The scent of Monty lingers
The scent of Monty lingers in the garden - his Sweet Peas are in flower and they truly smell divine. In fact the formal garden has never been so packed with presenters - Alan Titchmarsh in one corner, Percy Thrower in another and Monty's brand new edition in the third. Alys has even managed to grow Geoff Hamilton's lovely mauve Sweet Pea in the fourth - despite the fact we had been warned it's become unstable. Personally I had never heard of an unstable sweet pea before until grower Roger Parsons' explained it meant the flower keeps reverting in colour to one of its parent plants - in Geoff's case pink. In truth there are various different shades of Geoff in our formal garden - but we don't care - we still love him.
However, when it comes to scent, Monty certainly has the wow factor. We've been desperately trying to trace viewers who have been growing him along with us - but with no luck. We've found someone growing Percy and Alan - but all those Monty Sweet Pea growers where are you? We want to know how you got on so do let us know if you can!
In the meantime I'm already bemoaning the end of the summer series. Where did the time go? Suddenly this week we're filming our last programme at Berryfields before the summer break. This year we even extended filming into August and yet still the last programme seems to have come too soon. So what of our final halcyon filming days? Well Carol's had her hair cut; our sound man Simon's covered in rather nasty insect bites after a day's shoot on a peat bog; the director Sharon is singing Kenny Rogers greatest hits whenever there is a pause for a camera battery change and we're all marvelling at the Long Borders in all their glory. They do look amazing at the moment with the rudbeckia about to burst into flower and the tithonia glowing firework orange at the hot end. The rain's held off this week and we've all been enjoying jugs of rhubarb and ginger cordial as we film - we're very civilised in the gardening unit.
So our last visit to Berryfields before September will be on your screens on August 15th but some exciting special programmes will follow hot on its heels. Rachel de Thame is exploring the future of the Cottage Garden on August 22nd and Sarah Raven is creating her own rivers of wildflowers in a campaign to save our threatened native flora on August 29th. So ignore the weather and whatever's happening in Beijing - make a date with Gardeners' World.
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