Not Another Jungle: Comprehensive Care for Extraordinary Houseplants

Product Information

Well, that's a great metaphor for the overall amount of hard work that goes into producing a book like this. So congratulations and tell us when it's coming out and presumably available in all good bookstores.

The store in Northampton town centre receives customers from all over the world - as far away as Nigeria and Canada. After teaching himself how to grow indoor plants and becoming a prolific collector, Tony has learned better than most not all advice on maintaining plants rings true. “There is some advice out there that isn’t always based on facts,” he warns. It was really, that was one of my favourite parts of the book, were the photoshoots and preparing the plants for the shoot as well. I mean, it wasn't all smooth sailing because if you can imagine for instance the variegated Rhaphidophora tetrasperma, not many of them at the time weren't many of them around. For the book I showed how it stem propagate that so I have to have that plant ready in all different stages of the propagation from it being first cut to the shoot to it's first leaf. All for that one day. And same with begonia leaf cuttings, I basically had to make like 50 of them two weeks apart to make sure I had one in each stage of its development for the step by step. So it's a lot of work. You're looking at, you're wiping down that plant with great love. That's all I can say about that picture. Want to make a regular donation? Join the On The Ledge community on Patreon! Whether you can only spare a dollar or a pound, or want to make a bigger commitment, there’s something for you: see all the tiers and sign up for Patreon here.The myth is that people think when you put it into water, the plant is absorbing the water it wants and the roots are basically taking up the water. That’s not the case. The soil is absorbing all the water. And then from there, the roots sometimes take up water from the substrate. From little ones to big kids at heart, the trail will have something for fans of all ages, and we hope families take advantage of this free event and explore our town centre as they visit each creature on the trail. And, you know, it's difficult online to explain these things because there's so much information out there saying that this is the right thing to be doing that it becomes factual almost, fake fact. Whereas once you start breaking that down in 'Okay, so how much how much potassium is actually in a banana skin? How do the plants access that?' You pretty much can't in a house plant. So then you can start breaking things down. And once you've broken the, the non-facts down, you can say, 'Okay, well, how do we fertilise our plants?' So throughout the book, it's really about bringing together science and helping people understand why we do these things, not just telling people to do something, but really getting an understanding for your plants. Model builders are busy preparing the displays, with the animals ranging in length from 50cm to 252cm. Comfrey fertiliser is brilliant, seaweed fertiliser is brilliant, when used outside, because in the soil you have bacteria that can break those nutrients down and make them accessible to the plants. The plants can’t absorb those nutrients that you’re giving them from comfrey on their own. It’s the relationship with the soil bacteria that allows them to absorb them.” He says if you put comfrey fertiliser in your houseplant soil, it can cause a build-up of anaerobic bacteria, root rot and fungus gnats.

We're here to talk about this lovely, lovely book. And I feel like we've been on parallel journeys with this, I'm not going to go on about my book, because that's not what this episode is about. But it's really exciting that your book is now a physical thing. How does it feel? More from Tony Le-Britton shortly but now I'm going to talk a little about my book, Legends Of The Leaf. Now the great thing about these two books, in my humble opinion is that they are really complimentary. They don't cover much of the same ground really because they're very different books, but I think the two of them together give you a really fascinating insight into houseplants. So I hope you'll maybe go out and buy both. But let me tell you, as I've been doing every week in the run up to the launch of my book, another fact from Legends Of The Leaf, this week's fact concerns Dionaea muscipula, the venus flytrap. And the thing about the venus flytrap is, it doesn't really trap flies. Well, not many, certainly when it's growing in its native coastal climbs in North and South Carolina, in the United States. Most of the things it eats, according to people who have done surveys of its traps, are things that dwell on the ground, beetles, spiders, things that crawl rather than things that fly, which kind of makes sense. When you see one of these in the wild, and you see the position of the traps on the ground, it does seem rational that things would be climbing into them rather than flying into them.Tap water is absolutely fine for houseplants. The only exception to that is carnivorous plants, which require rainwater or water from a river or a pond, something like that,” he says, adding that levels of chlorine in tap water are way below any level which would affect your houseplants. Well I'm gonna bring you some amazing gesneriads. But you know. What is it about, this is what's fascinating about houseplants, though, is that for one person, something could just spark off this incredible reaction in away, you're absolutely fascinated. And I'm sure when I read the text here, I'll probably be fascinated to. You've literally given me the book about half an hour ago, so I haven't had the chance to read it. But tell me about this particular orchid and why it's in here and what it offers us in terms of being a fascinating plant. So I think, well, the reason it's been successful for me is because I forgot I had it for a long time I stopped. I got it from I can't remember how many years ago, but I got it a while ago and I grew it from tiny little few tiny little leaves in the sandwich bag. Rogier said don't experiment with it, just leave it in a sandwich bag and put it somewhere that's very low light, and not too warm. Because I think a lot of people think Malaysia's warm, let's put it in the warm and they just rot, they melt. The book busts dozens of myths which its author has researched and debunked on behalf of his expansive plant-loving community. Here are five of the biggest offenders: Myth: Bottom watering is best Need a podcast that sates your desire for house plant information, relaxing chat and general leafiness. You're in just the right place. This is on the ledge podcast, and I am your host Jane Perrone. And in this week's show, I visit Tony Le-Britton to find out about his new book, Not another Jungle.