Speaker 1: All right, it's time to put on our wellies and
Speaker 1: our rain jackets and step into the garden, delighted to
Speaker 1: welcome back Cheris Fillon of Cherish Plants, talking all things
Speaker 1: gardening and whatnot. But before we, oh, I should just say,
Speaker 1: any gardening questions, give us a call or drop us
Speaker 1: a WhatsApp two one four four six O five six
Speaker 1: seven O seven two five six seven one five six
Speaker 1: seven On the WhatsApp, Charis Hello, it's it's hotter than
Speaker 1: a I don't know what in here, and I'm so
Speaker 1: sorry for that. It's like you've walked into a greenhouse
Speaker 1: in Dubai summer.
Speaker 2: I can.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad you've got some water with you. We're
Speaker 1: if we if we're looking a bit flaky and a
Speaker 1: bit it's because we're absolutely sweating in our whatnots. So
Speaker 1: there we are, gosh, very very warm. Before we get
Speaker 1: to some questions from our listeners, there is a workshop
Speaker 1: that you want to tell our listeners about that you're
Speaker 1: doing in partnership with Elderflower.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Older Flower Nursery. They're based in Deep River. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so they're really central and they have two divine studios
Speaker 2: that they do their workshops in and the prize at
Speaker 2: The best question to usk today about gardening can win
Speaker 2: is to attend the workshop I'm running with Elderflower, which
Speaker 2: is about fain boss propagation and it's just wonderful. It's
Speaker 2: all hardwood, very much more difficult than just routing say
Speaker 2: a plectranthus or a paagonium, because these are fain boss
Speaker 2: plants and they can be a bit tricky. So I
Speaker 2: share all my best practices and my hints and tips.
Speaker 2: But Elderflower has a range of fabulous workshops. They really do.
Speaker 1: I live in that neck of the woods. Why do
Speaker 1: I not know where?
Speaker 2: So they've got a new studio off the main road
Speaker 2: and they're also based at Courtyard fifty three that's right
Speaker 2: by my house. Exactly, you should.
Speaker 1: Go and say hello, gosh, okay, I love, I love
Speaker 1: a little things open up that you didn't know about
Speaker 1: and okay that's good news.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So it's to be it to win it, you just
Speaker 1: need to send us in a gardening question today and
Speaker 1: the best question will earn themselves a spot in that
Speaker 1: in that workshop. The most interesting question when is it?
Speaker 1: By the way, when is the workshop?
Speaker 2: It's in two weeks time. Okay, I think I run
Speaker 2: so many workshops. I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: Don't worry, just make sure. Let we'll find it. You're
Speaker 1: also this is super exciting. You're also planning on taking
Speaker 1: a group to see the winning South African stand from
Speaker 1: the Chelsea Flower Show in Stanford in September.
Speaker 2: Tell about that, well, I won a trip to the
Speaker 2: Chelsea Flower Show this year. It was incredible. I threw
Speaker 2: my hat into a competition and I won a fully
Speaker 2: paid trip to see the Chelsea Flowers Show. And I
Speaker 2: traveled through the UK and Wales, and I'm full of
Speaker 2: goosebumps in my hot studio just talking about it. But
Speaker 2: before I'd even gone, I had already planned to do
Speaker 2: a tour with a partner of mine, Alison, and we're
Speaker 2: going to take a whole bunch of people. We've got
Speaker 2: a fifty spaces on a bus, so we're going to
Speaker 2: take a day's tour on the Saturday to go visit
Speaker 2: a garden in Elgin, Elgin Railway station, stay over in
Speaker 2: the Hohok Hotel, where I will now give a talk
Speaker 2: about the rest of my travels through the UK. You know,
Speaker 2: Wales is such a fabulously hidden secret in the UK
Speaker 2: just wonderful and I saw great gardens there and then
Speaker 2: the next day we will arrive for the Chelsea Flower
Speaker 2: show Stand being rebuilt in Stanford as part of their
Speaker 2: Spring celebration. The whole village gets into it. Last year
Speaker 2: I just ended up looking at scarecrows after i'd seen
Speaker 2: the stand, because every little stall or shop had built
Speaker 2: their own or designed their own scarecrow. And this year
Speaker 2: they've had more time to plan, so they're offering so
Speaker 2: much added value workshops and events in Stanford. If you
Speaker 2: went last year, don't think you've seen it all. They've
Speaker 2: up their game. Come with me, let's go see it again.
Speaker 2: The tours two eight hundred and eighty ran per person
Speaker 2: sharing and you can what's up me or Allison on
Speaker 2: eight three four, one, four, five, seven two nine and yeah,
Speaker 2: just contact us on Instagram as well if you want
Speaker 2: to come along and we'll give you more details.
Speaker 1: How long were you in the UK?
Speaker 2: Now? I was there for three and a half weeks.
Speaker 2: I stayed as long as possible. The win of the
Speaker 2: trip was for three days and two nights, right right,
Speaker 2: But I couldn't leave Once I was there. They were
Speaker 2: in the full flash of spring and it was glorious,
Speaker 2: absolutely glorious, and Chelsea was fabulous as always. Yeah, such
Speaker 2: a treat, such a privilege to be able.
Speaker 1: To go, How wonderful?
Speaker 2: Ohs great?
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, So if you would like to join
Speaker 1: Cherise on that on that trip up to Stanford overnight
Speaker 1: in the hotel, she is going to be talking about
Speaker 1: all sorts of fascinating things and then you get to
Speaker 1: go and see that award winning South African stand from
Speaker 1: the very recent Chelsea Flower Show, then do get involved.
Speaker 1: Don't If you didn't have a pen to write down
Speaker 1: the number, don't worry. Just send us a what's up
Speaker 1: in and Max will give you give you the details.
Speaker 1: Don't forget that. If you would like to win a
Speaker 1: spot in Shuiz's workshop that's coming up in a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks with Elderflower, which is based in the southern
Speaker 1: suburbs and deep with a plumsteed area, all you need
Speaker 1: to do is just send us in a gardening question
Speaker 1: and the best question as judged by well probably not scene.
Speaker 1: Well we'll secure that spot. You can give me a
Speaker 1: call and O two one four four six five six seven.
Speaker 1: You can drop me a WhatsApp to seven two five
Speaker 1: six seven one one. Oh, so it's the heat in here.
Speaker 1: It's making me go do lally seven two five six
Speaker 1: seven one five six seven or three one five six
Speaker 1: seven on the s MS. All right, Louis asking, please
Speaker 1: tell me how to fix the root invasion of my
Speaker 1: neighbour's Brazilian pepper. It's destroying my drains and everything else
Speaker 1: in its path. Don't even get me started on things
Speaker 1: in drains, Louis, Louie.
Speaker 2: That is a digging, digging, digging, digging job. And once
Speaker 2: you've dug down, you alm my need to line it
Speaker 2: with black plastic, thick, high density, you know, impenetrable black plastic,
Speaker 2: because the roots will also force its way through any
Speaker 2: bitom cloth or any thinner plastic and almost create a
Speaker 2: barrier on your borderline, on your neighbour's line of that tree,
Speaker 2: because the roots will just keep coming. Ideally, they are
Speaker 2: invasive species. Maybe you could go have a chat to
Speaker 2: your neighbor about removing the tree. But quite often they
Speaker 2: make these really gnarly beautiful compact shade trees that people
Speaker 2: get quite fond of if they've had them in the
Speaker 2: garden for a while. So I'm not sure he or
Speaker 2: she will be willing to part with them. Else you
Speaker 2: dig down and you make a physical barrier to about
Speaker 2: a meter down, and then you refall the soil and
Speaker 2: your hope for the base.
Speaker 1: Well, how would I identify Brazilian pepper? I'm so sorry.
Speaker 2: Both the leaves and the little red seeds smell like pepper.
Speaker 2: It's quite amazing.
Speaker 1: I think I've got one of these in my garden, and.
Speaker 2: They send babies up everywhere. In all your pots and
Speaker 2: garden beds, you'll have little baby.
Speaker 1: I have got that, And I'm also dealing with the roots.
Speaker 2: Yeah, in drains, in plants, they'll grow up into other plants.
Speaker 1: Pushing the vibra cree of my wall, which is an
Speaker 1: awful wall. I inherited the wall when I bought the house,
Speaker 1: but it's it's and it's creating havoc on the viber cree.
Speaker 2: And if you just chop them down, they come back
Speaker 2: from that stuff. They will recreate an entirely new tree,
Speaker 2: a new canopy from a cut down shrub. In fact,
Speaker 2: I've had branches that I've removed growing. They have no
Speaker 2: root or anything, but they'll sprout little leaves and branches.
Speaker 1: Little shop of horrors. That sounds absolutely awful. Sorry, louis
Speaker 1: tough times for you and me. Somebody else saying that
Speaker 1: our neighbor has an oak tree that spits sticky liquid
Speaker 1: all over and the black fungus is all over my plants.
Speaker 1: She won't do anything to the tree. I've been throwing
Speaker 1: insecticide granules around the base. Is that helping or what
Speaker 1: else do you think I could do to a the
Speaker 1: black fungus and the sticky stuff dripping, says Heather.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's a whole procedure. The first thing to look
Speaker 2: for is ants around the base of the tree. Try
Speaker 2: to control the ants because the ants are climbing up
Speaker 2: to milk the aphids, and the aphids on the tree
Speaker 2: are sucking this sap. They release a honeydew that both
Speaker 2: ants and that black sticky mold absolutely adore eating, and
Speaker 2: the mold likes to grow on it. And then that
Speaker 2: mold slowly drips down with the sticky honeydew. It's really awful.
Speaker 2: I have it under most of my oak trees. And
Speaker 2: that particular black mold is actually relatively new as far
Speaker 2: as fungi are concerning caped own, which means it would
Speaker 2: have been around for the last eight to twelve years,
Speaker 2: and we're all struggling with it. Thank goodness. The oaks
Speaker 2: shed their leaves and so you can scoop them all
Speaker 2: up and kind of dispose of them, get rid of
Speaker 2: them with all that gonky fungus on it and the
Speaker 2: rest of the plants insecticide won't really help. What you
Speaker 2: need to do is get some soapy water. Not to soapy,
Speaker 2: I just mean a little bit of sunlight liquid, a
Speaker 2: little bit of vinegar. I can give the recipe which
Speaker 2: is two hundred and fifty miles of vinegar and three
Speaker 2: drops of sunlight liquid in a liter of water, and
Speaker 2: you use that mixture to wipe your leaves clean wherever
Speaker 2: you can, and for the rest hopefully the rain will
Speaker 2: wash it off. And they are professionals that can come
Speaker 2: along and treat the trees that are struggling, because they
Speaker 2: really can't beat these aphids and the fingers off. So
Speaker 2: it's really Awful's trap parking your car underneathing? Oh no
Speaker 2: roots in the drain. Maybe it's compared comparable.
Speaker 1: I think Denise and Gordon's Bay. Hello Dunning says my
Speaker 1: clavier flowered in October twenty twenty four. When will the
Speaker 1: seeds ripen? They're still very green and firm.
Speaker 2: That is, how long is a piece of string question
Speaker 2: that clavier sort of decides. Sometimes it can take over
Speaker 2: a year on the plant to and sometimes they can
Speaker 2: be ready in sort of eight months. But it's not
Speaker 2: a strange thing for a clavier to decide that it's
Speaker 2: going to wait to finish ripening its seed, and you
Speaker 2: have to wait until they are beautifully red or beautifully
Speaker 2: yellow if you're lucky enough to have a yellow clavier
Speaker 2: or a bright bright orange before they're ready. So if
Speaker 2: they're green, the plant is just having a think, maybe
Speaker 2: it's busy doing other things. And then when it's really
Speaker 2: to it or finished ripening in its seed, and there's
Speaker 2: just no rushing nature.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we last week on the show, we we zoned
Speaker 1: in on Clavier's Claviers Clavier.
Speaker 2: Clvier, Clivier clavier as long as you can spell it write.
Speaker 1: Probably probably not. And I was saying, how I had
Speaker 1: when I bought my house, I had an ENTI I
Speaker 1: had beds of Clavier's in my house, and I promptly
Speaker 1: pulled them all up. But no, no, no, no, for for
Speaker 1: reason and replanted because the beds weren't weren't great, and
Speaker 1: I wanted to kind of put grass down. I've got kids,
Speaker 1: and they have a lawn. I move them, move them
Speaker 1: all to the front of the house. They're still very
Speaker 1: much there, but I need to start paying more attention
Speaker 1: to them and what their moods are. I want to
Speaker 1: know what they do because I sort of because and
Speaker 1: this is, you know, no offense to the calvie, but
Speaker 1: they they don't for a long time. They don't do
Speaker 1: an awful lot.
Speaker 2: They don't. They have no mood. They're very neutral, very
Speaker 2: very neutral.
Speaker 1: And so I pass them every day when I come
Speaker 1: in and out of my house, and then one day
Speaker 1: I come out and there they are in bloom fantastically.
Speaker 1: But I think maybe this year I need to make
Speaker 1: note of right, and this is when they're doing their thing,
Speaker 1: and this is how I'm.
Speaker 2: Going to make it a study. Yes, absolutely, And it's
Speaker 2: time at that time before they push their seed and
Speaker 2: they're busy forming their flower birds to give them a
Speaker 2: little bit of food, a little bit of composts. But
Speaker 2: otherwise you can ignore them while they're ignoring you, Okay,
Speaker 2: that's all right, But when they're in action, when they're
Speaker 2: ready to go, you better be ready. Your bags, bags
Speaker 2: better be packed. Sure, you've got to be you know,
Speaker 2: jumping in.
Speaker 1: At the start of a toxic relationship. When I ignore you,
Speaker 1: you ignore them? Right? Help for Oh, here we go, Cheryl.
Speaker 1: Is it important to seal the ends of your roses
Speaker 1: after you've pruned them?
Speaker 2: That is a really fabulous question, And no it isn't.
Speaker 2: You know, we went through that phase where it was better,
Speaker 2: better than margarine, And this is the same thing. We
Speaker 2: went through an entire phase where if you made a
Speaker 2: cut on a large shrub tree or anything that was
Speaker 2: pretty what we would call juicy, has a lot of sap,
Speaker 2: it might be a good idea to paint some sealant on.
Speaker 2: And then more studies were done, more time was spent
Speaker 2: having used that method, and then we went right the
Speaker 2: way back to saying no, rather just leave it open
Speaker 2: for the plant to heal itself. It's much better. But
Speaker 2: the trek is to make a slanted cut so the
Speaker 2: water runs off. Don't make these flat topped horizontal cuts.
Speaker 2: The water will sit on and can penetrate and cause rot.
Speaker 2: So a slight angle, preferably away from the buds you're
Speaker 2: directing in the opposite direction to the bud you've just
Speaker 2: cut above, and it'll run off, and it's far better
Speaker 2: to let the rose just seal itself, but always cut
Speaker 2: at an angle.
Speaker 1: Here you go, shall I hope that helps help for
Speaker 1: a rosary plant. Mine is looking very woody and not
Speaker 1: as nice for use in the kitchen as it used
Speaker 1: to be.
Speaker 2: Dear, Oh, well, they get old like us. Plants do
Speaker 2: have a lifespan, and at that time it's best to
Speaker 2: compost them and you can start again. And rosemary, you
Speaker 2: can actually start really nicely from cuttings if you were
Speaker 2: particularly fond of that plant and it's soul and what
Speaker 2: it did for you. If you take some cuttings, you
Speaker 2: actually have a genetic identically identically no, no, no identify,
Speaker 2: thank you. See it's gotten cooler in the yeah, genetically
Speaker 2: identical plant, and you can kind of keep that one.
Speaker 2: Otherwise it's time to put it in the compost and
Speaker 2: start afresh with a new baby. They just have a life.
Speaker 2: That's fine. It happens.
Speaker 1: There we go. Dion says, I've got a Eureka lemon
Speaker 1: from a garden center, transplanted from a pot when it
Speaker 1: was young. It had a few lemons in the pot,
Speaker 1: been in the ground for about eight to ten years,
Speaker 1: but not a single flower or lemon. The tree is
Speaker 1: now over a meter and a half in height and
Speaker 1: reached over our wall getting sun. I have fed it
Speaker 1: over the years. My wife wants to remove it and replant,
Speaker 1: but I'm holding on and want to save it. I've
Speaker 1: got stories about taking up lemon trees, and one story
Speaker 1: ends well and the other does not. Well, you have
Speaker 1: to share now, well, I inherited two lemon trees, which
Speaker 1: we uprooted them both and replanted in our old house.
Speaker 1: One of them did not appreciate that at all, and
Speaker 1: despite all of our praying and love and things never
Speaker 1: you know, didn't go well. The other one is still
Speaker 1: very much there at our old house, but I knew
Speaker 1: it wouldn't survive. Another to the new house, which is
Speaker 1: not new. We've been in it for two years and
Speaker 1: say there it was, but it did not. It was
Speaker 1: tough times, and it just gave us the one lemon,
Speaker 1: and there we are. It was sad times.
Speaker 2: Well, Dion, I think that you have a couple of options. One,
Speaker 2: listen to your wife. Two really put your stack in
Speaker 2: a pot. Three leave it there for a little bit.
Speaker 2: But if you're leaving it there, you need to cut
Speaker 2: lop that top off. You need to follow all the
Speaker 2: the wise old wives tales of hammering a rusty nail
Speaker 2: into its bar.
Speaker 1: No, not really.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you're gonna have to feed it with epsom
Speaker 2: salts every single month. You have to make sure it's
Speaker 2: being watered consistently. It's not too much or too little.
Speaker 2: That doesn't it doesn't mind, but it minds consistency. It
Speaker 2: doesn't like to drown and then drought immediately afterwards. And
Speaker 2: then try and find a very high nitrogen And so
Speaker 2: the middle number be low, but the first number, which
Speaker 2: is nigrogen, little number I'm not so fussed about. And
Speaker 2: the last number needs to be high, so like an
Speaker 2: eight one five or a twelve six twenty. Try find
Speaker 2: a fertilizer like that. You'll find little tubs of them
Speaker 2: in the nurseries, and then push that on the lemon tree.
Speaker 2: And if all of that doesn't work, I'm going right
Speaker 2: back to listen to your wife.
Speaker 1: Lemon trees are are they quite difficult? Are they quite deverish?
Speaker 2: Because I've yeah, yeah, the old varieties are like you
Speaker 2: can't kill them yea, and they bear no matter what.
Speaker 2: But the newer varieties, as thin as skinned and as
Speaker 2: delicious and as juicy as they are, can really be
Speaker 2: drama queens. If we want to get back into moods
Speaker 2: of plants. They will just sometimes not do what they're
Speaker 2: supposed to do. Despite every effort of the gardener to
Speaker 2: make them behave and bear some fruit and be happy,
Speaker 2: they just won't.
Speaker 1: Why is it that so this this lemon tree that
Speaker 1: we dug up and then buried in our I have
Speaker 1: to say, not terribly nice soil in Hamstein did just
Speaker 1: the one lemon, just the one lemon? That was it?
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 1: What was it a protest?
Speaker 2: That's what I want to say yes to. Yes it
Speaker 2: was a protest. But quite often it is lacking of
Speaker 2: nutrients in the soil. It's not getting the same kind
Speaker 2: of richness from it. They do prefer a rich soil.
Speaker 2: They can tolerate. I mean they come from the Mediterranean.
Speaker 2: They can tolerate drought, but they're often do it in
Speaker 2: quite heavy, rocky, clay based soils, the high mineral content
Speaker 2: that cold water, so they're not fond of sandy poor soils.
Speaker 2: It's often when they do better in a pot, and
Speaker 2: they've just gotten a little weaker the higher they've been bridged,
Speaker 2: similar to some roses.
Speaker 1: Actually, have you got thirty seconds for this?
Speaker 2: Eshji and your guest.
Speaker 1: I have a money tree, the plant that is so sad, skinny,
Speaker 1: and remaining leaves are turning yellow. What can I do?
Speaker 2: Get out of the water, change its soil, whatever's happening.
Speaker 2: If it does that, it's in the soil. So repot it.
Speaker 2: Put it in some fresh, light rich soil, and do
Speaker 2: not overwater it. Give it a complete change, and watch
Speaker 2: out that it's not getting too much light or too
Speaker 2: little light.
Speaker 1: Chrees, You're an absolute star, Thank you very much. Indeed,
Speaker 1: I've enjoyed this enormously