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for listening and supporting us in any way that works for you. And we're
live. This is Plant Datty Podcast. I'm Matthew and I'm Stephen. Well
Happy July everyone, and welcome to the season three finale of Plant Dabty Podcast.
Congratulations Stephen. Who'd have thought that we would still be doing this three
years after we first began this show. Yeah, no one currently present in
this video call. Certainly thanks again to everyone listening, both new people and
our oldest, longest suffering listeners. How do you do it? I know
I always feel bad for people who mentioned that they listened to us on road
trips, like you want to listen to that much of our voices and gentle
bickering. I get sick of our own voices when I edit. So wow,
we are flattered. Anyways, we recently got the awesome opportunity to host
a live fundraising event for the Volunteer Park Conservatory, one of our favorite places
in Seattle during Pride Month. Yeah, and we were joined by Emily Alsop,
who was our guest in our recent episode on air Plants. So we
basically just chatted about what plant parenthood and the house plant hobby means to us,
and then we had a really fun time answering a bunch of plant questions
from attendees. And as we're thinking about the next season and how we might
tinker with episode formats, we thought we'd try to have more episodes dedicated to
listener questions. So today we have three of our favorites from the live event.
Matthew start us off. Yeah, so this is one that of a
s thoughts on how do you feel about rare plants, plant options and growers
like home depot and lows and how they impact the market. Yeah, and
I think we've touched on this here and there before in the show. Yeah,
I would say that I accept and or respect all parts of this ecosystem,
like for anyone not in the US home depot and lows mentioned in the
question are big box hardware and like home good stores that have plant selections usually
like it's not their focus as a store, but those sections are bigger than
many plant stores just because those stores are so large themselves. Yeah, but
that doesn't mean that their selection is as deep or perhaps as interesting as the
smaller specialty shops actual dedicated planners raise or the online space, but it is
where a lot of us start buying plants to try out and grow for the
first time. Right. So we've said this before, but we both believe
that more plant buying options and more price points makes it more excessive for everyone,
which is what the hobby is and should be about. Personally, I
shop at dedicated plant stores almost exclusively because I tend to like their selections better
my own budget allows it, and I would urge others to do that if
they can, But I don't judge anyone who prefers to shop elsewhere or needs
to, and frankly, I'm jealous when people find amazing plants at those places,
which seems to happen like every day if YouTube is to be believed.
Yeah, and social media in general, I feel like I live by the
worst lows and home depots for the class selection. Yeah, yeah, I
don't know what's going on, but yeah, Stephen Myer in agreement here.
I recognize that supporting large corporations has its faults, and like, if you
dig into the political side of things, there's a lot of feelings on it.
But I also think that it's frankly classist and elitist to not recognize the
value of being able to shop for accessible plants that are both interesting and desirable
and heel to different tastes within the plant community, and also plants to thrive
in a variety of growing conditions. I don't really love the part of the
boom in houseplant interest over the recent years that has effectively priced some plant parents
out of areas of the hobby that used to be more accessible, just because
more people have jumped on the bandwagon, and not all cities have amazing access
to small quality plant shops like we do here. Yeah, I mean,
I pretty much agree right acknowledging that it's important for smaller specialty stores to kind
of make their valid pitches too, which are totally valid, Like, there's
a lot of great reasons to shop there anyway quote rare plants like this,
I think they kind of add something to the community too, if I may
be so bold, Like they add to the hobby by being the topic of
exciting, polarizing conversations, and they're kind of the fodder for the plant stories
that we like to tell, right, Yeah, you know, we found
an amazing deal on something, or we remember when these were cheap and you
know, or when they were expensive and we heard like that somebody bought a
single rotten looking node for a crazy price and like all of that. Okay,
And I'm not saying like therefore this is great, but I mean there
are some downstream like benefits I think that we all kind of lean into.
Sometimes it's kind of the spice or something. Yeah, And I think that
when it comes to what, you know, quote a rare plant is like
what do you mean when you say rare? Because like, there's status plants,
there's these covetable plants that just don't have a lot of supply on the
market. And the cool plus side to this, in my mind, is
that it generates interest and just like you're saying, it give us people stuff
to talk about. They get really excited because they happen to find like a
good deal on something, or they happened to grow up a tiny little nubbin
that they propagated. I think that that enthusiasm is really great, but there's
a lot of people who honestly are probably a lot more into plants than either
of us, even on you know, Facebook plant groups, or like this
is not actually a rare plant. It's like it's not an actually rare thing
on this earth because there are a few of them. It's rare like diamonds
are rare because like Deber's controls the entire inventory of them and dules them out
to control what the price strategy is for them. So like, yes,
you know, quote rare plants. I always like question when I use the
hashtag rare plant, you know tags on social media, like this is not
rare? Yeah yeah, And I mean, yeah, that's important to remember.
We also both have friends who grow actually rare plants that are very inexpensive
to buy because there's not the interest in them. But they are truly indeed
rare, which is interesting to think about, right, Or it's kind of
like, hey, there's this is a rare thing. We just kind of
are spreading this around so there are more, you know, kind of copies
of it in case something happens like that's I mean, I'm not involved in
that in any like critical way, but in little ways here and there,
it's kind of cool to participate. I'm not being critical. It's just I
think there's a place for these where plants, and it's interesting. Yeah,
and I'll just kind of throw in like my own experience here. I'm honestly
thankful that my own taste in plants is like off center enough that I don't
really get swept up in very many competitive plant auctions, for example, for
like variegated things or something right seems stressful, maybe exciting. I mean,
you've told me some stories about your you know, dressina at the dinner table
when the auction is closing. Seldom has my adrenaline pumped that part. Okay,
Yeah, and I guess I don't judge again, anybody involved in that
on either end of that transaction, you know, within reason, I will
joke, Okay, I think it's outlandish. Yeah, And I you know,
didn't actually even think that I really participated in plant auctions in the sense
that was meant here until you pointed out, like, oh yeah, I
remember that time because I do use eBay and Etsy. Etsy doesn't have options,
but eBay does. I never do the options that actual like plant companies
do independently. I think that that it's just beyond the price points that I'm
going to pay for something, and it's often for plants that I don't value
to that level. But every now and then, you know, I will
bid on a plant on eBay and I try to not pay more than I
have to, but sometimes it is something that I'm like, I definitely want
this because I understand how capitalism works and how prices work for consumer or luxury
goods, like it's demand and supply, and what people are willing to pay
is what is what you can charge for them. And in many ways plants
are luxury goods. We don't really need them. They are ornamental, they're
decorative. This is a status kind of hobby, like it's you know,
they're basically something that we do for fun, and it kind of demonstrates that
we have the time and money to waste on aesthetics and so on. So
if wholesaler is selling plant X for ten dollars, and then a retailer who
buys them turns around, divides those into four individual pots, and then sells
each of them for fifty dollars. To me, that's just exploitation of demand,
and it makes me uncomfortable because, like it is now making a plant
that you don't have to charge that much money for to make an actual profit,
and then put takes it out of the hands of somebody who really can
truly afford it. Okay, yeah, and I mean what I'm hearing,
you're kind of agreeing with everyone a little bit. Well, because right,
yeah, it's a luxury good. But also I don't want people, you
know, doing that buy and shop and prop Okay, you're just acknowledging all
of the feelings, which I support. I definitely shop for plants at places
that I know, like I am paying the value of this plant, not
for the demand of this plant. Like there are plants that I think if
you want to spend that much money, go for it. Absolutely, that's
your choice and your dollar. But to me, like that plant is not
worth this or you know, something like that. But I respect the whole
ecosystem. I'm a Gemini. I live in shades of gray. Like I
understand all sides of this. But with that said, I also think that
plenty of people treat themselves to like little luxuries from time to time that are
a form of self care. And this might be like a nice handbag of
vacation and nice car lubatons, you know, Like that's how I feel when
I occasionally caramel marbles. Okay, I mean, okay, I love that
plant. That plant is gorgeous. Yeah, but that is how I feel
when I do decide to occasionally drop three figures on a specific plant. I
very rarely do that, but when I do, I recognize, like,
this is what the market is demanding of this plant, and it is something
that I want. But the funny thing is that a lot of times,
after I have grown some of these plants for a little while, I realize
they really don't have to be this price. Like they are oftentimes fairly easy
to grow, fairly easy to propagate. The ones that I like the best
are good house plants. They're not like fussy things that need greenhouses or terrarius
to be successful. And let's just acknowledge, Matthew, this is your cycle
that you go through when you answer this question. Okay, it totally is,
yeah, Like, oh, you know what, everything's fair, and
I don't like when people chop it up. But you know what, sometimes
I'm going to treat myself in I just think that it's important to recognize this
is Matthew's self soothing routine. Okay, here we get to witness there's a
whole ecosystem here. Yeah, these are just all of my thoughts. What
I do have one of these plants though that I spent like more money than
I probably needed to on something that I definitely value and appreciate and I think
is a good house plant. I love to drop and propagate those two gift
them to my friends because then it's like, I know that you are going
to appreciate the hoy eclist topila or the Florida Ghost or the Clariner vum,
all of these plants that they're like fakeware, like diamond rare. I like
be able to share them with people when I know that they're going to appreciate
what it is and I don't want them to have to spend the money on
it now. Just like you, I do personally do as much of my
plant shopping as I can at local specialty shops, and then after that I'll
prioritize local owned nurseries, and then if I still can't get what I actually
am looking to buy, then I'll go support small business owners who aren't local
on like Etsy or eBay. And you know, while I can't afford to
sometimes pay a bit of the premium that comes with the quality that a lot
of these places sell, I also recognize that sometimes, like I was just
saying, there is no need for me to spend this much money on this
plant here because it's in mass production and I can buy it for a fraction
of that price at a box store and the quality is exactly the same because
it's from the same wholesaler. And so, to be honest, I'm very
glad to see recently consistently across all the places that I shop at that sell
plants from hardware stores, these like specialty plant boutiques that we love. Selection
is really amazing these days, and there are so many plants. Yeah,
it's getting more You're right, it's getting more and more accessible kind of at
more price points, more places, so that I think that's good. Yeah,
more plants are becoming more accessible to more people, and I think that's
perfect because this hobby shouldn't be gate capped based on access of status plants with
the supposed rarity of the plants that you're growing. Yeah, okay, Mike
Drop, I'll put up my soapbox. I'm done. Okay, you've said
all the things, okay, And the last thing I'll add, I guess
is that you said three figures on a plant. I still haven't done that.
I've spent eighty okay, for sure, like eighty dollars, but that's
I think. After that, I'm just like, oh, gosh, I'd
better know how to grow this perfectly, or i'd better love this one,
you know what I mean. Maybe I just haven't encountered anything like that.
Yeah, TikTok, Yeah, I wonder if it's ghosh. But I think
that the most expensive plant that I bought was like a small fruit tree that
didn't do well because it's a subtropical thing. It's a tree that's already different
to me. It's already kind of different, like you're probably competing against landscaping
people, you know, I mean. And it was also like one hundred
and fifty dollars. I think that's the most expensive plant that I've ever bought.
Like, okay, a hundred dollars is like the max of what all
spend. Yeah, well whatever that means. Okay, yeah, yeah,
all right, cutter losses. What's next? Yeah, So I've got a
question that is like specifically for you. I have like a very small thought
on this, but I'm pretty sure that you're already going to say what I
have in mind. Okay, how do you feel about growing succulents in tiny
pebble substrate as opposed to a succulent soil blend? Oh okay, yeah,
so we answered this one at the live show. This was an interesting one.
I will caution that I've done research here. I've tried this to a
degree, but I've never done all mineral or all tiny pebble. And just
for the sake of the question, I assume this means like all per light
or pummis versus like all decorative river rock or something. Just to clarify the
question. I mean, it might even be like small gravel like yeah,
yeah, they didn't define, right. So the most interesting thing I've learned
here is that growers often don't rinse their pummis or per light when they grow
this way, so they keep the fine particular that you can rinse off like
when you mix up other soils, typically including our succulent soil recipe that I
use and that we've shared on the show. So I'll just say that to
start off. But generally, I think this is a great way to grow
succulents that can handle intense drying, which is many of them, and for
people who can or like to water more often, which is many people.
All mineral soil like this will dry out quickly enough that plants will be fine
getting more water. That's a great way to do it if you want faster
growth too, as you'll be able to water more, fertilize more often without
the worry of root rod from water sitting against roots in substrate that won't dry.
Yeah, because they're perfectly happy to actually have consistent moisture if they have
the airiness that allows them to not stagnate, right yeah. Or I would
say consistent watering not really consistent moisture, right, like watering that rushes by
the roots that then dry. Yeah. But if you want to water your
plant regularly per light might not be bone dry between your watering cycles. Is
that kind of how they do that? I mean, yeah, depending on
conditions, right. So I think the idea is when you get that organic
matter in there, that's the part that retains the moisture, not really the
per light, right, So if you have all per light, well then
it's there's going to be a little bit left in there, but it's gonna
dry much more quickly because it won't like retain it the same way anyway.
So yeah, if you like what you're hearing, you know, should you
repot all of your succulents like tomorrow? I mean, I would just recommend
asking around looking for examples of accounts of people have tried this for the particular
species you have first, especially if it's one you want to be careful with.
I know some plants that are considered succulents that probably wouldn't like it for
much, like succulent Oxalis species that often need a bit more organic material in
the soil just to be happy and not stop and start a dormancy cycle every
week, which I have experienced, and the epiphytic cacti rip salasphym. Yeah,
and like, there are other variations of this approach too, of course,
Like I swear I only see people who do this with perlite online,
but I know a local grower who uses one hundred percent pomise only that to
me, it seems like very heavy, but it must work. I mean,
he has great plants. So you know, long story long, I
guess I'm saying, go for it. Proceed with some caution. Your mileage
may vary, but yeah, I mean it's totally valid. Okay, okay.
Is this something that you would try, Matthew. I feel like you're
somebody who always likes to add a little bit more organic material or a little
bit more sort of nutritious something in your recipes for soil. And that's largely
because I have so many plants that my watering routine just does not really allow
me to water things in the course this most gritty substrates. Often. I
know, like I noticed that a lot of my plants get fairly dehydrated if
I don't get a little bit more moisture retention into them. My default to
porous clay pots. I put a little bit more potting soil in these mixes
just because it works for me. So I think that that's what I would
answer. If you are someone who rots through succulents, if you are somebody
who wants to be watering them a lot, you're going the opposite direction that
I am, because like I am really light handed with my watering can when
it comes to plants that want to dry heavily. So like, if you're
heavy handed, go ahead and try this. I would probably prefer promise myself
because you say heavier, but I'm going to say it's not heavy and texture.
It's like physically heavier that's in per light. Yeah. Yeah, So
like if you have a huge pot that's going to be kind of rough,
you might want to use a little bit more per light in there, but
you know, go for it. I think that that might work well,
but you're definitely going to have to want to pay attention to your fertilizer schedule.
Now. I have grown some plants in pure rock before, but they
weren't like conventional colloquial succulents like cacti and echavari and those things. Instead,
it was an orchid. It was repickless lalia, and I didn't water it
enough in it's you know, lava rock. Okay, So it wasn't great,
But that is a lithophytic orchid that grows on rock faces. So yeah,
and you know, sometimes we're scarred by those experiences a little bit,
and then we kind of we can gravitate away. I mean I don't know.
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Okay. Next up, we
have a very Matthew centric question, what's a good starter plant if you're looking
to get into flowering plants? I love this one because someone's not into flowering
plants like me, so I feel I mean, I didn't submit this,
but it could have. Yeah, I'm so glad that someone asked this because
I have so many answers. Honestly though, it just depends on what your
light options are and what you want from them, honestly, so I'm going
to do them by like, what are you trying to get out of your
flowering plant? So does that make sense? Okay, go away for me
to do this. I will help try to guide us through this, okay,
I mean, listeners know how this goes. Go for it. Okay.
Yeah. So let's say that you want dramatic flowering impact, like you
want flowers that are impressive in your home, elephant in the room orchids.
But that's obviously kind of a hard sell. They have some of the most
amazing flowers. But yeah, yeah, like it's been a surprisingly hard sell
for us, right since we started this, I think compared to what we
thought going in, Yeah, but yeah, there are some really honestly easy
ones. It's just a little bit different motion than the average house plant,
you know, but like, okay, valid anyway, if you're not an
orchid person, then you're just not interested in the them, it turns out.
So I think if you want something that's like equally tropical looking, it's
hard to beat a hibiscuits, right, Yeah, just with the caveat that
pests are a bit of an issue. They can need a lot of light
indoors, but otherwise easy okay. Yeah, Like I've had great success with
my indoor hibiscus, but I think that the one that I'm really going to
recommend because I believe in that the most are intheriums, like the flowering etheriums.
We grow a lot of them for their foliage because the foliage is great,
but they're not that much harder to grow than many other flowering plants.
I give mine a really chunky, well draining mix that I can keep pretty
wet without the roots rotting kind of the way that we're talking about, Like
you know, pumics helps that, so like a course aeroid mix helps his
intheriums and just give them strong light. I grow mine in east, west
or south windows and they bloom really reliably. Just look at for pests,
like with anything, and like their flowers last forever and they'll come periodically throughout
the year. They're fantastic and come in lots of colors. Yeah, and
I think you know, this would get the non flower person flowering plant stamp
of approval. I think the only like slight cop yeah, is that the
flowers just aren't for everyone. They're kind of you know, they're yeah,
they're flowers, but like they're kind of weird. Yeah. Right, So
but if you like them, totally agree. Some people think that they look
like, you know, plastic, Yeah, yeah, but you know,
I'm just talking about like dramatic flower impact. But if you're looking for consistent
blooms, I don't think you need to look any further than the Jisnariads.
Zero disagreement there. Yeah, they're honestly far more popular in countries that are
not the United States from what I have noticed just on social media in general.
We've talked about the lipstick vine, which is the ash cananthus they're really
really great. Yeah, there are the Vietnamese violets that I've been growing that
I really enjoy, obviously the African violets. I think that these basically across
the board tends to be really reliable blooming plants. They come in tons of
different flavors like vines and bushy plants and crown forming rosettes. Like the flowers
are really diverse. The flowers come in so many colors, they're often in
very high number regularly throughout the year, and I think that we really deserve
to give ourselves the treat of revising in our collective minds that just nariads are
grandmother plants. Yeah, honestly, this would be my answer to this.
I'm just looking around my apartment where, you know, any regular listener would
know that there is no bloom boosting formulas happening here. Really, I'm not
really you know, I guess or Chi's aside trying to get anything to bloom.
Ever, I'm kind of just very like free range parent in that way.
And I think most of the just nariads I have currently are in flower.
It's like you cannot keep these down. There is you know, enough
variety that I think for like non traditional flower types of people. There's there's
interest there, right, there's some cool forms, find a color that you
like. There's interesting fully there too. Yeah, super underrated. That's one
of the bigger surprises from this season for me, just kind of how I
think of those now. Yeah, and I think that among the options,
something there will appeal to almost anyone. So yeah, yeah, Now,
if we're talking low light options, plants that don't need fairly high light pitches.
Areas don't. But you know, if we're talking something that's just easy
to stick somewhere and it to flour, I would just go with a basic
grocery storefalinopsis. If you can give them consistent amounts of water and at least
you know, decent light that something will grow. Any plant will grow there,
they'll probably do well. They might bloom sporadically and randomly, But same
story with peace lily. It's just trickier to get plants to perform well in
low light. But Phalonopsis and peace lilies, the spathophylum, yeah, those
are my preferred options. If you really want to get fancy, you can
try like the slipper orchids the pathio pedalum for similar light levels. Those are
what I do in my lowest light spots. I prefer at least like a
north or an east window. But that's that's a good choice. And then
something that I look for in my flowering plant selection though, is fragrance.
I know that this does not resonate with everyone, and I know that it
doesn't resonate with you, Steve. We like hearing about it, Okay,
I'm still kind of like, how many times we talk about it? And
then this will peer on that list and I'm like, oh, right,
that's what we have. That's like a thing that people care about. I
mean, you've heard me say this a ton but Brossbela nidosa is a fantastic
orchid. You treat it like a succulent that just wants to be watered fairly
consistently, and it has an amazing nighttime perfume. I think that a lot
of its primary hybrids are also fantastic, and I honestly think that Little Star,
which is a cross between Nidosa and Brosibela cordata, I think I like
that fragrance the best of all these. I have a bunch of these plants
and it's hard to go wrong. Like they're great obviously, we have to
mention hoya's because I think that they are obviously known for their fragrance. That
is why I grow hoyas at all. Like that was my entry point into
this genus. Each time I hear it, I'm like what. I'm like,
oh wait, he's told me that before. It's just kind of like
not intuitive, Okay, I refuse to retain that. Yes, Yeah,
Now, one common frustration is like it can take a while to get these
to flower, and it can be frustrating to grow a plant just waiting for
the blooms when you really want that. Honestly, that's part of the fun,
that anticipation. It's like being teased by a plant. Yeah, And
honestly, I would say this is kind of valid because hey, if someone's
not a flower person, they might like appreciate the hoya foliage it kind of
the other stuff while they wait. So I think this is a valid entry
anyway. Yeah, Like, I think that there's a lot of value to
this suggestion that I came up with it in making. The varieties that have
bloomed the fastest for me after I have acquired them include Hoya Pakaclata's fagrance is
a little mes it's kind of weak. It's like carnations, but it's it's
nice. And then Numularioides, which you thought was a bit strong. I
thought it was good. It is like a strong yeah, jasmine perfume,
it's a little powdery. Those two bloomed pretty quickly after I got them,
and then not far behind them in terms of the length of time it took
me to get them to flower. Or Hoya obvada, which is a very
strong growing species. It's fragrance is fine. It's not very strong, but
it's kind of spicy rose, like like a tea rose. And then Croniana.
I love the fragrance of Chroniana. It is outstanding. It is sweet,
it's strong, it's complex. It's kind of like narcissus or hyacinth.
It's not musky though. Another thing you've probably told me that I haven't retained
croniana. Okay, right, Oh well, it's fine. I don't expect
you to. It's why this is new for me, Okay, brand new.
It is apparently similar to Lacunosa, which I have also grown, but
I've not had Lakunosa flower. I also think that Hoya matilda bloomed about at
the same rate. That's a cross between serpents and carnosa. I believe the
fragrance was okay. It was kind of like hyacinth, but also like,
I don't know, musty, like, hey, there was something off about
it. It was fine. I'm sure that some people would like it must
yeah, like it wasn't the best. I like some like musky, but
not musty. Okay. I was like, uh yeah, no, Matilda
has a musty. So open minded. Yeah, I know. So hoyas
that took a little longer like years for me. Where Verta Salada it's good,
it's citrusy, it's fine. And then in Crisada, which is the
most recent toya for me to bloom, that was an outstanding fragrance. It
was like lemongrass and ginger. It was fairly strong. So those are all
ones that I like, okay, But so those are the hoyas that I
particularly like the fragrance of you though, have had two that I had given
you cuttings of bloom before I have had them bloom. So that would be
Puba Kaylix and also Macrophilla. Do you have anything to share about what those
smelled like? To you? Oh? Yeah, so Puba kaylics. I
thought was kind of like a toned down version of Numularioides, so kind of
that Jasmini one that I thought was pretty strong, Okay, but yeah,
Pubakalics was. It smelled good like and you could kind of smell it if
you were within a couple feet of the plant. The other one, Macrophila.
That one had a pretty interesting sort of vanilla ish like, sort of
subtle, spicy, kind of candily smell. That really surprised me, And
honestly, I thought like it was going to bloom and the flowers that was
going to fall off because it's it was like planted recently. It was in
a weird situation in this window. I wasn't sure how it was going.
But yeah, that one was remarkable. That did give me a little bit
more interested, I will grudgingly admit in Hoya floral sense and other ones you
mentioned in Crisoda, because I've heard of these sort of lemon grass you smells.
I'm just kind of curious to smell it. I hear that what is
it linearis has like a citrus kind of smell, and I'm curious for that
one. It will, you know, if and when I can never get
it to bloom anyway. Well, I'll have to give you a cutting of
chrysada so that you can see if you can get yours to flowers sooner.
Then it took me. I definitely was getting lemon grass instead of general citrus.
Like there's some that smells lemonade. This was like the lemon grass fragrance.
It was really nice. Okay, I am. They're just surprised that
Macrophila had a good fragrance. I never expected that that plant would be one
because I've never seen it mentioned in that way. I'm curious to see what
mine smells like. Yeah, maybe we have like a special version, okay,
a special cultivar. Probably not. Maybe, sure, at least we
have clones of the exact same one. Okay, yeah, okay. Then
the very last regomendation that I'm going to make for fragrance and indeed flowering plants
at all. This is a hilarious choice, I think, because if you've
ever seen this plant, you know that the flowers are absolutely nothing to look
at. It's called the Chinese perfume plant often in cultivation, but it's Aglia
odorata and it's actually a plant in the mahogany family. Of all things.
I don't think we've ever talked about a mahogany family plant. And the flowers
are little yellow balls, like they're very very small. They're smaller than the
head of a pin, and they don't open their petals, so they kind
of give me like a Stefania erecta flower vibes a little bit, is that?
Yeah, close kind of a bit. It's it's sort of like the
tiniest clusters of grapes, like clusters of the tiny scrapes, like tons of
these very small yellow balls. The flowers are so bland there is nothing worth
looking at them about. And the plant itself kind of looks like a boxwood.
It has small, glossy kind of pinate leaves, I think, but
the fragrance that it puts out is so much like it is such a fragrant
plant. And I got one last fall, and it's been growing in my
office and it blooms fairly consistently for me, and it gets quite large,
like pretty quickly, like it's at least three times the size, and every
time that it flowers there are more of these pathetic sab little buds on them.
But it just makes my office smells so clean and fresh. It's a
little citrusy, it's a little sweet, but it's not cloying. Like I
think that this is a scent that most people would like. It is really
appealing and outstanding, and it's not super heavy. It's just pleasant. Okay.
So yeah, Chinese perfume planned. That's you know, that's plenty for
people to chew on there. Absolutely. I will just say you've mentioned a
lot of flowering options here for many of us, including plant people. You
know, you just get a diffuser, Matthew. Okay, so I will
include a link to my favorite diffuser for anyone who doesn't want to do this.
That is not meant to sound as terrible as I kind of think it
just sounded. But hey, you know we're here getting people options. I
do have one of those little like ultrasonic humidity missed things for you know,
all of the essential oils like, yeah, eucalyptus and lemon, grass and
peppermint and lavender. Yeah, it's fine. That was such a nice response,
Matthew. Thank you. Okay, I can tell you you've endured me
so long you can roll with it now. It's okay. It's like,
if you want the scent of cedar. You could use a cedar essential oil,
like the woodsy scents are hard to get in your housewind that's what I
have. Yeah, that's what I have. Yeah, yeah, no,
I get it. I also love the scent of juniper, but you know,
I'm not going to grow juniper indoors totally. Okay, So some of
these that you mentioned, they were a bit demanding, Some are not very
easy to find, some require space. What about these super super available ones
like I will mention one that you've told me you don't really like. What
about like flowering caln cooies that you see at a flora shop or something.
What about the other ones that you pass like at the grocery store, you
know, phalinopsis orchids. Aside, there are some like big colorful flowering plants
like that. Yeah, and oftentimes these plants include like little miniature potted roses
or cyclements or you know azaleas, gabara daisies these florists callan cooey. The
thing that I think kind of makes all of these this united group is that
they are really not going to thrive as house plants. Like a lot of
these are just expected to live long enough for the blooms to be enjoyed,
and then they're just gonna go gradually downhill. A lot of these might want
specific temperatures that you can't provide indoors, like cyclemen. They might want pretty
good levels of light that you can't give them indoors, like roses. They
might actually be plants that don't live long, like gabara daisies. Like,
there's a lot of things that I think you can buy as a potted flowering
plant that is just intended to replace a bouquet, and so there are some
really good choices among these. I would say that the Phalonopsis kind of fit
into this because you can grow those well for quite a while, Like most
orchids are going to fall into this category. But I think that of these
plants that I've suggested, the florist therium is probably the most approachable that you're
going to find in that group. I think that you're just going to be
disappointed by a lot of the other ones. So like orchids and enttheriums are
kind of the ones that I would stick to if you want to do like
the florist plants. All right. That said, the ones that I have
just suggested that are less commonly seen as these. They are all plants that
I have grown successfully indoors without very much trouble, and they performed well from
a long term as a house plant. Like I'm not making suggestions that I
think are going to be, you know, a throw way option, and
I think that they have a peal beyond just their flowers, so that you
can enjoy growing something even if it might take a year or two to see
blooms again, even though that's not you know, ideal. However, you
did make me think about one super easy plant that you do find in miler
that I haven't mentioned. Okay, crown of Thorns. We did a whole
episode about those. It is so worth mentioning because they are easy to find,
they're fairly inexpensive, they're undemanding, they come in a lot of different
flower colors, and there's different sizes of the flowers. I have three of
these and they just live in a south window where I mostly ignore them.
And between these plants, one of them is always in bloom every day of
the year, and the other two are getting to a point where there are
fewer and fewer days a year that they don't have flowers. On them.
I think they're amazing. So if you do find one of those, that's
a really good option, and just give it really strong light and don't water
it too much. All Right, I think we've talked about every possible option
for flower plants. We didn't talk about plume aria. Okay, Yeah,
we left out a couple species, but that should give people plenty to chew
over. Okay, now some final quick questions looking back, what are your
personal highlights from this season roughly the last year of podcasts. Okay, so,
first favorite thing you learned? Honestly, everything that I learned about will
Witchie was amazing. I have known about that plant, I have been aware
of it, but it really gave me an opportunity to dig into something that
I wouldn't have normally, Like, I wouldn't have just sat down to research
that plant on my own under normal circumstances. So it was really cool to
take the time to do that, and I was so fascinated by it.
It was really cool just kind of reading about cone plants being seed bearers that
aren't flowering plants, and you're gonna laugh at me. I think I might
get one at some point. It was even a varrigated one like me from
the very beginning of our show would be astonished that I'm saying like I might
get a well witch yet and the verrigated one is cool, all right,
we've worn each other down. That sounded worse than I meant it. I
was just like, oh, no, we have we have well. I'm
doing fragrance now a little bit, and you're doing well witch. Yea god,
Okay, you're like just Mary, hats are fabulous. I did say
that, who are we? Okay? Anyway? For me, I think
it was from our Crowton episode, that interview with Mark Peters. Just the
concept of keeping some plants alive indoors for five years, like that is an
accomplishment that we should feel proud of. Yeah, I mean it sounds so
simple, but I just tend to think of house plant care is like they
should live forever and if they fail once, you should feel bad. And
I mean it wasn't that literal, but that was sort of like lurking unconsciously
people to not feel that way. I know, but I mean it's different.
Okay, do as I say, all right, as I do?
Right right? Yeah? Okay, next question, favorite topic we covered honestly
it's all the way I coverage that we did. I mentioned that this is
a group of plants that I just did not care about a decade ago,
and it has become the most exciting thing, the most exciting new thing in
my plant hobby over the last to five years. So we did it a
few times deliberately, a few times really tangentially, and we talked about specific
species as well as just the genus in kind of like an abstract way.
I love it. I love those plants, and I think it's really fun
to indulge that. Okay, good choice also gave us an excuse to get
new ones, right right. Everything we do here, okay enables us yep,
all right. For me, I would say, it's you know,
it was well Wichia too. I guess this is my favorite topic. You
know, it's a favorite thing you learned. I mean, Shade's a gray
Maybe. I think because we were both into Wellwichi in such different ways,
that was kind of interesting, like we weren't necessarily aware of the fact until
the episode kind of came together and we sat down and talked about it.
Yeah, so that was cool, just how that went. Yeah, Okay,
the episode you're most proud of or think had the biggest impact. Okay,
I think that. Actually we had two episodes that I think are honestly
some of the almost year we go. I'm saying too because I think that
they go well together. It's probably some of the most useful information that we
generated about the whys behind some of the things that we recommend, some of
the choices that we make. And these were the Hoya Potting Mix episode one
twenty eight and how to Choose Pots one thirteen, because it's like learning a
technique that's broadly applicable to a lot of different things instead of like one specific
isolated recipe that you then don't know I would applies elsewhere. Like, I
think that those were really useful episodes that I think people can learn a lot
from in our catalog. Okay, yeah, those are good choices. I
kind of enjoyed those ones too, actually, thinking back, like I sort
of forget do during the year a little bit, right or what we do?
So yeah, yeah, we did have to look at our episode catalog
to be like, what happened this year? Yeah, very much before this
what about you? Though? For me, I think it was the Pigmy
sund episode of all things, Like, I am not fooling myself thinking that
had some massive impact. But I just think for Pigmy Sun Dues, I
wonder if they ever got an episode of anything anywhere, you know what I
mean. Maybe it was Pigmy Sundus first like feature and a podcast. I
don't know. I'd be surprised if in Defensive Plants hadn't. I think they
haven't, which I mean, I'll check in it probably wrong, but I
feel like I may have at least alerted some people to their existence, so
that one. I just like that we kind of featured it. I like
that we hopefully demystified it for some of the people who were probably already interested
in anyway you know how it goes. But yeah, yeah, I like
that one. Okay, cool, and I still need to give them another
try. But I actually have the conditions and the materials to pop them up.
So whenever you have GEMI again, let me know, give me a
little bag of them. All right, Okay, So Stephen, I'm doing
this as a special treat to you because we haven't done one of these in
a while and you were so into them. We're gonna do a throwback lightning
round the thing to end this. Oh it's so sweet. I kind of
forgot about these. Yeah, and you're probably like, good, Really I
really had a phase there. Yeah, I know you did. Okay,
So what was your favorite just general podcast moment for this last year. M
okay, I'm gonna mention the Croton episode again. I think it's when my
mind changed about Croton's Like I don't have a bunch now, but I feel
like I finally get them, like they're misunderstood. How about you? You
know, I was gonna say that interview because again I went in like I
hate growing, They're the worst house plants, and Mark Peters really made me
think, like I do respect these though these are cool. Yeah, I
still don't have any, but whatever. What I'm going to say though,
was that time that Maria really blew your mind. I think it was the
first episode that we did of twenty twenty two back in January where you were
just like, wow, I'm thinking about mindfulness, Like, yeah, you
were so shock. It was so cute. I kind of was like I
just went into it and then I was like, wait, where am I
in this like you know question outline that we had. Yeah, it was
good. Okay, What is the worst plant that you grew this year?
Podcast related it can beat any plant that you grew. What is the worst
plant that was in your home this year? I hate to dump on it
again, mandarin plant. Sorry, okay, it's I'm gonna rehome it soon.
Yeah, rehome it to the compost team. No, no, no
to them. Okay, how about you. It's a tie between either the
heart leaf fern or the digit fern, or maybe the beefsteak bagonia. These
plants hate me, and I am not far behind on that feeling towards that
he Alright, okay, what is the best plant that you grew this year?
Gosh, just headed out all the hesitation. Okay, yeah, this
lightning is oh not awake. I'm going to really surprise you, Matthew,
and maybe with this answer. Okay, I think it's gonna be Hoya imbricada.
Oh my god. Okay, I have not talked about it. It
is sitting in like this little sort of prop box esque chamber, and I
should have found a situation for it so long ago, but it keeps growing
and kind of giving me chances. I'm going to move it soon. I'm
so impressed by kind of how delicate and hardy this is. That makes no
sense anyway. I'm I'm going to repot this soon and I kind of can't
wait. It's like, I'm really excited about it right now, can't wait
to kind of see what it does in this new like wow, big glassware
that I got for it. Okay, how about you, I'd say,
Hoya croniana because that makes sense. You have been talking about that so much.
It grew so much, and now it has flowered a couple of times
on a lot of peduncles. I put very little effort in. I feel
like it's not in very good light. It's just kind of on a bookshelf
with a lamp focused at it. And the fragrance is amazing. That plant
is stunning. I love it. I now have another one because I was
like, this is a more silvery colored leaf, So we'll see how this
one does. Cool. But yeah, now, what about a plant that
we specifically gave an episode two that you recommend the least. Okay, listen,
you know what people have to have moonshots. I'm glad it worked for
you. Indoor pineapple. I mean, come on, that was a success
for me. It's a beautiful story. Okay, but like, really,
it's not really a houseplant. It's like home agriculture. Yea, and my
niece loved it. It was one of the first solid foods. Cheek gums,
how about you. Honestly, I hate to just continue shitting on croton,
but like, they're not houseplants. Patrick kind of is, but like,
good luck with that. I hope you like Mikes. However, paper
whites. I think that I have this very nostalgic, kind of romanticized notion
of what a paper white is, and this year made me recognize I am
really overrating these plants and they are not doing the thing that I think that
they do. Yeah, that's valid. Both of those are valid. Yeah.
Now, on the flip side, what is the most underrated plant in
your mind that we covered this year? Lipstick plants? Like I had those
behind the couch for a long time. Okay, if you listen to previous
seasons, I just put them in normal places. They perform so well that
they just kind of won me over. I mean, if you find one
you like, do it. How about you? Oh, I was going
to say lipstick plant too. I think that they are outstanding and I love
mine. But since you already took that answer. I'm going to say asparagus
fern. I know I have like five different varieties when I had zero of
them. Wow, I had one of them when we do that episode.
I love them. They are surprisingly great. Okay, okay, is there
anything that you just take back from this year's catalog or thoughts that you had
anything at all? I mean, I'm gonna be bold, not really,
I mean depending on what your answer is, and maybe I'll like jump on
it or think of something. But you believe in everything that we did,
yeah, I mean to the extent of the claims that we made, you
know, And I'm usually pretty careful and like, well, you know,
maybe if maybe that's why Yeah bought you that is true. You always make
me like couch my answers so that there's like room for interpretation. If I'm
suddenly like I'm being too definitive, Yeah, I would just take back the
paper white episode. I don't think paper whites or houseplants. I just we
didn't need to do that. I think that we had an idea in or
a head of what that episode would be that yeah, yeah, So I
guess that leads me to my final one. Do you wish that we'd done
a specific episode differently, I'm gonna piggyback right on that paper, Whites.
I mean, I don't I don't know if I fully take it back.
I think our intentions were good. We kind of half prepared for it,
thinking like, oh, you know, you just put it in here with
any old ones and it'll work. And we didn't have like the experiences to
share that I hoped we would. Okay, I am going to say that
I deliberately made sure that we had the common experience. Okay, that's valid.
Like we approached that the way that you might just approach that if you
were on a whim. I didn't buy the best quality bulbs, but I
buy bulbs the people buy. Like, we didn't try to shoot ourselves in
the foot. Yeah, that said too. I kind of had fun with
the bulbs forcing honestly, so I might do it again, how about you?
You know, honestly our holiday plant swap that was kind of a kind
of a flop, Like we both had the plants that we ought for each
other, and I wish that I had really put the time in, Like
there's actually some plants that I know about now that I don't know if you
know about that. I can't find them for sale in the United State dates,
And if I was really going to prepare for that, I would have
gone far more esoteric and ordered something from Thailand. Like there are several plants
right now that I keep looking for because they are so weird. I went
down to Pinterest rabbit hole. So anyway, but I think that the episode
that I would want to do differently, or at least research differently, were
lipstick plants, because the huge lament that I had was like, why is
the information available online about these so poor? I feel like we had so
many questions and I was so frustrated with how little I could find that was
good information. I found all of that good information later, like the week
that that episode was published. I found all the answers to all of my
questions, but they were on like websites that don't come up in search results
very well, like you have to really find them. So it's a failing
of Google, it's a failing of my research. It's a failing of search
engine optimization. But like that episode could have been different because I could have
been like, here are the answers instead of why are their questions. You
know what I mean? Valid? Yeah, yeah, okay, okay,
Well that little lightning round was fun. Thank you. Yeah, I'm glad
that we had that. Okay. In this week's after show, we discuss
what we're looking forward to most over our summertime off, plant related and otherwise.
All right, So if extra banter like this sounds appealing, just edward
to patreon dot com slash plant Dabty Podcast and check out our official patron level
to hear the after show. All right, anything else, No, I
think that's it, But we just really want to thank all of you for
listening and supporting Plant Duty Podcast as we wrap up season three here. This
has been a really fun journey for us, and we wouldn't be doing it
this long if it weren't for just this amazing online community that has made it
worthwhile and fun and rewarding. Thank you. Yes, I second that we're
going to take a slightly longer hiatus than usual, you know usual, being
like it's only happened twice, I guess, but it's like two weeks in
the past. Yeah. Yeah, we will be back in August. For
those of you who support us on Patreon, we've paused July pledges, and
we may do that for August two if we don't have a bonus to release
or start up again early enough in the month. Thanks again for your support.
Yep okay, this has been plant Eddie Podcast. Thanks for listening.
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