Our Plant Stories – Details, episodes & analysis

Hill Close was a pasture until 1845 when its owner decided to divide it up into gardens. Individual plots where Victorians could rent a space to tend their plants, build a summer house, relax with their family. These were detached gardens for people who had no outdoor space where they lived but a little bit of money to rent one nearby.

Once there were many such gardens in the UK. Where did they go? Why did Hill Close survive? And who were the people who gardened here?

Our Plant Stories is presented and produced by Sally Flatman

The music is Fade to Black by Howard Levy

Independent podcasts like Our Plant Stories depend on their listeners for help with the costs of making the podcast such as the hosting platform and the editing programme.

Using the Buy Me A Coffee platform you can make a one off online donation of £5 and that money will go towards making more episodes. Everyone who buys a 'virtual coffee' will get a shout out on the podcast.

The support of listeners means a lot to me.

Buy Me A Coffee

Mentioned in this episode:

Buy Me A Coffee

Follow, Rate and Review Our Plant Stories

Follow podcast

Cacti are among the world's most threatened species.

Jared Margulies research led him to the extraordinary illegal trade in these plants. Hear him talk about his work and his book The Cactus Hunters. Who are stealing the cacti and where are they taking them?

Independent podcasts like Our Plant Stories depend on their listeners for help with the costs of making the podcast such as the hosting platform and the editing programme.

Using the Buy Me A Coffee platform you can make a one off online donation of £5 and that money will go towards making more episodes. Everyone who buys a 'virtual coffee' will get a shout out on the podcast.

The support of listeners means a lot to me.

Buy Me A Coffee

Our Plant Stories is presented and produced by Sally Flatman

The music is Fade to Black by Howard Levy

Can I share my plant story with you?

YES PLEASE! I called this OUR Plant Stories for a reason and that is that I love to hear from listeners wherever you are in the world!

You can email me [email protected] and tell me your plant story. That's all you need to do - I'll do the rest. I'll work out who we can talk to. Can we find someone who shares your passion for the plant, they maybe in the same country as you or the other side of the world.

Mentioned in this episode:

Buy Me A Coffee

Follow, Rate and Review Our Plant Stories

Follow podcast

A short bonus episode in which David Gedye pieces together the story of how the Monkey Puzzle tree made its way to the UK and how it became so popular with gardeners in the country.

David has been researching this tree and its links to his family for the past 68 years. He wrote a book about it, sadly sold out but luckily for us he shares his knowledge here.

Our Plant Stories is presented and produced by Sally Flatman

The music is Fade to Black by Howard Levy

Can I dig into more plant stories?

YES! You can check out the website where there are lots of photographs of plants and how to grow instructions. Our Plant Stories website

You can also follow the weekly blog where you will get the behind the scenes lowdown on making the podcast and you could also contribute - readers have suggested gardens to visit, plants to feature, experts to contact.

Our Plant Stories blog

And you can follow more plants over on my Instagram account Instagram

Independent podcasts like Our Plant Stories depend on their listeners for help with the costs of making the podcast such as the hosting platform and the editing programme.

Using the Buy Me A Coffee platform you can make a one off online donation of £5 and that money will go towards making more episodes. Everyone who buys a 'virtual coffee' will get a shout out on the podcast.

The support of listeners means a lot to me.

Buy Me A Coffee

Can I share my plant story with you?

YES PLEASE! I called this OUR Plant Stories for a reason and that is that I love to hear from listeners wherever you are in the world!

You can email me [email protected] and tell me your plant story. That's all you need to do - I'll do the rest. I'll work out who we can talk to. Can we find someone who shares your passion for the plant, they maybe in the same country as you or the other side of the world.

Mentioned in this episode:

Buy Me A Coffee

David Gedye's mum told him a plant story when he was just 10 years old. It involved a very famous Monkey Puzzle tree and his great great grandfather, a head gardener. That story has led him on a lifetime trail, 68 years so far, to learn more about head gardener Philip Frost and to find out about that tree. Could the story be true - did his great great grandfather carry Monkey Puzzle seed in a tin in his waistcoat pocket and plant the famous Dropmore Monkey Puzzle tree?

He shares his story here. Do take a look at the episode page on the website to see the wonderful photograph of David's great great grandfather beside the tree.

Our Plant Stories is presented and produced by Sally Flatman

The music is Fade to Black by Howard Levy

Can I dig into more plant stories?

YES! You can check out the website where there are lots of photographs of plants and how to grow instructions. Our Plant Stories website

You can also follow the weekly blog where you will get the behind the scenes lowdown on making the podcast and you could also contribute - readers have suggested gardens to visit, plants to feature, experts to contact.

Our Plant Stories blog

And you can follow more plants over on my Instagram account Instagram

Independent podcasts like Our Plant Stories depend on their listeners for help with the costs of making the podcast such as the hosting platform and the editing programme.

Using the Buy Me A Coffee platform you can make a one off online donation of £5 and that money will go towards making more episodes. Everyone who buys a 'virtual coffee' will get a shout out on the podcast.

The support of listeners means a lot to me.

Buy Me A Coffee

Can I share my plant story with you?

YES PLEASE! I called this OUR Plant Stories for a reason and that is that I love to hear from listeners wherever you are in the world!

You can email me [email protected] and tell me your plant story. That's all you need to do - I'll do the rest. I'll work out who we can talk to. Can we find someone who shares your passion for the plant, they maybe in the same country as you or the other side of the world.

Mentioned in this episode:

Buy Me A Coffee

When Andrea moved to a new home, 12 years ago, there was a Monkey Puzzle tree in the front garden. She wasn't keen, it was marked down to go but it is still there. Find out why in this Monkey Puzzle Plant Story.

These trees first came to the UK in 1795 but they didn't really start to become popular till the 1850s. Queen Victoria saw the tree and wanted one for Prince Albert.

We have a Chilean botanist in the podcast to help us understand the tree, learn how to grow it and unravel that story about the original Monkey Puzzle nuts being stolen off a dinner table in Santiago.

Our Plant Stories is presented and produced by Sally Flatman

The music is Fade to Black by Howard Levy

Can I dig into more plant stories?

YES! You can check out the website where there are lots of photographs of plants and how to grow instructions. Our Plant Stories website

You can also follow the weekly blog where you will get the behind the scenes lowdown on making the podcast and you could also contribute - readers have suggested gardens to visit, plants to feature, experts to contact.

Our Plant Stories blog

And you can follow more plants over on my Instagram account Instagram

Independent podcasts like Our Plant Stories depend on their listeners for help with the costs of making the podcast such as the hosting platform and the editing programme.

Using the Buy Me A Coffee platform you can make a one off online donation of £5 and that money will go towards making more episodes. Everyone who buys a 'virtual coffee' will get a shout out on the podcast.

The support of listeners means a lot to me.

Buy Me A Coffee

Can I share my plant story with you?

YES PLEASE! I called this OUR Plant Stories for a reason and that is that I love to hear from listeners wherever you are in the world!

You can email me [email protected] and tell me your plant story. That's all you need to do - I'll do the rest. I'll work out who we can talk to. Can we find someone who shares your passion for the plant, they maybe in the same country as you or the other side of the world.

Expert Guest: Eduardo Olate

Eduardo is from Chile and is an experienced lecturer, horticultural advisor, and business development consultant specializing in the agricultural sector, with over 25 years of expertise in plant propagation, plant tissue culture, plant breeding, and crop physiology in ornamental plants. He was a co-founder of the Chilean Native Plants Conference. He loves the Monkey Puzzle tree; Latin name - Araucaria araucana. It's the National tree of Chile

Timeline of the episode:

00.35. Intro to what listeners have been growing thanks to the podcast.

01.16   Every Monkey Puzzle leaf can last for 25 years!

01.42. Andrea’s plant story about the Monkey Puzzle tree in her front garden

04.25 Who planted the tree?

05.18. What do passers-by think of the tree?

06.37.  What do the seed pods look like?

07.55. Introducing Eduardo Olate, a horticulturalist from Chile and one of the co-founders of the Chilean Native plants conference

08.47. When did the Monkey Puzzle tree first arrive in the UK and where does the name come from?

09.44. How do the Indigenous people in Chile use this tree?

10.43 So how does this tree end up in English gardens?

14.28. When did they start to become popular in the UK?

15.25. Andrea asks Eduardo about the seedpods

20.23  Eduardo tells us about their native habitat in...

Who were the celebrity gardeners of the 1850's and why were they important to a fledgling charity called Perennial?

The charity still exists today. It's dedicated to looking after people working in horticulture and their families, at any stage of life.

The charity's roots go back almost 200 years and garden historian, Francesca Murray has, for her Phd, spent many hours in its archive. She shares a fascinating story for this Offshoot episode. You can see photographs of original documents on the website: Our Plant Stories.com

Our Plant Stories is presented and produced by Sally Flatman

Fade to Black by Howard Levy

https://ourplantstories.captivate.fm/buy-me-a-coffee

Mentioned in this episode:

Buy Me A Coffee

Never say to Mona Abboud - "this plant is only for trade". This is a wonderful story of one woman's hunt for a plant, there's detective work, there's blackmail! The result is a beautiful New Zealand garden in North London created by a woman who has never set foot in New Zealand.

Mona is on a one woman mission to get us all to love corokia - see if she can persuade you too, aided by Fiona Eadie, the author of 100 best native plants for New Zealand gardens. As always this is the podcast where knowledgeable, passionate people will be teaching you how to grow the plant they love.

All the information, photographs and growing advice is on the website.

Presented and Produced by Sally Flatman

Music: Fade to Black by Howard Levy

https://ourplantstories.captivate.fm/buy-me-a-coffee

Mentioned in this episode:

Buy Me A Coffee

"What is a Purdom" by Vicky Aspin's own admission this was her first reaction to being sent to the Purdom bed in Holehird gardens. Then her curiosity was aroused by a name plaque on a bench: For Three Native Lakeland Gardeners, William Purdom and sons William and Harry and from that her hunt began...who was William Purdom?

Her searches before the era of the internet, led her eventually to China and the Purdom Memorial Forest Park and you can hear the story of her search and Purdom's life in this Offshoot episode recorded on a sunny Autumn day, sitting on the Purdom bench in Holehird Gardens in Cumbria. As always there are photographs on the website.

Presented and produced by Sally Flatman

Music: Fade to Black by Howard Levy

https://ourplantstories.captivate.fm/buy-me-a-coffee

Mentioned in this episode:

Buy Me A Coffee

Season 2 of Our Plant Stories is here! And we begin with a very beautiful story from Penn Allen, a listener to the podcast who contacted me with a plant story that takes us to the Lake District.

Diaries from Penn's Great Grandmother Alice Hough and her husband Harry reveal a garden built with love in the midst of loss and a friendship with Will Purdom that spanned years and continents leading to plants from China being planted on a rock overlooking Windermere.

To understand more about mindset of Will Purdom, we talk to Tom Hart Dyke who has built the World Garden at Lullingstone Castle. We also learn how to grow the Viburnum thanks to wonderfully knowledgeable gardeners at Holehird gardens in Cumbria.

All the information about the podcast is on the website.

Presented and Produced by Sally Flatman

Music: Fade to Black by Howard Levy

https://ourplantstories.captivate.fm/buy-me-a-coffee

Mentioned in this episode:

Buy Me A Coffee

Our Plant Stories is back for a second season and once again the plant stories are going to take us all over the world. To follow and dig into the stories we'll be meeting gardeners, botanists and historians and along the way of course we will learn how to grow the plants.

Season 2 starts 12th January 2024.

If you have a story that you would like me to follow up in this new series you can email me - [email protected]

To find out about the plants featured in all the episodes just go to the website where you can also subscribe to a weekly blog which will mean you'll be first to hear about upcoming episodes.

The series is presented and produced by Sally Flatman.

Instagram: ourplantstories_podcast

Mentioned in this episode:

Buy Me A Coffee