Are you interested in plants? Do you want to green up your space, inside and out? The Virgin Gardener Podcast will be interviewing guests from all areas of the horticultural world, from flower-farmers and florists to Chelsea medal-winning designers and community gardeners; from Instagram gardener sensations to landscapers, mining them mercilessly for all the practical tips, tricks and advice they can give to newbie and enthusiastic amateur gardeners. Laetitia Maklouf and Andrew O’Brien pledge to forage tirelessly on your behalf so you can make your green space more gorgeous!
Site
RSS
Apple
Recent rankings
Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.
Shared links between episodes and podcasts
Links found in episode descriptions and other podcasts that share them.
S2, Ep 5: Matthew Wilson, LIVE from North Yorkshire with Podcast Social
Wednesday, December 4, 2019 • Duration
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!
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.
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
Introducing The Virgin Gardener Podcast!
Season 1 · Episode 1
Tuesday, February 27, 2018 • Duration 03:57
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!
S2, Ep 3: Fergus the Forager
Thursday, October 3, 2019 • Duration
Hello Podcast people! Fergus the Forager is a master of living off the land. See the show notes for all his details, including courses you can take.
S2, Ep 2: Mark Diacono
Saturday, July 27, 2019 • Duration
A good portion of this podcast revolves around mulberries, and the rest is basically about muesli. See show notes. ENJOY!
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)
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.
Related Shows Based on Content Similarities
Discover shows related to The Virgin Gardener Podcast, based on actual content similarities. Explore podcasts with similar topics, themes, and formats, backed by real data.
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
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
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.
