Postbag Edition: Belfast Botanic Garden
Why are my potatoes floury? How do I get rid of lace bugs? What plant are the panel still searching for? Kathy Clugston and the panel have the answers in a special postbag edition.
Why are my potatoes so floury? How do you banish lace bugs for good? And what mysterious plant has the panel stumped?
Kathy Clugston and a team of gardening experts explore the various locations of Belfast Botanic Garden. All while digging into the GQT postbag to answer your gardening conundrums.
On hand with their wisdom and wit are ethnobotanist James Wong, garden designer Neil Porteous, and Kirsty Wilson, Head of Gardens at Balmoral. Guiding them through the garden’s hidden corners and floral highlights is Garden Supervisor Colin Agnew.
Producer: Bethany Hocken
Assistant Producer: Dulcie Whadcock
Executive Producer: Carly Maile
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
Last on
Featured
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Plant List
Questions and timecodes are below. Where applicable, plant names have been provided.
Q – What causes blind daffodils? (03’47”)
Q – I have two lemon trees, a lime tree and a mature olive tree. Could you please suggest an all-round liquid feed for them? (06’55”)
Q – My 40-year-old ponytail palm has grown too tall, should I cut it? (13’18”)
Q – What could I grow up a five-foot-high north facing fence on clay soil in the rainy veil of Glamorgan? (15’48”)
Neil Porteous –
Clematismontana var. grandiflora (M), white anemone clematis
Colin Agnew –
Viburnum
James Wong –
Hederahelix, common Ivy
Q – Why are my potato floury? (18’16”)
Q – Do you have any tips for preventing our banana plants from under developing? (22’52”)
Neil Porteous –
Musabasjoo, Japanese banana
James Wong –
Musacavendishii,banana 'Dwarf Cavendish'
Q – How do I get rid of the lace bug? (25’17”)
Q – Can the panel suggest a tree to plant to a fill the gap and ideally add colour to what is now a very dark corner? (27’28”)
Neil Porteous –
Betulaermanii 'Grayswood Hill’, erman's birch 'Grayswood Hill’
Acerpalmatum, Japanese maple
Acerpalmatum 'Sango-kaku' (P), coral-bark maple
Kirsty Wilson –
Acer × freemanii Autumn Blaze ('Jeffersred'), freeman maple [autumn breeze]
James Wong –
Toonasinensis, Chinese cedar
Colin Agnew–
Acercampestre, field maple
Q – How do I control my Rosa lutea with losing the beautiful flowers? (32’47”)
Q – What plant are the panel still searching for? (36’25”)
Kirsty Wilson –
Cardiocrinumgiganteum, giant Himalaya lily
Neil Porteous –
Acer pentaphyllum, chinese maple
James Wong –
Rubus Glaucas, andean blackberry
Broadcast
- Sun 20 Apr 202514:00BBC Radio 4
Podcast
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Gardeners' Question Time
Horticultural programme featuring a group of gardening experts


