Episode 172: your sowalong questions answered
Photograph: Jane Perrone.
Transcript
Episode 172
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Jane: Hello! It's On The Ledge podcast and I'm your host Jane Perrone and this week we're getting seedy. Ooh er! Whether you've already sown your seed or you're itching to get started, this week's show will answer all the questions that you sent in about the sowalong and probably some you've never thought of.
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Jane: Before I forget, tomorrow, 6th February, also the 8th, if you happen to be in Canada you can tune into CBC Radio 1 at 14:00 your time and hear me on their show Podcast Playlist, so do tune into that. I think you'll be able to hear it on the website as well, so do check that out. I'll try to mention that in the show notes once that show has gone out. I'm not exactly sure what I said now, but it's me talking about On The Ledge and another podcast that I recommended, so do look out for that.
Also, a quick update on Legends of the Leaf, my crowd-funded book. Sorry I've gone a bit quiet on that. I've been so busy with, well, life, that that has had to take a bit of a back seat in terms of the crowdfunding campaign. I am at, she says clicking over to the website, 64%, so two thirds of the way there. I've got 422 pledges but please do spread the word and if you haven't pledged already, crack on and get on with it because I want to write this book, I'm desperate to write it and I'd love to reach my target! Also, when I do reach my target, those of you who have pledged for a houseplant consultation, a virtual chat with me, we'll be able to get those scheduled in, so for everyone's sake let's get this project off the ground. If you haven't heard of it, it is my book, a passion project really, Legends of the Leaf - The story behind 25 iconic house plants and the secrets to making them thrive. I'm really excited about this book and I think it's going to be awesome; beautiful illustrations, bespoke illustrations from a wonderful artist called Helen Entwistle and if you look on my Instagram, you can see the very first one, which is a lovely spotty Begonia. So, if you want to find out how to donate, just go to my website janeperrone.com and all the details are there!
Thanks too to my new On The Ledge SuperFan, Tabby, who has joined my Patreon subscriber group at the top level - thank you for that Tabby! - and also to Rasco, who has become a Crazy Plant Person and to Matthew who gave me a donation on ko-fi.com, and whether you have the capacity to spend a dollar a month, or a one-off payment of the price of a cup of coffee, or ten dollars a month, then you can support me through Patreon or ko-fi, so do check out my website for details on that. I totally understand if you haven't got any spare moolah! What you can do, is leave a review for the show on your choice of platform, or just tell a friend!
Thanks to Solange who sent me a beautiful picture of a Hoya Kerrii that she managed to grow from a single leaf, so that's interesting! We have heard that said before, that it's possible, but it's great to see the evidence, Solange! And for those of you who got in touch as a result of the humidity episode last week, Jeff got in touch, Jeff lives in the Great Plains region of the US and describes the climate there as very cold, very low humidity air in the winters, and Jeff writes, "Without a humidifier I can feel the dryness of the air in the form of itchy skin, bloody noses and chapped, cracked lips. As you can imagine, I'm quite diligent in my humidifier care to combat these issues" and Jeff recommends the wick and fan type of humidifier as being the most effective. He says, "While they can develop bacteria and mould, in most hardware stores in the US you can get a water treatment solution for less than $10 that prevents the problem. About every other day I refill the humidifier in my shower and rinse the water chamber with plain tap water, since using the water treatment liquid I've never had a problem with bacteria or mould" and Jeff concludes, "I would say that humidifiers are probably not worth the expense and trouble if they're solely for your plants, but are very worth it for your own comfort if low humidity is an issue in your area." Thanks very much for your message, Jeff. You're absolutely right, I'm quite comfortable here at sort of 40% to 50%, but if it's dropping very low, humidity-wise, where you are, I can imagine, for your own health, it does a great deal of good and it's great that you've found a system that really works for you. That's what I love about the show, there's always somebody from a different perspective who can come in and offer their experiences!
Sophie also got in touch. Sophie, from Seattle in the US, says that a humidifier was something they got into once they started growing carnivores and orchids when they lived in the North Eastern US. But now, living in Seattle, Sophie drove across the country with 35 houseplants in the car! Yes, I can picture that, Sophie, in that it's so wet that the humidifier hasn't been required. Sophie writes, "I just got more intentional about building micro-habitats in the house, like setting up pebble trays. I also have a couple extra humid, hot corners; one where I've set up my tea kettle on a shelf under the plants - I put a couple of plates under the plant so they're buffered from the heat but the steam billows up around them - and another corner where I use my steam iron to press quilt squares after I piece them." Yesssssss! Fellow quilter here! Although I'm the world's slowest quilter, I'm still working on a quilt that I started about three or four years ago because I hand-sew everything, so yes, painfully slow! Don't expect much progress on my quilts! Anyway, Sophie goes on, "My Orchids, Begonias and Monstera love the warm, humid corners and are thriving. I also hang my Nepenthes over the kitchen sink so they have a more constant, cooler humidity. I think there are lots of ways to build micro-habitats using just what you are already doing in your household." I think you're absolutely right there Sophie, that's genius, and it really is worth thinking about those areas in your house where you might be able to create a little microclimate. So there's a bit of food for thought as you go on your humidity journeys, people!
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Jane: Before we crack on with the questions, just another little aside for you. It's a public information announcement, really, but it's really got my goat this week. You may know that I am a fan of the Gesneriad family, which includes things like Streptocarpus, the African Violet Saintpaulia - which I think is now actually within the Streptocarpus genus, Primulinas - Petrocosmeas and more, and I'm delighted that I keep seeing a particular Primulina pop up on my various social media feeds, but there's a downside. The plant in question is labeled as Streptocarpus Pretty Turtle and, as soon as I looked at the plant, I knew it wasn't a Streptocarpus, knowing and growing these two genera quite well. It was obvious to me, from the start, that this pretty, furry-leaved houseplant with silver variegation, in a kind of a turtle pattern, I guess you could say, was actually a Primulina and not a Streptocarpus. It's being really widely sold here - I've seen discussion of it on a couple of different Gesneriad Facebook groups that I'm on - and so it is being sold in the US under this name and in Europe. I was searching around to see who's selling it and it's being sold all over the place, in a variety of pot sizes, from about 12cm to 17cm pot size and the price ranging from anything from £22 up to £40. So this plant is coming on strong in terms of being sold all over the place, but the frustrating part is that the labelling is not correct.
Why does that matter? Well, I mean, I don't know what's happened here, whether somebody's deliberately decided, "Oh well, nobody knows what a Primulina is, so we'll call it a Streptocarpus because people have heard of that plant," or whether there's been a genuine mix-up, or what's happened, but somehow this plant has ended up being labeled Streptocarpus Pretty Turtle and in the description that I'm seeing on some of the plant sales sites, it's talking about this plant growing in Africa, in crevices in rocks, and that's a problem too because in fact Primulinas come from China and North Vietnam, not from Africa, which is where Streptocarpus comes from, so the information is not correct on the description. This is a problem, we're back to the old issue that we had with Monstera obliqua, I guess, where plants were being sold as Monstera obliqua which definitely weren't Monstera obliqua and were, possibly, some other kind of Monstera adansonii, some other form that we possibly didn't quite get to the bottom of, or Monkey Mask as it was also sold under, and it's happening all over again with this Primulina.
I think, looking at the pictures, that the Primulina in question, which has got this lovely silvery variegated foliage and pretty pale blue flowers held on long stems, a bit like a mini foxglove flower, I think this plant is either a cultivar called Hisako, which is a Primulina dryas cultivar, or another cultivar called Betty. Somebody else suggested that name, that is actually a plant that was bred from Hisako but has a bit more silver in it. So, just be aware if you see this plant out and about on your travels, Streptocarpus Pretty Turtle, that it needs to be borne in mind that it's actually a Primulina.
Now, when it comes to care, I find Primulinas a bit easier than Streptocarpus, to be honest. The care is pretty similar. Some people may say, "It doesn't really matter," but it matters to me! It's really important. I don't know, whatever genus of plant you're into, imagine if somebody called that plant by another genus and you could perhaps understand my frustration. It's also worth bearing in mind that, if you're in the UK anyway, you can get hold of this plant from Dibleys Nurseries, you can buy a very similar Primulina Hisako for £3.60, as a plug plant from Dibleys Nurseries in the UK, so don't feel like you have to spend a fortune on this plant. In a way, it's great news because it does get the Primulina - well, it does get Gesneriads as a family - out into the public eye a bit more, so that's an interesting development and, hopefully, means that Gesneriads will become more popular and I'm always banging on about how great Gesneriads are. If we can all begin to realise that, then the world will be a better place! But, please, if you go into a shop and you spot this plant being sold under that name, do just have a quiet word with the shop owner and say, "This isn't a Streptocarpus. It's not from Africa. It's actually a Primulina!" and you'll be doing everybody a bit of a favour!
Names do matter and in the plant world, it's very easy for things to be mislabeled and for names to be changed and a lot of confusion results. So, let's hope that we can spread the word about this wonderful Primulina and get everyone growing it under the correct name.
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Jane: Thanks to those of you who have shared your exciting On The Ledge sowalong news. It's been fantastic to see those posts popping up on social media. Andy, who's Asquared on Instagram, has posted a picture of the seeds that are going to be part of their sowalong, and some interesting ones here, we've got Sinningia bullata, Columnea purpureovittata and - you're a Gesneriad fan Andy! You're immediately my friend - and Columnea linearis. This is a great selection. I wonder where you got these from? It's a really, really lovely selection and do keep us posted, Andy, about how you get on. I'm going to follow you on Instagram right now. Click, that's done! Thank you very much for sharing that.
Over on Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge, John is helping out a local marsh ecosystem and sowing several varieties of native wetland plants - Turtlehead, Bottle Gentian, Prairie Indian Plantain - in milk jug greenhouses, to cold-stratify outside. I'm doing a slow power grab here, John! That's incredible! Well done, excellent effort! And bonus points to you because you also edited the post so that OTLsowalong was a post topic, which is really helpful to help everyone find those posts. Really exciting what you're doing there and well done and let me know how you get on with that and I love the idea of taking those milk jugs, cutting them across the centre and turning them into a little mini greenhouse, how awesome is that?! "Hopefully, these babies will come up happy in April," John writes, "And can be transplanted into the wetlands surrounding our local creek." Oh, I'm feeling warm and fuzzy about that, John! That's amazing. Well done!
Tenzin is planting, or rather sowing, tomatoes. I can't quite see the names of those varieties, Tenzin, but it looks like you've got a good selection going there. I think you're using a bit of recycled food packaging there. It looks like cookie packaging, or something, that you're using? It's really cute, the way you've got those little segments, each for different seeds, and it looks like they're germinating, so well done on that! I'm going to add the post topic of OTLsowalong to your post now, so do remember to use that. It's really useful for helping me and others find your posts.
Greg is growing microgreens. You must have been listening to an early episode of On The Ledge? They look great, those radish seeds. Very tasty! So do check that out, folks, if you haven't listened to the microgreens episode. It's an early one, so the sound is not great, but it's really, really fun. It's a good thing to do on the windowsill. Tate remarks that he used to run a microgreens business and it's a lot of work to do at a large scale and meet all the cleanliness guidelines. I bet it is, Tate, but fun to do on your windowsill, if you have the room!
German, I never know if that's how to say your name, German? I hope it is! I know we've communicated before but I've never said your name out loud, so I hope that's right - apologies if not. German is going hell for leather with Monstera deliciosa - classic choice! - Beaucarnea recurvata The Ponytail Palm, excellent, and Thaumatophyllum bipinnatifidum. I find that a struggle to say! It's a great plant though. Well done for getting those going and that looks amazing. I think you're going to have fun with those.
Amani has been sowing sweet peas,nasturtiums and tomatoes and they've all sprouted; that's great. Rachel said, "Jane and co have really inspired me to plant seeds. I love growing something from almost nothing. I'm behind on the pod. Is there an On The Ledge sowalong this year?" That's an affirmative and I hope you manage to catch up with this episode soon.
So, please do tell me how you're getting along with your sowalong exploits and if you haven't started, really don't panic. You've got plenty of time, so don't worry. In my On The Ledge sowalong news, I have got germination on my Astrophytum and my Selenicereus mix. I've got no signs of growth yet on the Agave or the Hoya or the Clivia. I am growing those under a growlight. I don't know if I said that last week, but that's important because really, at this time of year where I live, light levels are very low, so they do need to be under a growlight unless you've got an incredibly bright room or a warm greenhouse to put them in. So, mine are under a Växer bulb in a normal lamp fitting and, because they're seedlings, the lamp is quite close it's only about five centimetres away from the seedlings and the places where the seeds should be coming up. So, close for seedlings, closer than you would do for plants that are more mature, and that growlight will really help prevent any etiolation of those seedlings, I hope.
Right, let's crack on with some questions. As you know if you've listened to the On The Ledge sowalong before, I don't like to impose a lot of rules and say, "Oh no, that doesn't count because it's not a seed" because that's really tedious. You can plant Oxalis bulbs, you can plant Caladium bulbs, you can plant pips from your supermarket lemon, I really don't care as long as you're planting something!
Claire got in touch with a question about her beloved purple shamrock, that's Oxalis triangularis, and she's a bit worried because some of the little corms appear to be exposed above the surface of the soil and she says she's "making it up as she goes along" - aren't we all? - and she's worried that might be wrong. Well, this is one of these plants that will really grow anywhere and at any depth in the soil. I did a whole episode on this plant, I'll put a link to that in the show notes, but it's definitely not a major problem. What you may find is that the stems are a bit more floppy because they're so high up in the soil and if you add some more soil on top, or alternatively replant them a bit deeper, you'll probably find that they are a bit more sturdy and anchored in the ground but they'll grow anyway. In fact, this is a time of year when some of my Oxalis that went into a dormancy over the winter, that just died back completely, are regrowing. They've regrown covered in aphids, I don't know where the aphids are coming from, the little so-and-so's, but I'm dealing with that and rubbing those off on a daily basis, but it's really nice to see the Oxalis back into growth.
The next question comes from Rose who got in touch to ask about the make-up of seed compost. As I said in my last episode, I didn't have any seed compost to hand, so I made up a mix using perlite and regular compost which was a little bit sieved as well to take out any large pieces. Rose was wondering what proportion of each are used and Rose is planting chilli seeds, sweet pea seeds and so on, things that aren't succulents and cacti. Yes, that does make a big difference, if you are sowing sweet peas, certainly, I don't think I'd add any perlite, actually, for sweet peas. I think I would just make sure that there weren't any massive lumpy bits, bearing in mind sweet peas are pea-sized, they're rather large. They're not going to be bothered, overly, and they don't need a massive amount of drainage.
Just beware, I've seen a few people sowing sweet pea seeds, just beware that sweet peas, while you can raise them on a windowsill they do not need heat, they are hardy. In other words, if you are in my kind of temperate climate, then don't put them under a heat mat, don't put them in a heated propagator, they could just go on a lovely light windowsill in your coolest room and they will germinate fine. In fact, they'll be happier than if they're given too much heat which will cause them to go long and leggy. They're hardy plants, mine are outside in my greenhouse, unheated, and they were sown back in November and they're absolutely fine. So, you wanted to know about chilli seeds: for chillies, yes, I would add a handful of perlite, so you might be looking at a third perlite to two thirds seed compost - everyone will have their own mixture on that. In an ideal world, as I said, I would have some vermiculite on the top layer just to provide a nice moist environment for the seeds but I didn't have any to use, so I just used perlite. Yes, I don't have any great, specific proportions, but a quarter to a third of perlite to two-thirds to three-quarters of potting mix would be my suggestion for things like chillies and a lot of the other houseplants that you might be growing. If it is cacti and succulents you're growing, then 50/50 between that drainage material and the potting mix should be fine.
Lots of questions coming in about Monstera deliciosa, where to get the seeds and germination questions. I would say this is probably one of the most popular plants for people to try for the sowalong. In terms of Monstera deliciosa seeds, if you're in the UK then Chiltern Seeds has them in stock or did have them in stock until when I checked the other day, so they should still have them. Monstera deliciosa from Chiltern Seeds, I know many of you have germinated those successfully, so that's a good source if you're in the UK. As I've said before in previous sowalong episodes, take care when you're ordering seeds, particularly of trendy, desirable plants, because sometimes these are not all they seem, so only use reliable vendors, be very cautious about sending money to vendors who don't seem to have a good track record because you may well find the seeds you get are not as advertised.
Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge listener, Trish, posted at the end of January to show her Monstera deliciosa seeds which come from Easy Grow Seeds. I think this must be in the US. Let's have a look. Oh, she got them from Amazon UK, actually. I haven't heard of Easy Grow Seeds before, but do let me know how you get on with those, Trish. Aroid seeds, you don't get many of those sold because they do really need to be sold fresh, so it's very important if you do buy Aroid seeds that it's a reliable source and you crack on and sow them straight away and hope that they have been harvested correctly.
If anyone knows of any good Monstera deliciosa seed sources in the US, do let me know, because at the moment I can't really suggest anything on that front. I haven't seen anybody tell me that they've had success with seeds from the US, so do fill us in if you have any suggestions on that front.
Nick got in touch about Monstera germination as well, wanting to know the soil mixture that I find best for general germination of seeds and also, specifically, Monsteras. I wouldn't go too complicated on this because your Monsteraseed is not going to be in the seed tray for very long. The plant is going to grow quite quickly and will be potted up into whatever your regular Aroid mix is that you use. I would just go with what I've already said, about two thirds of houseplant compost or seed compost and a third perlite or other drainage material. If you've got seeds like cacti and succulents, they stay in those seed trays for a long time because they grow quite slowly and they don't need pricking out for several months.
Whereas the Monstera, well, you're likely to be pricking that out after a few weeks because they're much faster growing, they're much more like a tomato or a chilli than they are being like a cactus or a succulent. So you don't need to worry too much about the mix that you're using for your Monstera germination because they won't be there for that long. By the time they get pricked out then you'll be putting them into a mix which is suitable for the older plant. I hope that makes sense, I'm sorry it's not a very detailed answer, but I wouldn't worry too much about any of the soil mixes for young plants that grow quickly and are going to be potted on quickly because, other than the gradation of them, as in it's not massive lumps, as long as they're free-draining, the soil will be fine and the nutrients in the seed will provide the seed with the nutrients it needs until the point where it's ready to move on into a bigger pot.
Next up, Billy got in touch and thank you, Billy, for your lovely long email. Billy found the show as a result of listening to the wonderful Plant Daddy Podcast. Yes, my friends Matthew and Steven! Thank you for listening to On The Ledge, Billy. Billy's question refers to growing plants from pips, something that is great fun and I've done a fair amount of, but I haven't tried growing the pips of the Custard Apple aka the Cherimoya from the tree Annona reticulata. I haven't actually ever eaten a Custard Apple. I've seen them in the supermarket, they look like an apple that's had scoops taken out of it with a spoon, that's not a very good description! Billy says it's very sweet and a bit creamy in flavour, hence the common name. I want to try one now! I shall put it on my shopping list! But the shiny seeds are the thing Billy is really interested in and Billy has taken a gamble and sowed a few in a pot indoors.
Billy's in the Netherlands, so he's not expecting any fruit but is wondering if they will grow as a houseplant? Well, my bible on such matters is a book called 'Don't Throw It, Grow It!: 68 Windowsill Plants from Kitchen Scraps' by Deborah Peterson and Millicent Selsam. I looked at page 102 and lo and behold, yes, you can grow the Cherimoya aka Custard Apple from the seeds and the advice here is to either try growing it in soil, or in a bag of damp sphagnum moss, either way seems to work and then you can transplant to a pot. Apparently the seed pod does stick around on the young seedlings for quite a long time but you shouldn't try and remove that. Once it's got two sets of leaves you can put it into a larger pot and it needs a bright window. Apparently it will grow eight inches a year but won't bear any fruit, which I don't think we were expecting. You need to do some pinching back, as you would do with your avocado grown indoors, to keep it not going sky-high. The book also points out that some Cherimoya can be deciduous, so in other words they lose their leaves at some point, so if that happens in the autumn then you just need to cut back on the watering and wait until spring. So, Billy, it sounds like you're good to go! Let me know how you get on. I'd love to see a picture of the plant. It sounds amazing and that's one I might have to try!
The book 'Don't Throw It, Grow It!' is in fact a great thing to get hold of if you are interested in On The Ledge sowalong from a thrifty point of view, taking anything from a kumquat to a sweet potato from your kitchen and growing it and it's great fun. I would definitely recommend giving this a whirl. If you don't have any money to splash out on seeds, you don't need it. You can just try growing some of these incredible fruits from things in your kitchen.
On that note, I got a message from Kate asking me about growing Dragon Fruit seeds. She'd been reading the British magazine Gardener's World, which is the sort of magazine version of the TV show, and there was a piece in there about growing cactus from seeds and it mentioned in passing that you could buy a Dragon Fruit from a grocer and take the small seeds inside and grow them into a vine like cacti. Now, Kate wanted to know more and I was happy to fill her in. Yes, if you can get hold of Dragon Fruit - those curious, pinky, bizarre-looking fruits, really - from your grocer, or wherever you get your fruits and vegetables. If you've never seen a dragon fruit before, I always think it looks like a bit like what I imagine a dragon's egg to look like. It's large, it's about the size of an egg-shaped grapefruit, if I can put it that way, with these sort of pokey, spiky bits which are a bit of a lighter, greeny-yellow colour. You're looking for a really mature one, you don't want one that's really hard, it should be fairly on the soft side if you want to harvest the seed. When you get it open, with a clean knife, you'll find that inside there's all this pink stuff, so you've got to separate that out, you've got to spend some time mushing it up in a bowl of water and separating those seeds out and taking them off. If you've ever done tomato seed sowing then it's a similar process. If you've collected your own tomatoes and want to sow the seed, you need those seeds to be free of the flesh so that they will grow nicely. Then you can just sow them as you normally would any other cactus or succulent, into a nice, gritty potting mix that's fine grain, as we've already discussed in this episode.
If you want the chapter and verse on this, there is a good video from Desert Plants of Avalon, which I'll put in the show notes, to show you how to do it in full. Do check that out. She's a great YouTuber and she's got lots of advice in there. Funnily enough, the Dragon Fruit is one that isn't in this 'Don't Throw It, Grow it!' guide, but there is, in here, advice on sowing the Prickly Pear, of course another cactus that you can grow from seed if you happen to be able to get hold of Prickly Pears, obviously the Opuntia family.
Now the Hylocereus, going back to that, is an interesting one. Hylocereus undatus, I think it's also known as Selenicereus undatus, is a plant that may well be in your house without you realising it because it is the plant that's used as the grafting material for the Moon Cactus. So, if you've ever had one of those brightly coloured red or pink or yellow cacti on the top, bold-shaped cacti on the top of a triangular stem, well that stem underneath, that's the Hylocereus undatus. It's used for the grafting material. The only problem is that, oftentimes, after a few years, the graft will fail on those Moon Cacti, so you may find yourself with the need to re-graft it onto something else, the bit on the top which is the Gymnocalycium. I'll link in the show notes to a nice page on the Oxford University website which describes Hylocereus undatus as one of the most unruly species in the entire cactus family. It can get huge and clambering and you can imagine this hanging from a tree, clambering over branches and it does look a bit of a mess, quite frankly, but it then has these gorgeous, huge, enormous white flowers which are absolutely amazing and then the resulting fruit, which, again, I've never tried. Apparently, that one's a bit disappointing, it tastes a bit like a not very tasty melon, but I should get hold of one because it'll be fun to give it a try. So, the world is your oyster when it comes to the supermarket fruit! You can try Custard Apple aka Cherimoya, you can also try the old Dragon Fruit, both of which should produce you some interesting plants.
I think that wraps up all my questions from you on the sowalong. Don't despair if you've just suddenly realised what you wanted to ask me - there's still plenty of time to ask a question! I will be answering future On The Ledge sowalong questions and returning to the topic in upcoming episodes, but for now, that's all for On The Ledge this week. Join me again next Friday for another episode. I will be taking a week off two weeks hence, so no episode on 19th February, back on 26th February, to celebrate the fourth anniversary of On The Ledge.
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Jane: In the meantime, keep sowing and keep growing. Bye!
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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 and Sundown by Josh Woodward. All tracks are licensed under Creative Commons. Visit janeperrone.com for details.
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The On The Ledge sowalong is an annual podcast project encouraging listeners to sow and grow houseplant seeds: in this episode I answer some of the questions raised by listeners eager to take part.
If you are getting started sowing seeds for 2021, I want to know! Post your pics and info on social media using #OTLsowalong and #OnTheLedgePodcast, and onto the podcast’s Facebook group, Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge.
Want to catch up on previous sowalong episodes? Here are all the episodes from 2018 on…
Check out the notes below as you listen …
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Have you seen a plant called Streptocarpus ‘Pretty Turtle’ in your local plant shop? It’s actually a Primulina (probably P. dryas ‘Hisako’ or ‘Betty’! It’s not clear how this plant got wrongly classified as a Strep, but I’m hoping listeners will spread the word to get this error corrected. You can read more about this issue on my Facebook page. You can buy Primulina ‘Hisako’ from Dibleys Nursery if you are in the UK. There’s more on the genus Primulina on the Gesneriad Reference Web site.
Want to hear more about Oxalis trianglaris, the purple falseleaf shamrock? Check out this earlier episode of On The Ledge.
Want to buy Monstera deliciosa seeds? If you are in the UK the best source I know of is Chiltern Seeds (if you are elsewhere in the world and have found a reliable source of seeds do let me know). Aroid seeds need to be sown fresh so it’s vital to get a reliable source (and that also explains why aroid seed is generally hard to come by!)
Want to try growing cherimoya aka custard apple from seed? This comes from the fruit of the tree Annona cherimola which is native to Central America.
For more great advice on growing indoor plants from kitchen scraps get a hold of the book Don’t Throw It, Grow It! by Deborah Peterson and Millicent Selsam.
Dragonfruit - the fruit of the cactus Hylocereus undatus - can also be grown from seed. There’s a detailed video from Desert Plants of Avalon. This is also the plant that is used as the base of the grafted moon cactus - more on that on the Plants Are The Strangest People blog.
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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, Gokarna by Samuel Corwin and Sundown by Josh Woodward.