Gardener's World 2010

[Richard Green]

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?

[David Shaw]

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!

[Maggi Young]

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....

[David Nicholson]

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.
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.

[mark smyth]

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

[David Pilling]

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.

[Pascal B]

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.....

[Jo]

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

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   

Did I mention reticulate irises, in the green or planting methods, ooooo I hope not, haha   

[mark smyth]

When Jo came to visit I said she would make a great GW presenter.

[Richard Green]

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.

[Gail]

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.

[mark smyth]

I plugged the bulb log and the forum this morning on the GW message board. It's been removed. Very nice of them!

[Anthony Darby]

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.

[Maggi Young]

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........

[Mike Ireland]

Mark
Your posting on GW has been moved to the garden clinic page.

Mike