Podcast - Plantastic Podcast

Presented by American professor of horticulture Dr. Jared Barnes, this informative and interesting podcast gives listeners an insight into the US horticultural world.

As a horticulture professor, there’s a serious and scientific bent to the podcast as Dr Jared interviews a huge range of his peers and friends: from fellow professors to nurserymen, breeders to designers and landscape architects.

There’s an excellent description of a different plant of the season at the start, before the excellent in-depth interview begins.  There are some interesting conversations on sustainability including a chat with the ambassador for native plants with the National Wildlife Federation, Mary Phillips, who talks about wildflowers such as trillium and wild viola, and creating habitats for wildlife.  Horticulturalist David Hoffman from Hoffman Nursery, which specialises in ornamental and native grasses and sedges,  discusses the nursery’s role in green infrastructure and sustainable environments, from green roofs to large scale plantings, including their role encouraging pollinators and wildlife and managing storm water.

Another enthusiastic plants person, Angela Palmer, who co-owns a plant marketing company, Plants Nouveau, gives us a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at introducing new plants to consumers.  She knows all about this as she helped introduce the hugely popular ‘Knock out’ rose at a time when roses were less popular in America.  Other episodes to look out for include those with landscape architects such as Tomas Rainer and Molly Hendry, who has a wonderful way with words and describes how a trip to Rousham was life changing.

Going across the pond for podcast fodder opens up new horizons in horticultural ideas and practices – it’s also interesting to get an objective perspective, often very admiring, perspective on how we do things in the UK.  Well worth a listen.