Exciting News!

Finally I can share something that I have been connected to for a little while. On Monday the charity Plant Heritage were able to announce that they have an All About Plants garden, sponsored by Project Giving Back at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026.

I became a trustee of the charity Plant Heritage - the home of the National Plant Collections, back in December 2024. Its been fascinating getting to know the work of the charity. Last May, I was lucky enough to don a high vis jacket and go to Chelsea on the Sunday before the show opened to help with the set up in the marquee. However this is the first time that Plant Heritage have had a garden at Chelsea. We all see the national collection holders on programmes like Gardeners World or featured in gardening magazines but you may not have realised that Plant Heritage is at the heart of this work. I have certainly talked to quite a few national collection holders on the podcast because their knowledge and passion for the plants they care for is incredible.

As a radio producer, I always loved making programmes that followed a journey. Over the course of a year, I made a Radio 4 series about a vineyard owner, a restauranteur, an import/export business and two inventors. It was fascinating to get to know them and watch their businesses grow. So when we learned that Plant Heritage had been successful in its bid with Project Giving Back to build the garden - I knew I would love to follow the process. Let’s be honest it is the closest I am ever going to get to the process of creating a Chelsea flower show garden! I got a tiny taster of what it means to a charity, when I made an episode last year about the Hospitalfield garden which was relocated after the show to a primary school playground in Arbroath.

The Missing Collector Garden

The Plant Heritage garden is called the Missing Collector Garden and you can read more about it and see some images here.

Below are the 3 designers..

The Planting Design Collective

Sally-Anne Rees, Kate Campbell and William Murray, met while studying planting design at the London College of Garden Design. Together they are the Planting Design Collective and they are passionate about plants.

I've already begun to record for the behind the scenes Offshoot episodes that will start in February and run through till May. Alongside the process of making the Missing Collector garden, I think we will all learn from the designers how we can think anew about the plants and the planting combinations in our own gardens.

The story of how they came to be building this garden is lovely and really does illustrate how sometimes, as Will says: “you just need to seize the moment”.

Plant Heritage is a small charity and this will put its plant conservation work centre stage - with a big audience, both those who visit in person and the millions who will watch it on television. As the Chief Executive Gwen Hines says:

“We hope to inspire more people to join our growing community in safeguarding our nation’s favourite plants. Whilst plants in your garden may appear safer than those in the wild, they can still be at risk, so it's crucial that we protect our garden plants.” 

These podcast episodes are a chance to find out about those plants, talk to the people who hold national plant collections and find out why such collections are key to biodiversity. I also want to find about plant guardians, who may look after just one or two plants. And as you will hear in the clip above, our first plant story of the new season illustrates how if no one is looking after a plant it can just disappear. You’ll be hearing a lot about Clematis Miriam Markham.

Thank you to those who gave coffees following my request last week or joined Plant Plugs. (By the way I am not wedded to the name Plant Plugs and open to other suggestions!) Your support means a lot. This year is going to be a big one for the podcast, my plan is to take us all to some of these places rather than just do interviews on zoom. And hopefully by May we will all feel invested in this garden, knowing how much work goes into making such a garden and the challenges along the way.

Have a lovely weekend

Sally

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