Life and Art from FT Weekend

How to keep your plants happy as it gets cold

Nov 20, 2023

Robin Lane Fox, a gardening expert, shares tips for keeping plants happy in winter. He recommends winter flowering cherry trees, Viburnum shrubs, hellebores, and Phalaenopsis orchids. They discuss the pleasures of winter gardening and the trend of indoor planting. The hosts explore Robin's career as a gardening expert and academic. Wrapping up the podcast, they provide show notes and advertise LinkedIn Jobs.

16:52

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Quick takeaways

Winter gardening provides an extended period of floral beauty in Britain, with recommendations including winter flowering cherry, viburnum shrubs, and Lenten roses.

Indoor gardening in winter can be successful with the versatile phalaenopsis orchid, which can withstand temperature variations, neglectful watering, and overheating.

Deep dives

Gardening in Winter: Finding Pleasure in Quiet Reflection

Winter gardening provides a quiet and serene experience, allowing gardeners to focus on the underlying structure of their gardens and contemplate desired changes. It is essential to choose favorable weather conditions and take advantage of good days for outdoor work. Winter gardening in Britain has become more exciting due to the effects of global warming, offering an extended period of floral beauty from early November to the end of January. Recommendations include the winter flowering cherry, viburnum shrubs, and Lenten roses. As for winter vegetables, garlic is a suitable option, while cabbages and Brussels sprouts are ready for harvest. In Japan, hepatica plants are ideal for balconies, and in New York, paper white narcissus bulbs can be grown both indoors and outdoors.

Introduction

2min

Winter Gardening Pleasures

8min

The Trend of Indoor Planting

3min

Exploring the Career of a Gardening Expert and Academic

2min

Wrapping up, show notes, and advertisement for LinkedIn Jobs

3min

Robin Lane Fox is one of the foremost gardening experts in the world. He’s been the FT’s gardening columnist for 53 years. And he joins us today to talk about what to do with your plants in winter. As it gets colder and darker, what should we do to keep our plants happy, indoors and out? The conversation is a delight. We’ve shared all of his recommendations below.

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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap. You can email her at lilah.raptopoulos@ft.com.

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Robin’s recommendations (all FT links get you past the paywall):

–Robin’s public gardens, ‘the kissing fields’, are the gardens he runs at New College, Oxford. Here’s a video of him giving an exclusive tour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae1lCrnsm3k

Robin’s outdoor winter suggestions for the UK are: the winter flowering cherry tree (Prunus subhirtella autumnalis). He also recommends the family of flowering Viburnum shrubs (Viburnum x bodnantense 'dawn' is pink, and 'Deben' is white), and above all, his best tip: hellebores, especially the Ashwood hybrids, and the Harvington hybrids.

Here’s Robin’s column on November flowers: https://on.ft.com/3uiNPWW

Robin’s book suggestion for Japanese gardening is My World of Hepaticas by John Massey

For indoor plants in cold regions, try Phalaenopsis orchids. If you have too many orchids, here are some other options: Cyclamen, azaleas, poinsettia, and white jasmine.

Robin’s current bestselling book is Homer and His Iliad.

Robin’s selection from last year of Christmas gifts for gardeners is here: https://on.ft.com/3ucX6j9

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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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