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

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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

The story of The Sentimental Gardener.

Cass Dowding swaps roles and takes the guest seat as is asked all the questions she asks her guests.

Guided by brilliant host Chloe Foster, author of The Rookie Gardener, host of 3CR Gardening Show and Horticulture educator, Cass opens up about starting a podcast, how gardens contained and plants helped her process her grief and what grew after.

From dreams of being a dancer, to finding a career in midwifery and nursing to how motherhood made her face what's really important, Cass' story is a winding journey of a life filled with finding the thing that brings life and joy ... which is now plants! And gardens. And people who garden!

00:00 Introduction

02:16 Childhood Garden Memories

08:29 Career Path: Ballet to Nursing

12:42 Covid, Motherhood and Change

18:44 Grief and Becoming a Sentimental Gardener

22:27 Cancer, Anxiety and the Garden

24:02 Writing and Discovering Garden Stories

27:39 How the Podcast Began

33:51 Finding Confidence and Voice

44:29 What Surprised Me About Gardeners

46:53 Three Sentimental Plants

55:37 What Gardens Teach Us About Life

1:00:29 Why Gardening Brings Belonging

Other Sentimental Gardener podcat episodes mentioned in this episode:

• Fleur Flanery on what the landscape says about us, The Australian Landscape Conference and a million trees
• Sandra Schwartz on the study of greenspaces
• Hayden Schueler on being a closeted gardener, Japanese topiary and caring for other people's gardens
• Chloe Foster on her book The Rookie Gardener, prickly grevilleas and growing gardeners

Join other garden and plants 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

Cass shares what's coming in Season 2 ... returning March 2026