A little later than normal here is Friday’s blog post. After a very exciting week visiting first the Chelsea Flower show, followed by The Podcast Show, Our Plant Stories has been wilting a little! However I wanted to share this week’s Offshoot episode - a chat with Lally Snow about the history of allotments in the UK. It’s a fascinating story.

There are some photos from the Chelsea Flower show on Instagram: ourplantstories_podcast including a very exciting one of Vicky winning another Gold medal for her hostas. In fact two gold medals, one for her ferns too. Her stand featuring a figure reclining in a bath of hostas and another figure lying on a bed under a blanket of ferns were phenomenal. I recorded this Offshoot behind the scenes episode with her last year. It was so very wet on the day we were there this week and as we searched for a spot to picnic my cousin spotted some people picnicking in the Grand Marquee. I confess I felt too self conscious to plonk myself down beside someone’s display! However as always, seeing the beautiful gardens, so long in the planning, is a treat whatever the weather.

I also visited The Podcast Show 2024 which is held in London. It is a slightly overwhelming experience with so much sound echoing around the old agricultural halls in Islington. I was there in February for a very different show! The exciting news is that I may have found a plant story! A lovely Serbian couple who immediately began to tell me about the plants they had had to leave behind when they moved to the UK. I do recall plant sitting a very large plant for a friend for a couple of years. She was in Russia and we had it until her son moved into a new flat and had room to take it. But I am sure there are other stories out there of plant sitters.

One piece of advice from one of the podcast gurus was that you have to build your podcast followers one by one. So here’s our podcast challenge to share this link:

https://ourplantstories.captivate.fm/listen

with a friend and encourage them to follow and take a listen.

Thanks to Gill and Anne for buying coffees to support the show. Anne has been inspired to buy a pack of radishes - as I am sure Kathy Slack would say: “her work is done!” And do in five weeks time try the radish slammer, its a game changer!

Have a lovely weekend

Sally