Episode 290: sowalong part two - houseplants from seed with plantflix

Coleus are one of the easiest houseplants to grow grom seed.

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Transcript

[0:00] Music.

[0:15] Jane Perrone Hello and welcome to the show. We are sprouting fresh ideas this week. Yes, it's On The Ledge Sew Along, part two.

[0:24] Music.

[0:25] The revenge. Yeah, that's not quite right. Not the revenge. More like the redemption. Anywho, I am chatting to Alina Smith of houseplant seed sellers Plantflix and I answer a question about a Homalomena. Why is it I can't say that word without wanting to go "do doooo do do do do" - maybe that's just me. Welcome one, welcome all to On The Ledge. This is the podcast about indoor gardening where I chat to the experts, dispense advice and build a community with you and people like you. And if If this is your first time listening or your 500th - yes, there are people who listen to episodes more than once, welcome to the show. And this is the first full-blown On The Ledge Sowalong episode of the year. In episode 289, I introduced the concept, but if you missed that, let me recap.

[1:28] Most outdoor gardeners are familiar with the concept of growing plants from seed. Not so much in the houseplant community, but I've made it my mission over the last seven years to get everyone growing houseplants from seed. Why? Because it's fun, because you will learn loads about your plants and it's a really thrifty way to get your hands on loads of lovely greenery. If you want to catch up on old episodes of On The Ledge Sew Along, then you can just Google OTL Sowalong and my name, that's Jane Perrone, and you'll find it. Or you can search on my website, janeperrone.com. And in the show notes for this episode, it's 290, there will be a link to all the other On The Ledge Sowalong episodes. There's loads to listen to. So do head back into that if you want to beef up your knowledge of this topic. I love to get everyone involved in this. So if you are sowing seed, you can use the hashtag OTL sow along.

[2:30] That's what Glasshouse and Garden did recently over on Instagram, showing off a lovely array of freshly sown seed pots, all done with the help of their mum, which I love to see. I also had an email from Joseph, who's one of my Patreon super fans. And Joseph describes doing something that is 'sowalong adjacent'. Now, Joseph, I'd argue this is sowalong central because Joseph has taken things to the next level with some amaryllis bulbs, aka Hippeastrum, those huge trumpety flowers that you get around Christmas time. Usually they come out grown from this massive bulb.

[3:12] Joseph had decided to have a go at pollinating these two different Hippeastrum/amaryllis bulbs. One was 'Magic Green', one was 'Apple Blossom'. So 'Magic Green' is kind of pale green and pink and Apple Blossom' is white and pink. And it didn't work both ways, but Joseph does have seed pods on the 'Magic Green' and sent a picture. And wow, they are, to use a very technical term, mahoosive. They're like, well, they look a bit like figs, actually, those seed pods. So I'm going to be fascinated to see what happens when those seeds ripen and you get to grow them, Joseph. So thank you for sharing. And do keep the sowalong contributions coming. I heard from Megan who told me about an Etsy cactus supplier called Cactus Archive, which look really great. I'm going to check those out and I'll add those to my seed purchasing guide, which you'll find linked in the show notes. And thanks to Colleen, who got in touch about seed scams, which we've talked about on the show before. So not all seeds that you find online are going to be reputable suppliers. And Colleen was telling me about some flower seed that promised flowers that have cat faces on them. And the Photoshopped image was remarkable for its sort of 'flight of fancy' feel. But don't be mistaken. People do buy this stuff and get caught out. So we're going to talk about seed scams in my interview with Plantflix, which is coming up right now.

[4:52] Music.

[4:57] Jane Perrone There aren't many people doing what you do. Buying houseplant seeds, as I've often encountered, doing this so along on the podcast, can be a bit of a patchwork thing in that oftentimes you're just kind of like a seed company will have a few indoor seeds just alongside. But this is great to see that you're putting the focus onto houseplant seeds and you've got a really lovely range on your website. But really, this is still something that people are catching on to. I think the idea that you can grow houseplants from seed. And every year I'm surprised by how many people say, oh, I didn't realize you could do that. Why do you think it's taken us so long to catch on to this particular aspect of like being a plant parent?A

[5:36] Alina Smith So I think that there are a few reasons. For one, it's a, it's a tricky hobby to get into and getting into new hobbies can always be a little bit tricky and expensive as well. But I think really it's just not as flashy as as getting, you know, the adult plants from nurseries, because you can get the really exotic, fancy varieties from, you know, nurseries as full grown plants that you might not be able to get as seeds.

[6:01] Alina Smith There's usually a pretty limited supply of what kind of seed varieties you can grow. So I think that a lot of people end up going, for instance, on our website, and then sending us like angry emails, like, why don't you have 'Pink Princess' philodendron, or just these very exotic varieties that are not available, and will probably not be commercially available, at least not for very very long time. So I think that's kind of the big thing.

[6:23] Jane Perrone Yeah I think that's really true we're sort of in some ways kind of an instant world and that we want everything to be - I often see people saying I only want a full plant and you think well yeah okay but uh there is so much joy to be had to growing from growing a cutting or growing from seed and it's interesting that people are asking for those sort of - we'll come on to this - but you know things that they want to to grow from seed that actually it's not going to happen. But what are your best sellers at Plantflix? What things are people this spring buying in their droves?

[6:56] Alina Smith Yeah. So we have some that are like always the staples that people are always going to be interested in. And those are our tropical varieties like Monstera deliciosa and Bird of Paradise, coffee plants, ficus, philodendron. Those ones are always very popular. But I will say it is kind of the fun perk of running this business is getting to see what little trends always come and go and what people are interested in. And so in the spring, we have a lot of because we also sell houseplants like bulbs. So oxalis and caladiums tend to do very well this year, this time of year. But then there are some just random little trends like we'll see Dracaena draco has been really popular lately. I'm not sure where the consensus is. I guess maybe people see them on Instagram a lot. And then all of a sudden, these like little varieties that most people don't hear about start getting very popular, but then they diminish again.

[7:50] Jane Perrone I saw those on your website and thought gosh I'm not really seeing that for sale anywhere else, so this is what we might call i guess the dragon tree would be the common name? And a really great houseplant! And how fast is that from seed is it a slow burn did you have to wait a long time to get a decent size plant?

[8:08] Alina Smith Definitely yeah so that's one of the more advanced varieties that we have and we try to section off which ones are very beginner friendly which ones are more more innovative and which ones are more advanced. And I think, yeah, Dracaena draco are definitely one of the more advanced ones. Some of the seeds can take up to three months to germinate. And it all really does depend on your setup. So I've had some that germinated for me within a couple of weeks. The plants themselves do take a while to grow though. They need a lot of light, they need a lot of time and patience. But I think, especially when you're in the hobby for a while, you really start to appreciate those challenging plants. Because it's more about the journey, I would say when you grow from seeds and the actual end results. So it's pretty fun to to like, when you finally get that tricky plant to grow for you, it feels really good.

[8:52] Jane Perrone And it's always really exciting when you go and visit. I don't know some person's collection that they've had for years and they say, "yeah, I grew that from a seed in 1972". You know, you think, wow, that's amazing that survived. And it's, um, you know, it's older than me even. Um, that's a really good, that's a really exciting moment.

[9:10] Alina Smith Yeah. I always noticed there's an extra connection for sure.And actually a lot of my, uh, new favorite plant varieties are ones that I grew from seed. I never thought I would really like them, but when you grow them, you get to watch them grow from a little seedling into an actual plant it's just you develop a bond with that plant that you don't really get when you just get the plant as an adult already so I think that's that's kind of a unexpected perk of the hobby absolutely now we've mentioned there about things that you can't get as house plant seeds apart from philodendron pink princess what are other things that people are asking you for that you're like no that's not gonna be possible.

[9:46] Alina Smith So really it's it's mostly those very niched in varieties so like a very particular variety of philodendron that people are looking for and it's just we can't supply those kinds of wishlist plants unfortunately, but some of the other ones are very frustrating for me because I feel like they would be out there, but I'm just not able to get my hands on them my personal favorite houseplant are syngoniums and I have not been able to source any kind of credible growers for syngoniums. I'm really hoping that maybe someday that would be nice

[10:14] Jane Perrone Yeah, I've never seen syngonium seed - I know you've got some philodendron species on your site and obviously the other one that people are surprised that you can grow from seed is of course Monstera deliciosa that is something that lots of people doing the so along have grown and it seems quite easy almost it seems like it's not that hard to grow that one what are your experiences with that and your your customers.

[10:42] Alina Smith So in general, I'd say the trickiest part with Monstera deliciosa are actually keeping the seeds fresh. They don't stay viable for long. And we've had a lot of questions from customers. It's one of the ones that we get the most questions because people get the seeds and they think that they can store them for a while. So they just kind of leave the packet even if it's in like a cool dark place, like you would store regular herb or veggie seeds, they will probably rot. They need to be stored in a fridge and we always recommend people plant them as soon as they get them or keep them in a fridge for like a week or two before planting them. But those are where actually most of the issues come from. So as long as you have those like nice fresh - they're supposed to be kind of like peanut shaped and a little bit yellowish green - as long as they look like that they'll probably grow for you and they usually germinate pretty quickly.

[11:29] Jane Perrone Are they big those seeds are they quite chunky seeds?

[11:32] Alina Smith They're about peanut size but they can also be a lot lot smaller. So there's there's a little bit of a range there for sure. Some of them are more like pea sized but as long as they look healthy they'll probably grow.

[11:46] Jane Perrone I once knew what the term for this is when a seed uh you know needs plants sowing fresh as opposed to can be sown dried I used to know that it's it's escaped from my brain but there is a word for it there's a botanical name i'm sure. But that is a key point isn't it - and I guess - do you find yourself saying a lot "did you read the packet"? because I know I'm guilty of this - like actually read what it says on the packet that you need to do. Because usually the information's there, right?

[12:12] Alina Smith I'm very liable to this issue myself I'm a very impatient person and so you know you get a new like new seeds any kind of new project you just want to jump into it because it's just very boring to have to read through all the things but that is definitely the case for this hobby because each seed usually has its own requirements. And so some of the ones that people struggle with the most are... we have tiny, tiny seeds like African violets or some succulents are just practically dust-like specks. And so we try to mark everywhere in the packaging that these seeds are tiny. If you're not going to open them over like a white sheet of paper, they're probably lost. You're being able to fall out.

[12:54] Jane Perrone Do you get people phoning up saying there's no seeds in the packet? And you're like, "yes, there is. It's just like dust".

[13:01] Alina Smith Yeah and you know depending on what kind of ice that you have you might need a magnifying glass just to be able to see those seeds there can be frustrating to work with but some of the others like we have olive tree seeds, they need a stratification period and just to kind of summarize what that is, essentially they need to experience a winter so you need to either put them in a fridge or just keep them outdoors when it's winter um because those seeds need that that that temperature drop and then rise in order to indicate that it's time for them to germinate. And a lot of the times, if you're just going to skip that step, they're not going to sprout for you, no matter how good your setup is. So yeah, each seed has its own special requirements and it can be a lot of work doing the research. You know we have beginner-friendly varieties that you can basically uh toss them to a greenhouse and they'll grow but once you get to the more tricky seed varieties you really need to yeah read those instructions you know

[13:56] Jane Perrone What are the must-haves you know what do people need in terms of equipment to get started if they're looking at the kind of the much more entry-level stuff yeah uh i mean it sounds obvious to say a pot but like it's not that simple is it there's there's there's so many different choices of like do I go for round pot do I go for a seed tray.

[14:17] Alina Smith Yeah so I am a big proponent of the budget-friendly um gardener setup but yeah the more you're willing to to get that perfect setup the more success you'll have especially with the trickier seed varieties in terms of the planter uh I think a common mistake that I see is people like to use terracotta um or some kind of very absorbent material to plant their seeds in and that's bad because a lot of houseplant seeds they're from tropical areas they need very high humidity they need a lot of moisture to germinate and um so a lot of those like terracotta type planters will soak up a lot of the moisture out of the soil and it won't leave enough for the seed to germinate. So it can be fine for some of the more beginner friendly like coleus or polka dot plants they can still germinate in those conditions, but I generally recommend staying away from those and picking something more like maybe a ceramic or plastic. Something like that tends to do a lot better for germinating houseplant seeds. And I definitely always recommend a humidity dome. That's a big one. And that just kind of seals in a lot of the moisture. And for that, yeah, you can go for a greenhouse that you bought that has a humidity dome. And I think you've talked about this in previous podcasts, but using just like a Ziploc baggie or some saran wrap, some kind of plastic wrap over the planter just to really keep that moisture and is a great budget friendly way to create your own humidity dome. And, um, finally, uh, I would say one of the most underrated, um, and like best things that you can spend your money on if you're getting on into the hobby is a heat map. Um, and just because again, with, with a lot of these houseplant seeds, they tend to come from warmer climates. And so they don't do well if the temperature in your home drops at all. So a heat mat is only like 10 or 20 bucks on something like Amazon. And we'll keep your seeds at a consistent 70 degrees, 75, somewhere around that range. And that's kind of where you want your seeds to be in order to get them to germinate successfully. And so I think like having that heat, that humidity is really, really critical. In terms of light, it's probably not the most important thing for germinating these tropical, the more more tropical varieties because they tend to be you know on the bottom of a forest floor they're not getting a ton of light anyway. So you can either keep them like just in your home somewhere - grow lights work great too - but away from any like very strong direct sunlight is something that i always recommend

[16:54] Jane Perrone They can start to cook can't they once if they're in too much sun? And one thing that i often see people asking about is with the humidity dome whether you basically they're under there for good or whether once they're germinated and up you then remove that like when is there a point when you sort of start to give them a bit of tough love your seedlings and and take the humidity dome away or do you just keep it there if it's something tropical they're going to enjoy the humidity anyway?

[17:21] Alina Smith This actually really depends on the uh seed variety as well i've done some experiments myself with a lot of the seeds that we have um most varieties tend to do better if you start to remove that humidity dome pretty early so that they can start acclimating to that fresh air it just um they need a lot more oxygen you know and so I think being able to provide that fresh air to the seedlings as they grow benefits them a lot some varieties will straight up die if you leave the humidity dome on so I've experimented a lot with polka dot plants because they're just so easy to grow. I've left humidity dome on for some of them and they just don't survive at a certain point so i always recommend a nice acclimation process once you start to see those seedlings start to pop up to start to remove the humidity dome for like a couple of hours a day just to make that transition as gradual as possible um and then after about a week of doing that then you can remove the humidity dome completely and hopefully the seedlings will be acclimated by then and not have this like drastic transition from a nice cozy humidity dome environment to to just a full blast of fresh air and yeah continue growing from there.

[18:33] Jane Perrone I forgot to ask you have you got any tips on... if you're like got massive sausage fingers like me and you've got this tiny african violet seed or whatever any tips for actually sewing that without driving yourself mad? The white paper tip is a good one, but how do I then get them off the paper onto the soil without them being just in one big clump? Because that's usually what happens for me.

[18:59] Alina Smith Honestly, that's a tricky one. With any of those really tiny dust-like seeds, I don't use my fingers either. I have pretty small hands too, but they get stuck. They get stuck on your fingers. so really the best way that I think that you can combat that issue is when you're pouring the seeds out of the bag to pour like small little clumps of them if you can count them out. But yeah I just use a tiny sheet of white paper that I cut out from uh you know just like a piece of scrap paper and I pour the seeds from the baggie onto the paper and then I kind of drizzle them as carefully as I can it's never going to be perfect unfortunately but that's the best method that I know of and usually works pretty well so that's just one of those things that I feel like takes a little bit of practice.

[19:49] Jane Perrone Sometimes you feel like am I like even though you know that there's seeds there and you know you've sown them it's like am I just going mad here - have I actually sown anything is there anything in there? Especially if they don't germinate very quickly because then you're left wondering uh whether whether there's actually anything there it's frustrating. I was just germinating some - or trying to germinate some some Sinningia seeds, and that was that situation. I'm like, I don't know if they're in there or not. Did I get any on the soil? Who knows?

[20:18] Alina Smith Sinningia are my favourite. They're one of the plants that I didn't really pay attention to until I got the seeds for them. And then once I grew them, I just fell in love with this plant. They're so unusual and wacky. I love them.

[20:30] Jane Perrone Yeah, yeah. I'm hoping that I get some germination, but not so far. They are lovely. And I have grown them from seed before, but I slightly sort of start to doubt myself when that seed is absolutely tiny.

[20:40] Alina Smith It's happened too, where I've been doing this for so many years and I'll still just have an unsuccessful batch. So I always recommend just like when you get a new seed packet, don't plant all of them right away in case something can go wrong with any setup, up even if you tried to check everything sometimes you might just have like a broken lid or something and all the water escapes so none of the, there's not enough moisture in there for the seeds.

[21:04] Jane Perrone Yeah i mean i think that's the thing isn't it you have to emphasize that you know with the best will in the world germination rates can be zero and that's does happen i guess the joy is like normally seeds are relatively cheap, it's not like buying a whole plant you're probably spending not that much money. So if it does go wrong, you've not lost a tremendous amount from seeds, but most of the time they will germinate. But I think sometimes you just, or when they're young, when seedlings are young, things can go wrong. Like last year, I lost all of my lithops seedlings because I unfortunately let them fry in my greenhouse for a couple of days when it was just too warm. And again, you're just like, like, how could I have let that happen? But on the other hand, it's not a great loss financially, but it's just frustrating. So you do get those kind of setbacks, I think. But I think that's part of the joy of it that I find really satisfying.

[21:59] Music.

[22:09]Jane Perrone More from Alina shortly, but now it's time for question of the week. And it's that Homalomena that I mentioned at the beginning of the show. And this question came from Lois, who got in touch with me last year about this plant, saying why does no houseplant book mention this particular genus? Because it's a really good houseplant. Lois got back in touch because her plant is not looking quite so good. What Lois loves about this plant is "the contrast between the almost British racing green leaves and the maroon coloured stems". But here's the problem. Lois's stems have gone pale green. Now, my mind always turns to light, particularly when we're talking about somebody living as Lois does in the UK in winter. This plant was in a hallway and Lois was worried there wasn't enough light there. Hallways are notoriously dark. So moved it into the living room, but made sure to tilt the blind so it's not in direct sun. So the questions are why are the stems going pale? Could it be the light? Could it be feed? Could it be something else? Lois did stop feeding over the winter and is wondering if that might be the cause. I think either are reasonable explanations, but I would, as ever, start off by checking those roots, have a look and see what the root situation is, because you may find that there's dryness or damage or mushiness that could tell you a whole story about what's going on with the plant.

[23:47] Jane Perrone But I would guess that perhaps this plant's gone from a very low light situation in a hallway where there's not much natural light whatsoever, then moved into a living room where the light is considerably higher and perhaps got a bit bleached by the sun because it's just not used to it. Not to say that that plant can't cope with that level of light if it has been acclimatized to it. So that's what I'd be checking for. I'd also be feeding a plant like that, a Homalomena, which would be growing pretty much throughout the whole year, I wouldn't stop feeding that plant in the winter. I would keep going with feeds, maybe use it slightly more diluted in the winter or fertilize slightly less often, but I would still keep on fertilizing through the winter. That could be another reason why the plant is just crying out for some nutrients and Homalomena are quite hungry plants. So those are my theories. I'd love to know what you find out Lois once you've had a look and whenever you see any change in colour on a plant leaf I'd also be checking for pest damage so this doesn't sound like it would be pest damage but you just never know so have a look at those stems with a hand lens if you can are you seeing anything you weren't seeing before are there any little creatures there could be thrips could be something that's sucking the sap of the leaves and therefore changing their appearance. Always worth a check. So I hope that helps, Lois. And if anyone else has a question for me, please do drop me a line - ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com is the place to email, send pictures, send information, and I will do my damnedestto get back to you with a helpful answer. Now it's time to head back to my chat with Alina of PlantFlix.

[25:40] Jane Perrone What would you recommend? Is there is there a particular species or two that you'd recommend for somebody who's thinking I'm intimidated by this whole thing where do I start?

[25:49] Alina Smith So I always recommend polka dot plants and coleus they're just so quick to germinate and they grow pretty quickly and they're a lot of fun to watch grow as well because they're so colourful, so just getting to watch those spots of color appear on the foliage as the seedlings grow is really really fun and I do always try to stress that growing houseplants from seed is all about the experience and so I think they're kind of the perfect representation of that. So those two are always my go-to starters. Some of the other ones that work well are asparagus ferns. They are not too finicky about their setup, but they do take a while. And I think we've had plenty of customers email before where they say like, oh, you know, I've had my asparagus fern seeds in soil for like two weeks and I'm not seeing any germination. Well, they can take usually up to a month. So that's a good exercise in patience, but they're very reliable with their germination. And then some of the others, let's see, I have them written down here. Um, oh, ponytail palm, uh, desert rose. Those are some succulents that are very, very beginner friendly and tend to germinate pretty quickly as well. Aloe also tends to be pretty reliable. And, um, in terms of bulbs as well, uh, cause we like to grow from bulbs as well. Oxalis and caladiums are great options as well for beginner gardeners.

[27:12] Jane Perrone Let's just get into that a little bit. Cause I think lots of listeners who who can't for various reasons do the seeds, do actually opt for the caladium option or oxalis. So when you ... and I think caladiums in particular are just becoming so, so popular. So what's the secret to that? You get this kind of weird looking lump through the post. How do you wake those up and get them going in a pot?

[27:37] Alina Smith Honestly, temperature is the main one. The oxalis, they're also known known as shamrock plants. They're a little bit less finicky about their temperatures. And I noticed that they just, they get going basically in any conditions in my experience. But caladiums, the key thing really is keeping them warmer. And essentially the warmer you keep them, the faster they germinate up until a certain point. I think 80 degrees or 85 degrees is sort of the cap that you want to try to sprout those bulbs at, but they need to be at a minimum of 70 degrees Fahrenheit. And height sorry i'm i realized i've been using Farenheit.

[28:13] Jane Perrone Don't worry I can do a quick conversion because i ishould be able to convert it by now but um so 80 is 26.6celsius so normally for for most seeds i think we i'd be looking at like 20-21 celsius so it's obviously that bit warmer like that really does need that That extra heat, yeah. Do you need to, like, soak them before they go into the pot or anything to... Is that necessary? As long as they're going into moist compost, they'll be okay?

[28:44] Alina Smith That's, yeah, as long as the soil's at a good moisture level, that's good. Another mistake I commonly see is they don't need the humidity dome to sprout. And actually a lot of the times that'll just cause mold. So just a regular planter, keep them moist. And as long as they're warm and they have light, they'll grow for you.

[29:03] Jane Perrone And there are some such beautiful caladiums out there. I have kept them occasionally kept them going from winter to winter after they've kind of gone dormant but i find it's kind of hit and miss as to whether they survive when you're trying to store them between times but i guess it's just an excuse to try some new varieties. I still haven't grown - the one that i've been looking at for sort of years and not never grown is the "Frog in a Blender' the green one green you know that one?

[29:30] Alina Smith Yes that that one's pretty.

[29:31] Jane Perrone Which I still want to grow i've had good Good and bad experiences with the caladiums. But the joy is if you are buying them as tubers, like compared to buying a mature plant, you're getting a lot more for your money, right?

[29:44] Alina Smith Definitely. And I've bought caladiums as full-grown plants and I just noticed they die instantly as soon as I take them home because they can be a little bit finicky about those kinds of environmental changes. That's definitely one of the perks of growing anything from seed or bulb is that you have them at home. You don't have to be moving them around constantly. And so they're just a lot more stable.

[30:02] Jane Perrone Yeah absolutely and they're just they're just used to your conditions from the start, right, they're not having that sudden shock. But I think for some people who who don't want to do the whole seed sowing thing because you do end up with a lot of these seeds you do end up with that stage where you've just pricked out all these young plants and then you've got about 50 million pots everywhere andnot everyone wants to go through.

[30:25] Alina Smith Yeah we have we have plant shelves set up where we have a whole system going but that's you know that's what we do Yeah.

[30:34] Jane Perrone Yeah, I mean, I'm just about to get to that stage and I'm just kind of like slightly pushing it with how long I can leave my coleus babies in their seed tray because I'm thinking, oh, I'm going to have to have this moment where suddenly I'm going to be inundated with pots. So, yeah, plus I've probably run out of pots as well. That's the other thing that you have to suddenly factor in is like suddenly having to get hold of new pots and I refuse to buy new plastic pots. So I need to go and kind of like start, um, start my little campaign where I live. People put stuff outside their houses when they don't want it. And quite often it's pots. So I'm like scouring the streets, looking for people giving pots away. Yeah.

[31:12] Alina Smith I'm, I'm very lucky. I have a good friend who runs, uh, like a plant business. She does, uh, rentals for, for different local businesses here. And so any plants that I have that I just don't have room for, because I mentioned we're in a one bedroom, we don't have a ton of space. I always give her my extra plants she's always happy.

[31:29] Jane Perrone Okay yeah that's that is actually really useful that's great. Presumably it massively varies the time to maturity that we're talking about here so maybe a coleus or the polka dot plant is going to be a matter of weeks whereas that dracaena could be years I guess?

[31:45] Alina Smith For sure, and a lot of the the plants that we have i should i should also preface saying that it really depends on the conditions that they're growing in the the the better lighting you're able to offer the seedlings as they grow, the faster they'll grow. Cause I've had some where I personally experimented where I'll grow some like Fatsia japonica and I'll have some that are not very well lit or just kind of in, you know, lower to medium light levels that an adult plant would do fine in the seedling doesn't grow at all. But as soon as you put them in any kind of, even bad, like not good quality grow lights, they take off. Um so yeah the more lighting you're able to offer the the faster these plants will grow and so I've been able to grow a large philodendron whole plant with leaves like this within six months.

[32:36] Alina Smith Those things like the coleus and the polka dot plant are great because they aren't really long-term, you know, you don't keep one of those for like decades as a houseplant really do you, they do need kind of regrowing quite frequently, so although I have kept my coleus, I've got just literally potted up my coleus that have been sitting, cuttings that have been sitting in water over winter, but there's something very cute about the leaves when they're tiny and colourful that I can see why there's an appeal to that as well and I've not grown I've not grown polka dot plant from seed but I should try that because they're they're really adorable um so I'm gonna have to give that a go. People get in touch with you lots of questions is there any other questions that people ask that you know you have to commonly answer or maybe some really odd questions you've had - anything anything where you've like raised an eyebrow?

[33:28] Alina Smith I think um in terms of weird questions they're just sometimes it's just funny misunderstandings that I still think about and they make me laugh. Where we'll get like one star reviews because for some reason people expect a plant instead of the seeds.

[33:43] Jane Perrone Oh - they haven't read they haven't read the description very closely.

[33:48] Alina Smith And we try to be very clear with all the product photos and everything that there are seeds on there and you're not gonna get a plant for seven dollars you know like a big plant um but yeah uh definitely some of the most common questions that we have are just asking for why their seeds aren't germinating. And so we try to really take a lot of time with our emails and any questions that we get, because we definitely try to focus on making sure that people actually like enjoy the growing process. And so we're constantly offering a lot of tweaks and I'd say in terms of common mistakes that we see people make are they do what you would do with like a typical herb or veggie seed variety and throw some seeds in soil, like a terracotta pot and put them on a sunny windowsill. And so we talked about this a little bit before where that's, um, there were like a few things wrong with that. And of course, um, you might have some luck with certain seeds and they'll still grow in those conditions, but for the most part you definitely want to invest in making sure you spend the time creating the right setup for the specific seed varieties. I'd say actually one of the biggest reasons why seeds don't germinate in my experience is getting the moisture levels for the soil is very tricky. So I personally, like coffee plant seeds are very popular to grow, but they're definitely trickier. They have that really hard outer coating, so they need a lot of moisture moisture, um, to, to germinate. So we always recommend a pre-soaking process for those. So just soak them in water for 12 to 24 hours before you sow them in soil. Um, so they can start that intubation process, really start taking in the water. Um, and for me, I would follow these steps and I still wouldn't succeed. Finally, on my third try, I was able to get success because I really, really made the soil very moist. And I think that that's one of the things that people tend to overlook, like the soil is moist, you know, we have condensation on the humidity dome, what's going on, probably actually need a little bit more moisture in that. Yeah, so that's, I think that's, that's part of the mindset going in is just being ready to experiment with the with the setup and figuring out what each seed likes, and just really, really getting it down. Because we can write descriptions online, but it doesn't translate to, you know, the perfect execution at home. So I think, yeah, being willing to experiment with seeds is very critical.

[36:20] Alina Smith Other than that, common questions that we get are, you know, people manage to get the seeds to sprout, but the seedlings aren't growing. And so those ones are pretty on a very, yeah, it's a very different kind of solution. Usually what I find is if seedlings aren't growing, it might be an issue with the soil medium. Maybe it's devoid of nutrients, but a lot of the time it's a lighting issue. So sometimes you just need to make some little tweaks, some adjustments. Sometimes the seedlings just need a repot. sometimes they just need a little bit more light and again it's just yeah you kind of got to fiddle around with those conditions and see what see what makes them happy and finally gets them growing again.

[37:02] Jane Perrone We need to talk about scams because this is a perennial topic and it must be the bane of your life because i'm sure people are sort of saying well why haven't you got these you know like multi-ray multi-colored rainbow house plants that i'm seeing over here for 99 cents? Tell me me about your advice on this matter and how we can avoid - other than obviously shopping with you which is which is a great uh it's obviously down to choosing your vendor carefully but what are your tips?

[37:31] Alina Smith I think you've said the phrase before if it's too good to be true it probably is and i like that um phrase a lot so i i've actually i started our business because i got scammed myself. So i i was buying seeds on on ebay uh and i was i was in the houseplant hobby for a couple of years. And I personally just always enjoyed that process of growing from seeds. So I thought it would be really fun to try to find some, you know, houseplant seeds to grow. An there are a lot of them. So these ones that I got were just, watermelon peperomia. They, you know, they just had the plants. It wasn't anything over the top. It had all the good reviews and, um, and I think it was a Calathea, I forget which variety. and um so yeah i saw that they had good reviews and the price was very low it was like three or four dollars uh and so and for like a hundred seeds so like okay yeah that's fine um and then so yeah the seeds took about a month to reach me. When I finally got around to germinating them um i couldn't leave a review anymore uh and also i realized that they were some kind of mustard seeds or something like that um so yeah that's that's how those scams operate for sure uh is a lot of of the people that leave those reviews, it's just because they received the seeds. And so they're happy. And we get some of those reviews ourselves too. We see it on our business that I received the seed. Thank you. Five stars. And so, I think if you're approaching a new seller and there are plenty of great sellers on like Etsy and even eBay, you just have to kind of do a little bit of digging around and see if they actually look legitimate. And so one of the things to look out for are, what did the reviews say? Are they just saying that it's fast shipping or is it, oh, look at the seeds that I was able, that the seedlings I was able to grow from this. One of the other really quick tells is what kind of photos the seller posted on the listing. So do they have any photos of what the seedlings look like or even what the seeds look like? Because that's one of the things I see a lot of the scammers don't include any seed photos because it's a dead giveaway. If they're posting some, you know, marigold seeds, people can recognize those and see that, oh, those aren't like some crazy begonia. Those are marigolds. So, yeah, they avoid posting any detailed photos of the seed to seedling stages.

[39:55] Jane Perrone It's understandable. People think, well, it's cheap. I'm, you know, it's not a great loss. But, you know, if there's thousands of people all paying, you know, 99 cents or whatever for something and they're actually getting mustard seed, as you say, that's like that's still quite a lot of income that these people are making.

[40:12] Alina Smith Kind of the other thing with the price point as well if the price is too good to be true as well then it probably it probably is because any of these houseplant seeds are really expensive to get from growers because they're just not being sold on that same level and also they take a lot more time to develop compared to you know yeah mustard seeds so they're just trying to be if it's if it's very cheap houseplant seeds and it's probably a little bit something to be suspicious of for sure.

[40:44] Jane Perrone And what dictates the price of seeds? Is it like how long, if something's taking a long time to produce that seed, presumably that pushes the price up in terms of it's taken you, you know, 10 years to get this plant to a stage where it can produce seed.

[40:59] Alina Smith Definitely, that's a big one. So Monstera deliciosa tend to be a little bit more expensive because they just have such a long cycle. And it's never a guarantee either, because you'll have one plant that produces one year, but they're going to take so many more years to be able to produce seeds again. And it's not even a guarantee that they will. But I think definitely another one is demand. So some of these seeds that you can grow as houseplants are also very commonly used as landscaping plants uh around like areas where I live, we're in southern california so you know there's a bit of an overlap where you can grow outdoors and what you can grow indoors and so just those uh varieties are very popular as landscaping plants tend to be a little bit less expensive because they're just so commonly grown um and so there's just a larger supply available of those so ...

[41:45] Jane Perrone Have you ever sort of like seen something where you've thought I didn't know that was possible and then it turns out not to have been a scam like if there've been any kind of like surprises where you're like actually that's real or is it always a scam is it?

[41:57] Alina Smith You know honestly I think one of the ones that that did take me by surprise was carnivorous plants. We're always having a battle with keeping carnivorous plants on our own website because they're just hard to find uh but I remember I found a grower that had them and I just I wasn't really sure that they would actually grow for me and I was actually able to grow some tiny little venus fly traps and it was just I knew it - i knew that they flowered that they can produce seeds, but I just think for some reason in my mind I didn't think that it would be possible to grow these carnivorous plants but yeah so that's that was a really fun one for me to discover personally.

[42:34] Jane Perrone That is kind of amazing and i don't know i haven't grown venus fly traps from seed but i imagine the tiny little plants look really cool do they start off with like regular cotyledon seed leaves or how do they they look when they're tiny?

[42:46] Alina Smith So the ones that I grew, I didn't pay attention to them for a while because i didn't think that they were right.

[42:52] Jane Perrone Right yes, who knows what they were like?

[42:54] Alina Smith Yeah it was a pleasant surprise for me to come back to that seed setup and find they had two little uh leaves and then one tiny little little head.

[43:02] Jane Perrone The only thing i would say it's interesting on that venus flytrap thing the only thing i've found is that sometimes here in the UK, i do know there there are sources of really good carnivorous plants. But the thing I advise people not to buy is when you go to like a big box store and they have like 'grow your own Venus flytrap'. And I think oftentimes those don't work because the seed is not very fresh and they've been sitting there for a really long time. So that, that, yeah, I'm sure that you're right. It's a great thing to do, but you probably need to go to the specialist growers rather than just like the big box store, which I think probably is going to be a disappointment. I don't know, probably somebody listening is going to tell me they've grown loads from doing that. That would be my tip, I suppose.

[43:45] Alina Smith Yeah. And it definitely, some of those varieties, they, they don't store as well. Um, yeah, Venus light shop, I think, I think don't as well. And the other thing is they're, they're just trickier seeds to grow from seed as well. So I think that it's one of the things that we're kind of an issue that we're constantly trying to figure out because we, we sell to some different plant shops around the United States and Canada and we have seed kits as well, we try not to pick the seeds that are going to be too hard to grow, because I feel like that'll ruin the kind of the reputation of that plant shop because if somebody gets, you know, a very difficult seed like the Dracaena draco and they're not able to grow them then they're going to blame that shop.

[44:27] Jane Perrone You want things that are going to kind of get people involved and get them succeeding from the start in order to then go on and try more - yeah that makes sense - well it's been a delight to talk to you Alina thank you so much for sharing your your seedy wisdom with us. Thank you very much for the inspiration.

[44:41] Alina Smith Yeah of course well thank you so much for having me this was my first uh kind of podcast interview that i've ever done and i enjoyed a lot so thank you so much.

[44:52] Music.

[44:59] Jane Perrone Thanks so much to Alina for joining me today and do check the show notes at janeperrone.com for a full transcript links to plant flicks and some other seed sowing resources plus links to listen to other episodes of the on the ledge so along it's been a pleasure it's been a joy it's been a privilege as always to have you join me on On The Ledge. I will speak to you soon. Bye!

[45:27] Music.

[45:36] Jane Perrone 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 and Whistle by BenJamin Banger. All tracks are licensed under Creative Commons - visit the show notes for details.

[45:53] Music.

Jane Perrone talks to Alina Smith of US houseplant seed sellers Plantflix about how to get started growing from seed, and answers a question about a Homalomena.

This week’s guest

Alina Smith runs Plantflix with her husband Jeff from their base In California in the US.
They are on Instagram as @plantflix and can be found on Facebook here.
Check out the Plantflix website for lots of amazing houseplant seed including Philodendrons, aspsaragus ferns, Caladium tubers and more.

What is the OTL sowalong?

Since 2018 I’ve been running the sowalong, and the premise is simple - encouraging listeners to grow houseplants from seed, offering advice and tips on how to do it, and sharing your successes, failures and questions with the whole OTL community.

Want more from the sowalong?

You’ll find all the sowalong episodes from previous years here, including cacti and succulents from seed, ferns from spores and more.

If you are looking for seeds in the US or the UK, check out my UK buying guide and my US buying guide. And let me know if you have suggestions for other seed companies worth adding to the list.

Hear me talk at this spring!

On April 23 I will be chatting about houseplants to Matthew Pottage at the RHS Lindley Library in London. Details here.
I am going to be at the Malvern Spring show in Worcestershire on May 11 and 12 popping up for a talk and more as part of the new festival of houseplants organised by Green Rooms Market, Book your tickets now! Details here.

Check these notes while you are listening…

Alina suggests that coleus and polka dot plants are great seeds for beginners to try sowing. Slighty harder but very rewarding are asparagus ferns, desert rose (Adenium) and the ponytail palm (Beaucarnea recurvata). Check out Pantlix’s guide to growing houseplants from seed here.
One mistake that people often make when sowing houseplant seeds is using a terracotta pot as their container - it’s usually better to use plastic of ceramic as less water evaporates away from the substrate.
Dustlike seeds such as African violets and Sinningias can be hard to handle - open the packet over a piece of white paper and try to be as delicate as possible when sowing so they don’t land in one clump.
Create your own humidity dome using a clear plastic lid or plastic bag to create a humid environment for your seed. This can be gradually removed once seedlings have germinated.
Most seeds like warmth to germinate, so placing plants in a heated propagator or under a heat mat with a thermostat really helps.
If you can’t grow from seed, why not get some Oxalis rhizomes or Caladium tubers and try sprouting these (yes, it still counts for the sowalong!)
Place pots or seed trays in good light but not really bright direct sun as you’ll cook your plants. Use a growlight if you can to improve light.
Scams are a real problem when looking for houseplant seeds to sow. If it’s too good to be true - AVOID. Check out Plantflix’s guide to avoiding seed scams.
Problems are often caused by not enough light or heat. And seeds sometimes just don’t germinate. Check out Plantflix’s troubleshooting guide for more information.

Question of the week

Lois wanted to know why her Homalomena has developed pale stems rather than their usual dark red colouration. This plant isn’t mentioned much in the houseplant literature but is a lovely aroid that is relatively easy to grow. In this case though I suspect the plant hasn’t had enough light being positioned in a hallway in winter. Lois moved the plant to a brighter room but it may take a while for the plant to regain its colour.

There are other possibilities, though: the swift change of light may have bleached the stems a little, and it’s always worth looking at the foliage and roots when a problem like this occurs: the roots, to check for any problems like dryness or waterlogging, and the foliage for signs of pest damage (stippling, silvery marks or the presence of young insects).

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!

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