Episode 228: Houseplant books with Maria Failla

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transcript

Unknown Speaker 0:00
[music]

Jane Perrone 0:03
Thanks to Soltech Solutions for sponsoring this episode of On The Ledge. Without their help, I couldn't bring you all this planty chat. I love working with brands that I've tried out and I can truly recommend. And that's certainly the case with Soltech Solutions. I can tell you from personal experience that their lights are superior quality, sturdy, stylish and effective. Soltech Solutions fabulous customer service means you won't be left in the dark when it comes to buying great grow lights. Choose from their range of track lights, pendant style lights, or a simple bulb that will screw into most standard light fittings for set up that takes just moments. Check out Soltec Solutions range of lights now at soltechsolutions.com and get 15% off with the code ONTHELEDGE. That's soltechsolutions.com enter code ONTHELEDGE for 15% off.

Unknown Speaker 1:11
[music]

Jane Perrone 1:17
A hearty welcome to the show. I'm Jane Perrone your host with the most provided the most means a heck of a lot of houseplants. And this is On The Ledge Podcast, the podcast for people for whom houseplants take up a large proportion of their waking thoughts. Thanks to a listener called realartifice in the US for writing a lovely review for the show. And to Barry and Marissa for becoming Ledge Ends this week. A reminder also to enter my competition to win a pair of tickets to the Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival Flowers After Hours events on Friday, the eighth of July in the great capital city of London. I'm going to be doing a live podcast from there. And I'd love there to be some on the ledge listeners in the audience cheering me on so do go to my Instagram J.L.Perrone to enter the competition. If you are in travelling distance of Hampton Court, follow me and comment with the name of somebody you'd like to go along with and who knows the tickets could be yours. The closing date is 11:59pm BST tonight. That's a Friday the 24th of June so don't delay. Enter now!

Unknown Speaker 2:44
[music]

Jane Perrone 2:50
My obsession with books goes right back to being a young child with a torch reading late into the night under my duvet and houseplant books were definitely part of that scene from an early age as you'll know if you've been a listener to the show for a while. In this week's episode, I chat to Maria Failla of fellow houseplant podcast Blooming Grove Radio. It just so happens that Maria's new book Growing Joy is out this week. So we hopped online to talk about everything from our favourite planty books to why we like nothing better than hitting the charity shop or the thrift store to find some vintage gardening literature.

Maria Failla 3:38
Hello legends. I'm Maria Failla, the other plant lady podcast are hanging on the internet alongside Jane, the host of the Bloom and Grow Radio podcast, another house plant based podcast and the new author of the book Growing Joy the plant lovers guide to cultivating happiness and plants. Jane and I were some of the first plant lady podcasters out there and I'm so lucky to be a repeat guest on today's show and thrilled to be here. So thanks for having me, Jane.

Jane Perrone 4:07
I want to hear all about your book. But first I want to hear about if there's any houseplant books that you're inspired by, and ones that you keep going back to

Maria Failla 4:19
I have a really embarrassingly large collection of plant books. I would say maybe like 50% of my book collection on my bookshelf is plant books because I have this habit of going into thrift stores. I'm sure you do too, and always going to the gardening section and finding the vintage houseplant care books from the 70s and they're always $1, like they're always so cheap. And that's actually where I started learning about plants and I've amassed quite the collection so I would say my favourite books to read are the older ones because it's so fun to see the prices it's so fun to see what plants used to cost and also see what trends you know have survived the test of time. You know, there's a non houseplant related book, but a nature related book that I read lately that I really can't stop thinking about. Have you read Braiding Sweetgrass?

Jane Perrone 5:16
Oh my gosh, yes.

Maria Failla 5:18
I mean, I know I'm late to the game. It came out a long time ago, but I only recently read it. And I live in the mountains. I live in the country right now, actually near the land that she discusses that she grew up on. And my relationship with nature has completely changed after reading this book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. I can't recommend it enough. And I'm thankful offline. You and I were just talking about reading really good writers when you're writing a book can be really intimidating. And I'm really thankful that I read the book after I finished Growing Joy, because I think that totally would have thrown me for a loop because she's the most beautiful writer and she combines botany and storytelling and anthropomorphises trees and plants in the most magical way. And I found myself I rarely reread stuff, but I've gone back and I'm actually I listened to the audiobook, and I've gone back and re-listened listened to chapters because it's just such captivating writing about nature and plants. And I think every plant person should read it.

Jane Perrone 6:19
I totally agree. It's such a good book, isn't it? And I just found myself like having a little cry. I mean, I think maybe it's a perimenopausal thing but I just found it a really, really emotionally touching book. And as you say, it just put a totally different spin on our, my understanding of botany and her position as a an indigenous person. And also, a botanist, just gave her this really interesting insight and a woman too yeah, there's another book of hers about Moss, which is really worth reading as well.

Maria Failla 6:54
I believe it's called Finding Moss or Gathering Moss.

Jane Perrone 6:58
That's it! Yeah, that is a really good book, too. And you think, Oh, moss what is there to...? Again, she blows your mind with every page. Revelations about moss. So yes, that's a great choice.

Maria Failla 7:09
I've started a planty book club in my garden society that I have, and I feel like it's just gonna be like a Robin Wall Kimmerer fan club, because that's definitely the next but we just finished braiding sweetgrass. So that's definitely the next book I'm going to propose. I don't know if that's bias, but I don't care because I love it.

Jane Perrone 7:26
Yeah, no, she is really really special. And yes, you're right. I do hang out in thrift stores or as we call them in the here in the UK, the chazza. The charity shop. A charity shop is the the UK equivalent of the thrift store. And you're right. I mean, I too have lots of houseplant books from the past. I mean, I've spoken on the Plant Daddy Podcast about my love of Thalassa Cruso and her books. So good.

Maria Failla 7:56
That was great. That was a great episode.

Jane Perrone 7:58
If you like the Thalassa Cruso, no nonsense style. I can also recommend for outdoor gardening, any book by a chap called Christopher Lloyd, who is a famous unfortunately now deceased English gardener and he's very no nonsense and he's just his writing is brilliant. And his most famous book is probably the Well Tempered Garden. So yeah, look out for Christopher Lloyd if you are looking for an outdoor book. If you ever come to England you have to go to his garden Great Dixter, which is an amazing garden. House plant books, I wonder whether some people listening to this will be thinking to themselves, 'Well, I've never picked up a house plant book. And I never will just because I love going online looking on my phone.' Are they missing out on anything? Or are we just out of step?

Maria Failla 8:46
I mean, I don't know if I'll sound like an elder millennial, but they're absolutely missing out. There's just something about walking over to your bookshelf and pulling a book off of the shelf and opening it, going to the back of the book looking at the index finding whatever you're looking for the connection with the author that you feel too I mean, I actually write about this in in Growing Joy my book that you know, plants are such a method a means of connecting with people and finding these vintage books on plants is like connecting with these authors from a different generation and hearing their advice right like then they become part of my garden. And I guess you could argue that for the internet but we spend so much time on screens like in the morning with a cup of coffee or you know winding down there's just something elevated with books that I think you don't get on a screen. I will say I do love audiobooks, I've definitely gotten into audiobooks, probably being a podcaster myself. I love listening to them when I'm walking or driving. So I will say that is kind of a more modern interpretation of books then, but I don't know there's there's something about the smell of books right? I mean, what do you think Jane?

Jane Perrone 9:59
Oh, I agree. Yeah. I mean, unfortunately, I have had the experience of buying a secondhand gardening book online and it arriving and you open the envelope, and the person who owned it clearly was a smoker because the whole book stinks of cigarette smoke. But normally the smell of a book is a wonderful thing if they have if it hasn't been exposed to nicotine, you're right. And yeah, you can take it anywhere. You can take it out to the park with you, you can lie on the grass and read it. And I also love illustrations in house plant books, too. There's just such a rich, a rich vein, one of the ones I really like is there's a Reader's Digest houseplant book, which is got a I'll put this in the show notes. It's got a I don't know if it's actually a photograph or an illustration or a combination, but it's like a, it's like a house shaped greenhouse with all these houseplants inside. And I absolutely love that one. I just love those illustrations, and especially ones from the sort of 50s and 60s just yeah, something really special about them.

Maria Failla 11:01
I think too, with books. And you and I have obviously just gone through this process. I know that you did so much research for your book, which by the way, I cannot wait to get I was so excited to sign up for one with your Kickstarter. But there's so much research books are such labours of love. And there's something when I read it from a book, I also I believe it a little bit faster than I do from a blog. You know, I feel like a lot of research a lot of care and time goes into it. You know, you have to get it read by a copywriter you have to get it proof read you have to do all of these things that you know a lot of stuff on the internet doesn't do for you. So that's another thing that I feel like books are obviously yeah, elevated as is the better way to say it.

Jane Perrone 11:48
Yeah, I agree. And I mean, having had the experience of doing research for my book, and then coming across things that were claimed online and just trying to back them up with actual evidence and finding that it wasn't, there was no evidence. That made me realise quite how much extra work has to go into actually confirming everything for for a book. I mean one example which I can give you from the book, which is the chapter on the spotty begonia, begonia maculata. There's loads of places where it's claimed online that the red undersides of the leaves inspired Christian Louboutin, to do the red soles on his shoes.

Maria Failla 12:29
Oh, really? Okay.

Jane Perrone 12:31
So that's like, you read that quite a few places. As far as I can find from all the interviews I looked at with him and newspaper reports about his career and his shoes and his design inspirations. It is not true. That begonia maculata was his inspiration. His inspiration, according to every other source was seeing his assistant painting her fingernails red. So again, you kind of wonder where these things come from. And maybe, maybe it is true, maybe somebody spoke to Christian Louboutin in person. And he told them that, but as far as I can fathom, that's one of those things that's just gone around the internet. And it's caught. I mean, you see the things just being copied across and copied across. So yeah, we hold books to a higher standard of research, I think, which is a good thing.

Maria Failla 13:18
Definitely.

Jane Perrone 13:18
But, but tell me about your book. I guess this is one of these things where everyone kind of assumes that once you sort of get into the world of being a planty celeb, that you've got a book in you, but how did this book come about?

Maria Failla 13:35
Yeah, I could have never I mean, five years ago, I would have never thought that I would write a book, the last English class I took. I was 18. Right? And I started a podcast because I like to talk. I have a degree in opera. I like to use my voice. I didn't ever really consider myself a writer. But how did okay, so how did the book come about? I am so fortunate that I have a listener who listens to the show, and works for the wellness imprint of a large publisher in the States. And on my show on Bloom and Grow Radio podcast, I have a series called Plant Side Chats. And there are mini solo episodes where I talk about life lessons learned in the garden or learned from my house plants and plants are a very emotional, spiritual thing for me. I feel like they're the number one wellness tool the number one self development tool I've ever experienced. And I am a self development junkie so that says a lot I've spent a lot of money on fancy wellness retreats and yoga classes and lots of self development books and plants. The simplicity of caring for plants is really what what helps me and I have this through and on my podcast of of sharing these little you know, woowoo or cheesy life lessons learned from plants and one of my listeners and editor the current editor approached me asking if I would be interested in not writing a plant care book, but writing a self care book about plant care, because she herself understood the transition or that experience that we all have as plant lovers, where maybe we start caring for plants because we want to bring them home and make our homes look beautiful. But I think many of us continue caring for plants because of the way that they make us feel and the joy that they bring us. But when you look at the landscape of gardening books, most of them are talking about plant care, not about self care. When she first actually Jane, I think you'll find this funny, but when she first reached out to me, she like was in my website, notifier. Like, she sent me a message on my on my, my website, and you know, you and I probably get pitched a lot, we get spam, we get a lot of stuff. And I just thought she was like spamming me, I didn't even think she was real. I had never heard of the name of this publisher. And so I saw it come in, and then I kind of ignored it for a while. And then off chance I showed the email to my dad and my dad was like, 'Maria, are you kidding me? That's one of the biggest publishers in the country. Write her back right now!' He made me write her back that you know, in front of him on my cell phone. And I met her and you know, our kindred plant heart spirits met. And you know, I had a book proposal 48 hours later. So it definitely came out of nowhere. I definitely didn't anticipate myself writing a book. But I will say it's probably one of the most beautiful, heart opening, exciting experiences that I've had. And I'm so excited that I get to share my perspective on plants and what and what they can do to, you know, amplify the joy in our lives with this little book. It's like a little love letter to plants.

Jane Perrone 16:40
There are lots and lots of plant care books out there, there seems to be a new one coming out every week. And they all offer something slightly different. I mean, you know, I always sort of think, oh, gosh, I can't need another plant care book. And then I open it up and think, 'oh, this is actually really good. This is giving another perspective,' because there is always something new to learn. But it's nice to have a book which takes a different slant. Now I'm sure all of us have, including me felt at some time in the past couple of years like they've gone through the seven - I don't know if there are seven stages - how many stages are there? But the stages of being a houseplant enthusiast of the first initial rush of buying lots of plants and then perhaps feel like the joy is drained away a little bit. I mean, I've been collecting plants since I was about five, which is at least more than four decades of plant. So it's been a long it's been a slow burn for me. But I can tell you that I really have felt sometimes in the last couple of years that I've got too many plants. I can't cope. What am I? Why am I doing this? So I need some tips. Maria, can you give me a little bit of advice from the book how to respark the joy?

Maria Failla 17:52
Oh, yeah, I mean, girl, I feel you. I've gone from 150 plants to about 80 plants over the last two years. So I can totally understand. And I think you point something out, our relationship with plants can be seasonal, right? I think we get into that honeymoon phase with plants and think that we're supposed to stay there and that this joy that we feel when we see the first Monstera leaf unfurl is going to resound throughout our life where our relationship with plants is seasonal, just like our lives, you know, different things happen in life that are going to affect the amount of time that we prioritise with them, obviously, is I have a lot of friends that have become new mothers this year, and seeing how their relationship with everything has changed, right. So I think number one, just acknowledging that you're going through a different season of life. And that's where those plant life parallels come into play that I wax poetic about all over the book. But I actually have a whole chapter in Growing Joy on the dark side of plant care, because I think it's something that people don't talk about as much in our community. Because due to things like Instagram, and Pinterest, and YouTube, where everybody has these, like beautifully curated perfect looking plants, when we kill a plant, people don't like to show their dead plants online, right? People don't like to share that they're struggling. But we all struggle, we all kill a plant, right? And it's about how you bounce back from that plant fail. That kind of defines what the rest of your journey looks like when it comes to caring for plants. So, there's a whole chapter of Bloom and Grow on sorry, in Growing Joy on how to deal with plant parent overwhelm, how to identify your right number of plants. So number so number one, I think my first tip would be assessing how many plants that you have and assessing what the right plant number for you is in this moment. And in the book, I kind of guide you through a couple of different ways for how to assess that but a lot of people right now what I'm feeling in our community and it sounds like it's what you're feeling in your community of listeners too is, in the pandemic, we had so much time and we were home so a lot of us got a lot of houseplants right. The world is opening back up, people have to start commuting back to work, people have social calendars again. And now all of a sudden, the number that felt healthy and joyful in the moment when we were all indoors isn't feeling healthy anymore. And I think you need to make peace with understanding that your collection is going to ebb and flow and change just like our plants do. And being comfortable letting go of plants, whether that's gifting them, whether it's saying, 'You know what, I appreciate you and I'm composting you, it's not even worth gifting you, you know, it's just time to like, let go of the plant,' whether it's donating them to, you know, a local botanical garden or nursing home or something like that there's tonnes of creative ways that you can let go of plants and still let them bring other people joy. But just because you buy a plant doesn't mean you need to keep it. And I think it's important to find a plant collection and plant number that brings you joy and not stress. And if you have a plant in your collection that 50% of the time brings you stress instead of joy, then that plant isn't right for you. And when you let go of that plant, you either create a collection that works for you, or you make space for other plants that work for you that will actually help continue to spark curiosity and awe and all of those awesome things that we get with our plant collections. So I think number one is I would definitely talk about, you know, definitely encourage people to assess their plant number and not be ashamed to let that change and ebb and flow. You know, just like the seasons, do.

Jane Perrone 21:28
You know what I'm gonna say one word here, and that is calatheas. I mean, I can grow the things I can grow them. I just don't want the stress. I just don't want the work.

Maria Failla 21:43
Preach. Yeah.

Jane Perrone 21:43
And I'm actually going to widen that out to all Maranta group plants. I've got a Maranta 'Lemon Lime' in my propagation box, and I'm thinking to myself, I'm gonna give that away to somebody because I just don't want it anymore. It's just too much hassle. It gets spider mite every time you look at it funny and I'm just so fed up with it. So you know, the only time it's happy is if it's in the sort of very humid propagation box where it, where spider mite, it's just too humid. And I'm just like, I just can't be bothered with it anymore. So I think that's going I also actually posted on my Instagram Stories yesterday, a contrast between my beautiful Hoya polyneura, fishtail hoya and my completely dead and de-leafed Hoya kerii, which had been limping along. And people then like message me saying, 'Well, you know that the Hoya kerii is like a succulent Hoya and you need...' and I'm like, 'I know all of the things about this Hoya. I just, I just slightly overwatered it.' And I'm just like, and I can I mean, that's the annoying thing is that's kind of the thing that I grow best is succulents, but this one for whatever reason, no. So yeah, you're absolutely right. And I have a real thing for propagation. So I do end up with quite a lot of excess plants. But I do have a nice little gig going where I have a Facebook group for my local community, which is like an abundance group. So you give things away you offer things up. So I just give them away on that usually, and make a little money for the local hedgehog rescue in the process.

Maria Failla 23:16
Aw, I love that!

Jane Perrone 23:17
It's great, it's really great. And hopefully...

Maria Failla 23:20
You'll never and hey, if you're lonely and looking for plant friends, going up on a Facebook and offering some free plants, that's a great way to make plant friends even this weekend, connecting you know, I also have a whole chapter on the book on on connecting on using plants as a vehicle for connection and, and cultivating relationships. And I just experienced it again. I mean, I experienced this all the time. And I hear from our community all the time, but this weekend, you know, so I moved to the middle of nowhere kind of on a whim with my husband and we literally don't know anyone, like we have no friends here, in the area that we live. And so we've been trying to make friends and you know, I say in my book, like making friends as an adult is hard. But making plant friends is easy and it's so freakin true. So this last weekend I went to a, it was like called a garden party. It was it was just a it was a spring event that had garden lectures. And I signed up for all the lectures and I went to a dahlia lecture, I've never grown dahlias as before. And sitting next to me was the cutest girl who happened to live 15 minutes from me which where we live is a lot because no one lives close to us. And she started 60 dahlias and offered me five of her dahlias. We we've been immediate plant friends we've already gone plant shopping twice together. We text each other about our you know where we live, we have a little microclimate that's much colder than our frost date. So we've been you know, going back and forth. Okay, when are you bringing yours out? You know, and I've made this friend through the power plants you know, and it's just because she you know, give offered me some of her dahlias in this very sweet gesture and I'm offering her some starting some seeds for her and we're going to like be garden buddies this summer so I think that's yeah so I think that's another you know obviously easy way to make friends and I think with giving getting rid of, because her dahlias were overwhelming her so she did exactly what we talked about was and they're bringing me so much joy oh my god I'm having so much fun you know helicopter parenting these dahlias right now because I'm so I'm so terrified of them.

Jane Perrone 25:29
Do you have a slug issue where you are. That's going to be your downfall.

Maria Failla 25:32
I'm growing in containers on a second story balcony so, I'm hoping I'm hoping we'll be okay. And I'm hoping the squirrels don't notice.

Jane Perrone 25:42
What about earwigs? Do you have earwigs in your way?

Maria Failla 25:45
That I don't know because this is my first growing season in this new area.

Jane Perrone 25:49
Okay, well, you this is what you need to watch out for with dahlias. Earwigs, earwigs love dahlias. So there's a little trick you can do. Just try to remember because my dad always used to do this. I don't really bother because I'm not bothered by, I don't really mind earwigs. But there's a way I think you put a you see like a rolled up piece of cardboard or something. And the earwigs collect in the cardboard anyway. I'll dig out the tip and send it to you. But I didn't even know if you have it. You must have earwigs surely?

Maria Failla 26:17
I'm sure we do. I'm sure we have it all.

Jane Perrone 26:18
Do you know what they look like? Those little black pincery things anyway. Yeah. Well, that's great. That is lovely to hear that you've made a friend. I helped to run a community herb garden on a roundabout. You don't even have roundabouts. Do you?

Maria Failla 26:31
Yeah, no, we do. Yeah.

Jane Perrone 26:32
All these strange... Do you have roundabouts? Okay. So it's on a roundabout, which sounds really unappealing, but it's actually really, really nice. And it's great, because every so often we have a volunteer session. And we're just all there weeding away. And it's just a really nice chat, catch up time. And yeah, again, you'd make friends that way too, just by gardening side by side in that community garden. It's a really, really valuable experience. And people walk by, sometimes they're drunk. That's okay.

Maria Failla 27:07
So then you have a nice giggle with the other with the other friends, right?

Jane Perrone 27:11
Somebody interesting always walks by, like, there's often a drunk person, there's often somebody who may be going off for some kind of illegal transaction of some kind or other. It's really, it's a really, really great set of people who volunteer and I get so much out of it. And you just the other lovely thing about that is it's like aromatherapy because you're working with all these Mediterranean herbs. So you literally come out smelling of this these aromatic herbs, which is amazing. So that's nice.

Maria Failla 27:44
Amazing. I have plans for a big herb garden this summer. And I you know, I did a lot of research for Growing Joy on scent and the brain. And, you know, scent it with plants, we really don't realise how awesome it is to engage all five of our senses with our plant collection. I think maybe we do touch and sight. But scent is such a powerful sense. Obviously, it's the closest it's a straight shot to our brain and has such a strong connection with memory. And so this year, I've been really, after doing all this research for the book, I've been trying to evaluate how to how to work scent into my plant collection a little bit more indoors with trying to grow some scented plants indoors, and then outdoors with really going ham in the herb garden this summer and doing some scented geraniums and all sorts of stuff but that's another thing that, I think when you were saying you know if you're feeling stuck or if you're feeling burned out in your plant collection because I think it does get stale, right if you do the same thing for you know decades, finding something that sparks your curiosity or something you don't know a lot about and then becoming a student again. So for me learning about the scented plants, you know Hoya I know everybody's obsessed with Hoya but I just because I haven't been collecting plants in the last two years I don't have a lot of Hoya but now I'm really interested not because of the leaves but the blooms and the scents. So that's got me really curious.

Jane Perrone 29:12
I'm gonna put a little health warning in front of this. I am not recommending that anyone tries this at home, but have you licked a Hoya?

Maria Failla 29:19
Like a leaf?

Jane Perrone 29:20
The flowers, have you licked the flowers of a hoya? Hoya nectar. Again, I say this again. Please do not try this at home. Even though I'm sure it's perfectly safe. It is just basically nectar which is just sugar but there's a whole Facebook group devoted to this. Licking Hoyas. They're amazing. Like they taste amazing.

Maria Failla 29:39
I haven't had one bloom yet. I'm dying.

Jane Perrone 29:42
Well you gotta wait for that. Now.

Maria Failla 29:43
I will lick my next Hoya.

Jane Perrone 29:46
There's some amazing flavours. Hoya burtoniae taste like butterscotch.

Maria Failla 29:52
Oh, I missed that in my book. Darn it. Because I didn't put that in the tastes section of my book. Darn. Alright, next one. But thanks.

Jane Perrone 30:01
Well, as I say I'm not sure whether I should be as I say recommending it like you undertake Hoya licking at your own risk. It is something that lots of people have tried I think the Plant Daddy's did a tik tok reel on it. It just feels so naughty to do it. But I mean, it's a thrill and it tastes, to me anyway, they taste really good and very different each one. So, there you go.

Maria Failla 30:23
Okay. I will lick my next Hoya and record it and I will tag you so you can share so the community can see. I'll be the guinea pig.

Unknown Speaker 30:30
[music]

Jane Perrone 30:38
More from my chat with Maria shortly, but now it's time for a question. And this one comes from Jeffrey and concerns an Anthurium, specifically Anthurium andreanum. Now Jeffrey discovered when reading up on these plants that this species of Anthurium is an epiphyte. And logically enough Jeffrey's wondering why they've never seen one of these planted like you might see a phalaenopsis orchid or mounted like a staghorn fern, or an air plant. Well, this is a really good question. Let's just remind ourselves of what an epiphyte is, before we go any further. Put simply, is just a plant that grows on another plant and distinct from a parasite, that's a plant that grows on another plant and gets its nutrients entirely from that plant. So we're thinking about things. The obvious one that springs to my mind is the broomrape genus of plants orobanche, which are parasitic plants that live in my part of the world. There's, there's a lot of species actually over a couple of 100, I think, but some of those live in the UK, so they are true parasites. They draw all their energy from other plants roots, they've got no chlorophyll, so they're entirely dependent on other plants. There's one that parasitises ivy, for example, called ivy broomrape. So that's a parasite. A hemi parasite. Well, that's a plant that draws some of its nutrients from the plant that is attached to and things like mistletoe, viscum album fits into that category. But epiphytes? No, they're just using the plant or tree as an anchor. They're not sucking anything out of it in terms of nutrients or water. I guess the TL;DR answer is not all epiphytes are the same, their root systems can be really, really different depending on exactly where they grow, and how they grow. Trees and other plants that plants grow on vary enormously. It depends on the setting, and so on. So both the species type can affect the roots and also the conditions in which it finds itself growing can affect the roots. And indeed, Anthurium andreanum is one of these plants and in the Anthurium genus, there are a lot of epiphytic plants in that genus. Where does it come from? Anthurium andreanum is native to Colombia and Ecuador, although it has spread more widely through that region, and they do live up in the canopy of trees in nature. Over time, as they grow, they become quite gangly and not the compact plants that we're used to seeing coming out of nurseries, with those beautiful brightly coloured usually red or sometimes other coral colours, spathe and spadix that we're so familiar with in their house plant identity as the flamingo flower. And when they're growing in the wild. Like other epiphytes, they'll find pockets of leaf litter, decaying organic matter in nooks and crannies in trees, and that's where they will put down their roots. Some roots may be exposed, other roots may be pushed down into this leaf litter. Epiphytes do massively vary in the way they grow. It'll partly depend on the species and also partly depend on the conditions they're faced with. They have to be adaptable because trees obviously don't have uniform sizes of nooks and crannies available for them. So they do vary hugely. There's no reason Jeffrey why you couldn't try growing this plant in a more epiphytic style. If I can put it that way. Whether that it would involve wrapping the roots around something like a piece of cork and covering that with moss or using an orchid style pot for it, that would certainly be possible. I guess the reason why people don't do this is that often this particular species, the flamingo flower is treated as a throw away gift plant is not really something that people keep going with for a long time. And if you want to have a look at the different ways that epiphytes grow, there's a really great public Facebook group you could have a look at called Epiphytophilia I think it's called. I'd be really interested to see if any of you have ever seen a flamingo flower growing in an epiphytic fashion perhaps mounted something like a staghorn fern or in a basket, it will be fascinating to see. So do send me pics, or links if you have. I hope that helps Jeffrey and it just shows. The more you know about a plant species, the more it helps you to grow them in interesting ways. That's all for Question of the Week if you've got a question, drop me a line ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com And now it's time to get back to my convo with the delightful Maria Failla.

Do you find with scent that certain scents are incredibly nostalgic to your childhood I know your mom is a keen gardener. I find certain plant smells just set me right off and I'm like tear and tear in the corner of my eye thinking about you know my granddad like if I smell, if I go into a greenhouse where tomatoes are growing and you get that tomato leaf smell that is incredibly nostalgic to me going to my grandparents house. I just find that really, really, really potent.

Maria Failla 36:08
It is it's so powerful with our with our memory. I had a really interesting experience six years ago now. Yes, my mom is an amazing gardener. She's Italian. I come from Italian immigrant grandparents. My you know my noni used to like sew seeds into her bra to like sneak them into the states and grow them, you know, on her property. She grew everything. I mean, they they never grocery shopped and my grandparents lived in Queens and the front of their house had, it was a popular in the 70s. You know, it was like a thick kind of warped glass. You couldn't really see through it. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, they had this porch that had this thick glass and noni would start her seeds in it. And it was a jungle every time you walked in. And this is so funny for me to think about because I talk about plant blindness in my book, and I was so disconnected with nature that I grew up with the most epic plant lady of a grandma, and I have almost no memories visually of her plants. My mom's swears that my grandma she had a Monstera that apparently climbed up to the ceiling and across her ceiling. And I have no memory of it. And I grew up going to my grandparents house every week, but I have no sight memory of it. But about six years ago, as I was waking back up to connecting with plants again. I was in a restaurant with my mom and my sister when they had geraniums like normal geraniums not scented and I smelled the geranium. And I was immediately transported back to my grandma's porch. And it was because noni had maybe 20 geraniums that she would put outside in the summer and then bring inside in the winter. And that was the predominant smell of her porch. And ever since that moment, I mean, I was transported to my childhood of sitting in the porch with my grandma, it was wild. And now I always keep geraniums because of her and you know have a little smell. So yeah, I think scent is so important, basil too basil as well it reminds me of my mom and if I could wear basil perfume I would I just think it's the greatest scent ever. But yeah, and scents are also extremely personal for people. So you know what I love? Someone else is not gonna love you know, it's so personal. Do you find that too?

Jane Perrone 38:23
Totally. Yeah, my husband always claims he has a better sense of smell than me and he probably does. He cannot stand like anything like hyacinths and paperwhite narcissi. He finds just too strong. He can't...

Maria Failla 38:36
Isn't that interesting?

Jane Perrone 38:38
Yeah, finds it just too potent. Or if you like at the minute here in the UK, there's a lot of lilacs blooming, lilac flowers outside. And again, like if I present him with one of those that I just I'm a weirdo who will literally just stand there when I'm walking the dog in front of a bush just like sniffing lilacs. I must get looks. I'm just just just soaking it all up. But if I give one to him, he'll just be like, 'Oh, I can't cope that's just too strong. It's too strong.' I think he would say that my sense of smell is not that advanced. But I think it's probably just appreciate slightly different things. But yeah, I just go around sniffing things. I am that person. That weird person in the park just like, 'why is she standing there staring at that shrub?' It's probably flowers.

Maria Failla 39:23
Once I started also learning about, I did a lot of research on forest bathing. I have a whole chapter on it in my book and I started learning about the VOCs that trees give off and their power. And now I'm the crazy person. I'm not even smelling the blooms. I'm going up to a tree and rubbing the needles in my hands really fast and then like deeply inhaling. Like I look so crazy on my nature walks but now I really want to get I really want to get that that relaxation, that rush of relaxation that I get when I engage with with trees so I actually have burning in my office right now, hinoki oil. Hinoki is a Japanese tree that I, I talked about a lot in my book, there's this researcher, he's a scientist who I have a crush on. His name is Dr. King Lee. And he's done all of this research in Japan. And there are medicinal forests about the power of this hinoki oil. So I found a candle and I burn it in my office to try and connect with the with the forest, even when I'm trapped indoors in my computer, you know?

Jane Perrone 40:29
Yeah. Oh, that sounds great. Yeah, I mean, you know, I think we are only just waking up to the wonders of trees, for sure. Now, I want to know a little bit more about this book, the writing process, you said that you weren't a writer, let's just share a bit of mutual pain about the process of writing a book. Where do we start with? I think I think it gets hard once you finish the manuscript, to be honest. I think it gets hard in that finals, those people think, oh, it's you've written the manuscript. That's it, you've done it. But actually, that's when the hard work starts, it seems to me.

Maria Failla 41:06
Oh my gosh, well, but yes, well, I have a funny story to tell about that. But even before that, you know, something that I don't think I was ready for was, you know, I find myself very fortunate that I've had this experience of kind of getting handed a book deal on my lap, right? That's very unique. And I'm very, very fortunate and thankful for that. But I also was extremely unprepared for what the process of writing a book would look like. Because of that, because I basically just tumbled down this hill of figuring out this opportunity and how to navigate it. And you go through these negotiations with a book deal, and, and you're going back and forth, and you get a lawyer, and you're figuring it all out, and then you sign the you sign this contract, you're in constant communication with all these people helping you kind of cross this finish line. And then they say, 'okay, like, see you in three months with your first draft.' And I'm just like, 'wait, what? Is anybody gonna hold my hand through this process?' And, you know, I don't have kids. But what I kind of equate it to, and I don't want to equate it to this. But you know, women talk about or, or parents talk about going to the hospital, having the baby and then just kind of like being given your baby and just sent off right? Then you've got to just go figure out how to take care of your baby on your own, like, no one in the hospital is helping you. And that was kind of my I kind of had whiplash, I think my first month of 'Oh, wow, I have to write this now. Like, how do I write this?' Right? 'How do I make an outline? How do I start tackling this mountain that feels insurmountable?' And I actually almost gave my book advance back because I just was so overwhelmed with doubt, and, and overwhelm of what that process looks like. But then you definitely go, I mean, I definitely went through phases, you're a much more established writer than I am. So you probably skipped the first few. But, you know, I went through these phases of figuring out how I write, figuring out when I write, for how long like when to schedule, the writing experience, and then you kind of start to get excited, because then you start to learn how to like edit your own, you write, but then you start to learn how to shape writing. And that gets really exciting. And then, you know, I had a couple of days where I would drop in, and I would write for like, 10 hours straight. And Billy would just like, bring me meals, because I was just in this really cool like flow state of writing. So that was exciting. But then you go through the phase where you read your, you know, 75% of your draft, and you think that you have to delete it all and that you're terrible. And then you have a great time, you know, day where you're like, 'Oh, my God, this is amazing.' And you just go through this crazy roller coaster. I'm fortunate enough that my editor kind of stepped in and held my hand through through some of the process. But yes, so that whole process was a real whirlwind. And I think I think it took double the amount of time that I had originally thought it would to write the book, because I don't think I anticipated what a learning curve I would have for writing would, you know, would look like, but I'm having this funny interview for a local newspaper. I'm 90% done with my first draft of my manuscript, and I, I'm talking to this interviewer who happens to be an author, and I told her, 'Oh my gosh, I'm almost done with my book. This has been wild. I can't believe how much time it's taken. You know, I'm about to submit. I'm about to submit my first draft' and she says, 'Oh, honey, you're submitting your first draft?' And I said, 'yeah, yeah, I'm so excited. I'm so proud.' And she was like, 'oh, like, that's when the work starts.' Like, I thought that I was almost, you know, over the hill. And I did not know what I didn't know. But like you mentioned, I mean, I think that what people don't understand is you write your first manuscript, and then you send your book off, and then you write your second manuscript, and for me, that was restructuring the whole book and doing a lot of edits and then you find what you're on to and you really are able to distil it but it's such a wild process. I mean, I couldn't believe it would take two years. But yet we've needed all all of the time in order in order to make the book happen, you know?

Jane Perrone 45:12
Yeah, exactly. I mean, I, I'm thinking of I recently read some quotes from Franz Kafka. The novelist about writing and from his diaries, and it was just like, I mean, I'm not comparing myself to Franz Kafka, but it was just a very familiar experience, where he's kind of going. It's a series of entries over a series of days. And it's like, 'Still I have nothing! Still, I have nothing to say!' And then the next day, 'I can still not write!' and you're thinking, 'Yeah, I'm glad it's not just me who feels this real struggle with putting words on a page.'

Maria Failla 45:45
I will say, I want to shout out a huge if for anyone writing a huge help. For me, it was a podcast called the Beautiful Writers Podcast. And this woman, Linda, who's a writer herself, interviews like all of the most amazing writers you've ever dreamt of. She's interviewed on her show. And I remember being in the gym once listening to a podcast, and she's interviewing maybe Marianne Williamson, she's interviewing two very famous writers. And they both talk about how you hit a point, every writer hits a point where they think that they're not going to be able to finish the book, and that the book is never going to get done. And I burst into tears in the middle of the gym, because I was feeling so alone in that moment, you know, because when you're writing, you're the only person that can do the writing. So it's just you and your computer for most of it. And I remember having that moment, just bursting into tears, like feeling seen for the first time and in a while of just being like, okay, like, 'If Marianne Williamson, like has this problem, like thinking she has to give her book advance back, like, I'm gonna be fine.' You know? Figuring that out, but it was worth it. Do you feel like it was worth it for your book?

Jane Perrone 46:52
Well, I'm not at the stage to judge that yet. But I hope so I do remember sitting in the Lindley library, which is the RHS library in London, where I was doing some research one day and looking through how many chapters I'd written so far. And suddenly, I sort of, a switch flipped. And I suddenly thought 'I might actually be able to finish this book, I might actually be able to do it.' My background in journalism means I had written a book before. So I kind of had some experience of this. But I always think of it I don't know if you've ever seen the movie, Throw Momma From The Train with Danny DeVito. I promise you this is relevant. He, it's got Danny DeVito and Billy Crystal in it. And Billy Crystal is a creative writing teacher. And Danny DeVito is his student. And there's these excruciating scenes of the creative writing classes. But what he always says what Billy Crystal always says is, 'A writer writes.' And I always sort of say that to people when they're struggling, and also to myself is, you know, 'Just keep writing, even if you think it's crap, just keep writing.' Because once you have something, you can shape it, you can edit, you can move things around. But until you have something that's the hardest bit when you're actually just staring at the blank page. Once you've got something however crap it is, it's something that you can model and you can work with.

Maria Failla 48:14
Oh and repurpose, so much of stuff that got cut ended up getting repurposed as connective tissue in this, you know, in this chapter, or, you know, this story fits better over here or whatever. So 100%, like, if you are in a big writing project, I did try to write I think I tried to write like 1000 words a day, or 2000 words a day, I had some sort of minimum I wanted to hit, even if I threw it out, because a lot of the times just like you said, it ends up getting used, or you end up finding some nugget of inspiration that ends up leading to a great chapter, you know, or something like that. So it's so, I mean, it was the most humbling, heart opening experience I've had to date, you know, it's also a very interesting experience, like distilling your worldview, like into writing that you know, will live on forever. It's crazy sometimes to think that this book might be the thing that someone in five decades picks up for $1 at a thrift store, if we even have books at thrift stores in the future, right? Who knows, but like, it is crazy to think, you know, I write to my listener, I wrote the whole book to, you know, very specific people that I had in mind that are, you know, members of my community members of the listener community, but it's also kind of vulnerable and wild to think that people who don't know you or don't know your, you know, body of work might read it. And it's it's all just been a very interesting experience, but also exciting, because hopefully it helps people right?

Jane Perrone 49:40
Indeed, and I mean, I had that experience when I was crowdfunding my book. You know, I assumed that everybody who bought one of the Zoom houseplant consultations that that was offered as part of the, one of the pledge levels would be a fan of the podcast. So I was like, turning up for these Zoom things and some quite a few of the people I would say about a third of the people have never listened to the podcast.

Maria Failla 50:03
Oh my god, that's so cool.

Jane Perrone 50:04
So it was, I was blown away by that, because I'm thinking, wow.

Maria Failla 50:08
That's so cool. That's so cool.

Jane Perrone 50:09
That's amazing. So, I mean, a lot of the time, it was lovely. It was lovely listeners. And you know, they were immediately familiar to me, because they understood, you know who I am. But as I say, about a third of them, they were just coming at me as I was some kind of person, house plant person they had never come across before. So that was interesting. I'm sure that'll be your experience, too. I just wanted to also recommend one more book to you, which you may not have come across talking about books in thrift stores. There's a really interesting book called, it's either called A Plant In My Window or The Plant In My Window by Ross Parmenter.

Oh, I've recommended this book before, but I haven't read it.

Yes. Yeah. I mean, I have found it really hard to get a copy, I had to get the RHS library in London to get a copy for me, because the only copies I could find were hundreds of pounds. But you might be able to get it more easily in the US. It's amazing because it's a book about a guy living in a New York apartment who has this Heartleaf philodendron. And sort of it provides him with lots of revelations. And he writes this whole book centred around this plant and how he gets to understand it and know it. Yeah, you should definitely put that on your list. Yeah.

Maria Failla 51:19
Oh my god, that sounds amazing. That sounds like my favourite book. So I moved to the country this year, I never want to move back to New York City. I lived in New York City for a decade, right. So I'm a city person. I'm a city girl, I grew up in the suburbs of New York, and I lived in New York City proper for 10 years, living in the country has like totally changed. You know, now when I go back to the city, I'm like, 'Oh, my God, it's so bright, and it's so loud. And everybody's walking so fast.' But one thing I mean, one of my favourite things about being in any city, but there's something in particular about New York City is whenever I walk down streets, or when you're in a taxicab, like looking into the windows and seeing the silhouettes of plants, I don't know it makes me feel less alone. Like I just I love knowing that there are other plant people out there. And I just I it's one of my favourite things to do is just walk around the city and look, look at the silhouettes. I just think it's so fun.

Jane Perrone 52:14
Yeah, that's a really I like to look in the windows anyway. There's always something interesting going on. But if there's plants, that's a bonus.

Maria Failla 52:22
I love that.

Jane Perrone 52:23
I'm constantly thinking of houseplant books that I want to exist that not necessarily that I want to write, but that don't seem to exist that I want to wish into existence. Is there. Is that the same for you? Are there books that you just don't seem to exist that you'd like to read about anything planty?

Maria Failla 52:39
I find, good question, I find most of the time. If I have an idea like this, there's already a book that's been written, I would like to say that the book that I wrote hasn't really been written before through the lens that I talk about plant care and self care. Yet this Plant In My Window kind of sounds from my book that I don't know about.

Jane Perrone 53:01
Yeah, it's, it's a little bit it was written in the 50s. And you can if I can say this, you can tell it's written in the 50s. Like the way he talks about his I think he has a housekeeper or cleaner or something who's obviously female. So like, you know, it's of its era, it's nothing like your book. I mean, it's definitely worth reading. Yeah, it's written by an American man in the 1950s. So you can imagine.

Maria Failla 53:23
Got it got it. What I will say, and, and I'll say this, what I've, what I don't have in my collection, which I think would make for a great book. And I've told several people that I think could write this book this. But I don't know if anybody wants to tackle this. But maybe this book already exists, Jane, and you could recommend one to me. All of my house plant books have sections on pests, but there's no dedicated book that I know of, to house plant pests and house plant problems. And I think that would be a very interesting book.

Jane Perrone 53:53
Yeah exactly.

Maria Failla 53:54
Is there one?

Jane Perrone 53:56
No, there isn't. And in fact I've just had an, answered a question on this on the show a couple of weeks ago. There isn't one. And the book I recommended is an RHS book that covers pests and diseases indoors and outdoors. But yeah, somebody should write that book. I think the reason why they haven't is because, for one thing, the list of chemicals that you can use is constantly changing. And so people sort of fear that and also, it's difficult to sell across countries because of the differences between the US and the UK, and other parts of the world in terms of what's available. And I know this when I'm doing pest episodes that people are like, crazy about neem oil in the US is not licenced for use here. Also things like BTI mosquito bits and things you can't that they're not licenced here either. So I think that's probably the reason but I think a book on that would still be really really useful, I agree.

Maria Failla 54:53
Because that there's always a chapter and I go through all of my vintage you know, books and, and current books and you know they all kind of more or less say the same thing. But there's not even like great illustrations or photos. Like I think that there easily could be a book dedicated to that subject matter. But I think what you brought up is exactly why that it hasn't been made because I think it would have been made if it would have been easy to make already because it's such a pain point for our community, right? Pests are such a pain point for us. What about you?

Jane Perrone 55:23
The other thing I think is really missing. And I really noticed this when I was doing research in the RHS library was like there are very few houseplant books that cover a single genus. So back in the day in the 70s, people were publishing books about begonias, people were publishing books about Ficus, about ferns, about Hoyas. And now those kind of genus like narrowing down to a particular genus, those books don't really exist anymore. Not that I know of, and...

Maria Failla 55:54
Yes, you have to go find the vintage ones, you're totally right.

Jane Perrone 55:58
Or if they do exist, they're very academic and very, very expensive. So like, I had to use some reference resources for like, various things I was looking at particularly Ficus lyrata. I think it was I had a look at various very expensive books about trees of Africa. And, yeah, you just don't get those kinds of books or, you know, they were this guy, Jack Kramer, he wrote a lot of houseplant books. And, you know, he wrote ones about indoor trees. And, you know, all these things that we just don't break down in a book form, which I think would be I would love to see an updated version of that, or a whole book on begonias.

Maria Failla 56:35
I would love like a sea. I would like I would love like an encyclopaedia series. I think that would be so cool to do, like some sort of like under the same publisher with a similar cover, and you could have a shelf of Hoya, Fern begonia, you know, Ficus, all of that kind of stuff, that would be so cool. And like kind of a collector's item, that would be really cool.

Jane Perrone 56:57
That would be really cool. But I think I don't know if there's the appetite for it anymore. But I agree, I think that would be amazing. I mean, certainly a book on Hoyas, I do have one book on Hoyas called the genus Hoya, but it's kind of out of date. Now a lot of the scientific names have changed. And some of the key species that are grown now are missing. So it's interesting, I just don't think there's enough appetite in the publishing industry to go down that road, necessarily. People think that they're looking...

Maria Failla 57:23
Because it's so niche. That's so niche. Like, how many people would buy that? Yeah.

Jane Perrone 57:28
Yeah, it's true. It's true. I mean, I just bought a really amazing book on lithops, which came out in the last couple of years, which is, was a self published book, which is amazing if you're into lithops, stone plants, it's unbelievable. It has, it's just the best is exactly what I want out of a 'let's focus on one genus' kind of book, it's got pictures of like the every single different type of seed capsule that lithops has, which is a lot. And it's got pictures of the different landscapes where each species grows, and what the geology is, it's amazing. It's amazing.

Maria Failla 58:06
Isn't that the best feeling like when you have a question or a passion for something, and then you have that, oh my god, this is exactly what I want. I launched a virtual garden society this year, for my listener, community. And we have Leslie Halleck, who I think has been on your show.

Jane Perrone 58:21
She has yeah.

Maria Failla 58:22
She has right? Leslie is our horticulturist in residence. And you know, Leslie is like the biggest plant nerd ever. And she gives these lectures once a month. And like some of these lectures, it literally feels like oh my god, thank you for answering this question. I you know, like that, oh, like when when it's a book or when it's someone, a real expert, like this lithops person, you're talking about a true expert in lithops who really knows how to educate. That is like the greatest, most satisfying feeling of finally, understanding the why behind, you know, the the depths of the passion that you can't find on the internet, you know, you can't find that that deep dive on lithops or, you know, in my case, the deep dive on variegation, you know, that she talks about, you can't find it easy for free on YouTube, you know.

Jane Perrone 59:08
Exactly. And that's the thing, a lot of these people who just do have that really in depth knowledge, they're not online, they're too busy in their greenhouses. They're not necessarily dispensing this information in you know, Facebook groups, and that's why you end up with you know, really terrible advice being dispensed.

Maria Failla 59:25
Totally and Facebook is a scary I mean, I think now too Facebook can be so volatile that people are even maybe scared to share their opinions because they don't want to get trolled, you know?

Jane Perrone 59:37
Yeah, it's a difficult space. I mean, I think it's in a way a lot of the Facebook stuff is common sense. Just treat somebody as you would treat them if you were face to face and just be polite, but it frustrates me that sometimes the drama that goes on in these groups and and also just people, people being over helpful like they don't actually know what something is, but they're gonna state what it is without really having, having anything to back that up. But you know, that said, I think that the planty corners of Facebook that I inhabit, which is for me personally, which is my Facebook group, for listeners to my show. And a few other groups that I run are like this abundance group and stuff. Actually...

Yeah, that local group sounds really nice.

When it's harnessed for good, it's amazingly powerful.

Maria Failla 1:00:27
Yeah, totally.

Jane Perrone 1:00:27
And, you know, I think that's the thing if it's managed, well, Facebook can be an amazing space, and you can learn loads, so that it's like, like anything in life. It's, it's how it's a tool that you can use in different ways. And also a great way of hooking up with people to do swaps and things, which is how I get most of my plants. So...

Maria Failla 1:00:48
Yeah, and and that local group you've created sounds great.

Jane Perrone 1:00:51
Yeah. And I mean, even on Twitter, I mean, you know, I'd run this House Plant Hour on Twitter. I mean, in Twitter, you know, whatever your views about Elon Musk is a quite a lively environment, as it were. And yet that hour on the Tuesday night is absolute bliss. There, it's just people sharing their plants and asking for advice. It is just a gorgeous hour of plantiness. And there's there's never any trouble. So we've got to focus on those positive bits. But I still think as you say, books really do offer something that that deep dive that you can't necessarily get online. And that's a powerful thing. And I mean, gosh, let's hope so given that we've both just written books.

Maria Failla 1:01:33
I know. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed!

Jane Perrone 1:01:36
Well, it's been great to chat to you, Maria. And as ever, you've been a delight. Is there anything else you need to tell me about this book? I mean, I'll put all the stuff in the show notes. So when is it coming out? And hopefully, it'll be available in all good book shops. I'm sure.

Maria Failla 1:01:50
Yeah it comes out June 28. It's available on Amazon internationally, I believe. So any of your British audience, you're still welcome to order it. It's called Growing Joy, The Plant Lovers Guide To Cultivating Happiness And Plants. And it is my love letter to plants. It's it's a combination of, you know, over 60 practices that you can immediately start implementing, there's truly something for everyone, whether it's science based or you know, science based practices, or totally woowoo thing to your plants practices, I have something for everyone, combined with some stories about my personal growth and a lot of journaling prompts throughout the book to to get the reader to really start going deeper, digging deeper. They're called dig deep prompts, to start digging deeper in their relationship with plants. So I wrote it hoping that it just it gives everybody one more. It helps enrich everyone in in one one way or another right? You take what works and you leave what doesn't. But yeah, I would love for people to preorder or purchase whenever you know, whenever this airs. It's currently trapped in Turkey on a cargo ship. But I believe the pub. date is going to be June 28.

Fabulous. Well, I'm really looking forward to reading it. And let's hope it gets unlocked from Turkey in time.

Yes.

Jane Perrone 1:03:07
By the time this comes out.

Maria Failla 1:03:10
And if people want to, I'm going to do a very cool a very cool episode for the launch on Bloom and Grow Radio podcast called The Growing Joy Challenge. And it's going to be members of our community all sharing their experiences with how plants have enriched their lives. So that's going to be a very moving episode. If people want an episode all about their fields, you know, if you want to cry, if you want to listen to something and cry, you can tune into this episode because these we're sorting through all of the submissions right now and some of them are like, I literally just sat on my couch and cried for like two hours. And you know if for some reason there's you can always follow me on Instagram @bloomandgrowmaria and if there is weird stuff that happens with the book. That's, that's where I'll announce you know what country the book is stuck in now, but we're rolling with it. We're rolling with it.

Jane Perrone 1:03:59
Awesome. Well, thanks so much Maria.

Maria Failla 1:04:01
Thanks for having me Jane and I can't wait to read your book. I'm so excited. And it's been very fun for us offline to, to commiserate about the publishing process and so excited for your continued success as well.

Jane Perrone 1:04:14
Thank you. Well, let's hope it's uh, well, I've got a while to wait yet but we'll get there in the end. I hope my book doesn't get trap

ped somewhere. But we shall see.

Maria Failla 1:04:22
Yeah, and we'll have you over on Bloom and Grow Radio to celebrate when your book comes out for sure.

Jane Perrone 1:04:27
Thanks so much.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:40
[music]

Jane Perrone 1:04:40
The beat of the music means another episode of On The Ledge is coming to an end. Thanks so much to Maria Failla my guest this week. Check out her book Growing Joy. There are details in the show notes, as well as a list of all the other books we've mentioned. We'll be back next Friday. Do join me. Until then, when it comes to houseplants, follow your heart. But more importantly, use your eyes and all your senses to help observe your plants. Bye.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:15
[music]

Jane Perrone 1:05:24
The music you heard in this week's episode was Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops. The Road We Used To Travel When We Were Young by Komiku and Oh Mallory by Josh Woodward. The ad music was Dill Pickles by the Heftone Banjo Orchestra. All Tracks are Licenced under Creative Commons. Visit the show notes for details.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Maria Failla of podcast Bloom & Grow Radio joins me to share tips from her new book Growing Joy, including dealing with plant overwhelm, and we discuss her love affair with planty books.

This week’s guest
Maria Failla is the host of American houseplant podcast Bloom & Grow Radio and the author of new book Growing Joy, out June 28 2022.

Check out the show notes below as you listen…

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Is Anthurium andreanum - the flamingo flower - an epiphyte, asks Jeffrey - and if so, why isn’t it grown as we grow other epiphytes such as Phalaenopsis orchids? They are indeed epiphytes - plants that grow on other plants, specifically trees - but generally this is considered a bit of a throwaway gift plant that doesn’t last that long in the home. If you do keep one for longer than a few months, they become rather rangy rather than staying compact.

There is no reason that you could not try growing it mounted like a stagshorn fern (Platycerium species) or in an orchid pot. The plant would adapt to conditions provided you got it acclimatised well. I’d love to see if anyone has tried this - do send pictures! To see the huge range of different growth styles of epiphytes, check out Facebook group Epiphytophilia. The parasitic plant I mention is the broomrape genus including ivy broomrape (Orobanche hederae); the hemi-parasite is Viscum album, European mistletoe.

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

SOLTECH SOLUTIONS

Thanks to Soltech Solutions for sponsoring this episode of On The Ledge: without their help I couldn’t bring you all this planty chat. I love working with brands that I have tried out and can truly recommend, and that’s certainly the case with Soltech Solutions - I can tell you from personal experience that their lights are superior quality, sturdy, stylish and effective. Soltech Solutions fabulous customer service means you won’t be left in the dark when it comes to buying great growlights. Choose from their range of track lights, pendant style lights, or a simple bulb that will screw into most standard light fittings for setup that takes just moments.

Check out Soltech Solutions’ range of lights now at soltechsolutions.com and get 15% off with the code ONTHELEDGE.

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  Dill Pickles by the Heftone Banjo Orchestra, Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops, The Road We Use To Travel When We Were Kids by Komiku and Oh Mallory by Josh Woodward.

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