Of ballet, Trekkies, Old Masters, Morph, Freddie, a boa and a TV legend departs

RIP, choreographer Sir Richard Alston - his boys always could get their legs up higher, and wider, than anyone else!

It's another snippets post, dear reader:

• To boldly go news: Happy birthday, Star Trek - which celebrated its 60th anniversary yesterday, with a series of events worldwide. Remarkably, our very own "super-fan" on Blogger Mr DeVice didn't even emerge from the wilderness in which he's been languishing since August to celebrate it!

• I still reckon that's Murray Melvin! news: In a groundbreaking new exhibition at the National Gallery, all nine portraits by the Northern Renaissance master Jan Van Eyck will be on display together for the very first time, including his famous "Arnolfini portrait" (above [click to embiggen]). Van Eyck: The Portraits runs at the National Gallery from 21st November 2026 to 11th April 2027.
• Your very own Gromit news: Action figures and original models of some of the world's favourite stop-motion on-screen characters from the creative geniuses at Aardman Animations, such as "Morph", "Wallace and Gromit" and "Sean the Sheep", will be going under the hammer in an online auction to mark the studio's 50th anniversary, ending on 24 September 2026. Get your bid in quick for "Feathers McGraw"..!
• Ready, Freddie! news: Eight of Freddie Mercury’s most memorable stage costumes are going on display at the V&A this autumn to mark his 80th anniversary year, including the “Mercury Wing” catsuit he wore in the Bohemian Rhapsody video, and the crown and cloak he wore on tour with Queen in the 80s. The Freddie Mercury: Splendid Things trail will include displays across the whole museum, and opens on 24th October 2026.
• Hissing Sid Siegfried? news: There was an major audition held at the New York Metropolitan Opera last weekend - for the role of a snake! A boa constrictor named Princess won. Not John Hamm...

And the weather? Erratic. Yesterday, it lashed it down all day, then brightened up early evening. Today, it's been lovely (on and off) again - but much cooler than it was on the weekend.

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• And finally: We here at Dolores Delargo Towers are distraught at the announcement that Monty Don is leaving Gardeners World at the end of the current series - after being at the helm [with a hiatus for ill-health] since 2003!

  No matter who takes over when he retires, things will never be the same again...

Monty Don reveals the five plants ANYONE can propagate

So soothing. So brilliant. So irreplaceable.

Of venerable gardeners, giant rodents, knickers, jelly blobs and funky jumpsuits - and mayhem!

Phlox paniculata "Blue Boy" is the most magnificently-scented bloom in the gardens at the moment - even outdoing our Nicotiana sylvestris..!

It's another snippets post, dear reader:

• National treasure news: The much-revered Geoff Hamilton, host of BBC Gardener's World for seventeen years through the late 70s, the 80s and early 90s, died 30 years ago this week (and would have been 90 years old next weekend). Needless to say, the show he presented for so long had a rather good tribute to him by current co-presenter and Chelsea-winning garden designer Adam Frost - himself once Geoff's apprentice - and we also watched another special programme Monty Don Remembers... Geoff Hamilton just the other day. Here's the man himself in action:

Geoff Hamilton & Ann Swithinbank's gardening tips (1980s)

• Order, order! news: A Brazilian legislative assembly was rudely interrupted - by a group of capybaras! Beats bloody "Just Stop Oil" protesters throwing orange powder, I suppose...
• Naughty knickers, shock! horror! news: Middle England has been clutching its pearls in shock at the news that the high street's most reliable, middle-of-the road store Marks & Spencer has started selling crotchless panties from a range by sex shop Ann Summers! Whatever next - poppers on sale in the "ready-meal" aisle?
• Don't eat the jelly! news: Thousands of bright electric blue sea creatures, thought to be "sea rafts" - related to the Portuguese Man'o'War but not as deadly - have been blown off-course from their usual tropical warm sea habitat, and washed up on a beach in Cumbria in northern England!
• And finally: RIP, David Z. Who? I hear you ask. Not only was he the principal studio engineer whose work transformed the early recording career of Prince (and was credited for creating the sound that launched the Purple One to mega-success), not only did he produce the magnificent She Drives Me Crazy for Fine Young Cannibals (which broke the band in the US, hitting #1 over there)... he was also one of the geniuses behind THIS!

Lipps, Inc. - Funkytown

And the weather? Still dry, not as hot as it has been - but so incredibly blustery I came home to find a whole branch of the bastard weed tree had snapped off and landed on top of the plants at the top of the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers! Not much damage done, thank goodness, and The Madam's chopped it up and thrown it over next-door where it belongs [they're actually away, thank gawd, so we have some peace]!

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FOOTNOTE:

Mayhem, Lesson 1 to 6 - incriminating evidence from Hils' 60th birthday party!

In case you were wondering what we were all staggering about dancing to - it's this!

DelaDap - Georgian Lesson 1-6

It truly wouldn't be one of our parties without it...

The star

RIP, Nigel. The true star of Gardener's World.

The gardening goddess

"Any death of a loved one is sad. But Beth Chatto lived to a great age and enriched the lives of so many of us with her writing, teaching and incomparable garden - so let's celebrate a life supremely well lived." - Monty Don

Britain has a long history of celebrated gardens and gardeners - from Romanesque villas to monastic cloisters, through Tudor knot gardens to William Kent's vistas, "Capability" Brown's landscapes, Humphrey Repton's Romanticism, and Joseph Paxton's formal designs in the industrial Victorian era.

In the 20th century, Gertrude Jekyll was one of the most influential gardeners - embedding all the quintessential elements of what we now think of as the "British Cottage Garden", such as herbaceous borders based on colour schemes, climbers on trellises, and garden "rooms" as an extension of the house. These ideas were taken to extremes by Vita Sackville-West at Sissinghurst, whose single-colour garden rooms became the height of fashion; but in the mixed borders favoured by Christopher Lloyd, planted beds went a step further still, with a kaleidoscope of sub-tropical plants and colours.

However it was Beth Chatto who put it all back together in some semblance of "order". Hers was the philosophy of "the right plant for the right place" - not merely creating gardens based upon the colour of flowers, their exoticism, their height or their contrasting shapes and habits, but on their preferred habitat; be that not only in her fabled "dry gardens", but also in waterlogged gardens, shady gardens, managing to find plants that thrive in clay, scree and gravel. In that, she was a pioneer - and, indeed was the last of the "gardening greats"; her influence and her expertise were universally admired by the perhaps more famous gardeners of more recent years, whose skills are demonstrated nowadays via a medium she herself largely eschewed, television.

With no horticultural experience herself, but with the guidance of her plantsman husband Andrew, she carved a unique niche in gardening lore - her books became international best-sellers, she was in great demand for lecturing tours, and her greatest legacy, The Beth Chatto Gardens near Colchester [which is on our list to visit sometime this year, with "the Essex Boys" Baby Steve and Alex who live quite near] receives thousands of visitors every year. And no wonder...







She's a sad loss. But I have found a (somewhat appropriate) song:

Flanders and Swann - Misalliance

RIP Beth Chatto OBE (27th June 1923 – 13th May 2018)

The sad death of Gardeners' World

We just tried to watch the latest programme in the new series of BBC's Gardeners' World, and ended up having to switch off in exasperation. I have for many decades been an admirer of the calm, collected, and above all intelligent programming that this series has provided, found solace in its no-nonsense advice, and luxuriated in the sheer joy of the love of plants.

For some reason - probably not unconnected to the mass panic that ensues in broadcasters such as the BBC (who have got rid of anyone who might be experienced or indeed anyone older than Britney Spears) when anything that is beyond the grasp of an ill-educated sink estate pleb, whose entire understanding of the world extends to Jeremy Kyle and Heat magazine, is broadcast - the current producers appear to want to make the show's format into "game show" meets children's' TV banality.

I began to read the equally frustrated comments by regular viewers of the programme on the BBC Gardens blog, and felt the need to post a comment. Here it is.

Elijay wrote: "Perhaps the 'Old Fogeys' are out of their comfort zone and would like to turn back the clock to that so called 'Golden Age' when everything was perfect."

I do not consider that my desire for a programme that does not insult my intelligence makes me an "old fogey". I do not believe that change for change sake is a good mantra, and I cannot see why this ridiculous parody of a programme should continue to be broadcast under the "Gardeners' World" banner at all.

Let's customise an ice cream van and give out carrot seeds! Lets make a hanging basket against the clock! Bring in more kids! Schools! Vox-pops!

Why not call this mess "Garden Invaders"? (no - that's been done on cable), or maybe "Rhythm and Blooms"? (no that's been done also), or how about "Sod's Law"? (no - already taken).

I would go off and watch repeats of the REAL Gardeners' World on UKTV Gardens, but in the dire depths of cable-land this channel is now axed and will be merged with all those awful "makeover" programmes to form a conglomerate channel ethereally called "Home".

I despair.

Men with dirty fingers

Just watched the 40th Anniversary of Gardeners' World on BBC replay. What a fabulous programme, one I have watched avidly for many years...

It is quite amazing what a huge impact the show has had over the years - one of the earliest colour broadcasts on the BBC, a regular audience of millions every week for four decades, and a constant supply of no-nonsense horticultural advice that has fed the nation's obsession with gardening and even dictated a number of trends, such as the move towards organic gardening.


Monty Don

And (surprisingly) Gardener's World provides another fascination - a regular supply of rugged totty! Now I am sure that no-one would possibly have moistened their pants over the likes of Percy Thrower or Peter Seabrook, but among the more recent crop of presenters there have been a few who have provided a bit of a tingle for many. The late great Geoff Hamilton had his fans, as have Alan Titchmarsh, Joe Swift, Andy Sturgeon - and I have to admit that Monty Don has masses of sex appeal, in a big-handed earthy sort of way.



But my all-time favourite is the gorgeous Chris Beardshaw. With his cheeky-chappy smile and his well-filled tight jeans, he could take me behind the potting sheds, whip out his dibber and show me the art of propagation any day!

And I'm not alone...

Happy 40th birthday Gardeners' World - long may this comforting, visually beautiful half hour of relaxation on a Friday evening continue!