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How Do You Care For Houseplants?
Jane Perrone • 2023-05-02
Dylan Carnahan:Let Welcome to the Simple Questions Podcast. This is your host, Dylan Carnahan. You're listening to Requiem For The Dirt Man by Jason Beers. Jason Beers is a Kansas City, Kansas native. He's been playing well over 35 years, primarily as a bass player in acts such as The Brainache Device, Dead Voices, Scott Hrabko, The Ants, Occasionally Freight Train Rabbit Killer, and many more. Jason Beers also plays solo claw hammer banjo kicks. The question for this episode is, how do you care for houseplants? You will learn in this episode, appropriate potting soil mixes, how to water your plants, and how to avoid common mistakes that people make when caring for houseplants. Our guest is a freelance journalist, writing for a range of publications, including The Guardian, Gardens Illustrated. And The English Garden, the host of the gardening podcast On The Ledge, and the author of Legends of the Leaf. I introduce to you Jane Perrone. It's during the pandemic, Jane. I'm on YouTube, looking through, watching documentaries, and I stumble upon a Vice documentary, specifically about all these crazy exotic plants, and about how people are breaking into green houses and stealing them. And I watched this in its fasting. I haven't thought about house plants or plants in general in a long time. In fact, this enters my consciousness and I jump on the hype train, so to speak, and I buy a pink princess. So I have a pink princess.
Jane Perrone:Well, you really did jump on the hype train.
Dylan Carnahan:Oh yeah, full tilt. First exposure, I was like, you know what? Entering the plant world automatically here. Get a pink princess, and I recently propagated it. So I have plant tea, and I propagated plant tea, and now I have plant teeny. And that happened a couple of weeks ago, and I think plant teeny's still alive.
Jane Perrone:Okay, that's good. That's a good start.
Dylan Carnahan:That's my kind of introduction recently into the house plant world. But what inspired you to start growing house plants, and how did you become a plant expert?
Jane Perrone:Well, that's, yeah, we've got to go way back, way back. You know, imagine the kind of like time travel, you know, sort of effects on a film. This is what we're doing right now. We're going back to the late seventies when I was a smallish child, and the scene is set. We're at a jumble sale. I don't know if you know what a jumble sale is. Do you have jumble? I don't know. Jumble sale is basically like a garage sale, but it's like all lots of people's stuff gathered together. And there would always usually be a plant table, and I'm there as a small child, and I am just buying cacti with my pocket money, aged about seven. And I can't really explain how that happened, other than it was just in my DNA, just to be into houseplants and fascinated by them from a very young age. And we had a few plants at home already, but I just liked to buy houseplants really cheaply. And people started giving me houseplants to sort of rescue. And as I say, I picked them up in places where I didn't have to spend too much money and it all began there. I'm not a person who had the pandemic and then realized I liked plants. I'm delighted that happened to a lot of people, but that certainly wasn't me. It's been in my blood forever. And it's really fascinating and exciting to see other people get passionate about houseplants and kind of join me on this amazing sort of plant journey. So I do hope Plantini survives. And you really do. I mean, like in terms of like Philodendron Pink Princess, right there, you've picked the most kind of predictable transi plant. I mean, it doesn't get any better than that. Unless you'd have gone for a like, I don't know, Monstera adansoniae or yeah, but Pink Princess was one of those hype plants that, you know, that's, you've gone hard there, which is good.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, it was very, very fitting. It does fit the story, right? It's the most like trendy plant at the time. Okay, Jane, you're over here, you know, doing whatever you can, just shelling out, change to get cacti at the garage sale, the flea market, you're infatuated with house plants. People begin to kind of see you as that and kind of come to you with plants. What do you do from there?
Jane Perrone:Well, I mean, there were many years where I was just soaking up knowledge via the medium of books. This was obviously long pre me having access to the internet. So there was no Google searching or, you know, plant apps to identify stuff. I was using the library and have been given plant books and buying plant books. And there was one book that was my Bible. It was called The Houseplant Expert by Dr. David Hessean. You can still get it today. It's still available. And it's really, I've got my original copy plus several other copies and additions. And I was just learning scientific Latin. I mean, you know, my nickname at school was Botany. So this was how it was going. And this was at a time when, you know, this was not a trendy, cool activity to be partaking in. So I was, yeah, I was an outlier, but that was fine. Like you realize later that actually, you know, the geeks shall inherit the earth. So I did a lot of learning. And then I guess I went through my sort of like, probably not teens, more like early twenties when I lived overseas and, you know, didn't, was moving around more. And at that time, I had very few, if any, houseplants, but it still had all that knowledge in the back of my brain. And then as soon as I kind of got my first place where I was kind of settled in, then I started accumulating plants again. And yeah, I trained as a journalist. So I trained as a hard news journalist and did that for quite a few years. And then when I had children, I changed gear and became a garden writer because I was kind of burnt out of the breaking news cycle, which is exhausting. And instead managed to combine my personal passion with my profession of journalism. So that was really wonderful. And it's led to my podcast On The Ledge and the book that I have coming out, Legends of the Leaf. So yeah, I'm really lucky to be able to combine those two things together.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, good for you. I mean, yeah, to be able to put that together, that's very rewarding. And you can leverage all those experiences in both arenas to really make fantastic content, much like you're doing.
Jane Perrone:Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it is amazing. And oftentimes what I do does not feel like work. If there's somebody who I want to go and see their plant collection, most of the time I can just kind of get myself an invitation, so it's pretty nice. It's pretty sweet.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. Speaking of plant collections, you heard me earlier, Jane, you would laugh at my plant collection. Very minimal.
Jane Perrone:I honestly wouldn't. I honestly wouldn't laugh at your plant collection because I have this very pragmatic approach to houseplants. Yes, you know, there are people who have their whole house is like a jungle and they have all these incredible rare plants. That's fine, but you are just as valid a member of the houseplant community if you have one like slightly alive stick in a pot as if you have 500 healthy plants. We're all on a journey. And I always try to sort of big people up and not sort of let people get too negative. People always say, oh, I can't grow plants. I've got a black thumb. And I'm probably, my answer to that would be, well, you probably just haven't got to the stage where you've accrued enough knowledge to be able to grow that plant or maybe your house isn't right for that plant. It's not something to be ashamed about.
Dylan Carnahan:Well said, well said. Everyone's invited. A dying stick aside, welcome aboard.
Jane Perrone:Yeah.
Dylan Carnahan:So let's say we do have our dying plants, right? We're new to the game. We're listening to your podcast. We're reading up on material. What are some common mistakes that people make when caring for houseplants?
Jane Perrone:Well, there are many and various. I think the first one is that we go into a garden center or we go into a big box store or anywhere that we might see some plants and we see something really beautiful and we think that must be mine. And there is something in that idea that something that makes your heart skip a beat will probably be something that you'll be more likely to take good care of. However, we can make bad choices at this stage. So there's a few classic ones that people pick up thinking, oh, I love this plant, it's just so gorgeous, I have to have it. And it turns out to be one of the most difficult houseplants to keep alive in your home. So a tiny bit of research before you get started can really help you to pick the right plant for your conditions. So have a look around your home, what kind of windows do you have, where are they pointing and how big are they? And the bigger the windows and the better the aspect, so are they pointing north, south, east or west, the more plants you'll be able to grow. If you live in a very dark, north facing in the southern hemisphere apartment with very small windows, you're going to be limited unless you bring in grow lights. So have a look at your windows and then try to just do a bit of research about the plants you're interested in. If you've got big, massive, sunny windows and you live in Arizona, you're looking at cacti and succulents. If you've got east facing windows, you might be moving away from the cacti and succulents, but looking towards a huge host of other houseplants that will thrive. And then if you really are suffering from a lack of light, there's probably a much more limited palette of plants that you can grow.
Dylan Carnahan:That first part really comes down to the purchasing decision, right? You get wooed, you see some amazing plant out there, you pull the trigger instantly. Next thing you know, you may not have the specifications to take care of that plant, nor the knowledge. And I'll tap into your journalism here. What would be some good ways to further research prior to making that purchase?
Jane Perrone:Well, I mean, I do love a book. I mean, I've got a book coming out on houseplants. I'd obviously recommend you to read that. That book is, I would like to think, kind of unique in the houseplant book world in that I'm profiling in-depth 25 iconic houseplants. So, there's in-depth information in there, which should help you to make a decision. But I'd also, one thing that people often don't think of is whatever kind of home you have, look around similar homes, which are the same kind of construction, et cetera, and find one that's got loads of plants in it and check what those plants are. Speak to the owner and say, what grows well in our kind of home? And they'll probably tell you, well, it's this kind of, you need some Boston ferns or you need some cacti. And so that's one way you can do it. Books are great. I think possibly underrated because we're all sort of on social media and looking on Instagram. Instagram can be amazing, but there's a lot of stuff out there, which is, okay, I bought a plant two months ago and I'm going to stick it on Instagram. And yes, it's going to look amazing for the first six months. Go back to that person when they've had that plant for two, three, five, seven years and see if it's still thriving. And I'm a geek, as I've already said. I like to go deep on this stuff. So yeah, I want information about where the plant's from. And again, this is available online. There's a brilliant website by Q Gardens called Plants of the World Online. You can find out where plants grow in the wild. And you can say to yourself, can I replicate those conditions more or less in my house? So, you know, if you're talking about something like a classic, classic, classic, tough, tough plant, popular in the past in the UK and the US, the cast iron plant, Aspidistra alatior, you know, that grows in shady woodlands in Japan. It's incredibly hardy. It can cope with very, very low, minus zero centigrade temperatures, freezing. It's fine. So if you've got a, you know, a porch which gets really, really cold, an Aspidistra is a really good choice. It doesn't need a lot of light because it's used to being overgrown by trees. So just finding out how a plant grows in the wild will tell you an awful lot about how you need to look after it in your home.
Dylan Carnahan:Excellent, excellent tips, especially, you know, just simply reaching out to others in the plant community. I mean, you're driving by, you see someone's got a nice plant or a collection of plants. Hey, go ask, right? And that would be a great way to feel things out.
Jane Perrone:Absolutely. And people in the plant community are on the whole incredibly generous. And oftentimes if you ask nicely, I mean, not always, but oftentimes they'll give you some cuttings, they'll get you started, they'll do, they've probably got too many plants, they'll probably give you some stuff to get you on your way. And so that's a really lovely way of making those connections and finding out, as I say, what will work for you. And you can make some good planty friends that way as well.
Dylan Carnahan:Absolutely. When looking at some of the specifications, I guess, for taking care of a plant, you hit on specifically a lot about window size. What are some other, I guess, dynamics that you should consider as well? Or I guess that commonly are not taken into account as well?
Jane Perrone:Well, I think the other major factor, which is sort of bounded around but not really fully understood, is air humidity. So modern centrally heated homes, or depending on where you are, you might be having AC in the summer and some form of heating in the winter. Generally, humidity, air humidity, so the amount of moisture being held in the air is rather low for what many plants like, particularly many houseplants that come from tropical climes. And you might find that in the winter, your air humidity is down to 10%, 20%, which for some houseplants is very, very low, particularly when combined with blasts of heat coming from whatever your heat source is. And that can be a real struggle for some plants and lead to decline, especially in winter, where light levels are generally lower, but also you've got this dry air issue and kind of blasts of heat. So that's a problem. There's ways that you can get around that. There are areas of your home that will be more humid, like usually the kitchen and the bathroom tend to be a little bit more humid. And you can make conditions better by doing simple things like grouping houseplants together, which kind of creates a little bit of a microclimate. You can also stick them in terrariums and greenhouse cabinets and things like that to improve humidity. It's something to bear in mind if you have a lot of houseplants die over winter to check humidity levels. And you can buy a very simple, what's called a hygrometer, which shows the temperature and also the humidity. And you can check on that now. In fact, I've got one here and I can just look at it now and I say, oh yeah, it's 54% in here. That's good. That's a nice level of humidity for my office and for me and my plants. So that's a really useful device that you can buy for under 10 bucks probably and just keep a couple of those in different rooms. And that way you'll know when suddenly your heating comes on and the air humidity takes a dive.
Dylan Carnahan:Absolutely. Humidity definitely is a factor to consider. And often the factors that we can't see as well are the ones that we ignore first, right? And I think there are definitely some things set against you as far as humidity indoors.
Jane Perrone:Yeah, exactly. And it's very easy. I mean, the first rule with houseplants really is look at them. Now that sounds the most ridiculous thing to say, because of course you buy them to look at them. But it's amazing how quickly they become just part of the furniture and you stop observing them closely. And that's when you miss things that are going wrong. You miss that first sign of pests or you miss the leaves starting to go crispy or limp. And so really putting your houseplants somewhere where you can genuinely give them a once over every day or two is a really helpful way of keeping your eye in and knowing when something's starting to go wrong.
Dylan Carnahan:That's so true. You add something to your environment, your home, and you become desensitized. It's normalized, oh, that there's just a plant there or whatever the case may be. And you start to lose that curious eye. So how do you know if your plant is unhealthy?
Jane Perrone:We are looking for changes. I mean, the human eye is very well evolved to examine plants. And actually, you'll kind of know when something's changed and something, and sometimes it's kind of indefinable. It just looks a bit dull and a bit unhappy, and you can't really put your finger on why. But as soon as you start to explore a bit deeper and maybe stick your finger into the soil, maybe have a feel of the leaves, and that's when you start to see that you were right, they were unhappy, and it's because the leaves have kind of lost moisture and the cells of the plant are no longer turgid, and you've got this wilting, or you might find that you've got some pests moving in. And there are a number of different symptoms, but any kind of change you should be observing, and it might be good change, it might be growth, it might be new leaves or buds emerging, and that's great. And I can't tell you the number of times where I've seen on social media somebody going, something's got wrong with my plant. And it's like, it's just flower, it's starting to flower, that's all, it's okay. And we think of foliage plants as being only foliage, but of course, apart from ferns, most houseplants will flower, even if we don't kind of grow them specifically for the flower. So yeah, keeping an eye out for change. And usually if you've got some kind of damage to the leaves or marks on the leaves, that's an indication of something. And I always recommend to people if they can to get themselves a hand lens, doesn't have to be anything fancy. It can just be a magnifying glass or you can use, if you've got a good phone, you can just use the magnification function on your phone because you want to get up close to the leaf. If it's a pest, there's quite a few pests where the actual adults and the babies are not visible to the naked eye, even if you've got young eyes. So you get a hand lens, you have a look, you'll see loads of cool stuff, but you'll also see when you've got a pest infestation, specifically things like red spider mite. If you don't recognize that you have a problem with this particular pest until it's very heavily infested and infested to the point where there are webs, you've probably lost the plant. So if you can spot the early warning signs, then that's a really useful thing to be able to do. And it just allows you to look at your plants on a slightly more intense level. So yeah, the magnifying glass is good. Wilting is problematic because wilting is something people always say, oh, well, you know, it's my plants wilting. It must be thirsty. I better give it some more water. And so they water it again without checking the substrate. And there are two reasons why plants wilt. Number one is that the substrate is too dry. So that would work, watering would work. But the second reason is because of root rot. Now root rot happens when there's too much water around the roots and roots need air as well as water to thrive. And so the roots rot and as a result, the plant can't transport water up to the leaves and it wilts. But of course we think, oh, it's thirsty. So you've got to always check the substrate before you water when you see a wilted plant because it can be sort of adding insult to injury if you give it even more water.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, you can easily exacerbate that issue if you don't triage that appropriately. And I think that kind of segues to watering in general. I think, you know, how do you, put simply Jane, how do you water a plant?
Jane Perrone:Well, I mean, like I can tell you the kind of chapter and verse on how to do it properly, but let's face it, particularly once you get to the stage of having quite a lot of houseplants, it will often just be chucking some water on a plant as you go past, that's fine. But if you want to do it properly and keep your plant alive for a long time, the first thing is to say is do not water on a schedule. You know, it's Wednesday, I'm gonna water my ferns because the amount of water that a plant needs throughout the course of a year will vary according to all kinds of conditions in your home. So always check first whether the plant needs water. And if you have any plants that are in a clear plastic pot, it's quite informative because that way you can see how much water is left in the pot. Generally, the darker the potting mix, the more moisture that is in that soils. And you might find that the top is very, very dry, bone dry, but as you go down the level of the substrate, the bottom of the pot is still pretty moist and the plant in that sense will not need watering. So you always need to check at the root ball level if the plant needs watering. How do you do that? Well, if you've got a clear plastic pot, great. You can just see. You can also just buy a moisture meter. Again, I don't like spending money on stuff. I'm the same as I was when I was a child at the jumble cell. So I just either use my finger or a wooden kebab stick or a chopstick stuck deep into the pot, leave it for a bit, pull it out. Is it damp or is it dry? And that way, you know, first of all, if the plant needs watering in the first place. And my preferred method, if I can, is to make sure that I'm not just dribbling on a bit of water every now and again, but I'm giving the roots a really good soak, but less often. So the way I do this is I have my trusty, again, I think this is a thing that isn't, I mean, I think listeners to my podcast, who live in America, probably sick of hearing about this now, but in the UK, we have things called washing up bowls. I don't think you do this so much in America. Maybe this is a regional thing, but it's a plastic bowl that goes into your sink. And so it's like a bowl within a bowl, and you do your washing up in that. We go through the bath approach to washing crockery, whereas you go for a shower approach, right? Everything just, so we actually soak things in this. Anyway, you end up with this plastic sink, this square plastic container, which at some point gets a bit too old or whatever, and you replace it with a fancy new one. I've actually recently upgraded to a metal washing up bowl, which is amazing. But anyway, I still have all my old plastic ones. So it's basic, you could use a bucket. It doesn't matter, but it's just a handy thing. I love going on about washing up bowls. Because it's, anyway, so you get your bowl and you might put half a dozen plants, depending on their size. If you've got them just in their plastic nursery pot or in a single layer of pot, then you just pop them into that washing up bowl. If they're in an outer cover pot, take that outer cover pot off. And then what you want to aim to do is just get lots of water going through that root ball. So there's a big argument in the house plant community about bottom watering versus top watering. It's sometimes bottom watering is referred to as butt chugging. I mean, that's the worst term in the world, but anyway. But anyway, you've got the plants in your washing up bowl and you want some decent amount of water to be running through that substrate. Now, why is that? Well, when you've got a plant sitting in a pot as opposed to the soil, it can build up, it can trap a lot of what we call mineral salts, particularly if you're using tap water that's hard. And this doesn't do plants any good. Also, if you're using fertilizer, it's a good idea to kind of allow some of these salts to be flushed away. So a good amount of water running through the substrate out the bottom of the pot is good. And you can also, while you're there, if you can, wash down the leaves because that also helps get rid of dust and things that are stopping the plant from photosynthesizing properly. And you want to leave those plants in that bucket slash bowl for a good half an hour because you want the root ball to be completely soaked. You want to give it a really, really good soaking. Then empty out the water, let the plants dry off and then put them back in their cash pot or in their saucer or whatever. And you might not need to water them then for a good period of time because they've had a really good soaking. Plants generally prefer that to having dribbles of water. And yeah, I mean, I say it's as simple as that. If you do it that way, it's gonna take you a wee bit longer than just chucking some water on the top, but your plants are gonna thank you because you will get those roots properly hydrated every time you water, which is a really good thing for your plants.
Dylan Carnahan:What I'm hearing is traditionally we form a habit, we go, ooh, you know, it's Tuesday, it's time to go water the plants and you just check it off your list and you come back the following Tuesday and you're more advocating for, hey, let's take a little bit more time, really get some water in there, get some movement to get maybe of hard water, much as you said, really hydrate the plant and then the plant tells you everything you need to know, just keep monitoring it to see if it gets to a point that you can then water again, rather than this kind of habitual checklist mentality that might not give the plant what it needs.
Jane Perrone:Yeah, I mean, it's like, imagine somebody is like trying to offer you food every hour and you're like, I'm still not hungry, I'm still full from the last meal and they're going, no, come on, you need to eat this pizza. You're going, I don't need pizza, I'm okay right now. It's like that. It's just the plants generally, as I say, it'll depend on so many factors. It's temperature, it's humidity, it's light. And all of those things working together will determine how much water your plant will need every time you come to water it.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, you know, something we didn't touch on as of yet, it's kind of a basic thing, which is soil. I mean, what are the best ways to choose the right potting soil for your plants?
Jane Perrone:Yeah, this is a whole, I mean, kind of, I'll say kind of worms. I mean, hopefully there aren't any worms in your soil, but there may be if you put them outside. Yes, this is one thing that I'm kind of passionate about. And I think in America, this is still a very new concept, but I choose a peat free substrate for my houseplants. So peat is a non-renewable resource. It's made over millions of years. And yes, although we have a lot of it in the world, it's best left in peat bogs and not turned into substrate for our houseplants. And there are plenty of other alternatives that we can use now. So I use a peat-free base, which is a multipurpose compost with added Johninus, which sounds like a magical spell. But anyway, it's basically a good formulation for a lot of plant growth. And then I add in different things according to the type of plant I'm dealing with. So for example, again, we're going back to what's the habitat like for this plant. So a lot of house plants are what we call epiphytes. And that simply means a plant that grows on another plant, usually a tree, but not always. And that's good for house plants because epiphytes have quite small root balls and they're used to a cycle of drying out and wetting that goes round and round and round. They don't want to be evenly moist. So that generally suits us as house plant owners. They have quite small root balls, but they're used to a lot of air getting to those roots. So this could be anything from something like a moth orchid, Phalaenopsis, to a lot of the Hoyas, the Hoya family, which are very popular as house plants, to other things like aroids. Many of these are also epiphytes. So when we're thinking about substrates for those plants, we're always thinking about adding air pockets because as I said earlier, roots need air as well as moisture. So we're talking about adding things like, well, sometimes pearlite is used. We can use bark, whether that's very, very fine bark, up to quite big chunky orchid bark. We can also use something called Laker, which is a expanded clay pebble, which is incredibly lightweight and very, very porous. Anything that will add air pockets into our soil is beneficial. And then if we're talking about something like a cactus, then we have to take it up a notch because they really are the kings of sharp drainage. They often live in cracks in rocks or in places where there's very little organic material. So we take our same houseplant substrate base, but we cut it with an enormous amount of drainage material. Often I use grit for cacti and succulents. So I might put as much as 50% grit with my 50% houseplant substrate. And that just means the water runs straight through. And actually in summer, you can really water your cacti and succulents quite generously if you use that mix and then let them dry out in the autumn. So it's all about just doing your research and finding out what your houseplant likes. Oftentimes if you do buy cacti and succulents from big box stores and even garden centers, they'll be potted in something that really probably won't set you up for success. It will probably have quite a high organic matter content. So it's often wise to repot those plants as soon as you can with something that's more free draining, which in the long term gives your plants a better chance of long-term survival.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, I'm hearing, again, a similar theme, right? Do your research, understand your plant and then act accordingly with your potting material.
Jane Perrone:Absolutely, but also do experiment. I mean, I still kill plants regularly because I haven't quite figured them out. I've still got plants that I'm still trying to figure out what they actually want and need. And I've got plants that break all of my rules. I mean, I've got some plants that are planted in pots with no drainage holes, which usually I'd say is a massive no-no, but those particular plants grow really well. So do experiment and try things and see what works for you because your conditions will be unique to your home and you might find things that work that shouldn't work, but for whatever reason you do. So do do experimentation, it's always fun.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, see what works, see what doesn't. Iterate, improve and enjoy owning your plants. Now we've name dropped a couple various different types of plants, but what are some easy to care for house plants that beginners should consider when starting?
Jane Perrone:Okay, so the one that oftentimes I buy for people who claim that they have no skills whatsoever with house plants is the delightfully named Zamiococcus zamifolia, or the ZZ plant, if you prefer, or it's got many other names, the Emerald Gem and so on. And this is a really good house plant because it's just super tough. If you forget to water this plant for six months, it's still gonna be alive. It grows from large chunky rhizomes, which are fattened stems under the soil, and it has these glossy leaflets. And it's very kind of, it's actually a really ancient plant, really fascinating plant, but it's just very easy to grow. It will take a lot of sun, but it will also be okay in shade. It probably won't grow very much if it's in a dark corner, but it will survive. So that's a really good one. And it's a really fascinating plant. It's, I have a whole chapter about it in my book because it's so fascinating. It's a member of the Aroid family. So the same family as Monstrodiliceosa, the split leaf philodendron and, you know, the Peas Lily, but it's a bit of a, I think I call it an Aroid oddball because it has some very interesting capabilities that other Aroids don't have. So it can reproduce itself from its leaflets. So the leaflets in drought conditions drop to the ground. And then if rain comes, they'll just go ahead and root and make a new plant. It also does an amazing thing called crassulation acid metabolism, which I think sounds like a sort of 19 era, 90s era metal band, but actually is a form of photosynthesis that is used mainly by succulent plants to cope with high light conditions and high temperatures. So they basically mix it up with photosynthesis and open up their breathing holes at nighttime and take in carbon dioxide then and do this magnificent variation on the theme of photosynthesis. So they can open up and breathe at night when they are not undergoing very hot conditions and therefore losing a lot of water. No other, I think it's the only aroid that does that. So it's a really amazing plant. And it's just a brilliant beginner's plant because it is just so forgiving of any number of mistakes. The only way you're really going to kill this one is if you leave it sitting in a pot of water for a few weeks, that will rot it. But other than that, it's very, very tough. The other one that probably is, again, the same scenario applies. You're probably going to only rot it. It's the snake plant, Sansevieria, as some amazing species. It's another African plant. Actually, I think it shares some of the same territory as the ZZ plant. And again, tremendously tough. People often recommend this one for low light conditions, but really it's better off with quite a lot of sun. Really stunning plants. And most people don't realize that they produce these amazing scented flowers. You can enjoy that as well. So those are two really good ones that I absolutely love. But I would say, try to buy things that you are really attracted to once you've done some research. Because if you buy something that you think, oh, I don't really like the look of it, but I've got to have this because it's easy, you're probably even then gonna kill it because you're just not interested enough to make it thrive.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, great recommendations and well said, right? You have to have some passion for this plant that you're taking care of to really spur that on to continue taking care of it. Now, we kind of alluded to this earlier. Where would you recommend purchasing plants from? I know we kind of talked big box retailer, you talked about, hey, you should probably repot it shortly after. But where would you recommend purchasing plants to begin with?
Jane Perrone:It's a really good question. I mean, I'm not going to say that I've never been subject to the old, you know, big box store impulse buy at the tills. But I think if you can buy plants from more specialist growers, you tend to end up with the joy of having a chat and getting good advice, good care advice and good advice on buying plants. And oftentimes they'll be potted into the right substrates as well. So if you can try to buy from specialists and specialist plant shops, because that way you tend to get better, a better set up than if you just grab something in the big box store. Not to say that you can't make those plants thrive, but it's good to support specialists who put a lot of work and effort into raising their plants and also sharing their knowledge.
Dylan Carnahan:You get three benefits there, you're saying, hey, firstly, your plant is likely to be more healthy. Second, you're having a better set up with substrate. And then lastly, you're gonna have potentially some guidance there.
Jane Perrone:Absolutely.
Dylan Carnahan:I mentioned this earlier. I mentioned right at the top, I said, hey, I recently propagated a plant, fingers crossed, that plant teeny is gonna make it through here. But what are some of the best ways to propagate your plants and how can you ensure that they will grow successfully?
Jane Perrone:Well, I'm sounding like a broken record here, but again, a little bit of research, because the fascinating thing about plants is that they don't all propagate in the same manner. So there are two types of propagation, sexual reproduction, which is basically producing flowers and seed that you then grow on. And I hardly encourage you to grow some houseplants from seed. Every year on my podcast, we do an annual sow along where we do this very thing, and it's really fun. But vegetative reproduction is usually what people get up to with houseplants, which is taking cuttings. But you need to know which part of the plant to chop. And it does vary according to the species you're dealing with. So your philodendron, you would have probably taken a stem cutting of that. And there are many plants where stem cuttings is the way to go, where you take the section of stem and you chop it up, making sure that you've got at least one node in each of those cuttings. So the node being the point where the leaves join the main stem. And that's fantastic. But if you've got something like a begonia or a peperomia, you can also do cuttings of individual leaves or even parts of leaves. There is a botanical reason for this. It's to do with the location of what's called meristematic material. So this is cells that have the capacity to become a root as opposed to becoming a piece of leaf or a stem. So where is the meristematic material located in your plant? By knowing that, you'll know whether you take a leaf cutting, a stem cutting or whatever. The other major way that you can propagate plants vegetatively is by dividing them or chopping up pieces of the rhizome or the tuber if they've got an underground storage organ. It's really fun to try. And again, experiment, but if you can find out what kind of cutting your plant will take, then that way you can save yourself a lot of time. You often see on social media people trying to grow a whole new fiddle leaf fig plant from a single leaf. And it's not happening because fiddle leaf figs need to be grown from stem cuttings. So it'll grow some roots, but it probably won't produce another plant and grow on. So again, save yourself some time and effort, learn about that, but also do just try things because it's incredibly fun. And you end up with plants that you can either keep and add to your own collection or give away to friends and family.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. Again, tailored to that specific plant to ensure how to actually do that. And you need to know that. You might be staring at a leaf, Jane, for a couple months, live streaming on Instagram and wondering what is going on here, right?
Jane Perrone:Absolutely. I mean, I always sort of think to myself, oh gosh, is this so what people are like, oh God, you mean I've got to actually research it? I mean, that's the great thing. You could do a great experiment where you just put different parts of the plant in some substrate and see what grows. And that's fine. If you want to get back to first principles and find that information out for yourself firsthand, but it saves a lot of time just to look it up and find out how your plant grows. And the more knowledge you have, the more it kind of opens you up to other techniques. There's another technique called air layering, which is really, really fun that you can do on things like Molotero deliciosa or your philodendron. You could air layer that where you're cutting into the stem and prompting roots to grow and then taking a cutting. It's an amazing world of propagation possibilities out there.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. So let's say we have our stem or we air layered, whatever the case may be, what are some things that we should take into account after we do that?
Jane Perrone:Once you've got your rooted cutting, you mean?
Dylan Carnahan:Correct.
Jane Perrone:Yeah. So there's many different ways of getting those roots to form. One of them would be air layering. Another is just a lot of things will propagate, just sticking them in a glass of water. And there's a big controversy in the house of blood world about propagating in water cuttings and, oh, you know, or should I do it in a potting mix or perlite or in a propagation box? Like really, there's just many different ways to do these things and most of them work fine. Once you've got a cutting that's got a decent root system, so you're thinking about the roots being at least, let's say, a third of the length of the overall cutting and those roots look healthy. Say you've been propagating in water, you can then transfer it to soil. I always recommend people having another exciting piece of house plant equipment, which is a clear plastic bag. And then once you've potted up your cutting, you can just stick the whole thing, pot and all, into a clear plastic bag and seal that up. You've got yourself a mini greenhouse. Because what you've got to remember with that cutting is it's a new cutting. It's not a fully developed plant. It's not a fully developed root system. So it needs a bit of extra help. It needs greater air humidity. So it's worth having that plastic bag around there, which just helps the plant to establish. And then you can gradually harden it off by taking the bag off for longer and longer periods. And your plant should be okay. You know, just make sure that it's given a chance that it's not on the sunniest windowsill. It's not stressed out by too much heat or too much light. And hopefully you'll be on your way to a healthy new plant. Yeah, exactly. And you know, once you start propagating, it's an addiction. It really is. And you end up with loads of spare plants, which is great because you can then give them away, or if you're so minded, sell them or, you know, make new planty friends. So it's, and you learn a lot by propagation. You really do.
Dylan Carnahan:No, no, you do. I've just, in my experience, just going through that process, a lot of learning to be done. Also a lot more, you're more cognizant of the plant, right? Checking in on it more just because of how, you know, fragile it is at the moment.
Jane Perrone:Absolutely.
Dylan Carnahan:What, you know, we're talking to the newbies here. What's the best piece of advice you would give to someone new to indoor plants?
Jane Perrone:Oh my gosh. That's a really good one.
Dylan Carnahan:You only get one, Jane.
Jane Perrone:Okay, okay. Well, I'm gonna, I mean, other than like listen to my podcast, which is obviously that goes without saying, I would say, you know, use your powers of observation. Like we have evolved to look at plants and understand plants, but in the modern era, we have become rather blinkered to plants and we don't look at them. You know, if you show somebody a picture, which has got loads of plants in it, plus some animals, that you'll say, what's in the picture? And they'll tell you what the animals are in the picture and they will not mention the plants. So we need to retune in to plants. And you can do that with the plants in your home as well by really starting to look, and I mean, really look at them and observe them. And that way you'll know, you'll be like, well, what is that white grainy stuff on the backs of the leaves? Cause that wasn't there last week. What is that? And what do I need to do about it? You know, so really tuning in to your plants will massively help to understand them and begin your journey of getting to know your plants. And there's just, you just can't beat the excitement of a new leaf unfurling or a flower bud coming. You just feel like 100 feet tall when that first happens because you did that. You gave that plant the nurturing conditions it needed to thrive. So yeah, really start to look at your plants and that way lies success.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, there is, there's a lot of excitement, especially something in your care and it's healthy and you see new development like a leaf. Yeah, there's just a lot of excitement around that. And Jane, what an expensive tip. Look at your plant.
Jane Perrone:It's me with my plastic bags and my washing up ball. I'm costing you a fortune. I mean, it's a good idea because lots of people in the last few years have spent a lot of money acquiring a massive house plant collection. So who needs the gadgets to be expensive, right? Because people spend a lot of money on their plants. And I'd always say to you people, get into swapping, get into propagating. It's an amazing way to build your collection without spending a huge amount of money.
Dylan Carnahan:Absolutely. Now I've asked you for a couple recommendations specifically for beginner plants, but I just want to, recommendations aside, what is your favorite plant to care for and why?
Jane Perrone:Oh, my gosh. I mean, this is like picking a favorite child and it probably depends on, you know, what's happening.
Dylan Carnahan:You're listening, Jane.
Jane Perrone:Yeah, I mean, my kids are old enough to be listening to this and they would be hearing and I only have two to choose from, but yes, it would probably be something that was doing well right now because of course that's going to catch my eye. I am a real fan of a family of plants called the Giznerian family, which is not so trendy. Like I'm not a big aroid grower, which is the kind of trendy plant of the last few years. Giznerian incorporates things that your grandparents probably grew like African violets. And it also includes streptocarpus or quaint primroses and another species or genus rather called primulina. And I just love these plants. They're flowering, generous in their flowering and there's an amazing spread of different species and genera to enjoy. If I'm gonna drill down into that, I have a particular thing for a trailing plant called Escananthus, which is impossible to say when you see it written on a page, but that's how you pronounce it anyway. And they're beautiful flowering plants and they're great. And the other one I would say is another trailing flowering plant, the Hoya genus. There's some incredible Hoyas out there. These are epiphytes that live in trees in Southeast Asia. Again, your grandparents probably had them, but they're back in fashion and there's some amazing ones out there. So I love my Hoyas. And if I was gonna pick one Hoya, it would be the plant that I call the Beast, which is my Hoya villosa, which has got leaves that look like dinosaur skin and it's hopefully gonna flower this year. So that's maybe up there as my favorite.
Dylan Carnahan:For those listening, Jane's eyes grew exponentially.
Jane Perrone:You just can't stop me talking about plants. It's just, yeah, it's a good job, that my job and my hobby are the same thing really, isn't it?
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah. What can people do to learn more about you and your work?
Jane Perrone:Well, my website is janeperrone.com. From there, you can listen to my podcast On The Ledge. There are more than 200 episodes to enjoy. So if you're not sick of the sound of my voice, head on over to hear more. And I've done episodes on every conceivable houseplant topic, as you can imagine. And my book, Legends of the Leaf, which is out on April the 28th, is my book profiling, 25 iconic houseplants, everything from Swiss cheese plant to string of pearls. There's information in here that you won't find anywhere else. I've done tons of research on these plants. And it's a really beautiful book with bespoke illustrations. And I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. So yeah, head over to janeperrone.com. Or if you want to find out about the book, legendsoftheleafbook.com.
Dylan Carnahan:Yeah, congrats on the book, that's exciting. Yeah, and definitely, you know, tune in to the podcast. If you're listening to this podcast, I mean, come on, it's a couple clicks to go over. You might as well. Jane, thank you for sharing your experiences and time today.
Jane Perrone:My absolute pleasure.
Dylan Carnahan:That wraps up our conversation with Jane Perrone. We talked about easy to care for houseplants, how you know if your plant is unhealthy, and where to purchase plants. Go to the show notes of this episode to see the resources Jane mentioned during our episode. Do not forget to listen to Jason Beers on Apple Music or Spotify. And lastly, subscribe to the Simple Questions Podcast to get notified when our latest episodes are released. Thank you for listening. And remember to keep asking questions.