Well, autumn is here which means it's time to start getting your succulents and cacti winter-ready. It's also time to start preparing the Christmas cactus for flowering, so I explain how it's done, and answer a question about a mushy cactus... sounds serious.
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Instagram is awash with it; but where do you lay your hands on a specimen of the Chinese money plant, Pilea peperomioides? Despite the Chinese money plant’s superstar status, the story of how it came to be so popular isn’t so well known. I find out more about this fabulous plant from Dr Phil Cribb of Kew Gardens, who helped track down its origins.
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If you've blown your houseplant budget for the year on a beautiful Boston fern or a towering Euphorbia, this week's show will help you get your new plant fix without spending a penny. Although they grow to 20 metres tall in their native central America, avocados make surprisingly good houseplants - a little like a bargain basement fiddle leaf fig, if you will.
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In this week’s show I explore the world’s love-hate relationship with cacti and ponder whether this plant family could actually be the answer to the world’s food shortage. And e’ll be finding out what foolproof plants are best for a newbie houseplant grower.
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This week I want take a look at that inbetween space for plants - the balcony. It’s not quite indoors, but not really outdoors either - the spot where houseplants and herbs, bamboo and begonias meet. And who better to talk to than Alice Vincent, who writes about urban gardening for the Telegraph and is also the author of book How To Grow Stuff, and on Instagram where she’s known as @noughticulture.
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Ethnobotanist James Wong has got some really thought-provoking things to say about why we grow the houseplants we do - think of the ubiquitous spider plant and umbrella plant - and predictions about where houseplant horticulture may be headed next.
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My guest this week is The Succulent Guy, Robin Stockwell, the man credited with making succulents sexy. I talk to Robin about his legendary - and enormous - globe of succulents, why you shouldn’t get an Agave mixed up with an Aloe, and why there’s transatlantic difference of opinion about size among Sempervivum breeders.
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This week's show takes a confessional turn from the start when I admit I have NOT ONE PLANT in my bathroom. It's mainly because I lack a windowsill in there, but this really is no excuse.
I talk to plantsman Robbie Blackhall-Miles about the plants that fill his two bathrooms, and find out more about Tillandsias or air plants from Graham Sigsworth nursery Crafty Plants in Lancashire, England.
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Conservatories have got an image problem... gardener Anne Wareham got so fed up with hers she had it knocked down and rebuilt. I talk to Anne about how she planned her new conservatory, and her cunning an thrifty solution to the issue of shelving.
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On The Ledge goes back to basics this week: I interview writer and gardener Katherine Price about her new book Get Plants: How to Bring Green Into Your Life, published by Kew. We major on succulents, covering how to pronounce "kalanchoe", the symbolism of the sempervivum and how to get in tune with your plants.
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I spent two days at the Chelsea flower show, and managed to meet a few fellow houseplant fans, and grab interviews with some of the experts displaying their plants. What a treat!
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I talk to a newbie chilli grower who has taken the pursuit of chilli greatness almost as seriously as he takes his job as an Apache helicopter pilot, and get growing tips from chilli expert David Floyd.
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