It’s Saturday lunchtime and I return to my car clutching the most exciting small brown envelope, it contains dahlia seeds.  I have spent the morning recording a plant story.  Philippa Stewart, check out Justdahlias on Instagram, has a passion for dahlias that just shines through and as we have found before (remember Mona Abboud and corokias or Vicky Meads and hostas) sometimes when someone really ‘falls’ for a plant it can have extraordinary consequences. 

Dahlias are one of my favourite flowers and I think that goes back to one of my early childhood memories of being in a field of them, as an aunt and uncle with a market garden in Somerleyton cut them to take them to Lowestoft to sell.  I know they don’t travel well, they need to be kept in water and it is rare that you find the flowers for sale in London where I live.  But my sister grows lots of them and in Summer, I always leave Zoe’s garden with an armful of dahlias! 

So do take a listen to the bonus episode that I couldn’t resist recording. Philippa talks about when to plant tubers and how to protect plants from slugs and snails. I hope her passion will inspire you to go in search of some tubers to plant and then later in the series when we have her plant story, she’ll share how to collect the seeds. The first time I grew dahlias from seed, they were in a small brown envelope purchased from the National dahlia collection at a RHS flower show.  It was such a joy!

I was in Manchester on Friday for the first ever RHS Urban show. I talked about the venue last week and suffice to say there was an email from the organisers to warn us that it was warmer outside than it was inside the show! Some exhibitors and perhaps even plants did look a little chilly. My favourite part of the show were the small balcony gardens created by students guided by Jason the Cloud Gardener. Whatever the aspect or light level there were ideas for spaces for children, plant containers to suit every budget, drainpipes repurposed to grow veg!  Small shady spaces was a theme repeated in many of the gardens, with clever solutions to grow vertically. I liked the 3 small plots planted to show the same space over the course of 3 years as the plants grew bigger, reminding us that it’s not all about instant gardens. The comment overheard from one of the young security guys did make me smile “It’s like IKEA but for gardeners”. No impulse buying of tealights but there quite a few plants on offer. I hope this urban show will be one we’ll see grow and develop over time.

I am off to plant my dahlia seeds!

Have a lovely weekend

Sally