Episode 132: Plant Tribe with the Urban Jungle Bloggers
Plants fill the home of Tim Labenda in Berlin, Germany, as featured in Plant Tribe. Photograph: Jules Villbrandt for Urban Jungle Bloggers.
Transcript
Episode 132
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Jane: Hello and welcome to On The Ledge episode 132 coming at you from lockdown at Perrone Towers. In this week's show I'm talking to the authors of a fantastic new book called Plant Tribe, we'll be finding out about botanical thrones, rowing about Coleus and finding out how Coronavirus is affecting our plant habits. Plus, I answer a question about how to tend your plants without overwatering them and we meet listener Maria.
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Jane: Thanks for all the lovely feedback on the midweek bonus episode and my post detailing what else I'm going to do through the Coronavirus epidemic to help you guys out with extra planty-ness. Please do go on the Facebook group and sign up for the House Plant Buddies scheme. This is an idea where you can match yourself up with another listener with similar plant interests or in a similar geographical location and start exchanging Facebook DMs, Twitter DMs, whatever works for you in order to support each other a bit more. There's a post on the Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge Facebook page where you can introduce yourself and search for a match. If you're not on Facebook, just drop me a line - OnTheLedgepodcast@gmail.com - and I can help you get matched up with somebody. Hopefully, in this way, we can support each other a little bit more.
Thank you to those of you who are continuing to support me via Patreon. It's really great to know, at a time when advertising probably isn't going to be that great, that I've got your payments coming through to pay for things like transcriptions, hosting, my assistant Kelly and so on. Joining the clan this week are Corinne and Lea, who have both become Ledge-ends - thank you very much! If you want to find out how to become a Patreon, visit my show notes at JanePerrone.com and you could be unlocking loads of extra episodes of an Extra Leaf, my Patreon podcast, to listen to at your leisure.
If you want to support the show with a one-off donation you can do that via ko-fi.com I'm also putting out my PayPal link now if you just want to pay via PayPal, anything from 50 cents to whatever you can afford would be greatly welcomed. There's loads of other ways to support the show just by tweeting about it, telling everyone how much On The Ledge means to you on social media, or just in person, and helping other people connect to this source of help, information, advice, chat, planty-ness at this time. As you may have guessed the RHS Chelsea Flower Show has been cancelled now, so that won't be happening. There are nascent plans for some kind of virtual show. No idea what that will involve yet, but I'd love to be involved in that, so we'll see how that comes about, but in the meantime, RHS Chelsea is not happening. I'm booked in for 2021 though, so you've got a wait on your hands if you want to hear me talk about plants at Chelsea, but we'll get there. This too shall pass, as my mother would say!
So Chelsea has been cancelled, what else is there to talk about? Just to remind you that there's going to be a Q&A special coming up over the Easter weekend and I'm going to get my kids to read out the questions if I can persuade them, as part of their home-schooling, so that should be fun! So if you've got a question, drop it to me now. Best thing to do is to send a nice picture, loads of information and all that jazz to OnTheLedgepodcast@gmail.com and I will do my best to answer it. If I don't answer it in the special, I'll try to drop you a line or answer it in an upcoming episode.
Of course, the On The Ledge Sowalong is the perfect isolation gardening activity, so if you're listening to this podcast and you haven't listened to the On The Ledge Sowalong episodes, go back and you can find them all on the JanePerrone.com website. I will put a link to that in the show notes and you can find all the episodes on one page and dip in and out as you wish, to catch up with what's been going on.
What has been going on? Well, we've had some new posts this week. Ash posted on Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge Facebook group about her incredible Pelargonium capitatum seedlings. Something strange happened when these were added to the potting mix which was obviously rather damp, they started to spiral and coil. These seeds are long with a long feathery tail on them and for some reason being in contact with moisture has caused them to coil up. I don't know what that's about! I'd love a botanist to explain why, but do go and check that out on Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge. Alex has been posting pictures of Sowalong 2020 buddies, sowing some really interesting things like Tlanoxtle Lycianthes moziniana, which is an Aztec-cultivated plant that's become scarce lately. That sounds fascinating. And also the wonder berry, Solanum retroflexum, the Blackberry Jam Plant, Rosenbergiodendron formosum. Lots of great plants there from Alex and you can check out the full post in Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge. We've also heard from new member Sadie who has posted pictures of her Coleus seedlings. Well done Sadie, one of my faves, as anyone who listens to the show regularly will know. Welcome to the On The Ledge family and thanks for sharing your Coleusseedlings, make sure they get lots of light they look a little bit like they are stretching for light at the minute, so get them to a sunny windowsill forthwith if you can, Sadie.
If you'd like to post on On The Ledge Sowalong, then what you need to do is, on Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge, make sure you add the OTLSowalong topic, if you don't, I'll try and come along and add it for you but it just helps everyone find the posts, and on Twitter and Instagram just add the hashtag #OTLSowalong. If you're not on any social media you can just drop me an email with details of what you're doing to OnTheLedgepodcast@gmail.com. I'm planning to do a soundscape of my Sowalong activities in the next few days for the midweek bonus episode, so that should be fun and you get to hear me talking to Wolfie again!
A lovely new houseplant book popped through my letterbox a couple of weeks ago. It's called Plant Tribe, subtitle 'Living happily ever after with plants'. It's got a lovely Swiss Cheese plant, Monstera deliciosa, on the cover and I was very excited to get to talk to the authors of this book Igor Josifovic and Judith de Graaff. These are legendary people in the houseplant world because they're the founders of the community Urban Jungle Bloggers who have been on the scene for a number of years now as a collective writing about and loving houseplants. I knew this was going to be a fun interview and indeed it was. We cover everything from plant thrones to how the Coronavirus pandemic is affecting our houseplant habits. Over to Igor and Judith to introduce themselves.
Judith: Hello, my name is Judith, I live near Paris in France, I'm a designer, I grew up in Holland and I've been living in France for over two decades. I'm one of the co-founders of Urban Jungle Bloggers and we wrote two books; Urban Jungle and now our new book coming out, Plant Tribe.
Igor: Hello, this is Igor, I live in Munich in Germany. I'm a social media expert and co-founder of the Urban Jungle Bloggers together with Judith. As she mentioned we've published two books so far and the latest is Plant Tribe, which is coming out March 17th.
Jane: I've got this lovely tome in front of me here. I'm really fascinated to know how the Urban Jungle community and the online presence all began because, really, you were in at the ground floor of housplants really coming back into the fore in the last few years. Tell me about where this all started.
Judith: It started quite a few years ago indeed. In 2013, Igor and I knew each other from a few years before and we met in Paris through mutual blogger friends. We casually chatted about things that we liked blogging about on our own blogs, basically our passion. We both really like to travel and love interior design as well. So we spoke also about things that we had at home and we realised we both had quite a few houseplants at home that we really love, so we started to chat about plants. Very early we realised we had to do something with this passion, or this interest in houseplants and we decided to start a blog series on our own blogs, just to present our plants that we had at home and how we took care of them, how we style them, what kind of pots we use and that's what we did. The first month, in September 2013, we both created a blog post on our own blogs to present our plants and we called the series Urban Jungle Bloggers because we were bloggers and presented the Urban Jungle. Immediately this took off. Other bloggers were like: "This is so cool, I also want to show my plants on my blog!" Our audiences were very enthusiastic as well, so that's when we decided to open it up to other bloggers as well. So the second month we had a new topic, still with houseplants, and other bloggers created blogposts as well. We collected these blog posts, shared them on social media, on Pinterest, on Facebook, created a website where we gathered all these blog posts and that's when it started.
Jane: That's fantastic! You obviously spotted something that was burgeoning at the time, this growing interest in house plants. Two books later, it's obviously not a trend that's going away?
Judith: Exactly.
Jane: The lovely thing about this new book of yours, is it is full of really useful information but it's also full of stories of people who really love and cherish their plants all around the world. How did you actually track down these people? Were they already part of your community? And tell me about some of the things that you learned from them through researching this book.
Igor: We did the same way we did the first book, that is crowdsourcing our community, the global plant tribe that was out there, which was obviously the idea for the name. All these people, these plant-loving people, were out there and we knew a little bit of them because we share also their homes on Instagram. We see what they share and we felt that these were the right people to feature in our new book as well because we wanted to tell personal stories. The new book Plant Tribe is something that's, let's say, a bit more emotional because we wanted to explore a different level of relations we can have with plants. In our first book, Urban Jungle, we were very much focused on the plant itself and what can we do for the plant, how can we help the plant thrive, how can we decorate our home with plants. In the second book, Plant Tribe, we wanted to see what the plants do for us, how can they help us live a better a life, live healthier, get more creative, have more happiness and positive energy in our homes and stuff like that. The idea was to tell personal stories for which we needed people, of course. We short-listed quite a few people from our community that we liked and all of them agreed to be part of the book. There was not a single person saying: "No, I'm not interested." Everyone was really game and interested and happy to be part of this new project and in our book we present seventeen people in their homes and we talk to them about their emotional relationship to plants. So, basically, this book is something that differs from other plant books on the market because, for the first time, we're not looking from our side to the plants but from the other side around, what is the plant actually doing for us? For our soul? For our heart? For our mind? This is part of the book.
Jane: Well, it's really, really lovely the way you've got people from all around the world featured in here, telling their stories, and I love just nosing around other people's plant collection, so to me, it's a delight to flick through these pages and see somebody in Brazil or in the US - somewhere where they're just doing things slightly differently to how I'm doing them, growing different plants, with a different perspective. That's really, really fun! One of the plants that is inevitably featured in any houseplant book, and is indeed on the cover of your book, is the wonderful Swiss Cheese plant Monstera deliciosa. I'm really glad you've got this lovely picture of it on the front of your book! Was it hard to choose that image and why did you decide to go with that particular one? Obviously the ongoing fascination with Aroids is still with us.
Judith: It is still with us, indeed. I think people often talk about trendy plants that are very on trend, that people love today and are gone tomorrow. It's the same with the Urban Jungle trend. People keep telling us: "Oh but it's a trend. Next year it'll be something else." We started more than six years ago and plants were hot and happening at the time and for us they were already hot and happening. I mean forever! We both live with plants our entire lives and we will do in ten years from now, so for us it's not plants, it's not a trend, it's more a lifestyle. We live with plants and I think the same counts for the Monstera deliciosa. It was very trendy in the 1970s and maybe a little bit in the '80s. It still is! Six years ago, everyone wanted a Monstera and people still do. It's a such a graphic, beautiful plant and nowadays people are going crazy over the variegated version of course and it's a beautiful plant when there's nice pots and nice colour patterns on the leaves. Why we chose this picture, I think everyone recognises a Monstera as well and what we tried to do with the book, we really wanted to make it stand out, make the cover stand out. Lots of plant books these days are very green, obviously, with a lot of plants, greens and whites on the cover. We wanted create a book that looks good and feels good as well, so it's not only a beautiful picture of a Monstera on the cover but it's a terracotta cover and if you touch it you feel it feels like a terracotta pot, it's a bit rough on the edges and a bit gritty. And the Monstera goes well, everyone has a potted plant at home in terracotta pot.
Jane: Yes, I love the way you've done that with the cover, it's so clever! It really does feel like a terracotta pot and it brought to mind, looking through the Plant Tribe members that you feature, the one you feature who is in Sao Paolo in Brazil, with the wonderful Terracotta walls and I just thought: "Gosh, living here in Britain, I'm not sure many people would have their walls that colour" but it looks amazing, just from a plant styling point of view. It gives a whole different perspective and a whole different backdrop. So hopefully, this book will inspire us to be a bit more adventurous with our colours. I don't know about you but I'm feeling slightly over the clinical white walls look. I've done that myself in the past and I've gone bold with colours now and decided that colourful walls are better. I guess it's all dependent on where you live and whether you're actually allowed to change the colour of your walls because many people in your community, as many of my listeners are, they're living in rented accommodation. They might not be able to switch those things up so easily. Props for the cover, I love it. This is quite a substantial book. Did it take a long time to put together and research? It's not a slim leaflet, it's quite a weighty thing and you cover a lot of ground here, including lots of practical advice, styling advice and those profiles.
Igor: It took us slightly more than a year to work on this book if we took the entire process into consideration, so it does take some time, but I think we were lucky enough to have had the experience of the first book, so we understood the process of writing a book and what goes into such a project. So we were, let's say, well prepared. The big advantage for us, I think, is that we're a really well-functioning team, even though we're not living in the same spot - as we mentioned before, Judith lives close to Paris, I live in Munich - we still managed to work very fluently and fluidly together because we do not share the work in the sense that one specific topic is Judith's part and one is mine. It's more that we try to actually find our personal interests and then it's really easy to do research and put your thoughts and ideas and knowledge into words and write a chapter. So, basically, we tried, of course, to dedicate certain topics to each of us that speak to us. For example, when we wrote about plants and pets, because this is a recurring question from the community - "How can I live at home with pets and have plants because the plants might be toxic or my pets tip them over, or eat, or nibble or whatever?" - it was obvious that Judith would do this part because Judith has pets. She has three cats, she has the experience of it. I don't have a pet so it was more her topic, let's say. I had other topics that were more relevant, or more interesting, for me, so I did my part there. I think this combination of having the experience of a previous book and also being in a good team that functions and works together is the essence that gave us the chance to finish a book within a year. Usually in a book-making process, it's not even that long. Some books take even longer in production.
Jane: Indeed, yes, it can be a lengthy job and you've done a fantastic job of it. In fact, I must salute you, Judith! The information on the pets was very, very good. I liked the reference to the domino effect. A dog's tail or a cat's paw takes down one pot and then you get this domino effect of other pots going down! I have been there, not so much necessarily with pets, as with children, or indeed husbands! That was really useful to think about that kind of thing, as well as the very important aspect of toxic leaves and so on, which obviously not everyone realises quite how many houseplants are actually not very good for pets at all. Cats and dogs don't always eat plants, but if you've got an eater, that's something you've really got to bear in mind.
Judith: Absolutely, yes.
Jane: One of the aspects of the book is establishing plant rituals, ways of celebrating and nurturing your plants that become part of the fabric of your life. Can you each tell me something - a bit - about your own favourite plant rituals.
Judith: Good question! I work from home like a lot of people at the moment with the virus going on, but I work from home on a daily basis and sometimes I get really stressed and have calls and emails coming in and my favourite way to have a little break in my day is to take care of my plants. It depends on what needs to be done and it's different in the Winter time than in Summer time when every plant is thriving. But I like to take care of my plants, repot them, see if there's some leaves that need to be pruned or make some cuttings, take care of my propagation station. It's really a nice time out in my day when I take care of my plants. I'm only taking care of my plants. I don't think about my clients that call me, or about a stressful event, it's just I'm there in the moment to take care of my plants, to get my hands dirty. Of course, I like it when it's a little bit messy. For me, it's a nice ritual; a moment out of my day when I need it. Another thing I really like with my plants, is finding the right plant / pot combinations: looking for, finding the right pot, a nice ceramic pot, hand-made, or thrifted, or even designing completely new and find the right combination with the leaves of a plant, the shape it has, make it a really nice combination. For example the Monstera that is on the cover of our Plant Tribe book, if you place it in a basic terracotta pot it looks completely different from when you use a huge designer pot in a nice colour, or on a plant stand. It completely changes the look of a plant. It's also something that's a little ritual, to look for pots, or even different containers for my plants, and I can do this all the time, when I'm shopping outside, when I'm thrifting. It's something that I always have in the back of my head.
Jane: Yes, I'm like that when I'm in a charity shop or thrift store. I'm always looking out for anything that can make a pot because it gets expensive when you've got a lot of plants, doesn't it? If you can get something that probably wasn't designed to be a plant pot but turn it into one, then it's fantastic. What about you Igor? Any plant rituals we haven't already mentioned?
Igor: Mine is very similar to Judith's. Maybe mine is a little bit more dynamic in that sense that I like to play my favourite music while I take care of my plants and put on a cup of coffee and take this time as some me-time. So it's the same - a little bit like Judith's unwinding - while taking care of your plants and for us taking care of our plants is not a chore, it's more like this me-time. Whenever I have the opportunity, usually it's, like, once a week because I live in an apartment and have around 80 plants and that's doable once a week because I do not have plants that need a lot of attention more than once a week. I get this hour once a week where I really take time for myself and my plants and this is my kind of plant ritual that I always cherish actually in my home.
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Jane: We'll be hearing from Igor and Judith shortly but now it's time for Meet the Listener.
Maria: Hi Jane, I'm Maria! I'm listening to you from a small town in the South Island of New Zealand, called Ōamaru. We have cold, dry Winters and warm, dry Summers, although today it is pouring with rain and it's quite chilly for February. Before this, I lived up in Auckland, where the climate is far more suited for raising houseplants: very humid, warmer all year round, so these last twelve months have been a real learning curve on how I can help my houseplants thrive in a completely different climate. They've definitely slowed down a bit but I haven't lost any, so I'm quite pleased with how we've progressed. Jane, I need to tell you - in New Zealand we do not have Pilea peperomioides! I know! Our bio-security rules are very tight. Apparently some people might have them but they keep them very under-wraps because if it is discovered that you have them, you can be requested to destroy your plants or our environmental protection agency will destroy them for you. So if anything ever comes up on any of our trading sites they are quickly pulled down and we admire them for afar.
Jane: Question one - There's a fire and all your plants are about to burn. Which one do you grab as you escape?
Maria: I think if we had a fire I would have to try and rescue my fiddle leaf fig. He has been with me for four or five years. I've put him through a lot. He's been sunburned multiple times, he has been over-watered, he has been under-watered, I've dragged him from one end of the country to the other and he still throws out new leaves and looks lush and it would definitely end his legacy. Plus he has a very large cover pot, so hopefully while I'm dragging him through the flames, I can chuck another couple of smaller plants in there and save them as well.
Jane: Question two - What is your favourite episode of On The Ledge?
Maria: I have two favourite episodes: episode ten and episode 87. They were both about conservatories. When we were moving south we found a lot of the houses down here had conservatories, which we didn't quite understand, and then when I realised I could put my plants in them they all got a little sunburned, so having those two podcasts and the resources there, it's been really helpful. I'm currently working my way through Ruth's book to try and get some inspiration for good plants because, oh dear, my biggest problem is I have too much bright direct light. Oh my gosh, I know! Lots of sympathy! So I think maybe I'll be enlisting some citrus or something to put in there, to provide a bit of shade. I've really enjoyed those two episodes for a bit of inspiration and how to make the conservatory a bit less fuddy-duddy and a bit more jungly and interesting.
Jane: Question three - Which Latin name do you say to impress people?
Maria: I don't know if I use Latin names to impress people. I feel like I use Latin names to avoid my own confusion. When I first started getting into houseplants and I was trying to find out more about Pilea peperomioides, of course, I just kept on seeing it being referred to as Chinese Money Plant and I got confused because, for me, Chinese Money Plant had always been Crassula ovata. So when I started to see this, I was very uncertain. So, yes, I use the Latin names to avoid my own confusion, rather than trying to impress people, but I guess I do like saying Rhaphidophora tetrasperma. It just rolls off the tongue, but it's a bit disappointing in New Zealand - it's sold as Philodendron Minima, which isn't nearly as cool, butlet's go with that one.
Jane: Question four - Crassulacean acid metabolism or guttation?
Maria: CAM takes me back to being 15 years old and sitting in a biology class with a teacher I wasn't particularly fond of, so maybe I have to go with guttation just because of that. Guttation is so pretty. I remember the first time that I saw it and I actually accused my partner of over-watering my plants because I couldn't figure out why else there would be water on the leaves. He denied it completely and subsequently refuses to water the houseplants, but, yes, I would say I'm going to go with guttation.
Jane: Question five - Would you rather spend £200 on a variegated Monstera or £200 on 20 interesting cacti?
Maria: £200 is about $400NZ which is a lot to spend on houseplants. You could definitely get 20 very interesting very decent cacti for that amount of money. If you could find variegated Monstera for $400NZ you have to snap that up because that is a bargain! We recently had a very well established variegated Monstera deliciosa sell on one of our trading sites for $5,000NZ so that's about £2,500 and that made the national news. I don't know if that is more about its news-worthiness, or the fact that sometimes there's not a lot going on in New Zealand. I think $400NZ to spend on a plant, I would jump on that variegated Monstera bandwagon!
Jane: Maria, lovely to meet you! I am in shock that you don't have Pilea peperomioides! How do you get by!? If you'd like to be featured on Meet the Listener, now is a great time to get in touch. Drop an email to OnTheLedgepodcast@gmail.com and my assistant Kelly will send you a message back explaining what you need to do. It's very simple, quick and easy. Right now, as I'm trying to put out extra content, it's a great time to put yourself forward. Don't be shy, don't be embarrassed, I love all the different stories and accents that we're getting to hear. So, let's be having you, as quick as you can! Come forward for Meet the Listener! Now, it's time to get back to our chat about the book Plant Tribe, with Igor and Judith.
Jane: Now, we've already briefly mentioned Coronavirus, Covid-19, which is obviously gripping the world as we record right now. I'm wondering how that's going to impact those of us who have plants? I think possibly, for me, I'm looking ahead to potentially being isolated in my house with my husband and children and quite glad that I'm going to have my plants around me as a nice distraction, possibly, from any stresses and anxieties that that might bring. How is that affecting you guys at the minute?
Judith: I think similar to you. We cannot travel, so we cannot go anywhere, so you're stuck at home and if you're stuck at home, what do you do? There's your family, your pets are there and your plants as well, especially now with springtime coming up, it's lots of different stages of plant life coming up. Lots of plants are growing new leaves again after hibernation, so it's quite an interesting time for plant care at the moment because there's so much new life coming up in the next few weeks. So that's quite exciting to have that going on at home. At least you have something you can do and feel a little bit more of nature because we can go outside just to have a little walk but not too much because, especially in cities, people are so limited at the moment. It's nice to take care of something at home and we have to refocus about things that are important at the moment in our lives. Do we really need to travel all the time? Do we really need to go to all of these meetings everywhere? So many meetings can be done so much easier by email, or by Skype call and I think it's a very interesting time and plants help us to keep it a little bit exciting at home.
Jane: Exactly, that's very true and I was very excited this morning to look at my rather sparse looking purple shamrock, Oxalis triangularis, and see those new shoots emerging and that was just a little spike of excitement this morning that made me feel better after having a bit of a panic about the pandemic. I was thinking ahead and my mind was racing and then I suddenly saw that this was sprouting and I thought: "Things are happening outside this panic that we're having. Life goes on. Plants are still growing!" so that's a great thing to have as a back-up for all of us who are into plants. One of the other things that I really loved in the book was some pictures that you had of what you call botanical thrones! Can you tell me about botanical thrones?
Igor: Yes, I can tell you a little bit about the concept. I think botanical thrones is a term that I think we came up with. I don't know if we saw it before somewhere else, Judith, or not? It's something that was inspired by quite a few people on Instagram that shared, quite often, a special seat in their home that was really surrounded by plants, or it was under a green canopy and stuff. For us it looked like a throne that you created - a botanical throne, where you have your special place to unwind, to sit down, to take your paper, or book, or cup of tea, or cup of coffee, and have your time out there. We actually saw quite a few botanical thrones during the production of the book. This part, the idea of bringing this into the book as an idea, how you can enjoy your botanical collection in a very special way by creating your specific green corner just for you to unwind and enjoy life in the presence of your plants, which we named Botanical Thrones.
Jane: Those are the key elements, a nice comfortable chair, a hot beverage of your choice and a surrounding of beautiful plants. That's all you need, isn't it? Even if you can't have that as permanent feature, I think it's something you could do when you're doing a bit of plant-making and gather your plants around you just so you can enjoy them more.
Igor: Exactly.
Judith: Yes.
Jane: I would like to know if there are any houseplants that you just don't like? There must be some things that make you: "Oh, no! I can't cope with that." Anything you can admit to not liking in the world of houseplants?
Judith: Yes, of course! I think it's also one of the things that we noticed when we visited all these different families that are featured in Plant Tribe. People have really different tastes also in plants, not only just in interior styles, but also in the choice of plants. There are people that are very much into Aroids, or into Begonia, or are into cacti, and they have very specific tastes. It's really interesting to see not everyone likes old plants, so it's the same for us. I think I really, really don't like the very classic orchids Phalaenopsis. I just cannot handle the shape and the colours. It's too much for me and they're also plants that don't thrive in my home, so if I get one of these plants, especially a plant that needs a lot of water and need a very humid environment, I like them, but they don't thrive in my home because it's very, very bright and quite sunny. So they don't thrive in my home and I'm always a little bit hesitant to get them because I know they won't be at their best in my home, so I don't get them, it makes them less attractive to me. It's also influenced by home, actually, my choice of plants, but yes, the classic orchids, no way. There's even a second one, I used to really dislike Dracaenas. For years I couldn't handle them! I thought they were so old-school and so, just, uninteresting because in most plant shops you saw these very classic Dracaenas that have these very boring shapes that are very, very straight and nowadays I'm starting to feel Dracaenas a little bit more, especially when they have movement in their stems they can be very graphic and a little bit like palm trees, but a little bit wavy and quirky shapes. So I start to appreciate them more and more.
Jane: It's interesting, isn't it? How we can change our views on plants over time. Igor, is there anything that you find yourself unable to countenance in your home?
Igor: Apart from plants that will also suffer in my home, because my home is more on the shadier side so I cannot have plants that like a lot of sunlight, which doesn't mean I don't like them, but, for example, a plant that I don't particularly like are Coleus, for example, because, I don't know, maybe I just saw too many of them in some grandmothers' homes and windowsills and stuff. I also don't like too bright-coloured foliage and stuff. I wouldn't be the person who buys a Coleus for the home.
Jane: Are you slagging off one of my favourite plants here, Igor? Interview ended! The interview is over! I'm storming off, metaphorically!
Igor: I think that this is a personal case!
Jane: I'm just messing with you! As I say, I know that lots of people have problems with that particular plant, Coleus, or Solenostemon I think we're supposed to be calling them, but it's fine, it's okay. Everyone's got different tastes. It would be really boring if we all liked the same plant, wouldn't it? I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist messing with you there! I'm sure there's plants that you guys love that I would ... I find that the Ficus Lyrata I'm very bored by! I've never really been interested in that plant, I've never really seen the attraction of it. I know people go crazy for that plant and it really was, a couple of years ago, the plant to have. Never going to be one of those in my house, that's for sure. There you go! That's my plant prejudice being exposed, well and truly. So where next for the Urban Jungle community? As you said, this has been going on for a few years now and there's no sign of this supposed trend, let's hope it's a long-term shift, coming to an end. Where next for you guys, more books? Building your community bigger? What have you got in mind?
Judith: First it will be all about Plant Tribe. It comes out in about a week from now, so we're very excited to see how people react to the book. That's first. That's our priority at the moment. That's the main priority.
Jane: Indeed, promoting a book is no small thing. I can imagine that's going to be taking up quite a lot of your time. The people who are featured in it, have they been delighted with the way it's come out? It's a very beautiful book to look through, so I'm sure they are.
Judith: They're still on their way. The books are on their way.
Jane: Oh, I'm lucky then! I've got one early.
Judith: Yes, you're one of the first people to have received it!
Jane: That's really nice! Well, I'm sure it'll get a really good reaction because it's a really lovely combination of practical and inspirational, which is a great combo to have. As I say, I love the terracotta-ish cover. It looks so different from so many other houseplant books, which is a challenge because there have been so many other houseplant books published in the last few years. If I can put you on the spot, just to end, and say are there any other houseplant books, not written by yourselves, that you have taken inspiration from over the years? Or any other books you'd recommend to somebody wanting to look out for inspiration in the house plant world, obviously other than the wonderful Plant Tribe.
Judith: Oh, wow, you're putting us really on the spot!
Jane: Sorry, the answer really might be "No", but I'm just interested to know because I know I've got my own little bibles but they might be completely different from what you like to look at. Or perhaps the reason why you wrote these books is because the book you wanted wasn't there?
Judith: I think that's more in the direction of at least what I feel. We wrote Urban Jungle quite a few years ago and at the time I think it was one of the first that really showed interiors as well - not focused so much on just plant care but also how plants look in a home. I think it's a little bit similar for Plant Tribe. We created something that wasn't there. In the past three or four years, there were so many plant books that came out and they focused mostly on plant care and there's so many levels of plant care as well, so many techniques that you can use. People that are very technical and have very specific views on plant care. So I think with Plant Tribe, I think we tried to create something that wasn't there and that we missed as well. That's a little bit on the verge of self-care and interiors and also plants, but it's a little bit of a mix - something that's not yet on the market, we believe. Personally, books that I love, of course, I read them all because I'm curious. I'm not sure if I have a bible. Usually I'm inspired by different topics than just plants. There's some nice interior books that I really enjoy. So, wow, to name one book that is my main bible, I'm not sure if I have one plant book. Do you Igor?
Igor: Not a specific plant book, I think that both of us, we also like the vintage plant books from the '70s and '80s because it's so fun to see old books, especially when you go thrifting and find them in stacks somewhere. Then you see how plants were trending at another time and how they were perceived in a different way. Most of those books are more botanical and plant-orientated, but you can also see some really nice retro-inspired interiors, which is quite fun. When it comes to more contemporary books, I would maybe say, it's not a plant book per se, it's more lifestyle, interior and plants. That plant book is The New Bohemians, by Justina Blakeney, because I really like her way. She was one of the first to implement this eclectic style at home that was always incorporating plants since the beginning. In her book, she beautifully captures this lifestyle and plants are part of it and I really admire her style how she also transfers her passion for plants into product design, into decorating the home and having in mind plants and stuff like that. So this is something that I really like and I'm quite happy that we're actually, with our new book, sharing the same publisher and the same editor who worked on our books because we had a nice benchmark to set when it comes to the book design and what we envision as content and stuff. So I would say The New Bohemians by Justina Blakeney is one of the books that really inspired me.
Jane: Well, it's really good to speak to you guys. I'm really delighted that I've been able to get you on the show. Best of luck for the launch of Plant Tribe. It's a wonderful book and I'm sure lots of readers are going to absolutely love getting their hands on a copy of this. Is there anything else you wanted to add before we go? Have I missed any vital information out?
Judith: Great question. No, I don't think so.
Jane: Feel free to say no.
Judith: I don't think so, it was lovely talking to you.
Jane: Thank you and as I say I'm really looking forward to spending some more time diving into the book in more depth because it really is a book that you can keep picking up and getting more out of every time you look. So thank you very much, guys, and I hope Plant Tribe races to the top of the publishing charts because it really deserves to.
Igor: Thank you very much. Thank you!
[music]
Jane: 'Plant Tribe - Living Happily Ever After with Plants' is published by Abrams and is out now. Check the show notes for details of how to get hold of this book and also for all of Igor and Judith's links, including their Instagram, which is @UrbanJungleBlog and as always you can check out some images from the book we shall be putting up on Instagram and also in the show notes.
[music]
Jane: Now it's time for Question of the Week. This came up when I was talking to Patreon subscriber, Jo, and she raised the issue which may be occurring to a few of us, that if you've got a lot of time on your hands with your houseplants at the moment, then maybe it's a temptation to over-water, over-preen, over-prune and possibly kill your plants with kindness. So what could we do about this? I think there are lots of ways you can interact with your plants that will make sure that they stay healthy and won't succumb to water logged roots or anything horrible like that. I think Ashley, from Igor and Judith's interview, the idea of creating a botanical throne is a good one. There's absolutely no reason why you can't move your house plants about a bit, set some stage effects for your own little home. You may want to create a little daily tableau of the plants that are looking their absolute best for you to look at as you sit as your desk or at your kitchen table. Obviously, those plants need to go back to their ideal homes after a few days but there's absolutely no harm to treating them as a bit of a prop occasionally so that you can fully enjoy them at their peak.
I'd also encourage you to learn about more advanced plant propagation techniques. Perhaps ones that won't necessarily, that won't land you with loads of new plants. I'm thinking of things like air layering. We have discussed this on the show before and I'll put a link in the show notes to more information on how to do it, but it's a fairly easy way of propagating new roots on things like Swiss Cheese plants, Monstera deliciosa, Dracaena marginata, where possibly they've become really leggy, you can then promote root growth along the stem and then chop off that top stem and then create a new plant. It's quite a fiddly and fascinating process to go through. It might be something to look at while you're stuck at home. You can also spend hours cleaning plant leaves. It's a very mindful activity. All you need is a damp cloth, sit down with your plants and carefully clean each leaf in turn top and bottom because, of course, there are breeding holes on the top and the bottom of the leaf, although most of the dust will gather on the top of the leaf it's also worth giving the bottom of the leaf a clean as well. As I've said before don't bother with milk, coconut oil or leaf shine. You just need water, if you can possibly use distilled water or rain water then you'll avoid any mineral marks on the leaves, but if tap is what you've got to hand, well, tap water is what you've got to hand!
Now could also be the time to build up a database of all your plants. I use an app called Sprouted to do that. It's only available on iPhone, not Android unfortunately, but it's a really simple app. It doesn't over-complicate things, or anything like that, like some other apps do. It's very simple. You can add a picture and a description of your plant and that way you can keep track of everything, when it was repotted and, if you like, when it was last watered. I just basically keep details of when my plants were repotted or propagated. So get that database going? Perhaps you want to make it a beautiful journal rather than a spreadsheet - it's completely up to you. Suit it to your style.
Just sit and observe your plants. There's so much detail to be looking at. If you've got a hand lens or a lens that you use for magnifying your camera phone lens, then you could use that to look in detail at leaves and it's amazing what you will see. I was looking at my Oxalis triangularis leaves the other day and I can get right down to cell level with the more powerful hand lens and they just looked glorious. These purple, glittering cells were just amazing. So get your hand lens out, see what you can see. I admit you may find a few pests that come to light - spider mite, well we know how to get on top of those, go back and listen to the spider mite episode for tips on that, but it's just a great way of getting down to the detail of your plants.
If you've never tried drawing a plant before, I am absolutely no artist, then maybe sit down with a pen and paper or a pencil and paper and have a go and see if you can sketch out a pattern from one of your leaves or capture a side of your plant that you haven't before. You may find you've got hidden talents. Finally, of course, On The Ledge Sowalong is a great way of filling your house with plants for very little money and now is a great time to start. Most of the mail order seed companies, in fact all of the ones I know of, are still sending out seeds. Obviously the postal service may start to be hit, so if you've got seeds all ready, then get sowing. If you haven't got any, then do order some. In the show notes again I will link to the pages for the US and the UK that show where you can buy seeds. If sowing seeds teaches you anything, it is patience, so it's a great learning curve for us all to be on right now as we face down this difficult time.
So that's my list, but I'd love to hear from you, how you're coping with #QuarantineLife, how are you spending your time, have you got any tips of tricks for taking care of your plants that I haven't mentioned? You, as ever, are the lifeblood of the show, so get in touch and let me know. Do also check out my Instagram @j.l.perrone I'm trying to put up daily Instagram videos of different plants just to keep you amused, so do go and take a look at that if you have a second. Not only does it cheer me up to talk about my plants, it brings a smile to my face to see the penny dropping and lots of people working out how to take better care of their succulents and other plants, so it's a win-win!
[music]
That's all for this week's show. I will try to bring you a midweek bonus episode next week, as well as episode 133, and in the mean time I hope you have a healthy and safe week. Bye!
[music]
Jane: The music you heard in this episode was Roll Jordan Roll by The Joy Drops, An Instrument the Boy Called Happy Day Gokarna by Samuel Corwin, Chiefs by Jahzzar and Whistle by BenJamin Banger. All tracks are licensed under Creative Commons. See JanePerrone.com for details.
Subscribe to On The Ledge via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Player FM, Stitcher, Overcast, RadioPublic and YouTube.
I was thrilled to be able to chat to Igor Josifovic and Judith de Graaff, founders of Urban Jungle Bloggers, about their new book Plant Tribe, plus I answer a question about how to avoid overwatering your plants during a pandemic lockdown, and we meet listener Maria.
Check out the notes and links below as you listen…
Thanks for the fab response to my response to the Coronavirus pandemic. You can sign up to take part in Houseplant Buddies here: If you don’t do Facebook, drop me an email to ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com and I can sort you out!
Follow my Instagram videos at @j.l.perrone. You can put yourself forward for Meet The Listener by emailing ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com.
Listener Maria who featured in Meet The Listener this week mentioned the conservatories episode of On The Ledge with Ruth Kassinger - you can listen to that here. There’s more info on why Pilea peperomioides can’t be found in New Zealand here.
Igor Josifovic & Judith de Graaff. Photograph: Jules Villbrandt.
This week’s interview guests are Igor of Happy Interior Blog and Judith of JOELIX.com, and collectively they are the founders of Urban Jungle Bloggers, a global community of plant lovers started back in 2013 as a way of bringing more green into homes and blogs.
They are also on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter and there’s a @urbanjungleblog account on Instagram: I’d also recommend following #urbanjunglebloggers.
Their first book was the best-selling Urban Jungle.
Their new book is Plant Tribe, published by Abrams. Check out the cover, which looks and feels like a terracotta pot!
The book Igor recommends towards the end of the interview when I ask about other ‘plant bibles’ is The New Bohemians by Justina Blakeney.
Olive May from Dallas, USA, is featured in new book Plant Tribe. Photograph:Jules Villbrandt for Urban Jungle Bloggers.
Question of the week
Jo wanted to know how to avoid overwatering plants at a time when you have lots of spare capacity to care for your plants: the current pandemic may mean some of us are in this situation!
Arrange your plants for a pleasing display. Photograph: Judith de Graaff, JOELIX.com.
I’d suggest spending lots of time cleaning plant leaves using a damp cloth - turn it into a mindfulness activity if you wish - and you can also try more advanced propagation techniques such as air layering. If you have a magnifying glass, hand lens or loupe you can take a really close look at your plant’s leaves and other parts, and discover a whole new world (and possibly some pests! - spider mite episode is here).
Create your own botanical throne, as Judith and Igor suggest in their book, or perhaps make a temporary tableau of some of your plants that are at their peak. You could also try drawing your plants.
There’s a nice guide to drawing plants here. You can also try cataloguing all your plants using an app such as Sprouted, or perhaps in a beautiful journal.
And finally, don’t forget to join in the On The Ledge sowalong! You can find all the sowalong episodes here and if you are looking for seeds, here are the pages for US and UK listeners.
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!
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CREDITS
This week's show featured the tracks Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops, An Instrument the Boy Called Happy Day Gokana by Samuel Corwin, Chiefs by Jahzzar and Whistle by BenJamin Banger (@benjaminbanger on Insta; website benjaminbanger.com).
Logo design by Jacqueline Colley.