Mr Plant Geek on how to use new and old media to bridging the horticulture industry and new customers

Michael Perry, aka Mr Plant Geek, is one of the best known names in gardening.He spent a decade at Thompson & Morgan in product development and is now ubiqutuous on TV, social media and at conferences promoting new plants.Michael talks about his new book Hortus Curious, with it's catfishing plants, how he broke out of the trade into TV-land and how having good sector connections helps him with his work on, for instance Steph's Packed Lunch on Channel 4.He explains how his strong social media presence brings him to the notice of companies such as Timberland, Florette and The Dutch Flower Council, for whom he recently ran a 'lonely plants club' in Mayfair.Michael spent weeks this summer new plant hunting in the Netherlands, looking for the successor to the mangave, which he has been instrumental in making popular. He tips Begonia Spacestars from Beekenkamp/Dibley's, kalanchoe, a no-petal echinacea from van Noort, named orchids as key new trends, asks for someone to invent the universal windowbox and talks about the potential of multimedia newsletter platform, Substack. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.