May is the month our beds, allotments and containers explode with colour and energy.

What’s on

3rd - 4th May Toby’s Garden Festival at Powderham Castle, Kenton.

3rd - 5th May BBC Gardeners’ World Spring Fair at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu.

9 – 12th May RHS Malvern Spring Festival, Three Counties Showground, Malvern.

12th May Borde Hill Specialist Spring Plant Fair, Haywards Heath.

17th - 26th May Floralies Internationales, Vendee, France.

20th May World Bee Day

21st - 25th May RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

25th - 28th May Blenheim Palace Flower Show

25th May - 2nd June National Children’s Gardening Week will again be partnering with THE WORLD OF PETER RABBIT™ this May half term.

30th May - 3rd June Bloom at the Visitors Centre, Phoenix Park, Dublin.

Plants mentioned: Aquatics - water lilies, marginals and oxygenators can be established now. Camellias, Cauliflowers, Cherries, Cucumbers, Chili peppers, Courgette, Daffodils, Dahlias, ‘Enorma’ Runner Beans, French bean ‘Cobra’, Forsythia, Gooseberries, Helenium, Hosta, Iris, Kale, Malus (crab apples), ‘Padron’ Pepper, Potatoes, Roses, Sedum, Sweet peas, Sunflowers, Sweet Corn and Tulips.

Products mentioned: Fertilisers – Doff, Growmore and Tomorite, Tea for soaking bean seeds and Speedplanters.

This month’s Dig It Top 5: Most popular liquid feeds

News

Climate change and verticillium wilt puts brewers hops under threat.

Kew scientists assess extinction risk of flowering species using computer modelling

Readers to the trade magazine Horticulture Week voted for Alan Titchmarsh and bagged compost as the most influential person and product impacting the gardening world over the past 50 years.

A major revamp of Torbay’s 100-year-old Italian garden brings 1,600 new plants after 40 cabbage palms were felled.

Yorkshire base, fourth generation rhubarb grower @ehubarbrobert is a social media hit.

An OBE for garden designer and landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith. The RHS have awarded Neil Lucas of Knoll Gardens and Nurseryman Chris Young the prestigious Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH). The Elizabeth Medal of Honour was bestowed on non-dig guru Charles Dowding for his outstanding contribution to horticulture as a non-professional gardener.

New initiative to revive railway hedges.

Latest DNA fingerprinting could help identify lost apples that are resistant to climate change.

International Women’s Day: 100+ Leading Women in Horticulture 2024 announced.

University of Sussex launches The Big Bee Hotel experiment to discover more about bees that nest in artificially created habitats.

New Tulip variety named after King Charles III unveiled at Keukenhof.

Garden Organics says the Government isn’t moving fast enough on the peat ban.

RHS Chelsea Flower Show gardens go through ‘green audit’ for the first time.

£12million Lottery Heritage Fund to restore Great Yarmouth’s historic winter gardens, the last surviving Victorian ironwork glasshouse on a seaside promenade.

London’s Royal Parks have openings for ten apprentices.

Weather causes concern with potato farmers.

Discover how to take part in this year’s Henchman Topiary awards.

Gardens start to bounce back visitor numbers wise with Kew Garden and RHS Wisley and the Royal Botanic Garden at Edinburgh taking the top spots.

Our thanks to Chiltern Music Therapy for supplying the music.

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In this edition of Dig It, Peter Brown and Chris Day chat with Barry Smith, Head Gardener at the National Trust’s Stowe Landscape Gardens, near Buckingham. Barry has been at Stowe for over 40 years and head gardener for over 25 so he knows this garden with immense passion and understanding. Stowe, a world-famous 18th century garden was created by such luminaries as Charles Bridgeman, William Kent and Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. For over 300 years these spectacular gardens have been welcoming tourists far and wide.

Plants mentioned: Roses, annuals (bedding), Ash (Fraxinus excelsior), Pinus (pine), Honeysuckle, wildflowers, Snake’s head Fritillary (featured in Barry’s funny story), Lime, Beech, English Elm and Dutch Elm resistant varieties and Snowdrops (Galanthus).

The Gardens Trust, National Trust and the Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust (for networking, sharing knowledge and celebrating success stories locally and beyond).

Barry’s top two favourite gardens: Stourhead Gardens near Mere, Wiltshire and Stackpole, near Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Monuments, specific areas and statues mentioned at Stowe. Grecian Valley Ha-Ha, Oxford Water Lake, Lamport Garden (on-going project), Temple of Concord and Victory (Grecian Temple), Stowe School, The New Inn (old coaching house), Grand Avenue approach to the Corinthian Arch, Buckingham Parish Church, Marble Arch, and The Ice House.

Stowe gardens and school have been used for many film locations including The Crown, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, Slaughterhouse Rulez, Stardust and in the James Bond film The World is Not Enough.

Barry’s Desert Island luxuries Felco secateurs and a Tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera).

To find out more about Stowe Landscape gardens click on this link and maybe become a volunteer.

Our thanks to Chiltern Music Therapy for supplying the music.

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Many of our gardens are enjoying much earlier blooms this spring due to the mild and damp weather conditions. Peter Brown and Chris Day bring us the latest gardening news, what’s on’s and topical gardening advice for the busy month of April.

What’s on

6th -7th April: Cornwall Garden Society Spring Flower Show at Royal Cornwall Show Ground near Wadebridge, features a Grow Your Own space and Tipi Talks as well as dazzling displays and exquisite exhibits.

Saturday 13th April: Hanami Blossom Day at Brogdale Farm, Faversham, Kent. Open 10am-3pm. Discover Japanese art and culture amidst the breathtaking blossoming orchards, plus so much more.

15th – 28th April: A celebration of Spring: from blossom to bluebells at Hever Castle Gardens in Kent.

18th - 21st April: RHS Urban Show set in the heart of Manchester (Depot Mayfield), celebrates your own oasis in this new immersive gardening experience.

Sunday 21st April: Plant Fairs Roadshow at Arundel Castle in West Sussex. Open 10am-5pm. Expert nurseries will be displaying their plants in the grounds of Arundel Castle as part of the Plant Fairs Roadshow.

Monday 29th April: Rachel de Thame: A Flower Garden for Pollinators talk at the Garden Museum in Lambeth, London, by Rachel de Thame and botanical artist Lauren Lusk yours about her new book.

Plants mentioned: Comfrey (for tea), Hebe, Narcissi, Muscari (grape hyacinths), Tulips, Hydrangea ‘Cherry Explosion,’ Rose ‘Munstead Wood’, Magnolia ‘Stellata’ (Star magnolia), Primulas and Polyanthus.

Seeds to sow: Cosmos, Cowslips, Gazanias, Geraniums, Marigolds, Nasturtium, Sunflowers and wildflowers. Veggies: Parsnips, Carrots, and salad crops.

Products mentioned: Lawn seed mixtures including Johnsons Any Time, Tuff Lawn, Shade and Meadow wildflower mixture, feed Vitax Q4, Empathy Afterplant, Sulphate of Potash, Fungus Fighter for preventative box treatment. Box alternatives - Euonymus ‘Jean Hugues’ and E. ‘Green Spire’, Evergreen honeysuckle hedging. Flowering hedges including Lavender and Hedge Germander. Garden hoe. Water retaining gel, Vitax Q4 and continuous (slow release) control fertiliser.

Peter and Chris’s bluebell wood recommendations: Hazelborough Woods (Silverstone, Northamptonshire) and The Woodland Trust’s College Wood (Nash, Milton Keynes).

News

101 Charles Darwin lookalikes gather at threatened 550-year-old oak tree in record attempt protest.

Global tree of the year winners announced.

Sycamore gap tree update

Californian Redwoods make it big in the UK

Government dashes hopes for horticulture with underwhelming reforms

More Scottish gardens open under the SGS to help the Perennial charity.

Finalist of the RHS Britain in Bloom competition announced.

International Orchid Show moves to Gardeners’ World Live.

Glow-in-the-dark Petunia ‘Firefly’ launched in the United States.

A new Rose ‘With Courage’ in conjunction with RNLI from rose breeder Peter Beales.

A change in shift of food production with wider diversification of crops.

The NHS could save £6.7 billion a year if everyone ate plant based food.

New Backyard Biodiversity Report from Garden Organics.

Top RHS plant diseases ranked from results in 2023.

Dig It Top 5: This month Grass seed best sellers.

Our thanks to Chiltern Music Therapy for supplying the music.

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