Not Another Jungle: Comprehensive Care for Extraordinary Houseplants

Product Information

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. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, you are the hardest working man in the house plant world I don't know how you do it. How you've written a book and opened a shop and done an amazing, you know, amazing amount of social media. When do you sleep? It makes me tired just thinking about it. So I salute you for that. And I think it's, but it's this book is a really great addition to the sort of array of different houseplant books out there because it does do something different. I love the photographs. Now you are a photographer, but you didn't do the photography for this book yourself. Why was that because it was just another thing to do?

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 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". 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. 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? 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.

Map

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? I'm looking at 90 plus percent humidity here on the care information, I'm thinking, yeah, that's going to be a challenge. 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. 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. 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.

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.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. The Ledge End tier gives you access to two extra episodes a month, known as An Extra Leaf, as well as ad-free versions of the main podcast on weeks where there’s a paid advertising spot, and access to occasional patron-only Zoom sessions.