Two Dales

Gardeners' Question Time

BBC

Leisure, Home & Garden

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Which seeds would you take to a desert island? How can I improve my success planting bulbs? Which easy-to-grow plants have you managed to kill?

Peter Gibbs and a panel of gardening experts are in Two Dales to share their top horticultural advice. Joining Peter are garden designer Bunny Guinness, RHS curator Marcus Chilton-Jones, and alpine specialist Bethan Collerton.

Later in the programme, Marcus stops to chat to Steve Porter, Head of Gardens and Landscape at Chatsworth House about the history of camellias and how best to grow them.

Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod Producer: Matt Smith

A Somethin' Else Production for BBC Radio 4

Plant List:

Q — 2 minutes, 45 seconds Which easy-to-grow plant have you managed to kill?

Marcus Chilton-Jones Swiss cheese plant Mother in law’s tongue

Bethan Collerton— Gorse

Bunny Guinness— Bacchia Pelagonium

Q — 4 minutes, 41 seconds I've got a prickly pear cactus and the outer surface layer appears to be getting eaten in patches. Why?

QM I want to re-plant a board backed by a 6ft wooden fence. What would the panel recommend?

Bethan Collerton— Evergreen ferns Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’ Brunnera macrophylla ’Silver heart’

Bunny Guinness— Lavender Yew Allium ‘Globe master’ Hydrangea seemannii

Marcus Chilton-Jones — Physocarpus Camellia Lobelia cotinus Hydrangea seemannii

Q 15 minutes, 30 seconds Cornus kousa ‘green sleeves’ Cornus kousa ‘milky way’

Bunny Guinness — Cornus mas ‘Cornelian cherry’

Q -- 25 minutes, 37 seconds Could the team advise how to improve my success rate of my bull planting?

Q -- 30 minutes, 30 seconds How should I prune a Victoria plum tree?

QF 37 mins 25 Which two packets of seeds would you take to a desert island?

Bethan Collerton— Courgette Rice

Bunny Guinness— Edamame Fig

Marcus Chilton-Jones — Tomatoes Sunflower

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:07.3	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron.
0:10.5	Evil genius.
0:11.6	He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it.
0:15.5	That's like hiding at your own funeral.
0:17.1	Yeah, a bit great gig.
0:18.6	I'm Russell Kane.
0:19.6	Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius.
0:24.2	Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius.
0:26.4	It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?
0:29.4	It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's
0:33.5	out of ice cream.
0:34.9	Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds.
0:39.9	Hello and welcome to this week's GQT with me, Peter Gibbs. Today we're in Two Dales, a picturesque Derbyshire village in classic
0:46.9	Peak District landscape, steep valleys, clear streams and stone cottages that look as though
0:52.8	they've grown straight out of the landscape.
0:55.9	Two-Dales still carries the stamp of the Victorian era when industry and philanthropy reshaped the area.
1:03.2	Sir Joseph Whitworth, the great engineer, left a lasting legacy in local parks and institutions that
1:09.7	remain central to village life. But this is no museum piece.
1:14.7	Two-Dales is a living, breathing community. Walk its streets and you'll find people proud to
1:20.0	keep the place thriving. That spirit shines through in the Dalydale Horticultural Society
1:25.7	just nearby. A friendly club where knowledge is shared as freely as seeds.
	...

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