Notes from the nursery
Growing notes, species reviews, thoughts on the craft. Published irregularly, whenever there is something true to say.
The guides
A course, from light to terrariums. They read in order, but each one stands on its own.
- Light: how much they really need, and how to measure it without instruments The number one cause of plants that slowly decline is not water: it is the wrong light. How to work out how much you actually have, with the hand-shadow test, and what each aspect asks for.
- Water: the finger rule, and why more plants drown than go thirsty Almost every plant that dies indoors dies of too much water, not too little. How to water by judgement rather than by calendar, and why drainage matters more than frequency.
- Humidity: the factor that defeats most tropicals in a flat Misting achieves almost nothing. What actually raises humidity around an understorey plant, from grouping plants together to a cabinet, and which species will not do without it.
- Repotting: when it is really needed (rarely) and how not to do harm People repot far more often than necessary, almost always at the wrong moment and into too large a pot. How to tell when a plant is really asking for it, and the right way to avoid breaking roots.
- Pests: spotting and stopping spider mite, mealybug and fungus gnats The three commonest enemies of tropicals indoors, how to recognise them before it is too late, and how to stop them without harsh poisons. Quarantining every new plant is half the work.
- Feeding: little, diluted, and never on a stressed plant Feeding is not about more food, it is about food at the right moment. How much, when, and what happens if you overdo it: burnt tips are almost always too much fertiliser, not too little.
- Winter: keeping tropicals alive in a heated home In winter the radiators drop humidity to 30% and the light halves. The season when most plants are lost: how to walk them into rest instead of forcing them to grow.
- Leaves talk: reading yellowing, dry tips and spots A leaf changing colour is a diagnosis, if you can read it. Overall yellow, brown tips, soft or dry spots: what each signal says and how to respond before it spreads.
- Choosing plants for a terrarium: which ones cope and which do not A closed terrarium is an environment that never changes: 90% humidity, still air, light filtered through glass, and space that does not grow. Which species genuinely thrive in it, which die slowly, and why Alocasias do not belong there.
From the nursery
What arrived, what died, what it cost. In order of time.
- Settling in: the first 10 days of a plant that has travelled The new Sonerila and Begonia arrive on Monday. What to do and — above all — what NOT to do in the first ten days: no repotting, no fertiliser, just steady humidity and indirect light.
- My substrate recipes, plant by plant Sphagnum, perlite, bark, biochar, coco chips. For Sonerila/Sarcopyramis: 50/30/10/10. For Alocasia: 25/25/20/15/10/5. For Begonia: 40/30/20/10. Every formula I use at the nursery.
- Sonerila Glowing Lines: is it worth €65? The tiny melastomes with iridescent veins are winning over terrarium keepers. They are expensive and they are delicate. An honest look at when they are worth it.
- Five baby plants: what just arrived at the nursery Alocasia Black Velvet Pink Albo, Frydek Variegata, Infernalis, Begonia Rex Fireworks, Monstera Thai Constellation. Five young plants to settle in: what I expect from each, and which ones worry me most.
- A nursery in 80x37 cm: how I built it A closed cabinet, four LED bars and a timer. How I turned a living-room unit into a home nursery for 15+ mother plants, and what I would do differently.
- Manifesto: why I am starting Florilegio Three mother plants (Philodendron Micans, Begonia Maculata, Pilea Moon Valley), a six-month plan, and the idea of a small nursery that documents everything. Break-even expected in month 6–10.