Episode 170: sowalong and plant chat
Monstera deliciosa seeds sprouting. Photograph: Jungle Rebel on Flickr.
Transcript
Episode 170
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Jane: Get your headphones, or your earbuds, on, get the kettle on to boil and relax with another episode of On The Ledge! Hello! How are you doing? It's Jane Perrone here, your podcast host and houseplant enthusiast from the dear old United Kingdom. In this week's show, I'm going to be shooting the breeze with you while I kick off my own personal On The Ledge sowalong, talking about some of my techniques I use for sowing seeds, what you need to get together if you want to be part of the On The Ledge sowalong and, also, discussing some of the potential trends and key plants of 2021, plus I'm answering a question about the differences between the Rubber Plant and the Bird Catcher plant. Trust me, you don't want to get these two mixed up!
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Jane: A clutch of new reviews have come through. WillGetMorePlants in Canada, love the honest name there, ElDewSalve in Sweden and JoeWithPlants in the US all left lovely reviews and ABookLover in the USA described On The Ledge as being "as relaxing and therapeutic as watching The Great British Bake Off". What an honour, but you also described the show as being like a warm cup of tea! I appreciate your comment but I would say I only drink my tea piping hot! Mark me well, non-British listeners, your tea is only correctly made if the water is at 100C, aka boiling point! Anything less will not be accepted! Lesson in tea-making is over. But thank you very much ABookLover because I'm very, very flattered to be compared to one of my favourite TV shows, The Great British Bake Off. My kids keep telling me I should go on the show. I keep pointing out that I'm all about the flavours but my decoration is far from great. I'll have to post a picture one day of the strawberry spider cake I made my daughter for her birthday when she was about six. It looks like it was made by a six-year-old, quite frankly!
Thanks also to Tracy in Hobart, Australia, for getting in touch to talk to me about vintage planters and say how much she loves tracking down cool planters for her houseplants. Me too, and one of the things I'm really looking forward to when this whole Covid shenanigans is over, is mooching around junk shops and auctions in search of interesting containers. Won't that be fun? Thanks to my new Patreons this week. Kay, Patty, Lisa and Greg all became Ledge-ends. Jen made a donation on ko-fi.com and Erica upgraded from Crazy Plant Person to Ledge-End, while Anna and Crawford both became Crazy Plant People. My daughter pointed out to me the other day that I should have called my Patreon site On The Pledge! I never thought of that!
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Jane: On The Ledge has been sowing-along since 2018, so this is ... 2018, 19, 20, 21 - is that right? - this is going to be the fourth sowalong? Can that possibly be true? I will link to all the previous sowalong episodes in the show notes to this episode. I've covered a lot of different ground about the sowalong, but if you've not come across it before, perhaps this is your first time listening, let me explain. There's very little in the way of rules to the sowalong. I like to keep things nice and easy. It's just my way of inspiring all of you to try growing some houseplants from seed. So, in the sowalong episodes I offer up some techniques for growing seeds and advice on what equipment you might need and where you might get your seeds from and then you can go away and give it a try and report back via the medium of Facebook, or Twitter, or Instagram, or sending me an email. I love to hear what listeners are sowing and how they're doing. One of the great ways you can take part is by joining the Facebook group 'Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge' and posting pictures of your seedlings there. It's also a great place to ask for advice. What can you grow? Well, the world really is your oyster. Think about the kind of houseplants that you love and, most likely, you'll find some seeds that you can grow that will allow you to expand your collection at a low cost and have a few extra plants to pass on to your friends and family. Don't worry if you haven't bought any seeds yet, there is plenty of time to get cracking. Do not concern yourself because the growing season is only just getting underway for the northern hemisphere and many houseplants you can start at any time of year, if you can provide them with enough heat and light. So, let's get started!
Jane: You join me here in the office. I've just moved literally about one foot from the place where I normally record the show to do this, and I'm down on the floor ready to talk about seed-sowing. I just wanted to say something before we get started here, which may resonate with some of you who are feeling a bit overwhelmed at the minute. There may be some of you for whom sowing seeds right now is the last of your worries. You're trying to keep the plants you've got alive, you're struggling, it's a difficult time of year for all kinds of reasons and I just wanted to take the pressure off you if you are that person. So, if you're the person who just can't even think about seed-sowing right now, just hanging on by a thread and keeping your plants alive, then I totally, totally understand and what I would say to you is don't worry, there will be other seed-sowing years, indeed, later this year you may be able to sow some seeds, you may be in a position to sow some seeds and it's never too late. So, if you're that person, just listen along, absorb some info as you listen, but don't feel any pressure to do anything because we've all got to-do lists as long as our arms right now, so don't add any extra pressure onto yourself. If, however, you want to get cracking with your seed-sowing and sow along with me, then off we go! Let's find out what things I'm going to be sowing.
Now, as ever, I always have eyes bigger than my seed capacity, if you know what I mean!? So, I have got some seeds here that I ordered from the British Cactus and Succulent Society. I've got some Hoya Serpens seeds, which were kindly given to me by listener, Lauren. I've been a bit lax. I haven't managed to get these sown yet, so I hope they are still viable because Hoya seeds tend to need to be sown fresh, so we'll see how we go with that. The seeds I've got from the BCSS include an Astrophytum, so those are those beautiful succulents that look a bit like Brighton Pavilion or the Kremlin, those amazing-shaped succulents. I've got a Cotyledon undulata, which is a lovely, frilly-edged, silvery succulent. I've got Agave** - you know I can't resist an Agave! - Agave pedunculifera**. No idea what that's like. I just wanted to grow another Agave**. I have got quite a few seeds there of that one, so that'll be interesting, and then the lovely Aloe polyphylla**, which I know people have sown and I think I need some specialist techniques to sow that one, so I need to check up on the details for that one. Those are my BCSS seeds and then I've got some more from Unusual Seeds on Etsy. If you're looking for places to buy seeds, do go and check out the show notes because I'll link to various sources of information about seed suppliers who I've either tried or I've heard good things about from other listeners.
So, from Unusual Seeds, I've got a Rhipsalis mix, a Selenicereus mix, Euphorbia obesa and Parodia ottonis, which is a gift, so thank you Unusual Seeds for that - that's really kind. I haven't grown Parodia since I was a kid, so that's really nice. Then I've got my dwarf cherry tomato, the House Tomato, from Rare Seeds. If you remember, I talked about this in the episode with Claire Ratinon and my lovely assistant, Kelly, bought me a packet of these as a little present. I'm not going to sow these yet. Lots of people want to sow tomato seeds and chilli seeds really early in the year. There is a reason to do that because they need a long growing season and, here in the UK, it's not that easy to give them such a long growing season. However, if I sow these now, I'm going to end up with a lot of seedlings that I can't put outside for quite a long time and I've got to find space for them somewhere warm and light and that is always a challenge. So, I'm going to leave these tomatoes for a bit longer, probably until March, and sow them then. Okay, I've got another tomato variety. Again, I'm going to put those to one side, these come from Chiltern Seeds, a plum tomato called Tiger Eyes, but they're going to have to wait.
What else have we got here? Ah, yes, I have got my - you know me, I like something a bit different - so I ordered some Clivia seeds, but I didn't order Clivia miniata, I ordered Clivia gardenia, the Forest Lily, so I'm going to be trying those. The seeds, I can tell, are huge. I'm going to open up the packet here and see what these... it says, "Sprouting seeds, please open with care". Does this mean they're already sprouted? Heck, this is exciting! Okay, they're in another bag. I've opened the paper envelope. Oh! Okay, this is this is interesting! I think they're already sprouting. Okay, they look damp that's for sure, so these need to go into the compost straight away, so I'm going to plant those shortly. They're about the size of a pea and I've also got Calendula officinalis Kablouna Intense Yellow, which is an outside plant, a pot Marigold, so that's not going to be sown yet, that's going to wait a bit because that's a hardy annual. So, I can sow those either outside in April and May, or under glass, inside, March to April, so nothing's happening with that yet. It's quite a nice sound! I should add a sound effect to On The Ledge, my extensive selection of sound effects, my sound effect library, which consists of the water one. Maybe I should add some seed noises?
Right, those are my seeds, but what equipment have I got? Well, you don't need a lot, especially at the moment, when you might not be able to get out and about to buy new things. Seed-sowing should be kept as simple as possible. So, you need some kind of tray to sow into. Make sure it's got lots of holes in the bottom. This could be a recycled plastic fruit tray from the supermarket, it could be something you've got lying around your house, an old plastic box that you have to put some holes in the bottom of, or you can buy specially-made little seed trays. These ones I've got come from my electric propagator and they come with a little clear plastic lid. Whatever you use, one of the key things with seed-sowing is that you make sure that they are freshly washed. Now, I don't bother, generally, unless there's a pest situation that I'm aware of. I don't generally bother washing pots but I will wash these because seeds are very susceptible to issues with diseases, fungus that can come off the containers they're planted into, so these need to be scrupulously cleaned before I begin, so, I'll go and do that in a minute. What else do I need? Well, I need some kind of medium or substrate, as we call it, to sow into and, this being lockdown and all, I haven't got exactly what I'd normally have. So, I've got some compost. Usually I would be using seed compost.
How does seed compost or seed potting mix vary from what you might use on your houseplants? Well, two things: one, it's usually a very fine grain, so it doesn't have big lumps in it, that's all that means. That is just so that small seeds, when they're germinating, don't end up being held down under a big clump of something and unable to germinate. Now, I don't have any seed compost because I haven't bought any and I have no intention of going out to the garden centre and buying some, so I'm going to make do and mend and I've got some regular houseplant compost that I use here and I'm just going to give this a sieve and a go-through to make sure there's no big particles in here and I'm going to mix it with quite a lot of perlite or rice husks in order to make a nice airy light mix. The other thing that's different about seed compost, or seed potting mix, is that it's often low in nutrients because seeds when they germinate don't need a lot in the way of nutrients because they're using what's in themselves, they've got their own nutrient supplies which they will be employing when they first germinate. In this case, because I'm going to be mixing in quite a lot of perlite, it'll be fine. There won't be too many nutrients in the soil anyway. Top tip: when you're using your potting mix, make sure it hasn't been stood outside, or in a freezing place, before you start using it. The reason for that is then you're sowing seed into a freezing cold medium and if it's sensitive seed it could very easily give it a really poor start and mean that your seeds won't germinate. So, some nice room temperature potting mix is ideal for your seeds.
What else do you need? Water! Well, it's very advisable to make sure that your potting mix, your seed substrate, is pre-moistened. I don't know if this has ever happened to you but, what I find, is that you get your seeds all nicely sown and then you water them and, oh my gosh, there's a flood and the seeds all get dislodged and go all over the place and your beautifully spaced seeds end up in the wrong places, perhaps too low or too high in the container. If you pre-moisten, you won't have this issue. So, that's a tip. When you're using water for seeds, normally everything I grow is watered with rain water, but in the case of seeds, I use tap water and the reason for that is that rain water isn't as pure as tap water and you could be bringing in some problems with that water, things like damping off, that's where a fungal condition, where the seedling just goes "Ooooooh" and fungus attacks the stem and it just falls over and dies. So, you want to avoid those kind of problems, so use nice clean pots and make sure you use tap water. You might find that you use rainwater, I've used rainwater for the past 25 years and it works absolutely fine, but you want to try to cut down the potential problems that you're landing yourself with, so that is worth bearing in mind and that really is all you need.
Then you need to do a bit of research about your seeds. How do they want to germinate? Look at the packet. If you don't have any instructions on the packet then do look up specifics on your seeds, but there are general rules that we can use. Do have a listen back to some of the other episodes, because there's loads of advice on seed-sowing in there and I'm not going to go over all of that today because I want to get on to talking about some of the plants and things that are trending - I hate that word - but things that we're going to be thinking about in 2021, as I'm working. So, I'm just going to pause this while I go and wash these pots. I will be back and we'll talk trends.
Jane: Let's break away from the seed-sowing to answer a listener question and this one comes from Danielle in Washington State. Hello, Danielle! I do get a lot of questions to On The Ledge that are quite similar in nature, but this is a question I have never had before and it relates to a plant that Danielle had bought recently from a supermarket and she couldn't quite work out the identification. She thought it might be a Ficus elastica, specifically the cultivar Tineke, that popular variegated plant, but then the helpful florist - now I'm not sure if Danielle means a florist in the supermarket or somebody she knows, but anyway - this helpful person decided to try to pin down an identification for Danielle and finally settled on Pisonia umbellifera variegata and Danielle writes, "For the life of me, I cannot tell the difference between the two, based on photos and I want to be sure to care for it correctly. The leaves are white, some with a pink hue and variegation is grey-green. It's darker green in brush strokes. There isn't much information about the Pisonia, called a Bird Catcher, or Bird Lime Tree, except some horrifying photos of the tree doing its eponymous thing. Can you help me distinguish between the two at all? I know it puts out a great deal of white sap when, say, accidentally crushed briefly by a bag of groceries sliding onto it." You're very specific about that particular example, Danielle! I think that means that your plant may have suffered a small injury on the way home from the supermarket in the back of the car? I'm laughing because I've been there! Securing plants in the car is not all that easy, but Danielle goes on, "It seems to have recovered well, so I'm hoping it is a hardy plant because the variegation is so beautiful." So, what do we have here listener? Is it a F**icus Tineke, or is it a Bird Catcher plant or Bird Lime Tree Pisonia? Well, if you look at pictures of these two plants and put them side-by-side they do look very alike.
You're probably much more familiar with Ficus elastica than you are with the Pisonia and for good reason because the former, the variegated form of the Rubber Plant, is an enormously popular house plant and that's what makes me think, without any further digging, that this is the plant that Danielle has, the much more common and, indeed ubiquitous,Ficus Tineke. But, let's have a think about this Bird Catcher plant too because it is an interesting one. As I say, the variegation on that plant is very similar to that of the Tineke, you've got these white leaves with green areas and paler green areas around the mid-rib, so I can see where the confusion has occurred in doing an ID attempt. However, there's a couple of things I would say, first of all the Pisonia doesn't have a lot of red colouration or pink colouration in mature leaves, the new growth, yes, is tinged pink, but the matured growth does fade, or does mature to a creamy white and various shades of green. There isn't that pink tinging that you get in the Ficus Tineke. The mid-rib of that plant is pinky and the creamy areas can be pink as well. Second thing to note is leaf shape. Ficus elastica's leaves, both the Pisoniaand the Ficus have what I'd call an oval leaf. In other words, they're widest at the midpoint, but the Pisonia, their leaves narrow more dramatically at either end, whereas the Ficus leaves, well, they stay quite fat and then thin down at the last minute. I will put a picture of both these plants in my show notes, so you can see exactly what I mean.
The other difference that I've read about but I can't really confirm, because I haven't actually seen a Pisonia in the flesh, is that the Pisonia tends to branch more than the Ficus elastica,which just goes straight up as a single stem unless it is pinched out at the top but the Pisonia naturally branches to become more of a bushy shape. Looking at lots of pictures online, I would also suspect that the leaves of the Pisonia are a bit more of a matte shade than those of the Rubber Plant, which really are quite naturally shiny. In fact the Pisonia is not closely related to the Ficus at all. It's a member of the Nyctaginaceae, the four o'clock family, which includes genera such as the Bougainvillea, whereas Ficus elastica, well, that's part of the Moraceae family, or the Mulberry family as it's commonly known. The Pisonia comes from Australia and really is quite a curious plant that does live up to its common name because it produces flowers in summertime that then become seeds and this is where the bird catcher bit comes in because these seed pods are incredibly sticky and come in great abundance on this tree when it's mature, which can get to about fifteen feet tall.
Now, it's important to say that the tree has evolved this technique as a way of spreading its seeds, so things get stuck to the seeds and carry those seeds away to another area to propagate. The trouble is that some of the things that get caught on those seed heads just can't get away and that includes insects and small birds. Now, people do grow this indoors as a houseplant and, of course, if you grow it indoors it's not going to get huge, it's not going to flower and you're not going to have the sticky seed problem. So, it's curious that they've evolved with this variegation that looks so similar but they're not really closely related. You can grow both as houseplants, but as you bought this plant from a supermarket,Danielle, I would be surprised, although not completely knocked over with a feather, to discover that a Washington State supermarket had Pisonia on offer as a houseplant because sometimes it does happen that a nursery will deliver a load of plants to a supermarket where, perhaps, they've grown too many for a specialist order and they just kind of dump them on a supermarket. So, you do sometimes get rarities in the supermarket, don't get me wrong, but I think the odds are that this is Ficus elastica**. You mentioned the milky sap that your plant is producing, well, that's absolutely right for Ficus elastica as well. One of its other common names is the Indian Rubber Tree and the sap that comes out of the Ficus elastica is a white latex stuff, which was, at one time, used to make rubber hence the name.
Now, Ficus elastica, how tough is this plant? Well, it's been grown as a houseplant for a long time and a lot of people succeed very well with it. It does have a tendency to suddenly drop its leaves if it gets too wet around the roots, so make sure the compost has a really good chance to dry out between waterings. If you had a Pisonia in your house, it would probably need a bit more sunlight than your Tineke Ficus elástica,* which really needs to be kept away from direct sun, but don't put it in a dark corner either, otherwise you'll lose all that lovely variegation and, indeed, dropping leaves can be a sign that the plant is somewhere way too dark. This one's not particularly bothered about levels of humidity, it'll be all right in a regular room but in the winter time don't put it in a freezing cold room, it won't really like anything below about 15/16C, 59/60F. If you find yours is going up and up and up and about to hit the ceiling, then you can pinch out the top, as I've already said, and it will cause the plant to branch out and you'll end up with a much bushier plant rather than just one long stem going up.
Thanks for your question, Danielle, and I hope you're Ficus or maybe, just maybe, a Pisonia thrives! Actually, I really do think it is a Ficus but, yes, you can go and look at the picture on my show notes and decide for yourselves, but I hope the plant thrives, Danielle, and if anyone else has a question for On The Ledge drop a line to ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com and now back to some seed-sowing and chat.
Jane: Hurrah! I have clean containers. So, I've washed the trays and I've washed the lids. It's super important to make sure they're clean because that way you're letting in maximum light because seedlings do need lots of light to grow. So, I'm making sure these are nice and clean. They've been sat in the potting shed. Potting shed news: my potting shed roof is leaking. I can't remember if I mentioned this, which is a bit of a disaster because all my Agaves are out there. I've moved them out of the way of the leak and I do have a carpenter, hopefully, coming next week to fix it. I've had this, the potting shed, about ten years, so it's doing reasonably well, but it does need fixing up and maybe I'll finally get round to painting it once this work has been done. So, those are ready to go and I wanted to talk to you a bit about trends.
I'm going to start with Hoyas, because you know I love Hoyas and I know many of you are so into Hoyas. So, what can we say about Hoyas? I think I probably have, oh, I did count and I've now forgotten how many I have! I don't try to retain this information particularly because it's a bit scary. Looking at my shelf up there I probably must have at least 20 to 25 Hoyas but they're all quite diddy at the moment. Some of them will stay small, like curtisii, some of them are going to get big though, like Macrophylla albomarginata, which is a lovely Hoya with pronounced veins and oval leaves and that's going to get big. There's this whole Hoya acquisition trend going on, which I'm fully on board with, but it is worth thinking about "What is my collection of little diddy Hoya cuttings going to look like when it matures?"It's worth bearing in mind because some Hoyascan get enormous, so think about that when you're planning your Hoyas*. The other thing to say about Hoyas this year is that they're getting really, really expensive. So, I saw a Hoya carnosa Grey Ghost selling for, I think, it was £100 on Etsy. I don't think I would ever spend three figures on a plant, I'm not saying never say never, but I don't think I would. It seems that anything that's got splashy variegation just puts the price right up and, in fact, you just need to add the word "splash" to the end of any of any cultivar name and the price immediately doubles. So that's what's going on with Hoyas.
I would say that I am going to buy more Hoyas, well, I'm going to acquire more Hoyas. I'd much rather acquire them by swapping than by spending out huge amounts of money. So, if anyone out there wants to do a Hoya swap? It's a bit dusty, so I'm going to open the door, let a little bit of air in. I'm making up the compost now for the first seed tray. Expensive Hoyas, what I would say is get into swapping, if you want to get Hoyas that are rarer, and it's a bit like... I'm going to shut the door, it's freezing... it's a bit like that viral video, the woman who started out with, well, we call it a hair grip, I think you call it a bobby pin in America, and she ended up with a car or a house. Yes, you might have to start off with a fairly basic Hoya, but you'll always be able to swap that with somebody and get a cutting of something slightly more interesting. Then, from there onwards, you can try to add to your collection in a sustainable way without adding to the fever that comes with spending a lot of money on these plants. Sometimes people do seem to be buying plants, Hoyas, like any of the other plants, without actually knowing what their care requirements are before they start. This is stressing me out as if I'm a sun-stressed Hoya! I just think that's really short-term and this is the wrong way 'round, right? We should be thinking about what our care possibilities are before we buy things and that way we're more assured of success, but also, we can make sure we're not wasting plants by killing them, that's the main thing. If you buy a plant and you're unprepared for its needs, you're less likely to have it survive its first year. I'm probably preaching to the converted here because you're listening to this show but, yes, please do your research.
Talking about sun-stressed Hoyas, I'm not sure I get sun-stressed Hoyas! Am I missing out on something here, this idea that it's something extra desirable about having a Hoya that has red anthocyanins showing up because it's been put in more light than it would like to be in? I don't quite understand why that's a good thing. I would love somebody to explain that to me, so if you know, can you explain to me why sun-stressed Hoyas are good? I guess they look pretty but I just feel stressed for the plant, the plant is being stressed. There's a few out there that are really popular right now. There's one called... I was going to say Soya Hunrise! I'm doing a spoonerism there! Hoya Sunrise! This is a plant that's a cross between a Lacunosa subspecies Pallidiflora and Hoya Obscura,and it was a hybrid that was done in the 90s by a chap called Michael Miyashiro and this seems to be getting very popular now. Again, I'm not sure, if somebody wanted to do me a swap for one, I'd be quite happy to have one but I'd want to see what it looked like unstressed. Right, that is my Clivia seedlings potted up.
I'm terrible at writing labels. This is where I fall down, people! I am terrible on labels but I'm going to try to be better this year. So, I'm now going to stumble around the office looking for a label, so bear with... I know you always do. I've got a label here. Here we go, it's all working out! My office, by the way, is a wreck and a tip. This is what comes of trying to home-school and do pretty much a full-time job and retain one's sanity! The office has suffered and this weekend I need to try to tidy it up. Anyway, just crossing out what's written on here, which is actually a wrong name anyway that somebody put on a plant. So, now I'm going to write this label and it's going to be Clivia gardenii**. So, this looks a bit like the regular Clivia but it has more, I want to say slightly more refined flowers which are more... how would I describe it? Well, I'll try and link to a picture in the show notes but I think they're rather nice, the flowers, so I'm going to have a go at that and see whether any of those three seedlings germinate. Sticking in the label. So, anyway, back to Hoya Sunrise , all of these sun-stressed Hoyas, with that blush of red or pink, I suppose it's all the craze for sunset. That said, I've been talking here and I'm literally right in front of my Crassula* Hummel's Sunset which has been outside all summer and it's still bright yellow and red because it had so much sun. So, maybe I should shut up and stop moaning about sun-stressed Hoyas.
Anyway, right, I'm going to do the Hoya Serpens next because it's in urgent need. So, yes, silver splashy variegation, still massive on Hoyas and other plants and people go nuts for it and I'm not exactly sure whether it's worth the effort. I have a feeling that we're going to see, as we did every year for the last few years, lots of single heart-shaped leaves of Hoya Kerrii on display in our local florists and things and probably at IKEA as well, this Valentine's. Over the years, I've always said, "Oh it's not going to grow into a full plant!" but I have heard quite a few anecdotal stories of people saying that their single leaf has turned into a full plant. What's that all about? Well, I suspect that what's happening is that the leaves which are mass-produced, a few of them do have a little bit of stem attached, and the stem contains that meristematic material that will end up producing roots and growing a new plant. So, I suspect that a lot of these babies, they have a will to survive and if they've got a bit of that material, they will grow. Everyone says though, if they are going to do that, it takes an inordinate amount of time, so you're waiting a long time for your Hoya kerrii to become anything other than a single leaf, probably about two years. I'm kind of tempted to buy one, a plain green one, I do have a variegated Hoya kerrii vine but I don't have a plain one, so I'm wondering if I might treat myself to a plain one and just see - an exercise in patience, to see if it will grow anything. The Hoya* serpent seeds are in. Grow, my pretties, grow! Yes, it'll be interesting to see whether I get anywhere with that.
I have some cuttings of the very fine Hoya polyneura**, the Fishtail Hoya, which I got from a couple of different people, actually, and they're doing really well. I did an Instagram post the other day about them and how well they've rooted and I've now put them all in together. That's a really interesting Hoya, the Fishtail Hoya polyneura**. I don't really know much about it but it's growing really well, so I'm just going to keep quiet and hope the best. Now, what have we got next? I'm making a right mess in here. One Hoya that I'm really struggling to grow is Hoya australis Lisa. That Hoya is just... I don't know what to do with it. It just sits there. It doesn't grow. It just sits there looking at me, grumpily! If anyone's got any Hoya australis Lisa tips... It's a beautiful variegated Hoya, different shades of green and cream, but it doesn't seem to like me, so I don't know what to do about that one. I'm just going to go and get some perlite and run it under tap, very important with perlite to try to make sure that you don't use it when it's dry because it's very dusty so I'm going to add a little bit of water to that. My phone's going, so I'm just going to ignore that call because I'm podcasting, so sorry if you're phoning me right now. I'm going to go and put some water on this perlite, I'll be right back. Oh! Oh, God! I nearly fell over there! I just tripped over something in my mess of an office. I nearly died,listeners! It's alright - panic over! Oh, Jesus. Right, okay. It's one of those weeks, listeners. What can I say!? Still, I didn't lose any plants, no plants fell over, so that's amazing. Right, let's get this perlite going. I would ideally be using vermiculite for this but I don't have any vermiculite, so, hey, let's make do with what we've got.
So, sun-stressed Hoyas, Hoya polyneura, Hoya australis Lisa, pain in the neck, that's what I've said so far. One plant that I've seen around, that I would love to know if you've seen around a little bit more than usual, is one called Maranta arundinacea variegata. So it's the variegated arrowroot plant which looks a bit like one of the Ctenanthe, or even Calathea White Fusion, with the white and green bold variegation. Actually, it looks more like a Ctenanthe lubbersiana, if you know that one, but it is a different species and it's pretty popular in South East Asia but I'm increasingly seeing reference to it in my part of the world and in the US. The rhizomes of the arrowroot plant, they're used to make arrowroot, pretty obvious. Arrowroot is a sort of a white, starchy powder that's used to thicken sauces and things and you can make arrowroot biscuits and I think in Jamaica they make like an arrowroot porridge. But in fact, actually, arrowroot that you buy in a supermarket is usually now made of tapioca rather than Maranta arundinaceabecause, I guess, that's easier to produce as a crop. Latin name for that, Manihot esculenta, also known as Cassava. I'm wondering if we might be seeing the rise of the Maranta arundinacea variegate. You tell me if you've seen that plant around. Perlite is looking a bit lumpy but, hey, we'll just roll with it. I need to label up my Hoya serpens as well. I'm just going to rinse my hands, making a big old mess. I'm going to try not to kill myself when I go to the bathroom this time people. I'm going to leave that in the edit because I like you to realise that I'm a real person and most prone to having accidents, like all of us. Let's find another label for the Hoya serpens... label, label, label, any old label. Bear with, bear with... It's going to have to be a sticky note because that's all I can find right now, until I can find the proper labels, so let's do a sticky note, *Hoya serpens*.
I'm wondering how all the people who bought plants over the summer and spring are getting on this winter with their plants, I think it might be quite a scary time if you've never had houseplants over winter before because they can get quite miserable and you might lose a few, even if you're good at growing plants. So, if that's you, take heart. Go and listen to my arctic gardener episode a few episodes back - I'll put a link to that in the show notes - and hang on in there because spring is on the way. Next week, I'm going to be doing an episode about humidity, which is very relevant, talking about what air humidity actually is and how you can increase it in your home in various different ways, including the minefield that is humidifiers, so that should be fun. Okay, now, we've got our set of ropey-looking seed trays set up and I'm going to try sowing the Cotyledon now...No, actually, I'm not! I've got this one. What's this one?
So, other things that I think 2021 might bring us? I suspect that the houseplant trend is just going to go on and on and get bigger. What I hope it will bring us, is that people will become more aware of sustainability issues which, as you know, is close to my heart, but we're still seeing very little about, in terms of mention by the houseplant industry, so I really hope that's going to be something that's going to be focused on this year. If you want to know about growing peat-free, I'll just tell you again - somebody asked me about this recently - what my peat-free formulation is. I use a peat-free compost called SylvaGrow, which is made by Melcourt here in the UK, and this is a composition that has added John Innes. You need to go back and listen to my potting mix ingredients A-Z to find out what John Innes is all about, but it's basically a loam-based compost and that's peat-free. John Innes compost is normally not peat-free, but this one is. So, that's my base and then to that I add lots of different things including grit and sometimes expanded clay pebbles, sometimes perlite, sometimes rice husks. So I just adjust the composition but the base is that Melcourt SylvaGrow with added John Innes. Right, I need another label. Let's just use this as a label because that'll do. I haven't got a lid for this particular thing I'm using. I've got a big plastic bag which I think I'm going to have to stick over this to keep it nice and toasty, but that's the Astrophytum myriostigma** jaumave. That sounds great! So I'm going to look forward to seeing what that looks like. How am I going to do this? I'm going to get some sellotape and stick it to the side. I wish I had a tiny office, people! Anyone with tidying tips, please shout!
That's the first one done and now I'm going to move on to the second one. I'm going to leave the Aloe polyphylla seeds because I need to Google the technique. I think I need to do them on a piece of paper in a bag, I need to germinate them first. These Agaves though, when I sowed my last lot of Agave seeds, I just sowed them on regular compost, so I'm going to do the same for these ones. They look like little black chips of granite. You know what? I went down to the potting shed to get this stuff, this is why I love Agaves, right, went down to the potting shed and one of the Agaves had... there'd obviously been a slug roaming around and it had speared itself on an Agave spine and died. It was a horrific picture but somehow rather satisfying! So there you go! That's what happens to slugs who venture into my potting shed! Right, that's the Agave**. I must actually Google what it looks like. Let's have a look, Agave pedunculifera**. This is exciting radio, isn't it!? Woman googles, or rather Ecosia - my son's really into me using Ecosia because it helps plant trees, which is a great thing, actually. Let's have a look. Okay, this looks nice actually. Let's just read this through. I'm not going to read this all out to you because it might be... well, it's nice! It's kind of a really pale, silvery Agave**,very smooth looking. That looks beautiful, so that's nice! There weren't many Agaves on the list. That was one of the few ones there were, so that will be sown.
What are the other ones I've got here? Are there actually any seeds in here? This is the Cotyledon undulata and it's one of these situations where the seed is so small... I've got my glasses on but it's actually quite hard to see... I can't see if there's anything in the packet. I think there is. What I'm going to do with these, is I'm going to leave them because they're so small. I need to get a little bit of dry sand and mix it in with the seeds because they're the size of pinheads and if I do that now I'm going to mess it up, so I'm going to leave those to one side and do those later.
Okay, what have we got left to sow? One other thing that I was going to sow... Oh no, hang on! I've got all these! Let me do one of these then. I was just going to talk to you about pea shoots, but I'm just going to do these Selenicereus as a final sowing. So Selenicereus, wonderful Forest cacti and beautiful plants. I'm hoping to get a nice mix out of these for keeping and swapping and these little black seeds look a bit... well, they just look like normal seeds. They're not very exciting but hey, if they produce something cool then that will be jolly good. I have to say, I have no idea where I'm going to put these. They need bright light. It might be a question of clearing out the south-facing windowsill, the only one I have in the house, for the sake of these guys. I just really need to give as much light as possible, once you've got seedlings coming up, and also note whether they need light when they're germinating or darkness when they're germinating. Some will need one, some will need the other. So, the more you know, the more success you're likely to have. So that's my Selenicereus. I'm going to leave the rest of these for later because I've run out of trays. I hope that's been a good little sowing session. I wanted to talk about a few other things but I could be going on all day.
I'm hoping that the thing that really catches people's imaginations in 2021 is sustainability and also the idea that you don't have to spend a fortune on houseplants. I appreciate that it's a lovely thing to buy a beautiful plant, but that beautiful plant does not have to cost you a fortune and sowing seeds is a fantastic way to produce a collection that is not only sustainable, but also allows other people to share your delight. So, if I germinate half-a-dozen of these Selenicereus seedlings, I will be allowing other people to have them once they're seedlings. So it's worth doing that, if you can, and sowing some seeds. Right the battery is about to die on this thing, so I'm going to say goodbye and hand you back to myself in the studio, but thank you for joining me for this rather random seed-sowing session and I will be back with you shortly.
Jane: Apologies for my little accident there. What can I say!? I do really need to tidy my office! I have since discovered the instructions for Aloe polyphylla. The seeds either need to be wrapped in a damp paper towel and put in a clear plastic bag and, ideally, put in the fridge to stratify, to get cold for a few days before they start shooting, or you can put them in a glass of water. As always, there are various different ways that people sprout these seeds, not everyone does exactly the same technique, but that does seem to be what's needed in order to get them to germinate and I know some of you have germinated Aloe polyphylla too, so that's what I'm going to do with mine and I'll keep you posted on how that all goes.
If you've been doing some seed-sowing, please do email with your pictures so I can mention you on the show. You can also tag me on Instagram using #ontheledgepodcast and #otlsowlong. You can also use those hashtags on Twitter and, of course, you can share to the Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge group and there is an OTL sowalong topic, which you can assign to your posts so that we can see all of the cool stuff that you're up to!
That's it for this week's show. I will be back next Friday to talk about moisture in the air. Until then, have a good week, a bearable week, a week, have a week - how about that!? - and I will speak to you soon. Take care. Bye!
[music]
Jane: The music you heard in this episode was Roll Jordan Roll by The Joy Drops and Whistle by Benjamin Banger.Both tracks are licensed under Creative Commons. Visit janeperrone.com for details.
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It’s time to sow some seeds and shoot the breeze about Hoya trends in this episode; plus I answer a question about two very similar-looking variegated houseplants: one rather rarer than the other.
Check out the show notes below as you listen…
If you are getting started sowing seeds for 2021, I want to know! Post your pics and info on social media using #OTLsowalong and #OnTheLedgePodcast, and onto the podcast’s Facebook group, Houseplant Fans of On The Ledge.
Want to catch up on previous sowalong episodes? Here are all the episodes from 2018 on…
The seeds I am growing this year include Astrophytum myriostigma, Cotyledon undulata, Aloe polyphylla and Agave pedunculifera, all from the British Cactus and Succulent seed scheme. From Unusual Seeds I have Euphorbia obesa, Selenicereus mix, Rhipsalis mix and Parodia ottonis. I also have Clivia gardenii from Chiltern Seeds.
The Hoya species I mention Hoya carnosa ‘Grey Ghost’, H. kerrii, H. ‘Sunrise’ (a hybrid between H. lacunosa ssp. pallidiflora and H.obscura, hybridized by Michael Miyashiro in 1992), H. polyneura, H. australis ‘Lisa’.
The Maranta I mention is M. arundinacea ‘Variegata’ aka variegated arrowroot.
Danielle’s mystery plant.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
Danielle bought a beautiful variegated plant from a supermarket and wanted to know what it was - a helpful florist identified it as Pisonia umbellifera ‘Variegata’ aka the birdcatcher plant - but Danielle also wonders if it is Ficus elastica ‘Tineke’, a delightful variegated rubber plant cultivar.
Danielle’s plant is pictured to the left - below are pictures of the two possible plants, Pisonia umbellifera ‘Variegata’ and Ficus elastica ‘Tineke’,. Looking at the plant, and even without having seen a Pisonia in the flesh, I am pretty confident that Danielle has a rubber plant. The leaves although very similar are slightly different in the two species: the Tineke retains more pink in the mature leaves, and the Tineke’s leaf shape is more blunt than the Pisonia’s. More than that, there’s another major factor: the ubiquity of the Ficus and the relative rarity (in America anyway) of the Pisonia. I have seen s few US nursery websites with birdcatcher trees for sale, but I think it’s unlikely that they would be found in a supermarket in Washington state - that said, it could happen: nurseries sometimes offload excess stock from bespoke orders onto supermarket chains, which can throw up some rarities.
The birdcatcher tree. Photograph: Ben Cody.
The Pisonia does make a nice houseplant, and when grown inside manages to avoid the rather unpleasant feature that earns its common name: it does not flower inside. The seeds that follow the pinky flowers come in a super-sticky casing which, while evolved to aid their spread, an capture and kill insects and even birds.
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!
Ficus elastica ‘Tineke’. Plant available from Primrose.co.uk.
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CREDITS
This week's show featured the tracks Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops and Whistle by BenJamin Banger (@benjaminbanger on Insta; website benjaminbanger.com).
Logo design by Jacqueline Colley.