Not Another Jungle: Comprehensive Care for Extraordinary Houseplants

Product Information

My spare bedroom that I never go in. It's full of boxes. It's on the windowsill there. It's really cool. It's been down to less than 10 degrees. And in Peninsular Malaysia, it grows on limestone. And the water where I'm from in Northampton is incredibly hard, it's limestone. And I think that really helps. Products mentioned: LED lights, Sandwich bags, sphagnum moss and rooting hormone. Dale Foot wool-based seed peat-free compost. Not Another Jungle specialist Houseplant Super Food. Empathy RootGrow. Well, I have to say it's, there's a lot of gorgeousness in here to enjoy. Were there, was there anything in here that you found really challenging to write about or anything that was particularly enjoyable, or you know, that you really got into that you were flying away with or where where were the peaks and the troughs? 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 My Superfan tier earns you a personal greeting from me in the mail including a limited edition postcard, as well as ad-free episodes.

In fact, one key element that plants need to grow is chlorine. It is found in the wild and plants use it to grow healthily. Some people boil water, or they’ll leave it out overnight. All that does is concentrate the minerals that are in there because water’s evaporating. If you’ve got rainwater, brilliant! But I grow all my plants, even the very rare ones, using tap water.” Myth: You have to mist So it was a real combination between obviously what is looking really good at the time, I wanted to show a really wide variety of plant, not just our aroids, we've got orchids through the book, we've got beautiful begonia, we've got cacti and succulents as well. And it was, it's what's looking good, what's going to be really interesting. And each plant profile in the book relates the chapter that it's in. So some will relate to humidity or light or watering. And it just sort of helps tie everything together. This project is being sponsored by West Northamptonshire Council and supported by LoyalFree. We are thrilled to sponsor this event as we’re dedicated to growing the visitor economy and supporting local businesses. I look forward to visiting the trail and encourage everyone to come along, stop by the local market and retailers and enjoy this fun family-friendly activity this Easter. Oh, well. It's lovely. Well done. It's fantastic. So congratulations, Tony and I'm sure you'll get a fabulous response from people who do go out and invest in a copy.

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. 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. 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. In this episode of Dig It, Peter Brown and Chris Day chat with Tony Le-Britton, passionate houseplant professional and owner of Not Another Jungle shop in Northampton. From humble beginnings growing houseplants in a greenhouse in the house (yes, really!) a childhood ambition fulfilled by appearing on the Gardeners’ World to developing his own special style and flair in helping everyone get connected with indoor plants through his social media channels and brand. Tony chats about his favourite plants, we get to grips with spider plants, top tips on growing indoors and more.

I'm sure I've seen this on your social media this super, super tiny orchid with this incredible really quite bizarre flower Corybas caudatas. This is something you seem to be particularly fascinated by. I know it's been in your socials. I mean, I'm looking at that and thinking, yeah, it's okay. If you enjoy doing it and find it relaxing, then go for it. Just know that if you are trying to increase humidity, it’s not doing that. And it can cause things like fungal problems on the leaf if the water is not drying off,” says Tony. Well thank you, you're bringing a tear to my eye. But I think the thing about books these days is that probably with the world of instant media, we kind of think that, we don't realise the amount of work that goes into these things. We've both worked incredibly hard on this. So tell me what, who is this aimed at? It's called Not Another Jungle, your everything you do is perfectly branded to Not Another Jungle, even down to the fact that the beautiful navy blue end papers are the same colour as your shop. But tell me about who this is for and what you were trying to achieve with this book. And are you happy with it? Model builders are busy preparing the displays, with the animals ranging in length from 50cm to 252cm. Absolutely, it is a recipe for disaster. We've all been there. We've all been there. Well it's, I'm really excited that this book is come to fruition and is there anything else you want to tell me about it before we end this interview? Is there anything else that we need to immediately turn to on, I mean that the cover we should talk a little bit about the cover. The cover is nice and very you.Contributions from On The Ledge listeners help to pay for all the things that have made the show possible over the last few years: equipment, travel expenses, editing, admin support and transcription.