This time next week…

Emma’s Magnolia tree

Back in January, I took this photograph of Emma Dogliani’s Magnolia tree, outside the house where she used to live. We’d talked about the significance of this tree, planted 30 years ago, at a time of sadness and then we walked to see it…

This week we recorded the other half of the episode which was an interview with a wonderful teacher called Joe Woodcock. Joe had been my teacher on my RHS Level 2 practical course and he was now telling us about these beautiful trees and teaching Emma how to take a cutting of this Magnolia to take to her new house. Joe took such care to explain the best way to take a cutting from this ‘old friend’ and that is often what plants are - friends. We can’t take the cutting till late May after it has finished flowering but we will let you know how we get on.

This time next week there will a podcast at the top of this blog. Finally after patiently following the seed of an idea for the last 5 months, you will see it will emerge as a podcast.

There are quite a few people I need to thank.

There’s the Potting Shed crew and friends (December 8th blog) who have been brilliant and listened to all those early recordings. But even before that there was Andrea who listened patiently to my musings on our train journeys back and forth to the Art and Craft of Gardening course at Great Dixter. Then thanks to our tutor Edward Flint - we talked podcasts, often over lunch. Then there was a chance conversation with a stranger whilst planting bulbs in Regents Park which led to that ‘stranger’ - Catherine Horwood listening to my first clips and that encouraged me to have the courage to start working on a format. (Nov 25th blog)

Then there are all of you who have been recorded, for this first series, some more than once! Some of you were already friends, again some were strangers who I emailed out of the blue or contacted via Instagram. You’ve given your stories and your expertise with such generosity. I have loved our conversations.

I have discovered kindred spirits along the way such as Janine who has done the wonderful artwork. This week, after a brief struggle with Canva, I thought of dad (see last week’s blog post) and instead headed to a lovely printers, thanks to Angie, Sion, Joantoni and Arthur at Calverts. Now I have postcards. I chose the image on the left.

Then there are those who have given advice, encouragement - Caroline and practical help - Charlotte and Maeve, Laura and Andrea again, the latter whilst studying for their own horticultural qualifications. My colleagues at the Inner Temple where I volunteer have always listened with patience as I talked about this thing!  Thanks to Antonio for the editing lesson as I re-learned a skill not used for quite a long time.

And of course my family. They are wonderful and have supported me in this venture, every step of the way. 

I think I said quite early on - ‘go where the energy is’ (December 31st blog) and as you can see there has been plenty of energy. 

So now this idea heads off to find an audience. Thank you for being amongst the first to think it has ‘legs’ as we used to say in radio or perhaps we should say ‘roots’ in this instance. 

Please continue to share it. Maybe think of it as sharing a seed to help us grow Our Plant Stories community. And let me know what you think next week when you get to hear the first episode!

PS: I am changing the timing of this email to early Sunday mornings so if you want to listen to the podcast as you potter in the garden during the day, then you can.