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Riverhill Himalayan Gardens, Sevenoaks

Peter Gibbs and the panel are at the Riverhill Himalayan Gardens in Kent to answer horticultural questions sent in by listeners.

Peter Gibbs and horticultural experts Danny Clarke, James Wong and Pippa Greenwood head to the Riverhill Himalayan Gardens in Kent and answer questions from the GQT postbag.

Led by Head Gardener Misako Kasahara, the GQT team explore Riverhill and learn the history of this once-abandoned site. They delight in the leafy ferns and woody rhododendrons found across the gardens.

Feeling inspired, they dive into the postbag and suggest container plants for year round interest on a balcony, and propose the best course of action for a pair of poorly Acers. We also discover that Pippa has an especially sensitive sense of smell around one particular plant.

Producer: Dominic Tyerman
Assistant Producer: Bethany Hocken
Executive Producers: Louisa Field and Ollie Wilson

A Somethin' Else production for Â鶹Éç Radio 4

Available now

42 minutes

Last on

Sun 16 Oct 2022 14:00

Plant List

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

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Q – I’ve been monitoring how the sun hits my garden so I can put plants in the appropriate place. One border gets changing levels of sun at different times of year: full sun, full shade, part sun and part shade. What should I class this area as?

(3 minutes 15 seconds)

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Q – I live in a flat and have a large north-facing balcony and an exposed south-facing terrace. All my plants are in containers and I’m trying to move to perennials to save money, but how can I keep all my pots looking good all year around? Can I combine summer and winter flowering plants in the same pot?

(6 minutes 49 seconds)

Ìý

James –

Protea cynaroides

Cymbidium orchid

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Misako –

Japanese red maple

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Danny –

Ophiopogon, Black Grass

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Pippa –

Snowdrops

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Q – I have two white tree peonies. I usually have dinner-plate sized blooms but this year I haven’t had a single flower bud on either bush. Is it just having a dormant year or is there something wrong?

(14 minutes 5 seconds)

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Q – I have a Canna in a container and it has produced seedheads for the first this summer. If I plant the seeds, will they germinate?

(16 minutes 30 seconds)

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Q – I’ve inherited my mum’s tree fern. It’s about ten years ago and I’m worried it has died. It’s in a container and my mum used to keep it wrapped in winter, and I now keep it moist by spraying it. There are no sign of any fronds. Is it beyond saving?

(20 minutes 10 seconds)

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Q – I noticed some froglets in my greenhouse. They haven’t moved out so when it was hot we created shade for them, and flooded the floor with water too. Should we leave them where they are, or move them outside?

(25 minutes 04 seconds)

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Q – We are wondering what has afflicted the Cox apples on our family apple tree. They look fine on the outside but appear brown and bruised inside. None of the other varieties on the same tree are affected. What is going on?

(26 minutes 20 seconds)

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Q – Earlier this year I bought two acers ‘Orange Dream’. I re-potted them into larger pots, and a few weeks later they started to lose their leaves. The branches stayed green over the hot summer, and recently I can see buds appearing. How should I treat them if they start to come into leaf at this time of year?

(31 minutes 40 seconds)

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Q – I have a cherry tree at the bottom of my garden. Last year in spring it had lots of blossom but over the summer I noticed brown markings on the leaves and oozing sticky sap. This spring it had far less blossom, and fewer leaves which started to curl and brown. What is wrong with it?

(34 minutes 52 seconds)

Ìý

Q – We have a small porch with Viburnum tinus growing at either side, and a Clematis montana which grows over the top. Whenever it rains there is a foul odour around the porch which I think is coming from one of the plants when it gets wet. Do any of these plants have a reputation for producing an odour when it gets wet?

(37 minutes 15 seconds)

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