Episode 144: underrated houseplants

Tolmeia menziesii ‘Taff’s Gold’ (piggyback plant) on the N1 Garden Centre display at the Chelsea flower show 2019. Photograph: Jane Perrone

Transcript

Episode 144

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Jane: Hello and welcome to On The Ledge podcast episode 144. I feel like a bingo caller. It's probably because I've been playing bingo with my children during lockdown, we have a little machine with balls inside of it, you whirl 'round. It's great fun. It's made me think of every number in terms of bingo calling, so all the fours, 44, well, 144 anyway! I'm rambling now! I'm going to get on with talking about this week's show. In On The Ledge this week I lay down some truths about some underrated house plants and why I think you should be growing them. I know! A giant groan of despair! Yes, more plants to add to your wish list, but these are all cast-iron, brilliant plants that you should be growing, so I hope you'll enjoy hearing about them today. Also, I answer a question about that eternal problem of the flat dweller, how to get hold of soft water for your plants. One listener has come up with an idea that we will run over and assess. You may be able to tell from my tone of voice that I don't think it's that much of a good idea but, nonetheless, I'm impressed with his inventiveness! Are you curious yet? I thought you might be. That's coming up soon!

[music]

Jane: Have you stopped scratching yet after last week's mealybug episode? Nope, me neither. Those little things really do wheedle their way into your subconscious as well as, of course, your plants. Several of you have got in touch, including Dana, to tell me the mealybug episode was incredibly useful. Like me, while listening, you ended up spotting some mealybugs on your plant. Happy to be of help in that regard!

Thank you to everybody who has fed back to me about my comments in last week's show about Black Lives Matter. I have received such a positive response from everyone who listens to the show, it's been really, really heartening and some excellent suggestions for other causes to donate to. So in addition to the five organisations in the US and the UK that I mentioned in last week's show, I've also now made donations in the UK to the Runnymede Trust and Stand Against Racism and Inequality, and in the US, The Bell Project, The American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP and Firebird Community Arts. I still have a little bit more money to give away, so do drop me a suggestion for an anti-racist organisation which you would like me to donate to and I will get on to that as much as I can.

One more thing on this topic, you may or may not know that I run an online course on pitching for freelancers. This is aimed at garden writers, or people who aspire to be garden writers who want to learn how to research and execute good pitches. So, in other words, sending messages to editors of gardening magazines and other publications saying: "I've got this piece I want to write. Can you commission me?" That draws on my many years of experience as both a freelancer and a commissioning editor. This course is close to my heart and everyone who takes it seems to find it incredibly useful. As part of my auditing of my own behaviours and practices, I am offering two places on the plus version of this course for BAME individuals who are looking to become, or are starting out as, garden writers. I'd like to give first refusal on those two places to a listener to the podcast, so if you are starting out as a garden writer and you feel you need some direction on who to contact, how to contact them and so on, that's where my course can come in. If you would like to get to one of those free places then drop me a line to ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com and if I don't get any take-up from podcast listeners, I will then widen the net beyond that, but I wanted to give you guys the chance to take those places first.

It's also gratifying that lots of you are joining me on Patreon. LouAnne, Kristen and Sandy have all become Ledge-ends, Sarah has become a Crazy Plant Person and Heather has upped her pledge from Crazy Plant Person to Ledge-end. If you're a Patreon, this Saturday at 6pm BST, I'm holding a Zoom meeting for all Patreons at all levels to come together, have a little chat about a little project that I'm working on right now that I need your help with, and to generally shoot the breeze and talk about what we need to do in the show in terms of topics to cover and all kinds of different things. So, if you're a Patreon subscriber and you want to join that Zoom meeting, you just need to log on to Patreon where you'll find a post about it with all the details in there. If this Patreon malarky is all a bit much for you, do remember you can donate to the show in other ways, including ko-fi.com. You can also make a donation on PayPal, or you can just support the show in lots of other ways by getting the word out there about On The Ledge on social media and in person. Indeed, lots of listeners find imaginative ways of helping out with On The Ledge and listener Laura, who lives in Italy, has begun translating episodes of On The Ledge into Italian because she's concerned that there are lots of people in Italy who would love the show but their English isn't good enough to understand. So she has begun! If you go and look at episode 134, you will find that the translation for that episode is now up and Laura will be working on other episodes too, so thank you very much to Laura for doing that. That's so kind, and if you know anyone who is an Italian speaker who might want to tune in, then do go and check that out.

Another great way of supporting the show is by leaving a podcast review on your app of choice and lots of you have been doing that lately and it's really cheered my heart. TalesFromMidnight and BecLovesPlants in Australia have both left lovely five star reviews, so do leave me a five star review and if you can get the words 'guttation' or 'crassulacean acid metabolism' into your review, you get extra brownie points! Give it a go!

[music]

Jane: It's time for our first underrated and unpopular houseplant. You may be thinking to yourself, "Well, all house plants are popular right now!" but there are some plants that were all the rage in previous decades and, for some inexplicable reason, just haven't made it back into popularity in the last few years of the rush of excitement about houseplants. That saddens me because in the case of these three plants, I think they're all rather fabulous and we should be growing them more widely, so bear with me while I talk about these three plants.

The first is the wonderful, the epic - by the way, this is a member of the Saxifragaceae clan, I'm totally unapologetic about the fact that, yes, it's another Saxifraga that I'm going on about! As you will know if you listen to the show regularly, Strawberry saxifrage, Saxifraga stolonifera, is a major favourite of mine. This is another one, in the same clan, and that is Tolmiea menziesii. I love the Latin name but I love the common name too - it's the Piggyback plant! This has got a couple of different common names you might know it as. It's called the Piggyback plant most commonly, but you might also see it called Mother of Thousands, Thousand Mothers, or even Youth On Age. Seriously! I guess that's all about the little plantlets that's growing on the top of the leaf. That must be what it is. I'm just imagining someone saying: "How lovely! Look at my Youth On Age plant! It's doing so well!" I've got one here and one of the things I like about certain plants is that the leaves are just very stroke-able. I would describe them as being roughly hairy. Can you hear that? I'm just holding that up. This is me, rubbing a plant! You never thought I would do ASMR, did you? This is me and my Tolmiea having a little moment together. This plant was given to me by the wonderful listener known as June. Thank you June - you've given me so many great plants while you've been a listener to On The Ledge! When she gave it to me it was like jumping in a time machine, Bill and Ted-style, and going back to my childhood because this plant was everywhere during the 70s and 80s, when I was a child.

Why the name? Well, it's very obvious when you look at any plant of this species because every one will have a tiny little plantlet on many of the leaves. You'll find at the point where the petiole, the leaf stalk, joins the leaf itself, there will be a baby plant growing - a plantlet emerging from a leaf. It's very exciting and I just love this aspect of the plant. There's a few other plants that do similar things, there's Kalanchoe, like Daigremontiana, that do this, but that's on the edges of the leaves as opposed to the point where the stalk joins the lamina, or the leaf blade. So, yes, it's a really great thing to have. It means that the plant becomes, not exactly hanging, but it does look good in a hanging basket. It's a very generous plant. You can easily make new plants in a matter of moments by just pinning down one of these leaves with a plantlet on it into another pot with a bit of damp compost and it'll root. The preferred method that I've used is the old hummus pot method or, in this case, I use a larger plastic takeaway container and put some water in there, snip off a few leaves and their stems, stick them into the clear plastic container with a drop of water, so there's water just covering the bottom and they root very nicely that way and then you can transfer them over into a pot. So, this is a really lovely plant, with these softly hairy leaves. The one I've got is the only cultivar I've ever actually come across, which is called Taff's Gold. So rather than just having a plain green leaf, the leaves are splashed with a pale yellowy gold colour and it's a very beautiful variegation on these already beautiful leaves.

Where did this one grow in the world? Well, it's from the West coast of North America, so we're talking about everywhere from California right up to British Columbia in Canada and going into Alaska as well. So it grows in shady forests, moist spots, often growing alongside a stream or some such. That gives us a hint as to one of the great qualities of this plant, that it is actually possible to grow it as a garden plant here in the UK, in our climate, and also in large parts of America and Europe too. As a garden plant, you can have it outside if you want to or leave it outside over the Summer and bring it in in the Winter. Inside, it's not going to like being stuck next to a radiator in a stuffy, overheated, dry-air room. It really is a plant that needs to be somewhere cooler. So, if you've got a cool, kitchen windowsill, which is where mine is situated, that's great. There it'll be very, very happy.

Interestingly this plant has become a naturalised plant of the British Isles as well. According to the Online Atlas of the British and Irish flora, which is a great resource, this plant was introduced in 1812 and was first recorded in the wild in 1928 and looking at the map, which shows where this has been recorded, there's quite a few dots on the map all over the country showing where it's been found. I wouldn't recommend that you release one into the wild, but it's fine to keep in your garden or as a houseplant. Now, referring to my favourite book, our old friend Dr Hessayon, he calls it a 'novelty plant'. What does that mean!? A 'novelty plant'? I guess it's something like those kalanchoes with the plantlets on the edge of the leaf, or maybe it's something like a venus fly trap? I guess it's a bit of an old-fashioned term now, but a plant that does something unusual, but as we know, loads of plants do incredible and unusual things. Hessayon points out that this is an excellent plant for a child's propagation, as it easy to propagate by planting the babies. I can say that's very true and in terms of keeping this plant around young children, and indeed pets that might like chewing, I don't think that you would have too much of a problem with that. It's listed on the Plants for a Future website, which is an encyclopaedia of plants that are used for medicinal and edible purposes. According to that, the leaves are edible and the young shoots in Spring. I doubt very much whether they're particularly tasty, but certainly, that indicates that they're not toxic to humans. I've checked the ASPCA website, which is an excellent resource on toxic plants, and they state this plant is not toxic to dogs or cats, so a good one to choose if you have nibblers to deal with!

We know that it's a plant that lives near water in the wild. This makes it a bit of an unusual plant for me, because normally I go for plants that don't like a lot of water and I find plants that need to stay moist quite tricky. This plant is incredibly forgiving. I have let it go completely wilted a couple of times and it's come back absolutely fine, but it sits on my kitchen windowsill, so any dregs of water that come out of the dining room in people's cups will go into this plant and that seems to keep it at the right level of moistness. Like my darling Saxifraga stolonifera, this is a plant that is a short-lived one, so the best thing to do is to keep a few plants propagating because after a couple of repots it will just start to look a bit miserable and you can then bring along one of your plants that you've already rooted and start a new specimen.

Maybe I'm in a minority about loving this plant, but I did see this plant at the Chelsea Flower Show. I think it was a display that was put on by North One (N1) Garden Centre, the oh-so-trendy houseplant shop, and they had one of these in a beautiful bowl. I must get a nicer display for mine. It really is an attractive plant when it's displayed. The leaves look a bit nettly. When you touch them, they do feel rough but don't worry, no sting. They just look absolutely gorgeous and I can spend ages looking at these. The plain form is also lovely too. If you do get a few leaves that look a bit miserable, it's so easy and so fast to regrow that it's easy to take anything off that's looking sub-par. Obviously spider mite is a risk for this plant, if it's in dry air, but I've got spider mite on my Calatheas and I've never had spider mite, touch wood, on this plant, so here's hoping. When you are repotting, do remember where it's come from - redwood forests on the West coast of the US and Canada, so it needs quite rich soil. If you're potting-up ferns, it might need a similar kind of thing. I usually repot this straight into absolutely pure, peat-free compost which is from Melcourt and that seems to work perfectly well. I don't put any perlite or anything else in there, just straight houseplant compost seems to work really well.

In terms of getting hold of this plant, I can't really say. It depends where you live. There are a few on eBay that come up once in a while in the UK and I suspect that if you've got older relatives who are into houseplants, they might well have one of these that they can snip off a plantlet for you. So, keep your eyes peeled. You never know when you're going to come across one of these plants and be able to beg a baby. So that's Tolmiea menziesii. I've got two more underrated plants to talk about, but now let's hear from our other sponsor this week.

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Jane: This week's On The Ledge is sponsored by Plants For All Seasons - a new nursery that's supporting British growers by delivering quality plants direct from the nursery to your door. Plants For All Seasons specialises in rare and unusual houseplants. Their experts are constantly searching the UK and beyond to find unique and interesting plants you won't find anywhere else. Plants For All Seasons isn't just about indoor plants. You can also buy plants for your garden, from Summer bedding for your patio, to climbers for your borders. Plants For All Seasons supports British growers by sourcing as many plants as possible from within the UK and their packaging is recyclable or compostable. So, check out Plants For All Seasons now at plantsforallseasons.co.uk and get 15% off your first purchase with the code ONTHELEDGE. That's plantsforallseasons.co.uk and get 15% off with ONTHELEDGE.

Now it's time for Question of the Week which comes from Ben. This is an interesting one. This is a common issue that comes up again and again and again and I've answered it in various different contexts over On The Ledge's existence, but this is a new take, so I hope you'll bear with me on this. I think it's really interesting one to discuss. Ben lives in a flat and he doesn't have a way of collecting rain water. So he wants to know if there is any reason that he could not syphon off and collect some of the rain water from the river nearby to use as water for plants like Bromeliads, which really do require softer water. He lives in London, so clearly hard water is an issue. London's water is very, very hard - lots of dissolved mineral salts, which are the things that plants like Bromeliads really don't like.

Top marks, Ben, for your inventiveness, but I'm afraid the answer really is a no. My main concern would be bacteria in the water. The Thames is a lot cleaner than it used to be, significantly cleaner than it used to be, thanks to lots of efforts to reduce pollution, but there is still a high risk that there's going to be bacteria in there. The reason being, is that there's a system in London where - and this is down to ageing sewers that long need to be replaced but are still there -- where, if there's a storm situation and there's lots of water flowing, the excess sewage from the sewage pipes goes into the river, so it's not a constant thing, but it does happen when there's a lot of extra water about. That can mean that the river has got bacteria in it from sewage which, as you can imagine, you don't really want to be putting onto your houseplants. Also the pH of the water is a little bit more alkaline than I'd advise. I will link in the show notes to a Thames River Watch water quality survey, which shows that the pH is around 7 or 8, which I think is a little bit too alkaline for your plants. That's my take on it. I wouldn't advise using that river water on your plants.

Now, if you lived somewhere where you lived next to a crystal clear stream where the water quality had been tested to be excellent, it might be a different story, but I think for most of us living in urban and suburban settings, it's probably not a very good idea. I also refer you back to the episode, which I'll link to in the show notes, where somebody asked a similar question and I suggested some options, but the thing that a reader came back to was a water filter called Zero which does filter out 100% of mineral salts. This was back in episode 118 and the ZeroWater filter, apparently, is brilliant at getting rid of all of those mineral salts. It's not cheap to buy - I think you're probably going to pay £30, £40, £50 for it, depending on whether you're in the US or the UK or elsewhere. It does seem to provide water that would be perfectly fine to use on your plants. So you can filter your tap water and get water that would be absolutely fine on your Bromeliads.

I think it's definitely worth trying to be inventive with the collecting of rainwater if you can. If you've got friends with outside spaces or gardens who are prepared to, perhaps in exchange for the odd bottle of beer or somesuch, collect some rainwater for you, that's a good idea. As I say, this water filter, if it works as it's advertised to do, then it seems like a really good option if you can afford to splash out on it.

I hope that helps, Ben, and if you've got a question for On The Ledge then do drop me a line. There are many ways of getting in touch. Ben got in touch on Patreon because he's a Patreon subscriber, but the most reliable way is to send an email to OnTheLedgepodcast@gmail.com and you'll get a reply from either myself or Kelly, my assistant, and I will do my best to answer your question. Given the number of questions I get these days, it's not always possible to answer every question, so I'm really sorry if your question doesn't get answered. Do check out my website, you can do a search in the top right hand corner for different topics and you may find the answers already there in my website, so do go and check that out if you've got an unanswered question.

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Jane: Righto, back to unpopular houseplants. The second plant was prompted in my mind because a listener got in touch to ask for an ID. That listener was Mavis from Canada and Mavis wrote: "Can you help me with the identification of this houseplant. I took a cutting of this plant about six years ago from someone in the office and have been sharing this plant with others ever since. It has beautiful foliage which is a bit waxy. Very easy to grow, drought tolerant and can be propagated through water. It also trails nicely from a shelf. After six years of calling it the best low maintenance houseplant, I searched the web for information on the name and have not been successful."

Well, I was happy to reveal to Mavis that this was indeed Swedish Ivy, Plectranthus verticillatus this used to be called Plectranthus australis, I think, and just like Tolmiea menziesii, this plant used to be absolutely ubiquitous. You'd find you've got your Piggyback plant and right next door you'd have your Swedish Ivy. I don't really know why it's called Swedish Ivy because, in fact, it comes from Southern Africa, like so many succulent plants. I guess it may well be that the Swedes, houseplant fans that they are, first popularised this plant, just as they did with the Pilea peperomioides, which we all know about - those who are regular listeners to this show. The 'Ivy' bit is misleading too because it's not a member of the Hedera genus, but like so many trailing plants that have the vaguest resemblance to ivy it's ended up with that common name.

Recognise it by the scalloped leaves. They are fleshy and thick so it can cope with a bit of drought. You do get these white flowers which appear once in a while. They're not that exciting, but a flower is always a nice thing to add. It's a beautiful plant to have as a foil to other plants to make a living curtain or having a hanging basket you just can't go wrong with this one. It's a member of the Lamiaceae, the mint family, so you'll get those square stems that you get on members of this family. If you're looking for an absolutely bomb-proof trailing plant this is it. These little scalloped leaves about the size of a 50p piece - I can't relate to what coin that might be in other currencies. What's a universal thing I can describe? The size of a conker - does everyone know what a conker size is? About two to three centimetres across these leaves. It's just a really lovely plant that's easy to keep and if you can find them, there have been some cultivars bred of this plant, but these days you'll be lucky to find the plant at all because it really has fallen out of popularity and I have no idea why. I would love to hear from some nursery owners as to why this plant isn't grown, propagated and sold. It will survive being allowed to dry out, it will survive a bit too much water, it will survive quite a lot of sun, it will survive deep shade. It is one of those plants that just keeps on going and going and that's why it was popular in the past and that's why it should be popular now.

The Plectranthus genus is an interesting one. There are lots of other species and cultivars of this plant that are grown as houseplants. None of them are massively popular now, but you can get hold of some of them, so it's definitely a genus that's worth checking out if you're looking for things that you can use in hanging baskets and summer displays outside. It's a really handy plant because it is so tough and it's very, very easy to propagate too. So keep your eyes peeled, look around when you're visiting older relatives and see if they've got a Swedish Ivy tucked anywhere and get yourself a cutting. It'll root very easily in water or in gritty soil and it will tolerate all kinds of abuse. I don't actually have one of these plants right now, so I, myself, am looking out for one. So if you are in the UK and have a cutting, let's talk! I'm happy to do a cutting swap.

Talking of Pilea peperomioides, my final unloved unpopular house plant is another member of the same Pilea genus, which is, inexplicably, unpopular and that is Pilea Moon Valley. If you're looking for a leaf that is truly interesting, this is one to look at. Moon Valley, the name tells you something, you look at this leaf and you are drawn into mini canyons as the leaf crevices follow the path of the veins of the plant. This is a cultivar of the Pilea involucrata, yet another plant known as the friendship plant, which isn't that exciting to me personally, but the Moon Valley cultivar is beautiful. It's got a chocolatey, dark centre and the edges of the leaves are lime green and they've got a sharp saw edge on each of the leaves and they are, what Hessayon calls, deeply quilted. I just think they look gorgeous.

I guess the downside to these plants is that they can be short lived and not like it if they are given too little in the way of humidity. It's from Central and South America, hence the humidity that's required. They're good plants for a terrarium set-up, or for sticking a glass cloche over and, again, they're plants, like the Tolmiea, that you do need to take lots of cuttings of regularly because they will get leggy and a bit messy so you've got lots of cuttings coming through that you can then replace your main plant when it gets to the stage where it's no longer beautiful, but Pilea Moon Valley is a really lovely plant. Why aren't we growing more of it? The other way that you can keep it bushy is by constantly pinching out the stems and encouraging more bushiness to come and that way your plant will last longer.

I'm starting to see the Moon Valley cultivar pop up in a few places now, so do look out for it, and if you are a grower of this plant, do let me know what you think of it. Give it a reasonable amount of bright indirect light and that humidity that it loves and you should find it fairly easy to keep going. It used to be one of those cheap and cheerful plants that you'd buy at the garden centre very cheaply and enjoy and take lots of cuttings off your friends. So, if you can pick up one, this is one you can really spread around to lots of people. Again, stem cuttings will easily root in water or in some soil in Spring or Summer.

The other Pilea that you may come across, is the Aluminium plant, Pilea cadierei, which is a green leaf and it's got gorgeous silvery etching splashed on it, which is, again, same deal, it needs humidity, short-lived, take lots of cuttings, but it's beautiful and it's a fairly easy plant, provided you just get the humidity right, so I would always, if in doubt, stick it in a terrarium situation.

So those are my three unpopular and under-rated house plants. Agree? Disagree? Don't really care? I'd love to know your thoughts on these three plants. Are they favourites in your collections? Ones you've never heard of? Or plants that you absolutely despise? All views are welcome when it comes to plants, so drop me a line and let me know your thoughts and show off your Pileas, your Tolmieas and your Plectranthus. I think it's really time for these plants, that used to be so popular to come back into the spotlight and take their place with all the existing popular plants, the Aroids, the Calatheas. We need to start appreciating these under-rated houseplants! That rounds up this episode of On The Ledge, so keep on, keeping on, until next week, and I'll be back next Friday with more plant chat. Bye!

[music]

Jane: The music you heard in this episode was Roll Jordan Roll by The Joy Drops, Flute and Drum, Rishikesh by Samuel Corwin, and I Snost, I Lost by Doctor Turtle. The ad music was Whistling Rufus and Dill Pickles, both by the Heftone Banjo Orchestra. All tracks are licensed under Creative Commons. See janeperrone.com for details.

Subscribe to On The Ledge via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Player FM, Stitcher, Overcast, RadioPublic and YouTube.

If you enjoy a blast from the past, you’ll enjoy this week’s profiled plants: three species that were once ubiquitous but have been inexplicably ignored in the current houseplant revolution: the piggyback plant, Swedish ivy and Pilea ‘Moon Valley’. And I answer a question about an unusual potential source of water for bromeliads.

Thanks for all your positive feedback on my comment on Black Lives Matter last week - you can see an updated list of organisations I have donated ad revenue to here.

If you’re interested in one of the two free places on my pitching course, find out more about the course here.

Check out the show notes below as you listen.

Make new babies of this plant regularly to replace your mature plant as it becomes messy. Photograph: Jane Perrone.

Plant 1 - Tolmeia menziesii, the piggyback plant

• This plant has a cool feature: plantlets grow from the point where the petiole meets the lamina - ie the join between the leaf and the stalk. Hence the common name piggyback plant, and also ‘youth and age’!

• These babies can be pegged down and rooted into another pot of houseplant compost, or detach them leaf and stalk intact, and place in a clear lidded plastic container with some water at the bottom until rooted.

• This plant’s native home is the western coast of north America and it grows in the understorey of damp forests, so keep the soil moist and cool.

• It’s also become naturalised in some parts of the UK.

• They will tolerate cool conditions down to 5C, and will suffer if placed in a hot stuffy room with dry air. Find a cool, airy position out of direct sun.

• There only seem to be two types - the plain green, and the yellow-splashed cultivar ‘Taff’s Gold’ - this is the one I own.

Swedish ivy. Photograph: Forest and Kim Starr on Flickr.

Plant 2 - Plectranthus verticillatus, Swedish ivy

• This plant is a south African native whose common name comes from the fact that it’s popular in Sweden!

• It has become naturalised in other parts of the world including Australia and South America.

• It’s a tough trailing plant from the mint (Lamiaceae) clan that will do well in many places in your home, looking good in a hanging basket or on a shelf.

• It will flower, but it’s up to you whether you remove the flowers so the plant can concentrate on foliage production.

• There are lots of other members of the genus Plectranthus that are worth a look as houseplants.

• Find out more about how this plant grows in its native home here.

View fullsize

Pilea ‘Moon Valley’. Photograph: Online Baby Plants

Plant 3 - Pilea ‘Moon Valley’

• This plant is in the same genus as the oh-so-popular Pilea peperomioides, the Chinese money plant, but hasn’t yet reached the same fame in recent years.

• It’s a cultivar of the species Pilea involucrata that’s grown for its stunning ‘quilted’ leaves’.

• This Pilea is native to South America so likes lots of air humidity: if you struggle with it, try growing it in a terrarium.

• There are other plants in the genus that are worth a look, such as Pilea caderei, aka the aluminium plant.

• Like the piggyback plant, this one is best replaced regularly: pinch out plants often and root the cuttings to bring on new plants to replace the parent when it becomes straggly.

Question of the week

Ben got in touch to ask if he could use water from the River Thames on his bromeliads as he lives in a flat and cannot access rainwater. I explained this is best avoided due to bacteria in the water from sewage influx during storms. (Take a look at this water quality survey for more info.) The water’s pH is also potentially too alkaline at 7 to 8, as plants prefer a pH of 6 to 7. Instead I suggest one option could be the Zero water filter I mentioned in episode 119.

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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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 make this book happen, 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!

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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 and Water in the Creek by Josh Woodward. Ad music is  Dill Pickles by the Heftone Banjo Orchestra. 

Logo design by Jacqueline Colley.