Episode 200: what's changed since February 2017
Photograph: Jane Perrone.
Transcript
Episode 200
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Jane: Here's how it started.
"Hello and welcome to the very first episode of On The Ledge, a new podcast all about indoor gardening..."
And this is how it's going...
[music]
Jane: Hello and welcome to episode 200 of On The Ledge podcast, woohoo! Fascinating facts about the number 200: apparently it's the smallest base 10 unprimable number. I have no idea what that means! Apparently, it's also a harshad number and an abundant number, but the most important thing about the number 200 is it's how many episodes of On The Ledge there have been! It is 241 weeks and three days since On The Ledge launched, so that means there's only been 41 weeks in the past four, almost five, years that I haven't done an episode of On The Ledge! Isn't that incredible? My work ethic is good! It's not a normal episode because I'm not feeling in a normal mood and for that I give zero apologies! We're going to be hearing from former guests of the show and, of course, you, the listeners, about what's changed in your houseplant world since February 2017.
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Jane: Let's warm up by finding out who's joined the Patreon On The Ledge community this week. I'm particularly excited to announce that I have my first Patreon from Ghana: Kojo from Accra has become a Ledge-end and Charlotte from the UK has also joined the crew of Ledge-ends, my most popular tier of the On The Ledge Patreon offering. Charlotte became a Crazy Plant Person and Rachel was already part of Patreon but chose to upgrade from Crazy Plant Person to Ledge-end, to unlock all of the extra benefits of being a Ledge-end. That means ad-free episodes, two episodes of An Extra Leaf every month and access to the first 50 episodes of On The Ledge which are now exclusive to Patreon. Plus, of course, the December mail-out. If you want to get your name down for that, you need to sign up at the Ledge-end or Superfan level by 19th November, in order to guarantee a personalised mail-out from me dropping through your letterbox sometime during the month of December. Find out more about Patreon at janeperrone.com where you'll find the show notes for this episode.
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Jane: Let's start by talking about what's changed in my houseplant world since that time. If you have a look at the picture that's on my website - I really do need to update it! - that was taken, I think, some time during 2017 and you'll note there that I have not that many plants, relatively speaking. I think my plant collection has probably tripled, quadrupled during that time! So those of you who complain that On The Ledge makes you buy plants, well, I'm sorry, but it makes me buy plants too! My Hoyacollection has gone from one or two to maybe 20 to 25 now! I've got a lot more cacti than I had and I've also had tremendous fun growing things from seed too. The second thing to note is that back in February 2017, the word Covid-19 was completely unknown to us and yet here we are getting to grips, still, with a global pandemic that has killed millions of people. I don't really like to think of a silver lining to the Covid-19 situation because, obviously, there's no silver lining for the millions of people severely affected by this virus but, what we can say, is it has brought many millions of people into closer contact with nature, sparked a desire to grow stuff that maybe they didn't have before and I know that hundreds, if not thousands, of you have come to houseplants as a result of being sat there in lockdown, wondering what to do with yourself and deciding that greening up your indoor space was the way to go. The podcast experienced a huge jump in listener numbers during the pandemic. It's dropped back a bit, obviously, because many people are now back to "normal life" and are busy going to work and so on and that's completely understandable, but it's been really exciting to see so many more people discover houseplants for the first time and get that thrill from seeing a new leaf unfurl, a flower bud form or a healthy root system on their plant. We all know how exciting those things are and it's just great to be able to share that with other people.
The second thing that has changed for me is I have got qualified. I did my RHS Level 2 during the period the podcast has been going and I managed to pass with commendation in all of the units, which I was really delighted with. It was hard work but it was really satisfying to buttress up my botanical knowledge and it does help me every day when I am working in the rest of my work and on this podcast. That really encouraged me to get some botanists onto On The Ledge to do a botany, occasional series which I've really loved doing and more of those episodes will be coming up in subsequent shows. I've really discovered that people are hungry for scientific knowledge about houseplants. The idea that we're all just want to look at pretty things, it's just not the case. You guys want to know about the science behind houseplants, so that's tremendously exciting. I've heard from one of my former guests, Scott Zona, who's actually writing a botany book for gardeners due out late next year. So I will definitely be booking an interview with Scott to talk to him about that nearer the time. Sounds like a much needed work.
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Jane: The final and most important thing that has changed during these 200 episodes is me getting to know all of you wonderful, wonderful listeners. I can't tell you what a joy it's been. When I started the podcast, I really didn't have a single person who I could talk to about houseplants. I didn't know anybody else in the world that was as interested in them as I was. I couldn't really get along to meetings of any plant societies because I had quite young children and it was kind of tricky to get out and about, so getting to know all of you through the medium of On The Ledge has been a privilege, a delight, an honour! If I start naming names then I'm bound to miss many of you out, but if you've ever sent me an email, messaged me on social media, chatted to me in the Facebook group Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge, swapped plants with me, sent me stuff, I just want to say a huge thank you because I count you all now as my houseplant family and it's fantastic to have your input, suggestions for episodes, corrections and comments of all kinds. You've all been unfailingly delightful and that's what makes this such a great thing to work on and why I never want to stop making this podcast. We've had meet-ups in person. I know the Seattle listeners met up a while ago and we've had individuals meeting to swap plants, postal swaps going on, we've had Zooms, we've had Facebook Lives. I really hope, for anyone who's felt a little bit alone in their love of houseplants, that this has brought you into contact with lots of like-minded people because that's what I really hoped for and, I have to say, mission accomplished! It really has been a delight.
So now it's time to hear from some of you. Thanks to everyone who sent in voice memos, we'll hear those, and I'm also going to be reading out some of the comments that people made via email and Messenger because I know not all of you want to hear your own voice. So, let's hear from some of you about what's changed since February 2017.
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Cherie: Hi everyone! My name is Cherie and I live in the south east of England and I'm an On The Ledge Superfan. My love of houseplants goes back to my childhood when I was encouraged to keep potted plants on my windowsill. My mother and father were both excellent gardeners. The plant that I've carried through to my current passion is a large Aspidistra which I bought from a flea market for about £6 about 25 years ago. I'm very proud of it. Since 2017 I've steadily been growing my plant collection, I think I must have probably 200 or more. In addition to importing a few rare anthuriums, Philodendrons and Monstera from Ecuador, I've had fun recently collecting some houseplants that I remember from my childhood. Sadly a few have gone out of fashion and have been quite hard to find. For example, I still haven't managed to source a Kangaroo Vine. I also enjoy collecting vintage books on houseplants and I find the photos really inspirational when it comes to displaying my collection. I've concluded that if the 1960s was all about flower power, then the 1970s and 80s, certainly according to these books, must surely have been about leaf power, which I still appreciate and promote today.
Jane: Lena has moved on from growing only orchids to houseplants in general and has become totally obsessed with Hoyas. Hmm, something familiar there, Lena! Since then, watering has gone from a one-day ordeal to a two two-day ordeal and Lena's husband calls her 'Crazy Plants Woman' more often. I think we can all relate to that one!
Leslie: Leslie Halleck here! So happy to be dropping in on the 200th episode of Jane's On The Ledge podcast. So, she asked me what had changed in my world of houseplants since February 2017. Boy, that's a big question! A lot has changed for me. Now, I've been gardening and growing houseplants for a lifetime, so I've been through many houseplant cycles, but since 2017 I've certainly reinvested a lot of time in amping-up my indoor growing operations and grow lighting and growing a lot more edibles indoors as well. In terms of houseplants, I've been growing tiny, which might not surprise you, growing a lot more tiny plants and getting back into my hobbies of building vivariums and terrariums. As the bigger houseplant collection exploded and takes over the space, I found that growing tinier houseplants has actually brought me a lot of joy. I've also spent a lot more time online with houseplant enthusiasts doing a lot more teaching. I think what's changing as an overall trend in the houseplant world is that folks are really ready for the return of the old school plants society. People are really looking for that community that you get from the traditional plant societies, which sort of waned over the last 20 years. So that's my prediction for the next wave of houseplant community trends, is the return of the plant society, but perhaps in a more digital virtual space. Who doesn't miss plant shows and getting to show off your specimens of your favourite houseplants? So that sort of environment online, where people can come together and share their love for particular types of plants and then show them off and do a lot more learning online, is the next big thing and that's where I'm spending a lot of my time in terms of houseplant learning and education.
Jane: UrbanBiofiliac comes from a family of professional outdoor gardeners, but until four years ago, they "couldn't grow anything to save their life", according to them. Several ferns and a couple of Bromeliads suffered along the way, as UrbanBiophiliac began to build some plant skills. They say: "The only plant I could keep alive was a single little lucky bamboo, but since the pandemic, I decided to double down on the experimentation". Well that is always something good to hear! UrbanBiophiliac now has "an urban jungle I could be proud of" and is able to keep ferns alive and thriving and has been up to some propagation of everything, from English Ivy to Moses in the Cradle.
Clara got in touch with a warning that their response was going to be really cheesy! Clara writes: "I met the love of my life in 2017. He's a really handsome and intelligent boy who will turn four years old next week: my son, Mark." Four, that's a fun age! Enjoy every moment because, it's a cliche, but it passes really, really quickly. My son is now an incredible eleven and more delightful than ever, which you'll know if you listened to the episode where I had some outtakes, with the lovely "It's not microphoning" moment! Now let's hear from listener TJ.
TJ: In February of 2017 I believed that I was incapable of keeping a plant alive. That was for several reasons. First and foremost, I had been advised to get succulents and cactuses, which I had effectively watered to death a number of times. Somebody advised me, for some godawful reason, that a Boston Fern was a good starter plant, which, as it turns out, is incredibly false! Towards the beginning of the pandemic, I got some good advice from a friend of mine who is very good with plants and I picked up an Aspidistra named Stevie. I was very afraid that I would kill her. She is, of course, un-killable and has flowered several times. I'm now capable of keeping Calatheas alive, somehow, and in the last two years I've gone from thinking that I was incapable of keeping any plant alive, to keeping somewhat over a hundred houseplants alive in my little apartment, despite my cats constantly trying to eat them!
Jane: Emily had one orchid in 2017 that had been gifted to them, some of which were propagated, some of which Emily got herself. Emily has taken plants into the office and given cuttings to friends. Emily writes: "I'm definitely plants obsessed now and I still have that orchid and it has produced some lovely flowers. But I recently got a second whippet puppy which has sadly taken a liking to playing with my Bird of Paradise." Well, how can I not love a whippet story? Wolfie here, he's mostly whippet to be quite honest, so I do love a whippet but yes, I can imagine a whippet puppy is quite a handful! So cute though!
Elle: Hi Jane, my name is Elle, I'm from Sydney, Australia. I really love listening to On The Ledge podcast, especially when I'm going for long walks around my neighbourhood. Congratulations on 200 episodes! That's amazing! Since 2017, the things that have changed for me have been I used to be quite into succulents back then. I was starting to get into Aroids but I got a lot more into them probably in the last year or so. My plant knowledge has increased a lot and my collection has also grown. I used to kill a lot of plants and the most painful mistake that I made was killing a baby Monstera Thai Constellation with too much water but it's helped me to be better at looking after plants as a result of those mistakes. Lots has changed and really loving my collection and appreciating it more due to the help of your podcast. Thank you!
Jane: Selena has gone from five plants, when they found On The Ledge, and is now up to almost 70. That's some rate of growth! Quite literally! Selena says: "I've learned a lot from listening to On The Ledge. I've even become brave enough to try a few of the tougher Calatheas, ferns and a croton and they're still alive, at the moment! On The Ledge is great, not only for planty know-how but brilliant for listening to during my working-from-home days. It's become part of my "me time" and de-stressing tool kit and in every episode there is something that makes me smile." Well, that's funny because I do try to make sure, usually me being silly, there's something in there that will bring a little smile to your face! Thank you very much for sharing that, Selena. Here's former guest Catherine Horwood on what's changed in her houseplant world.
Catherine: Congratulations Jane! When I wrote "Potted History: The Story Of Plants In The Home" in 2007, I admit I ended it on a rather pessimistic note, suggesting that houseplants had been pushed out of fashion by the ubiquitous, tired bunch of flowers. How wrong I was! Hooray! In 2020, "Potted History" was reprinted in paperback and it needed a whole extra chapter to bring everything up to date with all the current trends. We even gave the book a new subtitle, "How Houseplants Took Over Our Homes". Am I surprised? Not in the least. Three things have driven this: changes in social mobility, improved technology and the rise of social media. Guess what? It's all happened before, at various times in the 20^th^, but especially the 19^th^, century. Of course, they weren't lucky enough to have access to the brilliant On The Ledge community, but without the plant explorers of that time, our windowsills would have been much emptier. Keep collecting, everyone!
Jane: And Jayne, spelt with a y, says: "Lockdown focused me to take greater care of my plants, as well as buy tons more!". I think you may not be alone there Jayne! "I check leaves constantly, dryness of soil, switch positions to catch late sun, take them on holiday if necessary! I feed them, talk to them and dust their leaves. It's very calming." How many of you have been on holiday with your plants this year? I tend to leave mine at home but I do always take the dog with me!
Bronwyn: Hi Jane, it's Bronwyn here! What's changed for me since 2017 is that I am now studying horticulture in university! Your podcast has inspired me so much and so has my job at a greenhouse. I now have over 70 houseplants, which I love with all of my heart, so thank you again for all you do and happy 200 episodes!
Jane: Jessica got in touch to say that their houseplant obsession began when a realtor gave them a houseplant nursery gift card at closing and since then there's been houseplants in every room. Jessica writes: "I bought a lovely Fiddle Leaf Fig back when they were pricey and rare-ish. Since then, I started a lovely veggie garden and, as of 2020, have moved back into houseplants. Houseplant pests are nothing compared to veggie garden pests when you're organic, laughing emoji!" Yes, that's a very, very good point! Pigeons, slugs! It's a whole other order of damage, but great fun nonetheless. Jessica still has the FLF, Fiddle Leaf Fig, but now has a well-developed Anthurium obsession. Hmm, I don't think you're alone there either, Jessica!
Ezra, who I know is a long-term listener to the show, quit a job to pursue a planty career and absolutely loves it. That's so exciting to hear! Things that have changed are "plants and sustainability have become a focal point." Well that is really wonderful to hear, Ezra, and thank you for being a loyal fan of the show and I know you're a fellow snake owner, so I hope your snake is doing well! My daughter's snake is fine. Clementine the Milk Snake says hi!
Some of the stories you've sent through have been harder to read. Talia got in touch to say that since 2017 they've become very ill. That has meant more time for spending with Talia's plants and they "are helping me heal, give me distraction, purpose joy and hope" says Talia, so that is wonderful. Talia writes: "I really love focusing on sustainability and UK grown houseplants. I love fixing up friends' and family's dying and etiolated plants. I particularly love your sustainability episodes and all the UK grower recommendations". Thank you so much, Talia. What a lovely message and I really do hope that your health goes on improving and that your plants remain a pivotal part of that recovery. Another one from Amelia, who has had plants since 2009, but in January 2018 Amelia became a mother and had postpartum depression. Amelia writes: "I couldn't take care of my plants because all my energy went in taking care of the baby. I lost nearly half of my collection. I literally just sat on the sofa and watched my plants die." Anyone who's had postpartum depression, or knows somebody who's had postpartum depression, will know a little slice of what Amelia's been through. It's really tough and it's something that's not talked about enough. So more power to your elbow, Amelia, because Amelia's found that, starting to recover, she was able to feel interested in things again, for example plants, and Amelia's daughter is almost four and she is "interested in plants with me". Amelia's rebuilt her collection and it's even bigger than before and she's studying to be a gardener. Amelia writes: "I love how my little girl knows a lot more plants and their names than usual four-year-olds. I'm so happy to teach the love of plants to the next generation." Well, I'm so glad you got through that tough time after giving birth, Amelia, and how lovely to hear that you are passing on that love of plants to your daughter. One other thing I love about On The Ledge listeners is you never fail to surprise me and, with that in mind, I bring you something special from Sally!
Sally: Hello plant friends! Here's a little poem using the Japanese poetic form of haiku of five, seven, five syllables. This was written on the way home from the Tennessee Gesneriad propagation workshop. At that workshop I vowed to not bring anything home because all of my horizontal spaces were filled to the brim, but my resolve abandoned me with the very first plant that was introduced for propagation. Here is the poem: Oh, little cutting, how you wooed my heart today. I could not resist. I'm sure some of you can relate to that. Be well!
Jane: The next message came from Sal. You may remember Sal from previous episodes of the show during the pandemic because Sal is a physician in the US, who has been on the front line of dealing with Covid and has messaged the show in the past about how much the podcast was helping out at a very scary time. Sal's got back in touch to tell me about an exciting new project. Sal writes: "I've had a long-standing dream of creating a greenhouse on my hospital's premises as a source of wellness and education for our patients. The loss of numerous patients due to the pandemic became the impetus I needed to finally take action. My colleagues and I received medical centre funding to change a glass smoke shack, where patients leave the hospital to smoke cigarettes, into a greenhouse. We've been fortunate to get donations of herbs, houseplants and microgreen seeds from local vendors. I have enlisted the help of a local master gardener volunteer and soon we will begin classes for patients in the greenhouse! We plan to collect data to see if the greenhouse experience provides positive benefits to patients. It's very exciting. Thank you so much, Jane. Your amazing podcast gave me the knowledge and confidence to pursue this passion project!" Well, that is so exciting Sal! I'm so happy that On The Ledge has helped you to achieve this amazing goal and I'm really keen for you to stay in touch and tell me how you get on. How wonderful it's going from being somewhere where people smoke cigarettes to somewhere where people can grow plants. That is a wonderful achievement and thanks so much for sharing that with me, Sal!
Here's a note from Hayley: "In January of this year I bought my first home and made a move about four hours away, to a colder climate. At the time I owned just over 100 houseplants. I sold all but 15 small plants which I felt would be the most hardy. I took the last 10 months learning about my new environment and testing my self-control by not acquiring a single new plant. I recently bought in a couple of ficus plants as those seem to be doing really well in my new home. I'm loving having a smaller number of plants to tend to and really take the time to care for. This past year, perhaps unexpectedly, helped me to step back and discover what types of plants and how many work well with both my home and lifestyle. Thrilled to be jumping back into your podcast after a brief break. It's always a much welcomed form of relaxation for me."
Sara writes: "When I first heard your podcast years ago, it gave me the courage to throw away my rather ratty succulent houseplant I'd slowly been killing for about a year. As a gardener and a green thumb, I took it as a personal affront that any houseplant could die under my care. On your show, you expressed how some of your plants didn't live and it was okay. You're an expert and this happened to you too?! Revolutionary! I no longer view my succulent as a failure but a stepping stone to my growth as an indoor plant parent, also as an exercise in self-acceptance and letting go of expectations. Recently, I have welcomed succulents back into my home, equipped with more knowledge now on their indoor care." That's such a great story. Yes, letting go of expectations - something I'm still working on but it's definitely a lesson worth taking.
Fola got in touch to tell me that the past four-and-a-bit years have meant discovering two new passions: Jungle Cactus and then Desert Cactus. "I have big windows in my house and decent windowsills, so I'm happy to stuff them full of plants!". Lucky you Fola! Fola remarks that the houseplant-buying was "definitely aided(?) by being part of a number of Facebook groups" and Fola writes: "I found them a bit overwhelming and they definitely drove my plant-buying more than perhaps I would have on my own. I've left all but one Facebook group now, much to my relief. Instagram has affected my plant-buying but not as much and in a different way. I'm not likely to buy many more plants now, maybe a few special ones. I'm running out of space! The saddest thing for me was losing my huge rubber tree to red spider mite last year. It was 20 years old. I fought to save it but just couldn't." RIP Fola's Ficus elastica. That's a sad one.
When I've had the opportunity to meet listeners, I'm delighted to report that they've all been as wonderful in person as they were in the virtual world. That applies to listener, Bobby, who I've had the pleasure to meet at least a couple of times and he sent me this message about the 200th episode. "Before discovering the podcast in 2017 I considered myself a bit of an oddball for loving houseplants. Listening to the podcast for the first time was akin to opening a treasure trove of horticultural nuggets. There were only a few episodes back then and over the years, as the podcast has grown, both in episodes and listenership, so has my houseplant knowledge. Most of all, OTL has introduced me to a whole international community of fellow houseplant lovers. That's the real success of OTL. It turns out I wasn't so odd after all! Well done on creating something truly special in 200 episodes." Thank you, Bobby, and I think that pretty much sums up my feelings too.
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Jane: That is it for this week's episode. It just remains for me to say thank you to everyone who contributed their thoughts to this episode and I'm raising a glass -- well, actually, it's a blue plastic cup which dates back to my children's toddler days! - to say cheers for being such a wonderful listenership and I hope I'll still be here in another 200 episodes and so will you! Just to let you know, no episode next week - it's half term - but I'm going to be spending the week slogging away on Legends of the Leaf, my houseplant book manuscript, so I'll be back with a new episode on 5th November. In the meantime, I recommend that you hug at least one tree this week, because - you know what? - no one ever felt worse from hugging a tree! It's a wonderful thing to do. Give it a try this week. Take care. Bye!
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Jane: The music you heard in this episode was Roll Jordan Roll, by The Joy Drops, The Road We Used To Travel When We Were Kids, by Komiku, Part VIII, by Jahzzar and Overthrown, by Josh Woodward. 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.
When the very first episode of On The Ledge dropped on February 2017, I wondered if anyone would bother listening to a podcast about houseplants… I think it’s safe to say the answer was yes! In this episode I reflect on what’s changed in my world and yours in the past four and a half years.
The former guests of the show you’ll hear from in this episode are:
Leslie Halleck from my growlights, science of plant propagation and tiny plants episodes
Catherine Horwood, author of houseplant book Potted History
Scott Zona from the palms episode is writing a houseplant botany book due out next year
LEGENDS OF THE LEAF
How exciting would it be to get all the wisdom of On The Ledge condensed into a beautiful book?
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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, Part VIII by Jahzzar and Overthrown by Josh Woodward.