HEREFORDSHIRE TV host Monty Don returns to screens tonight (Friday) with a new series of BBC Two's Gardeners' World.
Monty Don, who appears on the show from Longmeadow in Herefordshire, and the rest of the team share the best practical gardening advice, meet passionate plantspeople up and down the country, and provide inspiration with visits to some of the UK’s most remarkable gardens.
At Longmeadow, Don will embark on an exciting new project, sows perennial seeds and gives a tree planting masterclass.
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Meanwhile, Adam Frost visits a garden in Suffolk, where an imaginative selection of evergreen planting creates structure and interest all year round, and Frances Tophill celebrates a national collection of cyclamen in a garden on the edge of Dartmoor.
At Exbury Gardens in Hampshire, we meet the head gardener who shares his love of camellias, and we visit an extraordinary garden in Kent inspired by the famous borders at Great Dixter.
Viewers will also share what they have been getting up to in their gardens when the show airs at 8pm on BBC Two.
In January, Don said shows like his Adriatic Gardens series could be at risk because the cost of a TV licence was frozen for two years.
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The 66-year-old broadcaster, who presents BBC Two's Gardener's World from Longmeadow near Leominster, returned to screens in January with the series filmed in Europe.
The three-part series Monty Don's Adriatic Gardens followed Don down the coast, the sea separating the Italian peninsula from the Balkans.
But with the cost of TV licences, which help fund the BBC, frozen at £159 for two years, he said series such as his could be at risk.
He said: “Although there is a debate to be had over the extent and duration of the licence fee, the government freeze will save payers the grand sum of 15 pence per week over the coming year."
"However it will mean that programmes like Adriatic Gardens will be much less likely to be made."
The BBC’s director-general warned that adopting a subscription-based alternative to the licence fee risked creating a “commercial agenda” which would mean a substantial change to the corporation’s output.
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