Our Plant Stories

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:

Follow, Rate and Review Our Plant Stories

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A Disocactus x hybridus or forest cactus but in Lindy's family this particular plant is known as Sally's Cactus! It is also sometimes known by a common name: orchid cactus.

In finding out about Sally who gave the original cutting we also learn how to get these cacti to bloom, what "soil' you should use to pot them up and where you should put them. This is all thanks to Sarah Gerrard Jones who is also known as The Plant Rescuer, who says:

“I just think there is something so... beautiful about all the care and attention that has gone into nurturing this plant and when that person passes away I feel all that love is still contained there within every single cell of those plants and I feel that's something you can really feel.”

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.

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

Mentioned in this episode:

Follow, Rate and Review Our Plant Stories

Follow podcast

How's your knowledge of Latin plant names? Meet Elizabeth Richmond she loves Latin plant names and she chalks them around the plants she finds growing between pavement cracks or along kerbsides. She does also chalk the common name too!

Why does she do it? And how an earth did she get started?

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

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

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:

Follow, Rate and Review Our Plant Stories

Follow podcast

"Every child needs someone to introduce them to nature" - Rachel Carson author of Silent Spring

In this episode we hear how one woman came up with the idea for a GCSE in Natural History - a way for children to be introduced to nature. So where did the idea come from, what would an exam look like, and how far has she got? She had the idea in 2011.

In this episode we learn what it takes to introduce a new exam and the reasons that despite many setbacks, Mary Colwell is not giving up, indeed she is determined to see this through.

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.

Why is a tiny plant from Janet Hickenbottom's childhood so important? And what was the special thing that her mum Margaret shared with Janet and her brother that has stayed with her for all her life?

Lee Connelly is also a bit obsessed by this thing and he's on a mission to make sure we don't miss out on it....and even if we weren't given it as children, like Janet was, he promises we can still get it.

And learn to grow a plant that you can literally fit anywhere - it only requires the tiniest of spaces and it's guaranteed to spread.

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.

Remember if you listen on Google Podcasts you need to switch to a new podcast app which you can find here:

https://ourplantstories.captivate.fm/listen

When we think of 'allotment history' we perhaps have images from the two world wars with the population being urged to cultivate every spare bit of land from parks to bomb craters. But to really understand our relationship with these spaces we need to go back much further in time.

Lally Snow has written a book called My Family and Other Seedlings and in this episode she tells us how she has woven this history into her own experiences of growing food on an allotment with the aid of 3 under 5 year olds.

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.

Kathy Slack brings us the first plant story to feature a vegetable, it is a root vegetable; a radish. They may be tiny but as you will hear in this plant story the impact of growing radish seeds was rather enormous. Kathy has a passion for vegetables so we not only discuss her journey growing them but other questions too - if you were to come back as a vegetable what would it be? Spoiler alert she seems to favour being a broad bean not a radish!

Hear her in conversation with Lally Snow, who we first met in Mint. Lally has just published a book about the history of allotments in the UK woven with her own story of taking on a plot and growing vegetables with the help of 3 under 5 year olds. They discuss their shared attitude of just 'having a go'.

And of course we also learn how to grow the plant. 5 weeks from now you too could be eating a radish slammer, made with your own radishes, just add butter and salt!

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.

Philippa Steward of Justdahlias admits that her passion for dahlias has become somewhat of an obsession! So who better than Philippa to share with us that enthusiasm and love of this beautiful flower in its many shapes and colours. Philippa has a plant story for later in this series but I couldn't resist talking to her about dahlias now so we could all share her excitement and plant some for this summer.

In this bonus episode we learn about planting tubers, she shares how to select your varieties and there is promise of gathering dahlia seeds in the future.

Do follow Philippa on Instagram at Justdahlias.

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.

Judith Kleinman had a Silver Birch tree outside her bedroom window when she was growing up. She now has three beautiful Silver Birch trees outside her back door in her small courtyard garden. But to understand why these trees are her plant story you need to go back to her first student summer and a terrible traffic accident that left her in a spinal injuries unit. She tells her story and returns to the hospital to see a garden that has been built by the charity Horatio's Garden and meet the Head Gardener Ashley Edwards. Will she find Silver Birch trees?

Judith has written a book - Finding Quiet Strength which I think draws inspiration from these strong and flexible trees.

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.

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.