There was a shout of joy on Tuesday as I discovered that the dahlia seeds that I had planted the previous Friday had germinated. If you haven’t already heard Philippa Stewart of Justdahlias talking about her passion for these flowers do take a listen to the Dahlia bonus episode. I think her enthusiasm is infectious and I am really looking forward to sharing her plant story later in this series.

May Day is my birthday! I have always felt rather lucky to have this day as my birthday because of the May bank holiday though it only became a bank holiday in the UK in 1978 when it was instituted by the then Labour Employment Secretary, Michael Foot. Apparently it was somewhat controversial at the time but I remember I was thrilled. I was a little disappointed when I discovered that unlike other parts of the world where the holiday is celebrated on May Day, ours would be the nearest Monday! The other great thing about a birthday at this time of year is that it tends to be sunny and there is so much promise in the garden. This is somewhat reflected in the presents from friends and family above! What you cannot see here is the money from my mum to buy plants for my window boxes…I’ve already bought the plants and the not yet arrived small plastic greenhouse from my husband to house my dahlia and other seedlings. See what I mean - my friends and family really do know me well.

Preparations are currently underway for visits to a couple of garden shows. I have ordered some more postcards with Janine Pope’s lovely design (I first met her doing one of her workshops) and some very grown up Our Plant Stories business cards featuring a QR code to the website. I am going to be on the look-out for a cactus expert for an upcoming episode and I am still tracking an Alpines expert too. Shows are often a great place to find plant societies as well of course as expert growers who have such incredible knowledge. I am not sure if I have mentioned before but I have joined the committee of the Garden Media Guild which is bringing me into contact with all kinds of interesting writers and editors and folk who just love plants and want to talk about them, write about them, photograph them….so in terms of finding your tribe it’s a good place to be.

I am also about to book a visit to the Podcast show later this month. It’s in the same week as a certain well known flower show. In the podcast one I’ll be surrounded by people talking about microphones and downloads rather than magnolias and dahlias!

So how does this all link to my birthday? Well I woke on May Day to see that the website had had a visit from someone in China and another visitor from Los Angeles and one from Amsterdam as well as visits from the UK. (You can see the geography of the website traffic.) When I took the decision to leave the BBC back in 2021, there was a certain amount of trepidation about what next. But I think on this journey I have found my way back to ‘my happy place’ where the joy of researching and recording meets the passion for plants and gardens. A birthday is another marker in the year when you can look both back and forward at how far you have travelled and where you are heading. To use this saying in a slightly different context - “if you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together”. It resonates because a podcast really can’t go anywhere without listeners.

Over the past year so many people have helped me and supported me and encouraged me. Like the friends and family with the gifts, you feel they know you and understand what you are trying to do. And I would also include in that those of you who read this blog every week thereby supporting the podcast - this too is a gift, for which thanks.

For those of you in the UK, enjoy this weekends ‘May Bank holiday’.

I’m off to plant some plants!

Sally

PS look out for a lovely plant story coming out on Tuesday - Kathy’s radishes.