Magnolia cuttings

Gathering the potting kit to take Emma’s greenwood cuttings

I’ve put together the kit: 10 cm square pot - tick. Rooting hormone - tick. 50/50 multipurpose peat free compost + perlite - tick. Plastic bag and elastic band - tick.

When we visited the Magnolia outside Emma Dogliani’s old house, back in January, the tree was encased in scaffolding! This weekend Emma and I are heading off to take some greenwood cuttings so she can try to grow a new tree in her new home. It’s the right time to do it and we’re armed with Joe Woodcock’s brilliant instructions - listen to this week’s podcast.

I love the rhythm of gardening. It’s autumn and you buy bulbs. It’s spring - they bloom. You like some of the displays in your pots but others didn’t quite work but never mind, the autumn will come around and you will try again. Making a podcast about plants, also I am learning, has a rhythm. For some of the plant stories there is a right moment, when the grower will have time to talk to you, when you’ll be able to see the plant. And the exciting part of that is that now as we come towards the end of series one of Our Plant Stories - I am beginning to look towards series two. Some stories didn’t quite come to fruition this series but there is another opportunity.

By the time you read this I will have recorded the first two ‘Off-Shoots’. These are stories that have come from the plant stories. The idea is that while Our Plant Stories takes a break and I start work on the second series, these Off-Shoots will go out once a month. There’ll be a story about a 500 year old Fig tree in London, a 4am visit to the flower market in the company of our lovely florist Hannah, the inside track on displaying your prized Hostas at Chelsea from Vicky Meads. Hopefully you too will enjoy building on the knowledge we have already gained over the past 3 months.

This weekly blog will continue, thank you for reading it. Thank you also for continuing to listen to the podcast. And if you have a plant story that you would like to share do email me. I will happily look for the connections across continents, across gardens and across history. Your story could be in series two! sally@ourplantstories.com