In The Post

This morning in the post, this plant arrived! It’s a gift from Raymond Evison and I think you’ll quickly see why he thought I would especially like this clematis.

Clematis Sally

As I watch this grow I will remember the wonderful afternoon, spent recording Raymond and Sam Fry. They were discussing a lost clematis named Miriam Markham, Miriam was the wife of William Robinson’s head gardener Ernest Markham. I love the way that the name of a plant can tell us a story, in this case of Markham and Robinson’s love of clematis and the work they did to propagate and restore the popularity of these plants. We take for granted that we find them in our gardens today but that was not always the case as you will hear if you listen to the episode here.

Protecting our garden plants is something that has been on my mind this week as I edit next weeks Offshoot episode, the second in the series about the Plant Heritage Missing Collector Garden, being built at this years RHS Chelsea Flower show. I have been interviewing National Collection holders and Plant Guardians, hearing about their passion to collect and protect cultivars that sometimes just go out of fashion and if we are not careful, they, like Clematis Miriam Markham, can just disappear. Along the way someone told me “if you want to keep a plant - share it” so if you lose it you’ll know who to ask for a cutting.

This week I was also lucky enough to go to Warley Place, once the home and incredible garden of the horticulturalist Miss Ellen Willmott. Now leased to the Essex Wildlife Trust, you wander along paths that once wended their way past the boating lake and the alpine ravine, the glasshouses and coldframes. There are daffodils that have spread across the landscape and there’s the ghostly remains of the conservatory, all that is left of the house. I love this small narcissus which is called Narcissus triandrus - also known as Angel’s Tears.

The Essex group of Plant Heritage have started a project to collect all the plants that have Willmott or Warley in their name. There’s Epimedium Warleyense and Rosa willmottiae and of course many more. The aim is to have a diversified collection amongst their members. Once you start on the stories of plants, people and places you quickly become hooked.

Finally a couple of pieces of news from previous contributors. Wildlife gardening pioneer Chris Baines who you heard in conversation with Anne in this episode Anne’s Natural Surroundings emailed me last night to say that he is about to be awarded the Victoria Medal of Honour by the RHS. He added “at last gardeners like Anne and me are legit!”

The VMH is the highest distinction in UK horticulture. It was first established in 1897 and is restricted to 63 recipients at any one time - this corresponds to the number of years of Queen Victoria’s reign - Ellen Willmott received it in the inaugural year.

I also received an email from Marion Whitehead in Australia, who we heard in this episode about Camellias back in June 2023. Sitting on the ground in the early morning she was describing the site of the new Camellia garden that was about to be built in the Blue Mountain Botanical Gardens. Marion told me she had travelled to Japan last year for the International Camellia Congress to share the news of their garden which opened in November 2025. Their next step is to apply for International Camellia Garden of Excellence status.

And finally I just wanted to thank all of you who have faithfully opened these posts each Friday morning, reading about the creation of a podcast from the seed of an idea to what I like to now think of as small plant. Keeping with this metaphore it is now time to see if I can grow it into a larger plant.

So these blog posts or newsletters will shift from Fridays to Tuesdays to accompany the release of new episodes. You will be able to listen directly from the newsletter making it the easiest way to listen to each new story as I release it. (You can of course also still find them on your podcast app of choice). I am sure I will still share podcast updates as I like to think that we get to know the people who share their stories, so if we find Clematis Miriam Markham - it will be on the newsletter!

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