Your plant preferences are as unique as Rupert the Bear riding a unicorn - and that's OK
Here's something you may not know about me. Before I majored on houseplants, I was gardening editor at the Guardian for nine years. Before that, I was on the news side at the Guardian's website.*
One of my favourite things to edit when working on Guardian gardens was the 'How does your garden grow' series, a first person piece by someone about their garden, their relationship with plants and a lot more besides, alongside a beautifully-shot photograph of the gardener in their green space. You can go and read them all here: there are some fascinating people featured.
What I learned from commissioning, editing (and sometimes writing) those pieces was that every single gardener has their own unique motivations and instincts that inform their plant choices. The chap who made Rupert the Bear riding a unicorn in topiary form was a classic example: it made perfect sense to him, and that was all that mattered.
This principle applies to houseplants, too: just because I love blowsy African violets doesn't mean you have to. And while I love looking at ferns, they are never going to major in my houseplant collection. My natural biases come out in the topics I cover in my podcast and here in The Plant Ledger. But with more than 280 podcast episodes, the show has covered a lot of ground: to find stuff you're interested in, check out this thematic contents page.
And if you've ever wondered what the most popular episodes of the show are, here's a list. Each of these episodes has been downloaded upwards of 15,000 times, with the no 1 episode downloaded 20,000+ times. Four of the ten are about aroids, so I guess that's a clear indication of preferences for many...
Episode 190: Jane's five rules for houseplant care, plus the lowdown on aphids
Episode 191: a visit to aroid addict Tony Le-Britton, aka @notanotherjungle
*I was a news reporter and later an editor on the Guardian's website, writing everything from this to this, but those are anecdotes for another day.
This blogpost was taken from The Plant Ledger, my email newsletter about the houseplant scene. Subscribe here and get my free in-depth guide to fungus gnats.