The Virgin Gardener Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Hello podcast People!

This episode I’m chatting to one of my garden designer heroes, Matthew Wilson. He tells us the story of his life in horticulture, and the many bends in the road along the way. Besides heading up a busy garden design practice, Matthew is a regular on BBC Gardener’s Question Time a speaker, journalist and author as well as finding time to spend in his own garden. His 2009 TV show Landscape Man literally broke new ground in telly gardening. We chat about what it’s really like to face the public’s gardening questions, and I grill him on all your tricky ones too. This was my first live podcast and the audience was the sunniest, kindest, smiliest sort. What a lovely bunch of people gardeners are!

Enjoy!

Matthew Wison

Website | Twitter | Instagram

Cleve West, by Chaz Oldham

Hi Podcast People!

In this episode I chat to Cleve West, legendary garden designer, and passionate vegan. We talk about just what it takes to create a winning Chelsea garden, eating vegan and having long enough legs! Do take a look at his website www.clevewest.com for links to all the vegan things we speak about in this episode.

Enjoy!

Website | Twitter | Instagram

Things we talk about in this episode:

Judging at Chelsea

Objectivity and how the judging system works

James’s gardening journey

Sex, death and deliciousness

The gardener as referee

The recipe for a good garden

Making sure that the practical essentials are in the right place

James’s own garden

The corner of shame

Calling in help when life gets in the way

James’s inspiration

Show gardens and unattainability

Gardening as larceny

Removing sentimentality (and diseased trees)

Watching and waiting

Dealing with the boring stuff first

Barefoot compost heaps

Gardens, garden designers, succulents, cacti, azaleas and rhododendrons

Roses and revolutionary verve

Stopping gardening when it becomes a chore

Designers and Chelsea show gardens

The cult of the designer

James’s 7 minute Chelsea garden

Evil wisteria

Stop worrying

Fortnum and Mason manure

Plants for dry shade

Right plant right place

Self control

Growing rhododendrons in the cotswolds

And watching them die

Seed sowing

Leggy chillies

Snow hating

Shed cleaning

Weeding with a hula hoop

Apres freeze watering

Dahlias

Slugs and how to deal with them

Slugs vs snails 

Evil slugs

Evil drunken slugs

Savage slugs

Hedgehog homes

Podcasting as gardening

Laetitia and Andrew introduce themselves and reveal what's in store for listeners of The Virgin Gardener Podcast. Exciting news! Our first guest will be the horticultural rockstar that is James Alexander Sinclair!

Naomi's Twitter. Naomi's Website

Naomi Slade is a freelance journalist with a degree in science and a background in publishing, events and managing rock bands. In this podcast she shares her love of and fascination for the subject of her latest book, Dahlias: Beautiful Varieties for Home and Garden.

Things we talk about in this episode:

Naomi’s background

Her Snowdrop book: Plant lovers guide to snowdrops (Timber Press)

Joe Sharman of Monksilver Nursery

Naomi’s snowdrop Galanthus 'Naomi Slade'

Her Orchard book: An Orchard Odyssey (Green Books)

Definition of an orchard: 5 Trees with crown edges not more than 20 metres apart

Perennial fruit and food

Dahlia as fashion victim

Divisive dahlias

Rich man’s plants

1851 Exhibition

Christopher Lloyd

Are they worth the effort?

Dahlia genetics

Humans are diploid - 2 sets of chromosomes

dahlias are octoploid - 8 sets of chromosomes

Loads of transposons which spontaneously change what they look like

quick mutations = thousands of cultivars

Yellow and orange dahlias often have irridescence

Dahlia History

Aztec rituals

Cactus dahlias

Dahlia requirements

How to start them off

Slugs and frost

Slugs hide underneath the tuber and come out at night

Pinching out

Planting out

Feeding

Staking

Deadheading

Dahliaworld.co.uk has all 60k varieties - the perfect place to geek out

National collection in Penzance

Overwintering

Nobody likes a soggy bottom

Favourite dahlias

Restrained dahlias: ponpons and small balls

Containers

Varieties and cultivars we talk about in this episode:

D. Hamari Gold

D. Peresii

D. David Howard

D. Arabian Knight

D. Gentle star

D. Thomas Eddison

D. Hootenanny

D. Eveline

The gallery series - compact and pretty

Happy singles - simple daisy flowers

Things we talk about in this episode:

What's in a name

The process of creating a stand at Chelsea

Pitching, competing, submitting

Creating an outdoor living space

Choosing carefully so as not to overload the stand. Making a realistic outdoor space

How to choose a grower

How the process works

Trees and hedging

Choosing plants 

Having a master plan (or not)

Who is the client? Sponsor? Stand?

It’s all about the medal

Gold medals and good pr

The first job

Sleepless nights

Faking it till you make it

Not knowing the answer!

Asking for help where you need it

Knowledge and confidence

How to be a good service provider

Communication 

Selling ideas to a client

Suggesting, steering, guiding

Using FACTS to get your way

A tape measure is your best tool. 

Balancing motherhood and a buisiness

Baked beans again

Being there when it counts - sports day etc

Setting a strong example for the children

Garden design creates beautiful spaces for families - it’s one of the nicest things you can do for people

Planting style

Planting a show garden vs planting a private garden

Seasonal planting

Shrubs and herbaceous

Clipped shapes and chaos

Scaling up: putting big in small

Getting vertical interest in - wires and trellis to take eyes up

Getting a mirror in! Should be antiqued - bounces light

Being a weekend gardener

Outsourcing the clearing up

Screening and blocking out

Trellis

Trees

Meadow

Tidying tendencies

Being brave

Computer woes

Turning the laptop on

Delegation

Plants, People, links

Gaze Burvill Garden Furniture

Deepdale-  hornbeams

Chichester Trees and Shrubs 

Hortus loci

Rosa'Gertrude Jekyll'

Geum'Totally tangerine'

Rosa'Munstead Wood'

Julia Samuel

Colefax and Fowler

The English Gardening School

London College of garden design

Andrew Wilson

Cloudy Bay garden Chelsea 2014

p9’s (0.5 litre pots)

Alchemilla mollis

roses

nepeta

Salvia nemerosa'Caradonna'

Salvia'Nachtvlinder'

Salvia'Amistad'

Hydrangea'Annabelle'

Hydrangea paniculata'Limelight'

Amelanchier lamarckii

Mobilane

Tulipa 'Black parrot'

Fritillaria meleagris

Allium 'Purple sensation'

A. 'Purple rain'

Gareth Kinsella

The wildflower Turf company 

RosaMme Alfred Carriere - flowers on a north wall

Stauntonia hexaphylla- will cover everything but beware

Clematis armandii

Akebia quinata

Trachelospermum jasminoides

Things we talk about in the episode:

Why we love pelargoniums

scent of leaves

musky stringent smell

bad breath

tomato foliage

the easiness of them

Fibrex nurseries

The National Collection of Pelargoniums

Heather’s growing history

Learning about pelargoniums, ferns and ivies

The difference between pelargoniums and geraniums

Family: Geraneacae

Same family, different genus:

Genus: Pelargonium (southern hemisphere, tender, succulent or woody shrubs)

Genus: Geranium (northern hemisphere, cranesbill. Hardy, herbaceous perennial)

You can’t hybridise between the two - most definitely two different things!

Geranium for pelargonium is WRONG because it’s misleading

If you can’t say pelargonium, just call them pellies

Pelargoniums are really tough in the right environment

Replicate SA in the UK

Loam based, open, free draining compost

Water management

Good light, even over winter

No darkness, no dinginess

In England that’s difficult, but not impossible

Good airflow

In a cool environment - Strip off a lot of the leaves which they don’t need because they’re not growing and you’re not watering.

Zonals, decoratives, uniques, scenteds can have majority of leaves lower down taken off, leaving just the growing tip

Gets rid of mildew, mould, botrytis etc at the same time - bonus!

Allows good airflow which is essential

Keeping pelargoniums indoors as houseplants

Avoid a kitchen or bathroom environment - too damp

Sitting room, living room, porch, 

Close to window or on windowsill. 

Natural daylight - doesn’t have to be direct sunlight

Feed:

Tomato feed like Tomorite

First feed of season should be a balanced feed but otherwise Tomorite as soon as you see fresh young growth

Bedding

Zonal pelargoniums are still used for bedding - can look stunning

Key is to mass-plant with just one colour. Colour match with neighbouring plants

Key group within zonals: Bold series - good chunky, strong growing with short stems and lots of flowers which are shatter-proof.

Use decorative, uniques and scented for gap-filling too!

Attar of roses, Grey Lady Plymouth in a mixed border - 

Chocolate peppermint and Tomentosum at Wisley - looked amazing

Containers:

Potting compost magic formula; John Innes no. 2 and multi-purpose compost half and half

Re-pot in spring and you don’t need to feed for a month because of JI 

You cant over-feed a pellie!

Feed every time you water

If you want to get flowers like you see in the shows then you have to feed them! They’re on steroids

Pinching out.

Young cuttings - single stem. Once rooted and growing, pinch out top leaf and newest bud. Leaving a couple of live axils below means it will start to branch out. It’s not about height, it’s about body.

Keep pinching out

Fibrex takes cuttings in August through to April. The pinching out happens throughout, until February. From buds, flowers will appear in six weeks. Pinching out is instinctive and takes practice, but not a lot of time if you’ve got a few pots outside the door.

Dead heading.

Pelargoniums LOVE to flower. If you take off the untidy ones it will grow more as soon as possible. If you leave them, the plant slows down.

Heather deadheads every plant, every week - LOTS of work! Not so for a few pots.

Snap bottom of flower stem between fingers and it will come off naturally

Overwintering.

Cuttings

Prepare your pot, 9 -12 cm Sterile seed compost and perlite or grit for drainage, Pat mixture down and saturate with water. Take cuttings, 2 inches at most depending on variety. Heather takes tip cuttings with one or two leaf nodes. Strip bottom leaves off, leaving growing tip and a couple of leaves at top. After 4-5 days give another drink. 5-10 cuttings in a 9cm pot. Cuttings really do like company. Heather pushes her cuttings straight in - no dibber and no rooting hormone.

Heather likes to keep the leaves touching in the nursery.

Leaving pelargoniums in pots over winter

Start in September to prepare them by feeding them with a general purpose feed

Stops them from flowering. Take a third off in Autumn and strip the leaves. Re-pot in spring with fresh compost, fluffing up the roots. Water in lightly. After a couple of weeks, general feed and then put outside. Night temps should be around five degrees - leave till mid may or end of may. 

If you want them to continue flowering in a conservatory then just keep feeding tomato food.

Windowsill with radiator is fine as they like a dry environment

Best are dwarves and miniatures for permanent flowering as they won’t outgrow their space.

Other overwintering ideas:

Hanging the upside-down. Used to be done. It’s a bit extreme and not entirely necessary.  You can leave in the compost just ease off on the watering.

Pests and diseases. 

The whitefly clap. 

Use invigorators rather than insecticides. SB invigorator gives the plant extra and has ammonia which whitefly hate. 

Good for spider mite too. Spidermite like dry environments 

Greenfly like the soft young growth. Squish.

Pelargonium starter-kit for newbies

Scented: Attar of Roses. The gorgeousness of it!

Decorative: Ashby. Strong, easy, free-flowering, big and beautiful, and EARLY.

Specie: Austral. From Tasmania. Borderline hardy. Dark green, with delicate white flowers

Pellie cake. 

What makes a lemon smell like a lemon?

Pelargoniums have over 120 volatile chemicals in the leaves. Hence the huge variety of scents and flavours

Best houseplant pelargonium: Fragrans because of fresh fragrance and height. Delicate, pretty, delightful.

fibrex.co.uk

fibrexnurseries on twitter and instagram

May 1st national collection is open free of charge, but you can visit whenever you like.

Pellie party! Smelly pellie jelly! Turn up!

Links, Plants and important stuff we mention:

Zonal Bold series

Attar of Roses

Grey Lady Plymouth

Chocolate Pepperming

Tomentosum

Tomorite tomato food

SB invigorator

Heather’s top three for beginners:

Attar of Roses

Ashby

Australe

Houseplant favourite: Fragrans

Fibrex Pellie Party