Episode 325: Five things I'd do today to help your houseplants

Photograph: Jane Perrone

Transcript

[0:04] Hello and welcome to On The Ledge Podcast. Do you need help with your houseplants? Or maybe you don't and everything's perfect. Well, good luck to you. But this week, I'm going to be revealing the top five things I do right now. Yes, right now to help your houseplants because we all need a little reset from time to time. So let's get straight into it. No dilly-dallying around this week. I would like to bring you number one, which is...

[0:40] Get rid of a house plant. It's unconventional to start in this way, I know, but I really do, want you to take a long hard look at your collection and assuming that you have more than say five or ten plants, which I imagine most of you do, I think there is room for a cull. Particularly at this time of year when so many of us have plants that have been outside, we've maybe filled the spaces inside where those plants used to live and now we're facing a squeeze and there's absolutely nothing wrong with looking at your plants and deciding which one, is bringing you the least joy which one is infested with pests which one is just miserable and hard to grow in your conditions and saying, see ya, bye-bye, you're gone. And you could be putting that on the compost heap, you could be rehoming it with somebody else who might like it more, you could be.

[1:48] Putting it outside and seeing if it'll stay alive over the winter as a little experiment. Whatever you do, I would say that you can afford to get rid of one plant, maybe more, depends on the size of your collection but there's always room for a little bit of curation of your collection it doesn't have to just be like a stamp collection where it keeps growing and growing and growing it has to look good.

[2:16] In your home. So that's where I think a little bit of honesty. We need to take off the rose tinted or maybe the chlorophyll tinted glasses and take a long hard look and it's fine to let something go. You may want to take cuttings of that thing before you let it go if you're not quite sure whether you truly do want to get rid of something but I think it can be very freeing to get rid of a plant that doesn't bring us joy, it also frees up more time for the plants that we actually do want to maintain so this is really worth thinking about, if you've got something like an oxalis triangularis and a caladium and.

[3:02] What else could it be it could be something like even a syningia that has an underground storage tuber, that means it can actually go through the winter without any leaves, then this might be the time to just rip up all those leaves, let that plant go into dormancy, stick it in a cupboard somewhere, with the dry pot of compost, and bring it back in the spring. That's fine. It's okay to do that. It works really, really well. And maybe you've just got plants that you can give away if you're a keen propagator you'll probably find your propagation box is overflowing and you can find homes for some of those plants and bring somebody else some joy, If you are struggling with this decision, what I would say is, is it a plant that you're never going to be able to get hold of again? Is it unavailable in the world of houseplants? If so, maybe it's one to cling on to if you really do love it and you want to commit the time to looking after it. But if it's something common that you'll be able to get quite easily, pick up again, And if you suddenly decide that you really can't live without it, then I would say sometimes it's time to let that plant go.

[4:22] What do you do with a plant you no longer want that has departed from this mortal coil? Well, I do cover that in detail in episode 239 of On The Ledge podcast. But in summary, you can't put it in the food waste bin. That's not the right place. You can put it in a green waste bin if you have that particular facility in your area. If your plant has been treated with systemic insecticides I would not be putting it into your compost heap if you have one, and it can also go into your black bin so think carefully about where your plant ends up going if it is going into the bin.

[5:04] If you're struggling to decide between two different plants that you could get rid of well why not get rid of both it's the first thing I'd say. I mean, I'm influencing here for getting rid of plants, but that seems counterintuitive, I know. But as I said in last week's episode, my letter to my 12-year-old houseplant self, quality, not quantity, is the mantra that I'd like everybody to adopt. So, you know, if you're ending up with 500 houseplants, great if you've got time to care for 500 houseplants. But if you don't, you're just making your life miserable. And I have noticed that this is something that influencers are starting to embrace as the hobby matures. People who got into houseplants in the COVID years.

[5:56] Maybe six years on, they're starting to think, actually, I don't have to have every single plant under the sun.

[6:03] I'm not a stamp collector. I'm not a coin collector. I'm a grower of house plants. And that's rather different. So I've noticed on Kaylee Ellen's channel that she has been wanting to downsize her plant collection and streamline it. Streamline's a good word because we're taking out the things that are causing rough edges in our houseplanty lives. So it's down to you. Nobody else is going to be involved in this decision. It's down to your sense of what's working, what's not working, and what that plant means to you and what it's worth is. And I don't just mean what you paid for it. I mean, what is it adding to your life? Is it bringing you great joy every day or are you just looking at it and thinking oh my gosh I've got to clean that plant up again because it's got red spider mites yet again I don't know what feelings it's bringing you that plant but, I certainly don't get joy from plants like that I'm going to be doing this with a number of my bigger Hoyas so I've got some big Hoyas there's one which is just making me feel really miserable, it doesn't look good it doesn't display well it's I can never get it to grow properly. I remember I had the same situation with Hoyer obovata, just couldn't get it to grow properly, so I got rid of it. I'm probably going to take some cuttings of this plant so I don't lose it altogether, but the rest of the tangled mass, it's going onto the compost heap.

[7:32] It's fine. I've got a Hoyer latifolia out of variegated, same, same. I'm going to take the cuttings of the new growth since I've treated it for mites, because that's a whole nother thing, but I've treated it for mites and it started growing well but.

[7:47] I'm going to take a cutting and the rest is going. It's going to be so freeing. I'm actually excited about this decision.

[7:54] That's number one. The second thing that I would do today to help your houseplants is pop a wick in it. So if you have houseplants that sit in an inner pot, a.

[8:11] They oftentimes can benefit from having a piece of string cord, ideally synthetic, inserted in the drainage holes so that it is touching the, potting mix above that pokes out the bottom of the pot. What this does in its most simplest form is it means that if there's excess water in the bottom of the pot that the plant is able to soak up, it will. If you add a layer of drainage material like laker or gravel at the bottom of the pot as well this will make it even better and you'll have a very very simple.

[8:50] Self-watering pot system. Wicking plants is really great for so many plants. I wouldn't do it to cacti or succulents but pretty much anything else will probably be happier with a wick in the bottom. It just is a really simple thing you can do to help your plants if you've got a big pot you can have multiple wicks in there and the best thing about it is you don't have to spend any money you will have some of this nylon cord lying around your house I guarantee if you have an old blind that's broken it will have a nylon cord attached to it the gift bag handles are another great source find some of that nylon cord cut it up into pieces about maybe 10 centimeters long poke it through the bottom of the pot and, you can wick to your heart's content. The plant will stay more steadily moist and that is often very beneficial, particularly with things like begonias and ferns. They absolutely love a wick.

[9:50] One caveat about wick watering, if you are a very keen waterer, you may find that inserting a wick means that your substrate needs to be a little bit more free draining. You need to add a little bit more gravel perlite laker bark or the like but really that's unlikely to be the case if you're like me and you're more of a, underwater and there we do exist then probably, you'll be absolutely fine if you've only got cotton cord you can use that but it will start to deteriorate over time so yes get some wicks into your pot it's helpful if you're going away this summer and it also just means that life is.

[10:35] A little bit easier if you forget to water for a little bit and there's some water tucked into that reservoir that can save your plant from drying out.

[10:45] Quick aside before we get on to number three, and that is, are you buying plants on TikTok Live? I've recently fallen down a rabbit hole of watching TikTok Live houseplant sales, and I'm finding them really, really fascinating. There's a few key sellers in the UK. There's a couple of bonsai sellers who seem to be constantly on live, and a couple of other house plant sellers and I'm really fascinated by this, new or maybe not new way of buying house plants obviously, being a bit older I'm remembering back to the days of you know tv, shopping channels and which still exist of course and things like QVC are still ways that people buy plants but I'd love to know if you're buying plants on TikTok live whether you'd consider that way of buying.

[11:41] I think this may be the subject of a future episode and I would love to find out your perspective on it. I can't imagine myself ever buying a plant on TikTok Live but maybe I should give it a try and see how it goes. It's a fascinating world so please drop me a line if you have any insights into that on theledgepodcast.gmail.com and while we're here let me just say there is a sale on my patreon right now so this week only, the sale ends uh on the september the 4th next friday there is 30 off your first month or your first year, as a member of my patreon at any tier level so either crazy plant person.

[12:27] Legend or super fan so if you've been thinking about joining my patreon now is a good time to do it you'll be, lined up for the december mail out if you join at one of the two higher tiers you'll get access to ad-free episodes and lots lots more on my patreon it's a really good way of getting deeper into the show, you get access to the first 50 episodes for example if you join the legend or super fan tier and it's just a really good way of supporting the show, i've said it before but without patreon i wouldn't be making this podcast so if you've ever found the show useful or got some advice or found it helpful, buy something from me buy access to one of my audiobooks or become a crazy plant person or indeed you can become a free member it's all great support and helps the show to keep going and keep being on the air so in this age of.

[13:30] So many big organizations making podcasts it's getting harder and harder for indie podcasters like me a one woman band so I would love your support and for the sake of a dollar a month or nothing a month you can support the show and if you want more then you can get a bit more at 30% off for your first month or year, and that's exactly what Michelle and Julie have done they've both become crazy plant people this week Maria has become a legend and Graham and Ben have taken up my offer of a free week-long trial to the legend tier so thank you to all of them for supporting the show.

[14:23] Next up, I want you to check your prop boxes. Now, I am saying this entirely for my own benefit, because quite frankly, my prop boxes are, well, if you think of any kind of movie where there's a lush jungle scene, well, it's like a miniature version of that in there. All the roots are tangled together. Gosh, I don't know how I'm going to untangle everything. but check your prop boxes now because those plants probably need to be moved on to the next stage. Yes, they'll probably go on growing in there for quite a long time, but you'd be surprised how quickly things can get out of hand in a prop box. Certainly, it's been a few weeks since I've opened a couple of mine, and I'm now at that stage where it's getting to the point where if I don't pot those plants up now, in the next couple of months they're going to be sat there over the winter so I want to sort out my prop boxes that's a big goal of mine so I'm drawing you in to my craziness in that I need you to commit to sorting out at least one prop box this coming weekend so that you too can feel smug and self-satisfied as a house plant owner.

[15:41] Again, be brutal. If there's cuttings that you just think, gosh, I don't really know what to do with this. I don't really want this extra plant. I've already got five pilea peperomioides. Then it's absolutely fine to pot it up and give it away. There are people who will take your plants. Trust me. So, yeah, get those plants potted up. I take plants to my local charity shop. Some charity shops or thrift stores accept plants. Others don't. I have at least one or two that do accept plants for resale. So any plants that I don't want, I will pot up and take them down there to be.

[16:18] Sold to somebody who can look after them. And while you're in there, you can make room for new cuttings. So if you've got any plants where you think, I don't know if this is going to make it through the winter. Now is the time to refresh that prop box, get some new propagations going and move on. Those plants that are beyond the cutting stage, yes you can of course just create another prop box but that doesn't solve the problem of the first prop box this is what I find that you just end up with loads and loads of prop boxes and nowhere to put them and not enough light so yes move a few things on have a clear out I promise you it will make you feel good about yourself and you know you can, put a tarp on the ground put your favorite show on i'm currently enjoying silo on apple tv with my, family and i might just pop that on and do a bit of gentle prop box sorting what a great way to spend a couple of hours this weekend so yeah, do do it and you'll feel good and you know maybe you want to sell the plants if you've if you're into that kind of thing You can sell plants, but I like to just give them away because, that is how I roll.

[17:37] Right, next up, number four. We all like being treated like the stars that we are. And our houseplants are no different. So this week, I want you to nominate one of your houseplants as star of the week. And I want you to give it the star treatment. What does that involve? Well, that's really up to you. but I think it's an opportunity just to, look afresh at a plant that you've maybe had for a long time maybe it's one of your OG house plants but maybe put it center stage just for this week move it somewhere really prominent where you can look at it, keep an eye on it admire it enjoy it and maybe also give it some TLC, it might need a repot it might need a prune it might need an everything shower.

[18:32] You know, where you just take it to your bathroom or outside if the temperature's right for that.

[18:39] And just give it a really good wash down spray it with something like sb plant invigorator if you're in the uk, sorry i still don't really know what the equivalent of that is in the us, maybe i don't i just don't know answers on a postcard to that one but whatever you want to, spray it with something a foliar feed maybe once you've sprayed it down and removed all the dust maybe if it's a cactus you're going to get in there with an old soft brush and remove dust or even hoover it that works really really well, and or it may be that you're just replacing the mulch on the top of the pot trimming the roots there's all kinds of things you could be doing to your plant just to give it that extra boost, and focus your attention on it this week so that it can get through the next few months as light levels start to drop and it keeps looking fine and dandy and it's nice just to really focus on one plant and make that the absolute hero of your week. I mean maybe this goes back to point one in the at the end of the week you look at that plant and think you've actually brought me no joy this week and so it's time for that plant to get the heave hoe. It's a good way of figuring out what your feelings are for that plant so center a plant give it the stage let it strut its stuff and see how you react to it.

[20:07] You could do this every week of the year for one plant. And that would mean that over the whole year, 52 plants would get your undivided care and attention for a week. So that would actually not be a bad way of looking after your plants.

[20:23] And finally, I want you to take a bold approach to flowers.

[20:31] Now, I love flowering houseplants. I really do. However, there are some flowers that do not serve a good purpose on houseplants and it's fine to remove flowers for any reason that you like. So I did a TikTok video once where I was pulling, well rather viciously pulling flowers off my purple, shamrock oxalis triangularis and people are quite unhappy about that but I just don't like oxalis flowers so I just pull them out and that's absolutely fine. I don't need the plant to flower and set seed so why do I need the flowers? There might be other reasons for example my hoia fungi has a pretty funky smell and it's a lot. I love the plant but I'm just not that keen on the smell of the flowers so they usually get removed. If you've got other Hoyas that have particularly abundant nectar, particularly something like Hoya Kerii with the really dark red nectar, it can stain like bilio. So again, you can cut the peduncles off and that's absolutely fine. So if you get flowers on your plants and you don't want them for whatever reason, maybe you want to focus on the foliage, maybe you don't like the smell, maybe you don't like the look of the flowers, it's absolutely fine to just cut them off it's the house plant police aren't going to come and get you.

[22:00] So remove flowers from plants that you don't want them on.

[22:04] The other reason to do it, of course, is that the plant will be putting its energy into those flowers rather than the foliage. And if the flowers aren't that interesting, then why would you want to keep them? Another classic smelly flower is, of course, the purple passion plant, the purple velvet plant, Gynura aurantiaca, which I have featured on the show before, whose flowers smell like, horrible old socks.

[22:33] Obviously the plant has a good reason to smell like this it attracts certain pollinators that gets the plant pollinated but for us and our noses it's not great let's be honest so it's fine to remove flowers is what I would say I have a big variegated piece lily I think it's diamond spathophyllum diamond and I really don't like the flowers so they just come straight off and again it's absolutely fine to do that your choice your plants nobody can stop you.

[23:05] So please yes just just have a look at your plants if there's things that are annoying you I mean it could apply to foliage as well bits of foliage you can still prune right now we're in, end of August beginning of September so yeah it's an okay time to prune the plant will have time to recover just remember that if you do prune growth it kind of produces more growth so that's the pattern so you have to be careful in terms of taking bits off bearing in mind that it's going to then grow out in that direction.

[23:35] But yeah have a chop away at your plants you have my permission. That's all for this week's show I'll be back next Friday don't forget to check out patreon.com/ontheledge and I'll be back next Friday talking to Leslie Halleck but until then have a great week with you and your plants.

Five tips to kickstart the back to school vibe in your houseplant collection. The main theme is a reset: it’s time to look honestly at our collections and decide what is worth keeping and what is not. New mantra - quality not quantity!

CREDITS

This week's show featured Whistle by BenJamin Banger (@benjaminbanger on Insta; website benjaminbanger.com) and The Road We Used to Travel When We Were Kids by Komiku.