Episode 191: A visit to aroid addict Tony Le-Britton, aka @notanotherjungle
Photograph: Tony LeBritton.
Transcript
Episode 191
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Jane: This week's show is supported by Biteaway, the fast and reliable way to deal with insect bites and stings. Biteaway is a state-of-the-art battery-operated device that uses concentrated heat directly onto bites and stings to treat pain, itching and swelling. Just press your Biteaway, which is about the size of a chunky marker pen, onto the spot where you've been bitten by a mosquito, or stung by a bee, or wasp, whatever it may be, press the button and the heat acts quickly to stop the itching and start to bring down the swelling. You can use Biteaway up to five times an hour on the same spot of skin. Just leave at least two minutes between applications. It's great for the whole family to use and it's suitable for allergy sufferers and children - they can use it unsupervised from the age of twelve and you can use it during pregnancy too. I've been using Biteaway for about a year now and it really works! Biteaway is compact enough to stick in your first aid kit when travelling, or maybe you'll be putting it in your pocket when you're working in the garden, or hiking? With around 300 applications before you need to change the batteries, it's the perfect, no-hassle solution to insect bites and stings. Biteaway is available from Amazon for £29.95, or from your local high street pharmacy. Find out more at mybiteway.co.uk
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Jane: On The Ledge podcast is on a journey to houseplant fabulousness! Hello and welcome to On The Ledge! I am your host, Jane Perrone, and this week I actually got to leave the house, yay! I am out of Covid isolation and negative; thank you science and double jabs! I have been to visit Tony Le-Britton aka @notanotherjungle, to bathe myself in a houseplant collection that may well make you go weak at the knees and I answer a question about a bare, naked Hoya stem!
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Jane: Important On The Ledge news coming up. This is your five second warning! Important On The Ledge news! I am going to be taking a break over the summer, for six weeks. The reason for that is that I have a book to write! I am very much aware that I have 700+ people who are all pledged to support 'Legends of the Leaf', my houseplant book, and are waiting eagerly for it to be published, so I really need some time to crack on with the manuscript. My illustrator, Helen Entwisle, is working super-hard on the illustrations and I need to get on with the manuscript, and making a weekly podcast while my children are on summer holidays means that there's just not enough time in the week. So there's going to be an episode next week, that's 16^th^ July, and the following week 23^rd^ July, then there will be no more episodes from then until 10^th^ September. That is my plan, at the moment. I hope that I can stick to it and come back to you in September with new episodes. What does that mean if you are a Patreon subscriber? What it means, is that I'm going to pause payments for the month of August because there will be no episodes coming out that month. For the months of July and September I will be putting out my usual two Extra Leaf episodes, plus, hopefully, a few extras to make up for the fact that there's no main show over that period. If you've paid on an annual basis for your Patreon, one month will be added on to your subscription. I'm going to send a message out to all my Patreon subscribers just to explain that, so do look out for that message. I'm sorry that I'm going to have to leave you all for such a long period, of weeks, but as I say, I need to get this book written. It's really important to me that it's good quality and so that's what I'm planning to do.
You can keep in touch with me over that time on social media. I will attempt to be around on social media and I will still be hosting #HousePlantHour over on Twitter at @houseplanthour, so I won't disappear from your life entirely! And do remember there's a whole back catalogue of over 190 episodes to listen to and you can check out the thematic guide to episodes, which is available on the front of my website, if you want to check out old episodes or look for a particular topic. So I'm really sorry if that's a disappointment that you're not going to be getting episodes over that six week period but I hope you understand the reasons why.
Thank you very much to Kaito, from Australia, for leaving a lovely review for On The Ledge and also Emzalena98 from the US who also left a delightful review for the show. Thank you to new Patreon subscribers: Stacy, Kannaroo and Nathan became Ledge-ends and Lena and Sally became Crazy Plant People!
I had an email from Robert, who got in touch about episode 165, my leaf shine episode, and as well as making some very lovely comments about me, which I always welcome, he also came forth with a suggestion for dealing with dusty leaves on really large plants. Now, Robert has a large Monstera which has unfortunately got spider mites, or suspected spider mites. This plant's seven feet tall, so he didn't really feel like moving it outside, especially as it was planted into a large cement pot - man, that's going to be heavy! So instead, Robert tarped off the carpet and walls and drenched the tops and the bottoms of the leaves with insecticidal soap to treat those spider mites. He reports that, "The next day, when the dripping had stopped and the liquid evaporated, I was treated to a most welcome sight. My huge plant no longer looked dirty and neglected but rather appeared as if each leaf had been wiped by hand and sprayed with a satiny shine. I was surprised by the effectiveness of the dripped off solution, since film dust and a bit of greasiness from cooking often take quite a bit of effort to remove. I can't promise identical results if listeners' plants are truly grimy, or spotted with insecticide or hard water residue, but for this hobbyist, it felt as if I'd won a small lottery! I used the Safer's brand of soap but I imagine any other would do the same job." Well, thank you for that Robert! I love the idea of you tarping off the carpet and walls! I think I probably watch too many crime dramas because that just reminds me of some kind of horrific murder but, anyway, I can see why you did that because it can make quite a mess when you're spraying the insecticidal soap around, but a great solution for your spider mites and also for shining up those leaves, so thank you for sharing that Robert!
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Jane: Earlier today - yes today! I'm turning around the episode that fast! - I went to visit Tony Le-Britton aka @notanotherjungle. Here's what happened...
Jane: Tony Le-Britton, we're here in your house, I'm slightly in shock here because it's been a while setting this up because of Covid etc, but we're here in your plant-filled home! I've met your two wonderful dogs, this could turn into a dog podcast at any time but that's okay!
Tony: It definitely could!
Jane: We are here in your wonderful home in Northamptonshire and this is a bit of a shock for me because, as listeners will know, Aroids ain't my strong suit, but I'm loving your collection and we've already been inside your greenhouse - we're going to take listeners inside your greenhouse and around your collection. I just want to know, how did this happen, Tony? You don't look old enough to have a successful career as a photographer...
Tony: I have a good doctor!
Jane: ... and this huge collection of rare Aroids!
Tony: So, the passion for plants was just that; it was all plants for such a long time. I grew up with my grandparents and, as many people were inspired by their grandparents or their parents, and I was really lucky that my granddad was really passionate about growing vegetables and my nana was really passionate about growing flowers. So I spent my childhood strapped to a chair, before I could stand up on my own, so I could be at the bench and have my fingers in the compost and help my nana plant seeds and I've always just had a passion for plants. It was never really anything specific. I think if you love plants, you find a way to have them and, through the years, I've had different things. I had my first allotment when I was ten years old! I got it as my Christmas present from my parents because the only way you could actually skip the waiting list was to buy a shed or a greenhouse that was already on an allotment. So they bought me this shed and greenhouse for Christmas and I think that is where the fascination with the heat and humidity started. I had a little paraffin heater and I used to love to grow all my vegetables and plants in the middle of winter, stepping from outside into that, where you just get hit with that wall of heat, and every time I go into my greenhouse now, that's what it makes me think of, like, right back then and even younger - my nana's utility room, where she used to lock herself away to do all her propagating. The first collection I had was quite a few years ago. I'm quite a collector. I like to collect specific things. I used to have coins and all different things. The first one was orchids and that just literally started by picking up cheap orchids. My nana loved orchids. I used to buy her them as a kid and take them to her, and then when I got my own place, that was when the danger really started. I shouldn't be given my own bank account, or money, or space, or anything! I shouldn't be allowed it because my obsessive personality takes over and I ended up having over 100 orchids in a very short space of time! I started with just really generic things and then I ended up finding out about the species Phalaenopsis, and different things, and collected those. Then I moved out to Asia just, like, just total random "I'm moving to Asia!" kind of thing, dropped my job and I think that is where the passion for the jungle-type, really lush green and huge plants started. When I got back, I moved into a house which had a beautiful garden, so my passion for plants was fulfilled in the garden and I always had houseplants, but I lived in a medieval cottage that had terrible light. For instance, I had my massive Tradescantia in there. That's where it started life and it was a decent size, but then when I moved to my flat that everyone knows, because that's when I started the Instagram, for a lot of people that's when I started plants. But that flat... I was originally looking for a house with a garden and I couldn't find one that I liked. So I said to the estate agent, "Just find me a house that I can grow plants in" and they couldn't get one with outside space, so I found one where I could just bring a garden inside and with that roof light over the top, plants just absolutely thrived. Then a number of things happened at the start of last year. My nana passed away and because plants were such a big thing between us, it was just a really nice way to bring something positive out of such a horrible situation. Then lockdown happened and it just evolved, it just exploded, and I just took my time and I was locked in the house, so many of us were literally locked in a house, and I didn't have any outside space, so I just let the passion take over. I grew what plants I had to massive sizes. I started swapping. I had no idea the plant community existed, no idea, and I just started swapping with people. Then I started to realise we had access to all of these incredible, rare plants and rare versions of things that we already have and that snowballed to the point I put a greenhouse in my spare bedroom.
Jane: Was there any point in that process where you sort of stopped yourself and thought, "What am I doing here?" or did you just let yourself run wild?
Tony: No, I just let myself run wild. I'm just very much like, "If you want to do something, if it's not hurting anybody else, just do it. If something brings you joy, just go for it!". So anything, if I commit to doing something, I'm going to do it 110% and I just had to do it.
Jane: You've garnered this amazing following on Instagram, on your account @notanotherjungle. Was that kind of, like, not another jungle? What was the tone of that name?
Tony: It really was! It has multiple meanings! So, when I first found that people had plant accounts, I was like, "What? This is a thing?" and I thought, "Okay, I'll set up a page. I've got this place now. I'm going to be able to grow plants. I also have a lot more time" because I couldn't work because of Covid. So I just thought "Let's be a bit ironic!" and they're just a bit of fun. When I realised how many plant accounts there were, I was, like, let's call it 'Not another jungle!', like, "Oh God! Not another jungle! Not another plant page!" My friend also has a salon called 'Not Another Salon' and her whole ethos is that she's just doing things really differently. I think because I learned to garden outside first, I do look at things very differently when it comes to indoor plant care and I really do see indoor plants as a garden. So I just wanted my opinion to be not like others.
Jane: I think that's really interesting. I think that outside approach, bringing that inside does bring a different perspective. Can you talk a bit more about that, in terms of how that plays out, in terms of things like pests and watering?
Tony: Yes, well, first of all, when it comes to actually choosing the plants, I'm a lot more aware. I think outdoor gardeners will say, "Okay, I have this soil, I have this light, this aspect and this is what I want to achieve. So therefore I'm going to go and look for this kind of plant," whereas indoor gardeners see a plant that they like and they try and make it work in their home. We all do it, I still do it, but I'm a bit more aware of that. So I'm definitely more aware of what conditions I have in my house and which plants I can grow successfully. When it comes to pests, I'm really relaxed about pests. I know pests are such a huge cause of stress to a lot of people but I have pests in my collection, I will always have pests in my collection and I'm really just about managing them. In the garden you never ever seek to exterminate things, you, obviously, do have predatory insects out there and there's a bit more of an ecosystem, but if I can just act as that predatory beetle - I don't dress up!
Jane: I've got an image in my mind now!
Tony: Just my hands in the air and antennae! If I can just act as that predatory insect and keep the numbers at a good, healthy level, where the plants can still thrive. My plants thrive and I have pests. I have thrips, which send shivers up people, but it's really, for me, not about exterminating them because trying to get to that is almost impossible, if not impossible, with such a big collection. So you're just going to give yourself stress and one thing I do not need with plants is stress; that's my escape from stress.
Jane: How true. Yes, I think that that is a real issue with people, especially, I think, people who have come to plants afresh and they're just panicking about a single pest, or it may not even be a pest, it may be a springtail, or it may be a centipede, or something. It's going to be there! I always give the example of, "You realise you've got mites living on your face!?" which freaks people out! That is something worth bearing in mind.
Tony: Yes! You look closely at your pot, no matter what medium you use, and there's going to be some form of life in there. Again, this is from outside, it's so important to nurture that ecosystem in the pot because it helps the soil structure, it helps roots absorb nutrients. Repeated pesticide use, whether that be natural or synthetic, is not only killing the pests but it's killing the ecosystem in your pot, which is eventually going to have a detrimental effect on your plant overall.
Jane: Yes, exactly. You're Mr Aroid! You have a greenhouse in your house, in this new house, you have a greenhouse, kind of, in your house, we'll go and look at. Lots of people are putting in IKEA cabinets and things, but for those of us who aren't at that stage yet, or don't have the room, or the inclination for that, what are the Aroids that really will do well in - that's a very difficult thing to describe, "an average home" - but just what are the real toughies that we can rely on to do well?
Tony: So the majority of Aroids, even the things I have in the greenhouse, could be acclimated to grow in the home. They're not going to grow as fast, or as big, or as reliably, and you might get some more problems, you might have to manage watering a little bit more, but they really can be acclimated to most, I say, average houses, but some houses have 30% humidity and some have 70%, some have a lot of light and some have none. So there's two avenues you can go down; you either choose a plant that you like and then you create the conditions it's going to thrive in, so you can give it artificial light if you have to, you can give it more humidity if you have to or you figure out the kind of space and conditions you can offer and find plants to fit that. So there's two different ways you can go about it, neither is right or wrong. I think it's just really important to find out what your plant needs and make sure you're giving it.
Jane: Yes, that's a really good perspective, otherwise we give ourselves a world of pain, don't we?
Tony: Absolutely! I was in the garden centre the other day and people were looking at Alocasia zebrina, one of my absolute favourite plants, and they were looking and they were really admiring it because it's spectacular - "Oh, should we buy that? Should we not? Oh, I don't know!" - so I just stepped in and I said, "Oh, if you need some help, I can help you on this. First of all, it needs a lot of light" and I said, "What other plants do you have?" "Well, we have this Monstera" and I said "It needs at least twice the amount of light, if not three times, what you're giving the Monstera!" She then went to put it down. I said, "It doesn't mean you can't have it. You can get a cheap bulb from online put it into one of your light fittings and put it on a timer for 12 to 16 hours a day, then you can have that plant" and she was, like, "Oh my God, I didn't think about that! That you can actually change the atmosphere in your house and you can grow anything you want!"
Jane: Yes, that's a really good point. It doesn't take much but light is so crucial, isn't it?
Tony: So crucial.
Jane: It's amazing. Whenever I have a problem with a plant now, I've kind of finally realised that mostly the problem is it's not getting enough light. Things that have been really miserable and I've moved them somewhere brighter have just immediately sparked into life.
Tony: The biggest problem is over watering, right? But it's sort of not. It's that the plant's not getting enough light. If you had a plant in the right amount of light, it's very difficult to overwater it.
Jane: Yes, that's very true. I think it's that thing of, what's that law? There's a law about this. I did this in RHS Level 2. I can't remember what the law is called but it's, basically, all of these different factors with plants, light, moisture, temperature, they're all kind of linked together. I'm going to have to look this up after the interview. It's the one that's limited, the law of limiting factors, maybe that's it? Yes, and it's that sense of, "Okay, yes, you're doing great, you're fertilising it, you're getting the watering roughly right, but actually, there's just not enough light, so it's never going to reach its potential." I think that's the trouble, is that lots of modern homes don't have that much light.
Tony: No.
Jane: You can fix that with lots of modern bulbs and things, it just depends whether you want to invest in that technology or how you want your home to look and the aesthetic you're trying to create.
Tony: That's absolutely it and it's not necessarily about just finding a spot with the maximum amount of light. So I've just moved into this house, this new place, and in my other house it was north-facing but I had big windows. So it gave me a lot of really lovely diffused light and the plants thrived. Here, it's southwest-facing, so you'd think: "Perfect, it's getting lots of light," absolutely not. I'm really struggling and having to adapt my planting and placement of plants because they're getting too much light, too much direct intense light that they can't cope with because they're not used to it.
Jane: Yes, do you use a light meter, or do you just use your eyes? Do you ever get into the light meter territory?
Tony: I've just bought a light meter. That, actually, was about the greenhouse and it was just to figure out, not necessarily, like, levels, looking at numbers, just figuring out which parts were getting the light from the panels that I was putting in and which ones weren't. It was very sort of basic like that.
Jane: I've got one but I don't normally... I can use my own eyes.
Tony: You just know, don't you?
Jane: My eyes are light meters. This is the way I think about it. I can tell from just looking at something, what's going on. I will get it out occasionally, just to prove something. I find that it's just a visual thing, as opposed to anything else. I want to know about your love of Aroids. Orchids were a previous obsession, but now it's Aroids. What is it that draws you in? Is there something about the thrill of the rarity that's making you, like, "I've got this plant that no one else has got, mwahaha!"?
Tony: Evil laugh!
Jane: Is it something intrinsic, as somebody who likes Aroids but doesn't feel so passionate about it?
Tony: We're going to change that!
Jane: I want an insight.
Tony: Trust me, you're leaving as an Aroid...
Jane: I have brought you a nice Aroid! I'm part of the Aroid club. I've brought you a nice Thai cutting, so it's all good! They don't spark the same amount of joy that other things do for me, personally, but what it is about Aroids for you?
Tony: There's several things. There's so many things, in fact. I love the way a lot of them grow. I love the way, for instance, Alocasia and Anthurium, I love how the leaves change and evolve from when they first emerge. So, the Anthurium start so small and they change colour completely and they're glossy and gorgeous and then they just expand exponentially into something which looks completely different. The Alocasia: the volume of them and the size that they can achieve. The other thing is definitely the feel they give. I love that jungle feel. I like to feel immersed in my plants. You can grow them up a height, so you have to go under them in the kitchen, have them so you have to walk through them and brush against them. They can withstand a bit of a battering, of me clunking through, or stumbling through, after too many gins, and they don't mind it! They don't mind it at all. Also, just their availability. The majority of stuff in the house is from Facebook Marketplace, garden centres, cuttings from people. They're really available and will thrive in your home. I'm really not looking to have anything in the house that doesn't do well because it just becomes a pain. I don't want to look at a plant that isn't doing well. I want to look at plants in all their glory. Then the last bit about rarity, you're so right, you're so right! I do love unusual, different things because sometimes I get bored of seeing things, especially with online. I was at RHS Wisley yesterday and they had a Melanochrysum there and my eyes were just huge.
Jane: That really big one?
Tony: Huge! Just towering on the rock! It's incredible! I didn't like Melanochrysum, really, because I'm sick of seeing it online, but when you see something like that, that sparks my interest. So there's two bits: rarity and growing them like no one else does, whether that be in a different way, or bigger, or training them a different way. My main passion in plants is propagation and AroidsI find incredibly easy to propagate. I love experimenting with them. I also love the fact that I can grow them in a greenhouse which is hot and humid, so I can just escape into that environment.
Jane: You're addicted to that warm fug, aren't you?
Tony: I am! I absolutely am!
Jane: That's really interesting, that's a very good point. I remember whenever I go into a greenhouse like that, I have that same sort of endorphin release of, like, "Ah, feels so good!". Yes, that's an interesting one! Well, I think we should go and have a look at things now. I'm just going to keep recording and we'll head down to your kitchen and have a look at some stuff that people will have seen on your Instagram that we can enjoy. You are out in the countryside here. I was slightly worried. As I was driving along, I was thinking, "Wow, I hope I haven't gone really wrong here!" as I drove down this little, very little track, but it's great, it's fantastic!
Tony: I knew, after living in a flat with no garden and lots of neighbours and lots of noise in the city, that I just had to be in the middle of nowhere. I have no neighbours here and it's just fields and wildlife. I'm really privileged that I get to actually have an outside garden now, which I've just spent the last few months building, putting in all the raised beds and borders and growing vegetables and, basically, expanding my obsession with plants.
Jane: It's only going to get worse from here, Tony! That's the trouble!
Tony: Oh, it is!
Jane: So this is a converted barn. So you've got these lovely big beams to hang things from, which you've taken full advantage of. I'm glad to see that you've got some Rhipsalis, or is that the Lapismium, over there? I can't see. There's too many plants for me! Tell me about some of the things in here. Obviously, you've got the classic Swiss Cheese Plant.
Tony: Yes, Monstera deliciosa. You can see the lower leaves are damaged from the move but it is loving life in here. It took a while to find the right spot for it. It was over at the back there, it was closer to the window, there was too much light, so it's very much a sort of Goldilocks, of 'Let's just move it, look at the leaves, look at how the plant is reacting". Right here, it's put out five new leaves in the last few weeks, so it's really, really thriving.
Jane: One of the things that often annoys me when you see pictures of this plant, is the underestimation of the length of the aerial roots. The aerial roots are just ridiculous, aren't they? That's about a metre long, but that's a feature of the plant, obviously, and its way of anchoring itself as it grows.
Tony: Interestingly, these have only appeared in the last two months. All of this growth is two months. It's crazy!
Jane: That's well over a metre long!
Tony: They're growing all over the floor as well, possibly because we moved so much. So the plant is like, "I'm being moved, the wind has shaken me, I need to anchor myself to the ground."
Jane: That's probably true.
Tony: The more roots, the more nutrients it's going to take up, the bigger the plant is going to get.
Jane: It can probably dig into that bit of that pot now, I would say that's probably long enough to just bury itself.
Tony: It's desperate for a repot. It's, literally, so bad!
Jane: No shade here, but, yes, that does need repotting! That's taller than me and the size of that pot... but I dread doing that because that's a stressful thing. I give myself a hernia trying to get them out of the pot and it's stressful.
Tony: I'll probably leave that for another year or so, I think. They're fine. A lot of these are so epiphytic, it's just somewhere for them to hold on to and then I ply them with fertiliser and that's all they need.
Jane: Tell me about the Tradescantia, this giant waterfall.
Tony: This is one of my absolute favourites. I love, love, love this plant. It's actually had a really good haircut since moving here. It's shorter here.
Jane: I've got nothing that big but when you get plants that are established like that, you get this crispy underbelly that if you give it a shake you're always going to find some dead leaves, which is the maintenance part, isn't it, keeping that in trim.
Tony: It is. The place I'm hanging it from here isn't as high as the last house. The last place, this was a ten foot drop, but this Tradescantia is really special to me because I grew this from absolute scratch. I found a tiny little cutting, like that, on the street in London. It'd fallen out of someone's window I think, so I picked it up and I propagated it until I had enough to put into a tiny hanging basket.
Jane: Are you ever going to repot that?
Tony: There's no soil in there now. It's literally just root! It hasn't been repotted in four years and it started off when these went in, they were cuttings that went in there and, again, I'd fertilise it. When someone isn't coming to look around, it's usually got a plastic bottle on the top with a tiny hole in, so it just drips fertiliser down through it and it's happy.
Jane: I think, with Tradescantia, I've killed a few little ones, the little Pink Panther one, whatever that's called. It's always because I've fiddled around with it too much. I've repotted it and then, as you say, they like to just be left alone to do their thing.
Tony: Love to dry out between watering. I actually usually leave it until it's visibly needing a drink. I do with most of the plants - wait until their leaves are telling you they're thirsty and then there's no chance of over-watering. It also just allows some oxygen to get through the soil as well, rather than being saturated with water all the time. So, yes, that is one of my absolute favourites and a real favourite of a lot of people because it converts people to Tradescantia because I think people are used to seeing those whippy little bits. When you grow it and you're quite harsh with it and just keep cutting it hard back, it thickens up like this.
Jane: It's like topiary, isn't it? It's so intense.
Tony: People think there's something inside.
Jane: Yes, like a pole or something.
Tony: It's not. It's just hanging!
Jane: No, it's just the sheer volume of foliage, which is great. I'm going to come around the other side here.
Tony: Just walk through and push your way through.
Jane: Is this Rhipsalis?
Tony: Rhipsalis, I cannot remember...
Jane: Is it Baccifera?
Tony: I think it might be, actually.
Jane: Oftentimes, with plant names, something just pops into my head and more often than not, it's right.
Tony: Of course it is, Jane!
Jane: It's just my database brain! I might be wrong about that, but you can see why it's called the Mistletoe Cactus, with these little white berries.
Tony: Berries full of sticky seeds. I suppose it procreates in the same way as mistletoe: the seeds get stuck to a tree and then it just anchors itself in there and grows. This is so much bang for your buck because, since I got this, like, two years ago, it has never not either had berries or flowers. So not only is it a beautiful plant, but it just gives you that extra interest. I'm yet to try and propagate this but I really want to try and grow them from seed. I've taken cuttings but I haven't grown them from seed.
Jane: That's interesting, isn't it? Presumably you would smear it on a bit of soil?
Tony: I'm going to try and smearing it on a bit of wood in the greenhouse and see if it just tries to anchor.
Jane: It is exactly the same as an actual mistletoe. That's fascinating! I love Rhipsalis. They're so amazing.
Tony: This one is called Tina; Tina Turner! I don't name my plants but they just have comedy names. That one is Bob; Bob Marley. Can you see that?
Jane: I can see that completely.
Tony: That one doesn't have a name. I don't name my plants but - comedy -- usually after a few drinks...
Jane: Tell me about your pots. You've got the bigger plants, the floor plants, you've got some lovely pots. Are they anything particular, from anywhere in particular?
Tony: The vast majority of my pots are waste paper bins.
Jane: I love that!
Tony: So that, over there, is from IKEA. All of those, the majority of all my plants, are in black plastic.
Jane: That's such a good tip.
Tony: These ones I got a couple of days ago. These are from B&M, £2. If that was sold as a plant pot; £10.
Jane: Yes, totally.
Tony: They're just great. They're light, they're really durable and, for me, I have a couple of nicer pots, but for me it's about the plants. I want the pots to disappear and black really sets things off. The bigger things are direct into bigger pots with no drainage, I just whack them straight in there.
Jane: Well, it's looking good on it, I have to say. I always forget the name of this. Is this Schefflera? Is this Amate?
Tony: That's a question. I don't know and I'll tell you why. This came from an office. That's why I have no history on it. It was in a right sorry state and, actually, it really hated my last house and I was going to leave this behind because it was looking so terrible. In a couple of months, it's put out all that new growth from there and I also chopped it and stuck some in the bottom to thicken it up and that's taken in and is growing as well, so I'm so glad I didn't leave it behind!
Jane: It's beautiful. It's really lovely and they're such nice floor specimens I think. They make a beautiful display. I know you've talked about this on your Instagram, grouping things together so you've just got this wooden crate here with stuff. We were talking earlier, before we started actually doing the interview, about the perils of small plants and why they're a lot harder to keep alive, but this is quite clever in that you've got everything going in together and making a microclimate.
Tony: That's it, yes. Going back to outdoor gardening, you wouldn't just put a pot or plant in the middle of a border on its own, they look after each other, they create a little microclimate. It's easier for you to look after, as well, because they're all together, you can just water them all in one go. I also just visually like plants together. In the corner over there, all those Calathea. I call that Calathea Corner! They really help each other to thrive but also they just set each other off and they look really great together.
Jane: Well, I think that does look fantastic over there, all your various Calatheas. I see you have a less variegated...
Tony: I have a terrible Thai.
Jane: Well, I've now given you a much superior Thai.
Tony: I cannot wait to grow that!
Jane: I was quite happy to offload because it's been annoying my family in front of the TV for too long, so I'm quite happy to have given that to you to take care of and I look forward to seeing it go absolutely nuts in here!
Tony: I can't wait! It's really weird because that window's west and it's tucked back here and it hadn't given me a new leaf for eight months before I moved here. Stuck it there, in the corner, in the shade, and it's put this big leaf out and it's double or triple the size of the previous ones!
Jane: I think they get to a certain size and then they really start ramping it up with the leaf size and then you really are looking at the leaves getting substantially bigger, which is what's happened to mine. My thing with those is just hack away, I've had so much success from hacking them back. My house is not that big and I just find by hacking them I can give people lovely cuttings but, also, they just come back better than ever.
Tony: I am ruthless with all plants. I'm really ruthless with chopping back, if something's not working right, cut it back and start again.
Jane: Yes, exactly, and if it dies - it probably won't die - but if it does, oh well!
Tony: Exactly, yes.
Jane: You can walk through here but it is quite crowded, Tony. Is it going to get more crowded? Are there more things on the horizon?
Tony: No, of course it's not...! I'm nodding while I'm saying that. So, I like to be able to get through and move around and enjoy the space. I'm a little OCD when it comes to lots and lots and lots of pots. I don't like to see lots of little pots around. What I will say, is in parts of the borders, as I call them, there are gaps. So in Calathea Corner over there, there's a little gap down there that's going to take probably another Calathea down there, maybe one in the corner, but it's not going to intrude any more on the space, but I do like to pack plants tight together. You've got these Aglaonema, Dieffenbachia, here in this corner and they just look really nice grouped together.
Jane: That is a really nice grouping, actually.Dieffenbachia, I've kind of fallen out of love with in that they're so much less happy in my house than Aglaonema, but they are beautiful and, especially now, all the new cultivars coming out, there are some amazing, really, really pretty patterns.
Tony: People ask me the names of these, but in every garden centre, depending on which grower it's come from, they have different names.
Jane: They'll be different, oh yes.
Tony: The Rhaphidophora tetrasperma here, you can actually see where it moved into this house. All of this new growth with the big, more mature, leaves is when I've moved it here, because where I used to have it, it was really, really, really shaded but it's really enjoying it there. I'm going to chop that big one right back, propagate it, put it in a bigger pot and just thicken it up.
Jane: For me that is the Aroid, if I'm going to recommend an Aroid to somebody, it's that because it's just so easy.
Tony: It's gorgeous as well.
Jane: If it does get too big you can just hack away.
Tony: And people are always delighted with a cutting of a Rhaphidophora tetrasperma.
Jane: Yes, definitely. I just have great joy, whenever it gets in the way, just hacking away at it!
Tony: There's a reason that these Aroids are in commercial cultivation, the common ones, because they're the best, or some of the best that were chosen, and people invested a lot of money in them to make them available to everyone else.
Jane: This is ridiculous! This is ridiculous!
Tony: I love this plant. Look at the size of the pot though.
Jane: The size of the pot, the poor thing, the roots are going nuts in there.
Tony: This is Alocasia macrorrhiza.
Jane: Elephant Ear, I suppose?
Tony: I showed people online why it's called Elephant Ear. When you shake it like that, it's like an elephant walking, isn't it?
Jane: I saw that! Yes, it is.
Tony: This is really thriving. So at first, because it gets a lot of light here, most of the day it's direct light here. I'm actually using this now to create shade for the Dieffenbachia underneath.
Jane: You've basically got a forest canopy going on here, Tony, and why not!?
Tony: Exactly! This Pseudorhipsalis helps block some of the light coming into the house. The great thing about Alocasia macrorrhiza, is that it will grow in indirect sun. You see them in the tropics, growing in direct sun. I just had to, basically, gradually move this forward into the sun, to get it used to it. Now it is, it's put out three new leaves in the last two months. There's that one, that one and maybe this one, I think. So it's loving life now.
Jane: It's looking amazing. They are beautiful.
Tony: I'm a massive Alocasia fan and they just seem to grow well for me. This wentii is just gorgeous.
Jane: The leaves are amazing! I just really like these, as my children would say, "chonk" stems! They're just so cool.
Tony: Huge! They have just a nice powdery texture, as well, and the ribs on the leaves here are just phenomenal.
Jane: Is that a little bit of damage there or is that... presumably that's damage?
Tony: Really strange. So, obviously, it's not fenestrations. Can you imagine if I found the world's first fenestrated Alocasia!? I'd love that! It's really strange.
Jane: It looks like it's been folded. When it was folded, it's got damaged, somehow, because you can see...
Tony: So I'll tell you what I think it was. I did a little post a while ago about leaving your leaves alone when they're emerging.
Jane: People fiddling with leaves.
Tony: I was filming this leaf emerging.
Jane: You fiddled with it!
Tony: I banged my phone into it because I was getting really close. So I think that's possibly what it was or maybe it got a bit damaged in the petioles.
Jane: See, folks! Don't fiddle around with your leaves. People are terrible for, like, getting things...
Tony: Tweezers, cotton buds. Just leave them! Give them a water.
Jane: I'm a fiddler, but I do not do that because it's just a recipe...
Tony: If something's stuck, just give it a good soak and it will pop out within a few hours on its own.
Jane: Exactly. Nobody in nature is using tweezers to get plants.
Tony: Can you imagine the monkeys sat there, like, "Yes, I'll just undo that!"?
Jane: You know what? I am feeling slightly satisfied by the fact that my Pilea libanensis is bigger than yours! That's the only thing I've got that's bigger than yours.
Tony: Well, that only arrived three months ago, so let's check back in a year! That's the competition!
Jane: Oh, you want to play, do you? You want to play? Okay! All right!
Tony: Absolutely.
Jane: Actually, I have to say, Lepismium bolivianum, mine's also slightly bigger than that as well. Not that size is everything, Tony, but I just want to say that because I'm feeling so attacked by your Alocasias and their massive size. I have to try to get one back on you!
Tony: It's turned into a competition now! Yes, this is desperate. I mean, feel how light that pot is. It's nothing.
Jane: These are really thirsty. These are so thirsty. I find all those forest cacti drink enormous amounts of water.
Tony: It needs a repot. It's been in that pot since I got it, when it was a lot smaller. It's only recently, this year, it's started putting out some new growth.
Jane: It's a really cool plant. As you say, it is like hair. These are just my absolute favourites, so I'm living for that! We're coming through... this the sound of me moving through the jungle. I must just mention this. Is this Aeschynanthus Black Pagoda?
Tony: I don't know the variety.
Jane: Maybe it's not Black Pagoda because mine is not as variegated.
Tony: I would pronounce this Aeshee-anthus, is it esk-inanthus?
Jane: Well, you look at the word and it's just an alphabet salad, isn't it? You don't even know! I asked somebody when I was at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, where they have the national collection which, unfortunately I didn't get to see, but I think it's esk-inanthus, but, I mean, my attitude to pronunciation is probably the same as yours. It's just whatever works, if you can get understood, because when you start to speak to German people, or French people, or South American people about a plant, even though you're using the Latin and you're using the same word, they will pronounce it totally differently and it's all good.
Tony: There is no right and wrong because botanical Latin isn't the real, set-out language. It's such a mixture.
Jane: The Romans aren't around anymore and it's not all Latin anyway.
Tony: I do love this plant, especially when the light shines through and you see the back of the leaves. It's happy.
Jane: It's really nice. I think this should be your gateway plant into growing more Gesneriads! I know you have got some Streptocarpus, but I feel like there's more Gesneriads you need to get into!
Tony: I'm sure I will!
Jane: An Episcia hanging up here would look amazing.
Tony: Okay, let's do it!
Jane: I'm telling you... I'm just saying #justsaying!
Tony: That is the level of negotiation. You should do this. Okay. I need that plant? Okay, let's get one!
Jane: Mine grows in a pot with no drainage, so it's ideal for you. It would work great. It does have flowers on it. You do have flowers on your forest cacti, obviously.
Tony: Yes, on the Tradescantia and the Begonias. I love Begonia flowers. I'm not massive on bright colour, I hate... hate to seeBromeliads in pots. I love Bromeliads on logs, but a Bromeliad, sickly green with that bright red? No!
Jane: I'm hearing you. Let's head out to the greenhouse, shall we? Let's go and explore that. We could literally be here all day!
Tony: This is one of my big success stories. It's probably in the top five of my favourite plants.
Jane: I can see you've got lots of nice new growth.
Tony: This is the Macrophyllum bipinnatifidum. I**t's been reclassified.
Jane: Don't get me started on this! I did a column recently on one of the plants in this genus and the stress that the people on the magazine and the RHS had trying to decide... and I'm like, "No, it really should be Thaumatophyllum**" and we had a big to and fro about it and I can't remember what the final conclusion was.
Tony: There's that, which is a huge problem, and then the Philodendron warszewiczii Aurea Flavum, or you know it as...
Jane: Xanadu Gold.
Tony: Xanadu Gold, that's right. There's just an endless... but at the moment, it's Thaumatophyllum. I just love the new leaves.
Jane: They're great.
Tony: This was a rescue. I got this from someone when the leaves were this big. It was covered in thrips to the point it was really affecting the plant and I just love seeing it really thrive.
Jane: There's something about the leaves on this and also the large Alocasias. It almost looks like it's stretched. Do you know what I mean?
Tony: Like stretch marks?
Jane: Not stretch marks. It almost doesn't look real. I can't explain it very well. It almost looks like car upholstery on a leather upholstered car.
Tony: That's been pulled too tight?
Jane: That's stretched and it looks so amazing.
Tony: I think because they grow so rapidly, same with Alocasia. Probably it's something like that. It's definitely one of my favourites and really, really enjoying its new spot here on the counter. One of the plants... that's in a bin, a small bin, which I just dumped a couple of days ago, I dumped that bin into a bigger pot.
Jane: I think that is the best tip ever. I think people spend so much money. I'm all up for artisanal pot makers and supporting those people, but I'm also up for having my plants in pots because I can't afford to have everything in an artisanal pot. So if I can get a waste paper bin, great!
Tony: If you do like drainage, just stick some holes in the bottom.
Jane: Yes, exactly.
Tony: I think it's going to be hot in here because the sun has been out.
Jane: We could spend another hour talking about your beautiful vegetable patch and beautiful garden. This is like something at Hampton Court or something! When are you coming to Hampton Court or Chelsea to design? Come on! Am I getting an exclusive here?
Tony: You might get an exclusive... I'm really inspired by the show gardens, but there's definitely a lack of indoor plants. I would love to join a brand and create a show garden that was the interior of a house but really filled with plants, not just a couple of potted plants here and there that I have seen before, but really fill it and make it really inspirational.
Jane: The marker is laid down!
Tony: Anyone who wants to sponsor me, come and sponsor me and we'll do it!
Jane: I think that'll be amazing! We're experiencing the warm fug we were talking about earlier! It's so nice. This is kind of set into - I don't know what this was originally - a niche in the side of your house?
Tony: Yes. So this was part of the old barn. This was used to store grain, and hay, and what have you and then this was, oh... that was the swallows! The swallows are nesting.
Jane: Yes, I can see you've got a deposit up there! A great source of fertilizer, if you wish to do so!
Tony: This was the old barn. It should be a garage. It's open-fronted, so you get some of the south-facing light coming in. I wanted to have a greenhouse outside, but controlling the temperature with the greenhouse completely outside was just impossible in our winters. So I decided to put it inside and this is what I've created.
Jane: What is the construction of this? You've got a wooden frame and then what's the plastic?
Tony: That's twin wall polycarbonate, which is a lot more thermally insulating than glass. The structure is on the outside which protects it from the heat and humidity but also allows me, during the winter, to probably fill that with some insulation. I'll probably put some sheep's wool insulation onto the roof and, possibly, some foil on the outside of that just to really help keep the temperature stable in here.
Jane: Well, you've got more space than you had in your old greenhouse, I would imagine?
Tony: Yes, just a bit! Four or five times bigger!
Jane: So people won't have seen this when they saw you on Gardeners' World, if indeed they did see that, so this is the new setup. There's space here. Tony, what's happening!? You haven't filled it yet!?
Tony: I know! A lot of the plants in here are not looking their best and a lot of them I've already chopped right back. You'll see a lot of empty moss poles because I, basically, kept my old place and moved here and there was two months where the greenhouse was up in my old place and I could only visit once a week. With that, heating was on and off, lights weren't working properly and I wasn't spotting it, I had a fungal infection breakout because I wasn't in and out with the airflow, so I decided just to chop a lot back. So there's a lot of the Obliqua species, which were just chopped right back, all the leaves off, and I'm waiting for them. They're actually just starting to reshoot.
Jane: I was going to say they look like they're starting to reshoot. We'll get into a bit more, sort of really geeky stuff in a little bit of Patreon content, but that's the unicorn that we've all heard about. It's never Obliqua, but here we are, it is Obliqua, so what's the story behind your getting hold of the Obliqua?
Tony: So actually, they are not the Obliqua that everyone knows. The Obliqua everyone knows is down below there. That's Monstera obliqua and that is Peruvian form. So that's down there. There's quite a few of those dotted around, actually, because they create runners. I have maybe 50 runners, which is part of my giveaway at the moment. But these here, I have around nine different species or subspecies, or, sorry, correct term, complex of Obliqua and the majority of them don't fenestrate at all. The actual, original Obliqua described had no fenestrations whatsoever. In fact, the one everyone knows as Obliqua is most likely actually not part of the Obliqua family.
Jane: This is where Aroid taxonomy is mind-blowing, isn't it? I always laugh when you see people selling something like Philodendron brasil and, obviously, that's a hederaceum cultivar and then there's all these kind of variations on the theme and it's just hederaceum being this weird thing of doing lots of different stuff.
Tony: This is true, yes. This is true.
Jane: You can tie yourself in knots worrying about getting the latest cultivar of that but, actually, it's just nature being variable, like we're variable.
Tony: It's really, really interesting. Obviously, Obliqua has a huge range across South America, so this is the Bolivian form which gets really beautiful, big teardrop-shaped leaves. Then you have something like Amazonas that will fenestrate massively and look incredible. The Peruvian form fenestrates but there's Colombian form. I've got three forms from Suriname. There are lots of unknown Obliqua. There's so many. It's a very complex complex, but Monstera are my absolute passion.
Jane: So did it all start off like the woman who swapped the bobby pin and ended up with a house, where you bought one rare thing and then you swapped a bit of that for something else? I don't imagine that you've necessarily paid big bucks for all of these?
Tony: No, absolutely not. It's really strange. A lot of people online look at my collection and they think that I just buy everything. That's not a smart way to do it and it also takes the joy out of it. I think the most wonderful thing, for me, is swapping with someone. Sending them something like this, this I got yesterday from someone. I sent them one of my variegated Adansonii, they sent me this Aurea one and we didn't pay a penny for it.
Jane: Tell me what this is?
Tony: So that is Monstera adansonii variegata, but this is the Aurea, so the yellow form. So it starts green and then the variegation emerges as it matures.
Jane: So that's blowing my mind because I'm looking at that and going, "Mosaic virus!" I'm getting cold chills.
Tony: If you think that is Mosaic virus, look at Monstera adansonii Mint! That has been tested.
Jane: No, that gives me the willies!
Tony: Strangely, all of the Monstera adansonii are very unstable in their variegation. They either go all green, or white, or stop variegation.
Jane: This is the thing about Adansonii. I threw mine away because I was panicking that it had Mosaic virus, because it started to become mottled, but now I'm thinking "Did it actually have Mosaic virus, or was it just this tendency to be variable?" Is there an answer?
Tony: There is an answer. There are a couple of different answers. So there is Mosaic virus in Adansonii, but the absolute majority that you get are this form of Monstera, that we don't actually know is adansonii. We think it is,but it's not an Adansonii that's known. We think it's actually some sort of tissue culture freak that's happened. There's no evidence and there's no record of it first being brought into cultivation, so we don't really know where it came from or what it really is. But that particular plant, for some reason, is incredibly hungry and it shows signs of that very readily in the leaves. So you get that patination and, usually, after a good fertiliser and a little bit of extra light it recovers. I know some people do get really scared. The best thing if you have any worries, just separate it from the rest of your plants. Mosaic actually isn't that easily transmitted between plants. You've really got to be cutting and using the same tools on multiple plants, but if you have any question, just separate it and figure it out.
Jane: It's an interesting one. I do feel for people trying to build a collection of Aroids because... I'm old, so I want a book that tells me everything, but there's no one source. There's so many different information sources and you must have spent a lot of time doing research for different sources to get all the information that's now in your head and the information is changing all the time, as well. I think that's the other thing.
Tony: It is, especially for Monstera. Monstera, at the moment, is being reclassified - a lot of Monstera. There are people working out in South America, finding new species, figuring out that what we thought was something isn't that anymore. I get a lot of questions to ID Monstera because I have done an awful lot of reading on them, but it's actually almost impossible to ID a Monstera unless you have collection data, or a plant which is completely mature, which doesn't really happen in cultivation, or with an inflorescence. So it's just one of those mysteries and I have swapped my way to having 40 different Monstera from at least 30+ different species. It's really a key for me to keep a good record, keep them labelled, which I'm in the process of doing. It's all just in my head at the moment and really only get things that you can trace back, where I know 100% that is that species.
Jane: Help me out here. What's the current thinking with the whole Deliciosa, large form, small form, Borsigiana? Can we put that to rest now, or is it still, kind of, it depends who you listen to?
Tony: It's still up in the air, yes. There's a lot of different thoughts on that. I mean, Borsigiana isn't a recognised name. It was just invented, but use it if you like because people know what you're talking about, but I'd say the easiest thing is just to do small-form and large-form right now. I've grown both of them in the same situations, from nodes, and they act completely differently. They fenestrate in different ways, they grow at a different rate as well, even from nodes which are sort of the same maturity. So, in my eyes, they are two different forms of Deliciosa but, for instance, I have six different forms of Monstera adansonii subspecies Laniata. That sounds very specific, but every region has a different version of it, so it's not crazy to think that there might be two, or even more, subspecies of Deliciosa, like that was thought as a subspecies of Deliciosa at the moment.
Jane: That doesn't look anything like it. It's got a really elongated, spear-shaped leaf and, well, that's starting to fenestrate presumably. What's that going to do? Is that going to continue?
Tony: So it does come out round, almost like a large form, but the fenestrations on it are unbelievably spectacular. If you look here - the marks on the leaf, and you see the really pronounced veins - that's where it's going to split, so it turns into, almost, a trident, but then it morphs completely differently. So this, currently, is known, not registered, but known as a Monstera burle marx flame. I hate the name it's been given! I think it sounds really cheap and nasty but it was previously thought of as Sierrana. Sierrana is actually a completely different plant and Sierrana is also a subspecies of Deliciosa but has rounded leaves, like Deliciosa, also, when it's immature. So it's all over the place!
Jane: It's a minefield!
Tony: It's a deep breath and walk forward!
Jane: Are there any other plants we should just talk about, that you really want to highlight, that are particularly special to you?
Tony: The ones that thrill me the most... There are a lot of special plants to me in here because they're some of the only ones in Europe, or the world, when it comes to species Monstera, but probably things a lot of people wouldn't get excited about because they have just very plain leaves. That's an unknown Monstera and really amazing if you look at how velvet it is. There's not many Monstera...
Jane: If I saw that on a shelf, I would think, "Oh, that's some kind of, like, Epipremnum." I just wouldn't even think anything of that.
Tony: It's running at the moment.
Jane: It's running. Look at that!
Tony: It got left behind and it's running, but I got it as just a one leaf and I've grown it, but now I can propagate it. I get it on a pole and its leaves will get really big.
Jane: Yes, you can propagate all those nodes.
Tony: If you imagine, when they get big and have that gorgeous reflective texture, it's going to look spectacular!
Jane: What is the name of that currently? This week!?
Tony: Current is Monstera Velvet Peru. We know it was collected in Peru, so we know that. We know it's a Monstera, looks velvet. There we go!
Jane: Bang! It's done!
Tony: Other things, I suppose we have to talk about the Rhaphidophora testrasperma variegata because that excites me so much: the rarity, but also, I love the variegated pattern on it.
Jane: I'm not, as anyone who listens to the show will know, I am so not about the price tag on plants but is this something that you should have a special insurance for? Is this a big price tag plant?
Tony: Yes. Huge price tag.
Jane: Can I touch it?
Tony: Of course you can! Touch it! Turn it upside down!
Jane: I look at that and when you say that, I look at that and go, "It's okay. I'd give you £50 quid for it!". I suppose that's why you don't buy a lot of plants. You're not spending loads of money on the plants if you're swapping them.
Tony: Swapping them. Exactly.
Jane: The price tag is really quite meaningless, isn't it? I suppose it reflects the fact that the plant is very rare and therefore it's desirable.
Tony: People want it and also there's almost an insular part where people will buy it as an investment. So I have customers, several customers buy it. You'll never see it again. It goes into a private collection; they just want plants for themselves. They don't have Instagram, they don't show their plants, they just want to have it because it's rare.
Jane: Do you get people messaging you, saying, "I will pay this amount for this plant."
Tony: Every day, every day, every single day. Someone asked to buy this entire plant, which is my mother plant, which I wouldn't sell. I grew that from a rotting node so it's got a bit of a place in my heart. They offered me tens and tens of thousands of pounds for it.
Jane: Wow.
Tony: Which I said no to because it's worth more to me to just have the plant.
Jane: I get the sense that you're on the same page as me, in that you're not one of these people who wants to keep these plants, "Oh, let's keep them rare so the price doesn't drop". You're propagating to make them less rare.
Tony: Well, that's the thing, is eventually it'll get there, the price will drop, it will become more accessible and this is actually out in Europe at the moment, figuring out whether it can be tissue cultured. So I sent one out there to a company and they're figuring out whether it can be - probably not because of the variegation, but it's always worth a shot and it will make it more readily available to people. Rhaphidophora regular is such a popular plant. When this gets secondary fenestrations, which I've had before, it is unbelievable, it's just stunning and the variegation improves when it grows. That's a really special plant to me. It's the one that got the most press. It was all over the world and newspapers and interviews and crazy things. I think that is wonderful because it means that the regular press is recognising the importance of plants. Even if they're publishing it because it's really expensive, at least they're publishing something about plants! A few years ago, they would never have done that!
Jane: That's very true. Are these propagations of that plant, or is it something entirely different?
Tony: No these are all propagations from it, so I do these from single node cuttings. A little tip for people is if you don't want to destroy your plant, any Monstera or a Rhaphidophora this works on, root it onto a pole, so it gets a lot of roots and then, what I do, I don't ever cut the top of my plant, I take it out of its pot, take away the moss and I cut from the bottom. I take the bottom nodes and then move the plant down and the head cutting then becomes the top of your plant and it's already rooted so it's just going to carry on, that's my little tip.
Jane: That is an interesting tip. So what are you doing with these? Are you selling these to people?
Tony: All of these have homes already, these are just...
Jane: People desperately waiting to get their plants?
Tony: Yes. There was a waiting list when I first got it. The first batch that went out were ten that went out all over the world and this is the second batch of them.
Jane: I'm imagining there's somebody in their underground lair... Are there any super-rich billionaires who've been, like, "I must have this plant because it's rare"? Does that happen? I don't need details.
Tony: No, no. 110%. So the majority of people that buy these very expensive plants, like I say, they're not buying them to show off to people, they just want to have them because they enjoy collecting things and collecting plants. Some people buy them to propagate, some people buy them for themselves. I have one woman who asked her husband for this instead of an engagement ring and she gets more joy out of it, so why not!
Jane: Yes, great!
Tony: When it dies, I'm not sure what that says about the marriage!
Jane: Pressure! A bit of pressure there! It's so interesting, the different kind of motivations that people have for wanting plants. As I say, looking at it objectively, I can be, like, "Oh my gosh! This is, like, a world-famous plant!" but it doesn't make me, personally, go nuts. Again, there might be something else in your collection that is quite a workaday thing, that I would absolutely fall in love with. You've got to find what you're into.
Tony: Totally. It's so true. Some of the plants that excite me most are the most common; Tradescantia. You buy it for £1 and it's one of my favourite plants. It's a bit of everything and I don't think you have to narrow yourself into a lane. Don't be influenced by what anyone else is doing, just get the plants that you like, pay the price for it that it's worth to you and that's it! You don't ever have to explain anything that you're doing to anybody else. You just do what makes you happy.
Jane: Well, I think that is a really good note to end on. We will Patreon in a moment but I think that is a great message to end on, Tony, and thank you for showing me around your awesome, mahoosive plant collection!
Tony: You are very welcome.
Jane: It's awesome! Thank you so much.
[music]
Jane: Well, wasn't that fun? Thank you so much to Tony Le-Britton. If you're a Patreon subscriber, stay tuned because I'll be putting out a Patreon special with Tony Le-Britton in the next few days once I get the chance to get that up on the Patreon site. If you're wondering about my references to a Thai, I gave Tony a cutting of one of my Thai Constellation Monsteras because my family were complaining that it was in front of the TV and obscuring their view and it really needed a chop, so I knew it would have a good home with Tony, so that's where it's gone. Do check out the show notes for pictures from Tony's collection and a picture of me in Tony's collection. Also if you've not visited his Insta @notanotherjungle, don't delay! Go and check it out!
Now it's time for Question of the Week and it's come from Marieke in the Netherlands and concerns a Hoya pubicalyx and there is a little bit of an irony in me talking about Hoya because I know that Tony Le-Britton is not a great fan of this genus! As you know, I am, so here's the question! I've got a picture of the plant and it's a youngish cutting, I would say, in a nice pot and it's doing that thing that Hoyas do, it's got a long runner, as Marieke calls it, with no leaves on it, they're standing straight up, although some days it goes to the side and at one point, apparently, this stem even grabbed onto a lamp. So the question is, does it need to be supported? "Why is it moving? It's like it has a mind of its own!" says Marieke. Well, Hoyas do this thing and, in fact, so do lots of plants with a similar growth habit. Think of it this way, because this plant is one that's going to want to climb and scramble and grab onto things and, as you know if you've felt the stem of the Hoya, you've got lots of bumps on there which are the very start of aerial roots, so the plant is always looking for things to anchor itself on. By putting out a bare stem rather than one covered with leaves, it can kind of test the waters, find something to cling on to and once it's done that then it tends to decide to put out leaves once that security is there, which makes sense, what's the point of putting the energy into new leaves if that stem is going to get left dangling in space or possibly going to be bitten off by an animal, or something like that? So that's why you get these bare stems and I do find that once you tie in a bare stem that's often the point that the plant will suddenly start producing leaves. So if your plant is a lot of bare stems right now, do consider tying them down. So whatever support you're using just get a bit of wire, or that plant velcro stuff you can get, or twine, whatever you're using, and attach it to your support and you should, hopefully, find that leaves will follow.
What you do sometimes also find is that a Hoya stem will be produced and then, if conditions aren't quite right, maybe it's a bit too dry, you'll find that one section of that stem may brown off. This is fairly normal, I've had this happen a lot with Hoyas. It just means that the plant isn't quite happy with conditions and it's not going to bother growing that stem any further - it will fall off. You can chop it off if you want to, with a pair of clean scissors, and it doesn't mean that stem has finished. The stem will put out a new growth point from that node, the point where the stem of the leaf joins the main stem, it will put out new growth points from there if given the chance. If you do get those brown bits, it may be a sign that you need to look at your watering regime and possibly your light regime. I'm finding with a lot of Hoyas that they've gone into growth when I've increased the light. Not to say that you need to put them in blaring full sun but, oftentimes, it seems to be, to me, that my Hoyas are not in enough light. They're not low light plants and so giving them that bit more light might just prompt them into growth.
Actually, I got a follow-up message from this listener and I'm pleased to say that the leaves of her pubicalyx have started to grow! They've been attached onto a bamboo tripod and away they've gone and that's the most exciting bit with plants, when they really start to perform. Just a note about pots for Hoyas - lots of people are growing Hoyas right now in clear plastic pots that you traditionally use for orchids and the reason for that is just that you can see the roots. I was asking about this in a Hoya Facebook group recently and, yes, it just means you get a really good view of the roots and it works really well for other houseplants as well. So if you have any clear plastic orchid pots kicking around, do think about using those for your houseplants. It's a great way of seeing what's going on with the roots and you could also use a clear plastic cup with a hole cut in the bottom if you happen to have some of those lying around. I try to avoid buying new plastic, but if you've already got some, certainly, that is a great way to use them, to repot your houseplants. You get a lovely view of the roots, it also helps you to see what's going on in terms of water saturation, whether the plant needs watering again. It's a lot easier to see whether it's bone dry or moist, just through looking at the soil through that plastic. It can save you an awful lot of time and mess.
Bearing in mind I'm heading for a hiatus of the show, I've probably got enough questions now to last me until the show comes back in September. So if you've got a question right now about your houseplants, now being July 2021, the best thing you can do is to join our Facebook group, Houseplant Fans Of On The Ledge. There's loads of really, really clever plant people in there who can help you out. So please do join, it's a really friendly community, you just need to answer all three questions and you will be let into this wonderful community and resource. So hang out there over the summer while I'm gone. I'll be in there as well, so it's a great place to be!
That is all for this week's show, I will be back next Friday. Have a fantastic week and remember these words from the classic film, 'Bugsy Malone': "We could have been anything that we wanted to be and it's not too late to change." Bye!
[music]
Jane: The music you heard in this episode was Roll Jordan Roll, by The Joy Drops, The Road We Used To Take When We Were Kids, byKomiku and Namaste, by Jason Shaw. The ad music was Whistling Rufus, by the Heftone Banjo Orchestra. All tracks are licensed under Creative Commons. Visit the show notes for details.
Subscribe to On The Ledge via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Player FM, Stitcher, Overcast, RadioPublic and YouTube.
I meet Tony Le-Britton, the aroid grower extraordinaire known for his Insta account @notanotherjungle, at his home in Northamptonshire. Plus I answer a question about a wayward Hoya.
THIS WEEK’S GUEST
Tony Le-Britton is a photographer with a passion for plants … from his prized Tradescantia, to some of the rarest aroids in cultivation. If you’re in the UK, you may have seen him on TV gardening programme Gardeners’ World but he’s best known for his insta account @notanotherjungle. He lives in Northamptonshire and has two adorable dogs who, in my humble opinion, deserve more air time on @notanotherjungle! Scroll down for images of Tony and his collection: all photographs are copyright Tony LeBritton.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
Marieke has a wayward hoya that’s grown a stem with no leaves on it… what is happening and what can she do? Hoyas have a habit of doing this… as epiphytes, their stems tend to go on expeditions as they grow, looking for new places to anchor, which is why Hoyas have bumpy stems- they are covered in little nubs that can turn into aerial roots if needed. They only put out leaves on these stems if an anchor point is found, which makes sense: once the plant is anchored, it will invest resources into the stem by adding leaves. For that reason, I tend to find Hoyas grow better when attached to some kind of support, be it a hoop, trellis or obelisk.
Sometimes leafless stems will go brown and fail to materialise into anything more than a feeble wiry length of stem. In my experience this is because the plant is experiencing some kind of stress, be that lack of water or light, and is responding by withdrawing resources to that stem. Just pull away or cut away the brown stem, correct the care issue and growth should renew itself.
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!
THIS WEEK’S SPONSOR
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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, The Road We Use To Travel When We Were Kids by Komiku and Namaste by Jason Shaw. The ad music was Whistling Rufus by the Heftone Banjo Orchestra. All tracks licensed under Creative Commons.