SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, I'm delighted to be joined by Michael Parry, otherwise Mr. Plant Geek. It's a great moniker that, Michael, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 0:08

I think so. It's actually just past my 10-year anniversary of becoming Mr. Plant Geek. Is it?

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Where has the 10 years gone?

SPEAKER_01 0:15

I don't know. Just been busy jumping around doing stuff. But it's it's very funny because I hadn't even realized what I was doing until about three years ago. I was like, yeah, you're plant promoter, Michael. Yeah. Because it's funny, I've just been on stage here at Gardeners World Live and we had questions at the end, and then people are like, I'm a plantsman, I'm a plant promoter, and then people ask me, how do I deal with ants in my pots or how do I prune my roses? I'm like, I don't know. I'm not really a gardener. You can't be confused with somebody else.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

I mean, has that 10 years um uh you know been how you expected it to be? And what's changed in the 10 years?

SPEAKER_01 0:53

I don't know. Do you know what though? Is I never looked that far ahead. I never looked that far ahead or that far behind, really. That's the moment yeah, it's been a great experience. I think, like I say, you don't always realise what you're doing until you're doing it. But I've really just I guess the whole backdrop of it is a passion for plants, which I think shines through. Um, yeah, and I just get opportunities. I say yes to stuff, I say yes to stuff that even scares me as well, which I think I'd recommend to anyone because then you have this euphoria afterwards that you're like, I was scared, but I did it anyway. Yeah, so yeah, just go for it really and just follow your passion, really.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Yeah, one of the the things that always intrigues me at BBC Gardeners World Live is uh over in the floral marquee, uh, and usually overseen by Neil Gow, uh lovely man, and that's all of the new things the breeders have been bringing. Fantastic. Um is it called Hot Off the Bench, I think, or something like that. Um and that is incredible because they they are now waiting, the breeds are waiting to find out what the public like before they they bring things on. I mean, have you seen any really new varietals or new new breeds of plant coming out?

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Well, I guess I'll get my nose in everywhere these days. So most of the things I had seen already, but that's only because I travel extensively. Um but on there there was some very interesting petunia bubbles series, which are from the Curly family, some of the top breeders in the UK, one of very few breeders in the UK. Um, so the bubbles series, very nice. The hosta red ninja, the one that won at Chelsea was there as well. Some nice uh Anisodontia, which is a lovely mallow-like flower, that was looking good. Roses, houseplants as well, streptocarpus, I think they could be the next top houseplant. Flowering house plants. I think there's a real uh potential for flowering houseplants.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

It's interesting, isn't it, how since COVID um houseplants have. I mean, Joe Backley, I I'll be chatting to, you know, he's he's got 160 plants in his house or something. Um I mean, people are now, because they haven't got outside spaces or for whatever reason, they you know, houseplants have have gone up exponentially.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

They have such a community around it as well. Like the houseplant area here, the green rooms is just yeah, the camaraderie, camaraderie, uh between the kind of uh houseplant shops as well. It's a real movement, but they don't grow many flowery houseplants. Yeah. Strange. I really want to champion that. Not just not just orchids, but things like Kalanchoe, uh even chrysanthemums. You know, there's some really cool flowering chasant that might be seen as not trendy, but I think it's time to get back to some of those beauties, you know.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

I was talking to somebody uh yesterday who was saying that they've still got the spider plants they had when they were students. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

And every student had a spider plant. You can't beat them. But do you do you know what I'm thinking about houseplants a lot recently? Uh and I've been doing some uh some demos on the QVC stage as well this week, and I've been mixing a really cool new funky petunia called Amazonas. I've been mixing that with houseplants because houseplants can be grown outdoors in the summer, so I'm blending those with these funky petunias and giving completely different looks. So, like Tradus Cantia, spider plants indeed. You know, heck, you could even have a Monstera, you know, Swiss cheese plant, in a pot outdoors in the summer. There's nothing to stop you. I think we're really shackled, I think is the right word, by kind of all these categories of plants. And I do a container planting style called Barakura that I actually learnt in Japan, which blends up things from all different parts of the garden centre. Yeah. So I'll be mixing herbs with petunias, with shrubs, with a house plant. Why not? Why not? You know, just because it says basket plant section doesn't mean they're the only plants I can grow in a basket or patio pot, you know? I don't know. I'm a rule breaker. What can I say?

SPEAKER_00 4:35

There you go. At the cutting edge. Are um, you know, the people who come to BBC Gardeners World Live and love the program, read the magazine. Are they becoming, are we becoming more adventurous with our gardens?

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Because what you're suggesting is that we all do, but definitely. Um I definitely am. I think it happens here and there, definitely. But I feel like sometimes we are encouraged to follow the rules in some funny way, and you need to sort of have the rules, but not be too nervous not to try something different, because all plants behave differently. What works for one person might not work for another person. You know, sometimes I think it's a crazy comparison, but pruning wisteria. Pruning wisteria, there's two different times you have to prune wisteria, etc. etc. And I often think to myself, if a wisteria is growing in the wild, it will flower without any pruning.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

You make a good point, yeah. So I mean, uh there's that interesting argument, therefore, isn't there, about are we interfering with nature when we when we start to you know change the soil and and and you know, prune things, over prune things. I mean, uh that's a big philosophical argument for a dinner party.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

That's interesting actually, but I find sometimes the way we garden in the UK is very different to how they garden in Europe. And I travel a lot and I see this. Like here, we are green-fingered, or we aspire to be, we feel a pressure to be. But in Europe, on the mainland, they are clean fingered and they're decorating their gardens. They're not stressing about keeping the plant for years on end or pruning it at the right time. They're literally a plant comes in as decor and then it goes out again maybe three months later. It's more of a throwaway style of gardening, which I entirely approve of as well, because a plant can also be good compost. Do you know what I mean? And they switch up the garden almost with every season, and that is quite refreshing. And I think sometimes we're a victim of our own heritage of trying to be this like desperate gardener that kind of like is, you know, always doing the right thing and pruning, and I don't know. There's a different way you can also garden and have fun with plants. What's going to be the next big thing? Ooh la la. I think uh sophisticated dry gardening, so like Xeroscapes, which is a trend that's been knocking around in the US for a few years with an X on the front, Xeroscape, which is kind of growing uh but making plants work harder for the water, so not mollycoddling perennials, allowing them to have deeper roots that go down to you know lower water tables, but also using intelligent plants like uh ornamental grasses, more drought tolerant plants, but blending them with things that are drought tolerant but you might not expect. So lovely flowering plants. You know, we always think this vision of a drought tolerant border needs to be barren and looking like a desert, but it doesn't have to. It doesn't have to. You can have very decorative mulch that keeps the moisture locked in, you can have very pretty flowers. You know, it's just thinking a little bit differently about how we do a more kind of sustainable, kind of like uh drought tolerant garden. It can be pretty and it doesn't have to look like a desert scape, if you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

So many wonderful uh gardens, borders, the wheelbarrows that the schools do, and all of the exhibitors here. Uh absolutely incredible, just behind uh where we're sat near the the main stage, British Garden Centre's has has been a mass of people, hasn't it? Something that caught my eye is uh just on your right there, which is this uh Ardash Air Force uh yes lavender. Yeah, and it that seems to be so popular at this show because there's only four plants left the last I heard. Yeah, absolutely. And it and it's it's stunning because it's white and got the the purple.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Yeah, totally. I actually know the guys that developed this, a company in Europe called Florensis, and it's actually like I think people are assuming it's a colour change, but it's actually two plants in the pot that are planted very closely. And what we're seeing in Europe is a lot of kind of duos and trios where you've got kind of multi-sone plants or multi-cuttings plants where you get that kind of uh display all in one, and it's really really fun. And of course, lavender is great, and you know, I've also got a theory where you can use lavender as a short-term houseplant, like in your bedroom, little pot of lavender. If it's low cost, you know, same as a bunch of flowers, you can keep it for two weeks in your bedroom and have the best sleep of your life.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Yeah, why not? Absolutely. I know I have uh a friend down in Southwest France who harvests lots of lavender, puts it in an upstairs room with a window open, and during the summer it dries out, and the whole fragrance. It's really good, isn't it? So, um, lots of people coming to the show have seen your fantastic talk on uh the main stage. Uh, they will be going home with their little trolleys full of things they've bought. Um, they'll be inspired by the gardens that they've seen. Um, what should they be doing now for the rest of the summer to get the most out of their garden and to prepare for autumn? What are you gonna suggest they ought to be doing? Relax and decorate it.

unknown 9:32

Perfect.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

No, I mean, it's really, you know, feeding your garden, I think, is the main thing. And a lot of people overlook that. I certainly wouldn't plant much new now because it is warm and you're gonna need to work hard to establish that. But I would say feeding, you know, gardens, you know, plants are just like people, we can't survive on water alone. We need to feed as well. So I would say, yeah, feed in, especially your pots, but also your borders. Don't forget your borders, you can also fertilize those too.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

I live by the seaside, and somebody said to me that seaweed make my own feed with seaweed. Absolutely, very, very good. Yeah. Do you need to wash the salt off it though? Is it not too salty on the soil?

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Yeah, I don't know how it would work just picking your own, actually, because it tends to be kind of like processed in some way to use, but yeah, we'll have to look that up actually. Have a good look.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

I think the the thing you mentioned about um people being adventurous and having a go is the fear of failure, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 10:19

I mean it's but I yeah, it's really interesting because I think our inbuilt horticultural heritage is the thing that causes that because we feel like we have to be good gardeners because of this heritage, but in Europe they don't have that because they don't have that heritage of this gardening you know style, so they can just have fun with plants, and we're yeah, we're a victim of our own success.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Interesting take on the cultural differences. Um I you're still Mr. Plant Geek, obviously, online. Um where can people get more information and find out what you're doing, Michael?

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Yeah, so my website is really mrplantge.com, so that's M R PlantGeek, uh, which will give you all the links to my social media, so that's probably the best place to jump on, first of all.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

When you leave the show, what are you up to next?

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Ah, well, I'm nearly going to have a holiday, but I got one more trip to Germany to create some coverage on Selector One, which is a big German company, uh, to showcase their breeding and also a new type of plug tray they have, which is made of paper. So it's a much more sustainable way to send plugs, and maybe even it can be used in mail order where we send, you know, piles of plugs to the consumer for a great price.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Who knows? Absolutely. Have a safe trip, always a pleasure to capture.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Thank you very much.