MOST horticultural enthusiasts will have heard of BBC Gardeners Question Time.
A comforting weekly panel show on the radio – it’s been running for 68 years – with a raft of experts answering audience questions.
Ahead of their Summer Garden party, they’ve shared the most popular five questions asked – so I asked Panelist and Garden Designer Matthew Wilson to give us his answers.
WHAT TREE HAS BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS, EDIBLE FRUIT, SEASONAL INTEREST, AUTUMN COLOUR, FAST GROWING, ENCOURAGES WILDLIFE AND IS CLIMATE CHANGE RESILIENT?
Medlar Mesphalus Germanica, is hugely overlooked. It’s got fantastic bigger than average blossom, you can make Medlar jelly and it’s got really great autumn colour.
It’s a dome shaped tree, not massively tall, fast growing and great character in the trunk
Or Cydonia Chinesis – the Chinese Quince – is small but has a beautiful full blossom, yellow fruit for quince jelly, autumn colour and is good for wildlife. Both are resilient and climate change tolerant.
HOW DO I STOP SLUGS AND SNAILS:
Really the only guaranteed way is to use garlic barrier spray. It’s not harmful to animals but repugnant to mollusks and insects.
Smash garlic gloves and hot water together – or use dried garlic granules rehydrated in water. Spray at least once a month.
PLANTING SUGGESTIONS FOR A DRY SHADY BORDER
Modify expectations and be happy if it’s green. Ferns are brilliant – like our native shield fern, Polystichum, or Dryopteris or Erythgrosora.
Plant with some hybrid hellebores, bulbs, vinca and pachysandra – plant densely and it will be thick, green and lush – and really attractive.
B&Q are currently selling a collection of five fern – suitable for outdoor gardens – for £24.99 – which means each fern cost just £4.99.
WHY ISN’T MY PLANT FLOWERING?
Ninety nine times out of a hundred – it’s because it’s being pruned at the wrong time.
If it flowers early in the year, it’s flowering on the wood that it’s formed the previous year – so don’t prune until after it’s flowered.
If it flowering late in the year – it’s flowering on the current season’s wood – so prune it down hard in spring.
WHEN’S THE BEST TIME TO PRUNE CLEMATIS
If it flowers in winter or early spring, you don’t need to prune it at all. Aside from any tidying up that you might want to do.
If it’s early summer pruning – prune in late winter or early spring and cut back by half, and if it’s late summer pruning – cut it down to the ground.
BBC Radio 4’s annual Gardeners’ Question Time Summer Garden Party 2025 will be hosted at the iconic RHS Garden Hyde Hall in Essex on Saturday August 2, during the RHS Hyde Hall Flower Show.
Two bumper episodes of Gardeners’ Question Time will be recorded in front of a live audience where members of the public can join an expert panel for a host of horticultural discussions – at 12 pm and 2 pm. Both will air on BBC R4 in the following weeks.
Also in Veronica’s colum this week…
Top tips, topiarary awards and a chance to win an outdoor seating set worth £899
HENCHMANN have revealed the winners of their 2025 Topiary Awards – with an elephant, a boot, a 36 foot-long dragon and a range of other incredible living sculptures from across the UK and Europe taking centre stage.
Paul Everden, from Norfolk, won the Home Gardener Category with a topiary knot garden he has nurtured for over 35 years.
Second place was Peterborough-based Angela Hawkins with her holly elephant “Mungo” that’s taken 25 years.
Henchman’s Choice award went to Kim Palmer from Suffolk for “George” – her amazing 36-foot-long yew dragon.
Chris Reeve, from Suffolk, won the UK Professional title with a giant work boot – and Darrell Adams, from Hampshire, was second with his restoration of a formal topiary garden
François Vandaneon won the Europe, Home Gardener category – with Cédric Bronnimann, also from France – winning the professional title for Europe.
WIN! One lucky reader can get their hands on a stylish British Garden Centres’ Fern Living Andorra Deluxe 4 Seat Round Set – worth £ 899.99 – complete with a 2.2m parasol – perfect for family meals al fresco. To enter visit www.thesun.co.uk/FERNCOMP or write to Sun Fern Living Competition, PO Box 3190, Colchester, Essex, CO2 8GP. Include your name, age, email or phone. UK residents 18+ only. Entries close 11.59pm. July 26, 2025. T&Cs apply.
PLANT OF THE WEEK Calla Lily ‘Dubai Nights’ has rich dark purple, almost black leaves with creamy white edge and glossy green leaves speckled with white. Amazing in groups in pots – tender, likes partial shade – good in borders.
JOB OF THE WEEK Bindweed will be rampaging through your outside space – try to get it all out. Tie in climbers, pinch out tomatoes.
For more tips and garden content, follow me @biros_and_bloom
