Jane: Not stretch marks. It almost doesn't look real. I can't explain it very well. It almost looks like car upholstery on a leather upholstered car. 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. 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. Tony: Strangely, all of the Monstera adansonii are very unstable in their variegation. They either go all green, or white, or stop variegation. 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.

Jane: My eyes are light meters. This is the way I think about it. I can tell from just looking at something, what's going on. I will get it out occasionally, just to prove something. I find that it's just a visual thing, as opposed to anything else. I want to know about your love of Aroids. Orchids were a previous obsession, but now it's Aroids. What is it that draws you in? Is there something about the thrill of the rarity that's making you, like, "I've got this plant that no one else has got, mwahaha!"? 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. For anyone looking for a beginner-friendly but extensive guide on houseplant care, this is a fantastic book for getting started. I could feel that this wasn’t just a wikipedia extract but really the author’s years of experience caring for multiple types of plants (be it indoor, outdoor, common or rare) all summarized into one book with beautiful photos proving that he knows what he is talking about.Want to make a regular donation? Join the On The Ledge community on Patreon! Whether you can only spare a dollar or a pound, or want to make a bigger commitment, there’s something for you: see all the tiers and sign up for Patreon here. Jane: Was there any point in that process where you sort of stopped yourself and thought, "What am I doing here?" or did you just let yourself run wild? 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. Ah there you go now those are the top tips. I mean, this is illustrative of the fact that, you know, an easy plant for one person will be a super hard plant for another person. And, you know, I guess this is part of your work with a book and also the shop is when somebody comes in trying to elicit from them well, you know, what is your house like? Because, you know, even within the UK, there's so many different kinds of types of houses and conditions. When you have somebody coming into the shop, or when you're guiding somebody through the process of buying plants. You know, do you find that, presumably, that's a fun thing to do for you, because you can... Jane: We could spend another hour talking about your beautiful vegetable patch and beautiful garden. This is like something at Hampton Court or something! When are you coming to Hampton Court or Chelsea to design? Come on! Am I getting an exclusive here?

Jane: No shade here, but, yes, that does need repotting! That's taller than me and the size of that pot... but I dread doing that because that's a stressful thing. I give myself a hernia trying to get them out of the pot and it's stressful.Tony: Yes. There was a waiting list when I first got it. The first batch that went out were ten that went out all over the world and this is the second batch of them. Jane: There's something about the leaves on this and also the large Alocasias. It almost looks like it's stretched. Do you know what I mean?