I’ve had a Spider plant perched on the top of the bookcase in my office for many years. Confession coming - every now and then I look-up and notice it is looking a little sad so I get a jug of water, precariously balance on my office chair and water it. But not anymore! Jane Perrone, of the On The Ledge houseplant podcast, encouraged me to repot it. I not only repotted it but also relocated it to a shady spot in the garden and it is already looking so much happier.

Jane came to Spider plants early in life, trusted in her primary school to wield a watering can around the rather sad collection of Spider plants in the library. She confessed there was a bit of spilt water and that she didn’t actually own one herself until quite recently.

This weeks episode really opened my eyes to a plant which I have rather taken for granted. Was mine mainly green with a white stripe along the edge of the leaf or white with a green stripe…Variegatum or Vittatum? (You might want to check yours too!) Who knew you could get curly ones? See picture above of my new purchase and yes the leaves curl - Chlorophytum comosum ‘Bonnie’.

And then there was discovering how this plant grows in the wild. A native of South Africa, it is also known there as Hen and Chicks. A wonderful botanist called Dr Ernst van Jaarsveld, who was introduced to this plant by his grandmother, shared his passion. He has even named one that he discovered on one his plant hunting trips. He has sent me wonderful photographs of them growing in the wild.

And finally Mercy and Sam, who hold National Collections of this plant and clearly love collecting and researching them. They are also refreshingly honest about killing plants, Mercy loves a good postmortem.

I really hope that this episode will cause many of us to rekindle our relationship with this houseplant. I am sure a few of us made macrame holders back in the day and though it may not be the most fashionable of plants - I think we should give it a shout-out. Perhaps we could organise a mass repotting!

One new idea this week - if you would like to share this episode on your own social media, perhaps with family and friends on Facebook or houseplant folk on twitter here is the link:

https://player.captivate.fm/episode/69556034-c2fb-4b59-b06c-3d2fd854dda5