“I really do like daffodils. I grow about 150 different types of daffodil. Now we're into February, I'm really getting quite excited because the bulbs come out of the plunge in the middle of February. And it's just so lovely.
“I like rhododendrons. Apart from growing them in pots in other gardens, this is the first time I've ever been able to grow them within the garden. A lot of people don't like rhododendrons because their flowering period is short and then it's just structure but because I like structure in the garden, that suits me fine. I have learned how to choose the right rhododendron for my garden. Over in the west of Scotland, there is much greater choice because of the weather conditions there but over here in the east, and certainly where I am, I have to ensure that they're very tough and, not just tough, but flower at the right times. If the buds are there and we get cold late frosts, then I'll lose all the blooms. It is a short flowering period but gosh, the blooms, what a show, they’re amazing, and then you have that lovely evergreen structure for the rest of the year.
“For my third choice, it would have to be a vegetable, and it would be a broad bean. It's a broad bean because the ones you buy in the shop are horrible. The ones you grow yourself are so delicious. You’ve just got to eat them fresh, don't wait till they're big and old, pick them when they are young and succulent. Nothing beats the taste of growing your own produce in your own garden. I think everybody in Scotland can grow a broad bean, doesn't matter where you live.”
Catch up with the rest of Pam’s chat in the Scotland Grows Show.
“One would be radicchio, which I love. I have a project to grow different kinds of weird and wonderful Italian vegetables and there's lots of radicchio. But there's one, it's very pale, called 'Variegata di Castelfranco' and almost cream coloured with red freckles on the leaves. It's a beautiful thing and it's just delicious if you like slightly bitter sweet vegetables.
“And then my stripy tomatoes, which I keep in my greenhouse. They're from saved seeds that I got in a salad one day and I think they're Italian, but they're a blend of the kind of ‘Tigerella', artisan bumblebee types, which are stripy red and green with an out of this world taste.
“And I think finally, I would have to have something for the senses to gladden the heart, probably a rose and possibly ‘Crown Princess Margarita’ because it's a beautiful kind of cabbage-shaped rose, pale pink, with a lovely scent, which I think is crucial in a rose.”
Catch up with the rest of Fiona’s chat in the Scotland Grows Show.
“I think that, for me, they'd have to be trees because you get all the creatures that come with that. I'm lucky living in Gairloch because we've got some wonderful old, Wych elm trees (Ulmus glabra). Those used to be called Scottish elms, I think. I’d have an old one with sort of arching branches, a lovely, lovely tree.
“Another tree that I would really like to have, which is sort of particular to this part of Scotland, is a hazel tree. You get this coastal hazelwood here in Scotland where you have these huge, wizened, old hazels which create a beautiful sort of dappled light in the autumn. They can live for many, many hundreds of years, and you get the hazelnuts if you want them.
“For my last plant, there's a little floating pond plant called frogbit (Hydrocharis morsus-ranae). It can go absolutely wild and cover your pond but it has these beautiful little button-like white flowers and it's really sort of charming. I don't know why it isn't planted enough in ponds but it's a very charismatic little plant.”
Catch up with the rest of Maddie’s chat in the Scotland Grows Show.
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