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America N.A. Member FDIC. Hello

1:58

and welcome to the BBC Garden of World

2:00

Magazine podcast, brought to you

2:02

by the team here at the magazine. Join

2:05

us as we chat all things gardening

2:07

with the nation's favourite experts. Do

2:14

you want your garden to look sensational

2:16

this summer and learn how to take

2:18

your borders from Darwin to Dabbling? Hello,

2:20

I'm Claire Venice, Content Creator at

2:23

Gardeners World Magazine, and I'm here

2:25

with Daniel Hale, Head Gardener at

2:27

Brodsworth Hall and Gardens in Doncaster.

2:30

Brodsworth boasts colourful borders which have

2:32

been restored to their Victorian grandeur,

2:34

as well as topiary ferns and

2:37

over 100 varieties of

2:39

roses. Brodsworth is also part

2:41

of our Two For One

2:43

Gardens Guide, which is on sale

2:45

now. Pick up a copy

2:47

and you can enjoy Two For

2:49

One entry to over 400 gardens,

2:51

including Brodsworth, which are packed full

2:53

of inspiration for your garden. Dan,

2:56

it's lovely to have you join us. Thank

2:59

you very much. Now, Brodsworth

3:01

has plenty of gardening

3:03

inspiration, particularly for beautiful

3:05

summer borders. Can you

3:08

explain a bit more about the garden, please? The

3:10

garden is predominantly based on

3:12

its 1860s design. It's Victorian

3:14

in style. The Tellersam

3:17

family inherited the estate in

3:19

1860s, of which they

3:21

inherited the Georgian house and landscape. They

3:24

decided to pull down the Georgian

3:26

house, build a new modern

3:28

Victorian Osbourne in style

3:30

hall that you see now, and then

3:33

recreate a series of what we call

3:35

garden rooms in miniature. So

3:37

you've got every kind of key Victorian

3:40

garden aspect from huge bedding

3:42

rose garden, Victorian

3:44

fern del, rose

3:46

del, thousands of pieces

3:49

of topiary. It's

3:51

very much about the formality, the

3:53

symmetry. It's a garden for all

3:55

seasons, is what we always say, and it's the garden

3:57

that keeps giving. It sounds like it's also a garden.

4:00

for everybody. Oh it is, it is.

4:03

So can you explain a bit more about the

4:05

borders, particularly the herbaceous borders? What do you have

4:07

in the borders that sing every

4:09

year? So we've got two herbaceous borders,

4:11

we've got what we call the small

4:14

herbaceous, which is actually quite large,

4:16

and then we've got the large herbaceous as well.

4:18

But the small herbaceous I suppose is the

4:21

kind of most formal of the herbaceous borders,

4:23

it's the most kept, the

4:25

large herbaceous is a bit more informal

4:27

in its approach, but the small herbaceous

4:30

basically is the backdrop to the rose

4:32

garden, so that the herbaceous itself is

4:35

backed by a beautifully clipped u-hedge

4:37

with column pillars that kind of

4:40

run and divide the herbaceous border

4:42

into sections. So it's a

4:44

beautiful section and it's got about six zones

4:46

in there. We do

4:48

have a leaky pipe system running through

4:50

that now perforated pipe as well which

4:52

helps us out in the summer period.

4:54

But the herbaceous is designed to try

4:56

and really give us interest from spring

4:59

right up until autumn wintertime as

5:01

well. So we start with

5:03

the earlier kind of flowering things in there.

5:05

So we started to put like tulip displays

5:08

in into the beds as well and

5:10

we're looking at napeeta haemorrhocalis, haemorrhocalis, depends how

5:12

you want to say it, and that and

5:15

that's become one of the kind of main

5:17

feature plants that we're running in there. The

5:20

beds are designed so they're all kind

5:23

of mirror image each other. So we

5:25

start off with a centerpiece and the

5:27

center bed's got the most kind of

5:29

prominent feature plants. So when I'm talking

5:31

feature plants we're talking the kind of

5:34

taller more dominant feature plants in the

5:36

beds. So we're looking at false

5:39

red bananas, n-seti, which obviously gives

5:41

us that kind of really dramatic

5:43

feature plant in the bed. And

5:46

then we're looking at Phlox, rubeckia,

5:49

one of the plants that we're starting to introduce a

5:52

lot more of into the herbaceous as well is dahlias.

5:54

I think dahlias are really starting

5:56

to have a bit of a surge again

5:58

in popularity, cross gardens. and we're

6:00

really keen to kind of add those

6:03

into the beds because they can really

6:05

give you later interest when you're starting

6:07

to get into that kind of more

6:09

September October period. We've got

6:11

nectar scalding in there which

6:13

is a really interesting earlier

6:15

flowering bulb as well which is

6:18

really good for pollinators. We've

6:21

got commassia which obviously

6:23

again is a really early

6:25

bulb which comes up quite

6:28

nicely. Primula violi is

6:30

another one that we've got in there.

6:32

Another kind of looking at scabius

6:35

so we've got the smaller varieties we've

6:37

got the giant scabius which is fantastic

6:41

again for the pollinators and

6:43

just to the right hand side of

6:46

the herbaceous border we've actually got our

6:48

beehive situated now as well so we're

6:50

really trying to promote the

6:52

pollinators in the beds working alongside

6:54

with the plants. I think

6:57

one of the kind of the standout

6:59

ones in there which I don't see

7:01

use that much is the mclea codata

7:04

which is a really interesting foliage

7:07

plant which gets really really large almost

7:09

kind of like a fattier leaf in

7:11

size just to try and give it

7:13

but it's almost got like a purpley

7:16

tinge to the foliage as well and

7:18

then a beautiful flower that appears later

7:20

in the season and that can get

7:22

about eight nine foot tall you know

7:24

you've got to really careful whereabouts you

7:27

put it in the bed. Cardoons,

7:29

cyanara cardoons are really

7:32

popular in there they're the

7:34

ones where if you're looking

7:36

for some really interesting height and impact in

7:38

your bed you know the ones

7:40

that were growing now we're probably getting to

7:42

about nine ten foot on average in the

7:44

beds so obviously take a lot of stake

7:47

and an interest but I think they're the

7:49

ones that because of the height and the

7:51

interest they're the ones that are really drawing

7:53

visitors across to the abaceous

7:55

border now. You're finding these centerpieces

7:57

are a real eye-catcher then for the border.

8:00

Yeah, and I think they've got to be. I think the

8:02

one thing with Abacious, obviously, if you

8:04

can plant it just so it

8:06

all comes up at the same time, but

8:08

the key is to have the plants seasonally

8:10

coming out with interest, but not just that,

8:12

the different heights as well. One

8:15

of the things I'd say about Abacious Borders as well

8:17

is, you know, sometimes less

8:20

is more, but actually

8:22

having, you know, large clumps of

8:24

each variety rather than having too

8:26

many varieties of different plants because

8:28

it can look a little bit

8:30

confused. So we tend to always

8:32

plant in, you know, three fives

8:34

and sevens if we're putting

8:37

the Abacious together. And then

8:39

it's coming up with obviously the color

8:41

palette that you're trying to achieve as

8:43

well, with it being situated in the

8:46

backdrop of the rose garden, which is

8:48

a lot of pinks and whites

8:50

with the rose, as we've gone for kind of

8:52

a lot more yellows and reds and

8:55

purples to have that nice contrast against

8:58

the rose borders, really. That lovely

9:00

summer heat color. Yeah, yeah, we'd like

9:02

to call it like a summer kiss. That

9:04

is how we've described it in the past

9:06

because it's really just kind of, you know,

9:09

you pick it up, it's there and it

9:11

draws you across. And, you know, I suppose

9:13

when the roses are kind of fading down,

9:15

you know, back end of

9:18

August into September, the Abacious borders kind

9:20

of coming into its peak. So the

9:22

two really contrast well against each other

9:24

being in a similar area. Yeah,

9:27

sounds beautiful. I love the name summer

9:29

kiss. Could

9:31

become a thing. It's awfully. That

9:35

is the thing about making your

9:37

fauna last throughout the early summer,

9:39

all the way through to that

9:41

late summer, maybe early autumn. What

9:44

would you recommend of really good value

9:46

plants that see you through as long

9:49

as they possibly can through that time? I

9:51

think things like Dianthus, you know,

9:53

I think that they'll last, you know, from

9:55

late spring, early summer, right

9:58

through to autumn time. your

10:00

different varieties of Rebeccaas as well.

10:03

I think they'll just keep coming

10:05

back. Hemorrhopolis,

10:08

again the daylilies, I know obviously you say daylilies and

10:10

then you think the flower wants

10:12

and they'll not come back but actually

10:14

they will produce new flowers and you

10:16

can get longer flowering more perennial varieties

10:18

as well. But obviously you

10:20

can't look past your kind of geraniums as

10:22

well. Your geraniums will

10:25

keep coming back, particularly varieties like

10:27

Roseanne or Anfalcard. And

10:30

they're really good for kind of more front

10:32

end of the borders to

10:35

give you a little bit of

10:37

ground cover in particular areas as

10:39

well. The scabius, again, the

10:42

different ones, the small variety, the

10:44

scobosa and the cleferer,

10:46

the tall giant scabius, that one

10:48

again will just keep giving and

10:50

giving flocks. Flocks

10:53

is an interesting one because obviously it can get

10:56

quite tall. So if you are going to

10:58

plant it, it's making sure you prune it into the middle or

11:00

the back of the bed and it

11:02

can be quite dominant so

11:04

it's keeping it under control while

11:06

you're doing it as well. And

11:08

the different achilles, yarrows, again, they'll

11:10

give you interest right through

11:13

the period as well. And Captain

11:16

Napeeta, again, is a long-lived,

11:19

vaseous perennial that again,

11:22

great for the front of the beds. And I think that's important

11:25

that you do consider the size

11:27

of the plants and whereabouts

11:29

they are positioned within the borders

11:32

as well. Good point. Do

11:34

you give the plants a cut, a

11:36

prune, sort of early summerish to

11:38

keep them flowering longer? Some

11:41

things we do, some we don't. We haven't really so

11:43

much over the last few years. We'll do a little

11:45

bit of a Chelsea chop, as you say, in certain

11:48

aspects. But we don't prioritise that as a

11:50

job with the abatement. Sometimes I think it's

11:52

nice to try and allow it just to

11:55

allow it to be a bit more free-flowing in its

11:57

approach, to be honest. We make sure we

11:59

get the support. in there nice and early. We

12:01

know things are going to get too tall. The

12:04

supports will go in from early

12:07

spring time. They're in there. We know

12:09

which of the plants are going to

12:11

be the most dominant ones and they're

12:13

going to spread when they're going to

12:15

get too tall for actually the spacing

12:17

that they've got. So we pre-empt those

12:19

types of things. But when

12:21

it comes to the Chelsea Chalk, we haven't done so much of

12:23

that, I'll be honest. You

12:26

mentioned supports. That's a really important tip,

12:28

isn't it? Of something to do because

12:31

well, I've done it, I've left it too late

12:33

and then you've got a plant that's just drooping

12:35

everywhere and not showing itself

12:38

off to its best ability. Pop

12:40

in supports as soon as you can. Yeah,

12:42

I mean, we've already done majority of our

12:45

supports. For a while we went the kind

12:47

of metal supports that you could get, but

12:49

we've now started to try and make a

12:51

zone. Now, bits of willow and

12:54

things that we can collect hazel from

12:56

the garden and try to be...

12:58

Because in a way the supports can

13:00

actually be the early interest sometimes. If you're

13:03

pouring them in, if you can do a

13:05

really nice structural support in your bed, that

13:08

stands out as much as the plant.

13:10

So the guys are really interested now

13:12

in being more creative with those

13:15

and making them as kind of a statement

13:17

piece in the border as well before your

13:20

plants actually get established. But you're right, the

13:22

earlier the better. And I think that just

13:24

comes from an understanding of what plants you've

13:27

got in there. So if you're new into

13:30

a garden, you're probably going to have to

13:32

see it through the seasons to understand what

13:35

you're going to need to support against.

13:37

If you've obviously had a garden longer,

13:39

you'll have that better understanding. This

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supply. I love the fact that

14:42

you've got a beehive in the

14:44

border. Yes. That's brilliant. So basically,

14:47

the beehives are literally situated just to

14:49

the end, so the setback, just

14:52

back of the U-hedge, but the U-hedge is slightly lower

14:54

there, so you can actually see them. The

14:56

ones we've got are actually WBC

14:58

beehives, which are the true Victorian

15:01

style ones, so the white as

15:03

well, so they stand out really

15:05

nicely. And again, it's a feature.

15:08

People enjoy walking through the abatia and

15:10

seeing all the bees on

15:12

there. They think, oh, there's lots of bees, and

15:14

then also they come to the end, and there's the

15:16

beehives, really active. And

15:20

I think it's a really important part of why

15:22

the abatias and the plants that brought them for

15:24

being as successful as they have been in

15:26

the last few years as well. And has that been very important

15:29

to you then as a head gardener to make

15:31

sure that you are planting plants in

15:33

the herbaceous border for pollinators? Yeah,

15:35

absolutely. I mean, people love seeing

15:38

the bees working on the plants,

15:40

and I think the more

15:42

we can do, the better. I mean, we

15:44

have got an amazing laburna march at Brodsworth

15:46

as well, which the bees absolutely

15:48

love, and obviously kind of late May,

15:51

early June, when that's in flower, and

15:53

the yellow tassels are up and down,

15:56

you can walk through that section just hear the

15:58

buzz of the bees. the

16:00

arch and it's incredible and it's all

16:02

about that sensory experience as well isn't

16:04

it and I think bees you know

16:06

contribute massively to that so when we

16:08

are putting the new planting in there

16:10

is always a little bit of

16:12

right is this a good pollinator is this good

16:14

for the bees you know and kind of taking

16:16

that approach to it now as well. What

16:19

are your favourite plants then to plant

16:21

for pollinators there? I think Minada, Minada's

16:23

a really good one and the

16:25

one that's really popular that we

16:27

have is Cambridge Scarlet the more

16:29

red one and that's popular not

16:31

just with the bees but with visitors as well.

16:33

I think about of all the plants in the

16:35

in the Abacious Border that one's probably picked up

16:38

Angelica as well you

16:40

know so that the Angelica I don't often

16:43

see that much these days in Abacious

16:45

Borders but we use it as a really

16:47

tall feature plant it is a

16:49

biannual but they will kind of you

16:53

know they'll spread they'll store themselves so you've

16:55

got to keep on top of them that

16:57

they don't get too much and too dominant

16:59

but you can obviously dig them up and

17:02

put them on so you've always got that

17:04

succession planting but you know in the kind

17:06

of second seasons you know they can get

17:08

you know again eight nine four amazing to

17:11

the backdrops of again need really big supports

17:13

but the flowers when they're out are just

17:15

full of bees the giant

17:17

scabius and that spoke about as

17:19

well that one is just like

17:22

bee city you literally sometimes can't even see

17:24

the flowers because there's that many bees on

17:26

there you know I mean I

17:29

suppose salvias you know I think most of

17:31

the things in the Abacious Borders are going

17:33

to be kind of really bee friendly that

17:35

we're putting in there now but those are

17:37

the main ones I spoke

17:39

about nectar scalding earlier and that

17:41

one's an earlier bulb and obviously

17:43

nectar nectar scalding you know it

17:45

kind of tells you what it

17:47

is but the bees absolutely adore that

17:50

as well so yeah

17:52

and I suppose it's colours you know they

17:54

do draw more to the kind of purples

17:56

down there as well so it's yeah so

17:58

you know I I think it

18:00

is a really important aspect of what we do.

18:03

And I imagine the rose garden as

18:05

well draws them in. Do

18:07

you put roses in the border or do

18:09

you keep them separate? They're in the rose garden

18:11

themselves. We keep them separate.

18:13

And that's just down to the fact

18:15

that we wanted to put more herbaceous

18:17

in the herbaceous really. When I started

18:20

they did have a few worm roses

18:22

dotted through there, but we have actually

18:24

got two separate rose gardens. So

18:26

I decided, let's take those out,

18:28

keep the roses in the rose garden

18:30

and just have this blanket

18:32

of herbaceous added in. And then also

18:34

what, because the roses we use is

18:36

kind of like the dot feature plants

18:39

for a while, which you can do obviously,

18:41

and it does work, but we like to

18:43

change it up. And we're

18:45

alternating because we have such big flower

18:47

garden and floral displays every year. We

18:50

do keep a lot of the dot plants that we use.

18:53

So like Musa Bajou and the false

18:55

red bananas and canners. We

18:57

tend to grow rice, enus, communus every

19:00

year as well, which obviously, you know, can

19:02

be highly poisonous, but planted it does look

19:04

amazing. The false castor oil plant as we'll

19:06

call it. So we do put them in

19:08

the herbaceous border as well. What's your

19:10

favorite variety of rose? What do you have that you love

19:13

the best there? Well, the one that's in

19:15

flower at the moment is Canary bird, which

19:18

is a beautiful yellow flower on it.

19:20

And obviously it comes out earlier than all

19:22

the others. It's fantastic as a shrub or

19:24

a standard as well. We

19:27

have both in the beds and

19:29

everybody really likes that. I think the

19:31

one that I always go to as being the

19:33

best do-gooder, as I like to call so, a

19:35

do-gooder means a plant that just keeps producing for

19:37

me is blush noisette, which

19:40

is a pink flowering climber or shrub.

19:43

We use that on a lot of

19:45

the arts. We've got an original

19:47

1860s Victorian rose arch and

19:50

all the roses that will grow up there are

19:52

all what we call period correct. So all the

19:54

roses would have been available to

19:56

the Victorian gardeners. Madam

19:59

Alfred Carrier. I think as well. Cecile

20:01

Bruner, you know, all these

20:04

varieties are the ones that we kind

20:06

of look at. And Rosa

20:08

Tuscany as well, I really like that because of

20:10

the darkness of it and the scent. What

20:13

advice would you give to listeners

20:15

wanting to create their own sensational

20:17

summer borders this summer? Well I suppose

20:19

it's understanding your garden, I think

20:22

first and foremost. So, you

20:24

know, I think you've got to have seen

20:27

it through at least all the seasons to

20:29

understand what your garden is going to be

20:31

able to give you back with the planting.

20:33

I think in any good garden, in any

20:35

if plants are ever going to be successful,

20:37

it's all about the planting and the preparation.

20:40

So it's making sure that you know what

20:42

your soil type is, whether you

20:44

are south facing or north

20:46

facing, how much light you're going to get

20:48

in there as well, how

20:50

much drainage, and the size of

20:52

the beds. And you know, so there's a lot of

20:54

different things, you know, I think you've got to take

20:57

into account when you're creating a border. But

20:59

I think it's having that understanding of the

21:01

height and the colours that you want

21:04

to go for. And I

21:06

think like I said earlier on, I think it's in

21:08

you've got to be planting in

21:10

large clumps of less

21:12

plants, if that makes sense. So maybe

21:15

not kind of going for 25, 30

21:18

different varieties of plant, but focusing

21:20

on, you know, maybe nine to

21:23

15 plants, but planting them

21:25

in larger groups of three, five,

21:28

sevens and nines, always in odd

21:30

numbers, never in evens. And

21:32

I think that's probably, you know, your best way. And

21:34

then I suppose as well is how are people going

21:37

to see your border as well? So are

21:39

people just going to see it from a front view? Are they going

21:41

to see it from a back, the side? So

21:44

when you are putting in your different heights, you

21:46

know, do you just have small,

21:48

medium, large to the back? But actually, if it's

21:50

a bed where you're going to see it from

21:52

the backside as well, you're taller

21:54

plants are going to be better than in the middle. And then

21:56

I mean, medium and small

21:58

either side of that. as well. So

22:00

I suppose it's understanding how everything's going to

22:03

be viewed, you know, in the garden really.

22:05

Are there any quick fixes,

22:07

quick garden fixes that people can do

22:10

now that can help them with their

22:12

summer borders this year? It's all

22:14

about soil preparation. I mean, you

22:16

know, any successful garden, successful plants

22:18

got the right soil. It's understanding

22:20

of what you're trying to achieve.

22:23

So, you know, with the herbaceous

22:25

plants, you know, they're

22:27

going to get and need probably a lot

22:29

of water potentially in the summertime. So getting

22:31

that mulch in there for

22:34

water retention, you know, is really

22:36

important. Like I said, we've

22:38

set up a leaky pipe, perforated pipe

22:40

irrigation system, which actually uses a

22:42

lot less water than going out with a hose

22:44

pipe long term as well.

22:47

So again, it's a good way of

22:49

reducing your, you know, water flow as

22:51

well, you know, and then I

22:53

suppose it's, you know, if you decide on

22:55

what plants you're looking at, I mean, dahlias,

22:57

you're starting to pop them on now, you

22:59

know, we've just decided off

23:02

the cuff that we're now going to do a massive

23:04

dahlia display down on the target range. So

23:06

we've now got hundreds, if not thousands

23:08

of dahlias being potted on. And

23:11

then they'll be, obviously, we'll then have to bring

23:13

them in every year. And then we can divide

23:15

the tubers and take cuttings and grow that long

23:18

term for the site, you know, which is

23:20

more sustainable, I suppose, and its approach with

23:22

it with the planting as well. So it's

23:25

got it. Yeah, I think it's planning, it's

23:27

that preparation, we're growing all our summer bedding

23:29

at the moment as well. So all the

23:32

seeds have now been sown. So

23:34

I suppose it's being prepared and

23:36

understanding what you're wanting to achieve and what you want

23:39

in your garden to look like. I always say you're

23:41

kind of working constantly six months

23:43

at least in advance of yourself to

23:46

make sure you know where you're going into the next

23:48

season. For a place like us

23:50

that do the large scale bedding schemes, we

23:52

plant out, you know, for it just give

23:54

you an example, we plant 24,000 bedding

23:58

plants seven to 10,000

24:01

bulbs every October and

24:03

that's for the spring and then as soon as

24:05

we plan to die in the October we're then

24:07

designing the summer bedding and then

24:09

that's then getting grown ready for the to

24:12

go in in kind of late May June.

24:14

So yeah it's preparation. Getting inspiration

24:17

from visiting gardens as well. Most

24:20

gardens have taken inspiration

24:22

from other gardens you

24:24

know so I think it's a really important

24:26

aspect of it really is finding

24:28

a style you like and then

24:30

trying to kind of stick to that. I

24:33

think you can get to a point where

24:35

sometimes it becomes too much and too confused

24:38

so I think it's very much like this

24:40

is the style we like. We're going to

24:42

go down the more architectural planting style more

24:45

modern style this is what we're going to

24:47

focus on you know and kind of sticking

24:49

to that you know in that part of

24:51

the garden. And I suppose like

24:53

you're doing this year with the dahlias you

24:56

can try something new each year doesn't have

24:58

to be a whole new set of bedding

25:00

but you can try something different every year. Yeah

25:02

of course you can yeah you know and I

25:04

think it's even if it sometimes it can be

25:06

the same plants but just different color combinations you

25:09

know I think particularly with bedding springtime

25:12

you're more limited you know so you're

25:14

obviously looking at kind of primulas, bellies,

25:17

pansies, wallflowers as

25:19

you kind of mean but when you come

25:21

to the summer bedding plants you've then got

25:23

an absolute plethora of different plants you can

25:26

choose from and different colors so what we've

25:28

decided and started to do at Brodsworth over

25:30

the last few years is actually instead of

25:32

me just designing the flower garden each year

25:34

I always work with one of the garden

25:36

team because I think you can

25:38

get into this habit of well these are

25:41

my favorite plants and these are my favorite

25:43

colors so it's all you know what

25:45

I mean so it can always be very similar so

25:47

what we do now is work with one of the

25:49

team and I think you know it's an expression of

25:51

your personality I think the plants and the color that

25:53

you'll choose in your garden

25:56

and that's what we really like and it

25:58

puts it's a great opportunity for for

26:00

the garden team to learn and there's not

26:02

many places that you'll get the chance to

26:04

do these amazing bedding schemes. Have you

26:06

ever as a result of that, have you ever found

26:09

a combination that you didn't think was going to work

26:11

that did work? We tend to use

26:13

bananas in the flower garden and I think

26:15

people are still surprised, particularly

26:17

up north obviously, that you can actually grow

26:20

them in your gardens and they're quite happy.

26:23

I think a lot of people have

26:25

then gone on to use particularly Musa

26:27

by Joo then into their gardens as

26:29

well. Obviously you'll need to overwinter them

26:31

or wrap them but they are great

26:34

for summer architectural interest in your garden.

26:36

It's quite fun isn't it to have

26:38

something unexpected in the borders. Yeah exactly.

26:41

You plant summer bulbs as well

26:43

in the borders. Yeah so I

26:45

think we mentioned here we've got Nexus Gordon in

26:47

there, we've got Camassias coming up,

26:49

we've got some of the later flowering fertility

26:52

as well. That's kind of

26:54

the main focus of what we've got the

26:56

summer bulb interest at the moment. We do

26:58

use alliums in a lot of

27:01

the beds and we've got Aga Pamphus coming

27:03

up as well in those so we're kind

27:05

of looking at it in that

27:08

context really. The alliums in

27:10

particular go really well with the laburnum

27:14

arch because we've got obviously the

27:16

beautiful tall purple varieties and then

27:18

the amazing yellow tassel flowers coming

27:20

down. I think alliums again have just had

27:23

a real kind of surge

27:25

of interest over the last few

27:28

years that everybody loves them and wants to

27:30

see them in the garden. Structurally amazing and

27:32

so many different varieties to choose from as

27:34

well. I can imagine the alliums with

27:37

the Angelica would be quite a

27:39

fun combination popping up. Yeah and

27:41

that's where it is and a lot of the time as

27:43

well I think it's trial and error

27:45

sometimes with gardening as well and coming

27:47

up with these different schemes and hopefully

27:50

nine times out of ten you'll get

27:52

it right but you know it is

27:54

fun to be able to play with

27:56

the plants and see how combinations work

27:59

and you're trying. learn from these things

28:01

and I think that's part of garden is

28:03

being experimental and enjoying

28:05

playing with the different planting combinations.

28:08

Do you have borders that are both

28:10

sunny and shady because that

28:12

can also be a challenge can't it in a garden

28:14

if you have a combination of that or you just

28:17

have a shady border or just a sunny border. How

28:20

do you choose the right plants for

28:22

those locations? So you see yes we've

28:24

got both. The main kind of shady

28:27

areas we're kind of looking at more

28:30

woodland style ground cover plants. We've

28:32

got a lot of ferns in

28:34

those areas and our dranges, b

28:54

plant that doesn't get used for me enough

28:56

in gardens or spoken about as being a

28:58

really good architectural plant is Fatsia

29:01

Japonica. Again that's really

29:03

fine in shaded areas. Your hydrangeas

29:05

will absolutely love it. They'll flourish

29:08

and as we know there's hundreds

29:10

of varieties that you can choose

29:12

from there and hydrangeas and ferns

29:15

as a combination work really really

29:17

well and obviously

29:19

geraniums perennial geraniums, Rigaecia,

29:23

Ruan Palmatum. An

29:25

interesting one is Ligularia which

29:28

is the the rocket so again that

29:30

that's absolutely fine you know

29:32

it in sun or partial shade as well

29:35

and again a really good one

29:37

for butterflies and bees so

29:39

really interesting with the foliage and

29:42

then amazing yellow-toed spikes plants

29:44

on there and like I said the

29:46

different Rigaecia varieties,

29:49

Eryphroniums, Lily of

29:51

the Valley you know

29:54

yeah it's... We're exhausting

29:56

your list! that

30:00

the weather we've been having

30:03

over the last few years, a couple

30:05

of summers ago, it was baking hot.

30:07

Last summer it was damp and

30:10

wet. How are they affecting

30:12

your gardening choices and in your borders?

30:14

Well I think one of the first things

30:16

to say is you can't really follow the

30:20

garden months anymore, the seasons that we used to

30:22

build to do. I think you've got to, instead

30:25

of gardening month by month, it's gardening

30:27

day by day now. I think that's

30:29

first and foremost. I think we've got

30:32

to be aware that things are changing.

30:35

One of the things we'll do a lot of

30:37

is, I spoke about earlier, is mulch in beds

30:39

and making sure that we've got a really

30:41

good layer of mulch compost on there to

30:43

help retain that moisture, particularly

30:46

in the kind of really drier

30:48

summer periods. It's definitely made

30:50

us kind of pick up and think, you know, what

30:52

can we do and what plants should we

30:54

be looking at. So we've recently

30:56

done a large scale project called the

30:58

Summer House Project. It was kind of

31:00

at the very end of all our

31:02

evergreen shrub borders that we decided to

31:04

call the end of the shrub

31:06

borders the full stop. And you know

31:08

the Summer House is the start of the kind of

31:11

rockery alpine section of the

31:13

garden which we've got. So we've

31:15

put a Mediterranean scheme on there

31:17

now. Delving into this

31:19

Mediterranean style planting, you

31:21

know, there was endless amounts of plants we could choose from.

31:24

So we planted this garden

31:27

in October, which wouldn't have been

31:29

my first choice, but due to timescales and things

31:31

getting done, we just had to put it in

31:33

then. So it's already gone

31:36

through minus eight, wettest six

31:38

months on record, snow,

31:42

gale force winds, you name

31:44

it. And it's still incredible. It's still growing

31:47

and looking fantastic. Interesting to try

31:49

out and see. What plants do you have

31:51

there in the Mediterranean border? Of hundreds

31:53

of plants, which was great because when we

31:55

started looking into it, we didn't kind of

31:58

know exactly where we'd be able to go

32:00

with it. but just to give you a

32:02

kind of few that most people grow is

32:04

obviously rosemary, the different sages,

32:07

purple, yucchus, you

32:10

know, which again have been absolutely fine. I'll

32:12

just go back to the

32:14

preparation of the planting again was key.

32:16

So we did do a few

32:18

test digs on the banking before we put this

32:20

planting in to make sure the drainage was really

32:22

good on there and then we

32:24

did incorporate quite a lot of gravel into

32:27

the banking to make sure the drainage

32:29

was better as well over time. So

32:31

these plants will survive but again it

32:33

was down to the prep. So arbutus,

32:37

the strawberry tree, so arbutus do really well

32:39

at Brodsworth. We do tend to use them

32:42

across the site as a feature tree. I

32:44

mean the backdrop of the kind of shrub

32:46

borders and again the

32:48

fantastic Mediterranean tree. Cystus as

32:50

well. We've used a lot

32:52

of different Cystus, Genista,

32:56

Euphorbia but the honey spurge one which

32:58

is obviously the Mediterranean one. Honey spurge

33:00

because of the smell, flormus

33:05

in the circeus as

33:08

well. So again so we've got

33:10

like a real interest of kind

33:12

of more smaller kind of perennial

33:14

plants and then these dot interesting

33:16

feature plants. I suppose the one

33:18

that's getting most of the interest

33:21

is Tanerix to Tandra

33:24

and that one's a really interesting

33:26

small tree native obviously to the

33:29

Mediterranean area and is

33:31

obviously an evergreen where

33:33

it originates from but deciduous over here

33:35

and it's just now starting to come

33:37

into leaf. And

33:40

then in about June-July time

33:42

it'll have these amazing pink

33:44

tassel like flowers coming

33:47

down and that again will probably

33:49

get to about 9-10 foot so

33:51

that's been kind of sporadically planted

33:54

across the banking so it doesn't become too

33:56

dominant to take away from the view. Another

33:59

one that we've not used the garden previously

34:01

that we've used is myrtle and

34:04

obviously myrtle's got a kind of

34:06

significance used in the

34:09

royal weddings since Queen

34:11

Victoria's time and then obviously the myrtle

34:14

had always come from Osborne House which is

34:16

an upper English heritage property on

34:18

the Isle of Wight. So interestingly

34:20

we never had myrtle at Brodsworth so I was

34:23

really keen to try and use that and it's

34:25

been interesting to see how that's coming on and

34:28

it is growing really well. I think it's doing

34:30

a lot better in the more

34:32

south facing parts of where it's been

34:34

planted so far. It doesn't like being

34:37

too open to the wind and elements

34:39

so we had to be kind of

34:41

careful where we positioned it in the

34:43

bed. There's an incredible Quercus islex oomoke

34:46

which obviously again is a Mediterranean tree

34:48

and you know little nudge towards that

34:50

style as well so I'm really pleased

34:53

with it. I think it's kind of

34:55

opened up a new planting palette for

34:57

us to work with as well. That's

35:00

interesting. You can add smaller

35:03

trees and evergreen shrubs

35:05

into the borders as well at

35:07

that different dimension. Yeah, yeah because I

35:09

mean obviously when certain things will die down you

35:12

know you still want that kind of interest in

35:14

that and that structure into the beds and you

35:17

know I think across all the shrubberies

35:19

we've got again that nice transition from

35:22

low growing you know like

35:24

ruskus hyperglossum to the

35:26

front side and then tearing

35:29

up into the different laurels and different you

35:31

know and then you want the euonymus and

35:33

you know all these different types of shrubs

35:35

but then always an interesting tree whether that

35:37

be like a fox glove tree or

35:39

an arbutus or an indian bean tree

35:42

or something like that but again gives

35:44

you that amazing tearing effect and nice

35:46

contrast of foliage and tone into the

35:48

beds as well. Do you plant

35:50

or do you plan your summer borders with

35:53

an idea of what the plants

35:55

and the flowers are going to look

35:57

like as it goes into the late summer? autumn.

36:00

So I'm thinking with seed heads and interest

36:02

in the border, kind of elongate in that

36:05

interest in the border. A lot of

36:07

the things we do have in there currently do do that.

36:09

So obviously the the cardoons,

36:11

the angelicas, you know the more

36:13

kind of tall sculptural feature plants

36:15

you can leave you know

36:17

for as long as you want into

36:19

the season. And I know from the

36:21

side of obviously the insects over wintering

36:24

you know into the lot of the kind

36:26

of seed heads and stuff now that it

36:28

is important that we leave certain ones. We'll

36:30

only leave a few but again it's

36:33

select plants and they're more the

36:36

kind of architectural ones that

36:38

we tend to leave to be honest. So

36:40

what are your favorite summer border plants then? What

36:42

are the ones that you would you always go

36:44

to that have your well factor as well? Well

36:48

Minada I think you know

36:50

in particular the Cambridge Scarlet one I

36:52

think you know just going off of

36:54

what our visitors love.

36:56

I think the Hemorrhochalis

36:59

fulva I think they're the kind of

37:01

really deep, deep red one. I think

37:03

that's a another really

37:05

popular one. The cardoons, Sinara

37:08

cardoon. I think that's again

37:10

one that always gets a lot of the photographs,

37:12

a lot of pictures. Nobody can

37:14

quite believe the size of

37:17

them. The Angelicas, Helleniums.

37:19

I like you know the

37:21

kind of more architectural tall

37:24

plants really that give you the you

37:26

know the kind of real interest. You

37:28

know I really like the next scaldons

37:30

earlier on because they're just really interesting

37:33

even as they're kind of peeling out.

37:35

They kind of look like the you

37:37

know snakes losing the skin. Dahlias I

37:39

think are coming massively back into fashion.

37:41

We are planting daily Imperialis for the

37:43

first time this year and the tree

37:45

Dahlias and I think they'll be a

37:48

really popular one to be honest.

37:51

I think they're going to become

37:53

the main one that people ask

37:55

or want to know if they can

37:57

grow it in their garden long term. What

37:59

are you looking forward to you most about

38:01

walking through your garden in the

38:03

summer when the borders are in full bloom?

38:05

Well I think it's just seeing

38:07

the enjoyment of his visitors really. We've

38:10

put so much preparation and work into

38:12

creating the gardens for everybody to come

38:14

and enjoy and you know the

38:16

best thing for us gardeners is for visitors

38:19

to see it and you know and

38:21

take inspiration you know to be able

38:23

to use in their gardens and you

38:26

know we're all passionate about what we do and you

38:28

know we love as plants and

38:30

we love the history of gardens just

38:32

as much as well and if we can

38:34

teach the two at the same time

38:36

then we're kind of doing our jobs really well.

38:38

Yeah I think it's that I think it's it's

38:41

the enjoyment and you know that what

38:43

I really like is my teamwork so

38:45

hard and the volunteers they deserve all

38:47

the praise to get. I think it's amazing

38:49

as well for you know apprentices

38:52

or new people into gardening to

38:54

be able to see you know

38:56

the quick wins in gardens as well and

38:59

you know that you can make in areas

39:01

and you know and I think gardening is

39:04

amazing in the sense of every

39:06

day you can see where you've been that's

39:08

why we all love what we do. It's great isn't it

39:10

that every year you can create

39:12

this beautiful palette of of summer

39:15

flowers in your own garden taken

39:17

from inspiration from bigger public

39:19

gardens as well. Daniel thank you

39:21

very much for telling us more about Vodsworth

39:23

and how we can create some sensational summer

39:26

borders for a particularly special

39:28

summer kiss. Thanks

39:31

for listening to the BBC Gartners

39:33

World Magazine podcast. Subscribe now

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