Well sandwich bag yeah, absolutely. But you must be doing something, you know, like the fact that you're growing that and Kew's failed. Maybe it's just that, you know, Kew's got a lot of plants, you've got a lot of plants, but maybe on a scale that when you can keep particular, yeah, you're gonna take particular care of it.

If it’s working for you, fine – but for someone who hasn’t dealt with plants before, top watering is really going to help, or if you consistently overwater plants or have plants with root rot, top watering is going to help,” Tony says. But miraculously, its flower opened on the day of the shoot. And the Corybas caudatas is an extremely rare orchid, which my wonderful friend Rogier had bottled it to hold aside and gifted to me a while ago. And he has it and not many people around the world have it at all. In Peninsular Malaysia where it's from, it's thought extinct. There were subsequent trips out there to try and find it and it's never been found again. So I love rare things and I know people shy away from saying I like it because it's rare. A part of this plant's fascination is its rarity, you know, it's incredibly rare. And I grow this on my windowsill in a sandwich bag. And that is what fascinate that's the fascination, also just trying to be successful, but it's so rare and I know Kews been gifted some of this before and it unfortunately died and trying to be successful with this plant, trying to propagate it. That's a huge, not only responsibility, but challenge. And that's why I'm fascinated with it. And then when it flowered for the, for the on the day of the shoot, we were like, 'We have to get this in'. I want to share it with people and show it to people. 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. 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 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.So the peaks have to be the plant processes, for me. They're the parts in the book that I knew about, but just writing them and realising just how amazing the plants are around us and the things they're doing without us even knowing. And, and what I'm really proud about is that the people who've read this, so far people in the press that some of them might not even have houseplants. But they're really fascinated by the book, and it's making them stop and say, 'Wow' and then from that you get an appreciation from them. And maybe you want to get a houseplant, or you want to learn about your own house plants a bit more. And that's what it was all about. So they're the they're the peaks for me, because it's not only sharing amazing things, but it was also almost exciting me a little bit more as well. Because as you know, in when you have a lot of plants, it can sometimes just become a bit of a burden or just becomes a lot, right? And it just these little nuggets of really interesting things just inspired me and helped me plough on with the book as well. 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.

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. 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.This is one of Tony's biggest bugbears, who says home-made fertilisers are “a total waste of food or total waste of time. Sometimes it can actually create a negative impact on the plant".