I hope you are having a lovely Summer. If you haven’t already heard the episode on Hill Close Gardens, do take a listen. Matt Nolan is the Manager and I believe you can hear his passion and commitment to these gardens, and his understanding of how important they are to those who spend time there. I also know that he is keen to get the word out about the gardens so anything we can do to help would be amazing. If you are on Instagram do take look on ourplantstories_podcast where you can see footage of the hedgehog that Matt talks about - the one who goes over the top of the brick and face plants in the food!

Whilst away on holiday I came across a plant story! It involves a fallen tree that was gifted to a chateau by Napoleon, brought back from his expedition to Louisiana. (In 1803 Napoleon sold Louisiana to the Americans) The owner of the chateau was so knowledgeable about the history of the tree and though a little surprised by my interest, he did record the story with me. I realise I become very excited by these stories but do sometimes wonder, as I plan the next series, whether others feel the same or whether people prefer stories about more common garden plants that you can grow, such as peonies and passion flowers. Or are you happy with the mix? If you have a moment to drop your thoughts in the comments it would be much appreciated and do be honest - it will help in the planning.

I love hearing from people. This morning I noticed a new follow on Instagram from an account belonging to Elenore in Australia. I followed back and noticing a Christmas Cacti on their feed, shared the recent episode about Lindy’s Disocactus x hybridus. How lovely in return, to get the response: “Thanks I’ve been listening to several of your podcasts and am loving them!”

I am currently editing the episode with Philippa of Justdahlias. I am so enjoying watching her Instagram account as all the new dahlia seeds are beginning to bloom, revealing their unique flowers. These new unique blooms are going to be on show, in next months flower festival at Strawberry Hill and the plant story looks at the relationship between the grower and the floral designer. While we were away my own dahlia seedlings, grown from seeds that Philippa gave me back in April, were watered by our New Zealand neighbour and though there is no sign yet of flowers they are all looking good and I’m excited to see what happens. If you listened to the dahlia bonus episode in April and took Philippa’s advice to pick three dahlias that you liked with a view to collecting seeds, then September’s episode will tell you how best to harvest those seeds.

Finally there was another sighting of a Monkey Puzzle tree today - this one is at London Zoo! I was visiting the zoo with my two great nephews who have now been introduced to this tree. They’ve just been helping me water the garden and were very excited to see my baby Monkey Puzzle tree - a gift from David Gedye. The boys live on a farm - perhaps in a few years time, when my little one, out- grows its pot and needs a new home, Charlie and Harry will find a space for it!