From The Archives: Summer Colour

Gardeners' Question Time

BBC

Leisure, Home & Garden

4.5 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 1 May 2026

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kathy Clugston guides us through the GQT archives to hear how our panellists and experts, old and new, advise on delivering dazzling displays of summer colour.

Along the way, the gardeners explore how thoughtful structural planting underpins great colour all season long, explain why deadheading matters, and reveal the origins of the Chelsea chop.

They also advise on watering in hot weather, compost mixes for long-lasting displays, and the surprising relationships between insects and plants. So if you're anti-Ant, hear how Dr Chris Thorogood gives some positive PR to these charming creatures often mislabelled as 'pests'.

Producer: Rahnee Prescod Assistant Producer: William Norton

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:05.6	Your time starts now.
0:07.2	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast.
0:09.4	Absolutely right.
0:11.5	So, you might like to know that the BBC makes loads of other podcasts.
0:15.6	Really?
0:16.4	Wow.
0:17.2	Many of them are very funny.
0:19.1	Which I think means...
0:20.3	A hatful of ha-hars. And energy. Even if you do say so ourselves. I agree 100% to that. Find them all on BBC Sounds. Just tell us a joke. Come on, tell us a joke. Tell us a joke. Come on, tell us a joke. Just search comedy on BBC Sounds. I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:41.9	Hello and welcome to Gardner's Question Time with me, Cathy Clugston.
0:46.2	This week we're bringing you an archive special filled with glorious bursts of summer colour.
0:52.2	We'll be digging into nearly eight decades of horticultural know-how
0:55.6	gathered from GQT panellists past and present. Summer officially arrives next month and many of us
1:02.9	will be enjoying the fruits of our labour. It's also the season when the to-do list grows almost
1:08.4	as fast as the plants themselves. From deadheading to watering to weeding, all these topics and many more will be covered in today's programme.
1:18.1	Let's begin in 2016 when audience member Min in Staffordshire requested a list of plants to liven up her garden in time for a royal birthday.
1:28.1	Good afternoon, Min Keating, I'm a former horticulture student here at Hadlow,
1:32.9	but I'm also a garden guide for the National Trust at Itemote.
1:37.1	My question is, for my own garden, it'll be open on June the 10th for the Queen's 90th birthday.
1:48.0	What can I plant for a good show at that time? Well, this is where the Queen's coming.
1:52.0	Right, something to provide a show for the Queen.
	...

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