Episode 195: bringing houseplants to prison with The Glasshouse - plus lucky bamboo
The Glasshouse is a social enterprise based at East Sutton prison in Kent in the UK.
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Transcript
Episode 195
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Jane: My name's Jane Perrone, I have a lot of plants and I'm not afraid to talk about them, which I guess is rather handy, given my job as this podcast host! Welcome to On The Ledge, established February 2017. Whether you're listening to your first episode or your 195th, welcome to the show! This week, I'm going to be finding out about a fantastic not-for-profit organisation based in a women's prison that's bringing disused glasshouses back to good use to grow houseplants, of course. I'll be answering a question about cork, the tree bark, not the place in Ireland, although I love both! We'll be finding out about lucky bamboo, what is it and how to look after it. Spoiler alert: it's not actually bamboo. Shocking!
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Jane: Thank you to Karen for becoming a Ledge-end and Caitlyn for becoming a Superfan. They have both subscribed to On The Ledge on Patreon, which is a way of supporting the show on a regular basis and unlocking extra exclusive content. Find out more in the show notes at janeperrone.com. It's been a busy week here at On The Ledge towers. I gave a talk in person. Yes, I went out into the world and gave a talk about houseplants, which is really delightful to get before a live audience once more! I've also been working on my forthcoming book, Legends of the Leaf. I'm working on a chapter about Hedera helix, English Ivy, right now and the trouble is, is that while I'm researching, I'm discovering loads of gorgeous cultivars that are making me want to grow English Ivy again. So it's a peril of the book but it's great fun. I'm really enjoying it and going deep with lots of fascinating, cultural, botanical, scientific aspects of each of the 25 plants that I'm profiling. I found out a jaw-dropping Ficus lyrata, Fiddle Leaf Fig, fact this week which I can't wait to share with you in that chapter. So if you want to find out more about Legends of the Leaf, do check out the show notes where you can find out more and you can pre-order your copy.
I'll be off to the Chelsea Flower Show next Monday, for press day. I get the joy of rubbing shoulders with a few celebs, which is always very strange because I don't recognise hardly anybody and I can only usually spot the celebrities because they are dressed so much more fancily and they've got this glossy sheen compared to everybody else, us mere mortals! So that will be a really interesting episode and that'll be next Friday, episode 196. Also, I've made a decision which I wanted to share with you and that's that once I reach 200 episodes, which is in a few episodes' time, I'm going to be taking the first 50 episodes of the show off free listening. What that means? You'll only be able to listen to episodes 1 to 50 of On The Ledge if you are a Patreon subscriber. If there's enough interest from people who want to listen to those episodes but don't want to become a Patreon subscriber, I might look at selling them individually, so get in touch if that's something you'd be interested in. But, this way, it means that if you are Ledge-end or Superfan level supporter, you'll have access to those extra episodes. There will still be 150 episodes of On The Ledge to listen to for free, so it doesn't seem like a bad deal to me and it's just a way of growing my Patreon base, which is obviously how I make money and keep the show going. You can join Patreon for a short amount of time, you don't have to commit to anything longer than a month, so you could go on Patreon, pay your five bucks and have a massive binge-listen and listen to those 50 episodes in the course of a month, which seems like a pretty good deal to me. Obviously, I'm hoping that you'll stay longer and enjoy the content that's exclusive to Patreon, like 'An Extra Leaf', my bonus podcast, which comes out twice a month.
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Jane: Have you ever been inside a prison? Most of us are lucky enough to be able to say no to that question. Perhaps you've listened to the wonderful 'Ear Hustle' podcast, which shines a light on every aspect of daily life in American prisons? Or you might have tuned in recently to new Canadian podcast, 'Life Jolt', about women in Canadian prisons? I'll include links in the show notes to both of these podcasts, if you want to have a listen. Lots of my knowledge of prison comes from those two shows, but I've also actually been into a couple of prisons in my work as a journalist and, let me tell you, it's a sobering experience. I've come across some wonderful schemes that bring the wellbeing benefits of houseplants to marginalised groups of various kinds, but one of the most exciting is The Glasshouse, a social enterprise, and it's based in East Sutton Park prison for women, which is in Kent, in the UK.
Previously, abandoned glasshouses at this prison have been brought back into use and filled with plants. The scheme trains women there to care for these plants and get them ready for sale. Not only do the women get a chance to spend time around greenery, something often sorely lacking in the confines of a prison, they also learn valuable skills that can serve them well after release. I talked to The Glasshouse co-founder, Kali Hamerton-Stove, about why there are disused glasshouses in prisons in the first place and how, just like everyone else, the prisoners get so attached to the plants they grow.
Jane: Tell me about some of the challenges that women prisoners face and why this particular project is so good at offering them a different path.
Kali: There's many aspects of the challenges they face within prison. There's a lot of mental struggle, there's a great deal of noise and not a lot of space for them to actually have time to think and work through some of the thoughts that are going around in their heads. So I think that's a lot of it, is the situation within prison, especially women's prison with a lot of women around you. It's very difficult to find the time and space to work on your own mental health. That has been one of the biggest things that we've noticed with the women when they come to us. They've been in a situation, in prison, sometimes for a few years, but sometimes for many years, and have dealt with that kind of mayhem in their heads and providing a quiet space where they can focus on something other than themselves and grow and nurture something has had incredible benefits on that aspect of it. In addition, women who have been in prison a long time, or even a short time, it's very difficult for that transition to happen between prison and going back to normal life. Even if it's a short prison sentence, you become quite used to a certain situation within prison. So, seeing them and feeling how nervous and full of anxiety they are about that transition and about life outside of prison is something that needs to be dealt with and needs to be supported. So our project really spends a lot of time talking with them and, when they're in the training, about what they want to do when they get out and how they can make that happen and how we can best support them. I think that is a massive benefit of programmes like this in prison, is helping with that transition and giving them the confidence to feel like they can succeed and have a good life out of prison when they are released.
Jane: What do they tell you about the impact of getting to know plants on their lives?
Kali: We have two new women who don't have children, but the majority of women we work with have children and having left their children behind to come into this environment is very difficult for them. Then coming into a glasshouse and having these beautiful little plants and big plants to take care of and nurture and watch over, I think they comment quite a lot and they're very protective. We had a very hot weekend, I think two weekends ago, and they couldn't get out to the glasshouse to open the vent at the top and so some of the Monstera got burned and they were so upset, they were so disappointed that that had happened and then they just... I mean, tears. They really feel quite emotional about taking care of these things and they love sending them out and thinking about them arriving to people's homes and making other people happy. I think this whole idea of taking care of something else and giving something that will make people happy, making them happy, it just shows you that's really what it's all about.
Jane: What's the story behind these prison greenhouses that have been left empty for a number of years?
Kali: Well, this prison in particular has four quite large greenhouses and they do use one of the greenhouses for their own gardens because they have a very good farm and agricultural programme there. They have been working on their garden programme on and off, but they have some excellent gardeners who are leading the garden programme at the prison at East Sutton Park. So, one of the glasshouses was in use and that's where they do a lot of seeding and growing for their own purposes, for their own grounds. They also have, in the past, not whilst I've been there but in the past, they've provided plants to other prisons as well. They just had three additional glasshouses that they didn't really need or use and with what the Ministry of Justice has said, that there are quite a few older prisons that have these glasshouses and have had to cut the funding for gardening programmes and agricultural programmes. While some prisons, the newer ones especially, won't have them, we're still interested in maybe going into those and building a glasshouse to have this programme, but there are quite a few around the country that have glasshouses that are not in use at the moment.
Jane: Thanks to Kali, and Patreon subscribers can hear the complete interview with her in the latest episode of 'An Extra Leaf' which is out now. Do check the show notes for a link. If you're a Ledge-end or a Superfan, you can have a listen. The plants raised by The Glasshouse are available to buy from theglasshouse.co.uk and they've also been working with big corporate names, like Vodafone, to deliver plants to home-workers across the UK. In the longer interview, we also talk about sustainability. These houseplants are raised without peat, in a sustainable and ethical way, so what a fantastic project! I do hope you'll check the show notes, so you can find out more and support.
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Jane: Right, let's start talking about Lucky Bamboo. I got the idea to talk about this in the podcast because I went to IKEA with my daughter and she picked up a twirly stick, which was a single cane of Lucky Bamboo and she brought it home with her and it got me thinking about this particular plant. It's so popular. Millions of them are sold around the world every year, but what do we know about it? Let's start off this discussion of Lucky Bamboo by heading up to my daughter's bedroom to have a look at 'Li'l Curly'. Li'l Curly is my daughter's Lucky Bamboo. Name chosen by her. Let's go!
Jane: I should say that I have asked my daughter if this is all right for me to come and see Li'l Curly and she said it was fine. She didn't want to be interviewed. She's a bit shy of the microphone, but that's fine. She's very lucky, actually, because her bedroom has a big, south-facing window, so it's ideal for lots of plants and she's got various cacti and succulents which, obviously, all come from me. This is where we also find Li'l Curly. Why do I have to say it in that accent? I don't know! It's just one of those things! Here is the plant itself. So it's a single stem that's come supplied in a little test tube-like, clear, plastic vial. It's got a very clever top, where the stem goes through and you don't lose the water because it's got a sort of rubber seal on it and it's one of the ones that's spiraling. So the stem spirals twice and then it's got some leafy growth coming out of the top of it.
The first thing we need to say about Lucky Bamboo? Well, it's not bamboo! The species is actually a form of Dracaena; Dracaena sanderiana. This species comes from West Africa, so places like Angola and Cameroon. This is where Dracaena sanderiana grows in the wild. Not surprisingly, it doesn't grow exactly like you see it in the form of Lucky Bamboo. Each of these nobbles - technical term there! - which is the node on the stem, each of those nobbles would have a leaf coming out of it in nature. They've just been removed to make it look more like bamboo. Why do that? Well, actual bamboo is quite hard to grow indoors, so somebody somewhere latched on to the idea that you could make Dracaena sanderiana look like bamboo. Bamboo is considered a very lucky plant in Chinese culture and so how wonderful to be able to grow something inside that looks near as damit to bamboo and you could call it Lucky Bamboo! So, great marketing idea and this is the result.
This plant, as I say, those leaves as it's grown are all stripped off the stem so that you get this bare stem which is, yes, it is quite bamboo-like. The differences? This is a solid stem. It's not a hollow stem, like actual bamboo would be. The leaves, they are very similar to bamboo, particularly when you've got the plain green variety which this is. If you grow this as a houseplant, you'll find that you can get variegated varieties if you buy it as a normal houseplant. There are some lovely cream-stripe varieties you can get. At the very top of this stem, the end's been sealed with wax so the top node is producing growth but the stem won't produce any more growth right at the top.
So, these are often sold like this, as a single stem, either straight, or spiraling as this one is, but you can also buy Lucky Bamboo in these very elaborate braided or stacked arrangements. They're very, very popular and they'll often be tied together with red or gold twine, or plastic ties, both of those colours being auspicious in Chinese culture also. If you are a proponent of the Chinese belief system of feng shui, channeling energy in your home by moving things around in a particular way, then this plant is believed to be particularly good for feng shui. I'm not going to go into a huge amount of detail about this because I'm not hugely knowledgeable. It's one of those things that's been co-opted around the world and I would imagine, probably as far as the Chinese are concerned, twisted into all kinds of ways that aren't genuine feng shui! What I can tell you, is that this has made this plant an incredibly popular global hit in the last 20 or so years, people buying it because they want to feng shui their living room and create good energy. I mean, that's not a bad thing, to be thinking about making your home a good environment, I'm all for that and what better way to do it than plants?
As I say, there's various arrangements you can get it in. The one to avoid is the one with four stems, which you won't really see very often, but apparently that denotes death, so avoid four stems of Lucky Bamboo if you are on board with those ideas! I'm not, personally. I would absolutely not be afraid of any consequences of having four Lucky Bamboo stems together but, you know, I totally respect you if you would find that problematic.
So I've got this stem of my daughters in this vial and I'm wondering to myself how long this is going to survive. It's got a root system. I can see it's got some white, healthy roots going on there and I do know my daughter said that she is replacing the water regularly. I would recommend, if you've got a bigger arrangement, once a week taking it out, giving it a wash-off and replacing the water. That's definitely worth doing. But ultimately, probably, if this is kept in this setup, it may last about a year before the plant really starts to struggle. It's not something you're going to keep for decades on end, so eventually it will die or you can transplant it into soil. We can talk a little bit about that and how to propagate Lucky Bamboo next. I'm going to head back down to the studio to do that because it's getting rather hot in this window. It's rather lovely in the sunshine, but it might make me fall asleep, so I'm going to head back to my desk, to talk a little bit more about Lucky Bamboo and I'm going to leave Li'l Curly here with the other houseplants.
Yes, it's very exciting my daughter's getting into houseplants and she's lucky in that her mother is able to supply her with all sorts of things! So she's got one of the cacti that I grew from seed, she's got a little baby Pancake Kalanchoe, she's got Peanut Cactus, she's got a lovely little Crassula. It's looking like a really nice collection, so yes, passing it on to the next generation of houseplant lovers. Awesome! Right, I'm heading downstairs now and I will leave Li'l Curly there and we'll talk about how to get it to keep growing longer and we'll also talk a little bit about the spiral thing and why you really don't want to try growing a spiral shaped Lucky Bamboo. I'll explain why...
Jane: So, Dracaena sanderiana, as I just said, it's not a plant that you would have seen in houseplant books previous to the 21st Century, as Lucky Bamboo. It is in my gold-plated Houseplant Expert circa, what year was this published? - I think this is from the nineties - as Dracaenas sanderiana Ribbon Plant, but you wouldn't see it as Lucky Bamboo because it wasn't really widely marketed in that way, apart from the last 20 years. It has been on the houseplant scene for over 120 years though, more generally. It first turned up in Europe in about 1888, when a botanist called Johannes Braun took some plants to the Berlin Botanic Gardens. Sanderiana, that name comes from Henry Frederick Conrad Sander, who you may have heard of because he was a big orchid grower, he had an orchid nursery in St Albans, which is in England, not actually that far from me, and he was famous for his orchids but he also had this Dracaena named after him.
So by 1906, I've got a catalogue in front of me for the McGregor Brothers' of Springfield, Ohio advertising Dracaena sanderiana,which they call, "One of the finest decorative plants of late introduction" and they suggest planting it in jardinieres. So, there you go, it's been around on the houseplant market for an awfully long time and in the last 20 or so years it's taken on this new incarnation in terms of Lucky Bamboo. Personally, I prefer it as a full plant rather than bamboo style. It's an attractive, easy-to-grow plant, like so many other species in that wonderful genus Dracaena, which of course now includes the Sansevierias, like Dracaena marginata and the lovely Godseffiana and Fragrans and Reflexa. There are so many great Dracaenas which are super-tough plants and this is one of them.
If you've got a bamboo and you want to turn it into a soil plant, what can you do? Well, the first thing to say is, it may not work. Why? Well, your plant has been running on reserves for quite a long time already by the time you get it. They are tough plants and they can cope with being in a tiny vial of water for quite some time, particularly if you keep refreshing that water, but they will be struggling to adapt to soil. One other thing to say about the water, while I think of it, when you're changing the water, try to use either filtered water or distilled water or rain water, rather than tap water, if your tap water contains things like fluoride and chlorine because Dracaenas are one of those plants that are quite sensitive to that. That said, my daughter's been putting tap water in hers. It's absolutely fine, but if you have access to water other than tap water, then do use it.
So, going back to putting it in the soil. You want to make sure you've got a decent root system of vaguely healthy roots. The whiter the root, probably the newer and healthier it is. Cut off any roots that aren't looking very healthy and then you can pot it up. When you put the bamboo into the soil, just make sure that one, or ideally two, nodes are below the surface of the soil. When you're doing this you've really got to be thinking about this transition moment, when your Lucky Bamboo is going from water to soil. Roots that have been in water for a long time, they're adapted to those conditions, so they're going to struggle initially in soil. The best thing to do, what I always say, is chuck an old clear plastic bag over the whole thing, pot and plant, so they can really start to acclimatise gradually to the new conditions. If the roots are really manky - technical term! - you can just trim your stem down. You could actually just cut the nodes into smaller pieces if you wanted to, if you've got a really long one you could cut the end off, it's up to you exactly how you do it, but cut the end off neatly, just below a node. When you've trimmed that stem, you can put some rooting hormone on the bottom to encourage it to root further and pop it in the soil and that's another way of getting it rooted if that root system is looking really in a state and you want to start again.
One of the issues with this plant is the fact that if you go and look at academic papers about this species, the vast majority of them are focusing on problems with fungal infections and diseases that might be carried by these plants. Obviously, they're imported into places like the US and the UK by the million, from places like China and Thailand and there's a lot of research being done into the various conditions that they can be bringing in, so that's something to think about. If your plant is looking at all miserable, there is an argument to say that it needs to go into the bin rather than being potted up. It probably won't grow, plus you don't want to be accidentally spreading any new pests and diseases, so just be aware of that.
If you've got a braided or bunched Lucky Bamboo, you can just cut all of those ties and separate them out. Each one of those will make a separate plant, that's how it grows in West Africa in its native home. It's growing in rainforest-type environments. It grows to about two or three metres tall and will be living underneath other plants, so it isn't sitting in direct sunlight. It's under a semi-shaded canopy. The way it's grown, when it's grown for production, tends to be very tightly packed together so it stretches up, obviously. It makes a nice, long cane. If you grow it in a pot, you'll find that it should grow lots of leaves and have leaves all the way along the cane once it's established. New growth will have leaves all the way up the stem and provide a completely different look to your plant. It is possible to try growing your own spiralised Lucky Bamboo, the process, though, is tedious. You have to put it in a box and rotate it. Obviously, the nursery is producing this on a mass scale, they've got it down pat, but there is a way of doing it. I'll put a link to an explanation of how to do it, but it's going to take a long time. I'm really not sure it's worth it, unless you are the kind of person that loves a science experiment. Other than that, I think probably leave the spiraling of the Lucky Bamboo to the experts!
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Jane: Question of the Week. This one comes from Ben and I am doing this on the show, Ben, because I've tried repeatedly to email you but my email has been repeatedly returned, so I haven't been able to get in touch and I did want to answer your question. It was a follow-up to the Peter Boyce Aroids episode about growing epiphytes up cork. Ben is building a giant climbing wall of plants, and was going to use plywood, but now wants to use cork for two reasons; partly because it was recommended by the legendary Mr Boyce and, secondly, because it's renewable. So, if you don't know, cork bark comes from the evergreen oak tree known as Quercus suber, the Cork Oak, and the bark is harvested from the tree and the tree can regrow that bark. How clever is that? The cork forests that produce most of the world's bark are in Mediterranean/European places, like Portugal and Spain, and they also support lots of biodiversity, so cork is a sustainable substance and epiphytes do grow extremely well on it. There's one problem and that's that the cork that Ben has located is very, very smooth and Ben's worried that the nooks and crannies that the plants might need to anchor themselves aren't there.
So what kind of bark should Ben go for? Well, first off, I wouldn't worry too much about the smoothness. The whole plants on planks movement, if I can call it that, #plantsonplanks movement, will show you that when you investigate on social media, you'll see lots of posts. The wood that's used is very varied and it doesn't have to be hugely textured. Some of the planks that people use are quite smooth, certainly as smooth as a lot of the cork I've seen, but I do know what you mean. For epiphytes, you would think you need some kind of texture at the very least. After all, Peter's suggestion of a rough plank of wood, well, that doesn't have fissures in it, it may have a rough texture but it doesn't actually contain fissures. I think it would probably take a bit longer for really smooth cork to be colonised by roots, but not impossible. Wolfie is just in the background, jingling away, if you can hear his collar, which I've forgotten to take off! My apologies.
So, if you want to get some rougher cork, I would look at reptile shops if you can. They often sell cork backdrops for reptile enclosures, which are made of cork that's fairly rough. You can also get chunks of cork that are put into the base of vivariums. Sometimes they are cylinder-shaped or half a cylinder and then you could cut them in half. They'd be absolutely fine for epiphytes. Sometimes you can just get chunks. I know I got a chunk of cork for my daughter's isopods. So, reptile shops would be my first thought. I'm wondering, though, if you could get inventive and try an old cork board or cork tiles? You can buy cork tiles. I don't know how smooth they are. It depends how big the plant is you're trying to support, but yes, get inventive, ask around and see what you can find! As I say, the reptile shop strikes me as being the place to go. So I hope that helps, Ben, and I'll put a couple of links in the show notes to some info on cork bark and the Cork Oak, in case you've never heard of that and it's a really interesting industry because those cork forests do support quite a few other species and now it's seen as quite a sustainable way of growing. So, yay for cork! If you've got a question for On The Ledge drop me a line: ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com
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Jane: That's it for this week's show. I'll be back next Friday with my report from the Chelsea Houseplant Show, I mean Chelsea Flower Show! Maybe I should start a campaign!? Take care. Bye!
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Jane: The music you heard in this episode was Roll Jordan Roll, by The Joy Drops, The Road We Used To Travel When We Were Kids, by Komiku, and Overthrown, by Josh Woodward. Tracks are licensed under Creative Commons. Visit the show notes for details.
I find out more about The Glasshouse, a scheme helping women in prison to get growing houseplants, and I discuss the delights of lucky bamboo, aka Dracaena sanderiana. Plus I answer a question about cork for supporting aroids.
Ledge End and Superfan Patreon subscribers can listen to An Extra Leaf 77 for an extended version of my interview with Glasshouse project director Kali Hamerton-Stove.
Check out the notes below as you listen…
Houseplants in prison
The Glasshouse is a social enterprise based at East Sutton Park prison for women in Kent, England: it is the only not-for-profit plantscaping provider in the UK.
This not-for-profit offers plantscaping services as well as raising houseplants for sale. Women who get involved not only get to spend time with plants, they can train in horticulture and work towards their RHS qualifications.
You can find The Glasshouse on Instagram as @theglasshousebotanics and on Facebook: The GlasshouseBotanics.
You can buy plants from The Glasshouse via their The Glasshouse's plants for sale here.
Co-founder and project director Kali Hamerton-Stove is my guest, and if you’re are a Patreon subscriber at the Ledge End or Superfan level, you can listen to an extended version of our chat in An Extra Leaf 77.
The two podcasts about prison I mention are Ear Hustle and Life Jolt.
I didn’t mention this in the episode, but there’s a whole series of projects that have taken place in prisons in the US led by scientists, who provided inmates with exposure to nature in various forms; including growing and studying moss.
Lucky bamboo is also known as the ribbon plant, or Dracaena sanderiana.
Lucky bamboo aka Dracaena sanderiana
Dracaena sanderiana has been known to horticulture since around 1888 but has only been marketed as lucky bamboo for the last couple of decades - as bare canes stripped of leaves to resemble real bamboo.
There are some nice variegated forms available, with white, cream or yellow striped leaves.
Henry Frederick Conrad Sander who the plant is named after was a big orchard grower - more information on him here.
If you’re intrigued by lucky bamboo production, there’s a video on YouTube of a lucky bamboo farm in Thailand.
Care guidelines
Lucky bamboo won’t last forever as an unplanted arrangement, but while it’s going, change the water around once a week. Dracaena are sensitive to chlorine and flouride, so ideally use rainwater, filtered water, RO water or distilled water if you have tap water containing chlorine or fluoride.
After a year or two your lucky bamboo will start to struggle, so if you want to keep it going, you can plant it into soil.
Make sure you have lots of healthy, white roots, and remove any rotting roots. If the roots are looking miserable, you cans tart afresh by trimming to just below a node: you can use rooting hormone on the end if you wish.
Pot the stems up into houseplant substrate, making sure to cover one or two nodes. Warp the pot and stem in a clear plastic bag so that the plant has a good chance of transitioning: roots grown in water will take a while to adapt to soil.
Growing a straight stem of lucky bamboo into a spiral is an onerous task, but if you want to give it a try, there are instructions here.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
Ben wanted to know where to source cork for supporting aroids, as suggested by Peter Boyce in On the Ledge episode 193. I suggested trying reptile shops, as cork is often sold for vivarium backdrops and also as chunks and cylinders for enclosures. Maybe you could get inventive and use cork tiles, old cork boards or something similar? Even smooth cork should have enough texture to allow aroids to cling given time. Check out #PlantsOnPlanks for some examples.
Cork is a sustainable materials because it comes form the bark of the cork oak, Quercus suber, and is mainly farmed in Spain and Portugal. There’s more about cork oak production in Spain here and in Portugal here.
Want to ask me a question? Email ontheledgepodcast@gmail.com. The more information you can include, the better - pictures of your plant, details of your location and how long you have had the plant are always useful to help solve your issue!
LEGENDS OF THE LEAF
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CREDITS
This week's show featured the tracks Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops, The Road We Use To Travel When We Were Kids by Komiku and Overthrown by Josh Woodward.