Meanwhile, ‘plant profiles’ put the spotlight on some of the more unusual plants in Tony’s collection, including Monstera obliqua‘Peruvian Form’, which is smaller than the more commonly grown members of the monstera family. Jane: These are really thirsty. These are so thirsty. I find all those forest cacti drink enormous amounts of water. Jane: See, folks! Don't fiddle around with your leaves. People are terrible for, like, getting things... Jane: Well, you look at the word and it's just an alphabet salad, isn't it? You don't even know! I asked somebody when I was at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, where they have the national collection which, unfortunately I didn't get to see, but I think it's esk-inanthus, but, I mean, my attitude to pronunciation is probably the same as yours. It's just whatever works, if you can get understood, because when you start to speak to German people, or French people, or South American people about a plant, even though you're using the Latin and you're using the same word, they will pronounce it totally differently and it's all good. It was just another thing to do. Initially, I was going to do the photos. Because I want to have that creative control because newsflash, I'm very controlling when it comes to having the book.

Alongside this is practical advice on everything from planting a terrarium to making a moss pole for climbing plants and an explanation of variegation – it’s more complicated than you’d think! Light can also be used to manipulate plants, to encourage flowering, for example, and Tony uses a light meter to determine the best spot for them. Jane: The leaves are amazing! I just really like these, as my children would say, "chonk" stems! They're just so cool. Detailed chapters on light, water, humidity, fertilizer, variegation, propagation, and pests and diseases have you covered so you can confidently care for all your houseplants. Understanding their natural habitats empowers you to create the optimum environment in your own home so your plants will thrive. Combining detailed care advice and stunning imagery on a wide range of plants, including Monstera and Anthurium, with a special focus on desirable and unusual varieties Detailed chapters on light, water, humidity, fertilizer, variegation, propagation, and pests and diseases have you covered so you can confidently care for all your houseplants. Understanding their natural habitats empowers you to create the optimum environment in your own home so your plants will thrive. Combining detailed care advice and stunning imagery on a wide range of plants, including Monstera and Anthurium, with a special focus on desirable and unusual varietiesI'm looking at 90 plus percent humidity here on the care information, I'm thinking, yeah, that's going to be a challenge. Jane: You can fix that with lots of modern bulbs and things, it just depends whether you want to invest in that technology or how you want your home to look and the aesthetic you're trying to create. Tony: No, I just let myself run wild. I'm just very much like, "If you want to do something, if it's not hurting anybody else, just do it. If something brings you joy, just go for it!". So anything, if I commit to doing something, I'm going to do it 110% and I just had to do it.

Jane: It's amazing. Whenever I have a problem with a plant now, I've kind of finally realised that mostly the problem is it's not getting enough light. Things that have been really miserable and I've moved them somewhere brighter have just immediately sparked into life. Jane: Pressure! A bit of pressure there! It's so interesting, the different kind of motivations that people have for wanting plants. As I say, looking at it objectively, I can be, like, "Oh my gosh! This is, like, a world-famous plant!" but it doesn't make me, personally, go nuts. Again, there might be something else in your collection that is quite a workaday thing, that I would absolutely fall in love with. You've got to find what you're into. Jane: That's very true. Are these propagations of that plant, or is it something entirely different? Tony: Really strange. So, obviously, it's not fenestrations. Can you imagine if I found the world's first fenestrated Alocasia!? I'd love that! It's really strange. Jane: So that's blowing my mind because I'm looking at that and going, "Mosaic virus!" I'm getting cold chills.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. Jane: I have brought you a nice Aroid! I'm part of the Aroid club. I've brought you a nice Thai cutting, so it's all good! They don't spark the same amount of joy that other things do for me, personally, but what it is about Aroids for you? Tony: This one is called Tina; Tina Turner! I don't name my plants but they just have comedy names. That one is Bob; Bob Marley. Can you see that?

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.Jane: One of the things that often annoys me when you see pictures of this plant, is the underestimation of the length of the aerial roots. The aerial roots are just ridiculous, aren't they? That's about a metre long, but that's a feature of the plant, obviously, and its way of anchoring itself as it grows. 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. 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. Jane: I think that'll be amazing! We're experiencing the warm fug we were talking about earlier! It's so nice. This is kind of set into - I don't know what this was originally - a niche in the side of your house?

Tony: People ask me the names of these, but in every garden centre, depending on which grower it's come from, they have different names. Tony: I'm a massive Alocasia fan and they just seem to grow well for me. This wentii is just gorgeous. Tony: Other things, I suppose we have to talk about the Rhaphidophora testrasperma variegata because that excites me so much: the rarity, but also, I love the variegated pattern on it. 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 mistTony: There is an answer. There are a couple of different answers. So there is Mosaic virus in Adansonii, but the absolute majority that you get are this form of Monstera, that we don't actually know is adansonii. We think it is,but it's not an Adansonii that's known. We think it's actually some sort of tissue culture freak that's happened. There's no evidence and there's no record of it first being brought into cultivation, so we don't really know where it came from or what it really is. But that particular plant, for some reason, is incredibly hungry and it shows signs of that very readily in the leaves. So you get that patination and, usually, after a good fertiliser and a little bit of extra light it recovers. I know some people do get really scared. The best thing if you have any worries, just separate it from the rest of your plants. Mosaic actually isn't that easily transmitted between plants. You've really got to be cutting and using the same tools on multiple plants, but if you have any question, just separate it and figure it out. Jane: You can tie yourself in knots worrying about getting the latest cultivar of that but, actually, it's just nature being variable, like we're variable. Tony: It needs a repot. It's been in that pot since I got it, when it was a lot smaller. It's only recently, this year, it's started putting out some new growth.