Episode 289: launching the OTL sowalong, plus Anthuriums without cabinets

Gemma is keen to dispel the myth that all Anthuriums need to be grown in cabinets. Photograph: Gemma Haigh.

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TRANSCRIPT

Jane Perrone to On The Ledge podcast, I'm your host, Jane Perrone. And in this week's show, I'm launching the solo. Your opportunity to grow houseplants from seed. And we talk to Queen of the Anthuriums, Gemma Haigh. Well, that's not what she calls herself. I've just given her that title because I think she deserves it. Plus, I answer a question about a mystery pest.

It is so good to be here and yes, that is the first pun of the episode because the sowalong is live. So I'm going to start this episode by talking about what my annual project to get you all sowing houseplant seeds involves, how you can get going with the On THeLedge sowalong and everything you need to know. And then we'll get on to my interview with the lovely Gemma Haigh, who is also known as the Plant Parlour, to find out everything we need to know about growing anthuriums outside cabinets. So if you like anthuriums, but you don't have the space or money for a cabinet, keep listening. Before that, a couple of heads up about things I'm doing. I mentioned this in the previous episode, but just to repeat, Malvern Spring Festival in Worcestershire in the UK.

It's happening on May the 11th and 12th. Well, that's when I'm there anyway. There's a huge houseplant area at this show. There's a whole houseplant festival. In fact, there's going to be a live podcast recording by me. I'm doing a talk. Check out the show notes for details on that. Also, if you are in the London area or you can get there for April the 23rd, I am doing a chat with Matthew Pottage, fellow houseplant enthusiast and former Wisley curator about all things indoor gardening. Again, check the show notes for details on that one. I'd love to see some listeners there.

If you are new to the show, maybe you've not heard of the On The Ledge sowalong so let me just fill you in. I put a reel on Instagram this week and people were expressing surprise that you can grow houseplants from seed. And in fact, there is not much written about this. If you go and have a look on social media and traditional print media and TV and radio, you will not find a lot about growing houseplants from seed. But that's why I am here to fill that gap.

So why should you grow houseplants from seed? Well, the best way to get to really know your plants is to grow them from day dot. And that dot is in fact a seed. It's cheap. Most houseplants seed packets probably cost you less than a fiver. And you end up with loads of plants that you can keep or give away to friends or even sell if you're that way inclined.

If you're still not convinced, do go and check out the show notes and have a listen to previous On The Ledge sowalong episodes. There are quite a few of them now because I've been doing this since 2018. There are episodes on growing cacti and succulents from seed, on the wonderful sensitive plant Mimosa pudica, which is a really popular choice for growing from seed. There's an episode even on growing ferns from spores. So if you want to know about any of these aspects,go back into the archive and have a listen. That link will be in the show notes. If you just head to janeperrone and put sowalong in the search box, you should find those episodes that way too. One of the major questions people had was, well, where can I get houseplants seed? Obviously with a global audience, it's a bit hard to give you advice for every single location. But if I can offer my own experience from the UK,

There are places in the UK to get houseplant seed. Oftentimes you might have to go to several different companies to get your seed if you want to grow different things, because it's not like the world of outdoor gardening where there is a catalogue that covers everything. Most of the time you're going to have to shop around. But if you go to my UK houseplant buying guide on my website, there is a list of seed suppliers on there.

I will check that's up to date and make sure it's as up to date as it can be for you and link in the show notes or you can just Google UK houseplant buying guide Jane Perrone and it will pop up via the medium of your search engine. Similarly, there's a US version of that. And if you can think of any companies that I should be adding to those lists, please let me know. I would love to hear your additions because obviously I'm not necessarily on top of everything that's going on across different continents.

I've talked in previous episodes of the sowalong about scams and how to avoid them. But let me recap here because this is a major problem in the world of growing houseplants from seed. There are lots of people out there who will try to scam you out of your money. And these ads for seed often turn up on places like eBay and Amazon and other platforms like that, and the rule is if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. So if you're looking at a begonia that has bright blue shining leaves, that's probably been photoshopped. And likewise, if it's some very, very rare plant being offered for seed that you can't find anywhere else, then again, use extreme caution. I'd love anyone who comes across scam seed sales to send them to me and I'll try to spread the word about the worst ones.

Always look at feedback, but bear in mind that feedback isn't totally reliable. I did look at one company that was selling clearly scammy seed and they still had lots of good reviews and that's because people posted a review when they just received the seed, so they didn't really know if they were going to work, but they were sort of saying, yes, they've arrived and I'm very happy. Well, they may not be so happy when they find out that what germinates is mustard seed or some other kind of brassica, which is often what is sent.

in place of these nonexistent, rare, super rare things that you're being promised. It's always safer to buy from a reputable company and there are many out there. So yeah, you can take a gamble if you want to, but just beware of those scams. It's very easy to waste your money. So once you've got your seeds, you can crack on and sow them. And what I love people to do is to tell me what you're up to. And I try to include updates in episodes so you can find out what other people are doing, what works and doesn't work. If you want to do that, you can drop me a line to ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com. You can leave a comment in the show notes at janeperrone.com. you can contact me on Instagram @j.l.perrone or share on the Facebook group Houseplant fans of On The Ledge and links for all of those will be in the show notes.

Just remember one thing and one thing alone, which is use the hashtag OTLSowAlong and I will spot it. So #OTLSowAlong, add that to all your posts and that will set off an alarm here at On The Ledge Towers and send me scurrying to your post. Oh, you can get me on TikTok as well. I'm @j.l.perrone there too. And I'll be doing some sowalong content on TikTok in the coming weeks.

So yeah, you can ask questions, you can tell us what you're sewing, you can show us pictures of unerminagted seeds. I do not care what you include there, provided it's sowalong related, I love to hear it. And I should also say there's no strict rules for this, I am not a stickler. So if you want to go and buy a Caladium tuber and grow that for the sowalong, on you go. Not going to say a word about it, going to love it, love Caladiums.

If you want to take some cuttings and grow them on, again, perfect, great, fine. Sowing seeds isn't for everyone because it does require a certain amount of space and certain conditions to make it work. You don't need a lot, but you do need a really sunny spot or indeed a grow light. And for most houseplants seed at this time of year, you will need some kind of propagator or heat source. So I will include a link in the show notes to my Garland Super 7 propagator, which I've had for many years and is still going strong. This has an inbuilt thermostat that keeps the seed tray, I think it's about 19 centigrade, which is about 66 Fahrenheit, perfect for germinating lots of different seeds. You can use a heat mat if you have one, but health and safety klaxon.

Always use a thermostat with your heat mat. Never use a heat mat without a thermostat. The reason is because they can be very dangerous and overheat if the temperature is not controlled. Oftentimes you can buy these things second -hand in the reptile community, so heat mats and thermostats can sometimes be obtained that way. I certainly bought a thermostat that way. I can't remember whether it was on a Facebook forum or something, and you can get heat mats, just make sure that you combine the heat mat with a thermostat that controls the temperature and will cut it off if it gets too hot. You probably haven't seen this, but there are videos of people having terrible fires, particularly reptile keepers, where their heat mat has overheated. So, that's my little health and safety update. So you need light, you need heat and you need space, because once you've grown your seed, you're going to need to prick it out and pot it on. So yeah, you're going to need a bit of space too. So again, I say it again, if you don't want to do sowing from seed and you want to do some other version of propagation, vegetative propagation, as we might call it, rather than sexual reproduction via seeds, then that's cool with me. Crack on, love to see it. If you're looking at what you can grow, there is an absolute tons of stuff. I might try in the show notes to write a comprehensive -ish list, but off the top of my noggin right now, I would say some of the most popular things that people grow are cacti and succulents, the sensitive plant, Mimosa pudica, I've already mentioned that, clivias, asparagus ferns, begonias, Monstera deliciosa. Yes, you can grow that from seed. One of the few, relatively few, aroids that you'll find where the seed is quite freely available to buy commercially. That grows really well. Lots of people have tried that in the past. Coleus is another great one. I've also seen Hypoestes seed for sale. That's the pink polka dot plant. Ficus, Ponytail palm, Beaucarne recurvata. I've seen chlorophytum seed, African violet seed. Another popular one is the China doll plant, the Radermachera, that's quite popular, too. So there's quite a lot of choice out there. If you want to try growing plants from seed, get out there and have a look at what's out there and the world is your oyster.

Why, though, you may be wondering, are some plants not available to grow from seed that are houseplants? Usually that's because these particular species have seed that needs to be sown really fresh. So the seed does not have a long lifespan and if it doesn't get planted when it's just been generated by the plant and released from the seed capsule, then it won't germinate and that will be due to the environmental conditions where the plant grows. So that means that some plants do not produce the seed, the kind of seed that works in a seed packet and can be sold commercially. Also, it could be the case that some plants are just reluctant to set seed and prefers to reproduce itself vegetatively, that can sometimes be the case too. But if you're struggling to find seed and you'd like some help from me to track something down, give me a shout. I will endeavour to help if I possibly can. So that is the opening gambit of the sowalong. Are you excited? I hope you are, because I am. And in fact, I've already started my sewing. Now, another thing that I'm not a stickler about is indoor versus outdoor. So I've already sown some tomato seeds.

two varieties, the classic Tomato Gardeners Delight and another one whose name now escapes me. It's called Purple Plum or something like that, Tiger Plum. I'll put that in the show notes when I've had a look at the label. And I'm also growing some Mighty Mosaic Coleus. And if you know me, you'll know that I love growing coleus from seed and do it most years. It's a wonderful, cheap and cheerful, colourful houseplant.

And I'm also trying to grow some Sinningias from seed and there'll be more things coming as well. This is just the first flush for me. So get on the socials, get on the email, OTL sowalong, hashtag is what you need to use and get your questions to me. I will endeavor to cover as much as I can of what you want to know about growing plants from seed. And if you see anyone picking up on this and talking about growing houseplants from seed,

Let me know, because I love to hear that the word is being spread. Let's take a short break while I pay my bills.

This week's show is supported by TrueLeafMarket.com, your source for seeds from veg and herbs to flowers and microgreens. Whether you're just starting out as a home gardener or ordering in bulk as a pro, True Leaf Market is here for you. But at this time of year, it's easy to feel overwhelmed about what the right choices are for you. And that's where True Leaf Market's brand new guided shopping quiz comes in. It will help you to narrow down your choices based on where you're growing, your skill level and even your veggie preferences. And it works on all kinds of fruit and veg seeds from watermelon to cabbage. And while you're on the True Leaf Market website, check out their downloadable gardening guides for veg, herbs, microgreens and cover crops. Visit TrueLeafMarket.com. and enter promo code OTL10 to receive $10 off your purchase of $50 or more. That's OTL10 at trueleafmarket.com. Visit the show notes at janeperrone.com for links to the quiz, the downloadable guides and full terms and conditions.

Are you an Anthurium agnostic or a convert? Gemma Haigh's mission is to convince you that anthuriums are easier to grow than you think. Gemma lives in Surrey in the UK and she's a houseplant curator, writer and consultant. And she shares with me a passion for sustainability, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to have her on the show. You'll find her on Instagram as ThePlantParlougram. And I recommend checking out the transcript and show notes at janeperrone.com where you'll also find pictures of some of the plants we talk about. Now in classic style I got very excited at the beginning of the interview and it's a bit of a chaotic start so we'll just fade in gradually and you can imagine that you're standing looking over my shoulder and taking part in the chat.

Jane Perrone Let's go upstairs, yeah let's go upstairs to the aroids, this is where the magic happens!

Gemma Haigh I see it every day, so it has no impact at all, but I feel like, you know, for other people they're always like, oh that's cool! And I'm like, yeah, it's quite cool actually, isn't it?

Jane Perrone Yeah, well it's funny when you see something that you see on, when you see something that you've seen on social media all the time obviously, it's good to see it in the flesh as well.

Gemma Haigh Because it always looks different as well, because you can only show a snapshot on social media, it always looks very different in person.

Jane Perrone Well we should stop now and just say hello Gemma, hi, we're here to talk about your plant collection and we're up in your bedroom looking at aroids and we were just saying how popular aroids are on On The Ledge and it's a bit of a shame that I don't really grow any because everyone wants to know about aroids and your special is anthuriums and here we have these lovely velvety leaves in abundance. Now I love the fact that you choose to grow your anthuriums in normal room conditions because this kind of puts to the lie a little thing that you see where they've got to be in a cabinet.

Gemma Haigh Yes. I agree.

Jane Perrone I'm just too low maintenance for those cabinets. But I mean, tell me what your philosophy is on this.

Gemma Haigh I just feel like if you're going to enjoy plants for me, you should enjoy them in an environment that feels a little bit more natural and it feels like they're not behind a glass cabinet. I know we've talked before about this but I have a background in museums and I used to display objects which you know are kind of very precious and you put your gloves on and you put them in a cabinet and then you'd lock that cabinet so that nobody could touch them and I don't want to have that association with my plants so I want to be able to touch them, feel them and for them to be a part of my kind of environment rather than be behind glass where I can't get to them essentially so I want to live with plants, you know, rather than look at the plants in a cabinet.

Jane Perrone Yeah. And also I'm kind of, my attitude is also like, that's going to involve cleaning glass and things that I don't really want to do. I just, there's going to be mould. There's going to be condensation. I just, yeah, I just want to avoid all that work. I mean, is that really lazy? I don't know. I just don't have that much time for houseplant maintenance. Tell me though about what you've got here. Are these mostly anthuriums? I mean, this, there's just a lovely collection here. Tell me what the highlights.

Gemma Haigh Yeah, so I kind of started off actually collecting philodendrons, obviously also from the aroid family. But philodendrons, I kind of, I found that they were slightly more easy to kind of get pests. So actually I then kind of fell in love with the anthuriums. I find them even lower maintenance than philodendrons, which I know a lot of people don't agree with that. But I do prefer the anthuriums. The anthuriums obviously have darker leaves as well, more velvety. I love the way the veining stands out against the kind of darkness of lots of the leaves. So here on the shelves, you can see the Anthurium Anthurium besseae aff and the really long -leaved Anthurium cirinoi as well. Those are probably the largest ones on the shelves. I've also got a magnificum verde on the end of the shelves and an Anthurium clarinervium, which is desperately in need of a repot. It's roots are just so long but I've been waiting for spring it will happen.

Jane Perrone Yes absolutely that's the thing isn't it the the houseplant jobs have to wait. These anthuriums are have become sort of hugely popular and you must get lots of response on your social media when you post these what are the common problems that people have growing these outside a cabinet and how do you you deal with it?

Gemma Haigh Yeah, so I think there's a number of problems that you can have growing anthuriums outside of cabinets. The first one is humidity. So it also depends on where you're sourcing your anthuriums from. If they have had time to acclimate to the conditions in the UK inside an ordinary household, so that's humidity of around 60%, temperatures between about 18 to 25. If they can manage that then you probably won't have huge problems. If you've imported them from abroad, so say South America or Indonesia, you're probably going to have a little bit more difficulty getting them to be happy in your home. So having them with lower humidity, so the ones in my bedroom are usually around 60% and that's roughly where the humidity sits for most of the year, it's fair to say. What you do find is they dry out slightly quicker. So you can actually get more pest problems with them, especially spider mites. Though I have to say, I have found that the spider mites like to eat the philodendrons more than they like the anthuriums.

Jane Perrone Ah, okay, well that's good news. And you've got all your plants, are those terracotta pots they're in?

Gemma Haigh Yes. So I plant all of my pots in Lechuza pon. Inside, I've actually got kind of plastic nursery pots. I like to reuse the ones that I buy other plants in. So I fill them with the Lechuza pon, put a bit of moss on top and then I pop that whole pot inside the terracotta pot covers and then I kind of water, I top water. I know a lot of people suggest bottom watering but I'm a big fan of top watering and that just keeps the moss on the top nice and moist as well.

Jane Perrone Oh that seems very straightforward and presumably you get a nice root system in the pon and you don't have a lot to worry about soil flying everywhere which obviously in the bedroom where we are now is probably quite a good thing. I was banned from having plants in the bedroom because I had a shelf similar to yours above my bed years ago and in the middle of the night I had a bad dream and literally jumped up and started grabbing the plants off the shelf and throwing them around.

Gemma Haigh That doesn't sound like it ended very well.

Jane Perrone I don't have any plants in my bedroom to this day so yeah that was a bit of a red line there understandably but I can imagine the pond is is a little bit less messy as well.

Gemma Haigh If you drop it I have to admit it is an absolute pain to pick up off the floor, the Hoover does get involved but the benefit of using the pon is that you know I have definitely have a reduced number of fungus gnats. I'm not going to say there's absolutely zero because with the moss on the top sometimes I do find that you do still attract a few and they still somehow manage to hang on in there and lay eggs in the moss I'm gonna guess, but definitely nowhere near as bad as having plants in soil which for me was a huge problem before I started using pon.

Jane Perrone So for those who don't know, this is this is a sort of a mineral based substrate isn't it that's very very popular now and you can buy various iterations of it I think and you can make your own, and I have to say, I'm a soil girl. That's my medium. But you're right about the fungus gnats, for sure. Especially at this time of year, they're starting to re-emerge. So it's that time of year when you're starting to fight the fungus gnats. But yeah.

Gemma Haigh I think if I still had a lot of fungus gnats, I also would be banned from keeping plants in the bedroom. My other half would be having none of that. So the pond's definitely resolved it for me. It means that I can have them, you know, kind of in the bedroom where I can see them.

Jane Perrone Yeah, and which is your favourite of these beautiful Anthuriums? Any particular ones? I mean, I can't look any further than this guy. I mean, I can't believe which one this is now. This incredible...

Gemma Haigh This is the Anthurium besseae aff that you're looking at. And that one, yeah, I mean, I can't say it too loudly, obviously, in case the others hear, but he is probably my favourite. Yeah, yeah. He's done really well here and he's acclimated great. I mean, I've had him ... this summer it will be two years and he was originally imported from South America. But he's grown in so well and he was so much smaller. He's literally grown in size about four times. So which you know, a lot of people really do think that you need to have special conditions to keep these, but I think he's proof that, you know, the whole time I've had him, he's never been in cabinet conditions. So yeah.

Jane Perrone You have got grow lights going on here. Obviously most bedrooms, like most bedrooms, it's not the lightest spot. You've got the grow lights, which presumably are on all day, on the schedule? Yeah that's right so the whole house actually is north west facing and we only have windows on one side so I did find when I started collecting houseplants that was a real challenge for any plants I put in the house unless things were directly on a windowsill they would really struggle. So what I ended up doing was adding the grow lights in especially you know with the specialist plants, with the aroids it really helped to boost the light that they were receiving every day. In their natural environment, their natural habitat. Obviously they would have really bright sunlight filtered through the trees all day long. So these anthuriums now have a lot more light with the grow lights that I've got on. So I've got a wand light on one side of the bedroom shelves and on the other side I have a spotlight. So that has a Sansi bulb in it. That runs off the Google Home system. So I actually can turn it on via Google Home. I actually have a routine so it just turns on at the same time every single day to the same percentage as well. So I can turn it up or down regarding how much light I want. I think it usually runs at about 80%. So it's quite bright and I believe it's a 28 watt bulb in there. So the wand light now, I think now the plants are getting a little bit larger. I think potentially it's not actually adding enough light to these shelves. So certainly I'm going to look at kind of introducing a better light system, I think for the other side of the shelf.

Jane Perrone Yeah, it's all important this light. I'm so excited. Talking about the Google Home thing, I've recently bought these smart plugs and oh my gosh, I thought that I was like a real Luddite and I'm like turning the wheel on my old fashioned timer plugs. But I just got these smart plugs and honestly, I'm on my phone like just literally my husband's laughing while I'm just going on - off - on - off! It's so fun, I absolutely love it! I'll actually put a link in the show notes to the ones that I've got them. I actually wore a birthday present from my husband, they're just so good. I'm gonna buy another pack because they just are so useful. It means if I'm doing an interview and my little terrarium, prop terrarium behind me is on and I want to turn it off I can just go... You don't even have to That's the magic of it. The excitement I got out of it was really quite scary. They're really, really worth having. I don't have a Google Home or anything like that because I don't want my children shouting at it all day trying to play music. But the smart plugs, for sure. So, so useful. Now we've said about cabinets, you do have a little IKEA cabinet here. So tell me what's in this one because there's a very beauty on the end there.

Gemma Haigh Yes, so we can actually have a look at these, I'll get them out for you. This is an Ikea one isn't it? It is, it's the Ikea Akebar cabinet and I got this for the smaller plants, so like seedlings and things, and just to make sure that you know the ones that I'm bringing in that have come from abroad as well, that those are climating. I think it's fair to say I don't actually import that often, I usually buy from collectors, so I do a lot of my sales through Facebook. And it's through other collectors that have, you know, really impressive and durian collections and I'll kind of, you know, if they've got something for sale, I might buy something from that. So most of the things in this cabinet have come through kind of Facebook collectors. But it is very helpful for keeping that humidity that little bit higher. And I've got a growlight directly on it as well. This one sadly doesn't have one of those smart plugs It means that when all the power goes down I have to reset it and reset the timer and it's an absolute nightmare.

Jane Perrone Yeah, yeah, this is the thing. I just I'm not selling like a salesperson for those smart plugs, but they're so good. So which one were you pointing out?

Gemma Haigh I was pointing out this that one on the end there This one this one's the anthurium luxurians. You can have a stroke if you like.

Jane Perrone Oh my gosh. It's so it's just very leathery and this corrugated surface is very cool.

Gemma Haigh Yeah I've heard it described as bullate before which I quite like.

Jane Perrone Yes.

Gemma Haigh Bullate texture and it's kind of very lumpy and something I've noticed actually a trend at the moment seems to be a lot of people are loving crossing their anthuriums and so anything that's kind of anthurium luxurians crossed with something else that seems to be really popular because a lot of them seem to have that textured surface and lots of the hybrids so super popular.

Jane Perrone Yeah and where are we going with the Anthurium craze - because it is a craze - there's just huge amounts of interest in this stuff right now. Are there more Anthuriums coming onto the market? Is there a range of hybrids and cultivars and species expanding that's widely available?

Gemma Haigh Yes definitely. I think we're seeing more and more things coming in. I think people are a little bit Anthurium mad from what I've seen and people are so interested in all the different hybrids that you can buy, and people are absolutely obsessed with crossing it, whether that be they're successful with crossing their own or they're buying hybrids from abroad. In Indonesia, there's a huge range of hybrids that are available, and certainly Indonesian growers seem to be so excited by crossing them all and creating new types. I know in South America as well, Ecuagenera for example, they've currently got a lot of hybrids on their website, and they actually... created a bit of a, kind of like, a lot of questioning, I think it's fair to say, by naming every single Anthurium hybrid that they were creating. They would call it, you know, something crazy. So, you know, the list of types of Anthurium is getting longer and longer, and the list of names is getting a bit extreme, so we're all having to try and remember a lot.

Jane Perrone So let's talk about acclimatizing or acclimating, I never know which is the correct term.

Gemma Haigh Both correct, I had to look it up.

Jane Perrone Oh really, okay. This is something that people are doing, people are going to these equigenera pop -ups in the UK and I'm sure they have them around the world as well and bringing back home plants that have come, that have been raised in a different climate to ours. So what is the key to getting those plants used to, particularly when you're growing them outside a cabinet, ultimately, presumably though you have to give them that bit extra of coddling while they're young and sensitive to that change.

Gemma Haigh Yeah, so I think when you're acclimatizing plants, you know, when they come from abroad, often there's a lot of stress in transit. So they come from a really hot country, often with really great humidity. They're either being kept in those conditions, kind of in the nurseries where they're being grown, or, you know, hopefully not from the wild. But you do hear about these horror stories of things being poached from the wild. But, you know, you're trying to acclimatize them to kind of UK conditions, where actually, it's not great here, it's not the same, it's not tropical, we don't have that climate, so you're competing with conditions that you don't have. So they're coming from, say, 80%, 90% humidity, and really hot temperatures, 20-something degrees centigrade or 30-something degrees centigrade during the day. And they're dropping down to whatever time of year it is here in your house. Most of the time, it's probably gonna be somewhere between 16, 25. But that is going to be too cold, you know, for a lot of these anthuriums that are being brought in from abroad. So what you end up doing is, you know, acclimatizing them in better conditions. So for example, we've talked about here I've got this mini greenhouse from Ikea. So it's an Ikea Akerbar. And basically, you know, I've got these plants in here to acclimate to those conditions slowly. So the humidity inside the cabinet will be slightly better than what's in the surroundings in the room, and it's also gonna keep that warmth in a little bit as well. So, you know, generally speaking, it'll be a bit easier for them. When you receive a plant, when it's been in transit for a long period of time, sometimes it can become dehydrated. So the best thing that you can do is to give it a really good drink and a good soak and make sure that those roots are nice and rehydrated before you think about potting it up. I also give everything a rinse just to be sure, you know, there's no pest problems or anything. Everything should have been checked when it came in the country, but you know it really doesn't hurt to be doubly as sure.

Jane Perrone Absolutely, absolutely. And are these plants where if you lose all the leaves you've still got a chance of bringing them back? Are they growing from rhizomes that will re-sprout?

Gemma Haigh Yeah, so a lot of the time what you hear people who collect anthuriums talk about is chonks, which is a really bizarre word.

Jane Perrone Oh, I love a chonk. My children are always talking about chonks, not in the context of anthuriums, but yeah, something being a chonk is classic.

Gemma Haigh So it sounds obviously super derogatory and slang, but a chonk. It's basically, you know, with relation to anthurium, it's like a part of the stem. So in the wild, you know, anthuriums are epiphytes. They grow up trees. So you have this huge, huge stem, which kind of winds its way with its roots around, you know, the trunk of a tree. So they kind of grow upwards and they grow from this really big woody chonk. So depending on the size of the anthurium, depends on obviously the width and the size of the chunk that you have, it will continue to root as it grows upwards from the chunk. So what you can do is if you have to remove all of the leaves, it's not the end of the world. If you still have some chonk with some roots on it, there is always a chance that your anthurium can come back to life. So it's definitely worth keeping it for as long as possible just to check. I actually have one in this cabinet, I don't know if you've noticed, Jane. It's actually in some water environment, re-rooting.

Jane Perrone It's got some roots there, that's still... That's got a chance. That's got a good chance.

Gemma Haigh It's got roots and it's got some growth points on it, so I'm going to take the chance. That was an imported one, actually. That one came from a company called Kartel Daun, who are based in Indonesia. It's just never really settled very well. It's really, really struggled to acclimate to UK conditions. It's pretty much been in a cabinet since I've had it, but unfortunately, it's just really struggled to push out new leaves. So I did exactly what we just talked about. I cut all of the leaves off and it's got a couple of growth points. So I'm hoping they will get new leaves.

Jane Perrone Yeah, absolutely. Well, you know, that's the challenge and it's really exciting when you do succeed with one of those kind of issues and you just feel like a million dollars because you've pulled something back from the brink. That's an exciting, that's very, very exciting.

Jane Perrone More from Gemma shortly, but now it's time for some housekeeping and this week's Q&A. Thank you to everyone who's got in touch with me in the past couple of weeks. I try to get back to as many of you as I can. I also just discovered, Johnny-come-lately that I am, or rather Janecome-lately, that on Spotify I can actually go and look at comments that people have left about the show and I can publish them. Now I didn't realise this existed until, as I say, a couple of days ago, so I've been missing out on your comments, many of which are delightful. I did get one comment though on one of the begonia episodes when I did the begonia top 10 from somebody called James basically saying, no more begonias! So sorry about that James, you're obviously not a begonia fan even though you love the show. However, I did get a lovely comment from Betty about the Sizemoriae begonia episode saying how much she enjoyed that, and Kelly also commented on the Lucerna episode saying how much they were enjoying it, so as ever, you can't please everybody all the time. And Peter got in touch to say that he found the fungus gnat episode useful and noted, "as someone new to the podcast genre, I was lucky enough to stumble across yours almost immediately and have yet to wander elsewhere". Well, that's very kind of you, Peter. It's great to have you here and keep on enjoying the show, loving your feedback. Thank you to Cara, who became a super fan in my Patreon group. So this is my monthly crowdfunding scheme. And as a Patreon subscriber at the Ledge End and Superfan level, paying either five or ten dollars or pounds or euros, you get access to An Extra Leaf, my bonus podcast once a month, plus ad-free episodes of the main show, plus my December mailout and a hotline to my ears. So please do check that out. It's in the show notes, all the details of how to become a patron of my Patreon.

Jane Perrone And now it's time for question of the week, which comes from Rebecca. And this is short and sweet, but it's just a reminder of the way that pests come in all shapes and sizes. Rebecca got in touch about a lovely variegated aspidistra. However, all was not well in the land of the cast iron plant, because this specimen had developed brown rusty looking patches on the leaves and some kind of white debris.

Jane Perrone And I urged Rebecca to get a hand lens on that. If you know me well, you'll know that I love a hand lens. Helps you to really see what's going on. And it turned out that these little white patches were not mealybugs. They were something that could be moved with a fingernail, which leads me to the conclusion, given the fact that they're white rather than brown, that Rebecca has a case of what we call boisduval scale. Now, I think that sounds like somebody who went to Eton circa 1982, but indeed no, this is a type of armoured scale insect with the scientific name Diaspis boisduvalii Signoret. Now, they often turn up on orchids, in fact, if you remember back to my episode with Kev's orchids talking about dendrobiums and other orchids, you'll remember that we talked about boisduval scale, often found on orchids, but yes, they can be on aspergistras and other houseplants as well. So I've advised Rebecca to cut off the worst affected leaves right at the base and get to work on the rest of the plant, wiping down the leaves with some horticultural soap spray or something similar to that. You could also use an alcohol based spray or you could get some alcohol on a cotton q-tip/cotton bud and work your way through the worst patches using that. The main thing is just to get the worst of the infestation off. Then the trick that I learned from Darryl Cheng, AKA Houseplant Journal for regular scale.

There are actually a few different species of the brown scales you see, but the scale that we normally expect to see. And that's getting a piece of packing tape and applying it sticky side down onto the leaves. This will pick up not only the scales but also the younger forms of the insect which you may not be able to see with the naked eye. So it's a really good way of cutting down on infestations and then you can just chuck the parcel tape away. I tend to use the paper parcel tape just to be a bit more environmentally friendly. It works really, really well as a follow-up treatment that you then repeat a few times just to make sure you've got all of the scale out the way. And of course, as I always say with pest infestations, if you can make sure the plant is being treated really well and is as healthy as possible, that will enable the plant to fight back as successfully as possible. Now, side note, who was Boisduval or Boisduval? I don't know quite whether you'd pronounce his name that way. I suspect actually it would be something like Boisduval because this was a pest named after a French naturalist, Jean Baptiste Boisduval, who lived in the 1800s and he founded the Etymological Society of France. And now he was the chap who first found this scale on orchids in his greenhouse in France and did the taxonomic work to identify them. So he's ended up with this scale species as his namesake. I will post a link to an article that I found from the Orchid Digest, published on the St Augustine Orchid Society website, which goes into a lot of detail about this kind of scale, which should help you if you're facing an infestation. And I hope that helps, Rebecca. If you've got a question for On The Ledge, do drop me a line. I love to hear from you. It's ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com.

Jane Perrone So we talked a little bit about red spider mites, any other pests that are particularly attracted to these beautiful leaves? Is it thrips? I'd say thrips.

Gemma Haigh Yeah, it is, sadly. And thrips are definitely something that I've had an issue with. And that is, you know, pests, I know we talked about it earlier, but pests are something that you're a bit more open to, literally, when you don't use a kind of cabinet or cabinet conditions. You do find, you know, mine are on open shelves in the room, certainly my larger plants. And what happens, you know, in the summer and the spring is I open my windows to allow the air to circulate. But then you get some thrips riding on the air and they come in and they always find the leaves, always. You know, I've tried everything, but they always get in somehow. So yeah, it's definitely something that you need to check for. So I always try and keep on top of that checking leaves.You know, I have to be honest with you, I'm a real kind of like, I believe in easy plant care, so I don't daily check my leaves. I'd be lying if I said I did. I'd like to think I'm quite observant, so if I spot anything that looks a bit dodgy, any yellowing or anything that's a little bit unusual, I usually have a closer look. When you have shelves that are as high up as mine, it does mean kind of climbing on bits of furniture and stuff to get there. So watering is always a fun job. But you know, I think it's always well worth checking your plants relatively regularly. I'd probably say realistically, I check mine probably once a week and that's usually enough. But thrips, you know, as anybody who's had them before knows, they can take hold quite quickly and do a lot of damage in a short amount of time.

Jane Perrone I have this mental image. I don't know why, I always get this mental image when talking about thrips flying in of like these, this sort of like crowd of thrips coming through the window, flying in, yeehaw! Just coming in like going, hooray! Like I'm seeing your collection and just like making a beeline for it and being so happy to discover all these wonderful things.

Gemma Haigh Do you know what, I always think of them as like teeny tiny locusts and in my head there's just tons of them that come in at one time and they just kind of settle on your plas. In reality I think you know it only takes one or two to really cause a lot of damage, unfortunately.

Jane Perrone So obviously you have that, they're there, that sort of distinctive rice grain sort of shape, but what other kind, what's the hallmarks of the damage they do that you might see on these Anthuriums?

Gemma Haigh So the first thing you'll probably see as a kind of tiny bit of yellowing in very specific areas on a leaf. You know, they tend to kind of attack one area and they pretty much, you know, suck all of the juice out of a leaf. So any kind of yellowing on a leaf, I would get a little bit concerned, especially if that yellowing is kind of in the centre of the leaf, not on the outside of the leaf. I'd always look for that. And yeah, I mean, usually if you look closer, you'll discover if they're there or not. And it's exactly what you say, it's those tiny little rice grains. To me, they always remind me of like maggots, but teeny tiny and small. I think they're as disgusting as maggots as well.

Jane Perrone I mean, I did get an email from a listener who works in the Dutch houseplant industry, he was saying they've definitely seen an uptick in thrips in the industry and I think it's matched by, you know, obviously if you've got lots of these plants that are attractive, of course there's going to be a risk of them turning up in your collection. But yeah, it is a worry. But is it just a question of a war of attrition on them? Are you washing off leaves and spraying them down?

Gemma Haigh Yeah, so I definitely, I'm trying to choose more sustainable options. So I'm trying to move away from using kind of the really hardcore pesticides like Provanto, which I've used in the past, but they can obviously cause so much damage to the environment in general. So I'm really trying to use kind of more organic methods. So the first thing I'll do when I spot thrips is wash the plant down, shower it in the bath, and I'll thoroughly shower every single leaf, because they can get everywhere and anywhere. So it's all of the moss on the tops of my plant pots as well that I shower down. And I shower down the backs and the fronts of the leaves, the stem, every little bit that I can get to as far as possible. And then kind of, you know, I'll see where I'm at. I've actually found, I've started to use alcohol a little bit more on the leaves and I've actually found that pretty effective actually.

Jane Perrone I think I seem to remember you with a vodka bottle?

Gemma Haigh That's right, I did. That was my pest removal hack and you know what? I've been so surprised it's worked amazingly well. We just literally had an old bottle of vodka and I thought, well I see a lot of people using rubbing alcohol. So what's the difference?

Jane Perrone Yes, pretty much the same.

Gemma Haigh Yeah. I mean I remember I had my ears pierced when I was kind of 12 years old going to secondary school and I remember we run out of the alcohol that you put on your ears where you have to rub it to make sure it doesn't get infected and I remember my mum using vodka.So I thought, well what's the difference, right? I'll just use vodka on my leaves. And when I did a little give and over Google around, obviously I didn't think I'd just damage all of my precious leaves. But I was amazed to find that actually it works just the same. It's slightly less strong than rubbing alcohol, which I think is around 70 to 80% alcohol. Vodka obviously is more like 40 to 50%, I think, dependent on the one you have. Obviously you can get those really strong Russian ones, which are super cheap from the supermarket. It's definitely going to cost you less and it's really effective. I just go with it.

Jane Perrone Yeah, absolutely. I mean, let's talk a little bit about Instagram. Obviously, you're a brilliant creator on Instagram and I'm always admire the stuff that you put out. I'm always nodding my head in agreement and laughing because you do great stuff. What is your... Do you find that's a really fruitful place for you to kind of get feedback from people, and ideas, and hopefully disseminate important messages like I saw your post the other day - 'You can have too many plants'. I just love the fact that you're putting that message out there because that's one of my pet peeves as well.

Gemma Haigh Yes. I love to kind of be a little bit controversial. I think I've kind of gone through my life always being a little bit controversial. So I'm sometimes not afraid to say what needs to be said. And, you know, I see a lot of content on social media that actually I don't agree with, you know, especially in the plant community. And I think it's really important that people are really honest and transparent about what they believe and their values as well. And that's what I always try to do with social media is just be honest with the people that follow me and the people that find me there. Just to say, you know, it's not all roses, you know, no plants are perfect, you know, and you can see for yourself here, you know, stood looking at my collection. There's lots of brown marks, there's lots of bits and pieces that have got some yellowing and I think it's really important to be realistic about the issues that you have with plants and talk about the issues as much as the best parts of keeping plants because no one is perfect, no plant is perfect and I think it's time to embrace that. I think it's also, I really do think it's important to push easy plant care, plant care that doesn't stress people out. That whole thing of having too many plants and I've been there, you know, I've collected way too many, got excited, you know, you see something in the shop and you think, I'm going to bring that home, but you've already got way too many. And all that happens is you just lose a plant, you know, and that just keeps happening and it's a cycle, it's a vicious cycle. Every time you take on more, you just lose another one.

Jane Perrone Yes, absolutely. I'm feeling this very much. I think I may be, you know, I think Hoyas may be my version of your Anthuriums and you know, like I'm always looking for another Hoya. And yeah, I've got too many already. I don't need any more.

Gemma Haigh Yeah, I've started really adding things to, you know, and people always say, oh, do you have a wish list for plants? And I'm like, well, I do. I don't actually write mine down. It's kind of very mentalist. And I have a rough idea of, you know, what I'd like to have in my collection one day. But I think, you know, the way I see it now is very much, it can be very expensive, you know, keeping plants. And I'm sure you know that too. The more plants you accumulate, the more plants you want as well. And I think social media can actually be a real negative for people because they see people buying, you know, the new must -have plant and they think they need to have that too. So there's all that social pressure of like, I need to buy another plant, I need that plant, someone else has got this anthurium, and it can snowball really quickly. But you know, it is an, it isn't a sustainable way of collecting plants. And I think we all get into this hobby because we love plants. So we need to make sure that we keep those plants that we love, and that love of the plants too. Hopefully not by killing them.

Jane Perrone Absolutely. And I think it's that thing of, you know, we don't want them to turn into kind of like fast fashion where you're just getting a hit off, a dopamine hit off buying the plant and then actually the care, you know, I think that's the thing. That's the hard thing. The looking after the plants should be something you are investing time in so that you're actually learning to get joy out of that and actually observing your plants rather than just think, I've got to buy another one, I've got to buy another one. Which can be, I think it's very easy, as you say, it's really easy to fall into that trap. And I know my gosh, you know, going around and seeing people, I'm like, I could just buy a few more of these. And you know, I love giving away plants and that's another thing you can do to deal with this issue. But yeah, it's not easy. It's not easy.

Gemma Haigh Yeah. And the more you have, the more there is to manage. So I think, keeping on top of that plant care is so important. And every time I post about it, you know, it could go one of two ways. I mean, I posted about it today and I definitely saw that I'd lost some followers, but I actually thought, you know what, it doesn't matter because that is something, it's an important message. And if people don't want to hear it, that's okay. They don't have to stick around for it. But I think it's really important to say it as well.

Jane Perrone Yeah, I agree with you. It is really, really important to get this message across. And that's not to say you can't buy plants, but I think it's just got to be a really considered purchase every time. And if you wait, I mean I'm sure it's the case with these anthuriums as with so many very popular plants that something that now is 250 dollars or pounds is probably going to be 50 or even 10 in a few months' time if you can just hang on a little bit longer the price is going to drop.

Gemma Haigh Exactly and I think you have to be smart about it and you know and I've got definitely a lot of my collection, you know, despite me having some really kind of exotic, unusual plants, I have not spent that much on a plant. I think the most I've ever spent on a plant was £120, and then I killed it! You know, three weeks later, and I just thought, oh my god, what have I done? And I think the reality is, you know, if you can spend a little bit less, and you can still create something beautiful from that, if you can start small and buy a smaller plant and grow it to be bigger, if you can be patient with it, then over time that'll pay off. And that's so much more rewarding as well than just buying the big plant to start with and then killing it.

Jane Perrone Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, I agree with you. And I'm looking at my own collection this spring and thinking that there's things I need to sort of divest myself of and that I don't need to have every single new hoya that comes along, right? Tempting though it is, tempting though it is.

Gemma Haigh I like to think that I'm purging my collection of anything I do not love anymore and that it causes me stress and strain and I can't keep alive.

Jane Perrone Well, that's why I do not have any prayer plants.

Gemma Haigh Yeah, I get that. You know what I'm like, just like, no. This is a hot topic on social media because recently I've definitely, you know, done some content around, you know, Calatheas and how difficult they are to keep alive. And so many people agree and there's actually two ballparks, and I always like to think that the people in the Calathea ballpark that think that Calatheas are great actually just haven't experienced Calatheas on the turn yet.

Jane Perrone No, I think that's right. It's all very well people say, oh yeah, I've got this amazing Calathea collection. And I'm like, how long have you had that collection for? I'm not trying to sort of, you know, shame you of being a newbie, but actually like they, yes, there's a honeymoon period involved in these and you know, down the line, you know, I have killed every Calathea I've ever had. I'm proud to say that, but some of them have lasted five or six years and then nope, there's something going wrong.

Gemma Haigh And that's the thing with Calatheas. I think, you know, you have to be honest with yourself about them. You know, I've killed a lot. You know, I've got a lot. I had a lot at one point and most of them are dead. Um, you know, I've got a few that are hanging on, but there's not many. And you know, some of them are literally hanging on for dear life in my greenhouse outside right now.

Jane Perrone I mean, I want to do another clay through episode, but then I'm thinking, is it going to be really depressing because I'm just going to be saying don't grow that one and don't grow that one. I don't know. But then I also find like I did something on fiddle leaf figs in my newsletter a while back where I was basically saying don't grow a fiddle leaf fig unless you live in a place, like a subtropical place where you've got so much light. They just make a really bad houseplant and then you get immediately get people come back saying well mine's growing very well and you're like well where are you? Oh yes you're in Florida. Well you know that's why.

Gemma Haigh They're always in Florida.

Jane Perrone Like you, I try to make my life easier and grow things that are gonna grow well in my environment. And that does cut down on a lot of the pain and the heartache of those. But you know, they're everywhere. They're in the big box DIY stores. The leaves are incredible. You're looking at them. You're thinking, wow, that's so beautiful. And you know, there are these mysterious people who somehow just have really good light, I guess. And the right humidity and can make them thrive. So those people do exist. Shout out to them. But yeah, I think for most of us, I mean, it's interesting to see. I mean, I would be scared of these anthuriums, but from what you're saying, these are easier than, than Calatheas.

Gemma Haigh Yeah, so much easier, honestly. And I think that's, you know, that's the thing. I think because, you know, they are less usual and because they're sometimes a bit harder to get hold of, you don't always find, you know, these big, beautiful leafed anthuriums in your local garden center, for example, but actually, they can be really affordable, especially if you're buying from other collectors. You know, a lot of people just do it for the love of plants. They're not trying to turn a profit on things. You know, they're actually really easy to look after. I was absolutely amazed because, like you, I was quite put off by Enthiriums and thought they really are kind of an exotic thing that I just will never be able to master. But actually, they're incredibly easy. I mean, I did throw myself in the deep end. I imported some from abroad and that was the first real purchase of anthurium I had which was not a good idea I'd like to point out and I did kill all of them.

Janen Perrone You went again?

Gemma Haigh Yes, I went again. I did, I have to say I did have an Snthurium clarinervium and I'd really recommend those as a starter plant actually. Because if you can master that you can master any anthurium in my opinion. The other one that's great as a starter plant, I don't actually have one, but Anthurium crystallinum. You can get different hybrids of it though. You can get all sorts like 'Silver Blush' you might have seen in the garden centres. Those are just as easy to grow as well. So they're great to start with. And then you've obviously got your standard flowered Anthuriums that you buy in all of your garden centers.

Jane Perrone Yeah, absolutely. And I suppose that's how some people do start. And I don't know, I love some of those really gaudy bright pink ones. I think they're kind of just so out there.

Gemma Haigh They call them like flamingo flowers. Yeah, flamingo flower. I mean, there's something wonderful about those. And my sister's got one of those and I think, gosh, if my sister can keep it alive, she would be fully admitting that she's a not houseplant parent. If she can keep that alive, then that must be quite an easy plant.

Gemma Haigh Definitely.

Jane Perrone Because her plants don't get a lot of care. So yeah, they're a really, really interesting genus. And I mean, I guess this is... Their popularity doesn't seem to be waning. They're just remaining so popular. So it's long live the Anthurium really. Is there anything else from your collection that you want to tell us about that we haven't mentioned, anything specific that we need to talk about?

Gemma Haigh Great question. Any interesting stories about the Anthurium? I think, so I'll draw your attention kind of very briefly. Mine's only very small, but this one here is an Anthurium metallicum. So, and this one, so my kind of story with the Anthurium metallicum, who doesn't look very impressive right now.

Jane Perrone I was going to say, I'm slightly underwhelmed by this compared to this guy.

Gemma Haigh I'll show you a picture later of what they can grow to. It's got potential. He's got some potential. These leaves can get really, really big and what happens in their natural environment, I kind of want so I looked them up actually because I went to visit my sister. She lives in Queensland in Australia. So you can see all the anthuriums and I tell you, it was the most depressing thing when you grow anthuriums in the UK or any plant for that matter in the UK. And then you go to, you know, tropical North Queensland where everything grows beautifully. And there's palm trees on the beaches and you know, everything's so impressive. And we went to the Botanic Gardens there, which is called Flecker Botanic Gardens. And walking around, they have kind of this enclosed bit. And when I say enclosed, it's not like a greenhouse like we'd have in the UK. It literally just had like a mesh cage around it. Cause honestly, their climate's so incredible. And they had this huge Anthurium metallicum there, and it was literally bigger than me. The one leaf was bigger than me. And I was like, I absolutely have to get a photo of this. You know, I've got a photo with it, got my brother to take it. And I, you know, there, you know, that was like my kind of like, wow, I'm in love with this plant. I need to get one. So I got home and I imported one from South America and it's very small still but I hope one day he does that plant.

Jane Perrone Well that's a wonderful thing, is that you've got a goal right there and it's looking nice and healthy.

Gemma Haigh He's doing good so far, hopefully the thrips leave Malone this spring and he'll be on to something. But yeah, he's a great plant.

Jane Perrone Yeah. Well that's good. It's good to have goals, isn't it? That's the thing. It's good to have a plan.

Gemma Haigh And patience is everything with growing plants and I think that's also something for me that is really important to remind people of. What you see on social media isn't always what you get when you experience it yourself.

Jane Perrone Gosh yes, how true. I mean I know I sometimes you know I have to remind myself with my own coverage of what I do that actually you know maybe I should show people this dying plant that's looking really really miserable because actually that's a realistic representation of what's going on, but oftentimes it doesn't look so good on Instagram so yeah we miss out on this the crispy bits.

Gemma Haigh The moving pictures for me, so reels, I actually quite like sharing, you know, a little bit of stuff that I think people actually really kind of relate to it, I've found, because I was quite scared to start sharing, you know, some imperfections with plants and, you know, my failures as well, because that's it, you know, people expect you to be so great all the time, but nobody is, and I think it's so important, and I think it's important to connect with people through sharing, you you're inadequacies as well, because we're all human, you know.

Jane Perrone Yeah. And when you speak to this professionals, you know, the professionals are still like, oh, I can't grow that one or this one never grow, you know, like the professionals have just as many problems as we do. I've seen Calatheans dying in Botanic Gardens.

Jane Perrone Yeah, absolutely. They die there too. They do. They do. And those places are places where they they're pretty brutal. You know, if something's dying, they will just pull it unless it's obviously very, very rare, just gets pulled out and replaced, you know, so we shouldn't feel so bad about our losses.

Gemma Haigh Yeah, they kind of use them like bedding plants, you know, in and out and they don't think twice about it. So, you know, why do we worry so much about this perception of needing to be a perfect plant parent? It just doesn't exist.

Jane Perrone Absolutely. Well, that's a good note to end on, Gemma. Thank you so much for sharing your plants with me. And yeah, we'll put all your socials in the show notes for everybody to check out. But just remind us of your Instagram so that people can go and find you.

Gemma Haigh Yeah so I'm on Instagram as the Plant Parlourgram and you'll find me also on TikTok as the Plant Parlour. I also have a website where I blog about bits and pieces that I think might be useful to you.

Jane Perrone Sounds good, thanks so much Gemma.

Jane Perrone If you want to hear more from Gemma, and you're a Patreon subscriber at the Ledge End or Superfan level, you're in luck, because you can listen to An Extra Leaf 124, which is out now, where Gemma and I talk more about her houseplant studio at the Chelsea Flower Show this year, sustainability and much more.

That's all for this week's show. Thank you so much for joining me and don't forget, #OTLsowalong starts here. Because from tiny seeds, great houseplants grow. Bye!

The music you heard in this episode was Roll Jordan Roll by The Joy Drops, The Road We Used to Travel When We Were Kids by Komiku, and Whistle by Benjamin Banger. All tracks are licensed under Creative Commons. Visit the show notes for details.

Find out how to join in with my annual houseplant seed sowing project, and I talk anthuriums with Gemma Haigh of The Plant Parlour. Plus I answer a question about boisduval scale.

This week’s guest

Gemma Haigh aka The Plant Parlour lives in Surrey in the UK.
She’s on Instagram and also on Facebook.
She will be exhibiting a Houseplant Studio at the RHS Chelsea flower show this year, in collaboration with houseplant seller Grow Tropicals.

Patreon subscribers at the Ledge End and Superfan levels can listen to a podcast of An Extra Leaf (episode 124) where Gemma and I talk about everything from sustainability to why we love Facebook Marketplace, plus more information about her Houseplant Studio. Find out more about joining Patreon here.

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.

#OTLSOWALONG - WHAT IS IT AND HOW DO I GET INVOLVED?

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.
What houseplants can can you grow from seed? There are many possibilities, including many cacti and succulents, the sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica, the sensitive plant - see episode 257), Clivias, asparagus ferns, real ferns (from spores), Kentia palms, Hypoestes, Streltizia, coffee plants, and begonias. Monstera deliciosa is one of relatively few arounds that you’ll be able to source seed to grow at home.
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.
In terms of equipment, I have a Garland Super Seven propagator which is great and has lasted years. If you want to use a heat mat, always use a thermostat with it to stop it overheating.
The sowalong isn’t a strict set of rules, so if you want to buy a Caladium tuber and grow that instead, that’s fine by me!
Please share what you’re up to with me so I can keep track and tell other listeners. Comment below, drop me an email, or use the hashtag #OTLsowalong on the On The Ledge Facebook group or Instagram (where I am @j.l.perrone)or TikTok (I;m @j.l.perrone here too).

ANTHURIUM CHAT WITH GEMMA HAIGH

Gemma’s Anthuriums are planted in the mineral based substrate Lechuza pon (listen to my episode on Lechuza pon) with a moss topping. They are in plastic nursery pots covered by a terracotta pot. The pon helps to reduce fungus gnats.
Gemma uses a 28w Sansi bulb controlled by Google Home to light part of her Anthurium collection.
Gemma’s Instagram reel about using vodka on pests is here.
The Anhturiums Gemma mentions are, in order:
- Anthurium besseae aff
- Anthurium cirinoi
- Anthurium magnificum verde
- Anthurium clarinervium
- Anthurium luxurians
- Anthurium metallicum
- Gemma recommends A clarinverium and A. crystallinum for Anthurium beginners
Gemma keeps Anthuriums she is acclimating in an IKEA Akerbar cabinet
The smart plugs I mention bought don’t seem to be available any more but these are a close match.
The companies Gemma mentions importing Anthuriums from are Ecuagenera in South America and Kartel Daun in Indonesia.

Question of the week

Rebecca got in touch with the story of an aspidistra that is under the weather. She told me that the white bumps are definitely not mealy bugs, but they move when pushed with a fingernail. I advised her to check more closely what’s going on with a hand lens, but that my main suspect would be a kind of armoured scale called boisduval scale - scientific name Diaspis boisduvalii Signoret.

The scales on this species are white and often occur on orchids, but can infest other houseplants including Aspidistras. I have mentioned boisdvual scale in the show before, back in the orchids episode with Kev’s Orchids (episode 238). The detailed article I mentioned on boisduval scale can be found here.

Want to ask me a question? Email ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com. The more information you can include, the better - pictures of your plant, details of your location and how long you have had the plant are always useful to help solve your issue!

This week’s sponsor

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Visit trueleafmarket.com and enter promo code OTL10 to receive $10 off your purchase of $50 or more.

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.

NEW! You can now join my Patreon as a free member or take out a seven-day free trial of my Ledge End tier. Visit my Patreon page for details.

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 one extra episode a month, known as An Extra Leaf, as well as ad-free versions of the main podcast 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!