Episode 119: how to give your houseplants a health check

Cacti and succulents hanging out under Vaxxer growlights from IKEA UK held in Bobby Lamps from Habitat. Photograph: Jane Perrone.

Transcript

Episode 119

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Jane: Hello and welcome to On The Ledge podcast episode 119, I am your host Jane Perrone otherwise known this week as Snotty McSnotville of Old Snotville Lane, because, yes, I have a cold. So, apologies in advance for the rather nasal sound of my voice this week, I'm sure you can bear with me and I will be back to normal in the near future, well, as normal as I'll ever get.

This week I'm talking about how to give your house plants a health check. As we heard in last week's episode these death months of November, December and January can be very tough on our plants, so you need to keep an extra close eye on what's going on. In this episode I'm going to run through some of the checks that I like to do on my plants every so often just to make sure that everything is ticking over and no horrible surprises await me. We'll also be enjoying another Meet The Listener, with listener Nick Shalosky, and catching up with our campaign to get the Monstera emoji added to all of our smart phones.

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Jane: Welcome to my new Patreons this week, Milda and Emily, great to have you on board, and if you'd to like become a Patreon of On The Ledge then visit my show notes at JanePerrone.com to find out how. Thanks to Brooklynsucculents who got in touch after the Q&A on finding water for carnivorous plants and other plants that are sensitive to mineral salts. They suggested having a look at the zero water filter which is a jug water filter. This system claims to remove 99.6% of the dissolved solids in water which would make it absolutely fine for giving to house plants, so this is something definitely worth looking at if you are going through a lot of bottles of distilled water bought from the shop because, of course, if you buy this, yes, it is plastic, but hopefully you're going to reuse it many, many times and they also claim that the filters can also be recycled.

So the zero water jug looks like a good option and Brooklynsucculents says: "The filter's life is affected by how hard the local water is, in New York City it lasts months because the water is soft," and they also point out that it does remove fluoride which a lot of plants don't like. So this is definitely worth a look if you are somebody who is getting through a lot of bottled distilled water. It retails in the UK for about £60, as with many things it's a little bit cheaper in the US. It's a hard life being a Brit you know! Anyway, if anyone has any other suggestions on this front, do get in touch and let me know.

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Jane: Now let's get on with our house plant health check. This may be counter-intuitive, but the first thing to do is to start with the pot. If your plant is in a cache pot, it's time to brace yourself and get that pot out of the cache pot so you can see exactly what's going on. I know this can be a pain, particularly if you've got lots of plants on high shelves and so on, but this is really the only way you're going to tell what's happening.

So lift out the inner pot and have a look at the bottom of the cache pot. What are you going to see down there? Worst case scenario, you're going to see a puddle of water that's stagnant and stinky and horrible. That's probably a really good sign that that plant has been allowed to have stagnant water sitting around the roots and unfortunately root rot is quite possible. So get rid of that water straight away and give the inside of the pot a good clean out, good hygiene is a beautiful thing when it comes to plants. The other thing that you might see, if there's not a layer of water at the bottom but perhaps just a little bit of dampness, is some tiny insects scurrying around which often sends people into absolute fits of despair. Often times these can be little things called spring tails which are organisms which live in soils and really, they're not going to do your plants any harm. They're usually a bit of a clean-up crew for soil, eating decomposing stuff, so don't panic if you see things scurrying around. As always your hand-lens comes in useful to have a look at them, but when you get to have a look at the rest of your plant, as we'll get on to, then you can check the foliage of the plant for any problems and also the roots. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

What else might you see at the bottom of that pot? Well, you need to lift up the pot and look at what's happening underneath on the base because the other thing that does happen, especially when you've brought plants in from outside, is that you might find there's a little, wee slug hanging about on the bottom of the pot that's hitchhiked in. So if there's any hitchhikers on the bottom of the pot or at the bottom of the cache pot then do get rid of them.

While you've got the pot in your hand, it's a good idea to test the weight of it, how heavy does it feel? I've got two pots here, I've got a Saxifraga stolonifera Maroon Beauty, which is in a terracotta pot and I've got another Saxifraga,Ginkgo this one is called, in a plastic pot. So, obviously the plastic pot does feel a lot lighter than the terracotta but I can tell from having picked up this Maroon Beauty many times, that this is a little bit light right now - it means it could do with some water - whereas the plastic pot is actually a reasonable weight. I think that one is okay. While I'm looking at the outside of this pot, there's a few other things to observe on the terracotta front. There's a white crust around the edge of this pot, that's from mineral salts, where the plant has been watered with tap water, probably, that's got mineral salts dissolved in it, then become lodged in the porous pot and leech out through the surface. It's not too much of a problem for this plant, this does get water with rain water so I think this is part of old damage as it were. It gives it character. I'd be more worried if I was seeing green slime on the outside of the pot which is a sign that the pot has been damp for a very long time and has produced some algae growing on the surface and that would be telling me that the plant was being over-watered. So there's a few things to look out for on the pot side.

One more thing to note, obviously, if I lift up these two pots, are there any roots growing out of the bottom? And the answer in this case is no. Just be careful as you tip the pot that you don't end up with compost all over your lap. What do you do at this time of year if you do find a mass of roots coming through? Should you re-pot? Well, that is a really good question. I think the answer is, as is often the case, it depends. If you've got a plant, maybe a tropical plant that isn't going to hit any dormancy through the winter and is going to go on growing, it's absolutely fine to re-pot into a slightly larger pot. If there's something that's gone dormant and isn't putting on any new growth whatsoever, it'll probably be fine to be left until spring, so it's a bit of a judgement call. If you do need to re-pot cacti and succulents over winter, the best thing to do is, either, wait until spring, that's obvious, or you can re-pot them into completely dry cactus compost, so that they avoid getting waterlogged because that is the one thing that cacti and succulents absolutely hate over the winter time. I'm going to put these back on the windowsill. There we go, one, and two. My chair is squeaking, apologies.

We've looked at the pot, what about the surface of the soil? Things you might see, you might see a little bit of white mould, which is not the end of the world. If you're bothered by it you can just scrape up the surface a bit, or put a little bit of a mulch down, some clay pellet. The mould could be a sign that the soil is a little bit damp, but not always, but as I say, if it bothers you, just scrape it away. What I'd be more concerned about seeing is either moss or liverworts, these are both indicator plants that the soil is pretty moist because they exist only where there's a lot of moisture around. Liverwort, if you haven't come across it before, it looks like green, slightly slimy stuff that grows on the tops of pots particularly in nurseries where the plants have been left to their own devices for a little while in damp and shady places. Liverwort is a bryophyte, which is a group of plants that is linked to mosses and algae and you don't really want to see any of these bryophytes on the tops of your pots because it really does mean that conditions are too damp. If you have got them scrape them away and then do a careful check on drainage and possibly re-pot if your compost is just too claggy. Because most plants that are growing inside are going to be pretty unhappy in those conditions with the usual few exceptions such as carnivorous plants.

If you've got time, it really is worth taking the plant out of its pot so you can take a look at the root ball. Roots do vary quite a lot, you see some roots that are bright orange, weirdly, like Sansevieria roots, the snake plant. Most plants will have white roots though, of varying thicknesses. The one thing that they shouldn't be is smelly or mushy, so have a look at what your roots are doing. If you've got loads of roots growing on the surface of the soil at the top of the pot, that can often be a sign that you're watering too little and too often rather than giving the plant a deep drink once in a while. That makes the roots go to the surface to get to that water, but it's not good for the plant, it's much better to water more occasionally and let that root ball develop lower down so that it's less prone to stress when the plant does dry out.

While you've got that root ball exposed grab yourself a chop stick or a kebab stick and get all stabby, because one of the things that can happen to potting mix over time is it slumps down in the pot and all the air pockets are gone. So give the plant a good stab with your chop stick and that way you'll encourage some air pockets to form and loosen up that potting mix a little bit which can benefit plants. Yes, you will damage a few roots along the way, but it will be fine, trust me, it will be absolutely fine. So do that, particularly if you're finding your plant is hard to water because the water just runs off, that means it's just too compacted down there, so adding some extra aeration will really help.

So you've done your little stabby bit, you can put the plant back in its pot, if you do find a lot of slimy wetness down there, that really is time to take action, cut away anything that's damaged and re-pot in fresh and fairly dry potting mix and hope for the best because that is the worst possible thing you can do to your plant.

So now you've looked at the pot and the roots, it's time to move on to the foliage. Give it a bit of a feel first of all. I do love to stroke a leaf as you know, but this is a really good way of knowing what's going on with the plant. Going back to the Saxifraga I was talking about, if I feel the leaves of this plant, that I think is under-watered, one of them is starting to curl a little bit and it's looking quite floppy. In combination with the fact that the surface looks really dry and the plant feels a little bit light, it all leads me to suspect that it needs some water. This isn't too dire because plants will generally survive a lot better under-watered than over-watered, but even so, it's time to take action and get this plant some water.

If you have a succulent plant and you give the leaves a little bit of a squeeze, if they are feeling anything but firm, that's time to be a little bit concerned. At this time of year, oftentimes, succulent leaves can get a little bit squishy just because they are lacking in water and the water reserves they've got stored in those leaves are starting to be used up. So it may be that your plant may need a dribble of water, particularly if it's growing in room temperature conditions and isn't being kept really cold because it still might be growing. So if you think your plant is really, really dry, then yes, you can give it a bit of water to stop it getting really wrinkly and soft. Do bear in mind that softness can be an indication of over-watering, if you do the root ball thing, you'll get a sense of what's really going on.

Also, check whether the leaves are dusty or maybe they've got marks on them from hard water, are hairy leaves getting all yucky and dusty? That's an indication that you just need to do a little bit of maintenance and either get an old paint brush, but a clean one, or an old make up brush, again, it must be clean and brush away any dust. Or if you've got a plant that has got glossy leaves, something like an aroid, then you can just get some rain water or distilled water in a spray bottle and give it a good spray. If you're in a hard water area, there isn't really much point in trying to clean it off with tap water because you'll just be left with those marks from the water. So another case for using rain water, distilled water or indeed the water from one of those water filters we were talking about earlier. Hairy leaves generally don't like to get water on them whatsoever, so things like my Saxifraga, African Violets, Streptocarpus they need to be kept dry and that's why you need to do the brushing instead.

Once you've felt up your leaves, now it's time to have a really close look at the foliage overall. Turn those leaves over because that's where pests are going to be hiding on the whole. Look for any signs of anything that looks out of the ordinary. It could be something as simple as tiny little granules, which would indicate spider mite, dead skins of spider mites, or possibly spider mite eggs. The other place to look is in the joins where the leaf petiole joins the stem, that is where things like mealybugs love to hang out, so if you see any fluffiness in those joints and crevices of a plant, that is the time to get started with some mealybug treatments. Mealybugs, I'm going to do a whole episode on these soon, if you've got some rubbing alcohol or isopropyl alcohol, or if you're in the UK you can use surgical spirit, get a cotton bud, aka cue tip, and dip that into your alcohol/surgical spirit and dab it on to those mealybugs to get rid of them, and you may have to do repeated treatments to get rid of those. Look, also, for things like dead and dying leaves and remove them straight away because leaving dead foliage around can encourage, and of course they're making your plant look really unsightly.

If your plant is on a windowsill, have a close look. Are any of its leaves actually touching the window pane? At this time of year windows can get incredibly cold and if you have a plant where it's touching that freezing cold window, oftentimes that leaf will be damaged. Make sure plants are just pulled away a little bit from windows. If you've got good double glazing, people always say: "Take plants off windowsills in winter," if you've got good double glazing it shouldn't be too much of a problem, there won't be major draughts or cold spots. If you are going to be pulling your curtains or blinds down leaving the plants behind the blinds, between the blinds and the window, that can create this cool spot which can cause some plants problems. So have a look at your plant, if it's looking unhappy, it might just be worth moving it off the windowsill at nighttime.

If you are going to mist or spray leaves either to clean them or because you're doing some kind of treatment for things like spider mites, the best time of day to do it is the morning when the plant has plenty of time to dry off its foliage before nightfall, because wet foliage at night can be a bit of a problem for plants. If you've got leaves that look very pale and washed out, it can be a symptom of too much sun. This time of year, it may be not so much of an issue. Over-watering is another reason for that yellow leaf scenario. If you've got things like Hoya, this is a classic one, I keep seeing pictures of people with Hoyas, particularly Hoya Kerrii, which is very, very susceptible to too much water around the roots. You really need to think about pulling back on the water, letting it get really quite dry before you water and then ultimately in the longer term, potting it in something where it's really free draining so that water doesn't hang around those roots.

It can be tempting in the winter to think about chopping away at any foliage that looks substandard. This isn't entirely a bad thing to do, but do bear in mind that pruning actually encourages new growth. So, if you are going to cut a load of foliage off your plant, do you really want to do it now? When the plant probably should be a having a bit of a rest. Trim judiciously, take off anything that's dead, dying, diseased, and any spindly growth, but do bear in mind, if you're going to take off spindly growth that's spindly because the light conditions are low, then you're going to need to improve the light conditions. I've got my set up here in the office with my VÄXER grow lights from IKEA which is lighting up my succulent collection. They're doing a good job so far, nothing seems to have gone greatly etiolated, there's probably about ten to twelve plants under each light, it's not the brightest of rooms, but that extra light seems to be doing the trick. I'll post a picture in the show notes so you can see what it looks like.

If you have cuttings rooting in water at the moment, there's another thing that's really worth looking for which is how is that water doing? If the water starts to be filled with foliage that's fallen off the cuttings, which does sometimes happen, it can get really stinky and anaerobic and that's one thing that you want to avoid because the water needs to have plenty of oxygen in it. So it's worth emptying out that water, cleaning out the container and refreshing because hygiene is all.

In terms of pests, if you've got distorted leaves then that's usually a sign of aphids and they can be a problem in winter, they tend to die off outside but stick around indoors and find tender young growth on plants and that results in this distorted growth, where plants are puckered and the leaves just don't look right. So if that's the case, you can give them a good wash-off under the tap. You can use an insecticidal soap, you can just brush them away with your fingers, but you going to have to come back and keep doing it until those pests are completely gone.

While you're looking at plants, it's also worth giving them a little bit of a turn, because lots of plants will grow towards the light particularly in winter. So unless you want a really leaning plant, it's a really good idea to just give them a little bit of a turn every now and again, just to keep them growing evenly. Well, that pretty much wraps up my house plant health check, but what have I left out? Please drop me a line or leave me a comment on the show notes to tell me how you check your plants and if there's anything else essential we should be looking for.

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Jane: Now it's time for Question of the Week, which comes from Gabby who lives in New York. Gabby emailed to say that she'd read that fallen leaves can be magical additions to soil. She's got a covered porch that seems to be a magnet for said leaves, but she hasn't got a yard to compost them in. So she's wondering if she can use dried leaves to breathe life into potted plants by cutting up the leaves and mixing them with potting soil. She wants to make use of this free resource but she's not quite sure how.

Well, I love your spirit, Gabby, that is how we like to do things at On The Ledge, using the stuff that you've got around you and making the best of it. So what would dead leaves be adding to your houseplants? Well, some good things and possibly some bad things. What I'd recommend normally with fallen leaves, is to gather them up into either a big old plastic sack, you can reuse a compost sack and slash some holes in the side, pile them into that sack and leave them somewhere out of the way for a couple of years to turn into leaf mould, because leaf mould is a wonderful addition to pots outside and in the garden. It's a really good soil conditioner.

Leaf mould is a magical thing. I shall put a link into the show notes to an article written by a friend of the show, and my personal friend, Alys Fowler, about how wonderful this stuff is. It has been accurately described as nature's substitute for peat. It's very, very good to add to your garden. But as Alys writes in this piece, good leaf mould is a bit like vintage port; year one is fine for mulching, but year three is much better. Some leaves like Ash, Beech, Poplar, Oak, they will rot down really quite quickly. Leaves that take a lot longer include things like Sycamore and Horse Chestnut leaves and Magnolia leaves. They will probably take a couple of years to break down. If you've got evergreen leaves they will take even longer and they really do need shredding and adding to the compost bin rather than separating them out for leaf mould because they will take forever.

I know that's not much comfort, Gabby, because you want to use those leaves now and you don't really have anywhere to store them, but if you add leaves to your plants as you suggest, when they're fresh off the tree, they're probably not going to do a great deal to help your house plants and they could introduce some things that you don't want. So, for example, if you've got a pile of leaves that have been gathering on your porch, that you sweep up, cut up and add to your plant potting mix, you may find that on those leaves are things like slug and snail eggs, which generally look like little round, translucent pearls, sometimes quite hard to spot, and they may introduce things to your potting mix that you don't necessarily want to be there. So you may end up introducing an army of molluscs to your house plants, which is not great, as you can imagine.

Also, the process of leaf mould creation is time consuming, as I've said, and if you're adding the leaves before they've gone through that process, they're not really likely to do a great deal to your potting mix. In fact the process of breaking them down may actually rob some nutrients from the soil, so I don't think it's something that I would recommend. What I'd say is, if you can bag them up and find anywhere that you can store them out of the way for a couple of years, it's really worth doing. Or, possibly, give them to somebody else who can look after them for you until they have reached that wonderful point and that leaf mould is nicely broken down. At that point, yes, I would say it's probably fine to add to your potting mixes for your house plants. Particularly for things like ferns, they would absolutely love to have some mature leaf mould, or you could add them as a top dressing if you wanted to.

I know it's annoying to think that you can't make use of these, Gabby, but I'm sure there'll be some other gardeners in your neighbourhood who'll be able to make use of these. I think it's a good thing for your karma! Give the leaf mould away and you might find something even better comes your way. If you really want to use those leaves, Gabby, I would say check them carefully and use them as a mulch on the top surface of your pots and see how that works, so experiment and see if that is a successful method of keeping your plants a little bit more snug. It's not something I've tried, but there's nothing wrong with experimentation. The other thing that I would recommend doing is, if you've got a few dry leaves when you're re-potting, you can put these at the bottom of the pot to stop the soil dropping out of the holes in the bottom rather than the old fashioned method of a handful of gravel or crocks, which does nothing to improve drainage and may make it worse. But at least by having a dry leaf at the bottom, which is obviously is going to decompose gradually, you're going to stop any soil falling out the bottom.

I hope that is helpful, Gabby, let me know, listeners, if you have any other thoughts on what Gabby can do with her leaves. If you've got a question for On The Ledge drop me a line OnTheLedgePodcast@gmail.com

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Jane: Thanks to all the listeners who have been in touch about Meet The Listener, we've had a great response. If you've emailed, you should be hearing back from my assistant, Kelly, very soon, about how to take part. But let's meet this week's listener. He is the first listener we've featured who comes from across the pond and his name is Nick.

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Nick: Hi Jane, this is Nick Shalosky, from Philadelphia. I grew up in South Carolina, in the South East United States, where I had a garden and chickens and grew up with a whole family that loved plants and my dad was a botanist and my mom was always in the garden club. Then I moved to Philadelphia and I lived in smaller apartments and had to do more indoor gardening for the past five years. So now I have a dog and a cat and a husband and about 105 house plants, not including the ones that I'm propagating. I really love propagating plants to share with friends because apparently I just "can't get enough" and want to keep having more plants!

Jane: Welcome to On The Ledge, Nick! 105 plants - that's quite specific! Anyway, let's get on! Are you ready for your interrogation? Here we go. Question one: There's a fire and all your plants are about to burn. Which one do you grab as you escape?

Nick: If there was a fire, I would probably try and get my husband and pets out first, but who knows, I might go for a plant. Of all my plants, my favourite is my crinkly leaf bird's nest fern because it was my mom's and my mom passed away last year and it was her favourite plant and I inherited it. I'm actually trying to propagate it from spore which has been a very slow and tedious process but that's the one I would try to grab.

Jane: Question two: What is your favourite episode of On The Ledge?

Nick: My favourite episode, or episodes probably has to be episode 67, the mini-episodes where you gave lots of great information about several different plants. Pretty sure I bought a Burro's Tail right after that episode and it's now one of my favourite plants.

Jane: Question three: Which Latin name do you say to impress people?

Nick: I have to confess I actually very rarely use the Latin names of plants. One that I like a lot is Sedum Morganianum. Same thing with that Burro's Tail, which is one of my favourite plants. I think it sounds like a Harry Potter spell, or something. That's why I like it!

Jane: Question four: Crassulacean acid metabolism or guttation?

Nick: I think I have to say guttation because in my north-eastern apartment it gets really cold in the winter so we have hot furnace heat. It gets really dry, so I have a couple of humidifiers around the house, so knowing that that's happening when guttation is happening, lets me know my humidity is high enough.

Jane: Question five: Would you rather spend £200 on a variegated Monstera, or £200 on 20 interesting cacti?

Nick: I would definitely spend the £200 on 20 different cacti or succulents. I'm a huge a fan of succulents, especially succulents that are hanging or vining. Last year, I actually tried to make one of those succulent roots that I saw on Pinterest or online and it didn't turn out too well and I just feel like I would try that again. I did get a Monstera cutting from a friend for free, so I think I would go for the succulents.

Jane: Thanks to Nick, great to meet you. If you'd like your dulcet tones to feature on On The Ledge -- yes, Nick, I thought your voice was lovely! - then you can email

Now it's time to talk Monstera emojis. If you've been following our little journey, we are trying to get a new emoji added to the official Unicode list of emojis and, of course, that emoji is the Monstera leaf emoji. So we've been dabbling in the Unicode website to find out some more, and in this little chat with Kelly, we catch up on the paperwork required to submit a proposal and some of the other proposals that haven't gone down so well.

Jane: Kelly, we are on our emoji quest again.

Kelly: We are.

Jane: Thank you for joining me. We've made some progress. We've got as far as establishing that I think the Monsteraemoji is the one that everyone seems to want to go for, with a couple of people plumping for durian. I think we're going to stick with the Monstera leaf. I think we've got the greatest chance of success, quite frankly. We've both been ploughing through this mire of information about how to submit a proposal and what you have to do. What are your top line things you've figured out so far from reading all of the various pieces of paper work? Is there anything we've got to do?

Kelly: Yes, the thing we really have to do is prove the need and we've got to look at trend data, so frequency of the hashtag #houseplant or #pottedplant occurring, to basically prove that this emoticon would be used, that there would be a need for it, should it ever come to fruition. So we're going to have to start scouring the net for frequency of the use of those hashtags.

Jane: Okay, if any listeners want to help us with that, if anyone's a whiz with hashtag research, we need to hear from them, don't we? I don't really know where to start with that. Other than like literally Googling. There must be a better way, isn't there a thing called Google Trends you can use?

Kelly: Or analytics? I'm not really sure to be honest, but yes it's going to require a little bit of digging around. Also, to maybe look at the frequency of hashtag usage for similar terms, because we've discovered that there are other similar proposals in the works with Unicode and they tend to include comparative data. So, for example, someone has looked at usage of the hashtag #pinetree which already exists as an emoji and they've compared that with the use of terms like #houseplant and #pottedplant, so it wouldn't hurt, I don't think, to look at other similar things: "This is out there. It already exists. You considered it worthy of an emoji" but hopefully, in theory, 'houseplants' is being used more, in which case that can only strengthen the argument.

Jane: I think the other thing that I've come to the conclusion, is that it needs to be distinctive. I think this is where the Monstera leaf really stands out as an idea because that is a very unique silhouette that can't be confused with anything else. So I think that will be in its favour. I think the other thing that's in its favour, looking through, they seem to be quite keen on emojis that might have other meanings like a metaphorical meaning. They say: "Does the candidate emoji have notable, metaphorical references or symbolism?" They give the example of a shark also meaning a huckster, as in jumping a shark, a loan shark, etc. I thought that's quite good in terms of Monstera leaf because I think it signifies jungliness, or luxury, or style, so that probably does work.

Kelly: I agree and also any phrases that it might appear in - it's a similar thing - but there are existing emoji proposals in the works where they've thought about phrases like, for example, don't beat about the bush, where you could possibly plonk an emoji in that sentence to obviously denote the bush. Anything where you could plonk a Monstera leaf in the middle of a sentence could also bolster the argument.

Jane: Excellent, because it does seem like some of the proposals that have been made for other emojis have been, well, sometimes I'm looking at them going: "I don't understand why that emoji has gone through and others haven't!" They seem to have their reasons. I think we've got a reasonably good chance. The great news is that we've got a couple of designers who've agreed to help us out with coming up with a design. In fact, Jessie has sent me a draft emoji that she's just done a rough idea of, which I'm going to put on to the Facebook group for everyone to have a look at. I think it's pretty good. We need to submit in a black and white form and a colour form, so that's something else to think about, but I think it's good as a starting point to have something to work from. Another designer, Oscar, has been in touch to offer his help as well, so I think we're sorted on that side. I think it's really getting the evidence together and coming up with all those killer arguments as to why it's a good idea. The other thing we need to think about though, is where in the emoji suite we would place it.

Kelly: It feels to me its natural home would be alonside the existing plant emojis.

Jane: Yes, I'm thinking after cactus? I don't know! Who knows whether there's any logic to that? One of the other rejected emojis was a cabbage emoji! That would have been great! Why did they reject a cabbage emoji?

Kelly: How odd, yes.

Jane: I guess the only way we're going to find out is just by cracking on and having a go. So I think if we can start getting that information together, and then the way that we have to do the proposal is that there's a very specific formula for doing it. Then we need to start plugging the information into the form, then get it all together, ready to fight for the Monstera.

Kelly: Yes, agreed!

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Jane: That's it for episode 119, I'll be back next Friday with the Begonia special. Yes, I've been promising it for a long time but it's nearly here! In next week's episode, I'll be talking to Steve Rosenbaum, of Steve's Leaves, all about the wonders of the Begonia genus. Take care. Bye!

[music]

Jane: The music you heard in this week's episode was Roll Jordan Roll by The Joy Drops and the tracks Chiefs and Endeavour by Jahzzar. The ad music was Dill Pickles by the Heftone Banjo Orchestra. All tracks are licensed under Creative Commons. See my show notes at JanePerrone.com for details.

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One of the best things you can do this winter is give your houseplants a health check: I explain how it’s done. Plus I answer a question about what to do with fallen leaves, and we discuss developments in OTL’s quest for a monstera emoji with my assistant Kelly Westlake. And we meet listener Nick.

Start with the pot

• Take plants out of any cachepot and have a look at the bottom: if there’s a puddle of water, your plant is likely to be suffering from alack of air around the roots.

• If it’s just damp, you may find tiny creatures moving about - these are often springtails which are nothing to worry about. Look underneath the pot for any hitchhiking slugs or other pests. test the weight of the pot: if it feels light, the plant may be drying out.

• Check for any roots emerging from the bottom: tropical plants are often fine to be repotted over winter but dormant plants can wait until spring. repot cacti and succulents if necessary using dry cactus potting mix.

• Check the top of the pot for mosses and liverworts which mean the soil is overly moist: white fuzzy mould isn’t usually a major problem and can be scraped away, but do check moisture levels around the rootball.

• If you can, take plants out of their pots and check the roots are firm not smelly or mushy. If there are lots of roots on the surface of the soil, this usually means that you are watering little and often, which isn’t great for plants as it exacerbates plant stress.

• Use a chopstick or similar to poke some holes in the rootball while you are at it: this will improve aeration and relieve compaction.

Stroke your leaves

• Giving foliage a feel can give you some clues as to the condition of your plant. If they feel limp and are curling under AND the soil is dry, your plant needs a drink. Remember though that wilting and softness can also be a sign that the plant is overwatered and starting to rot.

• If your leaves look dirty, you can spray with rainwater or distilled water to clean smooth leaves, or a clean soft brush to clean hairy leaves.

• Turn leaves over and check underneath for any signs of pests, eg debris, mottling, webs and the pests themselves: also check crevices of plants for mealybugs.

• Remove dead and dying leaves straightaway so you don’t encourage disease.

• If leaves are touching windows in winter the may be damaged by the cold, so pull them back from the glass.

• If you are going to mist leaves, the best time of day to do it is morning so that plants have a chance to dry off before nightfall.

• Remember that pruning encourage new growth, so only prune judiciously in winter, removing dead, dying or diseased leaves.

• Check water propagation vessels to make sure that the water hasn’t turned smelly, expecially if fallen leaves have entered. This can mean the water is low in oxygen, so replace immediately with fresh water.

• Turn plants a little (a quarter turn, say) every few days so growth remains even.

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LEGENDS OF THE LEAF

How exciting would it be to get all the wisdom of On The Ledge condensed into a beautiful book?

I’m currently writing Legends of the Leaf: The story behind 25 iconic houseplants and the secrets to making them thrive - a book that will do just that! I’ll be telling the stories of plants that we know and love, including Monstera deliciosa, the venus fly trap and aloe vera, and offering up the care tips you need to keep your plants in perfect health.

I am working with publisher Unbound to produce this book, so if you want to get your hands on a copy before it’s available in the bookshops, you can pre-order and get your hands on extras such as a print of one of the book’s bespoke illustrations by Helen Entwisle.

Find out more and pre-order your copy now! If you’ve already pledged, use code UPGRADELEAF15 for 15% off to upgrade to a higher reward.

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Question of the week

Gabby wants to know if there’s something she can do with the fallen leaves that collect in her porch: she thought about chopping them up and mixing with her houseplant soil. I warned that slug and snail eggs can lurk on fallen leaves, and until they are rotted down to leafmould, they probably won’t add much to houseplant compost. Leafmould is magical stuff - here’s an article written by Alys Fowler about what it does to soils - but it takes a while to make. Collect leaves into plastic bags with a few holes in the sides (old compost sacks are fine) and leave them somewhere out of the way for two years. If that’s not possible, maybe Gabby could ask a friend or neighbour to store them for her, or give them away to someone else?

If Gabby wants to use some of the leaves now, a couple of leaves can be placed at the bottom of a pot when repotting to stop potting mix coming out of the bottom of the pot, or Gabby could try adding a few (checked for pests) to the top of pots as a mulch.

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

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Jessie Ward’s first draft of our Monstera emoji. What do you think?

Monstera emoji first draft!

As you probably know, we are trying to get a Monstera emoji added to the official list of emojis which is decided by Unicode.

Listener Jessie Ward of Eastward Designs has come up with a draft - take a look and let me know what you think!

If you can help us with Google research for this project, or have any suggestions, do let me know!

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THIS WEEK’S SPONSORS

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NATIVE

Why do so many deodorants smell so, well, weird? I have no idea, but I am excited to try Native’s coconut and vanilla deodorant because that is a smell that I’m happy to put in my armpits.

Native’s range of deodorants come in a range of enticing scents, including Lavender & Rose, Cucumber & Mint and Eucalyptus & Mint. Prefer no scent at all? They do that too.

Native’s products are not tested on animals and they are free from aluminum (or aluminium if you prefer), parabens and talc.  So why not try out Native today?

For 20% off your first purchase, visit nativedeodorant.com and use promo code ONTHELEDGE during checkout!

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HOW TO SUPPORT ON THE LEDGE

Contributions from On The Ledge listeners help to pay for all the things that have made the show possible over the last few years: equipment, travel expenses, editing, admin support and transcription.

Want to make a one-off donation? You can do that through my ko-fi.com page, or via Paypal.

Want to make a regular donation? Join the On The Ledge community on Patreon! Whether you can only spare a dollar or a pound, or want to make a bigger commitment, there’s something for you: see all the tiers and sign up for Patreon here.

• The Crazy Plant Person tier just gives you a warm fuzzy feeling of supporting the show you love.

• The Ledge End tier gives you access to two extra episodes a month, known as An Extra Leaf, as well as ad-free versions of the main podcast on weeks where there’s a paid advertising spot, and access to occasional patron-only Zoom sessions.

• My Superfan tier earns you a personal greeting from me in the mail including a limited edition postcard, as well as ad-free episodes.

If you like the idea of supporting On The Ledge on a regular basis but don't know what Patreon's all about, check out the FAQ here: if you still have questions, leave a comment or email me - ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com. If you're already supporting others via Patreon, just click here to set up your rewards!

If you prefer to support the show in other ways, please do go and rate and review On The Ledge on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen. It's lovely to read your kind comments, and it really helps new listeners to find the show. You can also tweet or post about the show on social media - use #OnTheLedgePodcast so I’ll pick up on it!

CREDITS

This week's show featured the tracks Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops, Chiefs by Jahzzar and Endeavour by Jahzzar. Ad music was Dill Pickles by the Heftone Banjo Orchestra. All tracks are licensed under Creative Commons.

Logo design by Jacqueline Colley.