1 00:00:08,149 --> 00:00:10,180 ALAN POWER: Thanks for downloading this garden cutting 2 00:00:10,189 --> 00:00:13,560 from the National Trust. I'm Alan Power Head Gardener at the 3 00:00:13,569 --> 00:00:16,290 Stourhead estate in Wiltshire. In these shorter programs, I'm 4 00:00:16,299 --> 00:00:18,569 focusing on a particular aspect of our work. 5 00:00:19,829 --> 00:00:22,969 I'm in the walled garden and I'm about to go into the Pelargonium 6 00:00:22,979 --> 00:00:25,559 House, which is a really important part of the walled 7 00:00:25,569 --> 00:00:28,409 garden, but also a really important part of the history of 8 00:00:28,420 --> 00:00:31,729 Stourhead. It tells the story of one of the great owners of the 9 00:00:31,739 --> 00:00:33,869 property in the 19th century, Sir Richard Colt-Hoare. 10 00:00:34,689 --> 00:00:37,450 Richard Colt-Hoare was an amazing man and without him, 11 00:00:37,459 --> 00:00:40,880 Stourhead wouldn't be what it is today. He looked after his 12 00:00:40,889 --> 00:00:44,049 grandfather's original creation, which is the wonderful landscape 13 00:00:44,060 --> 00:00:45,090 garden at Stourhead. 14 00:00:45,659 --> 00:00:49,060 There's nowhere better really to read how fascinated Richard 15 00:00:49,069 --> 00:00:52,080 Colt-Hoare was with plants than in the Pelargonium House. 16 00:00:53,990 --> 00:00:57,569 I started at Stourhead over 20 years ago and when I first 17 00:00:57,580 --> 00:01:00,139 started here, this greenhouse wasn't standing. This collection 18 00:01:00,150 --> 00:01:03,790 didn't exist. So I've watched its evolution over the time and 19 00:01:03,799 --> 00:01:05,980 I've watched us learn from the different types of plants in the 20 00:01:05,989 --> 00:01:09,110 collection. Now I'm off into the Pelargonium House to see Emily 21 00:01:09,230 --> 00:01:11,569 Utgren. She's one of our gardeners at Stourhead. 22 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:14,089 Hi, how are you doing? 23 00:01:14,099 --> 00:01:16,250 EMILY UTGREN: Yeah, good thanks. Good thanks. I'm just doing a 24 00:01:16,260 --> 00:01:19,550 little bit of picking over of the Pelargoniums. 25 00:01:20,500 --> 00:01:24,650 There's quite a lot of dried leaves that we like to take off 26 00:01:24,660 --> 00:01:27,610 and make sure that we display the Pelargonium in the best 27 00:01:27,620 --> 00:01:32,010 possible way. These are South African plants. So you can 28 00:01:32,019 --> 00:01:35,629 imagine the conditions that they'll need almost a little bit 29 00:01:35,639 --> 00:01:38,583 deserty, nice and dry but also quite cool. 30 00:01:38,593 --> 00:01:43,563 I take off any flowers that are even on the way to going over to 31 00:01:43,572 --> 00:01:48,242 finish flowering so that we get a continuous display of flowers, 32 00:01:48,252 --> 00:01:51,763 which we do actually achieve somehow throughout the season 33 00:01:51,773 --> 00:01:55,182 with the with the help of a little bit of feeding with 34 00:01:55,593 --> 00:01:59,655 tomato food to keep them flowering. But also the picking 35 00:01:59,666 --> 00:02:04,335 over and the controlling of any wee beasts is always vital. 36 00:02:04,365 --> 00:02:05,716 ALAN POWER: And it's interesting, isn't it? We 37 00:02:05,725 --> 00:02:08,755 constantly now refer to them as Pelargoniums and a lot of people 38 00:02:08,766 --> 00:02:11,376 out there will know them as the Geraniums you grow in your 39 00:02:11,386 --> 00:02:14,365 conservatory, you know, and particularly the zonal ones and 40 00:02:14,376 --> 00:02:16,686 they're called zonal ones because of the patterns on their 41 00:02:16,695 --> 00:02:17,166 leaves. 42 00:02:17,175 --> 00:02:19,916 But even standing in front of the collection that we're 43 00:02:19,925 --> 00:02:22,960 looking at and they're all completely different. Yeah, 44 00:02:22,970 --> 00:02:26,369 we're looking at zonal ones, cut leafed ones. But the unique 45 00:02:26,380 --> 00:02:28,240 thing I suppose about the collection that Richard 46 00:02:28,250 --> 00:02:30,740 Colt-Hoare developed was that they were the predominantly the 47 00:02:30,750 --> 00:02:32,050 scented leaf Pelargoniums. 48 00:02:32,059 --> 00:02:34,529 EMILY UTGREN: Yeah, the chocolate, almost smelling ones, 49 00:02:34,559 --> 00:02:37,190 but mint chocolate almost. And of course, some of them are even 50 00:02:37,199 --> 00:02:38,139 used in cooking 51 00:02:38,210 --> 00:02:39,910 ALAN POWER: And they used to lie the leaves in the bottom of the 52 00:02:39,919 --> 00:02:42,059 sponge cake tin, didn't they? And then the flavour would, 53 00:02:42,070 --> 00:02:44,079 would ooze up through the cake. 54 00:02:44,079 --> 00:02:46,020 EMILY UTGREN: Ooze is a good word, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. 55 00:02:46,029 --> 00:02:48,490 Yeah. Can you imagine when that's cooking? And you in, 56 00:02:48,710 --> 00:02:51,300 from, on a, on a cold day in October, you know- 57 00:02:51,309 --> 00:02:53,699 ALAN POWER: And I've eaten a geranium cake flavoured with the 58 00:02:53,710 --> 00:02:56,479 scent from the leaves up through it. And the lady who made the 59 00:02:56,490 --> 00:02:59,080 cake topped it off with cream. This, it was a really nice cake 60 00:02:59,089 --> 00:03:02,919 and then sprinkled over the top of rose petals. No way you can 61 00:03:02,929 --> 00:03:06,259 eat the rose petals as well and it was just so nice. My dad 62 00:03:06,270 --> 00:03:10,020 wouldn't eat it. He said I'm not eating roses, but it was really, 63 00:03:10,029 --> 00:03:12,479 really lovely this collection of plants. 64 00:03:12,490 --> 00:03:15,869 So I think as gardeners, you know, we, I know lots of people 65 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:19,369 say, but we genuinely never stop learning. I mean, we're looking 66 00:03:19,380 --> 00:03:21,509 at a great variety of plants here and, you know, most 67 00:03:21,539 --> 00:03:24,119 Pelargoniums are fairly easy to take cuttings from, you know, 68 00:03:24,130 --> 00:03:26,589 you can strike cuttings fairly easily. You pick the right time 69 00:03:26,600 --> 00:03:29,690 and you pick a very healthy growing tip. But actually some 70 00:03:29,699 --> 00:03:33,190 of them have been a real, real challenge, for example. 71 00:03:33,339 --> 00:03:37,589 EMILY UTGREN: Oh my goodness. Yeah. Triste a, is a species of 72 00:03:37,600 --> 00:03:41,899 that we grow here and it's a proper desert dweller. So in the 73 00:03:41,910 --> 00:03:44,089 summer it will disappear and look dead. 74 00:03:44,100 --> 00:03:45,960 ALAN POWER: It's not the most attractive Pelargonium is it? 75 00:03:45,960 --> 00:03:48,059 EMILY UTGREN: No. But when it gets going, when it's, you know, 76 00:03:48,070 --> 00:03:51,869 when it knows that the, the South African summer's over, it 77 00:03:51,880 --> 00:03:56,660 will spring to life. But you can't get cuttings off it. They 78 00:03:56,669 --> 00:04:00,130 don't have that kind of stem. So you need to go for- for seed. 79 00:04:00,380 --> 00:04:02,789 ALAN POWER: And over the years, you know, we've been, we've been 80 00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:04,619 learning from that and they become more and more 81 00:04:04,630 --> 00:04:06,809 challenging. Interestingly enough, some of them are 82 00:04:06,820 --> 00:04:09,199 pollinated by bees and you know, the other insects that come 83 00:04:09,210 --> 00:04:11,360 through, but Triste is a moth pollinated one. It's night 84 00:04:11,369 --> 00:04:14,630 scented. So it's moth pollinated and we've learned all of these 85 00:04:14,639 --> 00:04:15,479 things over the years. 86 00:04:15,490 --> 00:04:18,609 So developing this collection over the last 20 years has been 87 00:04:18,619 --> 00:04:19,429 fascinating. 88 00:04:19,690 --> 00:04:24,170 1997 was a key point in the, in this collection, we discovered 89 00:04:24,179 --> 00:04:26,779 that there was an appropriate Victorian greenhouse being 90 00:04:26,790 --> 00:04:30,459 demolished in Sussex. So we were offered it, we brought it back, 91 00:04:30,470 --> 00:04:34,339 restored it, painted it, rebuilt it and it's here today and it 92 00:04:34,350 --> 00:04:36,019 feels as if it's always been here. 93 00:04:36,019 --> 00:04:40,480 EMILY UTGREN: And It works better than most greenhouses I 94 00:04:40,489 --> 00:04:44,579 know. They knew what they were doing. So the design itself in 95 00:04:44,589 --> 00:04:47,589 terms of air circulation, ventilation, all of these 96 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:49,079 things, it works. 97 00:04:49,260 --> 00:04:50,845 ALAN POWER: And all the winding gear works and- 98 00:04:50,845 --> 00:04:51,959 EMILY UTGREN: It's, it's so cool. 99 00:04:51,970 --> 00:04:54,119 ALAN POWER: There was kind of champions of greenhouses back 100 00:04:54,130 --> 00:04:56,619 then and this is a Foster and Pearson and they were, you know, 101 00:04:56,630 --> 00:04:58,929 they were up there with the great greenhouse engineers of 102 00:04:58,940 --> 00:04:59,390 the time. 103 00:05:02,859 --> 00:05:05,299 Thanks for downloading this garden cutting from the National 104 00:05:05,309 --> 00:05:08,100 Trust. You can make sure that you never miss an episode by 105 00:05:08,109 --> 00:05:10,730 subscribing on your player where you'll also find this month's 106 00:05:10,739 --> 00:05:13,839 full length episode of the National Trust Gardens podcast. 107 00:05:13,850 --> 00:05:14,760 See you next time. 108 00:05:21,579 --> 00:05:23,880 BETTANY HUGHES: I'm Bettany Hughes. I've been visiting 109 00:05:23,890 --> 00:05:27,450 National Trust Properties all my life. But in this series of 110 00:05:27,459 --> 00:05:32,250 podcasts, I'm going beyond the delights of teas and topiary to 111 00:05:32,260 --> 00:05:35,820 reveal the surprising European roots of some of the most 112 00:05:35,829 --> 00:05:37,480 splendid sites in England. 113 00:05:38,350 --> 00:05:41,935 You can subscribe to my series by searching for Bettany 114 00:05:41,935 --> 00:05:47,059 Hughes's 10 places Europe and us on your podcast app.