Award-winning production designer Fiona Crombie joins Cass Dowding for a conversation about memory, storytelling and the gardens that stay with us.

Best known for her work on films including The Favourite, The King, Cruella, Mickey 17 and Hamnet, Fiona reflects on the gardens of her childhood, from Sydney bushland to her grandmother's garden in Brisbane, and the plants that still carry a deep sense of home.

Together, Cass and Fiona explore how gardens helped shape the emotional world of Hamnet — from wild, useful planting to hidden foraging spaces, orchards and one unforgettable tree. It's a gentle conversation about beauty, atmosphere, creativity and the way nature helps us tell stories.

Fiona also shares her three sentimental plants: wattle, gardenia and pawpaw.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction

01:55 Earliest Garden Memories

07:33 What a Production Designer Does

10:34 Discovering the Gardens of Hamnet

14:27 Designing Through Collaboration and Discovery

16:24 Finding the Tree

21:44 Creating the Gardens of Hamnet

28:51 Building the Henley Street Garden

30:57 The Knot Garden and the New House

35:03 The Hidden Foraging Garden

35:58 Designing the Globe to Feel Like the Inside of a Tree

40:10 What Stayed With Fiona After Hamnet

42:51 Three Sentimental Plants

45:52 Quick Fire Questions

49:39 Cass's Reflection

51:43 Credits and What's Next

Join other garden and plant lovers getting podcast updates in their inbox and Substack writing in regular newsletters — join here

To become a financial supporter of the show and help us spread more stories of the joy of a life in gardens — join here

Credits:

Music: Hayden Schueler from Vereya Gardening

Audio support: Tom Dowding

Produced and edited by Cass Dowding

See https://libsyn.com/tos-policies/privacy-policy/ for privacy information