Episode 234: flowering houseplants

African violets on display at the Chelsea flower show 2022: display by N1 Garden Centre. Photograph: Jane Perrone.

Transcript

Episode 234

[music]

Jane: This episode is supported by True Leaf Market, sellers of heirloom and organic garden seeds since 1974. We all know keeping your soil in good heart is vital for good harvests and now is a great time to rehab your garden by growing a cover crop. Cover crops improve soil quality in a sustainable way, boosting biomass and soil bacteria, adding nutrients, attracting beneficial insects, improving soil structure and so much more. To get your free PDF of True Leaf Market's beginner's guide to growing cover crops, visit trueleafmarket.com and search for cover crop guide. You can order your cover crops online now at trueleafmarket.com using promo code OTL15 to save 15% on cover crop seeds. That's trueleafmarket.com, enter OTL15 for 15% off cover crops. Some restrictions apply, see the show notes for details.

[music]

Jane: Greetings plant fans! My name is Jane Perrone and this is On The Ledge podcast. Yes, I'm back! How are you diddling? I am diddling within acceptable parameters and I'm so delighted to be back with the first episode after my month-long break in August. I've heard from many of you during my break about how much you were looking forward to this first episode, so welcome! Let's get on with some planty chat!

[music]

Jane: In this episode I'll be talking to Lisa Eldred Steinkopf about flowering houseplants, much overlooked and rather glorious, in my opinion, and I think Lisa agrees. Plus, I'll be answering a question about intergeneric hybrids. Ooh!

A couple of updates on things, bad news first. I went away on holiday, I left my delightful little cute nubs of Euphorbia obesa and I forgot to do the plastic bag up properly and I came back to ghost Euphorbia obesas. They totally got fried. It was very hot while I was away, so they are gone. This is what sometimes happens when you're sowing things from seed. Really disappointing, but hey, it happens and I'll go again. Thanks to those of you who are continuing to use the #OTLsowalong hashtag and sharing your cool #OTLsowalong projects with me. It's always lovely to see. MeristemUK on Instagram has been far more successful with their Euphorbia obesa seedlings, thank you for tagging me on that, great to see that you've done so well with yours and I'm going to have to try again next year after my disaster of frying my seedlings!

Congratulations to listener Ezra, who managed to grow a Sinningia from seed and get first prize in its category at the Minnesota State Horticultural Society! Well done, Ezra! What a great performance!

My good news? Well, I came back from holiday to discover that my Hoya villosa had produced a peduncle. Oh my gosh, this was exciting! S,o a peduncle is just a botanical term for the little stalk from which Hoyas produce flowers. They look a little bit like a cigarette with a burnt end but, on Villlosa, they are very long and strange-looking. So far I've never even seen the flowers of Villosa as a photograph or a picture, so I'm really interested to see what these flowers are going to look like! I will keep you posted on that.

If you remember back to the Croton episode, my Croton which struggled for a while is finally doing well! I will post a picture of that on my Instagram; the before and after. You can check me out on Instagram: @jlperrone

Now let's crack on with my interview today. I'm joined by Lisa Eldred Steinkopf, aka The Houseplant Guru. Now, you may remember Lisa from previous episodes. I talked to her about plants for low light, many episodes ago, and she's back to talk about her new book, "Bloom".

Lisa: Hi everyone, I'm so happy to be here today. I'm Lisa Eldred Steinkopf aka The Houseplant Guru and I am excited to be talking to Jane on On The Ledge podcast about blooming houseplants!

Jane: Yes, let's get our houseplants blooming! In fact, just before I came in here to do this interview, my husband said to me, "What are you talking about today?" and I said, "Flowering houseplants" and he said, "This may seem like a stupid question, but don't all houseplants flower?" and I was, like, "That's not a stupid question at all! That's a really sensible question!" But I feel like houseplants that we grow specifically for their flowers are rather underrated, so I'm very glad that you've written this book that, hopefully, will start to change that. Why do you think the current trend for houseplants has somewhat left flowering houseplants behind?

Lisa: Well, number one, everybody's an Aroid crazy person right now!

Jane: Not me!

Lisa: Those do flower... Me neither! I say that and then I look around I'm, like, "Oh, I have quite a few!" but anyway, they're not me and they do flower, if you're lucky, but usually not. I think that everybody thinks that flowering houseplants are harder to grow, they need a greener thumb. I don't know what they're thinking! Really there's a lot that are really easy to bring into bloom and who doesn't want blooms?

Jane: I think, sometimes, people think that leaves... there's a reputation of flowering houseplants as being something your grandmother might grow! I speak as somebody who's old enough to be a grandmother, just about! I think, like all fashions and trends, it changes and it's not based on any reality, it's just our preconceptions.

Lisa: Right!

Jane: There are so many amazing flowering houseplants out there. I think there is the start of change. I remember seeing an article on ... one of the trendy American publications online did a piece about African Violets and how wonderful they are and I thought, "Wow! Things are changing! People are reassessing these plants, which is great!" So hopefully your book will bring more change.

Lisa: I was so excited because, in my new book, I asked them if I could have a picture my grandma took probably 40/50 years ago on their little Kodak camera and it's a picture of her windowsill with all of her African Violets in the kitchen and I'm, like, "Can I use that?" and they're like, "Yes!". We scanned it in and so her picture is in my book, of her little windowsill in her kitchen with her African Violets which she just doted on! She would be amazed at what there is now. She didn't have variegated foliage. Some of those African Violets, I wouldn't care if they never bloomed, they have such beautiful foliage!

Jane: Yes, I agree, I agree! You're right that I have precious memories of my mum growing African Violets. I'm sure that she would say, "Oh, I'm terrible at growing them" but they always seem to do really well. In fact, when I visited her in Canada in the spring, I repotted her African Violet and they didn't have any plant pots, so I had to repot it into a yoghurt pot with some holes whacked in the bottom!

Lisa: Grandma's were in clay pots. I've written a blog post about that because a lot of times, if the leaves rest on that clay pot, the salts will disintegrate the petiole! Then we had margarine tubs over here, what our margarine always came in, and those were the saucers. She grew them beautifully there and she was always starting new ones and baby food jars with foil.

Jane: Run that past me again. So if they're in a terracotta pot, the salts will end up damaging the petioles of these stalks?

Lisa: Yes.

Jane: So really, that's a reason to give them plastic instead then, or ceramic?

Lisa: Yes, I don't use clay pots. I love clay pots, a lot of people do use them and a lot of people bottom-water African Violets. So, of course, they're drying those salts in those minerals up into the clay pot and if it gets that right crusty stuff on the edge, if you let your African Violet leaf sit on that, or rest on that, it will collapse.

Jane: That's interesting. I've never tried growing them in terracotta, so that hasn't been a problem. I do love terracotta. I grow all my cacti and succulents in them, but I did have a real struggle today, trying to get a baby Golden Barrel Cactus out of a terracotta pot and it was just a battle royale, with lots of me being spiked, but that's another story! Flowering houseplants, there's a huge spectrum that falls within this category, from everything from Orchids, to Gesneriads, to Gardenias and all kinds of plants, both trendy and perhaps overlooked in the current climate. What is it that you look for in a really good houseplant though, one that flowers?

Lisa: Lately, I have just been so into the scent and they bloom at night and I have my sunroom open to our family room where we're at, at night. The smell! I don't know if you saw, I have an Epiphyllum oxypetalum, the Night-blooming Cereus that has been blooming, it's bloomed three times this year and it's just like heaven out there! Then I have a Hoya pubicalyx, it only has, like, three or four blooms, but it makes that whole room just smell amazing! So I never really thought about looking for scent, but now it's, like,"Hmm, that's interesting! That's another thing to look for because who doesn't want something to smell really good?" But I like them to bloom for a long time. I know they're in every grocery store now, pretty much every store you go to, but I love Phalaenopsis orchids. They just bloom forever.

Jane: They are great plants. There's a reason why they're so popular. They just make really good plants and, as you say, those flowers just stick around so long.

Lisa: I have to say, they're not the most attractive plant. I guess there are some ugly plants, but not really, I love them all! Once they're done flowering, then I move them to a different room. I just have them out when they're blooming.

Jane: There are, in this country, a few scented Phalaenopsis now. Have you had a chance to smell any of those?

Lisa: I haven't, but I guess I've never actually... it wasn't enough smell to make me stop and, like, "Oh, I smell something good in here that's not the Hoya, or not whatever else!", so I haven't!

Jane: It's not that strong. It's not like a Hoya flowering. It's more subtle, but it is nice. There's one which has got kind of a nutmeg scent and I love the smell of nutmeg.

Lisa: Me too.

Jane: If I could spend the rest of my life living on one food, it'd probably be custard tart! The smell of nutmeg just drives me mad, so that one's a really nice one. It's got a kind of, got nutmeggy, pale apricot petals as well, but I don't know how widely available that one is. It's subtle. It's a little bit subtle but it is nice. It's a very personal thing, scent, isn't it? For some people, one person's delicious scent is another person's, "Oh my gosh, that smells like damp washing that's been left too long or something!"

Lisa: Yes.

Jane: I find that with Hoyas particularly, that some people find certain scents just really unpleasant, ones that I quite enjoy!

Lisa: That reminds me of lilies. Some people love the smell of Stargazer Lillies. To me, it's a funeral flower. Don't hate me! I love them outside, I do, but I don't want them in my house! The Gardenia is pretty strong, so some people don't like that. I don't know, some of it just brings back good memories of other things, it takes you right back.

Jane: Indeed and those are definitely two qualities we can appreciate, scent and also length of flowering. I guess the other thing is there are certain houseplants which require certain conditions, can we say, to bring them into bloom? I think we're getting onto the subject of photoperiods here. This does potentially make things more complicated and perhaps counts against some of these plants. Tell me what a photoperiod is and what it means for certain houseplants that are ruled by this for their flowering?

Lisa: Photoperiodism is the amount of light that a plant gets. So, there are short day plants, there's day neutral plants, or day length indifferent, or there's long day plants. So our long day plants are the ones that want as much light for as long as possible, like 12/13 hours a day, and that's most of our annuals: Marigolds and all those plants outside that bloom, all your annuals that bloom all summer long. Then you have the short day and they bloom as the days get shorter and the nights get longer, which really doesn't make any sense, right? Poinsettias, Cyclamen, Kalanchoe, all your holiday cactus, your Rhizomatous begonias that bloom in January. I think that it's also the change in daylight, but it's also the change in temperature makes a difference, it's getting cooler in the fall. I'm, like, "Well, why wouldn't your plants that bloom in the spring as the days get longer? Why don't they get mixed up?" Because it's getting warmer in the spring and cooler in the fall, I think that makes a difference. I have a friend right now who just sent me a picture and she goes, "Why is my Cyclamen blooming right now? Isn't it supposed to be resting? It's summer!" I'm, like, "I don't know! You've got me! I have no idea!"

Jane: I've seen so many people with Hippeastrum, aka Amaryllis, flowering this summer.

Lisa: Yes.

Jane: People saying, "What's going on?' I say, "I have no idea!".

Lisa: No idea! I have no idea! I don't know why it's doing that! Maybe they're as mixed up as our weather is in this world? I don't know.

Jane: Maybe. I do love those plants that build up to that big crescendo around a time when perhaps everything else is looking a little bit sad. I got so much joy at Easter this year, when my Easter Cactus finally flowered after several years. Everybody who came into the house, including my long-suffering family, I'm just, like, "Look at this! It's amazing! I can't believe it's flowered!" and everyone's like, "Oh, yes, okay!" I thought it looked stunning.

Lisa: I love Easter Cactus and I love Holiday Cactus. Every year I buy more of them and I'm like: "What am I doing with all these?" I put them all in pots on a west windowsill, but they're face pots, so I want the faces to be towards the room, so probably they only bloom on one side because I didn't turn them. You've got to turn Holiday Cactus to get them to bloom on all sides.

Jane: Yes, that is true and this is one of my advantages of having a glass-roofed room, because I don't have to worry so much about that because they are getting light from all around. That's actually quite handy! I think people also can get in trouble with these short-day flowers, with curtains and things, where the plants get blocked from experiencing the normal light cycle by being obstructed and artificial light, or is that overplayed in terms of its importance, do you think?

Lisa: I don't think so. With Poinsettias, I've heard that the people that want them in bloom before they would normally be in bloom - we want our Poinsettias at Thanksgiving and our Thanksgiving Cactus at Halloween - so they got curtains to cover, or whatever, shade cloths, whatever, and if someone turns the light on in the middle of the night, they've got to start all over again with those 14 to 16 weeks of long nights with Poinsettias, so I've heard. I wouldn't want to be the person that did that, that came in and turned on a light or something! I don't seem to have that problem. I know people have Holiday Cacti, but mine are on the windowsill, so maybe they're getting cooler? They just seem to bloom for me, I don't have a problem with them blooming. You'll see stuff on Facebook or Instagram, they're, like, "Well, my Poinsettia or Holiday Cactus... I just put it in the closet, it's going to stay there for 14 weeks". I don't know who thinks that something's going to bloom after it's been in a closet day and night for 14 weeks!

Jane: I guess, with the Holiday Cactus, they've been so extensively bred and there's been so much breeding work going on that, possibly, the stuff on sale now is more adaptable and less fussy than they used to be, I guess?

Lisa: Probably. I think you're probably right about that.

Jane: It's quite hard to get hold of a true Christmas Cactus. I do have some which I managed to get. Unfortunately, they've had root mealy bugs, so they're not looking too happy at the minute, but they are really lovely, but they're not easy to buy any more. You don't see them for sale. It's all these Thanksgiving Cacti which seem to be the ones that are available en masse. I do love some of those pinky, orangey flowers that they have; the shrimp-coloured ones are kind of nice.

Lisa: Mine are all orange, I'm an orange girl! There's some people who will not have an orange flower in their garden and I'm like, "Orange, pink, yellow, bring it all on!"

Jane: I agree. We need this kind of colour and joy in our lives! Exactly! If your plant is refusing to flower, what are the other things that hold them back from blooming?

Lisa: The one thing I have to say first, is that fertiliser is not going to make your plant bloom. People are, like, "Oh, it's plant food! My plant's not blooming". I get this all the time. "I fertilised it and it's still not blooming." Fertiliser is not what's going to make your plant bloom. It's light, it's all about the light. It will be healthy and if you buy a bloom booster, which is a booster not a food and not a bloom maker, it's just going to make your blooms last longer, maybe be bigger, the stems sturdier to hold them up, whatever. So fertilisation is good for your plants, of course, but it's not going to make your plants bloom. So we've got that out of the way! So usually it's light and I tell them it's cyclical. So, within a year, if your plant has not bloomed, then it needs something, it needs more light, it needs to get colder. I have a couple Epiphyllums, not the oxypetalum, just the regular Epiphyllums, the big ones that bloom during the day. I got them from a greenhouse near here, where I also got my Christmas Cactus. It's a really, really old greenhouse and she's, like, "I put those on the shelves, the ledges of the greenhouse." She has eavestroughs spreading down the sides of the greenhouses that she puts plants in and some of those Epiphyllums literally are up against the glass in the cold winter of where I live, where the snow can be so cold, and then they just bloom like crazy! So I think in our heated homes,, it's hard to find a place to keep them cool enough, where there's always the steady temperature and I think that dip in temperature helps. It definitely helps cacti.

Jane: I think that's the thing. Back in the day, one used to have plenty of unheated rooms. Most of the house was unheated, apart from, maybe, the kitchen and the parlour, or whatever, but now, we're used to this very steady temperature, which I guess is why things like Phalaenopsis is so popular because they do like that very, very steady 20C. If you've got things like Epiphyllums, as you say, they really need that cold snap to initiate flowering. Is there also an issue with some plants, where it's just not old enough, there's a maturity issue?

Lisa: Yes, I was just going to say that, they're not mature enough, right? So, an example: if you start a citrus from a lemon or orange, or whatever, from seed, you may not see flowers for over seven years, or up to seven years, five to seven years, but yet, you may have a cutting from a mature plant that could actually bloom on that cutting. So, yes, your plant has to be mature and, with that, a lot of people say it has to be root-bound. So when I was writing this book, I got in touch with a man from Michigan State. He knew what he was talking about, a professor, and he's, like, "Yes, root-bound", but the point is that when your plant is root-bound, it's kind of stressed-out, so it's not really that it has to be root-bound, it just helps because any plant that's stressed out is going to try to make more of itself. So how does it do that? It flowers, it gets pollinated and it makes seeds. So that does help, being root-bound, and that could also be a maturity thing as well, right? Once it's mature, it might be in that pot and be root-bound. A dry period, you're going to get a dry period probably, because if it's root-bound, you're probably not going to be able to keep it as watered as well as it would like.

Jane: I think that does vary because, I know with Hoyas, certain of my Hoyas bloomed very young, I'm thinking about the one that's given the rather awkward name of Aff.burtoniae, which has got gently fuzzy leaves and butterscotch-smelling flowers. One of mine bloomed really young, but then my Vil**losa I got from a cutting and is nearly five years old has only just put out its first peduncle, which caused great excitement when I came back from holiday!

Lisa: I saw that.

Jane: So I'm just waiting to see what that's going to look like.

Lisa: I got one from Logee's, which is a really old greenhouse in Connecticut, and I think it's Fitchii, and that was a young plant, but it might have been a mature cutting when I got it. It bloomed pretty much right away and I was, like, "Oh, this is amazing!" because my Carnosa took forever.

Jane: This is the thing, isn't it? You never quite know! The other issue that I want to resolve with Hoyas is those peduncles sometimes seem to just not make it to a full inflorescence. They just drop off. I'm thinking that's probably because I'm a bit of an erratic waterer and they might be aborting because they're not getting enough water. Is that your experience?

Lisa: I guess I don't have that. Maybe they fell off and I didn't know because I have way too many plants to pay attention to closely, you know? The P**ubicalyx, that's the one I have, I've never seen that happen but it doesn't mean it doesn't.

Jane: It seems to be a bit of a pattern for me. It also happens with another flowering plant. This plant, I guess, is the opposite end of the scale on the scent front, which is a Stapelia hirsuta. I've been waiting for this plant to... because I know the flower is quite dramatic, I know it stinks, but it's quite a dramatic-looking bloom that I really want to see. About three times this year, it's grown these tiny flower buds and I've gone, "Yay!" and then they've dropped off! But I've now increased the water and I've actually put it in an individual saucer, rather than just letting it sit on the tray with all the other cacti, so it's holding a bit more water and the buds seem to have stayed, so I'm wondering if that is it?

Lisa: People ask me what the difference with flowering plants is. Well, any plant doesn't want to be completely dried out. If you are erratic with the water, which I certainly am, because I have an Alsobia blooming right now and it is pot-bound, I went up there to look at it and it was dry and the two flowers around there had brown edges and I'm, like, "Oh man!", so you've got to keep them well-hydrated when they're flowering, when they're in bud, or they could just say, "Well, I don't have the energy. I have to use my energy to stay alive. So bye-bye flowers because I don't have time to make seeds. I've got to keep alive to even make more flowers!"

[music]

Jane: More from Lisa shortly, but first some housekeeping and our Q&A. Thanks to all of you who have joined the Patreon clan during the month of August. There are quite a few of you. Emily, Otto, Christine, Claire, Paul, Michelle, Nat and Rachel all became Ledge-ends. Chloe and Jennifer became Crazy Plant People and Jessica became a Super Fan. Thank you so much to all of you! If you want to join that Patreon group, you can access ad-free versions of every episode of the show, two extra podcast episodes every month called An Extra Leaf and my December mail-out and I'm already thinking about that. I have had some ideas, not quite sure which direction I'm going in so watch this space, but if you want to find out more about Patreon and other ways to support the show, please check out the show notes at janeperrone.com

Question of the Week this week comes from Anna, who emailed me with a double-header. The first question being: Where can I get variegated Streptocarpus in the UK? Anna was looking for cultivars like Iced Pink Flamingo and Canterbury Surprise. I am yet to find any sellers selling variegated-leaved Streptocarpus, I am afraid. I don't think even the famous Dibleys - the North Wales Nursery that I love for Streptocarpus - do these. If anyone knows any different, please let me know.

Part two of the question involved Primulinas and Streptocarpus. Anna wanted to know if there has ever been a Streptocarpussuccessfully hybridised with a Primulina and, again, I was a bit flummoxed on this one, Anna! There are quite a few Gesneriadgenera that have been bred together for what we call an intergeneric hybrid, but I'd never heard of these two particular genera, Streptocarpus and Primulina, being crossed in that way. I asked around on some Gesneriad groups, and hybridiser Derek Johnson was kind enough to get in touch and explain his knowledge of the situation, which is that it doesn't look like it's going to be possible. He points out that people have often tried to cross Streptocarpus and Saintpaulia and it's been tried many, many, many times and that's never worked. Derek goes on to say, "It looks like Primulina typically has 36 chromosomes, while Streptocarpushave 32. The chromosome number doesn't determine this, but they are likely very distantly related as they diverged from each other long ago." So that basically means that hybridising them is a huge challenge, if not impossible.

I did find a list of intergeneric hybrids that have been produced over the years. This is a publication of the Gesneriad Council of Australia and New Zealand. I'll put a link to this in the show notes. Some of these I'd heard of, some of them I hadn't. For example, there's Codonanthus (Codonanthe x Nematanthus). There's also Gloximannia (Gloxinia x Seemania) and Gloxinantha(Gloxinia x Smithiantha) and then the names start to get even more confusing. There's Seemakohleria (Seemania x Kohleria) and I also quite liked Daltrichantha (Dalbergaria x Trichantha). I don't think I even know what those two plants look like, let alone the intergeneric hybrids, but there we go! That was a list from 2010, so there may be some more added to it. It's probably got about 20 on there from this list from 2010.

I also found a great piece on intergenerics by the lovely Dale Martins, who has been on the show before, which explains how Dale creates some of these intergeneric hybrids and lists some of the species involved. I will post a link to that as well because I think you might find it interesting. Short answer, Anna, is no, not for the moment, although never say never when it comes to plants because science is advancing all the time. If you've got a question for On The Ledge do drop me a line. It's quite simple, just email ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com

I did get a number of questions stacking up during my break. I'm endeavouring to get around to as many of those as possible and if you haven't heard back from me, please be patient! I'll get back to you as soon as I can. If I take more than a month though, do feel free to send me a nudge. Now back to my chat with Lisa Eldred Steinkopf, talking more about flowering plants.

Jane: Choosing favourites of anything is hard, but are there any absolute favourite flowering plants that you would recommend to anyone who's a hardcore foliage fan? Which three flowering plants should they be growing?

Lisa: Well, if you're a hardcore foliage fan, try some of those variegated African Violets, the variegated foliage. When they're not flowering, which they are most of the time if they're being taken care of correctly, then you still have that beautiful foliage and I do love African Violets. Like I said, it was grandma's flower and it's special to me and I love it. Phalaenopsis just bloom forever and they're so easy. They don't need full sun to bloom, they don't even want that. You take them to the sink, you water them once a week or... they're easy! That's the way I look at it. I really have learned to love these Hoyas that are blooming, so I would have to say those are probably my three favourites. It depends on the time of year. I love Holiday Cactus. I mean, I love them. They're probably my favourite. Amaryllis last year, we own a garden centre and some of the Amaryllis didn't sell well. You think I was going to let those bulbs sit there and rot? No! At one time, on my table, I probably had ten bulbs in flower, of these huge beautiful flowers. I mean, wow! That's also easy. Everything you need is right in that bulb already!

Jane: Amaryllis are showstoppers aren't they? They're kind of good. I like them for Christmas because they remind me of Christmas in that they're a bit, kind of ludicrous, a bit over the top! Things can go wrong, but at the end of the day, you're going to enjoy them, which is how I think about Christmas generally!

Lisa: Yes! Exactly! Very much so. I don't know about in England, but do they have the waxed ones? I think those are so interesting.

Jane: Yes, I've seen those at the big Dutch flower show. They had all different kinds of waxed ones. I kind of feel quite conflicted about them. On the one hand, I can see people who don't like soil - and there are lots of people who just will not have soil in their house - I can see how that would be an attractive option, but at the same time, as a minimalist pragmatist of the houseplant world, I think "Why not just get a normal bulb and stick it in a pot?"

Lisa: I know. I guess they keep the bulbs cold in cool storage and then they have them in Easter colours? I'm, like, "Oh come on!", like, pale pink and lavender in them, so they can come out later. I don't know about that. I did see one that was frosted. It was on a little log and it had some greens on it and I'm, like, "Oh, that's so pretty!" so I gave in!

Jane: Yes, I think this is how the growers get us, by realising that there are these gimmicks which are going to appeal! I think the good thing about Amaryllis is the range of cultivars that are available now is way better than it used to be. I do love the big, bright, red one and the Apple Blossom one. That used to be the two Amaryllis that you'd get. That was basically your choice, wasn't it?

Lisa: Yes, Red Lion and the Apple Blossom.

Jane: Yes, Red Lion, that's it. Now there's some really quite delicate spidery ones out there, which are kind of fun.

Lisa: Like the Cybister, or whatever they're called. Those are very cool.

Jane: You can display them in unusual ways. I think, if you've got children or grandchildren around, or even just curious adults, they are a spectacle, watching that bud emerge from that massive bulb. Who needs TV!?

Lisa: Right! I give a lot of Amaryllis as gifts and I've had friends in nursing homes, older friends, all you do is you just water it and even if you gave them the waxed one, they're going to get flowers and they're going to last for quite a long time and how fun for them to watch them grow? You could practically watch them move and grow, they grow so fast, so it's a wonderful gift!

Jane: I have to admit though, I have a patchy track record with getting them to bloom again. I oftentimes think, "Oh yes, I'm going to put them out in the greenhouse" and then they get forgotten! In fact, I just found one the other day that I'd taken out of the greenhouse when we had our heatwave because it was so hot and put it somewhere else and I've only just found it and I'm, like, "Oh darn! I'm not sure this is going to make it!"

Lisa: Well I did actually do that and they still have leaves. I did take them out there, but I guess I haven't had a great track record getting them back to bloom either, but I haven't really put a lot of effort into it because we do own a garden centre and there's going to be bulbs left at the end of the year. Isn't that terrible? But this year, I have all those ones that bloom, they're out there and they still have green leaves, so we'll see how it goes.

Jane: Yes, well hopefully you'll get some result out of those. I mean, I always try and grow Paperwhite Narcissus. Going back to scent, my husband absolutely hates the scent, he thinks it's evil!

Lisa: Oh, mine too! He makes me take them out! He thinks the cat has peed some place and I'm, like, "No, it's those flowers!". He goes, "Oh really? You've got those in here?" I'm, like, out the door they go! They do smell awful, but there's some that don't, I just never seem to find those ones! It's fun to watch those grow.

Jane: It's the limited varieties that are available, I think, that holds us back somewhat on those. I think I would agree with your top three. I think maybe that I might substitute the Moth Orchids with my Flame Violet, Episcia. The thing about that, though, is, am I growing it for the flowers, or the foliage? I have to say, in my heart of hearts, as much as I love the little, bright-red, lipstick-red flowers, I think I might be growing them more for the foliage because the foliage really is stunning, but they are a double-whammy kind of plant that I really enjoy growing.

Lisa: I'm a big fan of all Gesneriads, Columneas, Aeschynanthus, Streptocarpus. All of those are amazing.

Jane: We're going to go deep into those in our Patreon episode! I'm looking forward to that. Have you grown Episcias?Do you find them easy? I find them strangely easy, despite the books saying they're hard. I always wonder, is it something weird here that I find them easy to grow?

Lisa: I don't think they're hard. You can't let them dry out and get all the crispy things. If you have the ones that are really pink, like Cleopatra, that are more pink than white, you have to grow those in a terrarium, I've found.

Jane: That's interesting. I don't have any of the really pink ones and the ones I have seem to grow fine just in normal air. In fact, they're growing in pots with no drainage and that works for me because, as a mean waterer, if they had pots with drainage they probably would be dead!

Lisa: I probably should try that myself. I always tell everybody it has to have a hole in it. For new plant parents, I think a hole is imperative, but if you're a seasoned plant parent... I can look at my fern and tell you if it's dry or not just by the colour of the leaves, so we know a little more about the plant and what it needs.

Jane: Yes, it's just observation, isn't it? That's the key.

Lisa: Anybody can have a green thumb because today my physiotherapist said "I have a black thumb". I go, "But you could make it green! It's all about paying attention to the plant."

Jane: Yes, exactly. We don't like any of that negative talk around here!

Lisa: No.

Jane: What happens after flowering? This is, I think, where people get a little bit scared, on some plants, like Moth Orchids and a lot of the Gesneriads, the flowers don't just drop off. Are you a religious dead-header, or do you just let things drop and fall?

Lisa: I should be. If I had just maybe 10 or 15 or even 100 plants, that'd probably be pretty easy, but I try to keep up, especially with the African Violets and stuff, because you want to keep those dead leaves picked off because that's a good place for insects to come, fungus to start. It's just better to keep your plants cleaned up. On the Moth Orchid, are you a "cut it all the way down when it's done", or do you cut it to the second node, or the node right below the last flower, and let it go again?

Jane: I'm a kind of look at it and on the spur of the moment choose between the two! I don't religiously do either. Sometimes you look at it and think, "This just needs a break and I'm going to cut it right back to the base and give the plant a break to recover" because they do flower for such a long time, you think, actually, the plant needs a chance. Sometimes, like a lot of people, I end up rescuing an orchid from the supermarket that's been put on the 10p shelf and is going to get chucked out, so you rescue it. Sometimes with those, I might just cut that stem back to one of those scaly points and see if it will re-grow.

Lisa: It probably would have bloomed longer had it been taken care of, is what you're saying?

Jane: Yes, exactly.

Lisa: So it still has some energy in there.

Jane: I'm quite brutal. I think to myself, "Oh, I've only cut back a little way" and then if I get fed up with it, I will just then cut back harshly."

Lisa: I cut it back because... I tell people I went to Longwood Gardens and it was Orchid Month, or whatever, and they had seminars and I went to one and they're, like, "You're just flowering it to death. It's better to cut it all the way back and let it put all this energy into next year's flower." So that's what I do, but I say do whatever works for you. I used to be very black and white and now I'm kind of like, "If it works for you, if you don't want to have drainage in your pot, go for it, if it works for you. Who am I to tell you what to do?"

Jane: I mean especially with flowering because there really is no wrong answer with that one. I'm always fascinated by this, the way we worry about pruning plants, and in nature, presumably, that stem would just sit there until it was completely brown and then it would eventually get knocked off, or pulled off, or blown off some time later without any of this concern!

Lisa: Correct! I have a couple right now that I was maybe going to do a reel about, that have brown stems. I'm, like, "I think it's time to cut those off."

Jane: In a way, at least the plant's getting a chance to withdraw all of the nutrients that are in there for itself.

Lisa: I will leave it up until it's brown. I'm not going to cut it down so that it re-blooms again, but I will wait for it to get brown because even though it's a little, tiny piece, it's still green and photosynthesising for the plant, right?

Jane: That's very true. Well, I think that pretty much covers all of my flowering houseplant queries. Is there anything else that we haven't mentioned that we should be noting for newbies to the world of flowering houseplants?

Lisa: Just make sure you have the right light. A Peace Lily, mine's in the guest bathroom, it has a window but it's about three feet from it and the window is on to our front porch, so it's covered and it still blooms. So there is a plant out there that's pretty low light in my opinion and it still blooms. So just try something, try an African Violet, pick up that Phalaenopsis Orchid and try to bring it back next year. Even if you don't, it's cheaper than a bouquet of flowers that are going to be dead in a week!

Jane: Yes, this is so true, this is so true. You've reminded me that I'm really desperate to get hold of some variegated African Violets, despite the fact I have no time or room for them!

Lisa: Me either. This girl that's here on Instagram and she lives near me and she's like, "Look at this variegated Phalaenopsis at the local big box!" I try not to buy too much from a big box because we own an independent garden centre, but if I don't find it at the independent garden centre, I might run to the big box. A variegated Phalaenopsis Orchid, I had one a long time ago, got water in the middle of it and it rotted and I was so bummed, but sometimes... that would be pretty, because that would even be pretty when it's not blooming!

Jane: Yes, that's very true, that's very true. You don't see many of those unless there's some chance discoveries. You have to go to the specialists.

Lisa: Yes.

Jane: Well, it's been a delight to talk to you, Lisa, and thank you for joining me today. I'll put all the details of your new book in the show notes - it's out this week I believe? - and we will be continuing to bang the drum for flowering houseplants because they are awesome!

[music]

Jane: Thanks so much to Lisa for joining me this week. If you're a Patreon subscriber, you can hear more chat with Lisa Eldred Steinkopf in my Extra Leaf episode, which you'll find linked in the show notes and also available via your Patreon feed.

Thanks to all of you who've been enjoying and subscribing to The Plant Ledger, my email newsletter about the UK houseplant scene. It'll be out again on 9th September, so you can subscribe now, if you haven't already, to get that edition. What is it? Well, it's news, events, tips, advice, gossip, fun stuff about anything that's happening with houseplants in the UK. If you subscribe, you get a free in-depth guide - it's very in-depth! - to how to deal with fungus gnats, the things that work, the things that don't work, the stuff you need to know! If you go to janeperrone.com and click on The Plant Ledger, you will be able to get signed up. I will see you in a week's time for another episode. I can't wait! Until then, may your enthusiasm for houseplants bloom! Bye!

[music]

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, and Namaste, by Jason Shaw. 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.

Become a Patron!

I talk to Lisa Eldred Steinkopf aka The Houseplant Guru about flowering houseplants and celebrate her new book Bloom. Plus I answer a question about intergeneric hybrids.

This week’s guest

Cover of book Bloom by Lisa Steinkopf featuring an urn plant (Aechmea) in flower
A Hoya villosa peduncle

A peduncle on my Hoya villosa. Photograph: Jane Perrone.

Check the show notes below as you listen…

  • African violets are usually known as Saintpaulia but taxonomists have now moved them to Streptocarpus and they are classed as Streptocarpus section Saintpaulia. African violets are coming back into fashion - slowly! Here’s a Gardenista piece about African violets to try to convince you.

  • Here’s Lisa’s blogpost explaining why terracotta pots can cause problems for African violets.

  • Queen of the Night - Epiphyllum oxypetalum - is a forest cactus with huge scented blooms - check out Lisa’s blooming queen of the night here.

  • Check out the scented Phalaenopsis I mention here.

  • Lisa and I both love holiday cactus! Here’s her post on Thanksgiving cactus - you can also listen to more on forest cacti in this episode of On The Ledge.

  • Houseplant species are kickstarted into blooming by different factors, including day length (photoperiod), maturity and temperature. Many cacti require a cool period to prompt flowers.

  • The Hoya I mentioned with butterscotch-smelling flowers is Hoya sp. aff. burtoniae. The Hoya of mine that has just produced a peduncle is Hoya villosa.

  • Hippeastrum aka amaryllis make excellent flowering plants for Christmas. The two ‘old school’ cultivars I mention are ‘Red Lion’ and ‘Appleblossom’ and Lisa mentions the spidery cybister amaryllis.

  • Paperwhite narcissi are another flowering bulb with a strong scent.

  • One of my favourite flowering plants is the flame violet, Episcia cupreata, a member of the Gesneriad family.

  • We discuss cutting back Phalaenopsis flower stems. You can either cut the spike back right to the base once all the flowers fade, or cut back to one of the scales along the stem and allow the plant to put out a new set of flowers from that point. More on Phalaenopsis care in episode 181 of On The Ledge.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Anna wanted to know where to buy variegated Steptocarpus in the UK - I have no suggestions for her as I don’t know of any … if you know different please let me know! Anna also wanted to know if anyone has successfully hybridised a Primulina with a Streptocarpus, creating what is known as a intergeneric hybrid (one you might have heard of is x Fatshedera lizei, crossing Fatsia and Hedera). Both of these genera are in the Gesneriad family, and although there have been some intergeneric hybrids of genera in this family - check the lists here and here - it has not been possible to do the same with Primulina and Streptocarpus species.

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

Thanks to True Leaf Market for sponsoring this week’s show. Download their free cover crop guide here. Get 15% off cover crop seeds at trueleafmarket.com with promo code OTL15. This discount is only available for cover crop seed products. Offer expires end of December 2022. Limit one use per customer.

HOW TO SUPPORT ON THE LEDGE

Contributions from On The Ledge listeners help to pay for all the things that have made the show possible over the last few years: equipment, travel expenses, editing, admin support and transcription.

Want to make a one-off donation? You can do that through my ko-fi.com page, or via Paypal.

Want to make a regular donation? Join the On The Ledge community on Patreon! Whether you can only spare a dollar or a pound, or want to make a bigger commitment, there’s something for you: see all the tiers and sign up for Patreon here.

  • The Crazy Plant Person tier just gives you a warm fuzzy feeling of supporting the show you love.

  • The Ledge End tier gives you access to two extra episodes a month, known as An Extra Leaf, as well as ad-free versions of the main podcast on weeks where there’s a paid advertising spot, and access to occasional patron-only Zoom sessions.

  • My Superfan tier earns you a personal greeting from me in the mail including a limited edition postcard, as well as ad-free episodes.

If you like the idea of supporting On The Ledge on a regular basis but don't know what Patreon's all about, check out the FAQ here: if you still have questions, leave a comment or email me - ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com. If you're already supporting others via Patreon, just click here to set up your rewards!

If you prefer to support the show in other ways, please do go and rate and review On The Ledge on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen. It's lovely to read your kind comments, and it really helps new listeners to find the show. You can also tweet or post about the show on social media - use #OnTheLedgePodcast so I’ll pick up on it!

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 is St Louis Tickle by the Heftone Banjo Orhcestra.

Flowering houseplantsJane PerroneGesneriads, Episcia, Phalaenopsis, Hippeastrum, StreptocarpusComment