Episode 129: OTL Sowalong part one - growing ferns from spores
Young ferns propagated from spores. Photograph: Peter Blake.
Transcript
Episode 129
[music]
Jane:
Hello, it's On The Ledge episode 129! I am so excited about this episode. I'm kicking off the On The Ledge Sowalong this week, talking to fern expert Peter Blake about growing ferns from spores. And I'm answering a listener question about top tactics for going to plant shows. Sharpen your elbows, people - buying season is just around the corner! And we'll be meeting listener, Memo.
[music]
Jane: A few shout-outs before we get started. Thanks to Siobhan and Jo for becoming On The Ledge Superfans. Briar has become a Ledge End and thanks to Midge for upgrading to become a Ledge End and thanks to Tapokita - that's the name of a wonderful little animation firm - who has become a Crazy Plant Person. If you want to find out how to support On The Ledge via Patreon and a one-off donation via Ko-Fi, if you so choose, the details are in the show notes at JanePerrone.com
The On The Ledge Sowalong is now in its third year - can you believe that? Here's the idea for those of you who are maybe new to the show. It's quite simple. It's our way of getting to know our houseplants better by growing them from seed. How do you join in? Well, all you have to do is listen to the episodes, think about what kinds of plants you want to grow, get your seed, and then report back on how you're getting along on the sowing front via your social media method of choice. You can get in touch with me on Facebook, Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge is our Facebook group, you can also tag me on Instagram j.l.perrone, tweet me, @JanePerrone, or send me an email at
Do take a look at the show notes where you can see all of the On The Ledge Sowalong episodes I've ever done on one page and there's all kinds of useful stuff in there like where to get seeds from, what equipment you're going to need and how to get started. I'll be covering the Sowalong in various ways in the coming weeks, but this first episode is answering a demand that many of you have had, which is for information on propagating ferns. This isn't so much a Sowalong as a Sporealong because, as we'll be finding out from fern expert Peter Blake, growing new baby ferns isn't quite the same as sowing seeds of other plants. If you're wondering why on earth you would ever bother with growing houseplants from seeds, because, hey, it's easy enough to walk into your nearest garden centre or plant boutique and pick up full-sized plants, let me just explain. For a start, it's cheap and if you're the kind of person who doesn't have a lot of extra income to splash out on buying plants, then you can pick up a range of houseplant seed packets for a few pounds or dollars, or whatever your local currency may be, and you can get from that packet a large number of plants, which then you could sell or give to friends and family or just keep to turn your home into a total jungle. So it's a cheap way of getting lots of lovely plants. It also really gives you a fantastic insight into how those plants grow, plus, rather than buying a plant in a nursery that's been coddled to within an inch of its life in the absolute, computer-controlled, perfect environment, you'll be bringing up a plant in your own home, which will be adapted to your conditions. That said, there are some drawbacks. It does take up a fair bit of room, you may need a few bits of equipment and you'll need a specially formulated potting mix for your seeds to go into.
We'll be looking at various aspects of the Sowalong in upcoming episodes but, as I say, do get in touch, tell me how your plants are growing on, that you've sown in previous Sowalongs and what else you'd like to know because there's still plenty of time to contribute.
I spoke to Peter Blake who has many years of experience with ferns to find out how it's done. Here's Peter to introduce himself.
Peter: I'm a fern enthusiast who's been growing ferns for about fifteen years now. Both hardy ferns in the garden and tender and tropical ferns in glass houses. I've been in the British Pteridological Society, which is basically the fern society for the UK, for that length of time and I've had a great deal of help and support through them. Also, I've had a lot of spores from them because they operate a spore exchange system at the beginning of each year.
Jane: I guess this is Botany 101, but why are we propagating ferns from spores and not from seeds? Can you just explain that to us? Because not everyone's going to know the reproductive processes of the fern particularly well.
Peter: Ferns are unusual in that they are basically quite primitive plants along with a number of other spore-producing plants, like mosses, but they are vascular plants so they're a bit more advanced than mosses. But what they do is they produce a spore which is very small and light and can travel a long way. The fern itself, that we're used to seeing in the garden or in a pot, is actually a plant that has no gender, it is neither male nor female and the spores that it produces are equally neither male nor female. But those little spores, if they land in the right place, will cause a second plant to grow which, scientifically, is called a gametophyte or a prothallus and that little plant, which most people have not ever recognised because they're so small, actually is a sexual plant and it has both male and female sex organs. The male sex organs are called antheridia and the female sex organs are called the archegonia and effectively the antheridia produce little swimming things like sperm and they travel through a film of water, which is why the prothalli need damp to grow and they would travel through that film of water to the archegonia where they will fertilise an egg in that place. Once that egg is fertilised it will begin to divide and grow into a new fern which will look like ones we're used to seeing. So the sexual part of this biphasic life cycle is the gametophyte and the asexual part, the part that produces the spores, is called the sporophyte. So although it sounds complicated, it's a system that's worked very well for ferns for the last 350 million years, so it's certainly an effective system.
Jane: Indeed. It's something that it is new to many of us who have perhaps have grown plants from seed. The procedure is a little bit different. How do we know, first of all, that a fern is ready to be harvested for spores?
Peter: Ferns can carry spores in a number of ways. It's always on a frond, which is what we call a fern leaf basically. We call them fronds, and usually, for particularly for the ferns that we see as natives in the UK, those fronds look very much all the same, whether they carry spores or not. So, if you turn a frond over and it's just plain green on the back, it's probably not got any spores, if you turn a frond over and look at the back of it and it's covered in little brown spots, then those are what are called sori and those are the little collections that actually contain the spores. Some ferns will get a completely separate type of frond that looks different from the rest of the plant to carry those spores in the sori, those little collections. Ones that do that are things like the Royal Fern, which you sometimes see growing next to water and it'll have a big sort of plume in the middle covered in sori and you can see it because it's a golden brown colour, whereas the rest of the plant is green. But generally, for most ferns that we come across commonly, the sori carrying the spores are on the back of the frond. If they're very young sori and they're not ripe yet, they will appear white or pale green. When they're just coming to the right sort of ripeness to collect them they turn a sort of tan colour generally and when they've gone over and released their spores they go dark brown.
What actually happens in that sorus, is that sorus can contain lots of little containers, called sporangia, which actually contain the spores, and those sporangia, when they're ripe, if the wind dries a little bit, will burst open and actually fire the spores out. So if you take a frond where you're beginning to see the tan-coloured sori on the back and you put it on a piece of white paper in a warm dry place like the airing cupboard, or on the dining room table, or something like that where there are no draughts, if you leave it overnight, in the morning, if you lift that frond off, you will find that there is a pattern of the sori on the paper where the sporangia have fired out the spores and they've actually hit the paper and stuck to it. So you can get a very nice sort of shadow picture of the frond, just made out of the spores that it has released!
Jane: What if you are a person who really wants to start propagating ferns but you don't have any of the ferns you want? I know that the British Pteridological Society does this scheme, which is a brilliant reason to join the society, which presumably means you can apply for spores from different species?
Peter: Yes. Obviously, they only can distribute those that they've been given, so it's a tit for tat system, people have to contribute spores and then they will divide them up into tiny little packets and, you'll at first think there's nothing in there, but in fact there is, because, of course, spores are absolutely minute. You can't see them. It's only when you get a lot of them pushed together that you actually see that the spores are there, but you'll get this little packet which you can then sow into compost. In the society we have a lot of members who do collect spores both native spores, foreign plants that are growing in our gardens, but also from glass houses and tropical houses. We also have overseas members of the society who contribute spores as well. So, I would say that generally there's somewhere between about 300-400 different varieties available. Obviously this is for the members and it is on a first-come-first-served basis once the spore list is opened at the beginning of the year.
Jane: It sounds fantastic and it's great to hear that you've got members from outside of the UK, because I know lots of my listeners are not from the UK, so that's great to hear that they can get involved too. I have seen a few listings on eBay for spores. I presume if they're a reliable source, obviously that's a big "If" because obviously as we know there are lots of not-so-genuine sources of certainly seeds on eBay, but presumably that's okay - you can send those spores through the post successfully and purchase some that way if you, for some reason, don't want to join the society?
Peter: Yes, in general the ones you see available commercially tend to be the rather, I wouldn't like to say boring, but the rather mundane ferns and also, of course, the ferns that produce a lot of spores, because commercially you don't want to be dealing with something where you only get twelve packets out of it. You want to be dealing with something where you can make up hundreds of packets. So the ones available commercially tend to be tree ferns, which, of course, because of their size, can carry many grams of spores on them and you can harvest large quantities and then divide them up into little envelopes. Generally they tend to be the rather larger, spore-rich, rather mundane ferns. I've tried growing them from commercial spores in the past and had some success, but it hasn't been universally successful. Nothing is universally successful of course, in horticulture. Some things will grow and some things won't. I think, generally, so long as they're kept well, it's worth having a go. They do last a long time. I've certainly grown ferns from spores that I think are probably about 50 years old, but for most ferns you can certainly grow them for two or three years after they've been harvested, especially if you keep them somewhere cool and dry, wrapped up in the fridge, or something like that, and they will last a long time.
Jane: So we've got our spores, what's the next step?
Peter: You can be very purist and you can try to sift the spores to get out any rubbish. In other words, bits of sporangia, bits of frond that might have dropped off. I haven't done that very much myself because you lose an awful lot of spores in the process of sifting them, but those that do it for us for the British Pteridological Society certainly do sift the spores, to make sure that there are no other little bits in there at all. The reason you do that, is because spores themselves are very small. If you get other contaminants in there, which are bigger, then those might rot and start to produce mould or other infections in your culture medium. The culture medium you want to use for this is actually virtually anything you want to try, because those prothalli that are going to grow from the spores are actually not very fussy about where they grow, the bits that are fussy are the sporophytes, in other words, the young ferns that grow from the prothalli.
So what I do, is I use potting compost which I sterilise. I sterilise it by wetting it, I put it in a small tupperware container with a loose lid on it, then I microwave it, and as with all best things it's one minute on high and wait until it steams and bubbles, take it out. Make sure it's cooled completely, also make sure that the lid is loose because if the lid sucks on to the top of the container while it's shrinking and cooling down you won't get the lid off again. So you just have to make sure the lid is a bit loose, let it cool down and then you can sow your spores and try not to sow them too thickly. Remember that you can't really see these things and you tend to find that you over plant, you get a big clump in one corner where you get so many prothalli that they sort of crowd each other out. So you want to try and get a thin, even spread over the compost. At that point you stick the lid on, make sure you label it because they can take a long time to come up, these prothalli, and you won't remember what's in which box, so label it, have a good archiving system and then you just put them aside and wait. I put them aside a guest bathroom which we've got in the house with an LED light over them and I just leave them and you just keep looking every now and then to see whether anything's happening. If things go well, you will begin to see tiny, tiny little green dots of the prothalli growing and that can be anywhere between six weeks after sowing and a year after sowing, so you might have to keep these boxes a long time before you decide that, actually, nothing's going to come up.
Jane: So it's a bit of a patience game, which I'm not particularly good at - being patient - but at least there's not a great deal of maintenance to worry about in the meantime. Is temperature just within the usual range of room temperature, we're talking about?
Peter: Yes. It depends what you're growing. Obviously, if you're growing something tropical, then you want to have it in a well-heated room. If you're growing native ferns, you might just have them in an outside greenhouse or in the garage, something like that. The prothalli do need some light, but not direct light. If they get direct light, they'll probably get too hot and dry out, or they'll just cook. So they really need indirect light in a place, in my case, as I say, the upstairs bathroom which isn't used very much, is probably about fifteen degrees or so for most of the Winter and it has a sky light and some LED lights up there.
Jane: At what point do you decide the babies are ready for planting out?
Peter: They can certainly sit and sulk for a year! Sometimes they can sit and sulk for two years. So you may not actually see a proper fern growing for two to three years after you've sown your original spores. It's then a question of whether you've got the patience to wait for them or whether you think this is a waste of time, let's pop them in the compost! It's really up to you. It depends on how much space you've got and how valuable and treasured you think that the fern that you're trying to grow is. If it's something you really want, obviously, you'll give it a lot of leeway and give it time to come up.
Generally, I plant them out when they're about two to three centimetres high. I plant them into little individual containers and I keep them in a plastic shoe box with the lid closed and at that point I move them into an ordinary conservatory where they do get a rhythm of daylight but they're still warm, of course having the lid on keeps them at 100% humidity. At that point you're then watching to see when they get big enough to begin to open the lid and harden them off a bit. Usually once they're about four or five centimetres high you can open the corner of the plastic shoe box and let the air in and they will begin to harden off. Some are more resilient than others. They're not the easiest things to grow and it's that point of hardening off where things can go wrong, basically. You either try to do it too quickly or you don't do it quickly enough and they rot and it's also the point at which they begin to be more fussy about the substrate they're growing on.
If you're growing acid-loving ferns, they'll begin to want that sort of compost when they're sort of four or five centimetres high. If you're growing limestone ferns, they will want that when they get to that sort of size. Equally, if you're growing something like epiphytes, they will need a well-drained compost from the point at which they're four or five centimetres. So that tends to be the point at which you find you lose things, but often you'll get a few survivors, even if you lose the lot. At the end of the day, how many do you want? Do you really want to be growing hundreds and hundreds of the same thing? Because you will get hundreds and hundreds. So I tend to try to keep myself in check and not grow more than ten of anything.
Jane: I would imagine that, like growing houseplants from seed, that if you can get them past that tricky hardening-off stage, that hopefully, given the way you've brought them up, they're actually growing adapted to your conditions from the start possibly, rather than buying a mature fern that's been very much coddled in a green house, that might immediately go plonk! You might have more chances of success?
Peter: Yes, I think so. Certainly an awful lot of these particularly tender ferns come from Holland and places like that, where they're being grown hydroponically, really. Often with artificial light and foliar feeding and I think we've all had the experience of buying a beautiful shiny green fern from the garden centre that's lasted about ten days and you plant it out and it just dies. Of course it's because they're just having such an enormous change in their growing environment - a complete shock for them - so growing your own means that you can pot them up, they don't get potbound and as you say, they become used to the climate they're going to be growing in as adults.
[music]
Jane: Well, I hope you've found that inspiring and if you want to check out the British Pteridological Society a link to their website is in the show notes and it's worth taking a look because there are full instructions there on propagating ferns from spores and also details of their spore scheme and how to become a member. A new episode of An Extra Leaf will be coming out shortly containing a bit of extra chat with Peter about some of the easier and hardier ferns to grow and also his technique for growing those oh-so-tricky Maidenhair ferns.
Now it's time for Question of the Week which comes from BotanicalAspirations on Instagram. I loved this question the minute I read it and I knew I had to share my answer with you because it's a really topical one. BotanicalAspirations says they're going to their first plant/flower show at the weekend and are after some advice on how to go about attending an event like this. They want to check out the displays and buy some plants, so does the buying happen at the beginning or the end? How do you stop yourself from buying the whole show? What do you carry the plants around in? Top tips are clearly required here, so BotanicalAspirations, I'm just the person to ask this question because I've been to many a show and experienced the stresses and strains, as well as the delights, of buying plants. Now is really the start of the show season in many parts of the world, so it's a really good time to ask. If you've never been to a plant show, I would urge you to get along to one in 2020, whether it's a huge national show, like the Chelsea Flower Show, or something happening in a village hall near you. It doesn't matter the size, it is a chance to really geek out about plants and meet other enthusiasts and sometimes get your hands on some really nice rare and beautiful and well-grown plants.
If you're looking for some really choice, super-rare things and you're going to a specialist show like a cactus show, or an orchid show, then the key thing is that you get there nice and early because you need to be there at the front when the doors open because these things can be complete bun fights! The more research you can do before you get there, the better. So if you know the lists of sellers that are going to be there, research what they might have, even phone them up or email them and ask them what stock they're going to have at the show. You will then go in really well-informed about what you're looking for and you can make a beeline for the sellers that you want and you'll know, hopefully, where they are. Oftentimes, the biggest shows will have a map showing the layout and who's where, and again, consult the map before you go in and you can make a beeline for that seller that you really want. If like me, you're generally going in and you just going nuts about everything and you don't have anything in particular that you're looking for, I advise checking out all the stalls before you buy anything. Sometimes the best stalls are those run by the plant societies rather than the commercial nurseries because they'll have really nice high quality plants sometimes at a slightly better price. So do look around every corner. Sometimes the best stall is hidden away somewhere in the corner of the marquee or the event hall, so look around thoroughly first before you buy anything because it's a bit disheartening if you buy a small specimen or something for quite a lot of money and then go around the corner and see a much bigger plant of the same species for a lower price. Yes, it has happened to me!
Do check your plants just as you would if you were buying them from a plant boutique in a nursery though because you do find that sometimes these plants will have problems and they're not necessarily going to be free of pests, so check them in the way that you would do any plant you buy. The usual quarantine rules apply once you get them home as well. Bring along something to take your plants home in. At cactus sales, this is usually a plastic-handled trug, or one of those trays that you see at fruit markets, blue plastic trays, something that you can hold easily and put lots of plants into safely so they won't tip over and you will be able to have a hand free to make other purchases. If you've got one of those foldable shopping trollies, these are really great for these kind of shows, particularly if you're looking at bigger plants. That way you can put the plants into that shopping trolley and wheel it along and your back will thank you for it.
If the weather isn't great, I would also advise, this sounds ridiculous, but if it's cold and wet and you're bringing home very sensitive tender plants, maybe bring a bit of horticultural fleece because not all sellers do a great job of wrapping plants and there's nothing worse than getting home and realise a plant's been damaged in transit either by being knocked or by being exposed to cold draughts.
The other danger that BotanicalAspirations has pointed out here, is that you just end up spending a fortune at these shows. The risk is real, people! It is a thing that happens all the time! There's a few ways round this. I would say if you're really worried about overspending and you're on a strict budget then don't bring any cards with you - just bring cash. For one thing, a lot of vendors will accept cards, but some won't. So if you don't have cash on you, you may miss out with some of the smaller nurseries or hobbyist growers who are selling at shows. If you've only got cash, then once that's run out, it's run out - there's nothing more you can do. Yes, that's one possibility - just bring cash - just to have a list before you go in of what you want to buy and try to resist the impulse buy, although I do know that is very, very hard sometimes!
The only show that I know of where you can't actually buy the plants on the nursery stalls is the Chelsea Flower Show. In fact, this is good timing because I have an announcement related to the Chelsea Flower Show to give you. I am very excited to announce that I am going to be part of the Chelsea Flower Show's brand new talks programme which is happening for the first time at the show, it's very exciting, and I'm going to be interviewing a certain Mr James Wong on the Friday of the show, that's the 22nd May at three o' clock in the Talks Theatre. This is a ticketed event, so you will need to get your tickets and I've included a link in the show notes to where you go to get Chelsea Flower Show tickets. I'm also really lucky that I have got a couple of tickets for a giveaway. Now, I have decided that I want real, genuine On The Ledge listener to get these tickets, so I am going to run a giveaway on the show. I'm not going to mention it on social media, so you have to be a genuine listener to get these tickets, and I will put the full terms and conditions into the show notes. I will work that out in the next week or so. Hopefully, next week's episode will be the one to listen to, number 130, and I will tell you how to enter. This is your chance to go to the Chelsea Flower Show on Friday 22nd May and that means you can come and hear me in the Talks Theatre, talking to James Wong. Some people have asked me if I'm going to be putting that show out as a recording. I'm waiting to hear back on that at the moment. As you may know, the BBC has a contract to broadcast the show to the masses, so the organisers are checking with the BBC whether they're happy for me to record the interview with James and put it out on the podcast. I will let you know as soon as I can. I know lots of you won't be able to make it to the show so it would be lovely to bring you that interview, but that's really a decision that's out of my hands. It's up to the BBC and the Chelsea Flower Show organisers to make a ruling on that one, so I will let you know. Exciting giveaway next week, so tune in next week for that, and I will be bringing you some more announcements of upcoming talks in the next few weeks. Do check out my website for a list of all the talks that I'm currently booked for, you'll find it at JanePerrone.com/talks
Anyway, enough of that. The only time you can buy plants at Chelsea is the Saturday of the show, which is the grand sell off in the afternoon. There is this mad rush, it's a crazy, crazy event, you need to be prepared to come with sharp elbows and fight for some good plants! Just don't impulse-buy that six foot Strelitzia without thinking about where it's going to go and how you're going to get it home on the underground system! The sale usually kicks off around four o'clock. I've got a memory of Alan Titchmarsh, the very famous British gardening TV person, ringing a bell! I don't know if that still happens, but that's how it used to be. It's something out of a horticultural horror movie, people leaping over one another trying to get the best plants! If you like that kind of thing, it's fun, but it's not something where you'll be able to know what you're getting in advance, so you've got to have nerves of steel for that one and also you've got to get into the Chelsea Flower Show, which is not that easy for all of us - it's obviously the world's most famous flower show and therefore very much in demand.
So, going back to general advice on going to plant shows, I would say make sure you bring water and food of your own if you possibly can. Two reasons for this. One: you won't have to waste time queuing to get to the front of the food stall to buy your food. Also, if you're anything like me and you have an issue with becoming 'hangry' when your blood sugar drops - yes I'm the ultimate hangry person, as anyone who's spent any time with me will know! - you need to have a few snacks to keep you going when you're actually shopping and you don't need to be stopping every five minutes to go to the nearest kebab stall or whatever they're offering - it probably won't be a kebab stall, it'll probably be a Pimms stall or something like that - but if you bring your own water and food, then that will make your life that bit easier. The other reason to bring your own food is that some shows are still really behind the times when it comes to single-use plastic and a lot of the food stalls will still be using single-use plastic. It's best to try to avoid that. Let's try to not have single-use plastic in our lives. The way you can combat that - bring a picnic, bring bottles of water yourself. Most shows will let you bring those in. That way, you can enjoy your own food without worrying that a load of plastic is headed for landfill as a result of your attending that show.
Ideally, if you've got a partner or a friend who's not that interested in plants but is quite willing to be parked under a cool tree with a tin of Marks and Spencer ready-made pink gin and tonic and their favourite book, that is the ideal person to take along because then you can leave plants that you've bought with them, leave them with all the food and the stuff, so you've got your hands free for plant shopping. They'll have a lovely day reading their book, chilling out, and you can enjoy the plants, safe in the knowledge that the rest of your stuff is being looked after by somebody. If that's not possible, some plant fairs have got plant creches and the idea there is that you go and place your purchases in a secure area while you wander around. Sometimes they ask for a donation to charity or there's a small fee attached to doing this, but it really is great if you're going to a big show where you're buying big plants at the beginning of the day, that you want to get hold of before stocks run low. What are you going to do with those plants all day? So the plant creche is a great option.
As I've already said, make sure that you get a map as soon as you get there, if not before, so you know exactly where you're going, where the toilets are, important things like that, really crucial, and where the food is. Also, on a practical note, do wear sunscreen and a hat if it is anything other than the darkest of days because I know from going to Chelsea and spending all day outside, that even if you don't think it's that sunny, you will get sunburnt by spending all day outside, if like me, you spend most of your days in an office, not in natural light. So yes, sunscreen is essential, sun hat, make sure you've got plenty of water. I'm sounding like your mum now, but you know what I mean! Just take care of yourself because there's nothing worse than coming home from a show where you've had great fun and then realising that you look like beetroot because you didn't put any sunscreen on.
Take your mobile along. It's often the case that wifi reception is non-existent, so don't necessarily expect to be uploading to Instagram but you can use your mobile to your advantage. Take pictures of the stalls that you particularly like. It might be that you can take pictures of logos so you can remember what you bought and where, so that when you come home you can keep a record of that. That's always useful to know if there's any problems with your plants down the line. If you've run out of money, you can also then take photos of those lovely plants that you wish you could buy so that you've got a note of what you want to get in future. But also do talk to the stall holders themselves. Often they've got an absolute fount of knowledge on the plants that they're selling, so if in doubt, do ask questions and ask for advice. That way you will get a really good insight into the plants you are buying. Just lastly, if you are going to a show, do mention it on the Facebook group House Plant Fans of On The Ledge, because that's a great way of setting up a little meet up. So if you're going to one of those shows on your own and thinking that you might like a bit of a chat with a like-minded plant person, then that is the way you find somebody who is going also. I'd love to hear about some planty meet-ups happening this summer at the shows!
I hope that has given you some suggestions, BotanicalAspirations, for your very first plant show and I hope it's great fun. If you're heading to a plant show this year then enjoy and while we're talking about shows, just a reminder that I'm going to be at Future Flora at the Ace Hotel in Shoreditch in London on 22nd of March, that's a Sunday, and I'd love to see you there. There's going to be a number of sellers there of both plants and accessories, so I'd love to meet you there. If you're going along, let me know and we will meet! I will have some stickers on hand for any listener that comes up to me and tells me they're a fan of On The Ledge!
If you've got a question for me, then drop me a line:
Now it's time to meet our listener this week and his name is Memo.
[music]
Memo: Hi Jane, my name is Memo. I've been an avid listener for quite a while now to your podcast and I have to say I'm a big fan. It's definitely something that has helped me get back into my love of houseplants which kind of started at a young age for me, actually. I think at the age of around five or six, I was back home. I'm originally from Cyprus and back then what we class now as house plants here, were plants we just had out on the balcony all year round! As a small child, my mother gave me the task of watering all the plants and I think that's probably when I caught the bug, to be fair. It's something that I stopped doing for a long time and not being into houseplants as much as I was and then my other half mentioned, when I started buying a few houseplants about last year, just like: "Oh, it's nice to see you back into something that you enjoyed so much!" and I think the rest, essentially, is history! I think I'm close to 250 houseplants and definitely still growing!
Jane: Question one. There's a fire and all your plants are about to burn. Which one do you grab as you escape?
Memo: So, actually, if there's a fire and I need to grab one of my plants as I escape out the door, I think this is a bit of a loaded question! It kind of depends on what plant has caught my fancy at that particular moment in time. I think, at the moment though, and it has been like this for a while now, it'll probably be one of my variegated Monsteras. It's definitely one of the plants that took me the longest to find and I wouldn't want to be searching for it again.
Jane: Question two. What is your favourite episode of On The Ledge?
Memo: Now, the favourite episode I have of On The Ledge, unfortunately, or fortunately, is what was voted by everybody, I think, as one of the most popular episodes. It was definitely the Hoya episode. Now Hoya is a genus of plants that I'd never seen before, in my youth, essentially, when I was first getting into houseplants, but it's definitely something I've fallen into quite heavily. It all started with a Hoya Bella, where I just went "Oh, I'll just have it. I'll try this one!" and I think I'm probably at about 25, 30-odd Hoyas at the moment, so definitely the Hoya episode for me!
Jane: Question three. Which Latin name do you say to impress people?
Memo: Now, the Latin name that I used to impress most people, I think, is probably going to be the same as most people, but it's definitely going to have to be Rhaphidophora Tetrasperma.
Jane: Question four. Crassulacean acid metabolism or guttation?
Memo: Definitely if I had to choose between the two I'd go for Crassulacean acid metabolism. I'll always get that one wrong, or as we used to say in my biology classes, when I was a lot younger, it'd be the CAM photosynthesis. I think my choice would be crassulacean acid metabolism mainly because it means that you can have some awesome houseplants in the room that you sleep in and they're constantly pumping in more oxygen as you're sleeping. It's great!
Jane: Question five. Would you rather spend £200 on a variegated Monstera, or £200 on 20 interesting cacti.
Memo: This is an interesting one because I definitely wouldn't go for the 20 interesting cacti. Again, I was born and raised in an area of the world where cacti and succulents are quite abundant, so it's nothing that special for me. I do already have a couple of variegated Monstera and please don't give me too much hate! I think if I had £200 to spend, I'd probably go for something that I've been looking for for a long time, that I cannot find in the UK, which is the Philodendron Dark Lord. If you haven't checked it out just have a look on Instagram. It speaks to my gothic roots!
[music]
Jane: Philodendron Dark Lord - I'm just looking at it now online and wow, that's a stunner! Good choice, Memo, and thank you because now I've got another plant on my wish list! If you want to be on Meet The Listener then do drop me a line and the best place to drop that line is:
Well, we've more or less wrapped up this week's show, but I wanted to end on a little note of celebration. I'm celebrating an anniversary today: it's three years ago exactly, to the day, since the very first episode of On The Ledge podcast was launched into the ether! It was a show about terrariums and listening back now, I cringe a tiny bit, but actually, it stands up fairly well to the test of time! Since that date, On The Ledge has built into a wonderful community of houseplant lovers from all around the globe from Chile to Canada, Sweden to South Africa and producing this podcast has been the most satisfying and challenging three years of my professional life. I am constantly humbled and awed by the dedication, passion, knowledge and kindness of all you listeners who have found me and my show at some point in the last three years. Thanks to every one of you and here's to many, many more years of On The Ledge. With that, I shall see you next week plant fans, for more On The Ledge Sowalong fun! Bye!
[music]
Jane: The music you heard in this week's episode was Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops, An Instrument the Boy Called Happy Day, Gokarna by Samuel Corwin and Whistle by Benjamin Banger. All tracks are licensed under Creative Commons. See JanePerrone.com for details.
Subscribe to On The Ledge via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Player FM, Stitcher, Overcast, RadioPublic and YouTube.
On The Ledge sowalong is go! This week I interview fern expert and British Pteridological Society member Peter Blake about how to grow ferns from spores, I answer a listener question about how to get the most from a visit to a plant show, and we meet a listener called Memo.
While you listen to my interview with Peter Blake, check out the useful info and links below…
If you want to learn more about growing ferns from spores, there is lots of useful information on the British Pteridological Society. Their guide to growing ferns from spores is here, and you can find info on their spores scheme here. You can also follow the BPS on Twitter at @FernBPS.
If you don’t want to join the BPS, British growers can buy some spores from eBay.
Check out the images below to see the process of propagating ferns. All photographs are copyright Peter Blake.
Question of the week
Here’s my tips for getting the best out of plant and flower shows and fairs….
If you are on a limited budget, bring cash only - some smaller vendors won’t take cards anyway, and this way, once your money is gone, it’s gone!
If you want the rarest and most choice plants, get there early before the show starts, and be prepared to sharpen your elbows!
For smaller plants, a plastic trug with a handle is ideal for carrying plants you buy - for bigger specimens, a foldable trolley on wheels is great.
Bring along a friend who isn’t interested in plants and they can look after your stuff - you may have to ply them with food and drink!
Shows often have terrible or no Wifi, but you can use your phone to take photos of vendors’ details, and any plants you love but can’t afford.
Always check plants thoroughly as you would plants from the garden centre - there is no guarantee they will be pest-free.
If you don’t have a friend to guard your plants, shows often have a ‘plant creche’ where you can leave plants while you browse, in exchange for a small fee.
Wear sunscreen and a hat if the show is outside - even on overcast days you can get sunburn.
Bring your own food and drink to save time and money on food stalls, and to avoid single-use plastic.
Do your research before you go - find out what vendors will be at the show, and get a map as soon as you arrive (if not before!) so you know where your favoured sellers will be.
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!
HOW TO SUPPORT ON THE LEDGE
Contributions from On The Ledge listeners help to pay for all the things that have made the show possible over the last few years: equipment, travel expenses, editing, admin support and transcription.
Want to make a one-off donation? You can do that through my ko-fi.com page, or via Paypal.
Want to make a regular donation? Join the On The Ledge community on Patreon! Whether you can only spare a dollar or a pound, or want to make a bigger commitment, there’s something for you: see all the tiers and sign up for Patreon here.
The Crazy Plant Person tier just gives you a warm fuzzy feeling of supporting the show you love.
The Ledge End tier gives you access to two extra episodes a month, known as An Extra Leaf, as well as ad-free versions of the main podcast on weeks where there’s a paid advertising spot, and access to occasional patron-only Zoom sessions.
My Superfan tier earns you a personal greeting from me in the mail including a limited edition postcard, as well as ad-free episodes.
If you like the idea of supporting On The Ledge on a regular basis but don't know what Patreon's all about, check out the FAQ here: if you still have questions, leave a comment or email me - ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com. If you're already supporting others via Patreon, just click here to set up your rewards!
If you prefer to support the show in other ways, please do go and rate and review On The Ledge on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen. It's lovely to read your kind comments, and it really helps new listeners to find the show. You can also tweet or post about the show on social media - use #OnTheLedgePodcast so I’ll pick up on it!
CREDITS
This week's show featured the tracks Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops, An Instrument the Boy Called Happy Day Gokana by Samuel Corwin and Whistle by BenJamin Banger (@benjaminbanger on Insta; website benjaminbanger.com).
Logo design by Jacqueline Colley.