My guest this week is Mr Plant Geek, aka Michael Perry. We discuss the big trends in houseplants, why we should be growing cacti from seed, and why mainstream media still haven't latched on to indoor gardening. Plus a Q&A on a ponytail palm with an identity crisis.
Read MoreAll those nagging houseplant questions - why is my succulent leggy and wan? What kind of Monstera do I really have? Why is my Pilea looking peaky? - are answered in this Q&A special.
Read MoreAlys Fowler is a gardener and garden writer who I first met when she became the gardening columnist at the Guardian, and I was gardening editor. Her new book on houseplants, Plant Love, is out now - I visited her at home to talk about why top-selling houseplants are like tights, how Instagram has made variegated leaves popular and why propagating cuttings in water works (despite my doubts).
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Margaret Roach of awaytogarden.com has a garden of two-plus acres in New York state, yet she still manages to find time for houseplants. We find out about her obsession with caudiciform (or "fat") plants and compare notes on begonias and clivias.
Read MoreFungus gnats float about your houseplants in clouds and ruin the cool indoor jungle vibe you’ve been aiming for. I find out what they are, what they do and how to eradicate them from your plants.
Read MoreWell, 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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