Inspired by Other Growers
Mittens basking in the sun amongst the plants
If you were to come to visit my garden, perhaps next summer, there is going to be a somewhat eclectic collection of new plants and cuttings. I am taking this as a good sign that the format of this programme is working - at least for me! The idea to have a ‘how to grow’ slot for the plant we are talking about, came from my niece, Claudia. She commented on one of the very early pilots, suggesting that she would want to come away from listening with something she could do. So each episode will end with a ‘how to grow it’ moment. The thing is, if you talk with someone who has an absolute passion for a particular plant you come away enthused, excited to try and grow it yourself. They make it seem possible.
Take this week. At the beginning, I had a fascinating conversation with Dr Jean Levy who holds a National Plant Collection of Mint - Mentha. She is so knowledgeable and generous in sharing her passion for this genus. She has over 250 plants, actually that’s not true because as I learned, if you hold a national collection, you have to have 3 of every plant. So 750 plants. It was lovely to hear of how on family holidays her children would say ‘wait dad, mum’s gone crawling under a fence to look at a mint plant’. I especially love hearing the stories of how people come to have a passion for a particular plant.
Jean urged us all to rescue the mint plants that lurk, often forgotten and unloved in the dark corners of garden centres. Bring them home and group them together in pots to make a beautiful scented and useful collection outside your back door.
Then later in the week I talked to Myles Stewart Irvine. (With a brief intervention from his friend Mittens, featured above.) Myles is a very successful breeder of Passionflowers - Passiflora and he was in conversation with my friend Bridget who came to love them through her grandmother. Myles began with just one plant but then …
Hearing his stories of growing these plants and naming one of the varieties he has bred, Passiflora Betty Myles Young after his mother, was wonderful. And like Jean he generously shared his passion and enthusiasm, explaining how we can grow this exotic looking plant in a pot or in the ground, with some dos and don’ts that mean all of us should be successful. I do hope that as this community grows and the podcast begins, people will share pictures of their new and growing Our Plant Story collections.
Thank you to everyone who left comments on this page and emailed me about the Latin v Common names question. It was so helpful to get the feedback. I am thinking maybe there is a way to do both. To name each episode with the common name that people in the UK will recognise but have a - Latin name too. Also perhaps the episode pages are the place to explore the history of some of these names which is also fascinating. In a future blog post I will explain the research that we are doing as a result of a plant story, for a Professor in Japan around the names of the Easter Lily.
Finally an exciting press release from the Camden Highline which I mentioned in a previous blog post.