I’ve spotted a tree peony!

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Tree peony in the Inner Temple gardens

You know how sometimes there is a word that you have never heard or seen before but once you have heard it and had it explained, you seem to hear or see it everywhere.

I think that is what is happening for me with this podcast. Last week Claire Austin talked about tree peonies and when Lynne said she had never seen one, Claire said - ‘You have! It turns out, I have too! In the borders of the peony beds at the Inner Temple garden in London are tree peonies. They are also in the pot displays by the greenhouse. Once you know what you are looking for, you start to see them everywhere.

People have been sharing such lovely stories about peonies this week. Both in person and online. One friend told me how as a child in Canada, their garden path was lined either side with big red peonies. Another told me her mother had volunteered in a peony nursery at home in America. Online someone messaged me - ‘the episode has certainly made me appreciate my late grandma’s peonies and inspired me to get on with planting a replacement Sarah Bernhardt’. And here is Sarah Bernhardt just emerging in the Inner Temple garden - see what I mean!

It’s been great to hear how people are enjoying the first episode. Strange as it might seem, when you put out a programme on Radio 4, although your editor or colleagues may comment on it, as a producer you don’t really find out what listeners think. Podcasting is different. People message you. Natalie who I simply follow on Instagram, told me that she sees podcast show notes as ‘a jumping off point for further research or to jog my memory if something has piqued my interest and I can’t remember exactly what’. And of the Our Plant Stories peony notes: ‘these are genuinely helpful, bite-sized and beautifully organised…’ And that feedback is so useful this week as I write the show notes for passion flowers. Someone else said of the stories - ‘more of the same please’ which is great because there are more to come! One of the nicest things has been a review on Apple podcasts from a total stranger who said: “hearing about what plants and nature has meant to people and their families is just the kind of heart-warming content we all need.”

And whilst finding the above quote, I have just seen that someone who I worked with many years ago from the Charity sector has also written something very beautiful. “It’s the podcast equivalent of having a grandparent or much loved relative pass on their gardening expertise down the generations.”

I share this not to claim credit but to say that this is the power of stories. I knew that when I worked with all the hundreds of small charities on the Radio 4 Appeal. As a wonderful botanist, who you will hear in the future, who works in Australia said to me the other night (yes the time difference is a bit of a killer!) these stories will find their way out, at the right time and in the right way. We just need to be enablers.

So if you can rate and review the podcast on whichever app you use or share this website with your gardening friends, then together we will grow Our Plant Stories community. I know there are plenty of plant stories waiting to be told.