Episode 163: behind the scenes at On The Ledge
Transcript
Episode 163
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Jane: Hello and welcome to On The Ledge podcast and this week it's all about the roots; the podcast roots! In this week's show, I'll be discussing how On The Ledge happened all those years ago, well, three-and-a-half, or three-and-three-quarter years ago, and explaining how I make the show now. Plus I'll be answering a question about houseplant wholesalers and we'll hear from a fellow plant podcaster, Armando.
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Jane: A shoutout to all my new Patreons this week. GerrysGarden, Natalie, Jennifer, Naomi and Andy all became Ledge-ends, while Rachel and Jennifer became Crazy Plant People and Holly and Maria became Superfans. Thank you to every single one of you. I was interested to note that somebody called Zola S, who left a review for the show on Apple Podcasts, said that their Christmas list now includes a Patreon subscription to On The Ledge! What a great idea! Do bear in mind that you can now pay annually and remember, if you do pay annually, you end up saving two months' worth of your fee, so that's another bonus.
Those of you who've listened to my episode on the price of rare plants will remember that I said I'm going to be chopping up my Monstera Thai Constellation. Well, I'm pleased to say that the first two cuttings have gone off to their new homes with Kelly, my assistant, who definitely deserved a piece of that plant, and listener Lauren, who is a real OG listener with whom I've done several plant swaps over the years and she was the source of my Chinese money plant which she sent when I did that episode way back at the beginning of the history of the show. I do hope that the plants do grow well for Lauren and Kelly. I will be doing more chops of that Monstera, but it needs to get a little bit bigger, and continue the chopping in spring. I shall keep you posted on that.
What else am I up to with my houseplants right now? Well, it's just about to be that awful time of year when I have to move all of my tender succulents and cacti from my greenhouse / potting shed into the house. I've been putting it off because it's a devil of a job and I'm not quite sure where they're all going to go but I am going to get on with it. How do you tell if your cactus or your succulent can be outside in an unheated greenhouse / cold frame or whether it has to come inside? To be honest, it's what you might call a bit of a crap shoot: you've got to keep those plants completely dry if they're going to be outside in the winter, going down to very low temperatures of 0C or below.
Some of my collection will be staying outside and that's mainly the Agaves. All of the Agaves that I've ever come across will be absolutely fine in my unheated shed over the winter, provided they're kept completely dry and they're in potting mix which is quite nice and well-drained. I might stick a bit of horticultural fleece over them if it gets really super cold but the two things are to make sure there's some good air circulation in there, so I'll be opening the doors on warmer days and letting air circulate so that the air doesn't get all stagnant and stale which could allow fungal problems to develop.
I'm also leaving my Aloe aristate. I think it's actually now Aristaloe aristate, the genus has changed, the Lace Aloe, which is often mistaken for a Haworthia. It's my oldest plant and it always stays outside in the winter, in the greenhouse, unheated, and it's absolutely fine; a real tough plant.
Anything else I'm going to keep out there? No, I think that's probably about it, just looking through the window where I can see some of the plants from here. I've got quite a lot of cacti and succulents to move in! I'm planning to put quite a few of them in my kitchen where I've got some new LED lights being installed and they're in the ceiling but they've got a setting where you can change the setting to daylight, so I'm going to put some of them in the kitchen on some shelving where they'll be under that light. It won't be a huge amount of extra light but it'll be enough and that room, generally, isn't boiling hot either. Some will come out into the office here with me where it's usually about 16C-18C and some will be in the sun room in the house, where, again, it's about 18C loads of light in there. They'll stay pretty dry, I would say indoors where there is a source of heat they might be getting watered every month or two. I'll just watch out for signs of shrivelling.
So that's my job for the weekend worked out, I've also had to tidy the shed because I had a Financial Times shoot for a piece that's coming out in tomorrow's paper, that's 14th November. It's about lockdown gardening and it does mention houseplants but not in any great depth; it's mainly about outside stuff.
One of the plants I bought recently as an indoor/outdoor plant which I probably will bring in for a while, is Solanum pseudocapiscum. This is a member of the nightshade family, same family as tomatoes, potatoes and aubergines, or egg plants if you prefer, but these are a little bit poisonous. They're very much like cherry tomatoes. If you have got small children who like to pick things and eat them, I wouldn't have this plant. If you don't, it's a lovely, cheery plant which can sit outside for quite a while, I probably will bring some of mine in once it gets super, super cold, but they will do very nicely outside providing it doesn't freeze. In fact, there's a house near me that's got a big bush of this outside the front door which has been there for several years, so this plant can do okay outside, but it's one of those plants that you don't want to bring into your central-heated front room and expect it to thrive because it just won't do that. It's a bit like Cyclamen persicum, the beautiful pastel pink, or red, or white-flowered Cyclamen, which is often sold at this time of year in florists and brought home, and again, it does lovely in an unheated room or in a very sheltered spot outside or in a covered porch or something like that. Bring it into a heated room and it's going to die. It's going to go mildewy and it's not going to be a good scenario.
So, I've got some of those lined up to make things cheery and I'm also enjoying some of the plants I got recently in my plant haul from a British Cactus and Succulent Society member who is downsizing his collection - I'm just going to get it off the windowsill - including the wonderful Euphorbia platygona. I think this plant is channeling the spirit of 2020 because it kind of looks like a dead stick! I don't know how else to put it! It's a member of the huge Euphorbia family; I'll put a picture in the show notes so you can have a look at it. It's one of those Marmite plants that you're either going to love or hate. It's got these mottled modified stems, like all the Euphorbias you get that milky sap which is not something you want to get on your skin or in your mouth, or anything. I think it might just qualify as the ultimate goth plant. It's really rather cool. That one has already made it inside the office here, so I can keep a good eye on it as it establishes and I'm very, very happy with the plants I picked up from that haul.
I shall be bringing that and some more to Instagram on #PerronesPlants which I'm trying to do more of at the moment so do look out for that on my Instagram @j.l.perrone and if you're not signed up to the On The Ledge newsletter, then do go and sort that out forthwith. You can find a link for that in the show notes. I'm trying to send it out more regularly these days because I've been rather lax about it in the past, but it's your connection with the show through your email inbox and I try to highlight recent episodes, cool stuff and the odd piece of merch which now includes my wonderful On The Ledge manifesto poster which you can get from my UK or US merch sites. You just need to go to janeperrone.com and click on the shop link in the top right hand corner and you'll get directed to the right place. The poster looks gorgeous. It'll look amazing on your wall surrounded by your plants and it sums up the philosophy of On The Ledge as well as channeling a bit of a 1970s advertising vibe. I absolutely love it, thanks so much to Oscar Cheung who designed it for me - a listener and a graphic designer to boot - and this design will also be used in my Patreon mail-out in December, as a card for the Ledge-end level and a poster for the Superfans!
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Jane: How did On The Ledge get started? Well, I think I've told this story in a few interviews for other podcasts but I'm not sure if I've ever discussed it fully here on On The Ledge. I've been listening to podcasts for a really long time. I think I was listening to them before most people knew what they were, not because I'm any kind of an amazing person, but just because I happened to have done a job where I got into blogs and podcasts and all of those kind of things as part of my reporting role when I was at The Guardian, working on the website, as it was a separate entity then, and doing a lot of reporting on technology and web.
When the podcast Serial came out in 2014, I was an avid listener. Unlike a lot of us, Serial was that podcast that really set my mind whirring about the possibilities of this medium. So, I really wanted to make a podcast but I didn't really like the sound of my own voice and really had no idea on the technical side. The last time I worked in audio was when I was doing my Master's degree at Louisiana State University, a long time ago in the 1990s, and I did a course on writing for radio broadcast and I also worked for KLSU, the university's radio station. I think I could have said absolutely anything because they just loved my accent, so I was a bit of a novelty back then and I read the news and I could have been saying anything! So I had a rough idea of how to present things, but certainly on the technical side I wasn't really up to speed.
At the time, The Guardian was getting really into podcasting and an opportunity arose to make a gardening podcast with my colleague, Alys Fowler, who was the gardening columnist at The Guardian at the time - she used to be on Gardener's World, the BBC TV programme about gardening. I count her as a friend. I used to edit her column on gardening in Guardian Weekend. So we decided that we could team up and make a podcast about gardening and it ended up becoming about 15/16 episodes, recorded in 2015 and 2016 and it is still on the internet if you want to go and have a listen. Search for Sow, Grow, Repeat and my name and you'll find it, but I'll also put links in the show notes and, boy, did we have fun! We did everything from Alys Fowler teaching me how to climb trees, to getting drunk at the Chelsea Flower Show, to talking garden wildlife including the size of hedgehog genitalia. Do you want to hear an extract? Here's a bit of Sow, Grow, Repeat!
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Alys: Hi! We're back for an episode of Sow, Grow, Repeat and we're at Chelsea. It's horrendously wet outside, so pretty much all of Chelsea has decided to come into the floral pavilion to try and drink all the free champagne and we're going to do our best attempt to do that but also find you some Chelsea gems. Champagne pop
Alys: That is unbelievable, that's the most fun I've had.
Sabrage expert: That's absolutely perfect! I loved that! That was lovely Alys - well done. Congratulations. May I intronise you now as a sabrage?
Alice: Oh, thank you!
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Jane: I've made it up to about... What are we, Alys?
Alys: We're the first set of limbs, we're already twelve foot up, you've got somewhere. You've got over the trickiest bit because that first move you had to smear on the trunk and it's a little bit of trusting the tree.
Jane: There was a little bit of smearing, that's true. We were just saying it's mind over matter but you believe you can do it and you do it and it's already feeling quite nice. There is already a bit of a breeze up here, you've got a nice view and I'm feeling slightly less panicky than I did a few seconds ago, so that's good! Also, I'm liking that you can see what the tree is doing, this oak is just coming into leaf now and behind us there's a Hawthorn which is just about to burst its buds and you're getting a different moment with the tree, which is rather nice.
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Jane: Listening to that brings back so many happy memories of fun times with my colleague, Alys Fowler. You can tell we had fun, can't you!? We also won an award for the show, a Gardening Media Guild Award for the best radio broadcast or podcast in 2016 and in fact I had to persuade them to allow us to put the podcast in that category because they wanted to call us an app back in the days before podcasts becoming quite as ubiquitous as they are today.
The Guardian decided not to make any more, so by 2017 I was bereft of podcasts. As you know, if you've been listening to the show for a while, I've got a lifelong fascination for houseplants and at that time I could really see that houseplants were starting to build in popularity. It had happened before, where an idea that I had for a book or an article, I just sat on it and inevitably somebody else would have that same idea, independently of me, and go ahead and make it and I was pipped to the post! On this one, I just thought, "I don't really know what I'm doing, I don't know how to make a podcast but I'm not going to let anyone else beat me to it!" So after much cogitation and research and a helpful chat with a chap called Peter Donegan who made a podcast called The Sod Show on which I have been a guest a couple of times - it's no longer made, but it was a wonderful show and went for many years - Peter just said to me - I'm not going to impersonate his Irish accent - "Just do it, Jane. Just go for it!" so I did and On The Ledge began!
At first I think I was probably trying to imitate the BBC, so those early episodes, they're a bit more scripted, probably, than more recent work I've done. I hardly dare listen back to them now, but I know lots of you listen to them as you binge your way through the show. I started off with the idea that I wanted to make it fun and that's why, in those early episodes, I had my wonderful friend Mark Hamilton doing some funny little interludes. I decided to drop those in the end because I just felt like I was going to keep repeating the same old thing over and over again. Some people loved them, some people didn't like them, but I decided in the end that they might get a bit repetitive, hence that was dropped after a few episodes.
Listening back I think I've become a lot more confident in the way I present On The Ledge. I don't script every episode, so how the hell do I make it? Generally, I'll have a list of bullet points that I want to talk about which is all gathered in a rather grandly titled spreadsheet called the On The Ledge Masterplan. So I've got information about the stuff I need to say about reviews, Patreon subscribers and I also have a Word document opened up with bullet points about the topic we're discussing and if I'm doing an interview, of course, I've lined up some questions in advance. I'm a bit notorious for going off-piste and ending up asking guests questions that I haven't planned on. I guess that's how the show gets its organic feel. It doesn't feel like a very staid, scripted thing, it feels like more of a natural conversation between plant people. What I would say about that is although it does make the show sound much more natural, it's actually quite hard to do. What it means is when I'm recording, sometimes I'll be formulating what I want to say as I go along and therefore there's quite a lot of editing required, oftentimes, because I'll just mess things up or the dog will jump off the sofa and make a noise or somebody will rev up their lawnmower. There's a lot of editing that goes on and that is a really important component of the show.
What do I use to edit? The editing package that I use is called Audacity, it's a free, open-source package which was the main appeal and I've got used to using it. I'm sure there are other audio packages which would offer more frills and more bells and whistles, but I've spent so much time getting used to Audacity and learning how to use it, I don't really have the time to learn another package. It does everything that I need it to do, so I've stuck with it. I tend to record the raw audio and go through and edit out all the fluffs and mistakes that I've made and then build up the audio in layers. So, I usually have one track which is me talking, what I call JP Host for some reason, then I'll have another track which will be some music and another track which is sound effects and possibly two more tracks which are my interview audio if there's an interview in that episode. It's a question of juggling all of those different tracks and making sure that everything fits together, time-wise. I would not say I'm the world's best editor, but the way I work, I have tried using editors before and they've been great, but I find that the way I work, which is, let's face it, a little bit on- the-fly, is more conducive to editing myself because that way I can change things quickly and all the control is in my hands. I have to admit, I'm a little bit of a control freak, so I want to be able to see everything that's going on!
In terms of interviews, it's great to do interviews in the flesh and for that I have - let me just grab it - I have a hand-held recorder made by Roland. It's an R-05 recorder and I really should get a microphone that fits in this but for the minute I can sit this on the table between me and an interviewee and it picks everything up quite nicely. There's a little hat which you can put on it if you're doing outside recording because the peril of outside recording is you get lots of noise from wind and the recorder gets battered and the white noise is too much. I have a little foamy hat that sits on top of it, which is quite funny, when I'm recording outside. If you don't have one of those and you want to do some recording outside, you know what, most phones do really, really good voice recording. I've got a Samsung S8 at the moment and I've recorded on that and the quality on that is really, really good. You just use the voice app that comes with the phone and away you go. You can also buy microphones that will fit into your iPhone or Android phone and that makes the quality even better.
Talking of microphones, in terms of my microphone here in the office, I use a Rode Podcaster and it's mounted on a boom arm. I'll put a picture of this in my show notes. I'll have to tidy my desk first, because it's a tip, but you can see what it looks like! It's sat in a shock mount. I'm going to give it a wobble; I don't know if you can hear that? It's in a shock mount and on a boom arm and what that means is I can use this desk for other things. I can literally - I'm going to do it now, I'm going to sound distant for a minute - I've pushed it right out of the way. It's right out of my road and I can bring it back in and reposition it and it makes life so easy. Before this, I had a Yeti Blue Microphone. It didn't last that long because I dropped it so many times moving it about. That's because when I first started recording, I didn't really have the office set up for my use, so I was recording in my bedroom, the room I share with my husband, and the recording would take place with me perched on the world's smallest chair - I will take a photo of the world's smallest chair so you can see it! - with my husband's chest of drawers open, with the top drawer pulled open and the computer nestled on his socks and underpants! That's how I used to do it! Actually, it worked quite well because the key to good recording is often that you don't have an echo room with no soft furnishings. Lots of soft furnishings tend to dampen the echoes and make the show sound much better. That worked really well and then I got things set up out here and this is where I've worked ever since.
If you do have a microphone and you've got a lot of echoes and you don't have a lot of soft furnishings, you can make your own tiny, mini sound booth for your microphone. I did have one of those. It's literally just a fabric box. I think you can buy them in IKEA and places like B&Q or whatever your local big box DIY store is and then I just lined the inside with acoustic foam tiles which you can buy online and then pop the microphone in there and that really helped to dampen down the sound. You can also sit and record under a blanket or a duvet, not so great when it's boiling hot and 30C in your office, so that's not necessarily going to work. Or if you've got a wardrobe or a cupboard, a big walk-in wardrobe, I know lots of you in America are lucky enough to have more space than we do here in the UK but if you've got one of those you can use that because anything that dampens down the sound is great.
So, I'm often to be found at my desk trying to record stuff and generally speaking. What happens, is that I'm trying to record and then I'll see a face at the window. If it's my son, he'll usually just burst in! If it's my husband, he'll stand at the door looking questioning or making the symbol for tea. So, frequent interruptions are par for the course, but that's life! That's part of the rich tapestry! If you're a regular listener to the show and you listen to episode 100, you'll know that I'm often frequently interrupted by seeing cool birds in the garden. This happened this very morning when I was trying to record some of this show and saw a Sparrowhawk chasing another smaller bird in a neighbouring garden. So it's all going on here! I love birdwatching and I could sit here all day and do it but obviously the podcast takes precedence!
The other thing that's been interrupting recently, there's a lot of building work going on around me. I've tried to work around it and make sure that you don't end up hearing lots of bangs and crashes on the audio, but I apologise if you have been hearing anything. There is literally massive building projects happening on all sides around me at the moment, so it can get a little noisy.
Obviously, since I started On The Ledge, so many other houseplant podcasts have popped up. I think one of the first ones I was aware of was Bloom and Grow Radio with the lovely Maria Failla, which, if you remember, I did an interview with Maria which was absolutely wonderful and I've appeared on her show. Since then there's been loads more, from the Plant Daddy Podcast, who you'll also have heard as interviewees on On The Ledge, to the Australian houseplant podcast Home of Houseplants, with Jo Howski, The Plant Nook, by the lovely Armando, Potted Together, The Black Plant Chick Podcast, with Jade, and 2 Girls, 1 Plant.
There's a new one from iHeartRadio called Humans Growing Stuff, which I haven't had a chance to listen to yet, but I'm looking forward to trying out, and probably loads more that I've forgotten. Do let me know what other houseplant podcasts you like listening to. I'll put links to all of those in my show notes as well, in case you want to check them out. People have said to me, "Are you not annoyed that all these people are starting these houseplant podcasts?" as if they're some kind of competitor? Well, of course not! I'm delighted to have houseplant podcasts to listen to that I don't have to make and also, they're all so different! We've all got different personalities, different back stories, so we bring our own vibes to our houseplant podcasts, which is what makes it so great!
How do I come up with ideas for episodes for the show? Well, lots of the best ideas come from you listeners! It's fantastic to get those emails where you say, "What about this?", "What about that?" The croton episode recently came about because of an email from a listener called Jenny and I've just had a lovely email from a listener called Bryce, from the Eastern US, who says that they're an avid grower of Trichocereus cacti hybrids, among a host of other domesticated flora. This was such a lovey email because it shows the reach and impact of On The Ledge. After listening to the tissue culture episode, Bryce decided to go to Seedless Labs, to learn about tissue culture and Bryce writes, "I've always desired a career in plants and have a passion for science. Without trying to sound too grand, I'd like you to know that your podcast may well have altered my life path, much for the better!" Wow! That's really special to hear and those are the kind of emails that keep me going. If the show has had a big impact on your life then I'd really like to know about it! It really does make my heart sing to hear that! In this email Bryce suggested that I do an episode on his favourites, the Trichocereus and the Ariocarpus genus and writes, "The native peoples here revere these plants and the adoration of them has spread into a worldwide community of incredibly knowledgeable and wonderfully kind, starry-eyed devotees." I want to know more about this, Bryce, so I will definitely be tracking down somebody to talk to about these plants and an episode will be forthcoming!
Sometimes I want to do an episode and it's just really, really hard to get it together. Sometimes the experts that I want to speak to aren't technically set up to use Zoom and it would be far easier to visit them in person, but, of course, right now, that's not always easy and lots of the experts that I would be speaking to, or would want to visit, are not based in my own country, here in the UK. I would love to do a US tour at some point and go and do loads of interviews and things. Obviously that's off the agenda at the moment but you never know! One of these days I might get over to the US and be able to meet some of you in person!
I'm also aware that some new friendships have been forged as a result of On The Ledge. Some of you have ended up swapping plants and getting to know each other as a result of the show. If you aren't a member of the Facebook group Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge and you fancy getting a bit of that action of making friends with other plant people, then do join that group! It is the most drama-free group on the internet for houseplants. We do not allow any drama! It does not happen! Everybody is nice to everybody else and it's very, very carefully curated by moderators Amy, Nathaniel, Kelly and also occasionally myself, but there's not much moderation to do because you're all such decent people, which is fab!
At any one time I will have half a dozen to a dozen episode ideas in my noggin and in some stage of production! For example, at the minute, I've got a couple of ideas about the poaching trade and I'm hoping to get an expert on to talk about cactus poaching because I think that's a really important issue that we need to be looking into. I'm also hoping to get some really good information together for an episode on the history of houseplants in terms of slavery - obviously something which we've touched on in previous episodes around Black Lives Matter in the spring. More leaf botany episodes are in the pipe, including one on leaf windows, and I am also hoping to put together an episode about viruses, specifically mosaic virus, because this is an issue that's really coming up in the world of plants, particularly the Aroidworld, and I've been speaking to an expert in this area who, hopefully, will be able to help me with that.
Also on the wish list for episodes; Staghorn Ferns, Jewel Orchids and plant cabinets. If there's anything else you'd like me to do an episode on, then please do shout because, as I say, I'm totally open to ideas.
I've also been getting very excited, uncharacteristically for me because I'm not the biggest fan of Christmas, but I've been getting very excited about an idea I've had - in fact I've started to make the show - for a bonus festive episode which I think I'm going to put out on Christmas Eve and it's going to be a bit like the relaxation episode in that it's going to be me reading something, which is not written by myself, and I'm hoping it's going to be a really lovely way to relax into Christmas and just chill out and listen to my dulcet tones! So that's being put together as I speak, it's going to be something I'll probably be doing in dribs and drabs over the coming weeks. I've been searching out some good music for it and I've found some really nice music. You know I like to pick out some good music for you guys, so that's an exciting one! I'll probably also take a week or two off over Christmas, just so I can recharge the old batteries. I will let you know the exact dates once I've sorted those out.
What about some advice for anyone who is thinking of starting a plant podcast or, in fact, any other kind of podcast? Well, first of all, I would say do your research but also don't be paralysed by fear of not knowing what you are doing. The only way to learn is to do and so when I started out with podcasting I wasn't really sure what I was doing. I pieced the information together and I just started and that's how you learn!
How did I learn how to use the editing software, Audacity? I just downloaded it and then when I didn't know what a button did I would Google, "What does the clock button do on Audacity?" and there would be a YouTube video to watch and I would figure it out. That is a great way of learning on the hoof. The other thing I'd say is don't go in there thinking, "I'm going to just talk," or, if it's more than one person hosting the show, "We're just going to shoot the breeze!". Unless you are a very, very famous person or you've got an incredible skill for conversation, I don't think, these days, that's going to stand out among the crowd in podcasting because there are so many podcasts out there. I think you need to come up with your own concept that plays to your strengths and your knowledge areas, and remember that you are unique and your voice is unique and so you will be bringing something unique to that show. Consistency is also key. I started from the beginning trying to put On The Ledge out every week and I really do find that is a great way to build your podcast. It may be that you decide to do fortnightly, that means every two weeks if you don't know that term. I've been bemused by the fact that Americans don't have the word 'fortnight' but you do have the word 'Fortnite' because it's a computer game! I don't know! Anyway, every two weeks, fortnightly or monthly, or every day, who knows what your frequency is going to be, but whatever it is, decide it and then stick to it.
I've chosen not to do seasons. I've chosen just to take weeks off when I want to. That's just because that's the way I work and I'm not strategic enough to be thinking in terms of seasons! It's fine to have seasons if you want to. Whatever you do, make a plan and try to stick to it. At the same time, I'm going to slightly contradict myself here! Your show may well evolve, so you may find that a different publication day works well and you may lose a host or gain a host. That's all okay, but whatever you do, just try to get into that habit, that podcast habit, and that will really help you find success with your show. If you have a gardening podcast of any kind, or you're setting one up, then I do run a Facebook group for garden podcasters and if you are interested in that please drop me a line, ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com and I can send you an invite to that group. There's also a wonderful guide to making a garden podcast for beginners, produced by the wonderful podcaster Joff Elphick, who runs the Pot and Cloche gardening podcast, and that is a guide to starting a gardening podcast. So, definitely, that is worth checking out, find the link in the show notes.
Well, I hope you enjoyed that little trip down memory lane and an insight into how On The Ledge works. If you've got any questions about the show or starting your own podcast about gardening, do check out the resources in those show notes and you can always drop me a line. I'm more than happy to help if I possibly can!
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Jane: Now, it's Meet the Listener and this week we're going to be introduced to a fellow houseplant podcaster!
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Armando: Hi, I'm Armando! I'm from Syracuse, New York, and I have been an avid plant grower for a little over a year now. I've been into plants ever since I can remember. My mom and my grandma both owned gardens. My grandma did ornamental gardens and my mom had edible gardens and I've always helped them grow their plants. Then I went to college and studied conservation biology and really focused it on plant ecology. It wasn't until more recently that I really started getting into houseplants. I have two cats and I was nervous of having plants in the first place because I knew that a lot of the houseplants were technically toxic to cats, but I was like, "Alright; let me take the plunge!". So I did and I found out that my cats don't really care about my plants, so I was able to grow my collection from basically nothing to about 110 different species of plants in about a year! Since starting, I started my own plant Instagram and I also started my podcast and that was after listening to you on On The Ledge and to Plant Daddy Podcast! I was so inspired that I wanted to talk about my experience with houseplants and decided to take it a step further and start my own podcast.
Jane: Question one. You've been selected to travel to Mars as part of the first human colony on the Red Planet. There's only room for one houseplant from your collection on board. Which plant do you choose?
Armando: If I were to travel to Mars and only had room for one houseplant, I would want to say I want to take something like my Alocasia Frydek, or something, but if I were to be sent to Mars I would take something really reliable. I think I'll take an Epipremnum aureum Golden Pothos because I know that it will grow and will do well enough and maybe even help oxygenate Mars.
Jane: Question two. What is your favourite episode of On The Ledge?
Armando: I actually have a couple of favourite episodes. I tried to pick one but I really couldn't. My first one would probably be the first episode I ever listened to On The Ledge which is episode 113 where you talked about winterising your plants with Plant Daddy Podcast, Matthew and Stephen. My first ever plant podcast that I've ever listened to was Plant Daddy Podcast and so I started with them and you had that one interview where you were on their podcast and they then were on yours and so I went to go and listen to them, to 113, because they were on it and I absolutely fell in love with On The Ledge, so that's definitely one of my favourites! The other ones would have to be where you talk about sustainability. I believe one of them was episode 114 and the other one is episode is 103 and that's all I've really listened to. I'm up to about 130 now and I think those might be some of my favourites only because since I did conservation biology, sustainability is a huge aspect of what I do when I care for plants and try and be as sustainable as possible. I absolutely love the topic of sustainability.
Jane: Question three. Which Latin name do you say to impress people?
Armando: If I'm trying to impress people with Latin names, I actually don't use houseplants in particular. Granted, there's a bunch of beautiful Latin names for houseplants but my usual go-tos are trees. My first one is Liquidambar styraciflua, which is the sweetgum tree, and the next one Gleditsia triacanthos, which is the Honey Locust. They're both a couple of my favourite trees and so I use that if I want to get fancy with the Latin names!
Jane: Question four. Crassulacean acid metabolism or guttation?
Armando: Most of my plants are leafy, foliage plants, so I'll probably go with guttation. I'm not really too keen on succulents and cacti, which use Crassulacean acid metabolism, mostly because I don't have the light to have those types of plants. I'm hoping that, soon enough, I'll get more growlights and I can start to try and grow more cacti and succulents because they are really interesting and I would love my chance at growing them.
Jane: Question five. Would you rather spend £200 on a variegated Monstera, or £200 on 20 interesting cacti?
Armando: As of right now, since I don't have the light for the cacti, I'd probably choose the variegated Monstera. If I was able to choose between the variegated Monstera I would go for the Thai Constellation because I think I would freak out too much if I were to go with the Albo Variegata, since it's not a stable variegation. I would be so on edge that I might ruin the plant and I know that Thai Constellation is more stable. So, I'd probably go with a variegated Monstera, but the Thai Constellation one.
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Jane: Thanks so much to Armando and The Plant Nook - that's nook as in rhymes with book! - is definitely worth a listen. I shall put a link into the show notes and good luck with your podcast, Armando! It's shaping up very nicely!
Now it's time for Question of the Week which comes from Lily. Lily is looking for houseplant wholesalers, ideally near to the West Midlands. Great question, Lily, and one that I get asked an awful lot because there are so many people setting up their own houseplant businesses right now. Here's the trouble though, people who have good relations with a houseplant wholesaler generally don't want anyone else to know who that houseplant wholesaler is! It's a bit of a closed world. Normally the world of houseplants is fairly open, but once you get into the business side of things, people don't really want to give away their sources lightly. So it's very difficult for me to say, "Go here or go there" not least because, obviously, I've got listeners all around the world. I'm not in the West Midlands of the UK, so I don't know which wholesalers are active there.
It's one of those things where you've got to do your research and it might take a while to get the trust of a fellow houseplant seller and find out who they're working with. One nursery worth checking out is in Staffordshire, and that's Harriet's Plants. This is a UK grower who is growing peat-free and is producing houseplants wholesale. I'm hoping to visit Harriet once lockdown is over here in the UK and do a podcast episode with her. She's definitely worth checking out. She also sells indoor plants and botanical wares online. As I say, there is a wholesale operation there too and wonderful that that's peat free because, as anyone who listens regularly will know, that's a bit of a bee in my bonnet that we all need to be growing peat-free houseplants.
The other thing worth bearing in mind is that after the end of 2020, if you're in the UK, the situation regarding Brexit, Britain leaving the EU, is going to change the houseplant scene quite considerably. I'm predicting that it's going to mean a blossoming of more UK-based houseplant-based nurseries as it becomes more difficult and expensive to import from the Netherlands, the main site of houseplant growing in Europe. We really don't know what the impact is going to be, so it's going to be really interesting in the coming months and years, to see how the industry develops.
[music]
Jane: That's it for this week's On The Ledge! I'll be back next Friday. In the meantime, never forget, keep your fronds close and anemones even closer! Bye!
[music]
Jane: The music you heard in this episode was Roll Jordan Roll by The Joy Drops, Chiefs by Jahzzar and Endeavourby Jahzzar. All tracks are licensed under Creative Commons. Visit janeperrone.com for details.
Subscribe to On The Ledge via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Player FM, Stitcher, Overcast, RadioPublic and YouTube.
I delve into the history of On The Ledge and explain how it all began, as well as how I put the show together today, plus we meet listener Armando, host of podcast The Plant Nook, and I answer a question about houseplant wholesalers.
Check out the notes below as you listen…
Euphorbia platygona. Photograph: Jane Perrone.
Aristaloe aristata (lace aloe) is my oldest plant and does really well outside in my unheated greenhouse over winter.
If you are looking for a plant that likes cold rooms, Solanum pseudocapiscum or winter cherry is ideal. They also look rather festive with their berries which look like red cherries. Cyclamen persicum is often sold in florists at this time of year, and needs very similar conditions.
Euphorbia platygona (pictured left) is my new favourite weird plant!
You can listen to the gardening podcast I made at the Guardian - Sow, Grow, Repeat - here.
The podcast Serial was probably the show that showed me the possibilities of the medium.
Do listen to Peter Donegan’s podcast The Sod Show… he is to thank for pushing me into podcasting!
The audio editor I use is the free-to-download programme Audacity.
My digital recorder for remote interviews in person is a Roland R-05 and my mic in the office is a Rode Podcaster secured in a Rode shockmount and boom arm: this means I can swing the mic out of the way when not in use. I also use a separate pop filter in front of the mic.
Here’s how to make your own mini sound booth for a desk mic: here’s a YouTube guide which gives you the idea…
Since I started in February 2017, lots of other houseplant podcasts have popped up, including The Plant Daddy Podcast, Home of Houseplants, Potted Together, The Black Plant Chick Podcast, 2 Girls 1 Plant, and Humans Growing Stuff. The Plant Nook is the podcast of today’s Meet The Listener guest, Armando.
Not a member of Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge? Join now!
Joff Elphick’s podcast guide is here.
My desk set up for podcast recording. Photograph: Jane Perrone.
LEGENDS OF THE LEAF
Question of the week
Lily wanted to know about houseplant wholesalers… unfortunately most sellers are reluctant to share their plant sources with others, so it’s hard to give any solid advice on this front! I did suggest trying Harriet’s Plants, a grower in Staffordshire in the UK who grows peat free and offers wholesale… I am hoping to feature Harriet in an upcoming episode once lockdown is over!
It is likely that Brexit (Britain leaving the EU at the start of 2021) will bring about big changes on the houseplant scene… although the exact impact is hard to guess, I suspect it may lead to a blossoming of more UK houseplant growers. Watch this space!
Want to ask me a question? Email ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com. The more information you can include, the better - pictures of your plant, details of your location and how long you have had the plant are always useful to help solve your issue!
Check out my poster! Now available in my merch shop… and if you’re a Patreon subsciber at the Ledge End level you will be getting this design in the form of a card: Superfan patrons will receive a poster. Thanks to Oscar Cheung for the brilliant design!
HOW TO SUPPORT ON THE LEDGE
Contributions from On The Ledge listeners help to pay for all the things that have made the show possible over the last few years: equipment, travel expenses, editing, admin support and transcription.
Want to make a one-off donation? You can do that through my ko-fi.com page, or via Paypal.
Want to make a regular donation? Join the On The Ledge community on Patreon! Whether you can only spare a dollar or a pound, or want to make a bigger commitment, there’s something for you: see all the tiers and sign up for Patreon here.
The Crazy Plant Person tier just gives you a warm fuzzy feeling of supporting the show you love.
The Ledge End tier gives you access to two extra episodes a month, known as An Extra Leaf, as well as ad-free versions of the main podcast on weeks where there’s a paid advertising spot, and access to occasional patron-only Zoom sessions.
My Superfan tier earns you a personal greeting from me in the mail including a limited edition postcard, as well as ad-free episodes.
If you like the idea of supporting On The Ledge on a regular basis but don't know what Patreon's all about, check out the FAQ here: if you still have questions, leave a comment or email me - ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com. If you're already supporting others via Patreon, just click here to set up your rewards!
If you prefer to support the show in other ways, please do go and rate and review On The Ledge on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen. It's lovely to read your kind comments, and it really helps new listeners to find the show. You can also tweet or post about the show on social media - use #OnTheLedgePodcast so I’ll pick up on it!
CREDITS
This week's show featured the tracks Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops, Chiefs by Jahzzar and Endeavour by Jahzzar.
Logo design by Jacqueline Colley.