The Times Newspaper described this podcast as:
‘Innovative and fascinating… a deep dive into the stories about all things plant-related.’
A finalist in both the Independent Podcast Awards and the Garden Media Guild Awards, 'Our Plant Stories' explores how plants often root us to a place or a person,
This week's plant story began when Sam Turner mentioned gooseberries to me and a collection of bushes that might still be hiding in the undergrowth of a long-abandoned botanical research station in the shadow of Britain's largest radio telescope at Jodrell Bank. One of the things I love most about making Our Plant Stories is the way that stories are now coming from listeners, which we can tell together. Listen to hear how Sam and I venture into that undergrowth, where there are many very large stinging nettles, to see if we can find those gooseberry bushes. If we find them, we can also tell…
In 2017 Paul Oldroyd bought a Japanese banana plant. He got it home in the passenger seat of his car. He didn't have a lot of money to spend on plants but he had a very large space to fill. He had taken on a one acre former commercial greenhouse that was six foot deep in thistles. Find out in this episode why that first banana plant has been so important to creating a community space - Oldroyd's Corner - in Beverly East Yorkshire. Maybe you'll want to grow a banana plant by the end of this episode - Paul in conversation with Florence Mansbridge, from the Eden Project will tell you how.…
Try saying "compost" to gardeners and see what happens. Inspired by a recent episode - Compost Tales - that's what I did for this short 'Just Say Compost' bonus listen. I hope these stories of waste and worms will inspire you to share with us, your compost story. Old hands or newbies, head gardeners or renters, bins or heaps, we'd love to see your photos and hear your tales. How to take part: Post a photo of your compost to Instagram and TAG @compost_tales Or send a photo to [email protected] Can I dig into more plant stories? YES! You can check out the website where there are lots…
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, opens its doors to the public today - this is one of the gardening world's great horticultural moments - drawing around 157,000 visitors to the 23 acre grounds of the Royal Hospital. First held in 1913, Chelsea has spent over a century inspiring gardeners and growers to showcase the very best in horticulture, all competing for the coveted Chelsea Gold Medal. This year, watch out for the Missing Collector Garden , built by the charity Plant Heritage , sponsored by Project Giving Back - this is their first ever Chelsea garden. Over the past 6 months, I have been…
In this episode we are focused on compost and listen out because there will be a chance for you to get involved and tell us about your compost journey. Liz Elton is an artist whose work looks at waste and the recycling of matter. She sometimes thinks she "sees the world through her compost bin". For the past few years she has been photographing the compost caddy in her kitchen. The images are beautiful. In this episode we also learn how to compost from gardener and writer Helen Hutchings-Cox who also has a passion for compost and how it is vital for soli health. And we hear how composting,…
Gavin Munro describes himself as a chair farmer. In his orchard he grows trees and meticulously shapes them into chairs. As the trees grow, their branches are carefully trained, pruned and grafted, gently guided to form a back, seat and four legs. Fullgrown is the project and passion of Gavin and his wife Alice and he takes us on a tour of the orchard and explains how not every tree wants to be a chair. One of their chairs will be part of the Plant Heritage Missing Collector garden at this year's prestigious RHS Chelsea Flower show. Who will sit on it? Do get all NEW episodes of this podcast…
Buddleja davidii is Jess's 'spirit' plant and I think if you listen to this episode it will be obvious why. Also known as the Butterfly Bush it's the purple buddleja that you see growing in the cracks of pavements and walls, along the railway sidings. It comes from China and the first seeds arrived at Kew gardens, 130 years ago. Jess Turtle is the co-founder and director of the Museum Of Homelessness in Finsbury Park in North London and this plant story was recorded in the museum garden which has been built by the community. People and plant communities have more in common than we might…
We're following the charity Plant Heritage as they take their first show garden to the RHS Chelsea flower show. This charity was formed almost 50 years ago and for those of us who are plant lovers, it is as important today, if not more important, than when it started. Plants go in and out of fashion, but how do we ensure that those garden plants that we love will still be available for future generations to enjoy? Well you could be part of the solution... 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…
For this episode we are in New Zealand. Luke Gardner wrote to me saying he had been listening to Our Plant Stories since day one and he had a plant story he wanted to share. Luke's childhood memories are of a cottage garden with roses and peonies and tulips - 'exotics' and in the garden there were blackbirds and thrushes. He has now created his own cottage garden and plants thousands of tulip bulbs each year, opening his garden for a tulip festival. Yet the plant he wanted to talk about was a New Zealand native - Harakeke, swamp flax. It is the soul of his garden, giving a sense of place,…
Our Plant Stories has its first mini series. I love following journeys - a venture undertaken over months even years. If you are a regular listener you will know this from my return visits to the Castlefield Viaduct and the proposed Camden Highline each season. The Offshoots for the next few months will follow the journey of the Plant Heritage Missing Collector Garden from sketches on paper to a show garden at the RHS Chelsea flower show. The garden will showcase the work of the charity Plant Heritage at the heart of which are the National Collection holders; conserving plants for all of us,…
In this first episode of a new series of Our Plant Stories we are searching for Miriam. To be a bit more precise since this is a podcast filled with plant stories, we are searching for Clematis 'Miriam Markham'. Our search will take us from a graveyard in Sussex to a gardener's cottage on the Gravetye estate where once thousands of clematis were being propagated by Miriam Markham's husband Ernest and the owner of the estate William Robinson. We piece together this story with thanks to Sam Fry, a gardener at Gravetye and Raymond Evison a multi-award winning clematis grower. They'll also teach…
Happy New Year. The Royal Horticultural Society have just announced that this year in the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026 - the charity Plant Heritage has an All About Plants garden. It is sponsored by Project Giving Back and supported by the Shanly Foundation. Plant Heritage is the home of the National Plant Collections and plant conservation is going to be taking centre stage in this Missing Collector garden and we'll be meeting the designers, finding out about the plants, watching the build. Our first Plant Story of this new series is the tale of a plant that has disappeared but could it be…
I know it is a bit of a strange title. But bear with me this is the last episode of Series 3 (Series 4 will start in February 2026) and we have a couple of loose ends to tie up and an amazing idea to share. Back in November 2024, I visited the Castlefield Viaduct in Manchester and the route of the proposed Camden Highline in London. Now regular listeners will know that I love high lines and I have walked the ones in Paris and New York. (For the latter check out episode 17) I promised in 2024 that we would revisit both the UK projects, one year on and in this episode we catch up with Kate…
If you find yourself in a gathering of gardeners today they are unlikely to break into a glee...a song, as their predecessors might have done. I think its a bit of a shame! As part of the Being Human Festival - the UK's national festival of the humanities , historian Francesca Murray and musician Osnat Schmool gathered a group of people to explore these glees. A chance to be transported back to a lost world of gardening. And I composed a glee! Our Plant Stories is presented and produced by Sally Flatman The music is Fade to Black by Howard Levy Every month I will make a plant story but…
Sal Demain has her dream job and in this Offshoot episode she shares why she loves it so much. Working as the Supervisor of the Arboretum Nursery at Kew Gardens, she has many plants to look after though she does have her favourites! Her curiosity about how plants spread goes back to childhood. And she would love everyone to have a go at propagating. Just: "don't come after my job" . In this episode we learn about the tree gang who go out collecting seeds and the landscape succession plan for trees we might be growing in the UK in 50 to 90 years time. And we learn the definition of 'naturally…
"If you grow plants you are inherently an optimist". I love this thought from Richard Hayden, shared as we wandered along the New York High Line, this summer. Richard is the Senior Director of Horticulture on the High Line. We talk about the magic of this garden in the sky, it's history - the trains that were once delivering the ingredients for oreo cookies to Nabisco and the plants - of course the plants. Richard explains Pete Oudolf's vision for the High Line and his regular visits to edit and add new plants. Don't tell anyone but Richard reveals a few weeding secrets too! If you like the…
In the last episode Anne Harrap told us the story of how she came to build a series of wildlife friendly gardens on a field in Norfolk. At the heart of the plant story was a book - How to Make a Wildlife Garden by Chris Baines. In the episode she met the author for the first time and they talked about their approaches to wildlife garden. In this Offshoot episode, I wander around the gardens with Anne, accompanied by many buzzing insects which you will hear as they whizz past the microphone! She picks out some of her favourite plants to attract butterflies and bees and I'll share the names of…
Sometimes in life you come across a book that just speaks to you - you and the author are on the same page and they have articulated all the things you have been thinking. This plant story is about such a book and the influence it had on a young woman who was just starting out in business in Norfolk. The book is called How To Make A Wildlife Garden and it was written by Chris Baines. It has been republished several times - perhaps you have a copy. The young woman was Anne Harrap and this is her plant story. Every month I will make a plant story but stories often lead to more stories and I…
I think we're in for a real treat. Listening to Poppy Okotcha and Adam Frost talking about their gardens, their 'safe spaces', their connections to nature. And in the best traditions of the podcast - the stories of plants and people are entwined. This conversation was recorded at the British Library in July as part of the events programme for an exhibition called Unearthed - The Power of Gardening. (Sadly now over) Both Poppy and Adam have recently published books about their own gardens. Poppy's is called A Wilder Way - How Gardens Grow Us and Adam's is called For the Love of Plants. With…
Back in July I was lucky enough to host a conversation at the British Library between Poppy Okotcha and Adam Frost. Hear a trailer for the episode which will be out next Tuesday. Poppy's new book is called A Wilder Way and Adam's is called For the Love of Plants and over the course of an hour and a half they discussed how they came to be gardeners, safe spaces, foraging, special plants, special people and compost. I learned so much both from reading their books and sharing this conversation and thanks to the British Library, I am excited to be able to share it with you next week as a podcast…
The joy of making this podcast is that sometimes I just get to be curious which Adam Frost says is key to our enjoyment of gardening. I know that any day now Autumn bulb catalogues will start to drop through my letterbox and garden centres will soon start to sell daffodil bulbs again but I wanted to know where are those bulbs in July? And how do you grow them commercially? My thanks to Ian Clark, the very patient Marketing Manager of Taylors Bulbs who answered all my questions so you too can discover how the bulbs are grown and harvested, how to store them, where to plant them and how to…
In 1976 Fay Ballard had just finished her first term at university and heading home for Christmas she was looking for a gift for her father who was the author J.G. Ballard. This episode is the story of that gift! It may have started as a small Yucca pot plant but almost 50 years on - it has a great story to tell. For those of us of a certain generation, the Yucca plant will be familiar. Back in the 70's and 80's Marks and Spencer had shelves full of them. But why? And along with the story of Fay's Yucca and the answer to the question why M&S were selling them, we have Colin Smith, who holds…
Did you buy a Yucca from Marks and Spencer in the 1970s or 80s...many of us did! If you still have it, it could by now be very large. This months plant story is a beautiful one about a Yucca plant that Fay bought in 1976, for her dad, who was the writer J.G. Ballard. She wasn't sure if he would manage to keep it alive - he didn't have any other pot plants. If you can't wait for this story remember there are over 50 plant stories from the first three series of Our Plant Stories podcast for you to listen to. From fig tree cuttings sewn into the hems of skirts in preparation for the journey to…
In this offshoot episode of Our Plant Stories , we step into Garden Futures - Designing with Nature — an imaginative new exhibition at the V&A Dundee . With help from one of the curators, Francesca Bibby, and one of the exhibitors. Andrew Flynn, we hear about garden design from both historical and futuristic perspectives; from knitted sculptures embedded with seeds by Alice Marie Archer to flat pack plant pots by Potr. Our Plant Stories is presented and produced by Sally Flatman The music is Fade to Black by Howard Levy Every month I will make a plant story but stories often lead to more…
This episode features the State Tree of Louisiana, the Bald Cypress. (Taxodium distichum). But the Bald Cypress in the plant story is not in the USA but in the Loire in France, in the grounds of a beautiful chateau. How it got there is part of the story, a gift from Napoleon Bonaparte to the chateau owner, bought back from his last expedition to Louisiana in 1802! So through a plant story about a Bald Cypress, we bring together two countries, and a moment in history in 1803, remembered by one nation, perhaps forgotten by the other as Napoleon sells Louisiana to the Americans. You can see…
This is a special week in the horticultural calendar. It is the RHS Chelsea Flower show and over the course of the week thousands of people will visit the show and millions will watch the BBC coverage of it on television. There will be incredible show gardens, conceived months and months ago with designers and growers and build teams coming together to create something beautiful. But where do these gardens go when the show ends on Saturday? This episode tells the story of one garden - Hospitalfield Arts Garden. We visit a beautiful walled garden in Arbroath and a school that must be one of…
Jerry Spencer's mum worked at Kew Gardens. As a child he would go there to meet her at lunchtime. Leaving school he trained as a gardener. However a period of living on the streets after he lost his mum and his home, erased his gardening memories. This is a beautiful and very personal plant story of the journey back to Kew and one special tree that played an important role in that journey. Plants can trigger even the deepest most forgotten memories so join us as Jerry and I sit beneath the tree as he tells his plant story and then together we find out more about that tree from Simon Toomer…
I think this Offshoot episode will make you pause next time you find yourself in front of a colourful wall of seed packets. As with many seemingly simple things, the story of a small seed, can in fact be a lot more fascinating and complicated than it might at first appear. So take a journey into the history and science of seeds. We'll ponder the Portuguese, spreading pepper seeds around the world and seed banks in St Petersburg, Syria and the Arctic Circle. We'll hear about the skills of Ethiopian farmers. Adam Alexander, also known as the seed detective and a self confessed vegetable anorak…
Richard Bowman tells the story of seeds salvaged from great uncle Eric's potting shed. The shed, perched on the Yorkshire moors had been untouched for 20 years when Richard was given the task of clearing it out. These seeds, stored in Oxo tins and match boxes, sparking memories of a bygone era, lead to a conversation with the Seed Detective, Adam Alexander, who discusses their potential for germination despite their advanced age. Richard's passion for gardening, is deep rooted and these seeds with their potential to put the colour back into the black and white photos of uncle Eric's garden…
In Rough Patch - How a year in the garden brought me back to life; Kathy Slack shares all the lessons she learned from her own story of recovery from depression. She shared her plant story with us in series 2 in an episode called Kathy's Radishes. As we sat by her veg patch she explained why it was so powerful to see life in the soil and discover its potential to grow food. In the conversation in this Offshoot episode she tells us why it was so important for her to get those lessons down on paper. We talk about what she wants readers to take away and as she explains; a book like this when…
About Our Plant Stories
The Times Newspaper described this podcast as:
‘Innovative and fascinating… a deep dive into the stories about all things plant-related.’
A finalist in both the Independent Podcast Awards and the Garden Media Guild Awards, 'Our Plant Stories' explores how plants often root us to a place or a person,
Our Plant Stories is a English leisure & travel podcast from Sally Flatman. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.
The Melo app keeps playing with the screen off, works in the car and on your watch, wakes you to your station, and browses the whole catalogue offline. Free, no ads, no account.
