The BEST episodes of Gardeners' World season 50
Every episode of Gardeners' World season 50, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Gardeners' World season 50!
Gardeners' World is a long-running BBC television programme about gardening that continues to this day. The first episode was filmed in 1968, presented by Ken Burras and came from Oxford Botanical Gardens. Most of the episodes of the show are 30 minutes long, though there are many specials that last longer.
#1 - Episode 16
Season 50 - Episode 16 - Aired 7/12/2017
Monty Don gives advice on how to prune summer flowering shrubs, makes plans for autumn flowers and returns to Dublin to find out how Helen Dillon is progressing in her new garden. Joe Swift shows how good design should not hinder challenging conditions when he visits a garden in Kent, Rachel de Thame explores the vital role of scent in wild flowers and the insects that visit them, and Nick Bailey prepares designs for a weekend project that will transform a front garden into a beautiful and practical space. Including Weather.
#2 - Episode 31
Season 50 - Episode 31 - Aired 10/27/2017
Frances Tophill helps a viewer whose overgrown pond needs some renovation, while Adam Frost visits a garden in Nottinghamshire where the season of winter highlights its design. The programme also celebrates the humble snowdrop and pays a visit to Eunice Mcghie who, at 83, still teaches gardening to young people in her back garden in Handsworth, Birmingham. Monty Don rounds up the series with ideas for pots that will remain colourful throughout winter and gives tips on how to protect tender banana plants and harvests pumpkins. Last in the series.
#3 - Episode 30
Season 50 - Episode 30 - Aired 10/20/2017
As the nights become colder, Monty Don advises on what plants need protection and how to nurture tender plants over the coming months. He also plants tulips and wallflowers for late spring colour. Carol Klein celebrates ornamental grasses, Adam Frost travels to Peterborough to find out about the work of a Children in Need project for disadvantaged and vulnerable youngsters, while Nick Bailey gives a guide on how to build a cold-frame for an affordable price. Plus, a visit to an enthusiast in Surrey who grows thousands of South African succulents in his back garden.
#4 - Episode 29
Season 50 - Episode 29 - Aired 10/13/2017
Monty Don adds gooseberries to his fruit garden, divides and moves herbaceous perennials and advises on the best bulbs to plant for cut flowers next year. Frances Tophill meets a couple who have devised a meticulous method of protecting tender plants over the winter, while Adam Frost gives design tips on placing and planting trees. Nick Bailey explores a myriad of colour in leaf, bark and berry when he travels to Bluebell Arboretum in Leicestershire, and Arit Anderson is in Yorkshire where she finds out about a project using innovative techniques for producing food.
#5 - Episode 28
Season 50 - Episode 28 - Aired 10/6/2017
As part of his plans for next year, Monty Don begins taking out plants that are in the wrong place and either moving or dividing others. He also gives advice on making leaf mould from fallen leaves and how to use it. Frances Tophill helps a gardener whose plants are not thriving where they are planted, while Joe Swift visits a small garden full of great design tips. Plus, Nick Bailey meets a zoologist to find out about the abundance of life contained in soil, while Adam Frost visits a community allotment in Manchester where growing food is providing solace and support to refugees.
#6 - Episode 27
Season 50 - Episode 27 - Aired 9/29/2017
Monty Don shows how to prune and train the exuberant summer growth of climbing roses and makes the most of remaining warmth by planting perennials and sowing annuals for next year. Frances Tophill visits a viewer's garden to give advice on how to prune unruly shrubs, while Nick Bailey investigates a new way of combating one of the UK's most invasive weed species. Stourhead in autumn is a horticultural highlight of the year and Alan Power offers a behind-the-scenes tour, while Arit Anderson travels to Yorkshire to find out how scientific research has uncovered the `super-powers' of plants.
#7 - Episode 26
Season 50 - Episode 26 - Aired 9/22/2017
As the Autumn Equinox arrives, along with celebrating the season's apple bounty Monty Don plans for Christmas by planting bulbs to brighten the dark winter days ahead. He also offers advice on planting garlic for next year. Carol Klein celebrates the sedum, one of the autumn season's highlights, while Adam Frost provides an update on the development of his Lincolnshire garden. The programme also visits a garden in Gloucestershire, which is a haven for moths and butterflies, while Alan Power handles the summer work at Stourhead.
#8 - Episode 25
Season 50 - Episode 25 - Aired 9/15/2017
Monty Don prunes summer-fruiting raspberries and gives his recommendations for bulbs to plant now that will thrive in pots and bring much-needed colour next year. Frances Tophill meets a Norfolk gardener who, at 97, still gardens every day, while Adam Frost takes a look at a new garden at RHS Wisley that has been planted up with tropical plants. Plus, Carol Klein helps a Buckinghamshire viewer struggling with heavy clay soil, Alan Power outlines seasonal spring highlights at Stourhead and the programme visits a tiny Essex garden packed with plants, ponds and seating areas.
#9 - Episode 24
Season 50 - Episode 24 - Aired 9/8/2017
Monty Don demonstrates how to harvest and store potatoes, and also adds late summer colour to the cottage garden and prunes shrub roses. He is also joined at Longmeadow by renowned plantswoman Helen Dillon. Carol Klein travels to Norfolk to meet a member of a horticultural dynasty, Adam Frost takes a close look at the design of an outstanding small garden in Oxford, and Frances Tophill meets a man in Scotland who is passionate about potatoes. Plus, Joe Swift and Flo Headlam pay a visit to Potterne in Wiltshire to check on the progress of the community garden. Including Weather.
#10 - Episode 23
Season 50 - Episode 23 - Aired 9/1/2017
As the plants in the jewel garden reach the peak of their late summer glory, Monty Don starts planning for the spring by planting ferns and offering advice on the care and maintenance of wildlife ponds. Carol Klein pays a second visit to Dove Cottage in West Yorkshire to see the garden at its summer peak, while Frances Tophill travels to Portsmouth to find a man whose passion for ferns has spilled out from his garden and onto his allotment. Plus, Arit Anderson finds out that even rubbish skips can be used to grow all manner of plants in an inner city space.
#11 - Episode 22
Season 50 - Episode 22 - Aired 8/25/2017
Monty Don revisits his container vegetable garden, offering advice on how to get a good crop of pumpkins. He also meets Jake Hobson, one of the UK's leading cloud pruning and topiary experts. Adam Frost looks at a newly planted garden at RHS Hyde Hall in Essex, which has been designed to display both hardy and exotic vegetables. Plus, Rachel de Thame visits a garden in Wiltshire where vibrant colours are the key to the success of its summer borders and Flo Headlam returns to Potterne to check on the progress of the new community space.
#12 - Episode 21
Season 50 - Episode 21 - Aired 8/18/2017
Monty Don plans ahead, giving advice on what to sow now to keep the crops coming up to the end of autumn. He also looks ahead to next spring, offering tips on saving money by propagating perennials. Carol Klein visits a viewer with deteriorating eyesight to help sort her confused border and give her recommendations of plants that will be a feast for her senses, Joe Swift takes a close look of the design of a contemporary country garden and Nick Bailey travels to an Essex village to meet a bunch of enthusiastic villagers involved in the revival and preservation of the historic Pemberton rose.
#13 - Episode 20
Season 50 - Episode 20 - Aired 8/11/2017
Monty Don gives advice on how to cut and maintain hedges as well as ideas on growing fruit in pots, while Adam Frost uncovers the secrets of successful planting combinations in an Oxfordshire garden. Carol Klein chooses varieties of late flowering clematis as her plant of the month, Nick Bailey travels to the southern tip of Cornwall to seek out a plant which escaped from our gardens and is now threatening rare and native plants, and Mark Lane joins the enthusiasts who have lovingly restored a walled garden in Warwick.
#14 - Episode 19
Season 50 - Episode 19 - Aired 8/4/2017
There are plans for propagating and planting at Longmeadow this week when Monty Don plants up a new bed of irises and takes pelargonium cuttings. Nick Bailey brightens up a dull and shady space at the side of a terraced house and gives advice on plants that will thrive, Carol Klein pays the first of two visits to West Yorkshire to meet a couple whose outstanding planting has resulted in a garden full of late summer interest and Joe Swift takes a close look at a sloping and shady town garden to find out how the owner has designed this difficult space. We also meet a gardener in Dorset who took on the challenge of an overgrown coastal garden to create an Italianate idyll and take an in-depth look at one of the most colourful of summer stalwarts - the pelargonium.
#15 - Episode 18
Season 50 - Episode 18 - Aired 7/28/2017
At the height of summer, it is time to ensure that fruits and vegetables are given attention to ensure maximum cropping. Monty gives advice on the summer pruning of fruit trees, as well as showing how to get the best from tomatoes and chillies. He also recommends plants which will carry on flowering into autumn.Carol Kleinmeets one of her gardening heroes, Roy Lancaster, and joins him as he reminisces on his life and explains his passion for plants. Nick Bailey is on the trail of some more alien invaders to our gardens, and we travel to Wales to meet a chef who has taken on a field in which to grow vegetables. Monty pays a visit to an extraordinary garden in Berkshire and we continue our 50 year celebrations when Rachel de Thame reflects back on how we used to garden 50 years ago.Joe Swiftand Flo Headlam begin an exciting new project to celebrate our golden anniversary when they help a community create a garden in Wiltshire.
#16 - Episode 17
Season 50 - Episode 17 - Aired 7/19/2017
Monty Don visits a floral paradise outside of Dublin and discovers how Jimi Blake fills his garden with flora for free. Elsewhere, Nicky Bailey demonstrates how to transform a bland patio into a space that looks incredible at twilight, and Mark Lane travels to Oldham to visit the newly opened Maggie's Centre.
#17 - Episode 1
Season 50 - Episode 1 - Aired 3/10/2017
Monty Don kicks off the gardening year from Longmeadow, sharing his tips for pruning, planting up pots for spring colour and sharing his plans for the coming year. At the National Trust's Packwood House in Warwickshire, the herbaceous borders come under Adam Frost's scrutiny as he finds out how they have been planted for maximum colour and impact. Over the course of this 50th series, Carol Klein will be sharing some of her heroes of gardening. She begins with plantswoman, garden designer and author Beth Chatto.
#18 - Episode 15
Season 50 - Episode 15 - Aired 6/30/2017
Rachel de Thame joins Monty Don at Longmeadow to add more medicinal planting to the herb garden - especially those that bees love. She also investigates how gardeners can aid honey bee conservation and protect the nation's favourite pollinators. Monty visits a garden in Herefordshire to see a collection of Siberian Iris, which inspires him to create a new Iris patch, adding warmth and splash of colour into his dry garden. The green-fingered experts also discover a garden containing a stunning collection of clematis Montana. Plus, Nick Bailey reveals how to plan, design and build a border fit for any garden, while in Somerset, Carol Klein visits the home of Margery Fish, the writer who exercised a strong influence on the informal style of the cottage garden, before her death in 1969.
#19 - Episode 14
Season 50 - Episode 14 - Aired 6/22/2017
Monty Don plants a tree fern in the damp garden and uses netting to protect his soft fruits from birds. Carol Klein selects hardy geraniums as her Plant of the Month, Flo Headlam visits an inspiring church garden in Lewisham that feeds both the mind and body, and Nick Bailey gets an insight into the impact of parasitoid wasps on gardens.
#20 - Episode 13
Season 50 - Episode 13 - Aired 6/16/2017
Gardeners' World celebrates its 50th anniversary with a full hour of gardening from Gardeners' World Live at the NEC. Monty kicks off the party and is joined by the whole team, who will be bringing you all the show has to offer. Joe Swift and Adam Frost take a look at the show gardens and we meet garden designer David Stevens, who has created a garden showcasing 50 years of changing trends in our back yards. Carol Klein is in the floral marquee looking at the plants which have defined the decades, whilst Rachel de Thame, Flo Headlam, Alan Power, Nick Bailey and Mark Lane explore the show features including the Gardeners' World-themed borders and other floral displays. Monty and Alan Titchmarsh meet to talk about their experiences as the nation's head gardener and Mary Berry reveals the winner of the golden jubilee plant award.
#21 - Episode 12
Season 50 - Episode 12 - Aired 6/9/2017
There is an hour of gardens and gardening tonight, not only from Longmeadow but also the brand new RHS Chatsworth Flower Show. Set against a majestic backdrop, Joe Swift, Carol Klein and Adam Frost bring an exclusive look at the show. We meet leading designer Jo Thompson as she prepares her show garden with a difference. In the Floral Pavilion, Carol finds pioneering plants that have shaped the gardens of today and garden designer Arit Anderson looks to the future - meeting the team behind a garden built for the changing climate. Back at Longmeadow, Monty provides the ubiquitous jobs for the weekend.
#22 - Episode 11
Season 50 - Episode 11 - Aired 6/2/2017
Monty gives advice on herbs which will grow happily in shade and has an unusual choice for his summer containers - bananas. Earlier this year, Monty paid a visit to Chatsworth House to find out about the history of the extensive grounds and gardens and also about the challenges of putting on its first RHS flower show. Flo Headlam visits a school where gardening is high on the curriculum and Nick Bailey shows us how we can build a pond in a weekend. We also meet the head gardener who manages a garden situated on a barge and discover how and what plants thrive in such extraordinary conditions.
#23 - Episode 10
Season 50 - Episode 10 - Aired 5/19/2017
Mark Lane is in Hackney, finding out how a car wrecker's yard at the side of a Tudor National Trust property has been transformed into an award-winning garden used by the local community. Carol Klein visits Oxford Botanic garden to view their euphorbia collection and Rachel de Thame visits a garden which has opened to the public every year for 90 years as part of the National Gardens Scheme. Including Weather.
#24 - Episode 9
Season 50 - Episode 9 - Aired 5/12/2017
There is a full hour of gardens and gardening from not only Longmeadow but also the RHS Malvern Spring Festival. Monty gets going on planting herbs in his new herb garden and gives advice on how to divide and move ornamental grasses, while Nick Bailey demonstrates a simple and easy way of making a pond. We meet the queen of herbs, Jekka McVicar, as she builds a herb garden at the Malvern Show and join Carol Klein, Joe Swift and Frances Tophill as they bring us the best from the floral marquee and show gardens. And Adam Frost explains why he has chosen a rose as his golden jubilee plant.
#25 - Episode 8
Season 50 - Episode 8 - Aired 5/5/2017
Monty gets to work in the cutting garden, plants his tomatoes and brings pots of citrus out of the greenhouse and into the garden for the summer. Carol Klein visits another of her gardening heroes, Penelope Hobhouse, and finds out about her lifetime of making grand gardens and how she has now created a low-maintenance haven for herself filled with foliage and colour in her small Somerset garden. We meet Gill Bagshawe, who has filled her plot in the Peak District with raised beds to grow as many different cut flowers as she possibly can. And Alan Power extols the virtues of the Japanese maple as his choice of plant for the golden jubilee award.