Best Sally Flatman Podcasts (2025)

1
Treacle and Twinning 36:31

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1M ago36:31

36:31

I know it is a bit of a strange title. But bear with me this is the last episode of Series 3 (Series 4 will start in February 2026) and we have a couple of loose ends to tie up and an amazing idea to share. Back in November 2024, I visited the Castlefield Viaduct in Manchester and the route of the proposed Camden Highline in London. Now regular lis…

1
Gardeners' Glees 15:18

1M ago15:18

15:18

If you find yourself in a gathering of gardeners today they are unlikely to break into a glee...a song, as their predecessors might have done. I think its a bit of a shame! As part of the Being Human Festival - the UK's national festival of the humanities , historian Francesca Murray and musician Osnat Schmool gathered a group of people to explore …

1
Propagating at Kew Gardens 22:03

2M ago22:03

22:03

Sal Demain has her dream job and in this Offshoot episode she shares why she loves it so much. Working as the Supervisor of the Arboretum Nursery at Kew Gardens, she has many plants to look after though she does have her favourites! Her curiosity about how plants spread goes back to childhood. And she would love everyone to have a go at propagating…

1
Richard Hayden: story of the New York High Line 37:04

2M ago37:04

37:04

"If you grow plants you are inherently an optimist". I love this thought from Richard Hayden, shared as we wandered along the New York High Line, this summer. Richard is the Senior Director of Horticulture on the High Line. We talk about the magic of this garden in the sky, it's history - the trains that were once delivering the ingredients for ore…

1
Natural Surroundings Offshoot 22:03

3M ago22:03

22:03

In the last episode Anne Harrap told us the story of how she came to build a series of wildlife friendly gardens on a field in Norfolk. At the heart of the plant story was a book - How to Make a Wildlife Garden by Chris Baines. In the episode she met the author for the first time and they talked about their approaches to wildlife garden. In this Of…

1
Anne's Natural Surroundings 52:45

4M ago52:45

52:45

Sometimes in life you come across a book that just speaks to you - you and the author are on the same page and they have articulated all the things you have been thinking. This plant story is about such a book and the influence it had on a young woman who was just starting out in business in Norfolk. The book is called How To Make A Wildlife Garden…

1
Poppy Okotcha and Adam Frost at the British Library 1:31:47

4M ago1:31:47

1:31:47

I think we're in for a real treat. Listening to Poppy Okotcha and Adam Frost talking about their gardens, their 'safe spaces', their connections to nature. And in the best traditions of the podcast - the stories of plants and people are entwined. This conversation was recorded at the British Library in July as part of the events programme for an ex…

1
Poppy Okotcha and Adam Frost in Conversation Trailer 5:04

5M ago5:04

5:04

Back in July I was lucky enough to host a conversation at the British Library between Poppy Okotcha and Adam Frost. Hear a trailer for the episode which will be out next Tuesday. Poppy's new book is called A Wilder Way and Adam's is called For the Love of Plants and over the course of an hour and a half they discussed how they came to be gardeners,…

1
Daffodils in July with Taylors Bulbs 25:54

5M ago25:54

25:54

The joy of making this podcast is that sometimes I just get to be curious which Adam Frost says is key to our enjoyment of gardening. I know that any day now Autumn bulb catalogues will start to drop through my letterbox and garden centres will soon start to sell daffodil bulbs again but I wanted to know where are those bulbs in July? And how do yo…

1
Fay's Yucca Plant 40:51

6M ago40:51

40:51

In 1976 Fay Ballard had just finished her first term at university and heading home for Christmas she was looking for a gift for her father who was the author J.G. Ballard. This episode is the story of that gift! It may have started as a small Yucca pot plant but almost 50 years on - it has a great story to tell. For those of us of a certain genera…

1
Trailer for a Yucca story 3:09

6M ago3:09

3:09

Did you buy a Yucca from Marks and Spencer in the 1970s or 80s...many of us did! If you still have it, it could by now be very large. This months plant story is a beautiful one about a Yucca plant that Fay bought in 1976, for her dad, who was the writer J.G. Ballard. She wasn't sure if he would manage to keep it alive - he didn't have any other pot…

1
Exploring Garden Futures: with flatpack plant pots 21:10

7M ago21:10

21:10

In this offshoot episode of Our Plant Stories, we step into Garden Futures - Designing with Nature — an imaginative new exhibition at the V&A Dundee. With help from one of the curators, Francesca Bibby, and one of the exhibitors. Andrew Flynn, we hear about garden design from both historical and futuristic perspectives; from knitted sculptures embe…

1
Napoleon's Bald Cypress 31:52

7M ago31:52

31:52

This episode features the State Tree of Louisiana, the Bald Cypress. (Taxodium distichum). But the Bald Cypress in the plant story is not in the USA but in the Loire in France, in the grounds of a beautiful chateau. How it got there is part of the story, a gift from Napoleon Bonaparte to the chateau owner, bought back from his last expedition to Lo…

1
RHS Chelsea Hospitalfield Arts Garden 32:17

7M ago32:17

32:17

This is a special week in the horticultural calendar. It is the RHS Chelsea Flower show and over the course of the week thousands of people will visit the show and millions will watch the BBC coverage of it on television. There will be incredible show gardens, conceived months and months ago with designers and growers and build teams coming togethe…

1
Jerry's Tulip Tree 24:25

8M ago24:25

24:25

Jerry Spencer's mum worked at Kew Gardens. As a child he would go there to meet her at lunchtime. Leaving school he trained as a gardener. However a period of living on the streets after he lost his mum and his home, erased his gardening memories. This is a beautiful and very personal plant story of the journey back to Kew and one special tree that…

1
The Accidental Seed Heroes 31:37

8M ago31:37

31:37

I think this Offshoot episode will make you pause next time you find yourself in front of a colourful wall of seed packets. As with many seemingly simple things, the story of a small seed, can in fact be a lot more fascinating and complicated than it might at first appear. So take a journey into the history and science of seeds. We'll ponder the Po…

1
Great Uncle Eric's Old Seeds 26:15

9M ago26:15

26:15

Richard Bowman tells the story of seeds salvaged from great uncle Eric's potting shed. The shed, perched on the Yorkshire moors had been untouched for 20 years when Richard was given the task of clearing it out. These seeds, stored in Oxo tins and match boxes, sparking memories of a bygone era, lead to a conversation with the Seed Detective, Adam A…

1
Kathy's Radishes - the Book. 28:45

10M ago28:45

28:45

In Rough Patch - How a year in the garden brought me back to life; Kathy Slack shares all the lessons she learned from her own story of recovery from depression. She shared her plant story with us in series 2 in an episode called Kathy's Radishes. As we sat by her veg patch she explained why it was so powerful to see life in the soil and discover i…

1
Lucy and The Weed Trust 34:55

10M ago34:55

34:55

One Summer Lucy Houliston, aged just 6, set herself the mission of raising awareness of weeds as plants that deserve love and attention, just like everything else. And so The Weed Trust was born. She also had a passion for insects, she remembers having pockets full of woodlice! Adult Lucy is now working in urban ecology and she shares the story of …

1
Emma Thick - A Snowdrop Shepherd 31:00

11M ago31:00

31:00

Imagine 1500 different snowdrops, roaming around an arboretum. Sometimes a new one joins, sometimes a group is divided, sometimes one just wanders off on its own. You need a snowdrop shepherd and at Thenford Arboretum that is Emma Thick. This is the perfect time to grow our knowledge about snowdrops and I think I have found the perfect person, a ga…

1
Constance and the 9/11 Daffodils 31:09

11M ago31:09

31:09

This podcast episode delves into the inspiring story behind the Daffodil Project, a community-driven initiative that has resulted in the planting of over 12 million daffodil bulbs across New York City since its inception in the wake of the 9/11 tragedy. Sally Flatman speaks with Constance Casey who was working for the New York Parks Department when…

1
Trailer for series 3 of Our Plant Stories 4:13

12M ago4:13

4:13

Season 3 of Our Plant Stories will be starting on the 4th February 2025. These plant stories will once again take us all over the world. We'll be meeting gardeners, botanists and historians and along the way of course we will all learn how to grow the plants. If you have a story that you would like me to follow up in this new series you can email m…

1
The Camden Highline 32:06

1y ago32:06

32:06

You may well have heard about the New York High Line but did you know that there are plans afoot for a Highline in London? It has got the same design team as the NY one and Piet Oudolf will be doing the planting but before we get to the plants - there's a 'bit of treacle' to wade through. Take this audio tour so you can start to become familiar wit…

1
A walk on the Castlefield Viaduct 22:13

1y ago22:13

22:13

Take an audio walk through a park in the sky above Manchester. We’ll walk a route that spans 130 years of history; where once there were trains now there are plants and pedestrians. We perhaps associate the National Trust with stately homes, grand gardens and stretches of countryside but this episode may make you think again. And how does the Castl…

1
Silent Space - an Offshoot episode 19:05

1y ago19:05

19:05

Picture yourself in a garden. Do you get your phone out to take photos of the plants and send them to friends and family? Maybe a swift selfie! Perhaps like me you google the plants - wanting to identify them. Now picture a bench in the same garden but this time you and anyone else around you are just sitting, not a phone in sight. You're in the eq…

1
Strawberry Hill Flower Festival - an Offshoot episode 27:05

1+ y ago27:05

27:05

Some of us (I think I mean me!) buy flowers, rummage for a vase, search for the scissors and then maybe tweak them a little bit before standing back to admire our handiwork. This is lovely but it is not art. In this podcast episode we travel to Strawberry Hill flower festival where floral artists take British grown flowers to a whole new level and …

1
Philippa's Dahlias 33:48

1+ y ago33:48

33:48

Have you fallen in love with dahlias this year? Perhaps you have loved them for many years. But have you ever thought of harvesting the seed from your favourite blooms and creating your own unique flowers? Listen to hear how this is exactly what Philippa Stewart has been doing for the past few years. We also learn about the relationship between the…

1
Standing on the shoulders of Victorian gardeners 31:59

1+ y ago31:59

31:59

Hill Close was a pasture until 1845 when its owner decided to divide it up into gardens. Individual plots where Victorians could rent a space to tend their plants, build a summer house, relax with their family. These were detached gardens for people who had no outdoor space where they lived but a little bit of money to rent one nearby. Once there w…

1
The Cactus Hunters Offshoot 22:56

1+ y ago22:56

22:56

Cacti are among the world's most threatened species. Jared Margulies research led him to the extraordinary illegal trade in these plants. Hear him talk about his work and his book The Cactus Hunters. Who are stealing the cacti and where are they taking them? Independent podcasts like Our Plant Stories depend on their listeners for help with the cos…

1
Lindy's Disocactus x hybridus 30:41

1+ y ago30:41

30:41

A Disocactus x hybridus or forest cactus but in Lindy's family this particular plant is known as Sally's Cactus! It is also sometimes known by a common name: orchid cactus. In finding out about Sally who gave the original cutting we also learn how to get these cacti to bloom, what "soil' you should use to pot them up and where you should put them. …

1
Bonus Episode: The Rebel Botanists 27:39

1+ y ago27:39

27:39

How's your knowledge of Latin plant names? Meet Elizabeth Richmond she loves Latin plant names and she chalks them around the plants she finds growing between pavement cracks or along kerbsides. She does also chalk the common name too! Why does she do it? And how an earth did she get started? Our Plant Stories is presented and produced by Sally Fla…

1
A GCSE in Natural History - Offshoot 27:54

1+ y ago27:54

27:54

"Every child needs someone to introduce them to nature" - Rachel Carson author of Silent Spring In this episode we hear how one woman came up with the idea for a GCSE in Natural History - a way for children to be introduced to nature. So where did the idea come from, what would an exam look like, and how far has she got? She had the idea in 2011. I…

1
Janet's Saxifrage London Pride 32:30

1+ y ago32:30

32:30

Why is a tiny plant from Janet Hickenbottom's childhood so important? And what was the special thing that her mum Margaret shared with Janet and her brother that has stayed with her for all her life? Lee Connelly is also a bit obsessed by this thing and he's on a mission to make sure we don't miss out on it....and even if we weren't given it as chi…

1
Offshoot A history of allotments 24:41

1+ y ago24:41

24:41

When we think of 'allotment history' we perhaps have images from the two world wars with the population being urged to cultivate every spare bit of land from parks to bomb craters. But to really understand our relationship with these spaces we need to go back much further in time. Lally Snow has written a book called My Family and Other Seedlings a…

1
Kathy's Radishes 31:09

1+ y ago31:09

31:09

Kathy Slack brings us the first plant story to feature a vegetable, it is a root vegetable; a radish. They may be tiny but as you will hear in this plant story the impact of growing radish seeds was rather enormous. Kathy has a passion for vegetables so we not only discuss her journey growing them but other questions too - if you were to come back …

1
Bonus Dahlia episode 23:19

1+ y ago23:19

23:19

Philippa Steward of Justdahlias admits that her passion for dahlias has become somewhat of an obsession! So who better than Philippa to share with us that enthusiasm and love of this beautiful flower in its many shapes and colours. Philippa has a plant story for later in this series but I couldn't resist talking to her about dahlias now so we could…

1
Judith's Silver Birch tree 27:23

1+ y ago27:23

27:23

Judith Kleinman had a Silver Birch tree outside her bedroom window when she was growing up. She now has three beautiful Silver Birch trees outside her back door in her small courtyard garden. But to understand why these trees are her plant story you need to go back to her first student summer and a terrible traffic accident that left her in a spina…

1
Monkey Puzzle Bonus 20:42

1+ y ago20:42

20:42

A short bonus episode in which David Gedye pieces together the story of how the Monkey Puzzle tree made its way to the UK and how it became so popular with gardeners in the country. David has been researching this tree and its links to his family for the past 68 years. He wrote a book about it, sadly sold out but luckily for us he shares his knowle…

1
Monkey Puzzle Offshoot 31:54

2y ago31:54

31:54

David Gedye's mum told him a plant story when he was just 10 years old. It involved a very famous Monkey Puzzle tree and his great great grandfather, a head gardener. That story has led him on a lifetime trail, 68 years so far, to learn more about head gardener Philip Frost and to find out about that tree. Could the story be true - did his great gr…

1
Andrea's Monkey Puzzle tree 33:49

2y ago33:49

33:49

When Andrea moved to a new home, 12 years ago, there was a Monkey Puzzle tree in the front garden. She wasn't keen, it was marked down to go but it is still there. Find out why in this Monkey Puzzle Plant Story. These trees first came to the UK in 1795 but they didn't really start to become popular till the 1850s. Queen Victoria saw the tree and wa…

1
Corokia Offshoot 27:04

2y ago27:04

27:04

Who were the celebrity gardeners of the 1850's and why were they important to a fledgling charity called Perennial? The charity still exists today. It's dedicated to looking after people working in horticulture and their families, at any stage of life. The charity's roots go back almost 200 years and garden historian, Francesca Murray has, for her …

1
Mona's Corokia 34:50

2y ago34:50

34:50

Never say to Mona Abboud - "this plant is only for trade". This is a wonderful story of one woman's hunt for a plant, there's detective work, there's blackmail! The result is a beautiful New Zealand garden in North London created by a woman who has never set foot in New Zealand. Mona is on a one woman mission to get us all to love corokia - see if …

1
Viburnum Offshoot 29:30

2y ago29:30

29:30

"What is a Purdom" by Vicky Aspin's own admission this was her first reaction to being sent to the Purdom bed in Holehird gardens. Then her curiosity was aroused by a name plaque on a bench: For Three Native Lakeland Gardeners, William Purdom and sons William and Harry and from that her hunt began...who was William Purdom? Her searches before the e…

1
Penn's Viburnum 37:16

2y ago37:16

37:16

Season 2 of Our Plant Stories is here! And we begin with a very beautiful story from Penn Allen, a listener to the podcast who contacted me with a plant story that takes us to the Lake District. Diaries from Penn's Great Grandmother Alice Hough and her husband Harry reveal a garden built with love in the midst of loss and a friendship with Will Pur…

1
Season 2 - Our Plant Stories 3:22

2y ago3:22

3:22

Our Plant Stories is back for a second season and once again the plant stories are going to take us all over the world. To follow and dig into the stories we'll be meeting gardeners, botanists and historians and along the way of course we will learn how to grow the plants. Season 2 starts 12th January 2024. If you have a story that you would like m…

1
Our Plant Stories and Friends 28:47

2y ago28:47

28:47

Welcome to a bumper crop of plant stories! I'm looking back over some moments from this years episodes but I also invited 3 other plant podcasters to do the same with their podcasts - hence the 'friends'. We've all picked some clips from the past year that we hope you will enjoy. So thanks to Jane Perrone from On the Ledge, Sarah Wilson from Roots …

1
Topiary Bonus 27:04

2y ago27:04

27:04

I'd like to transport you to Levens Hall and a garden that was created in 1694 when topiary was the height of fashion and taste. Over the intervening 329 years this Lake District garden has had only 10 Head Gardeners and each has cared for and clipped that topiary. We first met the current head gardener, Chris Crowder, in Episode 8 in conversation …

1
Apple Day Bonus 14:48

2y ago14:48

14:48

A short bonus episode to help us celebrate the UK's National Apple Day! Listen for just 15 minutes and you will have some fascinating facts both historical and horticultural to share with others this weekend or just anytime! And I hope you will look at the trees, the apples and the pips in a slightly different light. See pictures of the Reverend Wi…

1
Peasgood's nonsuch apple Offshoot 31:18

2y ago31:18

31:18

In October, 140 years ago, Mr R. Gilbert of 'the Gardens Burghley House in Stamford' exhibited the Peasgood's nonsuch apple at the National Apple conference held by the RHS in Chiswick. In Episode 5, we learned of the Peasgood's nonsuch; apples the size of small training footballs. Mr R. Gilbert was a prize winning Victorian gardener in charge of t…

1
Plant Tattoos Offshoot 31:27

2+ y ago31:27

31:27

We return to two lovely florists with a passion for flowers in this Offshoot episode. We first met Hannah and Maya in Episode 9, when Hannah told us the story of her plant tattoos, which honour and remind her of her mum. Maya introduced us to floriography - the language of flowers. Hannah offered to take me to New Covent Garden Market where she goe…