Episode 291: rescuing cacti and succulents with Mint Plants

Rescued cacti and succulents in the Mint Plants greenhouse in Bristol. Photograph: Jane Perrone

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TRANSCRIPT

[0:15] Jane Perrone Hello and welcome to On The Ledge podcast! The prickly problem of saving cacti and succulents. That's what we're talking about in today's show, episode 291. I'm joined by Hayley Stephens of Mint Plants to talk all things cactus rescue, plus we get some On The Ledge sew-along updates. dates.

[0:43] Jane Perrone What happens to your plants when you get too old to look after them? This may not be something you've thought about if you are still a spring chicken but it's something that's very much an issue in the cactus and succulent growing hobby where loads of collectors are reaching that stage in life where they need to divest themselves of their collections for various reasons. And it's a problem. Not everyone's family loves cacti and succulents as much as they do. But that's where Hayley Stephens of Bristol plant firm Mint Plants comes in. I was lucky enough to visit Elm Tree Farm in Bristol, where Mint Plants is based, to chat to Hayley and her mum Tina about all of their planty exploits. Why they are so passionate about saving venerable cacti and succulents.

[1:41] Jane Perrone And how you transport a prickly cactus that's taller than you halfway across the country. As ever, do check out the show notes at janeperrone.com, where you'll find a transcript and some photographs to peruse as you listen. Oh, and just a heads up, if you've never heard of the BCSS, that's the initials of the British Cactus and Succulent Society well worth joining if you're interested in these plants and we also mention a chap called Tony this is Tony of Tony Irons Cacti also based not far from Mint Plants in the Bristol area. Tony and Hayley work together on some projects for rescuing plants and I also visited Tony for the podcast so you'll be able to hear from Tony in an upcoming episode.

[2:33] Music.

[2:40] Jane Perrone So Mint is a houseplant slash cactus slash succulent business, but with a bit of a twist, really, I think, because you're not just kind of buying, bulk buying from Dutch nurseries, bog standard cacti and selling them. You've got a slightly different mission, Hayley. Can you just tell me about what you're trying to do here that maybe sets you apart?

[3:02] Hayley Stephens Yeah, so we do a lot of rescue jobs and I use the term rescue you um because it's the simplest thing to explain the fact that they're not wholesale plants grown in a nursery somewhere - I'm still trying to figure out the right description for it, but it's yeah we get a lot of our plants from private uk growers um and a lot of them most of them are cacti and succulents um because we get there's a lot of people out there with a greenhouse with a big collection of cacti and succulents. We do do houseplant collections as well but we've only really done one major rescue job on the houseplant side but we are you know open to all because the mission is basically to save plants that have been grown and loved privately for many years in most cases, to save them from the skip when someone can't look after them anymore or gets to the end of their life and the family don't know what to do with them we we swoop in basically.

[4:13] Jane Perrone And what a brilliant mission that is this takes you all over the country doing this and you're bringing those plants back here to your greenhouse maybe somebody listening has been through this rescuing a cactus talk us through what's your process when you get a cactus back here and maybe it's not lookingi ts best, it's had a bit of time where it hasn't been able to be cared for that well where do you start and what do you do to make sure it's going to last a few more years?

[4:44] Hayley Stephens It's tough in that every single plant that we bring back will need individual attention so it's a lot harder than buying a tray of 10 plants from holland and sticking a label on them and putting them out for sale but it's necessary as well um so we are unbelievably lucky that we've got this greenhouse and we've got space here at elm tree where no matter what condition plants are in we can put them in here and we know that they're at least getting the light that they need um a lot of times in greenhouses where the owners haven't been down for a while there might be weeds there might be things strangling we've got a big clump of Tillandsia over there that is that was around a cactus in the greenhouse so yeah, get it back here and it comes in here and it goes in the queue basically to be sorted out if there's anything that's that's really struggling we will have a look at it straight away we take the pot off basically or get it out of whatever it's in. A lot of the collections we've done have been in stuff planted in beds inside greenhouses as well that we've had to pull out and just put into trays so that kind of stuff will get repotted chop things back if we need to do full bug checks, make sure there's no critters running around. Quite often the soil is years and years and years old so we'll have to do a full soil change where we can and yeah just give things a general once over repot it, top dress, it as long as it's got roots. A lot of the plants the bigger plants might break in transit we get a lot of bits that come off as you know with cacti and succulents they just drop so we put things into seed trays, we repot bits and pads so we've got trays of unrooted stuff we try and label up anything that's not got roots, we don't top dress the the non-rooted stuff yet because we want to lift it occasionally to see if it's rooted yet and um yeah just and just tidy them up basically.

[6:50] Jane Perrone Do you ever find anything, any horrible surprises? I remember getting a Christmas cactus that i rescued and took it out the pot and it was in this kind of horrendous garden soil mixed with like weird stones. I mean, sometimes people aren't using the conventional things have you had any experience of that kind of thing?

[7:11] Hayley Stephens Yeah quite a lot of people we get quite a lot of local people that contact us with one or two plants or a big plant or something that has been passed between people um and yeah we've had quite a lot of cacti in the wrong soil completely there's a Cleistocactus over there which is just behind mum there and it was just in 100% compost and it was wobbly and it was just about to keel over so we had to get that out immediately. We get lots of trinkets, so lots of little plastic lizards and things on the top of pots where people decorate them, quite a few critters. We had the collection in Reading andthere was a staghorn fern in a huge wire basket that had then grown outside the wire basket and it was about a meter wide it was absolutely huge and we got it back to the container and we went in the next day and we saw some mouse droppings on the side and we were like what is that? And thena couple days later we were sorting out this staghorn fern and there was a mouse in it living in it.

[8:17] Jane Perrone Oh my word - wow.

[8:20] Hayley Stephens Unfortunately the poor thing had died but we brought it back from reading and it had obviously been running around the container.

[8:25] Jane Perrone Well I guess that just shows the way that a staghorn fern is a you know part of the ecosystem i'm sure in the wild things are living in it as well but not necessarily what you want if you're bringing that into your house. And do you find that people - obviously you've established yourself as a business and on social media presumably people really like buying from you because of your mission and that they're not just buying kind of a cookie cutter plant that's been produced, they're buying something with a bit of history?

[8:57] Hayley Stephens Yeah we have found that the plants that are the rescue plants seem to go really really well and we try and get the the story of them up it's not always easy to get that much information out for each plant because we're constantly putting things on the website, but we try and at least put where it's come from and who the previous owner was. The bigger bigger plants get a plaque with where it where it was rescued from when and and that kind of thing,but the rescue plants have got a lot of history and ofte they are all completely different to each other as well - even though even if we get a lot of one type, they all look completely different so I think people like having something that they know is is completely unique, and often they're plants that you just don't see in garden centres or other plant shops either because they're just some of them super wacky.

[9:56] Jane Perrone Tell me about some of the super wacky plants in here. I mean you've got - obviously you've got plants moving through all the time, but are there any real favorites that you maybe haven't been able to let go or anything that's particularly uh you're particularly fond of?

[10:09] Hayley Stephens I like the ones that just look like sticks so i've got a real a real obsession with caudex plants specifically and anything that's sort of like bonsai like anything with a woody trunk and then the the ones that the leaves come out of that, I am just obsessed with so we've got some crassulas here and aeoniums that have been kept small basically so they've been allowed to mature in that small pot which has created a real woody stem and then you get the foliage coming out the top and Ijust love it. And then we've got this Euphorbia tirucalli, this big tree here. The plaque on it says not for sale but the only reason that is is because I love it.

[10:52] Jane Perrone Oh now yes this is now this is I've never seen one of these in the flesh, I've only ever seen this in photographs of like San Francisco where that grows outside as a landscaping plant but it is an amazing looking succulent, I mean a little bit deadly you've got to be careful of that white sap. I'm sure you've had encounters with the white sap, but it's an amazing plant and presumably, does that go nice and red in sunlight?

[11:16] Hayley Stephens If you see the front is really red or pinky red and the back is quite yellow. When we first got it it was from Harry's greenhouse up in Preston and it was right up against the the south-facing wall of the greenhouse so it was completely battered by the sun and it was all really pale yellow so it's starting to turn now back to its sort of like ready darker color um and uh yeah it's just beautiful fire Firesticks is the common name because of the colour of it, but it's just, it's too beautiful to let go.

[11:50] Jane Perrone Is that what you love about cacti and succulents that they are so kind of quirky and weird?

[11:54] Hayley Stephens I think so yeah, when I first so when i first opened the shop first met Tony was he was the first sort of local supplier I went to, and I was just hooked from from the first meeting with him just because of the pure variety and the fact like euphorbia for example you can have a poinsettia and then that thing it just looks like sticks and then you get the cordex as well and i just it just blows me away still to this day the the amount of variety and then you know all the colors the sedums the equivarias all all sorts you just i still to this day see things i just found one a minute ago it's, I can't remember what it's called but it's over there it's i thought t ame has left me but don't worry i just found it in the on the bench and i've put a little note over there like hey chis i need this because i still to this day i'm like oh my god one he name has left me but i'm just obsessed.

[12:59] Jane Perrone Well I guess that's a lovely thing to be able to combine your obsession with your business but i imagine the trouble with that is that you can't say no to anything and obviously you've gone all around the country rescuing uh collections which I imagine I mean it's looking at some of these plants I'm thinking my gosh it's taller than me it's spiky this is a logistical nightmare! Any tips for transporting cacti if anyone's moving across the country I mean this one here I this Echinocereus I'm looking at that and just going that's just an A&E trip in a cactus form - any tips for people moving cacti?

[13:35] Hayley Stephens You've got to not be too scared - you've got got to sort of get involved basically but but yeah we have we were talking earlier about injuries and um but the the best thing that we found is to instead of trying to wrap the whole thing is to, you need to lie them down basically, the the safest thing is for them to lie down. Even the big round bulbous ones, that in a car is going to just wobble about. So what we do is we wrap the pot up with a bin bag and just tape it like crazy around the top, and then we get a blanket or a towel a nd roll it into a thin sausage and then wrap that around the top end of the cactus and cross the ends over so it's like a strap rather than trying to wrap it and trying to pad it so that you can hold it. Just stay away from the spines as much as you can um and then that way you can sort of hold it long long ways and and lie it down somewhere, but yeah it's a nightmare yeah.

[14:37] Jane Perrone I can imagine that that is all kinds of fun. And you appeared onGardener's World, the BBC tv program here in the UK and that obviously brought in a whole new flush of people wanting to give you cacti.hat are your plans for 2024?

[14:54] Hayley Stephens We've had to start being a bit selective about which collections we take on um because we haven't got the space all the time and it was starting to overwhelm us at the end of last year um but we do have a very special collection booked for, in Glasgow, which my amazing mum and dad are going to help me out.

[15:18] Jane Perrone Shout out to the parents here. I mean, that's, that's a wonderful thing. I mean, it's a road trip. It's got cactus involved. It sounds great. What are you going to find in this collection? Is it going to be lots of choice specimens, hopefully?

[15:33] Hayley Stephens Yes. So originally we got, we were contacted last year last before the winter and it took me a long time to figure out whether to do it or not because it's Glasgow it's not it's not uh not easy to get to and it's costly as well. We buy the collections from people so we don't get them for free, and we then also have to pay for the collection of them and I have previously been notoriously bad at actually factoring in all the costs in terms of time and everything so but this one is, it's an incredible collection of caudex plants and some quite old mature rare succulents and quite a few cacti in there as well. We originally said no and then the owner said well how about we chat again in the spring um because we didn't you know you can't do anything over the winter anyway, you don't want to be moving plants, and um and then you haven't been able to stop thinking about it so we've said and mum and dad have got a camper van so they've said that we've got a family up in Edinburgh so they've said right why don't we just make a...

[16:47] Jane Perrone ROAD TRIP!

[16:48] Hayley Stephens I'm still trying to figure out how I can come with them.

[16:53] Jane Perrone It sounds like a movie I mean this is a movie script right here like you're going across the country to collect cacti in a camper van there's going to be thrills and spills along the way something's bound to go wrong it's just there's going to be a roller coaster of events it sounds great - I want to see the movie. But i think it's a wonderful thing to do but I imagine at the same time,your life could be so much easier if you were just ordering those pallets of cacti from the Dutch nurseries what's the one thing that makes you keep going and persist with this very very honourable profession?

[17:30] Hayley Stephens I think one of the main things is that there's so much going on behind closed doors in the UK that nobody knows about and this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of private collectors. I'm part of the BCSS, and you know go to the meetings in Bristol and just the Bristol branch alone, there is so many collectors with a large greenhouse in their back garden and not just enthusiasts - they really know their stuff and they've been doing this for a long time and it's almost starting to die out a little bit there's this huge gap between the older generation and then people my age and younger where houseplants and cacti and succulents have kind of been forgotten about a little bit and you know they've only just come back into fashion in the last few years really and but there's all this going on that a lot of people just don't know about and the amount of conversations I have with people that that cannot believe that these plants have been grown in the UK in someone's back garden and then they're now here for sale and it just seems to be such a huge thing and yeah there's there's so many reasons but I just love it and I feel so privileged to be able to get the opportunity to to have these plants in my possession to begin with and then to be able to pass them on to people who love them and know them you know we ship these things across the whole country and we're constantly getting asked for uh shipping to America and Europe which I can't even cope with the thought of that but it's such an amazing story that I just can't stop.

Jane Perrone How do we reconnect those two generations of growers back together? I mean, I guess the simple answer is go to branch meetings - that said I'm a BCSS member and I openly admit, I've never been to a branch meeting it's on a Friday night - it's just not possible for me to get there. So how do we reconnect these two groups and get all of that knowledge kind of passing between the two? I don't know, it's not an easy question to answer, I don't know what the answer is really.

[19:45] Hayley Stephens Yeah, in my opinion and from my experience, there's a massive culture and technological gap. So a meeting on a Friday night for a group of cacti enthusiasts in their 70s and 80s is doable. That's fine. Yeah. And, you know, a Tuesday night at 7.30pm, that's fine. But then there's this huge gap with people's lives and younger people, they don't have the time. and also the technological side of it. The older generation don't put things on Zoom or want to publicize, they don't feel the need to do that because they just haven't ever done it and they're not used to that and I'm working with the BCSS and doing a lot of their Facebook and stuff for them and there just seems to be a massive gap on on multiple levels and what I worry about is the knowledge because the knowledge that these people have is incredible and they they are so incredible, the things that they've learned, the things they know from just growing these plants themselves. And a lot of us nowadays don't have a big house, don't have the ability to grow cacti and succulents ourselves in our back gardens like the older generation do and have done for year, and that knowledge is is potentially going to get lost. So it's a bit of a worry um and it's a big problem.

[21:15] Jane Perrone The amazing thing is once you do connect with that generation they're incredibly generou, and incredibl willing to share. It's not like they're they're not gatekeeping this information if you actually meet these people they're incredibly generous. I mean Inever forget when Iinterviewed Colin Walker the ex-president of the bcss about sansevierias and he said well well, I'll just send you a few. And this massive box turned up at my house. And I was like, oh, I wasn't. It's like, okay, I've just like, I've suddenly got, you know, 20 different Sansevieria species. Soit's a wonderful thing, and I guess it's just kind of trying to find a way of meeting in the middle. But the BCSS is doing great work in that regard. So hopefully, you know, and obviously as are you. And I guess that's the message for people who are maybe somebody listening is in that situation of a relative who needs to divest of their collection there are ways of I know the BCSS sometimes helps with finding homes for these plants, I've seen stuff on the Facebook group. There's not always one simple way of doing it but that's the main thing we just don't want these plants to end up in the skip.

[22:25] Hayley Stephens Yeah, because some of them, you might have a collection of 100 plants and one or two of them might be something so rare that came over 20 or 30 years ago from back when people just used to send these and stuff all across the place or they would go to Kenya and bring a load back in the suitcase you know and we just can't do that anymore and yeah it's the the amount of gems that are potentially hidden and in the in the UK is is insane.

[22:56] Music.

[23:05] Jane Perrone More cactus chat with Hayley shortly, but now time for a little bit of housekeeping. I've had some lovely messages off you folks recently. Marianne has been in touch from NYC. I guess that means New York City and has been inspired by the last episode to give the sowalong a go is growing polka dot plant, begonia, passiflora, lace fern and eucalyptus. Interesting that passiflora is mentioned there. that reminds me that I have recorded an excellent interview about growing passion flowers as houseplants that'll be coming up in the next few weeks so do have a listen to that Marianne and anyone else interested in this fascinating genus of the passion plants. Marianne wanted to know whether a heat source is necessary for these seeds I would say wherever you can, yes, a heat source will help. It's not essential if you've got a really warm house, but if your seed sowing spots are a little bit on the chilly side, particularly at night, you will benefit from a heat mat with thermostat, as I always say, be safe - don't start a fire in your house or a propagator, definitely worth the investment. I also had a message from Sharon who's saying that the sowalong will have to wait until June because the south facing windowsills in Sharon's house are packed with garden plants right now. I appreciate what you're saying, Sharon. I've got a lot of tomato plants which have been stuck inside because it's been so cold here in the UK. Come June, you will have space and so will I. And there's plenty of things you can still sow there, particularly things like cacti and succulents will still be fine in June. So don't despair if you haven't started and you're listening in June, you can still go ahead.

[24:57] Jane Perrone Also a heads up about a coming episode where you can get involved. Have you come across Derek Haynes, a.k.a. The Chocolate Botanist on Instagram? Derek will be joining me on On The Ledge in an upcoming episode and we need your questions to answer. So if you've got a burning question about botany, anything to do with the world of plants, drop me a line to On The Ledge podcast and I will pose your question to Derek, who really is an absolute fount of information. So that will be a really fun episode. He's a great guy. So do get your questions in on theledgepodcast.gmail.com. Thank you to Kimberly, Claire, Melissa and Rebecca, who've all become Ledge Ends.

[25:43] Jane Perrone And Lucio, who started off on a free trial and then converted to being a Ledge End. Thank you, all of you, for joining my Patreon clan. And there will be an episode of An Extra Leaf going out simultaneously with this episode with extra chat with Hayley so if you are a Patreon subscriber at the Ledge or Super Fan level you can go and have a listen to that, it'll be popping up in your RSS feeds and notifications shortly. Patrons also get ad-free versions of the main show and the all-important December mailout where I send you a handwritten note. It's keeping my handwriting going after many years of not writing very much. It's great fun. So please do think about joining Patreon if you can. It's a great community to be a part of and a way of getting a hotline to me. And who wouldn't want that?

[26:41] Jane Perrone And thanks to those of you who've been sharing your progress on the Facebook group and on Instagram. Over on Facebook, we're at Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge. Do join if you can. Make sure you answer all three questions because we're quite strict about that round here. And then you can get in and become part of our Facebook community. Jade has been sprouting oxalis. Jade, they are looking amazing. Really great progress. progress and greg is growing hawaiian plants from seed very nice including vaccinium reticulatum a super spiky hawaiian form of the species Hibiscus furcellatus love the sound of that and some other things by the look of it so thank you greg for sharing that. And i note that jeanette's Euphorbia obesa is flowering now i know that these plants the tartan tennis ball as Ithink one of their common names is, are either male or female. I'm not sure looking at your plant, whether you've got a male or female, but maybe if you've got a male and a female, you can try some pollination, see if you can get any seeds, Jeanette. So please do keep on sharing your progress. I love to see it. And there will be more sowalong episodes coming up. I have spoken to the wonderful Jennifer Jewell, host of the podcast Cultivating Place, about her new book about seeds. That will be one of the sew along episodes that's in the pipeline and it's a really fascinating one so all things sowalong continue. Oh on a personal note i've got some foxtail asparagus seeds that are soaking - I probably really need to get them out and start sowing them now actually,m but hopefully they will grow well because that was one of the ones recommended by Alina from Plantflix in the last episode, episode 290. And do go to the show notes for a link to all the sowalong episodes if you want to catch up.

[28:38] Jane Perrone And don't forget about the Malvern show. It's on the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th of May. I will be there on the 11th and the 12th, hosting the houseplant stage and doing a live podcast recording and also a talk. Talk so it's going to be very exciting I will put a link in the show notes to more info on that love to see you there right back to my chat with Hayley Stephens.

[29:09] Music.

[29:15] Jane Perrone Well, I love seeing all these gems come to light. Is there anything else in here that you particularly want to point out to me or tell me about? I mean, there's just so many. Cool. I'm loving those. Is that golden barrel cactus there or something?

[29:29] Hayley Stephens That's a Ferocactus...

[29:30] Jane Perrone That's amazing.

[29:31] Hayley Stephens Yes. They came from Renee in Bath as well. So this Cleistocactus here that was strapped to the outside of his house. He had those in his conservatory.

[29:39] Jane Perrone Strapped to the outside of his house. So this is a tall columnar cactus, very common cactus, Cleistocactus. I mean it's it must be I'm not very tall must be six foot tall wow.

[29:49] Hayley Stephens Yes I think I would say like seven eight foot at least and yeah he can't tell 94 he was and he boy is and he said I don't I just don't think I'm going to be able to strap it up wrap it up this year in bubble wrap um and so I think it's about time I think it's about 40 years old and uh and yeah I was like yep we'll take it came right out of the pot getting into the van it just flipped out there was no roots on it they're sopping wet it was um it was in a sorry state the poor thing but we've brought it back and it's it's flowering away so i'm not sure if that's a good thing or not but uh it's doing things and yeah they were from his conservatory as well oh it's um but he still kept a few he couldn't part with a few of them because it's just there's so much love that goes into these things, absolutely yeah and then probably the only other one that i want to show you is that tyler code on that big chunky thing it looks a bit battered so we have to chop it right back but it's just insane they're winter growers those and they're in their own species. So this came from a collection that Tony actually got hold of and we bought it from Tony because Tony sells a lot of small plants but we shift a lot of big ones and we had to chop it because a lot of the branches were just falling about and obviously the journey here didn't help. But we've chopped it and given it a water, because they're winter growers, so they need to be watered throughout the winter, and it's sprouting from all these cut bits.

[31:21] Jane Perrone Oh, yes, look at that. I mean, like gnarly, look up gnarly, and that's what's pictured in the dictionary. It is gnarly, but it's got a beautiful bark on it, and it's got a lot of character. That's the thing. All these plants are very characterful. When you can buy a cactus that's kind of, as you say, come straight off the tray from the Dutch nursery, they're usually quite standard whereas all of these have so much personality I think that's part of the joy and that one is is very cool. And I'm also liking the one next to it as well which like it's looks like it's had an interesting life. I s that a Ferocactus as well?

[31:58] Hayley Stephens Yeah yeah he was a Ferocactus enthusiast.

[32:01] Jane Perrone Oh it's it's epic I mean like the corking on that is just so characterful, the corking being the hard corky bits at the base where it's just a sign of the cactus having a bit of age but yeah but it's so good.

[32:14] Hayley Stephens It's gone out and then it's got back in at one point which is erratic watering I like to say yeah, and it's sort of sorted itself out but they they've been in the same pots for the last 30 years as well so that's probably not helping its growth. It probably should be a lot bigger but but it's doing all right it's yeah it's looking glorious from from this point on.

[32:34] Jane Perrone Presumably sometimes you do lose stuff where it's just rotted or it's just not gonna make it? Or i imagine really badly infested? I mean as the queen of the root mealy bug, I can imagine this sometimes you just look at that and think yeah this is not worth saving yeah tragically.

[32:55] Hayley Stephens Yes we get a lot of mealies, we haven't had many problems with other pests to be fair, it's mainly mealy bugs, and some things are just you you will get them and they'll just be rotten we had an incredible Senecio, I don't know if we've got the bits of it - have we got any more of that Senecio mum the little bits tha came off? It was a columnar Senecio, really rare, i can't remember the name of it but it was incredible - big chunky thing and we got it back and we it started shooting all little pups off the stem and then Idon't know what happened, but suddenly the whole thing just rotted and it was like but it went. But youcan't do anything about it, you've got to let them let them go the poor thing yeah we try and chop and prop a lot of things and dry them out but um you end up with oh this poor guy yeah he was up against the window and didn't like the cold but we have cut him and and we're hoping.

[33:53] Jane Perrone Yeah they're pretty tough I mean yeah they are pretty tough yeah, I was reading recently they can get down to minus five or something quite quite actually quite cold which is comforting to me as somebody who has one that's kind of now up here and i'm thinking how many more years am i going to be carrying this in and out of the house because i don't have a heated greenhouse i'm thinking this might just have to stay outside but I could wrap it, it should be around, I don't think it doesn't cross.

[34:20] Hayley Stephens Yeah, so I mean, yeah, I could keep going, there's so many.

[34:23] Jane Perrone I'm also loving that beautiful pot that the Crassula there is in, that's a really lovely container.

[34:32] Hayley Stephens Yeah it's very very heavy proper stone pot do you like to like me to go into the charity shops and the junk shops and look for cool containers?

[34:40] Hayley Stephens Oh yes.

[34:41] Jane Perrone Although I sometimes think you know iIshould be running a plant business - I've got so many pots i'm like oh i'm not going to get rid of that one because there's going to be a plant one day that's going to need that specific pot and i'm gonna yeah then I'm gonna need this so...

[34:54] Hayley Stephens Yeah yeah we do we used to do a lot of vintage pots in the shop and um and uh sort of resell them on some of them if we plant them up we've got a whole stack of old terracotta over therebut yeah if you get the right plant with the right pot thenit really sets it off. This is quite a rare yucca that we got from Preston i think and it's Yucca endlichiana and this has got the original label which we're trying to hold on to in three pieces.

[35:24] Jane Perrone That's the trouble with plastic labels they do degrade don't they yeah you think they're all nicely written and then you realize oh we can't actually read that anymore.

[35:31] Hayley Stephens Yeah but it says it's got the ISI number on it and then it's got collected 604 Mexico Coahuila and we had a guy from France who was desperate for this plant when we put it online and he I said to him I'm just not I just can't risk sending it because it will get stopped at the border,we are not set up to do phytosanitary certificates yet and I said he was he was I'll wait, i'm desperate for this this specific plant. He was a yucca enthusiast sending me all his pictures from his house, he had loads of them, but in the end he had to let it go because I just didn't want to risk it.

[36:09] Jane Perrone Yeah absolutely - well it's it's lovely to see all these plants getting a new lease of life, very exciting and I mean I guess you probably don't have a typical customer. I imagine it's just a real mixed bag of people who love cacti and succulents.

[36:30] Hayley Stephens Quite often new people discover us who are real enthusiasts and then they come to the greenhouse and they just are amazed and then they're customers for life then. We get quite a lot of people that once they find us, they realise what we've got here and then it's like a sweet shop. But again, even people that have never owned any plants before, they'll take something and absolutely love it because they're so special. Sure and do you have if you've got somebody who's coming new to this particular hobby anything you think is a great starting point any particular species or genus that you sort of say well look if you're starting out start here because this this will keep you going?

[37:12] Hayley Stephens I would definitely say Crassula - I think the Crassula, they're so beautiful there's so many options, and they are one of the easiest succulents, I would say. They don't need full blaring sun. You don't have to have them on a windowsill as long as there's plenty of light in and around them. And again, you can keep them in the same pot for years. They don't really care too much about the soil mix. As long as you've just got something in there to loosen it up, they tend to be really easygoing and stunning, like so many different varieties. So yeah, that's what I normally say to people if someone asks for an easy starting point.

[37:55] Jane Perrone I agree, i think that's a great suggestion. Well hayley it's fantastic to meet you and see some of your lovely collection of plants and um just tell us where we can find you online for anyone who's new to what you do.

[38:07] Hayley Stephens Yeah so the website is best probably the best place to go mintplants.co.uk - Instagram is where we're most active in terms of social media mint.plants um and it's a small team here so we're right behind all of that, if you have any questions or anything I'm constantly messaging, whatsapping, calling customers about care advice whether it's going to arrive safe that kind of stuff um so yeah yeah the website or our instagram probably or facebook.

[38:35] Jane Perrone Yeah and I'll also stick all that information into the show notes as well so people can find you easily but thank you so much for joining us and um yeah I'm just as ever just in awe of the incredible world of cacti and succulents you're right they are amazing so thank you very much for joining me today.

[38:53] Music.

[39:00] Jane Perrone Thanks so much to Hayley and do check out Mint Plants their instagram is very fun and if you want to experience Mint Plants in person do check out the list of events they're attending this year which you'll find in the show notes it includes the Malvern festival which i'll also be at and in In fact, I'll be talking about rescuing cacti on the stage with Hayley that weekend. So do check out the show notes for details about all of that. Have a great week. Keep sowing, keep growing, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye!

[39:38] Music.

[39:48] Jane Perrone The music you heard in this podcast was Roll Jordan Roll by The Joy Drops, The Road We Used To Travel When We Were Kids by Komiku, and Overthrown by Josh Woodward. All tracks are licensed under Creative Commons. Visit the show notes for details.

[40:06] Music.

Host Jane Perrone talks to Hayley Stephens of Bristol-based cactus and succulent sellers Mint Plants to find out about their mission to save plants from the skip.

This week’s guest

Hayley Stephens runs Mint Plants which is based in Bristol and sells a range of houseplants focusing on cacti and succulents, many of which are sourced from private collections in the UK.
You'll find Mint Plants on Insta here and there is a list of their shows and events this year here. You'll find plants for sale available in the Mint Plants online shop (UK only).

Patreon subscribers at the Ledge End and Superfan levels can watch a podcast of An Extra Leaf where Hayley and I talk about selling plants during lockdown, what advice she'd offer up to other planty businesses, and more.

See more images from Mint Plants below … all photographs are copyright Jane Perrone.

On The Ledge sowalong update

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.

Meet me at Malvern!

I am going to be at the Malvern Spring show in Worcestershire on May 11 and 12 popping up for a talk and a live podcast recording as part of the new festival of houseplants organised by Green Rooms Market. Mint Plants will also be there and I’ll be talking to Hayley on stage on May 12. Book your tickets now! Details here.

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.

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