On HGTV Obsessed this week, we go international with voices from across the pond. Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen chats with our host, Marianne Canada, all about his show My Lottery Dream Home: International. He talks about his mission to rid Britain of beige and having his own varietal of rose (which he named 'Frilly Cuff'). Laurence shares the major differences between American and European lottery winners including the different ways they choose to upgrade their homes. He talks about why people are often afraid to be bold with their design choices and explains the relationship between hemlines and trends before giving his thoughts on Grand Millennial style. Then, veteran gardening expert and On the Ledge podcast host Jane Perrone (an expat herself) shares how and when to transport your plants with you, and the best way to care for stressed plants.
On HGTV Obsessed this week, we go international with voices from across the pond. Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen chats with our host, Marianne Canada, all about his show My Lottery Dream Home: International. He talks about his mission to rid Britain of beige and having his own varietal of rose (which he named 'Frilly Cuff'). Laurence shares the major differences between American and European lottery winners including the different ways they choose to upgrade their homes. He talks about why people are often afraid to be bold with their design choices and explains the relationship between hemlines and trends before giving his thoughts on Grand Millennial style. Then, veteran gardening expert and On the Ledge podcast host Jane Perrone (an expat herself) shares how and when to transport your plants with you, and the best way to care for stressed plants.
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Find episode transcript here: https://hgtv-obsessed.simplecast.com/episodes/winning-the-taste-lottery-with-laurence-llewelyn-bowen-caring-for-stressed-plants-with-jane-perrone
MARIANNE CANADA: Hi, everyone and welcome to HGTV Obsessed, the weekly podcast about all things HGTV.
Hi, everyone, and welcome to HGTV Obsessed I'm Marianne Canada, executive producer and lifestyle expert for hgtv.com. When I'm not watching HGTV, I'm making crafty videos for HGTV Handmade or I'm cooking, gardening, thrifting, and renovating my grandmother's home that I bought two years ago. I basically live the HGTV brand everyday.
I am so excited about today's episode because we're going international. We are hopping over the pond to talk to Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, host of HGTV's My Lottery Dream Home International and also in possession of the most incredible mane of hair. When I tell you that this was a delightful conversation, I'm really understating it. You guys are going to love him.
And after that, we are keeping this international trade moving with a conversation I had with Jane Perrone, host of the On the Ledge podcast. We've got a full English breakfast in podcast form, and you are going to love it. So enough for me. I feel like we have got to kick things off with the divine Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen.
Well, Laurence, welcome to the podcast. How are things across the pond?
LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN: Very, very fine. Things are very much moving in the right direction, and very exciting. We're-- what are we now?-- two more left to film with My Lottery Dream Home. I'm now in the final throes of working out what the hell I'm going to wear for the season finale.
There's something wonderful about spending a lot of time with lucky people, but no, it's been a really wonderful series, and I hope you lot enjoy it. I think you will. I think there's something very quirky about the way that the British win things.
I love the way that your series, the mothership as we like to call it, there's an enormous amount of enthusiasm attached to any kind of win. Literally in Britain, it's like, hoorah. It's like we've got a tiny little cocktail stick with a flag on it and very little embracing.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yes, it's very restrained.
LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN: Very restrained, but I think one of the things that I think people are going to find fascinating is the density of the stories of the winners. We're meeting people who aren't just winning the lottery or who aren't just winning competitions. We've got game show winners, which is fascinating. We have people who've inherited money, which is lovely. We've got some very, very heartwarming stories of parents that have inherited money and then pass the money straight down to children who were in trouble.
And of course, the extraordinary density of the housing stock that you find in Britain I think people are going to really, really, really, really get under the skin of. We can't offer the same scale as you lovely people in America future, as we like to call it, but there's obviously an enormous amount of age to some of the properties. There's a tremendous history, a tremendous story.
And I think one of the things that people are going to like is that there's a real focus on the flexibility, ingenuity, and creativity of the decorating. So in no way will you be seeing the same sort of house again, and again, and again. We've worked very, very hard to show felicitatious lucky winners some really very, very different things.
And also, I always wanted to encourage them to push their own envelopes a bit, so they might have a very rigid idea of the particular beige box that they're after. But I felt very keen that they should see a whole variety of different possibilities, and it's quite fun, actually, I think, just watching their reaction.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yes, it's a delightful show. And speaking of beige boxes, you are the opposite of a beige box in every way. I was really looking forward to see what you were going to be wearing today. You have this bold, memorable look, whether it's your suits, or this incredible mane of hair that you have, or your furnishings and background behind you. How did you land on this signature style? Was it something you worked up to, or did you come out of the womb like this?
LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN: It was a very, very difficult delivery because I came up with all of this several yards of chintz and Victorian whatnot, my poor mother. No, I think the thing is that I have always felt very happy about making it up as I go along and about making me up as I go along.
And I think that that's something that's still relatively unusual in Britain. I think things are changing slightly. I have never felt duty-bound to carry the party line, unless the party line is very pretty, in which case I'm more than happy to embrace it.
But I've always felt very confident that I will be who I will be, and I will just get on with the job that I want to do. And within the constraints of that, within the confines of that, I'm on a constant mission to try and allow other people that same kind of license. I'm not very aesthetically judgy. I like to try and get under the skin of what people are trying to do with what they're trying to do, and help them, assist them.
And there are plenty of people out there that are beige and boxy. If they really do feel that the sum total of all their expressiveness is to be expressed through a beige box, then at it, my friends, at it.
But I do feel that there are a lot of people out there that aren't, and I think that there are a lot of people that are frightened about the idea of being themselves and about going a little bit further. I think we live in a world where people fear bad taste so acutely, and yet they feel that good taste is something that is too unobtainable. So they try and settle for no taste. They try and settle for a neutrality, which is obviously what beige is all about.
But let me put you off beige. As a term, it's Norman French, and it means, very deliberately, the underbelly wool from the sheep, which is perceived as being a bit softer. So do feel free next time you're shopping for things to ask in the shop whether they have it in a shade of underbelly and see how that goes. Of course, inevitably, you've got to wonder why the underbelly of the sheep is that color, and I know why, and it's not pleasant.
MARIANNE CANADA: You're the perfect host for this show, and it's been so fun to watch it. I was watching the episode with the gentleman who bought a scratch off as he was off buying milk. It really seems like these situations are one-in-a-million. Do you play the lottery? Do you think it's worth it?
LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN: Well, I think there are plenty of people out there that would say that I play the lottery with taste. The way that I gamble with good taste is more than enough. My wife plays the lottery, actually. She's very dedicated at it. She's constantly winning one, maybe two pounds, which obviously opens up all sorts of financial possibilities.
But I think obviously, it's something that is very historical. In the United Kingdom, it was something that was brought in by Elizabeth I. So it's not something that is easily dismissed, as far as I'm concerned.
What I am actually very acutely involved in the lottery, a lot of the projects that I'm working on are almost entirely heritage lottery-funded, like the Blackpool museum that I'm working on. I also fronted the lottery advertising campaign. Various of the historical projects that I'm working on a constant basis just take you on a huge manor house in Wales for a charity, and all of the funding from that will be coming from the lottery. So I'm a huge supporter of the concept for sure.
MARIANNE CANADA: There's something so optimistic about buying a lottery ticket. Deep down, there's some part of you that thinks you're going to win.
LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN: Yeah, no, absolutely, I think it puts a bit of a smile on your face. And I think that the fact that it does help so many projects, it does make so many people's lives better, I think it's such an important part of it. It's not like just going to the races and betting on horses. It does feel as if there's something very creative to it.
MARIANNE CANADA: So I'm so curious. As you're working with these people, what are some of the common things that people that have come into new money want in their homes, the newly wealthy? I know I personally would want-- and we are going to get into your gardening later because I have a lot of questions for you, but I would want a beautiful conservatory green house, really a showpiece. So what's something you see that people want when they're looking for these homes?
LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN: Very touchingly, which is something that you'll discover as you go through the program, the first port of call always has a very tender, very sentimental, normally family attachment to it. It's about making another family member's life better, or at the very least, their house choice will be informed by the idea of being able to share hospitality with as many of their friends or family as possible. That's always a very, very big thing with people.
And then you get this list of very particular proclivities, like suddenly, they want more parking or whatever. But one of the things that I found highly amusing is the fact that I would say 98% of my lottery winners want an island unit in the kitchen, which I think is just wow.
Obviously, in America, island units are obligatory. Every kitchen comes with an island unit. And there've been times when I've tried to sell my lottery winners the idea of a Peninsula unit, which is obviously still attached at one end. But oh no, they're wanting the full continental shelf that has cast itself adrift from Pangaea and has found itself right in the middle of the globe.
But I think that's funny. I think every generation has its go-to list of "wow, I've made it" items that are in their home. I think for our parents, it was a coach in four because they were growing up under the reign of Queen Victoria. But I think for a lot of people, it would have been things like a large refrigerator, or a colored television, or whatever. But now people want an island unit in the kitchen.
MARIANNE CANADA: Well, that's so funny because I actually did a kitchen renovation two years ago and went with a Peninsula. So I feel like we're on the same page there.
LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN: People are very boring. I think they should want to go for an isthmus or a lagoon, even, so you can make it as much like Venice as possible.
MARIANNE CANADA: Why not? So I do want to talk about your incredible gardens. I love gardening, and to me, there's nothing more beautiful than an English garden. And I heard we actually are interviewing one of your countrywomen later in this same episode. And when she found out I was talking to you, she said, you have to ask him about his frilly cuff. And at first, I thought she was talking about maybe some attribute of your wardrobe, but you have your own rose called the frilly cuff.
LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN: I was searching around for something to call it, and I felt that it looked like a frilly cuff. So it is. And it gives me great pleasure when you say to people, have you sniffed my frilly cuff? Because it doesn't sound quite right, does it? There is something. There's an element of innuendo there. It's with people's resonance.
It's actually a very, very reliable rose, particular, very arresting, calming. And I have it on the entire back wing of the house in these wonderful bosom-y clouds at the bottom of Wisteria, because obviously, Wisteria has very little detail up to a certain height.
But when they're all going together, when the volume is totally turned up on everything in the garden and we've got the wonderful moving lilac or the wisteria coming down to the carmine of Laurence's frilly cuff. It is like one of the late Queen Mother's hats. It's that exciting.
MARIANNE CANADA: I would wager it's even more beautiful from what I have seen.
LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN: The majority of my garden is from about 1610. We keep coming across bits that are a little bit earlier because the old dog bit of the house that I'm sitting in now is probably from the 1580s, but we're not entirely sure.
But no, the garden has been one of the most wonderful pleasures. And now that we're all here, both daughters moved back here with their husbands. We've got grandchildren. We've got it all going on, as they say.
And without the garden, I don't know what we'd do. We have a lovely lake. We have a series of these very traditional Cotswold garden rooms which I've made sure I've decorated in a very Cotswold way, obviously. But we are extraordinarily lucky. All we lack is weather, a bit of sunshine.
MARIANNE CANADA: That is the one drawback to England, if there had to be one. I do want to go back to the show for a moment. You're working with these people who have come into a large sum of money, whether it's inheritance or the lottery. What is some consistent advice you give these people when they're looking for a new house?
LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN: Irritatingly, they're very bad at taking my advice, because I'm forever just saying, listen, just blow it all. Let's just get on a plane, and go to Vegas, and have fun. And they go, no, no, no, I want to buy a house. Oh for god's sake, you know?
And then I'll say things like, well, can we at least buy a Gothic folly or some houseboat that we could attach sales of Tyrian purple? But no, these really very, very monumentally sensible people want to buy lovely family houses in which to bring up their lovely families.
As I say, one of the big things that I have been doing throughout the series is to ensure that I'm showing them what I feel are an extended gamut of options. There is forever that very straightforward shopping list, if it needs so many bedrooms, if it needs so many bathrooms in its pocket. But I do like the idea of saying to people, this has got one bedroom less than you're potentially asking for, but just look at the garden, or look at the situation, or look at the view.
I think it's very important because I think a lot of these people have not really been in a position, in a situation, where they've really looked at property before. Some of them, this is the first time they've ever bought a house, they've been rented accommodation.
So a lot of that comes with a bit of baggage. It's the sense that you've got to do it like everybody else does it. And I'm inevitably very keen to allow them to taste the forbidden fruits of doing it for themselves. So far most of them go for the sensible option. I'm not going to lie.
MARIANNE CANADA: They do. There's something very charming about it though, because we know the show is a spin-off. There's an American version of My Lottery Dream Home, and there's obviously a lot of cultural differences between the two shows and the priorities the winners have. What's the biggest difference you've observed in terms of how Europeans tend to approach a windfall like this and how Americans?
LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN: Well, I think obviously, the big thing is the fact that everyone's tripping over the stiff upper lip. There's absolutely no body slamming going on. But I think the other thing is just the level of detail about things like an area.
Because I too know the American show. It's much more relaxed, and friendly, and hey, we want this, and hey, we want that, and this is what we're looking for. Well, my lot seem to be coming back to us with-- I want to be in that part of Hertfordshire where the hurricanes hardly ever happen. It's all really very information-heavy.
But one of the things I do like is that it's very easy to watch this and think, look at these Brits, and their immovable faces, and their poor dental work. But I do feel very strongly that we really get to know these guys very, very well. And there's a surprise with how honest they are, how open they are, how fascinating they are.
And I think for a show like this, which is essentially-- we have an expression in this country which is about torching the lace cut. You're just looking out of the window and trying not to see and be seen as you see people.
And this show has got it the other way around. You're looking in, seeing how people live. And I think you really want to get to know them very well. And I think we do that in this program in a very surprising way, despite all of that reserve, despite all of that Britishness. And they're not as forthcoming in the first 50 seconds, but actually, as the confidence develops and as we get to know them, it becomes much, much more interesting.
MARIANNE CANADA: You really are. You have such a talent for making people feel comfortable and drawing them out of their shells.
LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN: That simple. That's gin. And genuinely, it's such a social level. It's an opener of all doors.
MARIANNE CANADA: That's the part we're not seen before every show, is everyone throwing back a G and T. One of my oldest friends married an Englishman, and made the move to your country, and whenever she and her husband come back to the States, he always is so fascinated by the way we live here. He's always like, you've got more bathrooms in your house than I know what to do with.
In your opinion, is there anything that Europeans have in their homes that we might find strange here in the States? And vice versa, what do American homes have or prioritize?
LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN: Yeah, one of the big things that Europeans have that I don't think you find so much in America is mold. Everywhere you go in the old world, everything is rotting, basically. Now, it is interesting, because I did trading spaces in America after doing change myself. So I was very much thrown into the deep end with decorating.
And scale is an easy one, but not just the scale of the house because actually, that's contracting. It's the scale of developments, the scale of roads. Certainly in the United Kingdom, the majority of the houses that we've got are constrained by very historical boundaries. If you look deeply, it can go all the way back to the Romans. And also, of course, the majority of the houses in Britain were built between 1880 and 1930s. So they have a very set footprint.
But in any of these things, bathrooms are always the worry. Bathrooms were something that were always rather tacked on. Sometimes they weren't even included at all, which explains so much about how the English smell and possibly a lot to do with the mold.
Whereas, of course, in America-- and this has always been the big thing. I can remember when Nancy Lancaster was decorating in the 1930s. Her big thing was simple eating and indoor plumbing. It always felt like such an American innovation of comfort and hygiene.
But I think one of the big things is that the British particularly, when they are being independent-spirited, they are very independent in the way that they decorate. They have a very strong perception of their home being their castle of where they live, as being an opportunity to express their personality.
And actually, one of the funny things is that it's very easy to look at a traditional British street and feel that everybody is the same from the outside. But actually, inside, oh my giddy aunt, you can go from anything from Austin Powers to third century Roman centurions if you're really, really lucky.
And I think this is one of the things as well that comes out in the series, that we're meeting people that are so different, that have such different takes on taste, that have such different ways of expressing who they want to be. And I think in America, that palette is possibly not as broad. I think that because of the density of history that surrounds us, it allows people to be a little bit more independent sometimes with their decorating.
MARIANNE CANADA: So your work has taken you all over the world, as you've mentioned. Are there things that, no matter where you live, no matter where you are, that make home home for you?
LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN: Obviously, the constants tend to be things like technology. One of the interesting things in Britain now is that technology-- for instance, the television is becoming much more polite within the way that rooms are decorated. It used to be this enormous monolith like the beginning of 2001, Space Odyssey. But now it's becoming disguised as paintings, as pictures, as becoming part of bookshelves.
And I think that goes throughout the technology. We're definitely looking at homes becoming much more human which, of course, is bizarre, because we are living in the future, for goodness sake. Here we are, 2021. We're actually the other side of Bladerunner, and yet very little of that stuff is happening.
In fact, our homes are, if anything, looking as they have done for most of the 20th century. Dominant design styles are taken from the 20th century rather than the future, which I find fascinating. Although, of course, you could argue that particularly, things like that 20th century modern, that was a futuristic style.
But when you look at the way the trends are evolving at the moment in Britain, it's ultimately coming back to a huge sense of tradition. We've got chintz making an enormous revival, pattern-making an enormous revival, the kind of decorating that defined comfort for sure. But also travel, intellect, eclecticism, these are all incredibly important things.
MARIANNE CANADA: Now that we're talking about trends, I want to get your thoughts in one of our favorite segments called Defend the Trend where we give you a current design trend and you give us your thoughts on it.
This week we're talking about grand millennial style. So if you've heard of this, it's very much taking IKEA furniture and marrying it with what would be considered grandma style-- ruffles; needlepoint; patterns, on patterns, on patterns. What do you think of this trend? Is it here to stay, or is grand millennial actually bland millennial?
LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN: Oh, it's definitely not bland. The interesting thing is, of course, it is there to stay for as long as it's needed. Where do trends come from? And actually, they don't come from design. They come from the economy.
There's a thing called the hemline index, which is fascinating, which is to do with the fact that when economies are challenged, when they are not going well, skirts get longer. Taste becomes more reflective. Taste becomes more retro, more vintage. When economies are booming, when countries feel very confident about themselves, hemlines get very short, and you get this fast-moving, poppy modernism.
So obviously, this grand millennial that you're referring to, this is a very retro style. This is an incredibly deep, dark evocation. You're calling your grandma, or it might be Auntie Rita, but it's someone in our past who we have an enormous amount of fondness for, and we would like society to go back to that point. This is what this is absolutely all about.
It has its roots in Hollywood regency, which I've always been fascinated by because Hollywood regency is what was happening more or less the same time as mid-century modern was happening in Europe.
And the Hollywood regency was inspired very directly by Italy and by Gio Ponti, by Fornasetti. And it is about modernizing opulence. It is about taking a richness like Damascus; like these particular color palettes, teal, mustard, raspberry; antique shapes, antique forms, Venetian mirrors; paintings, old still lives; but actually either supersizing them, or minimizing them, or straightening them, or constraining them. And you really see it in decorators like Dorothy Draper, and the UK got people like David Hicks, who is doing it very well.
But actually, this is a style that was incredibly attractive to these very voluptuous figureheads in our family like Auntie Rita who used to have a little bit too much to drink and had some very unseemly boyfriends. But actually, we were immensely fond of her because she was so much more fun than her possibly straitlaced husband was. And she was the one with the Tiki Tiki cocktail cabinet and the pineapple ice bucket, all of these things we are obsessed by at the moment.
And so it's very interesting, I think, always a good exercise to give a trend a personality. Give it a name. Give it a thought. Who is it? And I think that as we are maturing as designers, we are deliberately using something like grand millennial as a way of showing our own independent tastes.
So much of grand millennial style would have been perceived as being bad taste, as being kitsch, as being pastiche, so particularly by our parents. So actually, by assimilating it, by deliberately doing things in our homes which a previous generation perceived as being bad taste is a way of establishing independence, but also as a way of saying, well, actually, mom and dad, I don't think you necessarily got it right socially and economically.
I don't like your politics. I prefer Auntie Rita. I prefer the great fun at perennial deluge aunt who was much more open to ideas, who is much more open to people much less judgy. So I think grand millennial is ultimately the most magnificent weaponized anti-wasp style you could think of. It's like driving a tractor through Ralph Lauren.
And I think that that is what makes it attractive. There's a uniqueness to it, even though it is essentially a retro style, even though it is essentially something that is very, very much inspired, if not derived, from the past. I haven't even said whether I like it or not.
MARIANNE CANADA: Oh you do it. Do you like it?
LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN: But that's totally irrelevant. If you like it, I love it.
MARIANNE CANADA: I love seeing a return to bringing some personality and uniqueness back into decor. That's what makes me really happy, when people don't feel like they all need to have the same millennial pink sofa.
LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN: No, and actually, what is fascinating about grand millennial is that it nearly always comes from a place of great independence. So I am immensely supportive of that, because in fact, there are no real trends within it, because you are there to make it up yourself.
Everything else is, yeah, well, that's the color that everyone's using, and that's very Hamptons, and that's very modern, and that's the piece of furniture and space, and that's the print, and that's the particular linen. It's very prescribed. But this is like, oh holy hell, you're going to put that painting of a clown in there? Well, OK, that works, and wow, there's ruffle edging on that zebra skin cushion.
Because you're doing it, it works. And actually, one of the lovely things about grand millennial is that you can't do it half-cocked, as we say. You can't go in with the volume half turned down. The minute it runs out of steam, it stops working, whereas in just about any other style that you can think of, soft, modern, dum, dum, dum, actually, the least noise it makes, the more successful it seems to be.
MARIANNE CANADA: Agree 100%. Well, Lawrence, this has just been so delightful. I want you to tell everyone where they can find you if they want to see more of your work, and where can we see My Lottery Dream Home International?
LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN: Second archway down underneath Waterloo bridge. I'll be standing there in a pair of fishnets twirling my pink patent handbag should anyone be interested. You can ferret me out very easily @llb.co.uk. We'll take you, take you to the epicenter of planet LLB for goodness sake, should you be brave enough.
MARIANNE CANADA: You can see the frilly cuff.
LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN: Oh yeah the race is in that, for sure. It was launched at Chelsea a couple of years ago. Can't sniff it though because it's the internet, sorry. My Lottery Dream Home International premieres on Friday the second at 8:00, PM so I suggest that you remove any title-constricting clothing, find a chaise longue on which to loan yourself, and put something effervescent and lovely, and just simply enjoy it and me.
I have made a bold decision, which is to ensure that you are all entranced and distracted by what I'm wearing and by as much as what I'm saying. So the thing is that particularly the first part, it was great fun, actually, in Birmingham, really nice couple, really nice winner. He won, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? We didn't get to the very end of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, but he is using his money very, very wisely. He's a teacher. But he has some of the nicest, really very designed houses, which I think people are going to be very excited by, very inspirational.
MARIANNE CANADA: Agree, well, this has just been a pleasure, and I hope that you come back again.
LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN: Marianne, my darling, I am feeling positively post-coital after that. I can't tell you how many of my enjoyment synapses been tickled. You have you been an absolute magnificent host and a rare and ravishing vision against your grey wall, as well.
MARIANNE CANADA: Oh my goodness. We've got to stop. This is getting ridiculous.
LAURENCE LLEWELYN-BOWEN: Yeah, we've got to stop.
MARIANNE CANADA: I have to say I have some serious grandma tendencies already, so I'm feeling the grand millennial trend. Anyway, what an incredible conversation with Laurence. What a character. I want to know, Brad, what would you spend your lottery winnings on? Would it be more comic books?
BRAD: Oh man, yeah, so if you win the lottery, you do three or four things. You do family. You buy stuff for your family. You buy stuff for your house. You buy stuff for other people. And then once I got to the fourth one, it would be more comic books, comic books and video games.
MARIANNE CANADA: Sometimes we need to put a full photo of your comic book wall in the show notes so that people can really understand the first class nerdery that we have going on right now.
BRAD: I'm proud of that wall. Let's put it out on social. Let's do it.
MARIANNE CANADA: Beautiful, put it on hgtv.com, so I have the power to do that. I am going to be completely boring and say, I would save it.
BRAD: You wouldn't spend it on anything?
MARIANNE CANADA: No, that's not true, but I just feel like nine-year-old Marianne would be so disappointed in that answer. I would definitely do some traveling, and I would do it right, first class, at least comfort plus. Treat yourself a little.
BRAD: Where would you go? If you won the lottery tomorrow, where would you go?
MARIANNE CANADA: If I won the lottery tomorrow, I would really want to go to Asia. But again, I really want to do it right. I want to go. I want to get a great guide. I've always really wanted to go to Thailand, Japan, China, Singapore. But I really want to do it right. I want to go with-- I want to have a man on the inside who can show me all. I want all the best food, the locals only. I'd really like a tailored, boutique experience.
BRAD: Like Anthony Bourdain but Marianne Canada?
MARIANNE CANADA: Exactly, that is exactly the vibe I'm going for, but maybe with less-- I don't know, I feel like he would end up eating something that might be a bridge too far. But yeah, I would really want to travel to that part of the world, but I want to feel like I'm in like really good hands. I don't want to end up disappointing myself and eating it at the Singapore McDonald's. I want the good stuff.
BRAD: But first, you said you wouldn't spend it, and now you're saying you would totally spend it.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yeah, that is a window into my soul, because you either are very thrifty and responsible with your money, or you spend a hundred thousand dollars on a trip to Singapore.
BRAD: Perfect.
MARIANNE CANADA: You've just got to treat yourself.
BRAD: And bring in your producer Brad with you.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yes, of course, obviously. We would record the podcast on the road.
BRAD: Perfect.
MARIANNE CANADA: From the Singapore McDonald's. What a treat. All right, anyways, speaking of a treat, I have a treat for our listeners. I had the pleasure of chatting with Jane Perrone, host of the On the Ledge podcast and another Brit. We are really committing to this theme, I have to say.
We had this amazing discussion about her passion for houseplants, and she gave some great advice on bringing plants into her home. So take it away, Jane.
Jane, it's so lovely to see you.
JANE PERRONE: Good to see you, you and your smiling face and your lovely yellow top, very cheering.
MARIANNE CANADA: Well, Jane, it's so lovely to have you on today talking to us about putting down roots, pun intended. You've been gardening, tending to plants since you were really young. Can you tell everyone a little bit about yourself, where you found that love of plants, and how you started your podcast, On the Ledge?
JANE PERRONE: I certainly can. So it begun at an early age. I would like to say that it's in my DNA, because I do have on both sides of the family people who are into gardening who I am sure I got my gardening genes from.
And so yeah, from as long back as I can remember, I was growing plants, and collecting plants, and being given plants. And at the start, it was oftentimes things like cacti and succulents that I used to pick up at-- do you have jumble sales in America? Do you have jumble sales? Do you know what a jumble sale is?
MARIANNE CANADA: Yes, we would call it a yard sale or a garage sale.
JANE PERRONE: Yeah, that kind of thing. So we pick those up. I pick those up, and I would go to my local garden center and pick things up, as well. And people would start giving me plants to revive. So yeah, it's been a lifelong thing.
But for whatever reason, I didn't think about going into horticulture as a teenager. I wanted to be a journalist from a very young age. And so I went into news journalism, and I worked at newspapers, and then I ended up with a guardian in London. And for the first part of my career there, I was like, hard news, breaking news. And it was the 2000 to 2007 era.
Now, that was quite a busy news period, if you think back, so that was quite hectic. And then when I had my daughter, I ended up taking maternity leave, and I came back in a new job as gardening editor. So that was a really big step change for me. And I just managed to channel my passion for gardening into my journalism, which was an awesome combination.
And I got into podcasts around the time-- like everybody else who's in the podcast Serial-- we all started with Serial, didn't we? Although, I did listen to a few gardening podcasts before that, but Serial really kind of opened me up to the opportunities of podcasting. And I did a podcast for the Guardian about gardening, and that ended, and I was bereft. I really missed podcasting.
And I just had this brainwave and thought, why don't I do a podcast about houseplants? Because that's my true passion in life. My family are sick of hearing me talk about it. They just want to hear anything else. So I'm thinking, I am going to do this and reach out to the worldwide houseplant community, which is what I've done through On the Ledge, and it's just enormous fun. That's the best thing about it, is it's just great to have this community of people who like listening to me chatter on.
MARIANNE CANADA: So Jane, you're based in the UK, but I know you have moved quite a bit. In today's episode, we are talking a bit about how to put down roots, whether it's people who are moving because they have come into a bit of money or just are facing a move.
Have you ever had to move your plants with you? Because I moved a couple of years ago, and we were only moving 10 minutes down the road, and it was so stressful for me, moving, especially my large plants. Have you ever had to undertake moving your-- you have quite a collection of plants.
JANE PERRONE: Well, the last time I moved, I didn't have as many as I have now, but I do remember that move being quite traumatic, because we'd hired movers who were going to literally do all the packing for us and do the whole thing. Because we had a young child at the time, and it was just like, this is too much. Let's pay somebody to do it, which is all very good.
And they came round and assessed what they thought we had, but you know what it's like with garden stuff. And you're like, yeah, that wormery's going, and yeah, that compost bin. And they're like, huh?
So on the morning of the move, they massively underestimated how much stuff we had, and they had to go and call another van to get the rest of the stuff in. And they were like, what's in here? I'm like, well, it's a wormery, so there's worms and fruit. They're like, what? So it was just this real traumatic thing for the movers of discovering they were moving all these very odd things.
But I do hear from listeners very often on the show who are moving across the country, and I'm talking about the USA here, so that's major league, or moving to other countries as well and wondering how to transport their plants. So it's a really interesting issue.
And it's hard because, especially in these days now that we're into the huge specimen plants, the fiddle leaf figs and the banana leaves, and we're into the trailing plants that are just all over the place. If you try to move a string of hearts or a string of pearls, you're going to have to be very careful. Otherwise, you're literally going to be spending the next week trying to untangle that thing.
So yeah, there's a lot of things you can do that will make it easier, but it's all about preparation. As with most things in life, preparation is key. Get your packing materials ready. Prioritize packing materials for those plants. And just thinking about ways of protecting the fragility of your plants, because plants are quite fragile and making sure that you've set aside time to move them.
So why they're maybe leaving them to the end of the move or doing them at the start of the move, so that it's not mixed in with the hauling boxes bit, which I find incredibly stressful. So I know somebody who's just moved house who has an awful lot of really large plants, and they've had the luxury of leaving them at their old place for a week, and now they've settled into the new place. They're now moving them across, which is very sensible if you can afford to do that.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yes, you mentioned the trailing plants. Are there some plants that just don't travel well that you should just consider giving away if you're moving?
JANE PERRONE: Well, I think those are definitely up there. If you've ever bought one of those string of pearls or string of hearts online through mail order and it's arrived, it's a nightmare because they usually curl them around the top of the pot. It's very difficult because the leaves on both of those hook around one another, so you end up with all these strings, and the stems are incredibly wiry, and thin, and fragile.
So I would never give my string of pearls away. Nobody's having that plant, but what I would say is take some cuttings, maybe, before you start moving it just so you've got an insurance policy. And this is true of any plant, whether you're moving or not. Have an insurance policy, because you never know when something can go wrong.
But with something like the string of hearts, what I'd recommend doing is not curling it around the top of the pot, because that way, it's going to get really messed up. If you can, and I know this sounds incredibly needy, but what you need to do is get some bubble wrap and literally lay the trailing stems out and wrap them in bubble wrap individually so they're not going to get tied around each other.
And that way you've hopefully got some hope then of keeping them separate. And then because bubble wrap is flexible, you could then curl it round and ease it together to make it more easy to transport. But yeah, just getting them in a line is really important if you can.
And the other thing you can do with plants like that is you can, say, take the cuttings, and then you can sometimes get a plastic or a cardboard tube. If you've got them climbing up an obelisk or a trailing thing, I would try not to take that apart. I would try to transport them attached to that structure, but give them a nice tube-shaped piece of cardboard to fit inside so they're not getting bashed. Because that's the main concern, is that those beautiful leaves don't all get bruised and damaged as they so easily will.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yes, well, in so many plants too, I do try to remind people, if the worst happens, if part of the plant breaks off, you can propagate so many. I had a monstera get almost completely destroyed. It had no leaves left. And now you would never to look at it. It's just come back better than ever.
So on that note, we've moved in. We've moved our plants. Some did get a little bruised, a little beat up. What should I be looking out for, and what are some tips to maybe nurse something back to health that's gotten a little stressed out on the move?
JANE PERRONE: Well, you're right. Despite my clear nitpicking way of packing these things, the truth is actually lots of these plants will regrow really nicely. People get very worried, especially new plant owners, get very worried about, oh, this leaf got bent and damaged. And how is it going to fix itself?
Well, the sad news is it's not going to fix itself. That leaf, unlike human skin which can obviously be cut, and scar over, and then heal, plant leaves don't work that way. So once a plant leaf is damaged, it's going to stay damaged. That's not to say that it's not still valuable to the plant, but aesthetically, it's not going to change its looks.
So don't worry too much if your leaves do get a bit bashed around. The main thing you'll be looking out for is that the plant's gone through a period of stress. So any time a plant goes through stress, it immediately becomes more of a magnet for pest problems.
There's a lot of science behind this, but basically, pests are attracted to plants that are already undergoing stress, which is why the best defense against pests is to make sure your houseplants are super healthy. So when you're looking at that plant that's been through a stressful experience of moving location to your new home, possibly not being in the same environment that it was in before, you need to think about giving it its best possible life that you can.
And that might be something as simple for a plant that likes high humidity as just putting it in a massive, clear plastic bag. So if you've got one of those dry cleaning bags or something that's clear, and you've got a plant that's looking a bit sad after a move, and it's a high humidity plant like those beautiful anthuriums, and the calatheas, and the marantas, just get one of those big bags. Put the whole pot, all of the whole thing, into that bag, blow some air into it, and seal it up.
And then gradually, give it a bit of time in this lovely spa-type environment, and then you can gradually start introducing more air. And that way the plant will hopefully settle back into life and recover quite nicely.
MARIANNE CANADA: That's great. That's like making a little tiny greenhouse, an individual greenhouse, just for that plant.
JANE PERRONE: Exactly, visitors will look at you strangely because they'll be like, why is that plant in a bag? But hey, it's OK. And the other thing that's really good for if you do suffer from pests-- the spider mite is one of the main pests that houseplant owners face, and that actually is a great treatment for spider mites. Stick them in a bag. Increase the humidity. That's the thing that spider mites don't like. So that's also useful for that. So yeah, if any big, clear plastic bags without holes in come in my house, I'm immediately like, I'm having that thank you. So they're very useful things.
MARIANNE CANADA: Just stash that away and it's great. It keeps it out of the landfill, as well.
JANE PERRONE: Exactly.
MARIANNE CANADA: I think that's a really great tip. Are there any other tips you have for acclimating plants to a new environment, whether you've brought it home from the nursery or made a move?
JANE PERRONE: So one of the things that you need to be aware of, as I said, when you're moving, it's going to be a slightly different environment. So just keep a really close eye on that plant when you first bring it home, whether it's from the shop or bringing it into your new home after a move.
If it's come from a shop, and it's being added to your houseplant collection, I would recommend quarantining plants away from your other plants where possible. I realize if you're living in a really small environment, that's tough. But if you can, put them in a separate room from the rest of your house plants.
Because unfortunately, pests may make themselves known. Pests can come in on your new house plants. That could be mealy bugs. It could be spider mites. It could be good old aphids. And sometimes, they're not visible until the plant's had a few days to settle in. So observe and quarantine if you can before you put them next to your other plants, because that way, you're saving yourself an awful lot of work.
And if you've got plants that have come from the nursery, the other thing to do is to take them out of their pots and just have a look at what's happening at soil level, really important. Have a look at those roots. Have a look at the potting mix they're in. Are they in the right potting mix?
If you buy a cactus, and you get it home, and you take it out the pot, and it's in a really watery, claggy potting mix, then it's probably a really good idea to shake off all of that potting mix and repot it in something that's much more gritty and free-draining which the cactus will be much happier in. So do a little bit of checking as soon as you get the plant home, and then observe until you're happy that the plant is healthy. And then you can put it with your other plants.
MARIANNE CANADA: I think we're all well-versed in quarantining at this point. We need to quarantine our plants, as well. That's great advice though, because I think a lot of people, especially that don't know a lot about houseplants, you assume that if it's coming from a nursery or coming from a shop, that it is in the best soil for the plant, but that's just not always the case.
Well, Jane, before we let you go, I would just love to talk a little bit more about how houseplants really fit into your sense of home. Has that changed and evolved over the years?
JANE PERRONE: Well, it has. I would say I've got more plants than ever now. Making a podcast about plants, at the end of every episode, you have a big list of plants that you want to get hold of when you've been talking to a specialist grower. And also, I have lots of lovely listeners who enable me massively by sending me plants.
So I was looking for a long time for a particular snake plant which is widely available in the US but not available here called Bantel's Sensation. A lovely listener said-- listeners in the US kept saying, I've got this. I can send it to you. I'm like, you can't send it to me. You're in the wrong country. And it's very kind of you, but it's not going to work. But finally, I managed to get one through a plant swap here. So I have a lot of plants.
What I would say is when I've been growing my collection over the years, it's reflected different times in my life. So when my children were tiny and crawling about, I didn't have so many plants because there's just too much potential for soil to go everywhere.
They were trained at a young age not to eat house plant leaves, so that's good. But yeah, I had less plants then, and the plants I did have tended to be smaller and up on high shelves. Now that they're older, things are starting to cultivate in other places, and I have more time for them too.
But for me, if I go into a house and there are no plants there, or if I'm on holiday, I'm staying in a holiday cottage and there's no plants, it feels really strange to me. It doesn't feel right. There's something wrong, and I keep thinking, oh, australis here would look really good in that corner. And whenever I'm watching TV, if there's interesting plants in the background on a drama show, I'll be looking and seeing what they are.
So I find myself associating plants with being at home and being comfortable in my environment. And I just love-- I'm not a person who ever sits still. I'm constantly moving. So for me, just to be able to look over and see my Swiss cheese plant, and just look at it, and go, oh, new leaf coming, and potter about my plants. It really makes my house feel like a home to me. I don't think it does for the rest of my family. They're not that interested in plants, but they're very tolerant.
And also, they don't tend to notice unless something really dramatic changes like a massive plant comes in. My husband will be three months after something's arrived. He'll go, is that new? And I'll be like, no, it's not. It's been around here for ages. So he's pretty tolerant, actually, of my many house plants.
But the other thing I would say about plants, and I try not to be drawn into this, is when you look on social media these days, lots of people look at the plants on social media, and get very intimidated, and think, well, I haven't got a room like that, and I don't have all of those beautiful, tropical aroids, and I've just got one cactus, and they feel very intimidated that their collection isn't up to scratch. But I would say, don't be led by looking at what other people are growing. Grow things that make you happy.
And there's a right number of plants for every person. And that might be one plant, or it might be 500. And find your right number of plants that you can take care of and that give you joy without being overwhelming. And that's when you hit the sweet spot with your houseplant collection.
MARIANNE CANADA: Yes, it's like, keep your eyes on your own paper. That's what I always tell people.
JANE PERRONE: So true.
MARIANNE CANADA: Well, Jane, this has been such a delight. I hope we can have you on again. You really have such a depth of knowledge. Can you remind everyone listening where they can find you?
JANE PERRONE: Yeah, On the Ledge is available on all the pod apps you can think of pretty much, so the usual places like Spotify, and Apple Podcasts, and my website, janeperrone.com. You can just go and listen from there, as well, and there are really detailed show notes for every episode and thematic guides to the podcast. So you can just find the subjects you're interested in. So that's the best place to go, janeperrone.com.
MARIANNE CANADA: Great, and you can catch me coming up on Jane's podcast, On the Ledge. We're talking all about growing citrus indoors, so you guys don't want to miss that. Thank you so much, Jane.
JANE PERRONE: My pleasure.
MARIANNE CANADA: Oh my gosh, you guys, I think I am one British guest away from me pulling a full Madonna and adopting a British accent. Let's be honest, I was a theater kid, and it was touch and go there for a minute.
I hope you all have enjoyed this episode of HGTV Obsessed because I have just been fully delighted the entire time. It's been a dream to join you as your host. Don't forget to tune in to My Lottery Dream Home International Fridays at 8:00 PM on HGTV with the incredible Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen, and trust me, head over to the show notes at hgtv.com/podcast so you can really get the full effect of what we're dealing with here. It's the clothes. It's the decor. It's the hair. It's the full package.
And while you're at it, subscribe to the On the Ledge podcast with Jane Perrone. I don't know, she's so comforting, and knowledgeable, and she just makes me want to fill my house with even more plants which, frankly, is dangerous.
And hey, I'm the new guy here. So if you enjoyed our episode today, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, and don't forget to follow HGTV Obsessed wherever you get your podcasts. I'll see you next Thursday.