Dark Corners, Bright Ideas

Gardening with the RHS

Royal Horticultural Society

Home & Garden, Leisure, Hobbies

4.4 • 654 Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

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Summary

We start this week with a journey back in time, exploring some of the oldest and most resilient plants on the planet: ferns. Gardener, botanist and author Ben Dark has been uncovering some surprising stories about these living fossils as part of his sweeping journey – 2.5 billion years deep – into the fascinating history of plants. Ferns thrive in damp, shady garden corners — but they’re not the only ones. Horticulturist Alessandra Sana faced this exact challenge when she took on the north-facing wall of RHS Wisley’s walled garden. She shares her go-to plants and creative inspiration for transforming those tricky, low-light spots into lush, green sanctuaries. And finally, we cross the Atlantic to hear from John Sonnier, Head Gardener at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. His pioneering sustainable gardening practices have just earned him the prestigious Elizabeth Medal of Honour from the RHS. Host: Guy Barter Contributors: Ben Dark, Alessandra Sana, John Sonnier Links: The Grove: A Nature Odyssey in 19 ½ Front Gardens Shade planting: annuals, bulbs and perennials What can I grow in a dry shady spot? Sustainable planting combinations: shade collection RHS People Awards

Transcript

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0:00.0	Get your tickets for the greatest show in Earth at an RHS garden near you.
0:06.4	Where nature puts on an unforgettable performance of colour and fragrance to delight your senses.
0:13.2	Inspire your gardening adventures and entertain your own little stars.
0:17.4	Race you, let's go.
0:19.5	Catch Springs finest scenes while you can at an RHS garden near you.
0:24.0	Book tickets online for discounts, plus under fives go free and under 16s of five pounds.
0:30.5	As a head gardener up in the children's, one of my strongest memories of spring was always the equally exciting and nerve-wracking time
0:42.3	when we would unwrap the tree ferns and see if they had made it free the winter.
0:47.3	It was always daunting when we would take the wrapping of string and fleece and stuffed straw out.
1:01.0	More patient gardeners would probably have faith in their method, but I couldn't do that.
1:07.0	I couldn't just let them come out and I constantly found myself probing down through the crown.
1:13.6	If anyone's grown tree ferns, they'll know that they have this strange protective russet fur all around the crown.
1:20.6	It's a bit like the stuff you find on the back of a tarantula almost.
1:24.6	I'd wiggle my little finger through it and try and find these hard knuckles or fern below.
1:31.3	And then you find the knuckles and you think, but is that a living one or is the one that
1:35.3	throws off in the middle of the winter?
1:37.3	And then the temptation comes to get your fingernail and scratch through the back of this Crozier that's going to unfurl.
1:43.3	And then you've damaged the fern and it comes out anyway with a great big scar on the back of this Crozier that's going to unfurl and then you've damaged the fern
1:44.3	and it comes out anyway with a great big scar on the back.
1:49.2	Every year most of the ferns would come through but one or two wouldn't make it for whatever
1:56.1	reason and that's always stayed with me whenever I see a fern. I think, oh dear, oh dear, is this one that I'm going to lose?
2:04.6	Is this one that's going to die on me?
	...

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