How to keep your plants happy as it gets cold

Life and Art from FT Weekend

Forhecz Topher

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 601 Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2023

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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 [email protected].

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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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Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

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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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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Life and Art from F.T. Weekend. I'm Lila Raptopoulos. We're here today to talk about plants and gardening in the winter. You've probably noticed that it's only gotten trendier over the years to have plants in your home. I've definitely noticed that. But the Financial Times' gardening columnist Robin Lane Fox has always known that plants are cool.
0:21.7	He's been writing this column for 53 years.
0:24.8	Robin is also an esteemed professor of classical history at Oxford University.
0:29.4	That means he lives in Oxford, so his specialty is the UK climate.
0:33.1	But don't worry, we're going to talk about gardening all around the world, too.
0:37.2	Robin, welcome to life and art.
0:39.0	It is such a pleasure to have you.
0:41.0	Thank you so much.
0:41.9	Pleasure to be here.
0:43.5	So I have many questions for you, some of which I've crowdsourced from our listeners and colleagues.
0:48.8	But before we get into the advice, I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about your garden. I'm sure you have
0:57.1	a lovely garden outdoors. Do you also have plants indoors? I do. Yeah, I'm a great killer indoors.
1:02.9	I have responsibility for two gardens. One of them I call the Kissing Fields, which is the great
1:09.6	gardens in New College, Oxford.
1:11.2	That's nine acres.
1:12.4	Anyone can come and see them any day for a fee.
1:15.9	And I think it would be agreed they are the finest college gardens at the moment in England.
1:20.9	And at home, I have two acres of very cold ground, which I feel puts me in touch with many unfavoured readers.
1:29.3	As for gardening indoors,
1:36.8	none of you has killed as many plants in the past 65 years indoors as I have. That's a relief.
1:42.8	You will have killed the same percentage, but I actually admit it. And I've learned which ones are the quickest to die. Okay, great. I'm curious first,
1:46.7	what's your approach to winter gardening any time? Like, do you feel like the winter is a time to
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