Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => General Forum => Topic started by: mark smyth on March 06, 2010, 12:08:25 AM
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Was the first programme a repeat of last year's first progrmme?
sow tomato seeds
sow sweet pea seeds
chit potatoes
divide a plant
plant in the green snowdrops -"they are late this year" Does he think we are stupid!? Someone removed the flowers grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
It was good to see Ron, Snowdrop Company, McKenzie's garden
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So it was as bad as last years?
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Yes but no stupid jokes between the boys.
The programme needs a boost and just in time out own Jo Hynes will be appearing tomorrow walking Alys around here garden to see Hellebores and snowdrops.
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Will that be Friday's programme, Mark?
Paddy
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Sorry I thought today was Thursday ::) Yes this Friday 19th
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I cannot stand that woman (Alys I mean) she really does annoy me.
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I cant stand her either. David you better go for a holiday soon. She has a series to herself coming to TV very soon
RUN FOR THE HILLLLLLLLLLS ooh that red hurts the eye
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I cant stand her either. David you better go for a holiday soon. She has a series to herself coming to TV very soon
I just take the ultimate action, and I find myself doing it more and more these days, switch the thing off and put the radio on.
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I just take the ultimate action, and I find myself doing it more and more these days, switch the thing off and put the radio on.
David,glad to hear I am not the only one ,I watch :) the radio all the time. ;D ;D ;D
I have a radio in the greenhouse and one in the potting shed.
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I cannot stand that woman (Alys I mean) she really does annoy me.
I don't find her too bad - I'm sure I saw her rushing through the shopping centre in Huddersfield just before Christmas but I often think I have seen people when I haven't.
I think the program has improved a bit but it still seems to be compulsory to show 5 minutes of Toby Buckland digging a hole then putting a plant in it. I would have thought most viewers would have got the hang of doing that by now. Watching on i-player and fast forwarding is best for me.
When does Beechgrove start up again???
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The BBC removed both my comments about GW but left my comments saying Beechgrove was a better programme to watch. ???
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When does Beechgrove start up again???
It was due to start on the 31st March but has been re-scheduled for the next week, I believe.
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I don't find her too bad - I'm sure I saw her rushing through the shopping centre in Huddersfield just before Christmas but I often think I have seen people when I haven't.
How many redheads wearing Dame Edna specs can there be in the UK?
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On which channel is "Beechgrove"?
I've never seen it but have seen comments on it posted here on the forum.
Paddy
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It's on BBC Scotland, starting 7th April, Paddy.
If you have Sky TV you should be able to get it on one of the "extra" BBC channels, 976 or such like,(Mark will confirm the number, I'm sure)
I don't think you can get it in i-player in the Republic of Ireland, can you?
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Did anyone pick up on the point Toby Buckland (I think it was) made last week. He trotted out the old cliche again with words to the effect that "of course, now is the best time to move snowdrops - in the green". Has he not been reading the comments made elsewhere on this Forum?
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I also blog on another site and it is so disappointing to hear how many of them think that the proper thing to do is lift/move/buy snowdrops 'in the green'. How did selling bulbs like snowdrops ' in the green' come about, anyway?
Also from Gardeners World I have heard it reported (we don't have television) that Carol Klein stated that reticulate irises will flower one year but not the next. I am glad that our irises don't watch GW either!
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I believe that the habit of selling snowdrops "in the green" came about when the old estates, where large quantities of 'drops are to be found, started to sell them... they had gardeners with not too much else to do at that time of year and so they began to lift and sell them then.... they had the staff available and the bulbs were easy to find in full leaf....the demand for the plants was greatest in season,( and the bulbs do not take kindly to being completely dired out lin the way that other bulbs can tolerate) and there you go....
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I just take the ultimate action, and I find myself doing it more and more these days, switch the thing off and put the radio on.
David,glad to hear I am not the only one ,I watch :) the radio all the time. ;D ;D ;D
I have a radio in the greenhouse and one in the potting shed.
Me too Michael plus a radio that accompanies me around the garden wherever I'm working in it.
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in the green may have started even further back when soldiers brought snowdrops back from Crimea
I could have pulled Carol through the TV screen when she said they only last a year. She had a brilliant delection and all we saw was Katharine Hodgkin and maybe one other
We have to remember the programme is made by numpties with no experience who maybe told Carol what to say.
A little bird told me Carol purposely makes her hands so dirty :o :o
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I could have pulled Carol through the TV screen when she said they only last a year. She had a brilliant delection and all we saw was Katharine Hodgkin and maybe one other
As I recall it she said most varieties only flower once, because to flower they need baking in the Summer, and they don't get that usually in the UK. However KH was an exception and would flower every year, unbaked.
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Coming from a bulb exporting country all I can say is that GW still is way better than the gardening wallpaper on television we get in Holland with complete make-overs based on instant effect and planted with the latest product they have to promote. Every (show)garden they produce for the program is the same boring style planted as if they were planting big blocks at the Keukenhof. All for instant "oh's" and "ah's so the viewers rush to the gardening centre and buy the latest fashion only to be disappointed by the prices and the short lived effect because 2 months later most of these gardens will look terrible.
I have been watching GW since the days of Geoff Hamilton, a gifted gardener who was very passionate about what he told. But I admit I am not watching each friday anymore because the biggest problem with GW now is that they don't have an authoritive lead presenter anymore and the others are not terribly gifted either. The program always had someone with charisma and a speciality, Toby may be a jolly nice guy but he is not someone who looks like he stands for what he is saying. And of course a general gardening program seldom is satisfying specialist growers if the program presents an item on their speciality.
So GW is not perfect but the Brits have been spoiled for a long time. From what I have read the BBC wanted to go back to the old format because there were too many complaints about last seasons format with that silly 30 minute challenge for instance. So that's what they do, go back to the old format. But in the end gardening techniques, although interesting, are not really evolving anymore and if a program runs for that long they are bound to show techniques they have shown before. So the attraction has to come from other items.
Items I personally always liked are visits to national collections or top public gardens, maybe that would bring the interest back? The program on BBC Wales of Bodnant for instance. Or show me the autumn in Westonbirt. Or the Rhodo's at the Savill & Valley Gardens in spring. But if they have the connection with the RHS they should perhaps try to be a "television version of the Gardener"? Show what's new, not repeat. But that's just my 2 cents, words coming from a Dutchie who can no longer bare watching the presenter Rob Verlinden of the most popular Dutch gardening program, an irritating guy that travels the country with a roadshow explaining retired woman how to repot a Phalaenopsis..... :-[
Watch one of his programs and GW is suddenly a lot more palatable..... ;)
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Eeek, having just read that lot I'm terrified of what I may have said and what the editor will choose to put out, aaaggghhh :o
Hopefully they'll just show a nice snowdrop wood, a few hellebores and some really good red willow, and cut most of my babble out ;D
Did I mention reticulate irises, in the green or planting methods, ooooo I hope not, haha ???
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When Jo came to visit I said she would make a great GW presenter.
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The reason we generally get bad presenters is that most of those who would be good presenters could not put up with the dreadful treatment they get from their bosses. The same applies to politicians of course.
I mark my snowdrops now - whilst in flower - and then only move them as the leaves are disappearing.
On the question of irises, my mother's swathe of reticulatas came with the house and survived untouched and flowering for over 20 years - until they were accidentally swamped by Solidago after I left home. Admittedly they were on sandy soil in Norfolk which is the driest part of the UK. I havn't been quite so lucky here on the west coast of Scotland.
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I can't remember the last baking summer we've had but this clump of Iris ? 'Harmony' has been flowering reliably for over 10 years.
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I plugged the bulb log and the forum this morning on the GW message board. It's been removed. Very nice of them!
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in the green may have started even further back when soldiers brought snowdrops back from Crimea
I seem to remember reading somewhere that soldiers from another conflict of yesteryear sending back daffodil bulbs. By the time they arrived their leaves had long since withered and the bulbs were cooked and eaten as onions with fatal consequences. :o
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For those outwith the UK who would like to catch Gardener's World tonight to see Jo Hynes.... I think those of you with Sky Television will be able to see it at 20.30 hrs UK time on Sky Channel 989........ 8)
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Mark
Your posting on GW has been moved to the garden clinic page.
Mike
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Thanks.
I sent them an email complaining that they considered my recent posts spam.
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Jo was terrific on GW tonight.... relaxed, natural, good voice, friendly face, calm manner... great garden!! What more could we ask?
I could have wept to see the cyclamen looking so lovely. The birds are picking the flowers off our C. coum day and daily..... hardly a one left on!
Having seen the extremely tasteful hellebore hybrids at Jo's garden, we thought it rather sniffy of Alys, having taken the seedlings from Jo, to then mump about "over hybridised" flowers..... we weren't shown ANY crazy doubles or daft colours etc... what was she on about?
To skim over a spring garden as lovely as Cherubeer in such a short time was a real shame. Still, I'm grateful to have seen it at all!
We were astonished that at the end of the programme we (in Scotland at least, if not the rest of the country) were treated to a slide and continuity announcement about the Radio programme , Beechgrove Potting Shed! Such joined up thinking to give notice about another programme in an area of interest for a region is almost unheard of.... especially for radio! I hope it means I will have a hundred emails and masses of phone calls on Sunday! :D
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This is why the BBC needs to do a really good gardening programme for gardeners made by gardeners. One one hour programme a week for 52 weeks travelling up and down the country talking to gardeners. If I win the lottery ....
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Thanks Maggie, it wasn't as embarrasing as I thought it might be.
I have to give it to Alys, she was very brave as I swiped her with the willow on top of that hedge. Not an easy activity to stand next to.
Hopefully links on the GW website to the NGS will bring in visitors for the NGS charities, on this charitable evening.
Did anyone watch 'Smithy' in the bath with David Beckham, well I enjoyed it ;D
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This is why the BBC needs to do a really good gardening programme for gardeners made by gardeners. One one hour programme a week for 52 weeks travelling up and down the country talking to gardeners. If I win the lottery ....
Yes Mark,
when the boat comes in ::)
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Did anyone watch 'Smithy' in the bath with David Beckham, well I enjoyed it
Oh, was "Smithy" in there too? :-[ ::)
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Did anyone watch 'Smithy' in the bath with David Beckham, well I enjoyed it ;D
It was amazing what he managed to get away with all those sports celebrities. I do hope Andy Murray gets back with him as he has just lost at Indian Wells and it is now obvious what the problem is ;D ;D ;D
I have not managed to see the program yet as we were all watching Sports Relief but I would urge everyone to visit Jo's lovely garden via her website where they can linger as long as they like.
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Yes Sports Relief was brilliant but have to confess I recorded it and fast forward to the funny bits. David Becham will be getting some stick today
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If we were a Republic and could vote for a President Smithy would get my vote any day. ;D Having said that I fancy Stacey like mad, and wouldn't say no Nessa either-I have eclectic tastes!! :P
Well done Jo. The Beeb should really listen and note-there is an audience for a good, serious gardening programme, and potentially a big one. There is also room for a Blue Peter look-a-loke gardening programme too but I don't want to watch it.