Lost Gardens

Penjerrick (1x8)

Air date: Nov 04, 2010

Lost Gardens - Presenter Monty Don, garden historian Dr Toby Musgrave and landscaper Ann-Marie Powell discover a tropical paradise near Falmouth in Cornwall. The lower garden at Penjerrick was created at a time when intrepid botanists were bringing home exotic flora from around the world. Besides the explosions of rhododendrons, there are minor forests of bamboo and rhubarb overgrown to resemble a series of Seventies parasols. Somewhere amid the kitsch chaos is an impressive line of tree ferns, long since threatened by asphyxiation. The tangled mass must be hacked aside, sensitively, in a bid to recreate the odd splendour of the original Penjerrick.