Gardeners get giggles over Black Man’s Willy

An exchange between presenters on the usually inoffensive Gardeners' Question Time on BBC Radio 4 prompted a flurry of complaints from listeners. Ten listeners contacted Radio 4 to complain after presenters giggled their way through an innuendo-packed discussion about the plant.

The topic? How to care for the Rhodochiton Volubile plant, otherwise known as Black Man's Willy.

The audience at Chilcompton Gardening Club near Radstock in Somerset were in fits of laughter after someone asked how to grow the specimen.



Peter Gibbs, the presenter, answered: "Bob, you're the expert on this sort of thing." Stifling a laugh, panellist Bob Flowerdew said: "I would like to point out I'm not! I've only ever seen one close up and not that colour." To which Anne Swithinbank replied: "I've never seen one in my life." Despite the audience's laughter, she battled on, saying: "They don't really like the cold, as you can imagine. They shrivel up and look very unhappy."

She also suggested giving the plant a "good, long growing season" and "potting them up and potting them on and eventually hardening them up".

Producer Trevor Taylor said the discussion was "entertaining". He denied there was racial stereotyping, adding: "The name is descriptive. The bluebell is known as such because it is blue and shaped like a bell."