New TV Series planned - new builders of rock gardens wanted!

[Tim Ingram]

Fermi - I think we educate ourselves and then have to learn to dumb down. There are few people around like David Attenborough who not only have a brilliant understanding of the world but also an ability to bring people together and create a television station (BBC2) that actually takes into account the intelligence of those viewing it. That's not really an elitist comment, just a slightly sorrowful one. (And I also enjoy greatly programmes like 'A Question of Sport' and 'Never Mind the Buzzcocks' so I'm not standing on ceremony).

[johnralphcarpenter]

It was the crocks and grunge in the base of trough and pot that would create a perched water table that bothered me, Ralph. Daft that "experts" will persist with this nonsense.

This is an interesting topic - where can we find further information about the perched water table problem and how to avoid it?

[Maggi Young]

http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=8097.msg219717#msg219717   Paul Cumbleton's very good explanation

http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2011Nov161321442879BULB_LOG_4611.pdf   some in a Bulb Log ( with reference to Paul's post )


http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/2007-February/v42msft361un0q238ci4t8eiv6.html#   - Paul writing for the PBS on the subject, you will see other posts on the matter from the PBS link too.

nearly  forgot: Paul on the subject in his Wisley Alpine Log :
http://www.srgc.org.uk/wisley/2007/190907/log.html

[johnralphcarpenter]

Brilliant, as ever!

[rgc]

Surely the main hope of a TV programme on rock gardens that is part of a series called 'Great British Garden Revival' is to attract new people to rock gardening. After all, perhaps the main problem facing the SRGC is an aging membership! I have found the whole series rather disappointing - too much on large gardens and estates and not enough about what can be done in suburban gardens and that is where potential new gardeners are mainly based.  The episode on rock gardens had too much on rocks and not enough on plants and could give people the impression that rock gardening was not for them unless they went into a significant construction project.

Bob (a new, but not young, SRGC member)

[Tim Ingram]

Although not directly associated with rock gardening it is interesting to see a little flurry of letters re. gardening programmes in the latest 'The Garden'. They vary from Nigel Colborn emphasising the value of gardening in the school curriculum (this I think really depends on the incentive of individual teachers who may have to stand up against the other demands of the curriculum coming from different directions, but it must be best of all to catch interest in plants and gardens when young); a couple of correspondents spoke of more specialised plants and the fact that gardens are not 'instant', both of which would correspond with Nigel Colborn's comments of introducing gardens to schoolchildren, who may often have a relatively limited attention span! Others spoke of small gardens that don't relate well to the more expansive gardens often described in the media. And one person said they loved 'Gardeners World' just as it is. The thought that gardening might actually encompass a wider range of visions, which can also include programmes heading towards and reaching Natural History, doesn't seem to have crossed anyone's mind, or if it has the potential viewing audience is not regarded as sufficient - which seems to trivialise gardening compared to the many programmes there are on wildlife, history, art, the great outdoors, and a lovely one my wife has been enjoying on sewing - all of which seem to accept a more intelligent and thoughtful audience. Us gardeners really must be the dunces at school.

[Botanica]

Hello

When the rock series will be available in France ? Nobody say that ?
I search  in the TV website but not available in France (or other county i suppose) 

[Great Moravian]

Perched water table is a geographical term slightly misused in container gardening.
A perched water table forms above an impermeable rock or clay layer
that separates it from the main groundwater table below it.
The topic of wet layer above the drainage layer might be
interesting for growers of bulbs from Anatolia, where
the bulbs grow in an extremely deep layer of volcanic ash,
but not for growers of alpine plants which grow in
detritus layer covering gross stone split.

[rgc]

I see that the 'Great British Garden Revival' series is being repeated on Tuesdays on BBC2 at 9.05 am. Not a great time, but with modern recording devices it is easy to timeshift. Not sure when the Rock Garden programme in the series is being shown.

See also that the new series of Gardeners' World is starting this Friday at 8.30pm on BBC2. Apparently Carol Klein is looking at cyclamen, there is a visit to a bog garden and Monty Don is adding to his woodland spring planting, so there are items of interest to forum members.
Bob

[Tim Ingram]

The last Gardener's World programme which featured Brian Mathew with Carol Klein at Myddelton House has been commented on elsewhere on the Forum. I think in this case we are a little unfair on the programme because it seemed to me there was a lot of value put across on it. The simple description of a garden being flooded and recovering even after ten days inundation must be reassuring for many gardeners who have suffered through the recent floods. And who hasn't eventually got round to grubbing out an old hedge and finding a whole new area to plant up. I don't think there is any doubt either that Rachel de Thame has a passion and love of roses little different to that that many here have for snowdrops. In a subtle way I think the programme is moving in the direction many of us would like to see more of - the main problem being that a popular gardening programme like this has to appeal to many tastes, in not too different a way than the Forum does. What I would like to see is more occasional programmes that look at plants in wider contexts, particularly in the Natural World itself, and the discovery and exploration that has and does go on behind our gardening. We can talk about the great plant hunters and gardeners of the past, but in different ways there are similar people today too but many are unheralded and their knowledge about plants, like Brian Mathew's, take more time and thought to really appreciate and understand, and making programmes that might capture this are more in the nature of film making and documentary. Alpine plants and the essentially unspoiled beauty of their environments are what have always appealed to me more than anything else - gardening with them just enables you to appreciate this right outside your door but it doesn't stop you dreaming of travelling in the mountains, or for a few lucky people actually doing this.

[ChrisB]

Tim - what do you think of the old David Attenborough series on plants then?  I found it and others that have tried... Become overwhelmed by moving creatures that rely on the plants because it makes better TV in their opinion.  So when he visited diascias in South Africa it was only to show that a specialised bee was found to be its pollinator (just as an example).  Nothing wrong with that of course but it's done at the expense of talking about the plant itself and what it needs to survive so those moving creatures can make use of it.

[Tim Ingram]

Chris - this is always the criticism raised about Natural History programmes on plants compared to animals and it is a valid one; we don't identify with plants in the same way. But there are well cited examples from the past like Geoffrey Smith's series on particular groups of plants and their garden value and a few programmes looking at very spectacular natural displays of plants such as in South Africa and Namaqualand. Another approach which I think has even more potential is to gain that sense of vibrancy from the actual process of travelling and exploring - for example I could imagine documentaries following Kingdon Ward's search for the 'Blue Poppy' or climbing the Alps to discover Eritrichium nanum. The landscape and trials along the way are just as much part of the fascination. (Who for instance loved the series on Wainwright and the Lake District in a different context?). This becomes a story which effectively rediscovers these plants for all of us who never have the opportunity to do this ourselves, and at the same time shows that plants come from somewhere exciting and real - not just from the Garden Centre or B&Q down the road, or even from our alpine houses and gardens. A few people might view their gardens differently as a result.

[rgc]

According to my Sky Planner, the repeat of the rock garden episode in the Great British Garden Revival series will be shown on BBC2 on Tuesday 18th March at 9.05 am.
Bob

[Yann]

For those interested and living outside uk i recorded the broadcast.