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Gardeners' Question Time: Exbury Gardens

Kathy Clugston and the team are in Exbury, Hampshire.

Kathy Clugston is in the village of Exbury in Hampshire. She's joined by Pippa Greenwood, Matthew Wilson and Christine Walkden to answer the audience's horticultural queries.

This week, the panellists discuss the best way to eliminate horsetail and green fly, pollinator-friendly plants for year-round flowers, and the use of the word 'dirt'.

Stepping away from the questions, Pippa Greenwood meets Exbury Gardens' Head Gardener Tom Clarke as he shows her around the dragonfly pond.

Producer: Daniel Cocker
Assistant Producer: Bethany Hocken

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4

Available now

42 minutes

Last on

Sun 27 Mar 202214:00
BBC Radio 4

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Plant List

Questions and timecodes are below. Where applicable, plant names have been provided.

Q – Are there any organic or non-toxic methods for eliminating mare’s tails?

(3 minutes 48 seconds) 

Matthew –

Rodgersia

Hosta

Q – How do I propagate my lobelia tupa?

(6 minutes 32 seconds) 

Matthew –

Echium pininana

Q – What can I do to get rid of green fly on my rose?

(9 minutes 16 seconds)

Q – How important is it to plant hedging plants at the same depth that they were planted at in the nursery?

(11 minutes 3 seconds)

Feature – Pippa Greenwood meets Exbury Gardens’ Head Gardener Tom Clarke to marvel at the dragonfly pond

(14 minutes 40 seconds)

Matthew –

Iris, flag

Q – What pollinator friendly plants do you recommend for year-round flowers under deciduous trees such as oak trees?

(20 minutes 26 seconds)

Christine –

Cyclamen

Cyclamen hederifolium

Cyclamen coum

Hesperantha

Sternbergia lutea

Puschkinia

Scilla

Muscari

Matthew –

Comfrey

Japanese anemone

Digitalis

Sarcococca

Brunnera

Omphalodes

Pippa –

Snowdrops

Waldsteinia ternata

Q – I lost an acacia dealbata in the storms. I’d like to plant another one. Can I prune it as a shrub or is it happier being a tall tree?

(25 minutes 26 seconds)

Matthew –

Arbutus × andrachnoides

Sophora Sun King

Q – I have recently cut down some old apple trees that had canker. What fruit trees can I now plant against an east facing fence?

(31 minutes 33 seconds)

Pippa –

Morello cherry

Plum

Damson

Christine –

‘Mirabelle’ plum

Q – What shrubs and climbers do you recommend for bees in the middle of winter?

(30 minutes 44 seconds)

Christine –

Ivy

Pippa –

Witch hazel, Hamamelis

Winter-flowering honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima

Sarcococca

Wintersweet, Chimonanthus praecox

Q – What gardening jobs can the team suggest for me to join my husband in the garden – bearing in mind I have dodgy knees, a temperamental back, and I don’t really enjoy getting dirt under my fingernails?

(36 minutes 10 seconds)

Matthew –

Pelargonium

Camellia

Broadcasts

  • Fri 25 Mar 202215:00
    BBC Radio 4
  • Sun 27 Mar 202214:00
    BBC Radio 4

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