Chat show host Alan Titchmarsh is to return to the outdoors to present a new BBC gardening series, it has been confirmed.

In Alan's Garden Secrets, Titchmarsh will visit the UK's "most spectacular showpiece gardens".

The former Gardeners' World host - who left the show in 2002 - said he was "delighted" to return to BBC Two.

He added that he will pass on "tips to viewers so they can create some of the same magic in their own gardens".

Each week, Titchmarsh will visits a different garden to discover how it was inspired and influenced by the leading designers of the era.

He said it "promises to be a really special new series".

'Personal trip'

Another former Gardener's World presenter, Monty Don, is set to return to the channel, after suffering a minor stroke two years ago.

Don took over from Titchmarsh as the main presenter of the long-running programme in 2003.

In Monty Don's Italian Gardens, the 54-year-old, will visit gardens from the south of Italy to the north of the country.

Don said: "This will be a very personal trip, relishing gardens of all kinds from the secret to the palatial, and setting them all into the context of Italian life, landscape and culture - and learning more about our gardens too."

Both programmes form part of a new gardening season, starting on BBC Two, including The Edible Garden, River of Flowers and Life and Death in a Cottage Garden - in which Carol Klein guides viewers through a year in the lifecycle of her own garden at Glebe Cottage in Devon.

Controller of BBC Two, Janice Hadlow, said: "We love gardening and this year we have a broad range of content to appeal to all levels of experience, from those with the greenest of fingers to fledgling gardeners."

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