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00:00It's several hours since the last members of the public left
00:04and the gates were locked.
00:06But tension is in the air.
00:09Find the right key.
00:11A lone figure is opening up Kew's newest glasshouse,
00:15the Princess of Wales Conservatory.
00:17Phil Griffiths is Kew's head of glasshouse displays
00:21and he's a man of his word.
00:23He's a man of his word.
00:25He's a man of his word.
00:27He's Kew's head of glasshouse displays
00:30and he's a man with a mission.
00:32It's time we find out what kind of cockroach problem we have as well.
00:38Mike does come in and blitz them now and again.
00:41I come in and try things like lizards every now and again from Heathrow.
00:44We'll get a confiscation of lizards or something that we release in here.
00:48I hate them.
00:50I really find them horrible.
00:52This sort of can sense when you're about to stomp on them.
00:56I think I'll probably get this one.
00:58No. Missed it.
01:00Oh, look at that. A fricking giant bullfrog.
01:03He's in here to control the cockroaches.
01:05Tonight, Phil's real mission is to check whether the world's biggest flower,
01:09the Titanarum, is about to bloom.
01:12There it is. God, it's grown some, hasn't it?
01:15It's something that happens only once every seven years.
01:18It's kind of spooky in this light, isn't it?
01:22I'd be amazed if it weren't. It's not going to open today.
01:25Not today, but very soon.
01:44It's May, and Q is gearing up towards Go Wild,
01:49a big event celebrating Britain's wide range of flora and fauna.
01:53But the weather isn't helping.
01:58A major attraction will be the human-sized badger set.
02:02But time's running out to get it finished,
02:04and the rain slows everything down.
02:10The responsibility for getting it ready on time
02:13rests on the shoulders of Simon Cole.
02:17Looking around the badger set, there's still quite a lot of work to do.
02:20There's still a lot of details to finish.
02:22My goodness, we've just got to get it done for next Thursday.
02:27We've had months and months of preparation leading up to it.
02:32The weather's been great.
02:34If the heavens open this weekend,
02:36I'm basically just going to get on the first easy jet flight out of the country.
02:43Try and find me then, at a beach in Malaga.
02:48It's not only the badger set that Simon has to worry about.
02:52His brother, Tim, is falling behind with a very different structure
02:56for another part of the Go Wild festival, the field hospital.
03:03But Simon remains determinedly optimistic.
03:06That field hospital now is definitely coming together.
03:10The tin roof's on, just cladding the sides,
03:12and Tim's used to working under pressure.
03:16I reckon it should get up pretty quickly now.
03:20I was concerned, but only not for myself really,
03:23but more concerned from the inquiries I was getting
03:26from all the rest of the people around the garden, you know.
03:29The field hospital is designed to look at the medicinal uses
03:32of British plants through the ages.
03:35It's the brainchild of amateur botanist and designer Judith Palmer.
03:43Judith and Tim have to produce something that will please
03:46not only the public, but also the festival sponsors.
03:50There's a lot hinging on this project.
03:52It's a particularly important one for the Go Wild festival
03:56because the pharmaceutical links with one of the main sponsors for the festival,
04:01so it's got to be up and running by the deadline.
04:06In the Princess of Wales Conservatory,
04:09the new star turn gets her picture taken.
04:12OK, back to the office.
04:14And like any major celebrity, the titan has her own publicity machine,
04:18and even a page on the website, updated daily by James Morley.
04:23We can see there's a huge demand for it because in the space of a few days
04:27we doubled our monthly normal rate of views.
04:31Here we go. Let's just get that to the right size.
04:36And there it is, on the website for today.
04:38People can see what it's looking like.
04:40Laura Hastings is an ethnobotanist
04:43working on what some people might call weeds.
04:46She's hoping the field hospital will help her research
04:49by collecting visitors' memories of traditional British plant remedies.
04:53Hi, Laura.
04:56It's more finished than the last time I saw it.
04:59It was beautifully sunny a minute ago.
05:02Come and sit on the veranda.
05:04You can see what we've got then.
05:06Shall I just lay it out on the veranda here?
05:09To just be wary of this hole.
05:11It doesn't go down as deep as it does.
05:14These are the remembered remedy cards,
05:17and what they are is for visitors to the hut to fill out
05:21so they can give us any of the remedies they used to have in their families
05:25and then we pass them all over to you for the archive.
05:28Right, because that's the main point of the project,
05:30is to collect these remembered remedies
05:32and to show that Britain actually has a medicinal plant heritage
05:35because you think of the Amazon and you think of India.
05:38Or the way people want to run off to see a Chinese herbalist
05:40because the Chinese herbs must be so much better than British herbs.
05:43But we forget, and if you ask people if they know of a remedy to give to us,
05:47they'll often say no.
05:49But what about duck leaves?
05:51Everybody in Britain knows about duck leaves
05:53and some people seem to spit on them and some people do it different ways.
05:56But that's partly why we're doing this project.
05:58It's never been systematically recorded before
06:00or preserved for the next generation
06:03and we're going to put it all up on the internet
06:05so that everybody can see what is our British heritage using plant remedies.
06:13Tim's living on borrowed time.
06:15With the structure still unfinished,
06:17Judith is expecting her first living exhibits to arrive in the post any day.
06:22But it's like any project, the nearer you get to the deadline,
06:27the more you've got to make up.
06:31Early the following morning,
06:33there's a growing threat to the listed Victorian structure of the palm house.
06:38Keeper Emma Fox has come to open up.
06:41We've got a number of plants in the palm house
06:43but their mature height is actually higher than the palm house's height.
06:46We've actually had a bamboo stem go through the glass before.
06:49There's incredible pressure in all plants really.
06:52If you think about things like dandelions growing in tarmac,
06:55the amount of force they've got, they can just push their way through.
06:58So that's what's happened on a couple of occasions.
07:01Things like the bamboo, it grows so quickly.
07:04I mean you can pretty much watch the thing grow in a day
07:06and so we're actually going to prune it.
07:08So we're going to take the growing point out of it.
07:12At a humid 24 degrees Celsius,
07:15this is the ideal climate for an exotic collection.
07:18It's a much less ideal climate for the tree gang.
07:22For John Hammerton, this job is hot and difficult.
07:26I can't climb the trees in here because of the weaknesses of them.
07:29I have to climb off the structure.
07:31So I'm going to go out and check the structure out.
07:34It's not their favourite job, so Emma provides an inducement.
07:39Between you and me, they're called the tea gang.
07:43So part of the condition of getting them in to do any work
07:46is that they get a cup of tea after.
07:48It's time for Q's action man to earn his tea.
07:52So basically I'm going to throw my rope over one of these first poles,
07:57check out that the structure is safe enough for me to climb on,
08:01and then I'm going to throw another rope over the far structure
08:05and try and climb up the middle of the bamboo, if I can.
08:09So you might have to give me a few chances at this.
08:40Yes!
08:42The last time we'd done this job, I said to Andy,
08:45I'd throw that over there, he went,
08:47you've got more chance of winning the lottery.
08:49And it went over first time.
08:51Didn't it?
08:55While Tim continues working on the outside,
08:58inside the field hospital, Judith's little village
09:01is being taken care of.
09:03While Tim continues working on the outside,
09:06inside the field hospital, Judith's little visitors have arrived.
09:12So, the leeches.
09:17OK.
09:19I'm not convinced I've ever seen a British medicinal leech before.
09:23I have seen tropical ones that, in fact, are smaller than British leeches
09:28and a lot less scary.
09:30Now, I ordered four.
09:32Oh, look at this sucker.
09:34Can you see this sucker?
09:36The field hospital is about the medicinal properties of UK native species.
09:40Now, principally, that's plants,
09:42but I also wanted to do some non-plant things.
09:46I think a lot of people don't realise for a start
09:48that the medicinal leech is a British creature
09:50and incredibly rare in Britain.
09:52They've been used for millennia, reducing swelling,
09:55anything which is taking infection out of the system,
09:59but they have a really important role in contemporary medicine
10:02because leech saliva contains an anticoagulant.
10:05And say you've had a nasty accident and you've lost all your fingers.
10:09When they do that microsurgery and they reattach the digits,
10:12it helps the blood keep flowing, so it kind of keeps the capillaries free
10:16because once you've been bitten by one of these buggers,
10:19you just carry on bleeding and bleeding.
10:22It's one small step for a man.
10:30Oh!
10:34Now I know what a panda bear feels like.
10:39I'm going fishing tomorrow with a bigger rod than this bamboo.
10:45The stem up here is about two inch round.
10:50I've never climbed up something that's that small before.
10:53It's a horrible plant to work with because it's covered in tiny little hairs
10:57which get in all your clothing, get all in your skin and everything
11:01and then you itch the rest of the day, so it's not a pleasant job.
11:06I hate this dust, I tell you.
11:09It's the most horriblest feeling.
11:14Yay!
11:16I bet you can guess how much I want to do this.
11:19OK, boys, you're going in.
11:22OK, that is a tail end. That's a tail end.
11:27Mmm, they're very, very sticky.
11:30Oh, and that one's moving very quickly.
11:33I don't want to do this.
11:40Ooh-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
11:43That's not very nice, is it?
11:45Normally I'm up trees with loads of branches below me,
11:48but when you're in here, it's just a pure drop.
11:51And it's a bit frightening when you haven't got nothing to do.
11:56Everyone out of the way!
11:58Dangling from a bar 20 metres above the ground,
12:02John has to cut the giant bamboo section by section
12:06and lower it slowly to the ground without damaging himself
12:10or precious plants beneath.
12:13It's a prickly business.
12:17Actually, I might ask them to section it a little bit
12:20so that visitors that are going up the spiral staircase
12:23can see the different chambers and the structure,
12:26internal structure of the bamboo.
12:28But I'll ask them that in a few minutes.
12:31With your nicest smile?
12:33Yeah, doing the girly thing.
12:35She's always... It doesn't always work.
12:38So the trick is to cut the bamboo in half,
12:41and then cut the other half in half.
12:44Doesn't always work.
12:46Is the tree going receptive to the girly thing?
12:49More receptive to tea, actually.
12:51You knew I'd ring again, didn't you?
12:54Because, of course, he's gripping the side of his plastic tub
12:58really firmly.
13:00I don't know whether to yank.
13:02OK. All right. Thanks, then. Bye.
13:07The instructions are to be firm.
13:11Naughty leech.
13:13You are a bugger, aren't you?
13:16All the others are sitting there quietly, and you...
13:23You are going...
13:29Yes, you are. Yes, you are.
13:32You are going in your new home.
13:34You're going to like it. You're going to like it lots.
13:38We have leech!
13:40Ah!
13:43One down, six to go.
13:48Oh, my legs are starting to stop.
13:51Imagine if she did fall from there, though.
13:54It's just nothing to grab on to, is there?
14:01This is John's home.
14:04This is John's hottest, hardest and most uncomfortable job,
14:09but with the listed building out of danger, his work is done,
14:13so long as Emma's happy.
14:15John?
14:17All right?
14:18It's now the right time to ask for a favour.
14:21You're pushing it, Gil.
14:23I know.
14:24What do you want?
14:26You know how on the ground we've got the sections of the stem
14:29where we do a... Oh, yeah?
14:31Do you reckon you could do something... What, down there?
14:34..about here, so that people coming up the spiral staircase
14:37could see that as well? Aye, of course.
14:39Do you mind? Yes.
14:44Tea. That's what did it.
14:47He's the liveliest, actually. I think the others are going to be easier.
14:51He's in there. You want to be in there too, don't you?
14:54Yeah, look how nice it is.
14:56There we go. Look.
14:58Oh, my God, you saw that, didn't you, and you didn't tell me!
15:02I've just cut it in half because Emma likes to use it for education
15:06so that people can see what is actually inside them.
15:09Obviously, as you can see, there's not a lot.
15:12So being up on a two-inch piece is a bit daunting.
15:17Concentrates the mind. Very much so, very much so.
15:21But that's it. We're done.
15:24Cheers, guys.
15:37I'll have a cup of tea, yeah, I'd love one.
15:43Let's get out of here.
15:45Oh, I got him, I got him, I got him, I got him, I got him, I got him.
15:48Leech.
15:53Complete.
15:55And now all I need to do is wash my hands and have a cup of tea.
16:05I'm going to have a cup of tea.
16:07I'm going to have a cup of tea.
16:09I'm going to have a cup of tea.
16:11I'm going to have a cup of tea.
16:17John's work isn't done.
16:19Tony Kirkham, head of the Arboricultural Unit, has a challenge for him.
16:24I need a favour. I have to work some overtime.
16:28No, I don't want to do overtime.
16:30No, well, you'll like this one.
16:32The garden, the Mary Reynolds garden,
16:36Michael Meacher's going to open it and we need to do something.
16:39So rather than just put a plant in or something,
16:41we want to put a fish in there, linking it to UK biodiversity.
16:45I need a fish court.
16:47The Defra Garden.
16:49Kew doesn't rely entirely on gate receipts to pay for its gardens.
16:53It also receives a hefty grant from Defra,
16:56the government department responsible for rural affairs,
16:59and the new garden will mark this support.
17:02Designed by Mary Reynolds to fit in with the go-wild theme of biodiversity,
17:07the garden's a modern celebration of the wildflowers of the British countryside.
17:11It's to be opened by the Minister, so nothing must go wrong.
17:15Everything's ready. All they need is a fish.
17:19I hope the Minister appreciates me coming out in weather like this.
17:23John's son, Jonathan, here to teach Dad how it's done.
17:38Dad! He's got one.
17:40Well... Dad!
17:42I've been shown up once again by my son.
17:44He's better at football than me and now he's better than fishing.
17:49It's so smooth standing around all night.
17:52But I hope it's not too big, cos we don't want one too big
17:55for the Minister to put in, because if it's too big,
17:58he won't be able to put it into the little pond what we've got,
18:02so he'll have to keep trying if it's too big.
18:05I think he's a bit big for the Minister to put into the lake, though, Jonathan.
18:10Shall I go and take him down there?
18:12Yeah, go and take him round to the fence and go and put him back.
18:16And I lost one as well!
18:18Just go and put him back slowly, mate.
18:21He's quite big, isn't he, Dad?
18:23Yeah, he's very big, Jonathan.
18:25How big would you say?
18:27Dad?
18:29How big, Dad?
18:31About 17.
18:3317?
18:34Yeah, watch all these lights.
18:36What, biggest?
18:40Quick, mate.
18:41Did you have any bites over there, Dad?
18:43No, mate.
18:46You want me to take him?
18:48All right.
18:49Oh, he's lovely.
18:53I can't believe that!
18:55Well done.
18:56He's a bit big, though, Jonathan, so we need a little one.
19:01It's a nice fish, isn't it, Dad?
19:03Very nice, Jonathan.
19:06Too nice, in fact.
19:10We need to get catching, don't we?
19:12Well...
19:15..we won't be here all night, if that's what you're thinking.
19:18How long, Vinnie?
19:19Don't know, mate.
19:25Come on.
19:26An hour passes.
19:28It's raining now.
19:30They might be catching a cold, but no fish.
19:36The weather is not doing us any favours, is it?
19:39No.
19:41Not at all.
19:44We'll be soaked.
19:47Dad, do you reckon they'll ask us to come back to try again?
19:50I don't know, mate.
19:52The pubs are open now.
19:54Night's falling, but no fish.
19:58No fish.
20:07Go on, Dad, now!
20:09Yay!
20:16Give me a bite, don't make that.
20:18Come on!
20:22Yes!
20:25Nice work.
20:28Ha-ha.
20:30Well done, Brad.
20:35Let's have a look and see what this one...
20:38It's nice. It's got a belly on him, though.
20:41Yeah.
20:43We'll put him in there and we'll get them to look at it tomorrow...
20:48..to see if they want it.
20:59In the Princess of Wales Conservatory, a star is born.
21:05It smells like rotting flesh.
21:08It really does.
21:11It's taken seven years from seed to a flowering-sized plant like this,
21:16so it's a special occasion.
21:18With just a few hours' opportunity,
21:20Phil and John Sitch are going to try to fertilise the titan
21:24using pollen from Kew's cold store.
21:27There's not as much confidence this is taking as John falling in it.
21:32Don't wish that on me.
21:34It's super stinky up here.
21:37All I'm going to do is put some of this on the brush.
21:40What's in my hand is an old sable brush
21:42that when the pollen comes off that, it's quite sticky.
21:45So all we did was cut the brush off and drop it in the thing,
21:48so all I'm going to do is get John to wipe that over
21:51hopefully the female receptive bits.
21:55If he drops it in, it'll probably be enough as well.
22:02Yeah, that's sticking quite well.
22:04They do seem to be sticking OK,
22:06so there is some chance that we might have some success.
22:10The pong of the Titanarum has never been analysed successfully.
22:15Kew's expert in foul smells, Dr Geoffrey Kite, is keen to crack it.
22:20Well, I'm going to try and capture this rather horrible diffuse odour
22:25using these odour traps.
22:27When the first one flowered some years back,
22:29people used to say, well, what is the odour?
22:31So I tried to do it then, and I've had four attempts there
22:34and been unsuccessful,
22:36weren't vaguely successful in the first one,
22:39but this one's smelling the strongest I've had so far.
22:44When I worked in the old nursery complex,
22:48there was a rat that had dropped down into a heating duct,
22:51and it had been down there for like a week or two,
22:54and that's what it smells like to me,
22:56a decaying rat on a heating pipe.
22:59Very unpleasant.
23:03I'd like to stay there now until the morning.
23:08Peter Bennett, the man from DEFRA, has come to inspect the fish.
23:12Just to make sure this is one slippery customer,
23:15the minister can handle.
23:17You need it there for ten o'clock?
23:19We need it there, I don't know, about a quarter of an hour.
23:24Right.
23:25So is he all right for you, then?
23:27Yeah, I think so.
23:28So it's ten o'clock's launch time.
23:30Yeah, well, but we need it all in.
23:32Don't worry, don't worry, it will be there.
23:34It will be there.
23:35Is Michael Meeks going to actually physically let him go?
23:38Yes.
23:39Dave, is there any chance of me getting the forklift
23:42to move the yellow box with the carp in to the DEFRA garden, please?
23:47Dr Jeff has retrieved the odour traps
23:50and back in the quiet calm of Kew's Jodrell Laboratory,
23:53he's hoping for a breakthrough.
23:55There's a faint smell there,
23:57so hopefully we might have something trapped.
24:00Every previous attempt has been unsuccessful.
24:03If the odour's been trapped this time,
24:05it will be analysed by his smell-sensitive machinery.
24:12Right, so here we go.
24:14Traces appearing.
24:16This is the first one where we've actually predicted it's going to open
24:19because it normally catches us by surprise.
24:21It's normally sitting there tight shut in the evening.
24:23You come back next morning and it's done its stuff.
24:26But this one, the first one which actually gave an indication
24:29it was going to open during the night,
24:31so we could be there at the right time.
24:33So I'm hopeful this is going to work this time.
24:37Could be interesting.
24:40It's attractive to fruit flies.
24:44Aha, that's a sulphur-containing acid.
24:46That particular compound is well known to attract carrion flies and beetles.
24:51It could be a very simple odour,
24:53just a combination of those two sulphur compounds.
24:55You go home happy tonight. I go home happy tonight. It works.
24:58One happy man.
25:00And hopefully Michael Meacher, the minister, will be another
25:03because his very own fish is arriving in the nick of time.
25:10Garden designer Mary Reynolds is getting edgy.
25:13And we're not leaving this poor fish in here, are we?
25:15We're not.
25:18This could be salmon.
25:20Oh no.
25:21This is going to be one lively fish.
25:25Enter the minister.
25:27Is he a fisherman?
25:28Michael Meacher? Probably salmon.
25:30No, he might be right.
25:31Not carp.
25:32Mind you, salmon would have a gillie, wouldn't it?
25:34So there wouldn't be much holding this fish, probably.
25:36Yeah, he'd be all right.
25:38It's all about getting wet, isn't it?
25:41It'll take more than a very large unruly fish to ruffle his feathers.
25:46He's a big fish.
25:48Oh, is he?
25:49We've got an expert fisherman over there.
25:51We'll just show you how to do it.
25:53He's got a net.
25:55He's quite aggressive, this fish.
25:57Is he?
25:58Yeah.
25:59It's not a shark?
26:00No, it's a carp.
26:01Oh, carp. Well, carp's a big fish.
26:03But you'll be fine, I'm sure.
26:05You think so?
26:06I don't know. I think he might get really mucky.
26:08I think we may need someone to give him a hand.
26:12You're going to give me a hand at handling a fish?
26:14If it's possible to obviously stage-manage this to some degree...
26:18No, no, it's got to be totally natural.
26:20We can't do any stage-managing.
26:22No.
26:23Where's this fish?
26:25You'll only get one attempt.
26:28What you need to do is just dip the net in front of him
26:32and then you might just have to ease it.
26:34Right, I can find out again.
26:36Are we ready to do this?
26:38Because you've only got one attempt.
26:40There we are, there he is.
26:42Maybe you can hold it before you actually put it in.
26:44Yes, there he is.
26:45Can you see?
26:46Yeah.
26:47OK, I'm going to try and release it.
26:52He's gone.
26:53Is he?
26:54Yes.
26:55There he goes.
26:57He liked it too much in the net.
26:59He did?
27:00Yeah.
27:01I don't know where he's gone.
27:03You'll never catch him.
27:04Did you put him in your...
27:06Well, I did really.
27:08In his head?
27:09Yeah.
27:10But he's gone.
27:12I hope he likes it there.
27:14Yeah.
27:15My lords, ladies and gentlemen,
27:17I'd like to extend a very warm welcome...
27:19The Go Wild festival is launched by Kew's director,
27:22Professor Peter Crane.
27:27The field hospital was more or less completed
27:30in time for the launch,
27:32and across the summer, almost 1,000 people
27:34wrote down traditional herbal remedies
27:36from every corner of the UK.
27:45The badger set was finished with seconds to spare.
27:48It was a huge hit with children,
27:51and more than a few adults too.
27:53Wild grasses are still finding their way onto the outside,
27:56and it's gradually becoming a part of the landscape.
27:59The badger set is due to stand for 20 years.
28:03After seven years of waiting,
28:05the Titan Arum flowered for just 24 hours.
28:08It's next expected to put in an appearance sometime in 2010.
28:12It smells revolting.
28:14But this year, for one whole day,
28:17without a shadow of a doubt,
28:19the mighty Titan...
28:21It's pretty strong.
28:22...was the star of the show.
28:25Next time...
28:2612,000 plants, and just a week to put them in.
28:30Kew's biggest planting of the year gets underway.
28:34John comes down from the heights and goes back to school.
28:39And lots of lots.
28:41Preparations begin for the world's most prestigious horticultural auction.
28:47Want to know more about Kew?
28:49Then log on to the BBC website.