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

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Q – I’d like my cypress tree to be pencil thin like they are in Tuscany.Ìý Mine’s a bit lumpy looking.Ìý So how do I achieve that?

(1 minutes 58 seconds)Ìý

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Q – Can Magnolia grandiflora survive in an exposed often windy, position?ÌýÌý We have a shallow garden, chalky base and very, very solid clay soil?

(5 minutes 09 seconds)Ìý

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Matt –

MagnoliaÌýliliiflora

Magnolia stellata

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Juliet –

Magnolia grandiflora

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Q - I have a small wildlife pond in my garden which is about two and a half years old.Ìý It had lots of oxygenating plants growing through the summer - should I have taken any out in the autumn, and if so what proportion?

(7 minutes 35 seconds)Ìý

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Q – I have a variety of salvias – Hot Lips, Jezebel and So Cool Blue.Ìý To get the best display, should I cut them back in the autumn / winter for more vigorous growth in the spring and summer?

(10 minutes 35 seconds)Ìý

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Matt –

Salvia 'Amistad'

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Q - What native exotic species have you seen in the wild, anything spectacular?

(20 minutes 12 seconds)Ìý

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Pippa –

Jade Vine

Poinsettia

Jacob’s Coat

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Juliet –

Liverwort

Honeysuckle

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Peter -

Hardy Native orchids

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Q – Can the panel recommend a small, ever-green shrub about a metre by a metre that will survive on my chalky soil.

(23 minutes 11 seconds)Ìý

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Matt -

Lavendars

Bay

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Pippa -

EuonymusÌý

Sages

Tricolor sage

Hebes

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Juliet –

Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Golf Ball' (PBR)

PittosporumÌýtenuifoliumÌý'Silver Ball' (v)

CistusÌý×Ìýpurpureus

CistusÌý'Decumbens'

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Q – I have a question about my husband’s two beloved banana trees.Ìý We went away for a week in December and left them unprotected. When we got back they were very badly injured by the cold and the frost.Ìý Are they gone forever, or should we leave them alone and hope for the best?Ìý They’re both in a large wooden container outside.

(25 minutes 54 seconds)Ìý

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Q – What is the best time to prune overgrown olive trees?ÌýÌý They’re about ten – fifteen feet tall, ten years old, spindly and the leaves have dropped off.Ìý

(28 minutes 29 seconds)Ìý

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Q Email from Douglas O’Shea

For 30 years I’ve admired the plane trees that line Kennington Road in London.Ìý I’ve noticed little silver placques nailed to the trees on the west side, each bearing the name of astronauts who’ve walked on, or orbited, the moon.Ìý Well, having heard GQT’s recent feature about Moon Trees – plane, grown from seed that had orbited the moon – I wondered if these trees might have been related.Ìý I mentioned it to a neighbour who said they were planted by the British Interplanetary Society based in Vauxhall – but they are too tall – at least 80 feet – to be only fifty years old.

(31 minutes 48 seconds)Ìý

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Q – I try to garden with consideration for the eco-system, so I don’t cut anything down over the winter but on the very odd day that it’s sunny I’m desperate to get out there and start chopping things down.Ìý So what does the panel do to scratch that itch?

(34 minutes 04 seconds)Ìý

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Q What can I put in flower pots to keep cats out?Ìý I have a small garden and grow vegetables in pots – I find it quite irritating when I find cat pooh in my pots – it puts me off eating my produce.

(37 minutes 38 seconds)Ìý

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