000 still to discover. It could be more. Every time you go somewhere you find something new and there are just so many interesting old trees out there. But you’re going to go out and gather as many as you can. We’ll gather as many as we can while we have breath and uh just gather them in like Noah. make sure they survive. [Music] To think there are more varieties of fruit trees growing in dying orchards than there are in cultivation and they’ll be lost unless we start growing them in our own gardens. You don’t need a massive orchard to grow your own fruit trees because as well as being productive, they are adaptable. And here against the brick work of the Gardens of Westing in West Sussex, they got a plum tree. Now, it’s Victoria. You might recognize it, but it’s not in its usual guise because it’s been trained as a fan, hardly taking up any space at all against the brick work. And I’m going to show you another training method that’s ideal for smaller gardens. [Music] Now I’ve got a conference pair here and I’m going to grow this as a cordon. Now a cordon is a tree that you train on an angle and that means it can fit into the tightest of spaces like against the brick work here. You can grow most fruit trees in this way but it’s important that you select the right rootstock. Now, there are different types of rootstock. And just to explain, your fruit trees are in two parts. You got the subterranean part, the roots, and then you got the shoots that carry the fruit. And you can see where the rootstock and the varietal wood or cyan wood meet. There’s a slight line and a change of color. And you get different forms of rootstocks from dwarf, which are very small, semi- dwarf, which are a little bit bigger, and right up to vigorous that make massive orchard trees. And if you’re going to train any tree as a cordon, always go for semi- dwarf. Now, the reason I mention the rootstock is that it’s so important when you plant that the join between the rootstock at the base is above the ground level. Because if the top gets down into the ground and roots away, the tree will be incredibly vigorous. Plant your tree, firm soil over the roots, and give it a good drink to settle it in. Now, it’s at 45°. And this is the clever bit because you want your tree to grow. And in a way, by angling the branch at this angle, what you’re doing is you’re tricking it into thinking that the wood is older than it is and it’s ready to bear flowers and then fruit. To prepare your tree for a tight space like this, give it a bit of a prune. This will encourage growth in the right direction and ensure it produces fruitbearing buds from bottom to top. All that remains is to tie the tree in. And you make a loose loop of it around the tree just so the string acts as a little soft bumper between the bamboo and the and the fruit tree. That is all there is to it. And after a few years, this is what you get. Now, all you need to do to keep your trees in check is to whip off the summer growth and then take out the tops when they reach the height you want, like the top of your fence or wall. But look at the amount of fruit you get. See, by having the trees trained on their size, they are far more productive and they fruit right down to the base. And best of all, if they’re planted just 70 cm apart, look how many you can pack in. I’m on my way to the Kent countryside to a place where fruit trees are getting the love and care they deserve. Behind these walls are one of Britain’s largest collections of fruit. Over 900 and counting. Now I know 600 of them are apples. I’m keen to see what make up the other 300. Keeper’s Nursery is very much a family business run by Hamid Sema and their son Karim. Originally from Iran, the Habibi family’s passion and hard work has seen this 20 acre plot blossom from a disused hop farm into a luscious commercial orchard that is now home to fruit varieties from all over the world. So, what is it about growing fruit that you love so much? Well, it’s it’s it’s very much part of our tradition as um as Iranians. I mean, you know, Simma and I were children in Iran as we grew up. I mean, you know, we had everybody had fruit trees in their gardens. Yeah. So, it was very much part of the part of the tradition. I love the fact that it’s not only that you brought old varieties back or you’ve got an eye for the new, but you’re also bringing in wow types of trees and and and varieties from well, Persia of old, aren’t you really? Yes. and fruits that that people don’t really know very much in this country like meddlers or or or certain types of quinces that people don’t know. It’s amazing how ignorant as of as as a nation we’ve become really about the types of fruit and the well the world of variety there is within it. The habibes orchard is an explosion of color with row after row of different fruits. But don’t be put off by the grand scale. You can start your own orchard with just one tree. With over 900 different varieties of fruit, I mean, how do you help people get started? I mean, what are your recommendations? I think the most important thing is to uh uh have something that you’d like. There’s no point in growing something that you don’t like. Okay, so get a wish list. Get a wish list. Many of the trees are dripping with ready to pick ripe fruit. And here’s one of my favorites. Now, this is a plum. Yeah. What? Which which which variety is this? This is president. President. Oh, lovely purple president. Look at that. So, what’s the difference between a plum and a gauge? Well, there isn’t that there’s no difference in the species, but it’s more it’s more the fruit. It’s the type of fruit. Gauges are lovely to eat straight off the tree. They don’t last all that long. And you will find that they’ll be there for about a week. And but that week will be very memorable. Every summer you’ll remember your tree is just there and you just and you won’t tell your father about the fruit because you just want to eat it yourself. Are you talking in general or are you talking specifics now? Well, but that’s why you should plant your own tree because you know you you have that treat every summer. Karem makes a great point. Plant a fruit tree in your garden and you get something delicious to look forward to every year. And I’m keen to taste some of the more rare varieties that the habibises are growing in the garden of England. Here we have a kind of quint which you would probably be familiar with. There you go. The the core is almost sort of like trying to go into granite. I mean quite it is. Oh 17 yet this year. You don’t want to eat too much of this. I mean this is this is one of the Iranian varieties called Isvahan. Much sweeter and and also a much finer finer flesh. M that’s more appleley alto together isn’t it but here we are a fruit that is a connoisseur fruit variety but e even with this there’s new types or new types and varieties coming in from overseas that are just fantastic and must grow trees you know we’re learning all the time but doesn’t it just go to show that there’s a fruit tree for every garden yes I think every garden should have a fruit tree or at least one fruit [Music] We’ve been growing figs on these shores since 1550. And this beauty growing here in the green houses of Westine Gardens is 100 years old. Now, in the sheltered environment of this greenhouse, it produces two crops a year. And a greenhouse is, of course, the place to grow them if you have a cold garden. But it’s not always necessary because if you can provide a bit of shelter and sun and a variety like brown turkey, you could be having fresh figs with your breakfast right through the summer. And figs are just one of the fruits you may be surprised to learn grow here in the UK. With warm and sunny conditions and a south-facing wall to train them against, you can even raise peaches. The key is to know the best way to train and care for your tree. All the fruit trees here are carefully maintained under the watchful eye of garden manager Jim Buckland. And no, we’re not related. I’m joining Jim to show you how easy it is to keep fruit trees small and manageable using the espalia training method. So Jim, what have we got here then? Well, it’s an Espalia apple, blend orange, well established, been here for probably 10, 15 years and now we’re just keeping it under control by summer pruning. Okay. The term espalia refers to the method of pruning and training to a strong horizontal branch framework maximizing the fruit yield. So this is the point which we cut back to in June back here. It’s now put on this extension growth. We want to go back harder and we’re going to cut back to one bud above the basil cluster. That’s your that’s one bud above the basal cluster. One bud above the basil cluster which is that point there. Off it comes. So, I’m getting my head around your method here. In early summer, you’re cutting back. You’re cutting back the shaggy growth, and then again, you’re cutting back when that regrows once again back to one bud for winter. Yeah. And it’s good until next June. Well, let’s get stuck in. Must be a pleasant job, not idling the hours away out here, Jim. Is that how you I never feel like I’m idling the hours away, Toby. But, um, yeah, it is. It’s a fantastic job. is I think the most rewarding part of horiculture and of course the great thing about it is with these train forms you can grow fruit even if you’ve only got a very small back garden um whereas you couldn’t grow you know a traditional orchard tree. Yeah. So these are fantastic. So do you think a lot of gardeners are missing a trick and missing out on the fruit they could be having? Absolutely do because I think they a they think it’s too difficult and well it’s like anything if it’s worth doing well there is a craft to it. You do need to learn that. But it’s not complicated and it’s fantastically rewarding when you get it right. Yeah. You pick me up when you like, Jim. I can tell you’re itching to. You’re looking at my cuts. They’re not short enough. Well, I think that’s probably the most common mistake. Yeah. Is that people don’t hit their trees hard enough. Yeah. And the wonderful thing about plants in particular, you can hack pieces off of them and if you get it wrong, they’ll grow another limb. So, the secret is have a go. Gardening is a craft. It’s learned by doing. If you don’t do it, you’ll never learn it. This method is an ideal way to incorporate small fruit trees into a garden with limited space. An espalia training can also be used on larger trees to keep their fruit in easy reach for picking. Crab apples. They’re my favorite small garden tree. It’s so versatile and they have wonderful autumn tints to the foliage. In the spring, the blooms are clustered tightly together. And that means they carry more blossom than any other fruit. But still, they get a bad name. And that’s because so many gardeners leave the berries to fall on the pavement of the drive where they need sweeping up. And that is such a waste cuz these wee little apples are delicious. And I’m not alone in my love for this fruit. Jinny Noox and Caroline Wilson spent their youth together foraging for crab apples to make their own jellies. Now they’ve turned their childhood hobby into a full-time business. Hi there. Nice to see you. Nice to see you. And come and help you with your picket. So, what are we working on here? This is a John Downey uh crab apple. Um a lovely old one. What do you use this for? Jelly is the most absolutely lovely thing to make and John Downey is a very traditionally used for jelly. Right. So, crab apple jelly, chili jelly, mint jelly. What got you started on picking crab apples? I mean, were you scrumpers when you were little girls? I mean, were you jumping over the fence and Well, we used to go and um never scrumping obviously. Never. No, no. We used to make crab apple jelly together with um our moms. It’s like almost a forgotten art then really. And you sort of brought that back. There are so many traditional recipes made from you know indigenous fruits and one of the things we really love is that links us back to our heritage culinary heritage. You can imagine our ancestors 500 or thousand years ago doing pretty much this. So how do I pick them? Is there anything I should or shouldn’t do? Well, you should avoid the moldy ones obviously. Um and also try not to throw them into the basket because they bruise really easily. So Right. Okay. That’s that’s a good tip. Quite a few are falling on my head as well. They’re very ripe actually at this time. What have I done? Oh dear. This is now I’m conscious I might bruise them as they go in the basket. Very gentle. You’ll be in deep trouble. Having collected a bounty of these almost forgotten favorites, it’s time to head back to the house. Oh, and you got quite a a mini orchard there. Yeah, we have actually. But we planted a few things like quint uh medler and crab apple and green gauge things like that. All things you’d recommend for a small garden. Definitely pretty trees. Um you can keep them to quite a small size and um of course the fruits are great to cook. It just goes to show that you can easily start a small orchard at home. Jenny and Caroline are using theirs to create all sorts of culinary delights. What’s this one? Uh that’s actually a crab apple cheese. Crab apple cheese. Yeah, a yellow one. It doesn’t have cheese in it. No. Why is it called a cheese? It’s just the texture. It’s just an oldfashioned English word for a fruit preserve that um doesn’t have pieces in it. Yeah. It sort of has a um a meatiness if you know what it’s quite solid. I’m not saying you know, you know what I mean. Well, it’s a fruit puree as opposed to the the um jellies are the fruit juice that has been set. This is the whole fruit, but it’s just been turned into a puree. And then set incredibly versatile. That’s the thing. And it’s just you you cook it up, flavor it. Yeah. And you use different varieties of fruit to get the colors. Is that the how it works? That’s right. So the yellow ones are great for some products like you can see with the apple cheese that you’ve got there. Golden Hornet, right? That’s a Golden Hornet. Yeah. Are they easy to make? Well, time consuming. So it’s a labor of love in a way. It is a labor of love. But but I think well worth it. Yeah. Well, I mean anyone that cooks or anyone that bakes, you get a house that smells delicious, don’t you? Depending what you’re doing. Well, they do. And to be honest as well, Toby, it really warms your heart, doesn’t it, when you open a cupboard and you’ve got all these beautiful preserves in them, you know, and they’re not things you can go out and buy. They’re just flavors that only you and your friends can have. And that’s the thing, I suppose, as these trees become less well known for what they can do for you. You know, these preserves are well, like you say, becoming a bit more like hens tea. I’ll tell you, that’s no surprise. is nothing like as good as yours. Don’t be put off if chili jelly isn’t your cup of tea. There are many delicious things you can make from your own fruit trees. So, go on, get planting. [Music] When you get lots of fruit forming on your trees, there’s always that question, what on earth do you do with it? You’ll want to keep as much of it as you can for use right through the winter and beyond. In order to make your bumper crop last as long as possible, it’s important to store them in the right environment. This is the apple store here at Westing, where the fruits are kept in the traditional way. And the fruit sits on these slatted shelves that allow the apples to sit there in shrivelfree suspended animation for month after month. But you don’t need a building like this to keep fruit from your own garden. I’m going to show you how you can do it at home. The best way to store apples is in a box. Ideally, one that you can move around and one that you could stack one on top of the other. Now, these fruit trays are brilliant for the job because they’ve got slats in the bottom just like in the traditional apple store to let air circulate around the fruit. So, all I do is set the fruits out in my trays with a whisker of space between them. Again, just to let the air circulate around the apples. Now, this is a good keeping variety. It’s called Red Devil. It’s an old English type. And I can tell it’s a good keeper because of when it’s picked. You see, the later an apple ripens, the longer it keeps into winter. Apples, like this red devil, can be stored in a cool, dry place, like a shed or garage for around 2 months. Others such as Bramlley’s will store for as long as 5 months. Now early varieties like Discovery that come into fruit in July. Well, they only last a few weeks when they’re kept in store. You have to do something different with them. So, you’ve either got to eat them up straight away or as I do, stick them in the freezer. Now, when an apple freezes, what happens is the cells within the walls, they start to shatter. They certainly do as it defrosts. And that means it will yield its juice. And all you got to do is stick this in a blender. Out the juice will flow. So you might not be able to keep them as apples, but they’ll give you a supply of something lovely to drink right through the winter. Freezing is one of the easiest ways to preserve fruit. Berries and cherries should be frozen straight after picking, but apples, pears, and plums should be allowed to ripen before they go in the freezer. You don’t have to live in the countryside to enjoy the benefits of fantastic fruit trees. A Birmingham based organization called Urban Harvest collects fruit that would otherwise be wasted from across the city and puts it to good use. So, a lot of the fruit that we pick is in the public spaces around us. And Birmingham’s very fortunate. We’ve got a lot of green public spaces. There’s a number of uh fruit trees in this particular park and every year we see all the fruit goes to waste. So we thought this year we’ll come and pick it and put it to some good use, take it to children’s centers, give it out through food banks and make sure that it’s not wasted. The team also helps garden owners who can’t pick their own to make the most of their fruit trees. The actual fact is that we’re here. We’re picking the fruit for people who don’t particularly want to pick it themselves and we get an enjoyment taking it off the trees. Believe it or not, [Music] I’m really enjoying it. Everyone’s really nice. It’s good to get involved in the community and learn lots about fruit picking and the environment at the same time. I think we’ve got used to the idea that we get fruit from supermarkets now and uh people sort of have stopped going out and making use of what’s around them which is actually free and hasn’t flown in from New Zealand, South Africa causing food miles and damage to the environment. Well, I hope you’ve been inspired to plant a fruit tree of your own because there are so many types and so many varieties. In fact, choosing between them is about the hardest thing about growing fruit. Not only will you have a garden filled with blossom in the spring and fruit in the autumn, you’ll also be a custodian of our fruit growing heritage. So, go on, get planting. What’s stopping you? [Music] Next, Christine Walton is on another garden revival campaign. These eye-catching displays were the gardening bling of yester years. It’s a tradition that crashed out of gardening fashion. High costs, high maintenance, and a decadence that simply ran out of steam. I’m Christine Walton, and I want you to get behind my revival of ornamental bedding. On my campaign, I meet the passionate people who are working hard to keep this heritage alive. Unfortunately, now it’s almost becoming a bit of a dying art. Yeah. Discover how experts are developing new types of plant. Bedding is changing. Your choices are much wider than they used to be. And I’ll be showing you just how easy it is to create your own stunning display. Nothing is set in concrete when it’s in compost. [Music] A 16th century style French chateau is not what you’d expect to find in Bookinghamshire, but this is Wadtherston Manor, home to the Rothschild family, pioneers of Victorian flamboyant bedding. Following the trend of the Victorian upper classes, the Rothschilds used the garden to showcase their wealth, creating a range of ornamental beds with exotic plants and flowers. The most decadent of which were the carpet beds, special designs of thousands of tightly knitted foliage with the blooms removed. My first memories of bedding was the color and the vibrancy of it all. And we see it here. beonas, ageratums, the sparkle of silver in the helicryum plants creating a lovely vibrant display. But these ornate beds were considered too showy and expensive to maintain during the first world war and many were gras. The current Lord Rothschild restored them to their former glory. So what better place to base my British bedding revival? The most unusual beds here are the 3D carpet birds made up of several types of alilanthra and sedums which are looked after by head gardener Paul Fenel. They’re really lovely those birds aren’t they? They are indeed but been here quite a while. How long? Well uh goes back to 1910 actually. The Rothschilds pioneered this sort of uh 3D bedding. So uh we’ve had sort of birds around about since since then. And how much time and care do you need to really make sure that they look fantastic? It’s very time consuming actually. We had a blacksmith put together the framework. It’s got an internal watering system. It takes four people a couple of days to plant the whole thing. And then once a week there’s always a little bit of gapping up to do. There’s always a little bit of trimming to do. The Victorians wouldn’t let them flower at all. They would absolutely shave them. I mean they were just into stunning foliage contrasts. Indeed. Indeed. And how many plants would you need for something like this? Oh, I guess we’ve got uh somewhere in the region of 10,000, I would think. It’s a lot of labor and a lot of time. It is. And that’s probably one of the reasons why you don’t see it very often these days because it is, you know, it is labor intensive, relatively expensive. Could you just give them a little bit of trim up with this? I’ll do that for you. All I’m doing is keeping them to the same height. That’s what I was taught. Is that something that you like? That’s right. bits are going on your bed, I’m afraid. We’ll vac them up later on. That’s I think that’s perfect. Yes, it is a piece of gardening that if we didn’t do it, it would get lost. Good 3D bedding and good carpet bedding is an absolute art form. Well, I’m glad it continues. It takes me back to my childhood and I think, you know, if we lost it, it would be a great shame. It would be a great shame if we lost these skills and no doubt about that. The Victorians didn’t just use ornamental and carpet beds to show off personal wealth as the trend for taking holidays grew. Seaside resorts also realized that these blousy bedding displays could draw in the crowds. The famous Eastborne Parade carpet gardens were born in the 1890s. Tourists came from far and wide to admire the designs. Although similar gardens up and down the country have disappeared, here they’re desperately holding on to the tradition. So, is it really worth it? I personally love bedding, but I’m here to find out what the public really think of it to test the temperature of the nation. So, what do you think of displays like this? Um, well, I think it’s absolutely wonderful. Yeah, I mean, it just adds so much the color, the vibrancy. You’re just used to being there. I like it. It It would look wrong if it wasn’t there. It’s part of Eastborne. It’s a tourist attraction and I think it’s just fabulous. How would you feel if it was to totally disappear? Would you miss it? Yes. Yeah. Would you? I would. Part of my emity, didn’t you? Nice to have something. So, there you have it. The great British public still love it, but it’s no longer on the same scale as in Victorian times. But then they had almost 40 gardeners working on the beds throughout the town. These days, only 10% of the ornamental beds remain, including the famous carpets, which contain over 40,000 plants and have eight dedicated members of staff. Darren Pillar has worked here for 22 years. So, what do you really think makes this prom so special in Eastborne? It’s kept its heritage and we’re part of history. They did it because it brought in tourists and they just continue to do so. People come from miles away just to see this and the residents love it, you know, the tourists love it. So it’s not just the tourists. You think there is a sense of civic pride here in Eastborne because of these beds? Absolutely there is. So how have things have changed over the years? They have changed a lot. We we incorporate a lot more sustainable planting now. Beds that were bedding are now either grass beds or they’re herbaceous plants in or beds for the bees. But we’ve managed to keep the carpet gardens as is and as was back in the day many years ago. It’s hard work, isn’t it? That sort of thing. It really is hard work with carpet bedding. Process is intense. It’s clipping daily. It’s weeding all the time. It’s watering non-stop. As you can see, it may take a lot of effort keeping the beds looking this good, but the people here take such pride in their work. I’m involved with history. So although we get input in designs and use new plants, we’re still maintaining that piece of history that’s known UKwide and it’s lovely to be a part of it. Unfortunately now it’s almost becoming a bit of a dying art. Yeah. But the thing is anyone who’s involved with horiculture and gardening I will them to get into it because it’s absolutely fabulous. Anyone can have a go. I would say start small your initials or your house number and gradually work your way up. So this is something that the man in the street can do, isn’t it? Oh, most definitely. The gardens at Wston Manor are truly inspiring, but beautiful bedding doesn’t have to be on this grand scale. We can all recreate a bit of history. I want to show you with modern and sustainable planting how easy it is to bring back the glamour, the glory, the fun, the excitement of ornamental bedding to your own garden. What I want to do is show you just how easy it is to make a carpet bedding scheme at home for yourself. Start off with a tray. Now, I’m just using a wooden tray. The key thing is that it’s got some drainage because if it fills up with water, they’ll drown. And I’m just using a general purpose compost here. Nothing that flash. You fill it up to around about an inch and an inch and a half from the top of the tray so that when your plants sitting, they’re more or less level with the top of the tray. And all you’re really looking for is compact plants that are going to give you a contrast of color, texture, and habit. Pick what you like and put them together and see if it works for you. This is your display. things like the companulars that will fire eventually, but if you clip them, they won’t. This plant has got a very, very special meaning to me because this is the very plant that got me into gardening. At school, Miss Sinfield, our red mistress, came in and she said, “Could some of the children take the plants home for Blackburn Wakes week?” I grabbed three, went home, and me dad said, “We’re going on holiday. What you going to do?” I’ve no idea where I read this, saw it, but I went into the backyard into our shed, tin bath that we used to bath in as kids. I filled it up with water, put some bricks in, and plonked three of them on there. Total darkness. We had got any windows in the shed. Went away for a fortnight solid. I kept thinking, “They’ll be dead. They’ll be dead.” Came back and three companicles were in full bloom. And that was the moment that I wanted to be a gardener. Never been able to repeat it since, but that plant has resulted in a life of love. So once I’ve selected the plants, all I’m going to do is then place them out. What I’m going to do is plant a row of these lovely green seerviv on one side. I’m then going to come in along the edges. two rows of those. I’m going to contrast it with the little lucanum, a nice silver foliage plant that you can either keep the flowers on or whip them off. And then I’ve got a really common little alpine that you’ll see for sale as the sea thrift. When you come to plant, make sure the plants are watered the night before you actually plant them. That helps to keep the compost all together when you knock it out of the pot. It also means that when you water this, you’re not going to have all the water that you’re pouring on just rush into that root bowl and have dry patches. It also makes it easier to slip the plant out of the pot. Then comes the exciting bit about planting. A lot of people worry about planting, but literally turn the pot over, smack its bottom, and pull it out. All I’m going to do is make a shallow depression in this tray and then pop my plant into place. And you just repeat that down this side. And you’ll see all of a sudden the magic of carpet bedding being created. [Music] When you’re taking the plant out, make sure that you take off any dead or dying foliage because that can encourage the stem to rot. And if the roots are dangling out the bottom of the pot, don’t worry. We prune the top of the plant to encourage growth. We prune the roots to exactly the same thing. So, you’re going to get good root growth. If the roots are running around the bottom of the pot and the root ball, just tease them out. That will ensure that the roots establish into that compost very, very quickly. Don’t pack them too tight because if that happens instead of growing sidewards they’ll grow up. What you’re really after achieving is the blending together of the plants so it looks like a Persian carpet all growing together beautifully but without being overcrowded. And if you get to this stage and you don’t like it, take it all out and start again. You know, nothing is set in concrete when it’s in compost. It can all be taken out and put back again. This is not something I use very often, but actually it’s called a makeup brush. Don’t try and get the compost off with water because it will often go very muddy and it can stain your plants. It’s far easier to use a makeup brush. Plants like this are very lowmaintenance. Just water them and keep them tidy with a bit of clipping in the summer months. And if you pick perennials like these, you’ll get to enjoy your beds year after year. And once I’ve watered that, hey presto, I now just wait for it to go and grow. What’s really nice about planting in something like a tray is you can shift it to your balcony, to your patio. You can have it lined out on the beautiful table that you can have dinner as a centerpiece. You can do so much with plants that you put in a tray. [Music] There are lots of plants that we can use to create an ornamental display. And at Thompson and Morgan, one of the largest suppliers of seeds and plants in the UK, they cultivate new varieties that are cheaper and easier to grow. Crucial work as they’ve had to help one of our classic bedding plants in crisis. Just a few years ago, our best-selling annual bedding plant, the Busy Lizzy, was struck down and destroyed by an epidemic disease. In fact, the disease was so bad that this saltwater British bedding, which sold almost 35 million plants a year, has now been removed from garden centers nationwide. Michael Perry is the product development manager who is helping the busy Lizzy reinvent itself. So, Michael, what was the actual problem? There was a problem with Downey Mild which is an airborne disease and most of the busy lizys of walana origin. So the type that you see here the common busy lizy that we’ve known for years and years was absolutely susceptible to it. So they all died out and they didn’t look very good either did they in the process? No not at all. So literally plants melted and they completely were unreoverable. There’s no treatment for it at the moment. What you need to do is grow resistant varieties. That’s the only way, right? And where has that breeding work taken us? Well, the breeding work’s taken us to what we see here, which is Bizzy Lizzy’s divine, which has completely different genetics to the usual busy lizardies, but it’s been bred on. So, it’s bigger, better, more resilient to all sorts of weather conditions from hot, dry, wet or cold. It really is almost a super busy Lizzy. Great alternative. And is it as good in shade in the sunshine as the traditional? Absolutely. Cuz the brilliant thing about traditional businesses is they love shade and there aren’t many plants you can grow in shade, but this loves sun as well as shade. There’s all sorts of different innovations apart from that, like perennials you can grow in bedding, different foliage plants. Got loads to show you. This is really bedding heaven. These fantastic trial beds are home to over 500 new types of plants that have been specially cultivated. and I’m about to get a sneak preview of the perfect plants for my revival that we can all use for our own ornamental displays. We use these trial grounds to grow out all of our product to check that it’s growing true to type to look at new varieties against older existing ones to see if they are indeed an improvement. So, what about the traditional plants? Are they still selling or are you seeing a gradual transition? They tend to still sell because people recognize the names and they know that they’ll work in their gardens. But we really want people to move towards newer varieties that perhaps perform better in gardens or have better disease resistance. So this is a great example of that. This marold is so much bigger than that traditional one. So you get more plant for your money. Stops the weeds coming through. So it’s a natural weed suppressant and also it mulches the ground. So you’ll need to water your soil a lot less because you’re covering the ground naturally. you haven’t got that bare soil that you’ve got to keep maintaining all the time. That’s truly amazing. And it’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the work they do here. Michael’s arranged for me to see how different our familiar favorites are to the next generation of bedding beauties. So, Michael, we’ve got our very own mechanized conveyor catwalk, but what are the movers and the shakers? Well, first of all, we’ve got some beonas to show you. The traditional bedding beonia. Yes. So this is a beonia se florins. It’s orundandy but the blooms never fully open. It’s quite stunted and not that weatherproof. Now look at this big. This is beonia lotto. Much bigger more landscape style growth. Big clear flowers leaves like water lily pads and perfect for any weather. So we’ve got an annual anterinum. A plant that dies down to ground every year. Absolutely. So traditional snapdragons lovely pretty but don’t flower for long. Good alternative is the perennial hardy pen stemonmans flowering for five to six months and really really tough and resilient in the garden. Colus I mean a plant that many of us has grown as children and as we’ve got older a traditional foliage plant in Victorian times but now we have pill which is very similar nice colors but also edible good for stir fries or salads. Okay. Ah now straa ah these are some new kids on the block. This is Astramia Indian summer, also known as Peruvian lily. Flowers for 5 to 6 months and lovely bronze foliage. Oh, and gerbas. Gerbras. This is very exciting. Brand new breeding. These are hardy down to minus 10. They’ll come back every year with these lovely big florest quality flowers. Right. So, a revival is really taking place. Absolutely. Bedding is changing. Your choices are much wider than they used to be. This is how we can bring British bedding back to life with new varieties that are more sustainable and easy to look after and find more cost effective ways of planting. It’s time to move on, try some new favorites and revitalize your beds. [Music] Each year, Wston Mana create a special carpet bed to breathe new life into this Victorian tradition. This year’s by artist Philip Lawren was inspired by a piece of 17th century lace and is made of almost 30,000 plants. The high number of plants needed to create a display like that often put people off. But you can save yourselves lots of cash by taking your own cutings. [Music] This is one of the most popular bedding plants, the pelgonium, commonly called the geraniums. They’ve got a long flowering season. They’re very easy to grow. They’re reliable. They’re a really flipping good plant. And I’m going to cut it off just above a pair of leaves so that I don’t leave a stump. A good tip to stop them wilting is take a plastic bag and just drop them in. If it’s a hot day, these will dry out very quickly. And the aim is to keep as much water in that plant as possible. If you’ve got a lot of geranium cutting, stick them in the fridge just to keep them cool. That will stop them from wilting. I’m going to drop a bit of drainage material in a clay pot so that the hole doesn’t bung up. And then I’m going to take some seed and cutting compost. And I like to handle it gently so I don’t destroy the structure. Allow it just to fall in so you’ve not got air pockets. And then I’m just going to bring it up to around about half an inch to an inch. And then I’m just going to level it. And then going to start taking the cutings. What I’m looking for is current season’s growth, which is known as a soft wood cutting. The stem should be firm and healthy. The leaf should be nice and healthy. And a lot of people don’t like taking deranium cutings with flowers on. I find it makes no difference whatsoever, but these need to be removed. I need a cutting when it’s finally prepared to be around 2 to 3 in in length. And all I simply do is a straight cut beneath a pair of leaves. Trim them off. And then I’m just going to pull the flowers and the leaves off. I’m aiming to get between three to five leaves on my cutting. If you take off too many, you actually haven’t enough leaves for the plant to photosynthesize, make its own food. If you leave too many on, it will lose water very quickly and can wilt. Once I’ve prepared that cutting, you can either use a dber to make a hole, but I don’t like these. I’ve got my own dber. And I’m going to make a hole towards the outside of the pot because you get an exchange of oxygen through that wall and that will help rooting. A lot of people will use hormone rooting powder. I don’t like it, but what I do like using is vitamin C tablets. Drop it in a mug full of water, dip your cutting in for about a minute. that vitamin C worn off. Improve your rooting rate. And then place that cutting so that it’s around an inch down in the compost. And then I will just prepare the others in exactly the same way. You can probably fit about six cutings in a pot this size. And you want to space them about 2 in apart. And then two methods of watering. I actually prefer to water overhead. Some people will put it into a tray and allow the plant to soak up water. The other thing that I differ on is a lot of people would put a plastic bag over here. I find that that creates too much humidity and then the cutings rot. I just keep an eye on this pot to make sure it doesn’t dry out. If it’s dry, it needs a drink. If you’re doing them in the autumn, leave them in that pot to overwinter and then in the spring when they start to grow, then pot them up. If you’re doing it in the spring, it can pot up straight away. So once you see the young shoot growing away, that means they’re ready for potting. [Music] The Victorians were great control freaks and everything had to be clipped to perfection. Now that level of perfectionism may not be necessary today, but the love of bedding is alive and well and still growing in walking. This ornamental bedding paradise on the corner of a street in Surrey was created by Pam Gray. For 20 years, she’s planned, planted, and pruned these colorful, eye-catching beds, which have been the talk of the town and their daily highlight for her horseman. When you see other gardens compared to this one, yes, it definitely does put a spring in my step. If Pam is the brains, then devoted husband Barry is the brawn. My role is anything to do with hard work and do as I’m told. She’s a terror for buying plants. She’s on a red card. She’s not allowed to bring no more home and so forth. But she’s a good lass. I wouldn’t swap her. Pam is in the middle of preparing her cutings for next year, just like I’ve shown you. A job she prefers to do by herself. Barry and myself disagree about putting cutings in fungicide and using hormone rooting powder. I don’t usually bother. I just put them straight into the compost. And I did an experiment one year without telling him and mine were better than his. What’s this? You having a go at me already? These ornamental bedding cutings are crucial to Pam’s success and a really inexpensive way of creating a magical beds. So, when did it all start for you? What got you into it? Barry built my first greenhouse about 35 years ago, I think it was. Um, and I just started to get interested in that and it’s just grown and grown every year and I just love it and I think it people enjoy it as well. One lady walked past the garden the other day when I was watering and she said, “Your garden is just like a big bunch of flowers.” And isn’t that a lovely thing to have been said? I said that. Oh, thank you very much. Yeah. Yeah. What’s your favorite plant? I can’t answer that one. Really? No. I have to have margaritas. I have to have cosmos. I have to have salvas. But you obviously enjoy propagating as well. I do. It’s quite relaxing. Yeah. So, so how many cutings are you likely to take and over winter? Um, probably about 30 trays, right? It must take you forever just to pot all this stuff up. It takes a while, but then I find that relaxing. I OTT. I know. I mean, people could do it on a smaller scale, couldn’t they? Don’t have to go mad like we do, but um I think it’s worth it. It certainly is. And most of this started from cutings. What an inspiration Pam is. Talk about cramming an awful lot into a small area. It’s fantastic. Well, there’s no weeding to do. No. Well, they haven’t got a chance. And do you think this is achievable by a beginner? Definitely. A small section would be quite easy really. It’s just a case of thinking of your your colors and your textures and just sticking them in. Yeah. Yeah. If I fancy growing a different plant, I can. Different colors, combinations. I just get a kick out of it. And doesn’t it look great? Now tell me, do you garden in this front garden for yourself or for everybody? Everybody, but mostly for myself. Is that right? Yeah, cuz it’s true. Yeah. It’s that simple. Choose a couple of plants that take your fancy and start experimenting with your own bedding. [Music] The possibilities for ornamental bedding are endless. We just need to get out there and get planting. And luckily in Bournemouth, tastes are changing and the revival is already underway. It’s ornamental, but it’s also edible. And I think that kind of unusual factor with the public give that extra edge to what we do here. Bournemouth Council Nursery Manager Chris Evans has always been passionate about edible plants. So, we decided it was time to get the community behind them. The public response has been fantastic. Wouldn’t it be great if it could inspire people to grow edible plants in any patch of land that they could possibly find? It doesn’t cost much. It really is such a fantastic feeling to go and eat the plants that you’ve grown. In this amazing 100% edible bed, Chris and his team have planted everything from ornamental chilies to peppery neers, crunchy chard, delicious ders, and marolds. Perfect for tarten up your salads. What’s your kind of opinion on this? Looks lovely and if you can eat it, it’s a bonus. It is surprising to see edible flowers in a flower bed. We noticed that some of it was edible as we walked past because we saw the chard and realized that was, but we didn’t realize it all was. Did we? No. What do you think? Not really sure. Give it to mommy. Quite nice, but very bitter. Not a big salad eater anyway, are you? Sorry, this is right at the back of my throat now. Your drink. Oh, that’s quite nice. Weird. Very, very, very, very I can’t stop saying yummy. You like that? Yeah. Slightly mixed reviews on taste, but with a little bit of imagination, anything is possible. Wherever it’s this that inspires you or the magnificent and more traditional displays that takes your fancy, there is no limit to what you can do with ornamental bedding. So, I hope you’re now as excited about bedding as I am. So, come on, let’s roll out the carpet for the Great British Bedding Revival. Heat. Heat. [Music]