Off Air... with Jane and Fi - LIVE AT THE RHS CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW (with Thomas Fudge's)

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

In this special bonus episode brought to you by Thomas Fudge's, Jane and Fi head down to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show to take in the flora and fauna, enjoy some florentines and speak to gardener and presenter Rachel de Thame.If you want to contact the show to ask a question and get involved in the conversation then please email us: [e-mail] us on Instagram! @janeandfiPodcast Producer: Eve SalusburyExecutive Producer: Rosie Cutler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Your door to big deals is on DoorDash right now. Sign up for DoorDash and enjoy a free Big Mac on your first McDonald's order of $20 or more. Only on DoorDash now until June 15th. Terms apply. crypto or switching mobile providers. Except with Fizz. Switching to Fizz is quick and easy. Mobile plans start at $17 a month. Certain conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. This episode of Off Air is brought to you by Thomas Fudge's Biscuits.

We've got a bit of a reputation, haven't we, Jane? Our desk here at Times Towers is pretty famous for having the most delicious sweet treats in the office. Yep, guilty as charged, but we're not into any old treats, no sir, only the most elevated biscuit makes the grade. Because we're so classy. May we introduce you to Thomas Fudgers, born from the expert British craftsmanship of inventive Dorset bakers in 1916. Thomas Fudgers' Florentines are an indulgent blend of moorish caramel, exquisite

almonds and luscious fruits draped in silky smooth Belgian chocolate. You've said a few key words there, Fee. Exquisite, moorish. Exactly the way my colleagues would describe me, I'm sure. Did you say sophisticated? I didn't, but I can. Just like the biscuits, you're very sophisticated, darling. And like you, Thomas Fudges believes that indulgence is an art form and it should be done properly or not at all, Jane. I concur. Thomas Fudges, hats off to remarkable biscuits. Well, as you know, we're both rabid socialites and something we never miss, it's the absolute high point of the social calendar, is of course V.

RHS Chelsea Flower Show. I've never been, have you? Let's pretend. Oh, OK, sorry. Yes, of course. Yes, around this time of year my thoughts do, they turn to the embankment and to an opportunity to see, do you know what, it is one of our nation's favourite pastimes isn't it, doing the gardening and we do it unbelievably well. There are some truly green-fingered Brits about and they, I mean I don't know much about it but I can appreciate the talent and the time that goes in to creating these beautiful, beautiful places. So it was a wonderful opportunity to be invited to the Chelsea Flower Show.

This episode comes to you as part of a paid partnership with Thomas Fudges. We had an opportunity to sit down with one of the top gardeners in the country and to enjoy a very nice cup of tea and some remarkable Florentines, which we did have to pause on because, as we have found to our cost, if you pop one of those in your mouth, it's so chewy, it's quite hard to talk. It is, but it's not hard to talk. Magnificently chewy they are. So I hope you can sit back, give yourself a bit of quality time

and lap up the expertise of Rachel de Tame, who is our guest at the Chelsea Flower Show. Well welcome, you've joined us in a very bustling atmosphere, Fee, just explain exactly where we are. We've come to the Chelsea Flower Show, we are in a hall just surrounded by a plethora of the most beautiful plants and flowers. You are joining us on an off-air special made possible in paid partnership with Thomas Fudge's Florentines. And it's not Florentines, it's Florentines. And we will talk a little bit more about the incredible display that we're sitting underneath in a couple of moments' time.

We've got a very special guest with us. And Jane, thank goodness we have, because it would be a short edition of the podcast if you and I discussed our hefty gardening and floral knowledge So thank goodness Rachel de Tame joins us too Now you do need to very much guide us through events here. I am more than happy to I'm I'm in the place I feel most comfortable and I love to Evangelize about gardening. So yes by the time you leave by the time you leave you're going to be really into gardening and so you come every year do you I come every year and I've been coming for so long I remember coming

here as a child with mostly with my mother I think and doing that walk up from Sloan Square tube and getting here and at that point the Great Pavilion we're sitting in now was a canvas tent and it was invariably windy and I remember that the canvas flapping it was like being on a galleon, you know some sort of enormous sailing ship through the centre of London, the most fantastic atmosphere and the other thing I remember very strongly was walking in through it and the perfume just hitting you straight away. Well that is what hits you when you walk in to this area. It's extraordinary, it's so pungent isn't it? Really, really pungent. In fact a gentleman has just had to be led away after sneezing so loudly.

It alarmed us rather delicate ladies here. We jumped. Yes, no it was just too much so he's security lept upon the poor man and he's no longer with us. But you presumably don't get hay fever, Rachel. Thankfully, no. No, because it would be quite a challenge for anyone who does. It would be a big challenge, yes. But even I, there's a lot of tree pollen because we're right in the middle of ranilla gardens and so on, so there is a lot and even I occasionally bit of sneezing.

Right, yep. Tell us about your own garden which is in, you were telling me earlier, is it North West Gloucestershire? Yes, so it's that sort of northern tip of, we're still in the Cotswolds by a sort of mile or two. Very beautiful and I've had all sorts of gardens. I grew up in the suburbs of London, so just a fairly conventional, long, relatively narrow strip of ground. And then I've had roof gardens, two of those, balconies, that was a low point. It was a low point because at that point people were not doing anything imaginative with their balconies. Now they are and we can touch on that later. And then moved out to a farm garden in Oxfordshire and now we've sort of gone mad and taken on a much larger space in Gloucestershire and it's far more than I

can actually tackle on my own but I'm still in denial about that. Okay well don't call us. But's your serious point. What's your advice to people like Jane and myself who really love plants, really love flowers. I'm slightly intimidated by gardening though. I don't know where to start and I know that I just cannot do what I see here in front of me. But then this is a place to come for inspiration, not to emulate in the sense that you think why does my garden not look like that and remember these are show gardens, they're not real, so even when the show gardens

go on to somewhere else after the show they're often modified in order to sort of be more realistic in terms of planting and how they're looked after afterwards. So I think that's a mistake. This is a place to come as if you would go to the Tate Gallery and marvel at the paintings, but you wouldn't expect to be able to go home and straight away, you know, paint a toner.

That's a painting for a person, isn't it? It is, very good. But you mentioned that you came here with your mum, so I'm guessing that there was gardening or a love of gardening in your genes. Yes, absolutely. My mother was a great one for garden visiting and stately home visiting, so we were always being taken off to go and look at something or other. My father was the main gardener and really keen and very knowledgeable. he was just passionate about it and that sort of just seeps in just because you you sense it it's not that he was asking me

to do anything or telling me this is this plant and so on but I just saw the joy and it's contagious it really is but he was old school so you know spraying things and being very neat and we've moved on a little bit from that since then. Well we certainly have. I'm glad you said neat because we are sitting underneath Thomas Fudge's display here and there's a Thomas Fudge's entrance as well to the whole flower show which is I think deliberately not neat. It's rather carefree in its shape, isn't it? It's quite remarkable.

It's carefree, but it also sets the scene for the whole show. So you come in through those gates and it's just this wondrous sort of romping melee of different flowers and different foliage. The riot of colours as well. The colours! Aren't they extraordinary? And it sort of runs through like a rainbow, so the whole thing is very tonal. It's absolutely beautiful. And the same thing here. And they're sort of peppered with these wonderful top hats. Yes, a bit crazy.

A bit crazy, but I love that. It's that slightly bonkers British thing. But Chelsea is like that. It's quite a crazy biscuit. I'm not even sure it is a biscuit. There's something a little bit more to a Florentine. Yes, I know, I agree. I mean, it's got nuts in it. It's like that. It's quite a crazy biscuit. I'm not even sure it is a biscuit. There's something a little bit more to a Florentine. Yes, I know, I agree. I mean, it's got nuts in it, it's got fruit, it's almost a health snack. Well, I think it's also made friends with confectionery as well. It's definitely chummed up with confectionery. It really has.

Now, you mentioned balconies and smaller spaces. Is it possible to do something really creative with a tiny amount of outdoor space? Yes, very much so. And I think this is part of what's so brilliant about Chelsea. You know, we've got these huge show gardens, which are things that we all sort of aspire to, but probably don't have and maybe never will. But the balconies are completely achievable and full of ideas how you can make the best use of the space, how you can have something for all sorts of different growing conditions. So if you're on the north facing side of a building you can still have beautiful plants on there and I know that people

who've really got into the sort of balcony gardening, once they're hooked, they really stand out. I don't know if you've been to the Barbican and seen these wonderful sort of hanging gardens from the balconies there, it's that sort of thing. In that brutalist architectural environment. Yes, and it's sort of dripping with garlands and foliage and really beautiful. So 100% it can be done. I think the key is always not to be over ambitious at the beginning. Ease into it slowly and you learn as you go along and you learn from things that don't work. So that's fine because we've all done that and I still do that and then I think

you just sort of pick up. Once you've got the bug, that's it. See I feel bad about every plant that I, I mean I don't want to say that I kill, but that I don't nurture to survive, they almost stay with me. So it's quite heartening to you just say, kind of sweep it away. Yes, you have to, because it's very easy to give up.

Particularly in the first year or two, and you think, well this hasn't worked, and you don't know why why and it's all too complicated and that's it, you wash your hands of it and go out and buy AstroTurf or something awful. So I just would say to be very honest about the environment you're in because that's important, where it is, which direction it faces, how exposed it is and take it from there. If you're growing the right things it will work. And if you're lucky enough to have a garden, not necessarily a big one, do you need to know what kind of soil you've got?

Yes. And how do you find out? Well you can get soil testing kits because things like the alkalinity or acidity of the soil are quite important in terms of what you choose. A lot of us, I would say probably the majority, have fairly neutral soil, somewhere in between, and so a vast range of plants are suitable for that. And there's lots of advice online, there's lots of advice in books, so it really is quite straightforward and you can get one of those testing kits from a garden centre online, easy to find. Are any of those books written by you, Rachel? They are, they are indeed. Four of them are written by me. Don't be ashamed, tell us. But do you have a

go-to tip for someone who just wants at this time of year for example to get a bit of colour into a garden? Have I left it too late? You haven't left it too late, you might have left it a bit late to sow seeds. It depends on what you want to grow. So I would say, for your first year, do a bit of shopping. Go out and see what you like. You don't have to spend a fortune. But be thinking ahead, because this coming here to Chelsea is a perfect opportunity to see what you like that's flowering right now and plan ahead for next year. Things like annuals are fantastic because for a pack of seeds you get masses of flowers potentially and you can grow lots of seedlings and so on on your window sill. There are ways

of doing it but don't overdo it the first time bit by bit I think. And of course one of the things we shouldn't forget a gardener's for is just relaxing in, just sitting you know having a cup of tea, having a lovely biscuit that's met a confectionary friend, that's met some fruit and nuts. I think they're living together, let's be honest. I think they're married. You put this plate of Florentines here just to tempt me, haven't you? Yeah, let's be tempted.

I mean, you're succeeding. Yes, let's be tempted. The thing is, we have to say thank you and goodbye before we tuck into them, because you cannot talk whilst chewing on a Florentine. They're too gooey aren't they? They are, they are too gooey. You probably don't necessarily want to eat one in front of a friend, partly because they might take it away from you, but also because you just want to be able to enjoy it and maybe do a bit of sort of moving it around your mouth in a satisfied fashion. Well we would all be sitting here just going, mmm, mmm.

All the answers would be, mmm. Would you like one now? Of course I would, yes, absolutely. Don't forget this one here. I knew that Rachel was glassing dark chocolate. Oh, she's gone for the dark chocolate. That's what I've got here. You mentioned that not everything.

I'm going to put it here until we're not talking. Oh, I'm just going to be fine. You go for it. Not everything had gone right for you. Do you mind just talking about one of your mistakes? Oh, plenty of things. One of the things that I consistently do, and this is why I caution against it,

is so too much, particularly vegetables. So I have a glut of courgettes. We have courgettes that become marrows. And I can't, you know, my neighbor's like, thank you, we've had enough courgettes. We have courgettes that become marrows and I can't, you know, my neighbours are like thank you we've had enough courgettes don't give me any more. Family up, no that's it. Reach saturation points. So things like that I'm not very good because I love the gardening aspect so much. I love sowing the seeds and then you know dealing with the seedlings and

planting them out and so on. So I love that whole practical aspect and invariably I tend to do too much. And the other thing, my husband's a really good cook which is brilliant because I'm not. Is he good with courgettes? He's good with courgettes and he's good with freezing and making sauces and all sorts of things so that helps a lot. But he's very prescriptive about what I should grow. Only Charlotte potatoes, he's very bossy about these things and he wants me to grow kohlrabi and mustard seed and three different types of beetroot and so

on so yes he's got me on my toes okay doesn't help but he's he gives out the instructions busy in the kitchen this is true it's a fair trade well we'll take some of your spare courgettes, actually we won't. Well I know. Well you not? I love a courgette. I do too. Yes, none of us. A nice little fried courgette, that'll do for me. And I only took one bite so I could carry on the conversation and say thank you very much. That showed enormous restraint. I'll be finishing it, don't you worry. You mentioned that you've lived in various different locations. Are there some parts of the country that actually just don't lend themselves to gardening? Is it tougher to garden in some parts of the UK? It's tougher, it's tougher for

example to have a coastal garden because you've got the salt winds and if it's a particularly exposed part of the coast but having said that there are plants that are adapted and that grow in exactly those conditions. So what you do is you look for them and you sort of try to blank out all the ones that probably won't thrive and have a beautiful garden. So yes it can be done. I mean obviously sort of halfway up a mountain but then you've got, if you're in Europe, you've got alpines as well, sort of growing halfway up mountains. Not quite a garden but still beautiful.

If you couldn't garden what would that mean to you? I really don't know because it's so intrinsic to my wellbeing and to, it's just such enormous joy to be gained from it and this is why I'm always trying to encourage people and writing about it or hopefully that, you know, when I'm filming whatever work I'm doing, that all I hope encourages people because I genuinely believe it's one of the most wonderful things you can do. It really is life enhancing. Yes, but it's also very time consuming. One of my younger colleagues, rather feckless individual, was just saying earlier that the thing is once you've started you can't stop.

So it is a hobby but it's not something you can dip into. If you're going to be good at it you've got to be consistent, haven't you? And give it time, give it your time. Yes, you do. You do have to look after your plants. But sometimes there are lower maintenance plants. There are things that don't need continual pruning or tweaking or deadheading. So again, it's just tailoring your garden space

to the time you have available. And it's a very easy thing to say, as if everything should be very sensible and thought out. And then you come to Chelsea, or you go to the garden center and fall in love with the plant, take it home. It's completely wrong for your garden. But actually, you have to allow for that sort of coup de foudre, you know that kind of feeling

when you just swept away by falling in love with a plant and that's lovely to give into that. But also I bet there are lots of people who come to the Chelsea Flower Show who don't really garden. They've come because look at the world that we're suddenly part of. It's just beautiful, it's providing us with entertainment. It's a terrific day out. It smells great Yes, it is causing some people to sneeze, but life does so you know there's plenty on offer. Yes I agree. I mean it I think there's firstly there's that sort of cache about Chelsea it's it used to be part of very much of the social season

I think there's a little bit of that still lingers on. People come here dressed so beautifully. There were some splendid hats. I know, I've just seen wonderful outfits. And then there are people with their notebooks and their phones taking photographs of different plants and the labels and they're really sort of thinking things through. So it's for everybody, for non gardeners, for keen gardeners and all of us in between. It's wonderful. What's your next gardening task? Are you going to be up with dawn tomorrow? No, because I don't get home until the weekend.

So when because I'm on until the,'m you know here just being my with my garden I don't being myself. So then I will go home and just see what disasters have occurred under my husband's custodianship Getting a real going on. Yes Remarkable cook remarkable cook, but no, it's not I must be kinder must be kinder and I must be kinder, must be kinder. And yes try and just catch up because I know there are lots of seedlings that were coming on that need to go out and by the end of May these are sort of tender seedlings that can't survive a frost but we're safe now and they need to go out as soon as I get back. So that's a

big task and those courgettes you see they've got to go in the ground. Yeah, they're not going to plant themselves. It's very lovely to meet you Rachel I think now is the time that we can all just tuck into our Thomas Fudges Florentines. I thought you'd never say. And chew not talk but thank you very much indeed. It's my pleasure. Lovely to meet you Rachel thank you very much. You too. And enjoy your garden. I'm sure you will. Congratulations, you've staggered somehow to the end of another Off Air with Jane and Fee. Thank you. If you'd like to hear us do this live, and we do do it live, every day, Monday to Thursday, 2 till 4, on Times Radio. The jeopardy is off the scale, and if you listen to this you'll understand exactly why that's the case. So you can get the radio online, on DAB, or on the free Times Radio app.

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