Episode 182: Perrone’s plant pet peeves
Putting succulents into glass terrariums is a recipe for failure.
Transcript
Episode 182
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Jane: It's On The Ledge podcast and this week I'm feeling the rage! Brace yourself, it's Perrone's Plant Peeves! I'm Jane Perrone, this is On The Ledge and this week I'm having a down mode. On The Ledge is usually a haven of positivity, however, it's therapeutic to get some things off your chest every now and again, so in this episode, I shall be bringing you the things that are winding me up, making my blood boil, getting on my wick and cheesing me off in the world of plants, plus we hear from listener Jamie and I've got an important update about my book, Legends of the Leaf!
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Jane: Thank you for the fabulous feedback on last week's orchid rescue episode with Terry Richardson. Thanks to Scott for commenting on the website that Phalaenopsis schilleriana is a pink-flowered species with silver banded leaves, which was exactly the matter that Terry and I were pondering. Thank you to Justin who also posted on the Facebook group, Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge, suggesting Phalaenopsis amabilis and Phalaenopsis aphrodite have varieties with the common creamy yellow streaked variegation. Justin also suggests schilleriana and lindenii and celebensis just to start, so thank you for those suggestions, Justin. Thank you to Camilla from Canada and Sarah SC from the US for leaving lovely reviews for On The Ledge this week.
An announcement about an upcoming live appearance! Yes, this has been a rarity in the last year, but I'm going to be at the Leaf Houseplant Festival which is happening in Market Harborough, in Leicestershire, in the UK, on 31st May. The festival's actually on over two days, 30th and 31st May. The 31st is the Bank Holiday Monday and I'm going to be doing a houseplant clinic at 15:00 and you can buy tickets online. You can use the code Jane21 for a 20% discount, so check the show notes for a link to find out more about the festival and to book your tickets. If you're not anywhere near the county of Leicestershire in the UK, don't worry, the session is going to be recorded and I will put it out as an On The Ledge episode.
Thanks to my new Patreon subscribers this week! Cynthia, Chantal, Cindy and Mandy all became Ledge-ends, and Julie became a Crazy Plant Person - thank you to all of you! Check out the show notes at janeperrone.com if you want to find out more about becoming a Patreon subscriber and unlocking exclusive extra content.
Some of you may already know that I'm running a survey to find out what you think of the show and to help you shape its future direction, so please do check the show notes or look at the Facebook page or my Instagram for the link to fill that in. It's very, very quick and easy and, if you want to, you can leave your email address and you could be entered into a draw. I have a voucher for £25 from my spreadshirt merch shop up for grabs! You can buy somebody else's merch with it if you want to, I won't know, so it's fine, but that's up for grabs for one lucky person who fills out the survey! Thanks to those of you who've already filled out the survey and left some lovely and insightful comments. It's really going to be useful for me to find out what you think of different elements of the show, what you want me to do and not do and it's really quick to do, so please do go and spend a couple of minutes filling that out in the next few days.
There is just about still time to send me your voice memos on Dr David Hessayon as well, so please do drop me a voice memo telling me the impact that the amazing Houseplant Expert book has had on your life, why you're a Hessayon fan and what the book means to you. If you really don't want your voice to be on the show then just send me a message that I can read out. I'm really looking forward to putting this episode together. It's going to be loads of fun and you're going to be hearing from people like James Wong and Michael Perry about their thoughts about Hessayon, so please do get those in so you can be in that show!
Legends of the Leaf - I promised you an update and here it is! The headline news is that time is running out. That's because I've got just a month to reach my target. I'm on 82% as I speak now. I've got to get to 100% by the end of May, so time is ticking and I really need to reach this target so I can get this book done for those 500 or so of you who have already pledged, so that I can fulfill my pledge to you to write this book, so if you haven't already pledged, please think about doing it. It's got to be done by 31st May, so we really are up against it now. I just can't tell you how excited I am about writing this book! Every time I start doing some work on it, I find out some amazing stories that I just cannot wait to bring you and it's going to be a delight to write this book and a delight to bring it to you, but I've got to get to 100%. There is a bank holiday promo code available from tomorrow, 1st May 2021, until the end of 3rd May 2021 and that is for 15% off using the code MayBank15. Visit the show notes for the details and the link. If you've got any questions about the book you'd like to ask me, please fire away! Probably the biggest question I'm getting is, "Have you written the book?" and the answer is... I'm writing it, it's going to take a while, it's going to be well-researched and well-written, so that does take time. Have I settled on the 25 iconic plants I'm going to feature? The answer to that is... not quite, but I'm getting there. The other question I get is, will I be able to buy the book in the conventional manner once it's published? The answer to that is yes... but it won't happen unless I reach that target by 31st May, so I need your help! Please help, if you can pass on the information to everybody you know who loves houseplants.
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Jane: I think it was the discovery of a whole army of thrips on my Thaumatophyllum xanadu Gold that possibly brought on an unusual fit of rage in the last couple of weeks. I thought I'd share some of the things that are causing me anguish this week, some of which you may agree with, others disagree, but hopefully there'll be some useful information along the way.
So what's up first? Well, number one is nets and bands around root balls in newly bought plants. Have you ever had this happen to you where you've bought a really lovely plant and you bring it home and you don't repot it straight away because the potting medium looks okayish and you want to let the plant settle in? Then the plant seems to not do so well, or perhaps you just decide to repot anyway, and rummaging around in the substrate, you find something a bit strange. Maybe it's a Parlour Palm, Chamaedorea elegans**,* which is often sold as a group of young seedlings and, when you dig down, you discover that they're all being held together by a couple of rubber bands. Or perhaps you've bought a Begonia* and discovered that around the little root ball is some kind of fleecy netting that's wrapping around that root ball and it's not entirely clear what it's there for. There are two different things going on here but I've grouped them together because they both have the same effect which is, as your plant grows, the band and the net both have the potential to stunt their growth and are much better off removed.
Let's take the rubber bands first. Why are these put on? Well, it's merely the convenience of the nursery. So many plants, as I've said in the show before, are lots of young seedlings gathered together to make a bushy and more mature-looking plant. If you look at the Parlour Palm, Chamaedorea elegans, in the wild you'll see that it doesn't grow as a multi-stemmed palm; it's got a single stem. So what you're getting in that pot of Parlour Palm is actually maybe a dozen Parlour Palms all grouped together. To hold them together and keep them in that nice shape, that's where the rubber band comes in, so, good for the nursery, not good for you. It's easily fixed: you just need to carefully remove the seedlings from that pot and snip the bands and chuck them away. If you want to keep your seedlings growing together as a group, do, but make sure they've got enough room so they won't outcompete one another and, oftentimes, you do find that one will do better than the others and you might lose some of them along the way, but with the band there it really does restrict their growth, so it's better off removed.
The net: what's that about!? Well, you often find this on young plants and this is what's called a Jiffy Pellet and it's a little netting container that holds a seed which then germinates and makes a plant. They used to be filled with a peat-based compost. You can now get a coir-based ,100% peat-free alternative and, obviously, I would always opt for the peat-free alternative, but what about that netting bag? It is meant to be something that will degrade and decompose over time. In my experience, I've had these in my compost bin and I've also, without realising it, left them on plants and potted them up. It takes a very, very long time for that netting to break down. A very long time. I'm glad to say that Jiffy, the company who makes these, has an announcement on their website saying that they are moving across to PLA netting for Jiffy Pellets and this is going to be an improvement because it's biodegradable and compostable. Although even then, it's worth noting that it's compostable under what it describes as "controlled industrial conditions" i.e high volume, high temperature composting, not the kind of composting you're going to be doing at home.
So what happens to the roots when they're surrounded by this netting? Well, if you've got a plant with big old roots then it will not be a problem to that plant. They'll be able to bust right through that netting and grow on. But if you've got a plant with very fine fragile roots, then you may find that it just finds itself unable to grow through the netting as the plant matures and it means the plant is not able to grow quite so efficiently. Either way I prefer to remove this netting and put it into my waste bin because I don't really want bits of plastic in my soil and in my experience the root of the plant will just grow much better without it. So, if I do buy a plant and discover this is in place, sometimes you can just see the edges of it poking up around the inside of the pot, sometimes you might just have to take the plant out of its pot and have a feel around.
How do you get rid of it? If you're planning to remove the net/mesh make sure that the root ball is nice and damp. You are going to damage some fine root hairs in the process of removing it but be as careful as you can, get a pair of nail scissors, or similar, and very carefully snip away until you can peel the mesh off the root ball. Do have a look at what the material around those roots is because often it's very dense, either straight coir or sometimes very heavy, peaty-type compost, which might not be right for your plant. So, if you really want to go the whole hog, wash everything off the roots and repot in your own substrate for that particular plant. Do listen to the A-Z of potting mix ingredients for suggestions on what you can include. I can understand why nurseries use these pellet planting systems because it's very neat and convenient for them but, like the rubber band, it benefits them, it doesn't necessarily benefit you as a grower for the reasons I've already outlined. So it's up to you to be on the lookout for these and take action where you need to, to sort the problem out.
Number two: cacti and succulents in terrariums. I got a press release this week about a British garden centre chain's range of houseplant stuff and it included a terrarium with a Snake Plant in it. Uhh uhh! It cost about £90! It was very expensive. It was quite a big terrarium but it had this big Snake Plant in it and various other succulents and my heart just sank. The reality is that cacti and succulents are high light, low humidity plants, very prone to root rot because they are used to having very free drainage. What kind of conditions do you get in a terrarium? Well, you get high humidity, light levels are usually lower because if you try and stick a terrarium in a sunny south-facing window it will cook, and drainage is limited because there's nowhere for that water to go, and no, putting a layer of activated charcoal at the bottom or gravel will not make a heck of a lot of difference to your plant. Watering very, very carefully will, but the potential for this to go wrong, if you use cacti and succulents, is enormous and yet it's everywhere. Everyone's doing it! I just want to shout and scream, "Please stop torturing cacti and succulents by putting them in terrariums!". There are some really cool ways of growing cacti and succulents: you can do terracotta dishes, you can mount them in picture frames, you can grow them in bricks, you can do all kinds of cool stuff, don't put them in a glass container! You are wasting your time and money, even if you get it to work for a few weeks, ultimately, especially come the winter time, that plant is going to end up either very, very leggy and etiolated and stretching out for the light, its roots are going to rot and you're going to have a mushy pile of nothing, or it's going to be a wizened shadow of its former self, so please, I beg of you, do not plant succulents in terrariums! We will make the world such a better place if this happens!
Following on from that, number three, another terrarium pet peeve, even if you don't put cacti and succulents in terrariums, there are lots of other plants that are grown as houseplants that do not belong in terrariums. Asparagus Ferns they want to grow huge and be scrambling climbers, so when you buy that little tiny Asparagus Fern in the shop in a 5cm pot, that's not the end result, that's only the beginning and it wants to grow huge and ramble all over the place, which it can't do in a terrarium. Spider Plants do not belong in terrariums. Grown properly, they're rampant, they're big, they do not work in terrariums. So do your research about how big your plant's going to end up when it's mature otherwise you're going to be breaking down and replanting that terrarium every few weeks, literally, because the plant's going to be pressing against the glass, deeply unhappy and you are going to be miserable too because your terrarium is going to look rubbish. I'll put a link in the show notes to an episode I did, looking at tiny ferns for terrariums. Again, ferns are one of those things if you put a tiny, baby Boston Fern in your terrarium, likewise not a good idea. So pick the right plants, do your research, don't waste money on plants that are going into the wrong place.
Next up, plastic plants, you get an extra hard Paddington Bear stare if you dare to call them faux plants. Habitat, which is an interiors shop in the UK, has recently launched a new range of fake plastic plants. In my head now I've got that Radiohead song, 'Fake Plastic Trees' which, obviously I can't play for copyright reasons, but if you've got that track to hand stick it on your Spotify now while you listen to this segment of the show. Why do I hate plastic plants so much? Well, I think we've got enough plastic stuff in the world already. If you're going to have a plant, make it a real one. If you've got a spot in your room that is not hospitable to plants, don't put a fake plant in there, put a beautiful piece of pottery or a beautiful artwork, a piece of embroidery, or a painting of a plant, or a print of a plant. Don't put a fake plastic plant in there. I don't know why people think that's a good idea. The human eye has an incredible ability to spot these fakes. We're really quite good at it and there's something just 'off' about them. They make my skin crawl! I can't explain it fully. If you are absolutely dead set on using fake plants, do ask some hard questions of your supplier, for example, make sure that the plastic that they're made from is UV stable because some cheaper plastic plants will fade quite quickly in the sun to a rather unattractive and unrealistic colour after a year, two years, three years, so that's something you need to avoid. If you are going to buy a plastic plant, by god, you'd better be keeping that plastic plant for the rest of your life because, number two, are they genuinely recyclable? I have been looking around at various fake plant sellers and some claim that they are they're often made from a mixed media of different kinds of plastics, which makes them very hard to recycle, you can't just chuck them in your recycling bin and expect that they will be recycled. They will probably end up in landfill. Third, are they made from recycled plastic in the first place? There are some plastic plants that are - I saw Wayfair has a range of recycled plastic plants - so this is starting to change. I think the industry is becoming more aware of its sustainability credentials, or lack of. All that said, I've yet to find a fake plant supplier who can answer all of those questions positively but maybe there is somebody out there? If you know different, please let me know. I'd be really fascinated for your take on this topic.
Next up, indoor olive trees. Now, these are apparently flying out of the doors of British garden centres at the moment. There's a 'clean-fluencer' -- god, that's just the worst portmanteau, made-up word ever isn't it? - somebody who's on Instagram, I think she started off doing cleaning tips, she's called MrsHinchHome, aka Sophie Hinchcliffe, and she's got a huge following, she's very popular. I've got nothing against the woman personally, I don't follow her, I don't know much about her, but it seems that she went to the garden centre and picked up two olive trees for her home and as a result lots of her followers went out and did exactly the same. Let's be clear, it is possible to grow an olive tree indoors. Say, for instance, you've got a lovely big conservatory and you've got huge amounts of light to lavish on your plant, or maybe you've got a massive, south-facing bay window. Haven't got that? Okay, your olive tree is going to get pretty miserable pretty quick. It may be okay over the summer, but during the winter is going to be a real struggle to keep it alive. I can see lots of those olive trees that are being sold ending up dead in quite short order. They're not going to like central-heated rooms come the winter time and a lack of light and probably too much water, let's face it.
If you are looking for a really big specimen for a living room, a tree, effectively, that's not going to be worried so much with a situation with no direct sunlight, I would go for something that will be really reliable. I'm thinking of either Dracaena fragransor Dracaena marginata, the Dragon Trees. These would make a good investment because they can cope with an erratic care regime, light levels far lower than the olive tree would be happy with. If you can find a really big specimen of the ZZ Plant, Zamioculcas zamiifolia, which I have seen some really quite substantial ones, three or four feet tall, that would also do really well, as well.
I guess the main message is and, as listeners to this show you already know this, do your research. Don't just go to the garden centre, like Mrs Hinch, and think, "Oh, that looks nice!" and buy it because that way is the road to a disappointing outcome of an olive tree rapidly losing its leaves or dying a slow, painful death to red spider mite: the end! Oh, and you're not going to get any olives. That's the other thing to say. Olive trees can grow really well outside in the UK climate and in other parts of the world, so have an olive tree outside if you want one, but please don't keep it in your living room.
Let's take a break from the rage and hear from our listener this week! It's Jamie.
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Jame: Hi, I'm Jamie and I'm a veterinarian and houseplant enthusiast from New Paltz, New York. I've loved plants my entire life. In high school and college I even worked in the houseplant department of a local greenhouse. About four years ago, I finished veterinary school and started building my own collection. I currently have over 200 houseplants. Plants are a way to escape the stress of my job and I love being a part of the houseplant community. Trading cuttings and plant swaps are my favourite way to add to my collection.
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?
Jamie: If I were chosen as part of a human colonisation mission to Mars, the only plant that I would want by my side is my OG Golden Pothos, which was the first plant that I obtained when I finished with school and could start keeping houseplants again. That plant has been so prolific. It went from a couple of leaves to over six feet tall on a moss pole, with leaves bigger than my hands. My goal is that it will eventually convert to giant form. The benefit of such a fast-growing plant on Mars would be that I could share cuttings with other martians who may not have thought to bring houseplants along with them and perhaps initiate the first plant swap of Mars!
Jane: Question two. What is your favourite episode of On The Ledge?
Jamie: My favourite episode of On The Ledge is episode 112, the plant swap episode. Since hearing that episode, I have engaged in a number of plant swaps online and it's been a great way to add interesting plants to my collection and also make new friends. This spring, I'm actually planning an organized, in-person plant swap in my hometown!
Jane: Question three. Which Latin name do you say to impress people?
Jamie: I do love to use the Latin names of plants. My favourite is Eulychnia castanea spiraliswhich refers to a cactus that looks like the horn of a unicorn. I do use that name fairly frequently because I love to share photos of that cactus with other plant enthusiasts. It's so interesting and to my knowledge it does not have a unique common name.
Jane: Question four. Crassulacean acid metabolism or guttation?
Jamie: Between guttation and crassulacean acid metabolism I will, of course, choose crassulacean acid metabolism because the majority of my collection is made up of rare and unique cacti and succulents who would not have evolved without it and it's much more fun to say.
Jane: Question five. Would you rather spend £200 on a variegated Monstera, or £200 on 20 interesting cacti?
Jamie: I would choose the 20 interesting cacti. There are so many species of cacti out there and I'm always discovering new ones that I absolutely can't believe exist, so to have 20 new ones at the same time would be absolutely mind-boggling.
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Jane: Thank you, Jamie! As discussed a few months ago, I want to refresh the questions for Meet the Listener, so if you've got any suggestions for what I should ask in this quick fire round of five questions drop me a line and let me know. If you want to be involved in Meet the Listener, then also an email is required: ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com
Right, back to the raging! Next up... it's... oh, this one! People who say: "There's no such thing as too many plants!" Please stop spreading this lie! There definitely is such a thing as too many plants. Every single plant that you own needs a certain level of care. Now, that could be two minutes a month or an hour a week, or somewhere in between, so whatever that number is, a number of minutes a month multiply that by the number of plants you have and there will come a day when you become overwhelmed and the plants that you love aren't bringing you joy anymore, they're bringing you stress. It's all very well to say there's no such thing as too many plants but, actually, this can be a really negative message because it's encouraging people to overstretch themselves, spend too much money on plants and actually not enjoy the plants that they've already got.
Do check out my episode on plant hoarding for some pointers on when your plant collecting habit might be tipping over the edge into hoarding. For some of us though, it's not as extreme as that, but it can just be the case of: "Oh gosh, I've got a thrip outbreak and I actually have 50 plants I need to spray daily for the next two weeks and actually I've got stuff I need to look after, I've got a job, I've got children, I've got pets, I've got elderly relatives, I've got other responsibilities, and it's just not working!" So please, please, don't say there's no such thing as too many plants to people because it isn't true and, as I've said before on the show, everybody has a right number of plants right now and that number might be one, it might be zero for some people, for a while: we all go through tough times in our lives when we have to pull back on the things we have to do and sometimes that means getting rid of plants. So don't feel bad if you say to yourself, "Okay, I'm just going to have a capsule collection of houseplants that I love and I'm going to get rid of the ones that aren't bringing me joy". That's absolutely fine. Don't feel bad about it - it's normal!
The way you can avoid that, is by getting over this 'there's no such thing as too many plants' mentality and instead say to yourself, before you buy a new plant, how am I enjoying the plants I've already got? How am I learning about them and nurturing them, as a way of overcoming the little dopamine hit that you're going to get from putting that new plant into your basket at the plant shop? On the Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge group recently, Greg posted something which really distills the thoughts I've been having on this subject and this is the summary of what Greg says: "I think part of what can make the idea of buying a particular new plant so enticing, is a process that we go through with plants we already have. When I'm looking into a new houseplant I just learned about, I look at photos of it on Instagram, I read about it on Wikipedia etc, in that moment of really engaging with information about the environment the plant comes from, I get really excited about it, then, provided I buy the plant, that process of really engaging with it doesn't happen again and that enriching context fades from view. For those of us with tons of plants, what if we looked at plants we already owned as if they were plants we were considering buying? If, every day, we just picked one from our collection at random and read up on it as if we didn't own it yet? Would that reinvigorate our passion for the things we already have?" Greg, this is a brilliant thought and I think we should all try doing it this way. I know there are some people though who do go out and impulse-buy and then find out what the plant is afterwards, which is not a good practice either, although we've all done it, but I think the key here is, enjoy the plants you have and get them thriving. Yes, we can all buy new plants, but do it with a real consciousness of how that plant is going to add to your collection and what it's going to mean for your allotment of time that you have available for plants and for other aspects of your life.
Next up, this is a Facebook quibble, perhaps this is a bit of a nit-picking point but I'm going to make it anyway: people who post the same pictures and query across half a dozen different Facebook groups on houseplants simultaneously! Yes, I know you want an answer right now as to why your Begonia has died, but seriously, I just find that really frustrating when I see exactly the same post popping up. People who take the time to answer queries like this can see what you're doing and it's almost like you're just demanding information without being prepared to really fully engage in a group. Likewise, people who treat Facebook groups like Google. You know the kind of post I mean: "Tell me five plants that can grow in a sunless bathroom... and go!" I mean, I'm absolutely all for people posting queries on Facebook groups and discussions going on about plants, but just have a little respect for the other members of the group and think about how you can make it a pleasant environment to be in. The other thing about posting the same query across half a dozen different Facebook groups is that you haven't really looked at the different culture and rules of each of those groups, because if you did, you probably wouldn't post the same thing across all of those different groups. I know Facebook etiquette is tricky. It's a real minefield, but I just think if you're going to post something, post it in one group and wait for some answers to come in and engage with those answers and if you then don't find the answer, then, sure, go away and ask for advice elsewhere.
Next up, World Naked Gardening Day! I am not in any way against nakedness or the human body. I'm not ashamed of any part of my body, but I just don't see the point of World Naked Gardening Day! Anyone who's ever done any gardening, indoors or outdoors, will know it's a bad idea to have no clothes on when you're gardening!
Next up, when you buy a hanging plant and it comes in one of those pots with the built-in tray in the bottom - I'll post a picture of this in the show notes so you know exactly what I mean - but these pots are, in my opinion, a bit of a nightmare. Why? Because you can't actually see what's going on with the drainage holes, you can't see how many drainage holes it's got or what's happening to the water or where it's going. These are the pots that String of Pearls, Curio rowleyanus, are often sold in. Oftentimes they are potted up in a very claggy compost and the result is a very mushy unattractive String of Pearls. I always repot as soon as I see one of these containers because I like the ability to lift the pot up and see what's happening with the drainage holes and these just don't allow you to do that.
My final pet peeve is this... bad advice about fungus gnats. I have done an episode on fungus gnats, many moons ago, and I have kind of got embryonic plans to write the fungus gnat post of all time, which will incorporate all the tried and tested and successful techniques for controlling fungus gnats, but I just hate it when you get the gazillionth message from a Facebook group member who's just got into plants and who's just discovered these annoying little flies wandering about their plants and they ask for advice and you get people who say, "You're watering too much" and people who say, "Put some cinnamon on the surface of the soil, put some sand on the surface of the soil," all well-meaning advice, but really, those suggestions do not really work to solve the problem. The other thing I'd say about fungus gnats, aka Sciarad Flies, is while they are very annoying, they're not going to do any harm to you and really they're not going to do any harm to your plants. I've heard people say, "Oh, my boyfriend, he can't stand them and he wants me to get rid of all my plants!". Well hey, get yourself a new boyfriend because if he can't stand a few flies flying about, really you need a rethink! Sorry, that's a bit harsh, but it's just a small fly! Worse things happen at sea, my friend! So do treat fungus gnats, but remember that you've got probably way worse problems on the horizon, be it spider mites, mealybugs, or indeed those thrips that have been bothering me. Those are the things that are genuinely going to lead to the death of your plants, so don't worry so much about fungus gnats - you're probably going to have them if you have plants. They'll fluctuate in the population.
The things that will get rid of them are twice-yearly applications of microscopic nematode worms or, indeed ,the hypoaspis mites that we talked about in the biological controls episode and those are the safest and most reliable ways of getting rid of them. All these other potions involving dish soap, they might work, but they're also going to kill everything else in your soil, which is not necessarily a good thing, as we discussed in the springtails episode. So bear in mind that not everything that crawls around your plants is going to do them harm. We live in a world full of creepy crawly things and it's about time we just got used to the idea that that's the case because we can't live in a sterile environment. If you want to have plants, you're going to be bringing stuff into your house that will want to live in your plants too.
That is all my houseplant pet peeves off my chest! Now it's your turn! I'll put up a thread in the Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge Facebook group, for you to download, and if you're not on there, do drop me a line with anything that you need to get off your chest and I'll do a round up in next week's show!
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Jane: That is all for this week's show. I'll be back next Friday for more planty pontifications. See you then. Bye!
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Jane: The music you heard in this week's show was Roll Jordan Roll by The Joy Drops, Enthusiast by Tours, Chiefs by Jahzzar, Namaste by Jason Shaw. All tracks are licensed under Creative Commons, visit janeperrone.com for details.
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From succulents in terrariums to indoor olive trees, I get a few houseplant-related rants off my chest. Plus we hear from listener Jami.
Perrone’s plant pet peeves
Mesh/rubber bands around rootballs
Dig around in the substrate of your new plant and you may find that what you thought was one bushy plant is actually a bunch of seedlings held together by one or more rubber bands. This practice is extremely common, but if the band is left on too long, it can start to stifle the growth of the plants. The species I have seen this used on most often is the parlour palm, Chamaedorea elegans. Cut the band away carefully as soon as you spot it.
Similarly, some young plants come with their rootball swathed in a kind of mesh or netting - this is often caused by a pellet system of growing, most often something called Jiffy pellets. These come in peat-based and coir versions, and the netting originally used is very slow to break down, if at all. The company Jiffy has recently changed the material to PLA, which is biodegradable and compostable in municipal (ie large scale) composting systems. Read more about Jiffy Pellets here. Make sure the rootball is moist, then carefully cut then peel away the netting, as it will stop the development of fine roots. If the substrate is not right for your plant, this is your chance to wash it off fully and replace it with your own mix.
Cacti and succulents in terrariums
Succulents are just not suited for growing in terrariums - they like dry air, high light and sharp drainage, the very opposite of the conditions in a terrarium. Putting a layer of activated charcoal and/or gravel at the bottom won’t really help; very careful watering will help, but it’s ultimately a waste of a good succulent, especially when there are lots of cool ways of displaying them.
Too-big plants in tiny terrariums
Asparagus ferns do not belong in terrariums. Spider plants do not belong in terrariums. do you research about likely plant size when mature, or else you’l be breaking down and replanting the terrarium every few weeks. Need inspiration? Check out this episode where I talk about tiny plants for terrariums.
Plastic plants.
(Extra hard Paddington bear stare if you call them ‘faux’ plants.) Habitat has recently launched a new range of plastic plants, and it’s reminded me of why i hate these fakes so much. If you are going to invest in fake plants, ask some hard questions - is the plastic UV stable so they won’t fade in the sun to an unattractive straw colour after a year or two? are they genuinely recyclable? Are they made from recycled plastic? (I did find a recycled range at Wayfair) I have yet to find a fake plant supplier who can answer all these questions positively but would love to hear if you know different!
Indoor olive trees. These are flying out the doors of British garden centres due to a cleaning influencer called Mrs Hinch who went to the garden centre recently and picked up two olive trees for her home, and her followers have followed suit.
Let’s be clear: it is possible to grow an olive tree indoors. Say, for instance, you have a conservatory that receives huge amounts of direct light. Or a massive south facing bay window. But aside from that? Your olive tree is going to get pretty miserable, pretty quick. Get a specimen plant that will last: I’d go for a Dracaena fragrans or Dracaena marginata, myself.
People who say “there's no such thing as too many plants”
Stop spreading this lie. There is a thing such as too many plants: every plant you own needs a level of care: that could be two minutes a month, or an hour a week. Multiply that by the number of plants you have, and there comes a day when you are overwhelmed and your plants are bringing you stress, not joy.
Before you buy another plant, consider whether you are fully nurturing and enjoying the plants you have already. Check out my episode on plant hoarding for pointers on when your plant collecting habit might be tipping over into hoarding.People who post the same pictures/query across half a dozen different Facebook groups simultaneously
Yes, I know you want an answer NOW as to why your begonia has died, but seriously - the people who take the time to answer queries like this can see what you’re doing, and it’s irritating. Likewise people who treat Facebook groups like Google: “tell me five plants that will grow in a sunless bathroom, and GO!” Respect your fellow plant group members, read the rules and remember, people are offering up their free time to help you.
World naked gardening day
Apparently this is a thing, but I think possibly only in the minds of PR people, a select group of people on social media and newspaper editors, What’s the point?
Hanging plastic pots with inbuilt saucers
These pots are really hard to manage in terms of watering: they’re often the thing that kills of string of pearls (Curio rowleyanus) because the water tends to sit in the saucer. I’d advise repotting plants sold in these pots as soon as you can.
Poorly researched fungus gnat tips
Social media is awash with advice that really doesn’t help fix a fungus gnat infestation in the long term, from watering less to sprinkling cinnamon about, so take most of them with a generous pinch of salt.
If you really want to get rid of fungus gnats, nematodes or hyoaspis mites are the best way forward - listen to the biological control episode for more information on those. And remember, in the grand scheme of things, fungus gnats are annoying but not doing that much harm to your plant compared with thrips, spider mites or mealy bugs.Now I’ve had a chance to spill the tea, share YOUR plant pet peeves on this thread in the Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge Facebook group …
HOW TO SUPPORT ON THE LEDGE
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CREDITS
This week's show featured the tracks Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops, Enthusiast by Tours, Chiefs by Jahzzar, and Namaste by Jason Shaw.