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BBC Gardeners World Live at the NEC. It's been an incredible show so far, and as always, one of the really important and interesting areas is hot off the potting bench for the Peter Seabrook Award for new plants. This is where the breeders bring all of their new plants and try to get some public feedback as to whether they might be popular in the future. Neil Gao, as always, you're overseeing this area. It's a phenomenal display this year. It is. We have a lot of fun with it every year. But this year we've moved out of the floral marquee outside under this star tent for the first time, and we've been lucky with the weather. Bit windy the first couple of days, but now that the sun's out, it's absolutely wonderful, and the plants are loving it out here because the light levels are so much better. A Hydrangea Groundbreaker. Yes, um Hydrangea Groundbreaker was actually launched here at Hot Off the Potting Bench, I think probably two years ago, but it was only a creamy white flowered one now, and we've now got this new variety ruby. But you can see the colour in the in the uh in the flowers now starts creamy white, it turns a sort of a rosy pink colour, gets a bit deeper, and then as all hydrangers do, as the flower goes over, it becomes a sort of a dusky, um beigey sort of colour, and will hold that flower right the way through until about October time. Really good value plant, but the the really interesting thing about it the the breaker bit of the groundbreaker, I suppose, really, is it's a spreading hydranger, it's a ground cover hydranger. I think it should actually be called a low ranger rather than a hydranger because it won't get more than two and a half feet, three feet tall, about a metre tall, something like that, but we'll get about the same spread. Well, because normally hydrangeas go up down there. Yes, they do, and this one goes along. Yeah, yeah, fantastic, absolute cork of that one. I've I've got one of the original groundbreakers in the garden at home, which has been in there about three years now, and it's getting on for about full size, and it really is quite stunning. But I wish Ruby had been about when I got mine because that that colouring just adds a little bit to it. It's fabulous. The the sort of creamy white that then goes to this lovely ruby is is you get two for the price of one almost, don't you? I think you get three for the price of one with that one, and as a Scotsman, that's even even better value. Moving on, this is fascinating. This is uh a uh cat mint, but actually it's masquerading as an orchid. Well, there you go, two for the price of one in this one, then isn't it? Cat mint, I think probably most of most of us know cat mint. Um usually uh a blue or purpley flower, uh usually a greeny, purpley, uh purpley sort of grey sort of leaf, which is what this one's got, but then these beautiful spikes of what appear to be pink flowers. But when you look at them very, very closely, each little floret is a tiny little miniature orchid-like flower with beautiful dark red spotting, almost burgundy spotting on the uh on on the throat of the flower. And it's absolute stunner, and it's been creating a lot of attention here. And you said earlier on about the the winner, yes, we have a panel of expert judges who come along on the on the Wednesday before the show opens and they judge. But what really matters is the visitor vote when they're here, because at the end of the day, we can breed the best new plant we think there is, but if it doesn't catch the the gardeners' attention and make them want to go to the garden centre and buy it, is it the best new plant? Napita has been attracting a lot of attention. It's I think it has, and I think it's fascinating because the closer you get to it, the more orchid-like it gets, doesn't it? Yep, that is oh wow, I look forward to having another look at that. I might find some room for that in my garden as well. We're just walking past some amazing uh displays here. Candy apple, we've got a new hosta here as well, very popular. One there, uh Red Ninja um with the with the red leaf in it, and that's very unusual as a hosta. Usually hostas you want to grow in shade or semi-shade. Red ninja needs sunshine. Really? Yeah, okay. Yeah, wow. And is it as uh attractive to slugs as a normal hosta is? I'm told it's actually even more attractive. I think I think slugs have been reading in the media about um antioxidants and things that you get in in red fruit and red leaves and things, and I think you know they're I think slugs are on a health kick. Because beer traps uh are good for hosta, aren't they? Which is uh which is good. I think it's a dreadful waste of beer myself. No, there you go. So, what have we got here? This is the Fox Glove or Digitalis Arctic Fox, uh, and this is a new variety, lemon and cream. I think it's absolutely stunning. It is beautiful. Uh I think this is probably I'm very fond of that, Napita. I'm very fond of the um of the hydrangea that we've talked about, but I think this is probably one of the most stunning plants that we've got here, in my opinion, and what do I know? But the contrast in in colour between the uh between the flower and the leaf, very often on digitalis, on foxgloves, the leaves are a bit of an insipid, greeny, palish, mottly green, quite often spotted, uh, and so on in the leaves. Um the the just dark, glossy green, clean-looking foliage on it, um, and then the contrast with the with the flower. And these, I don't think we've got any at the moment. They perhaps they've got stage fright. These have been an absolute magnet to the bees right the way through the show. Um seeing a lot of um foxgloves, a lot of salvia around in the in the borders this year. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're they're they're both very popular flowers because they're both nectar-rich flowers, so the the bees love them. There's actually hoverflies around these at the moment, which are just as important for pollination as as bees are. And there's another foxglove over over there, um, the rhubarb and custard with the pinky flower uh on it, and and that's that's a great one too, with the grey leaf to it. It's incredibly pretty, both very good examples. We're just going to walk past towards what has been uh voted as the winner. But there's just one thing I want to mention here, Peter uh Peter, Dahlia venti fireburst, uh red petals and a bright yellow flower. That is it just strikes me as being the sort of thing that divides opinion. It is definitely am I allowed to say marmite on this? It's definitely the marmite plant that's here. I think of uh fried eggs and tobata sauce when I look at that one. It's painting a good picture, but yes, the egg yolkie yellow uh center to it with the red petal, it is really, really unusual. I have never seen anything like it. Personally, it's not lighting my fire, but a lot of people have been really interested in that. I'm gonna go on the other side of the fence to you on that one. I really quite like it. It's making a statement. Yes, it is, and isn't that the wonderful thing about gardening and about plants? Absolutely. What I like, you don't, what you like, I don't. Indeed. And neither of us are wrong, no. We're both still friends, which is good. So the Peter Seabrook Best New Plant Award for 2026, by voted for by the public, has gone to what? This has gone to the Antorhinum Shuri Kiss. Um, and yes, at first glance this in the Antorhinum, doesn't look a lot different to many other Antorhinums. This has been introduced by Kernock Plants, it was a nursery down in uh in uh Cornwall, uh, but it's been bred in Britain uh by a chap who's been working on it for 15 years. And what is different about this is it's hardy. It's the first and only hardy uh Anterhinum Snapdragon. Yeah, you'll perhaps remember as a as a little boy. I bet you used to play with the flowers and make them pop out and snap, didn't you? Yeah, you probably still do actually. I'm admitting nothing. Um but it forms a shrubby sort of network of framework of branches and things, and is we're told, uh, truly hardy. It's extremely reliable. Uh chap Peter Woods, who has bred it, um, and as I say, he's been working on it for years. Um, this is the only colour at the moment, but he is working on other colours of it. We think that Anturinums are perennial, will come back year after year, but in actual fact, what they're doing is they're simply self-seeding. This doesn't. It will it will self-seed, I suspect, but it is forming that shrubby sort of network of branches, that framework of them. Absolutely. Competition has been uh incredibly strong this year. Um how long, assuming that Kernock plants now take away their win and think yes, we're gonna bring this to market, how long is it likely to be before this would be in the garden centres? This will be in the market next spring. It's sufficiently well developed now that it will be in the market ready for next spring. Uh so you know that will be certainly one to look out for in your garden centres uh next year. And talking of sort of long-term things, the the purple petunia there uh is a variety called Bubbles. Well, bubbles you might remember, we actually launched the variety bubbles here last year. There's a new colourway of it that we've got this year. But that's a new form of bubbles, that's probably still three or four years away from being ready for market. So, but it's it's here to get reaction of the of the public to it, which has been very good. Just goes to show the time and investment that needs making in bringing these beautiful new varietals to market. 15 years on that. Wow. You know, that's that's into the realms of a good Scotch small whiskey, that is. Said by a good Scotsman Weldon. Neil, as always, uh an absolute pleasure. Thank you for taking me uh through the hot off the pott bench, Peter Seabrook Best New Plant Award for 2026. We've now got to look forward to next year. We have indeed, yes. We're really looking forward to it. Excited about that. We've tried now being outside. I think we might be outside again next year. Good to see you. Lovely, thanks ever so much.