Andy Connolly
When I first started growing pothos I imagined long and bushy trailing vines. Instead I got a sad and leggy looking plant with leaves spaced so far apart you could drive a car between them. It was disappointing. I wanted a pothos that was full AND trailing. That I could let grow down my bookshelf. …
Orchids can make you want to tear your hair out. You give them the perfect light, water them on schedule, maybe even talk to them (no judgement here) and yet they still take ages to give you any new growth. I’ve stood around in my kitchen staring at my Phalaenopsis orchid just thinking to myself …
The first flower bed I ever planted was a disaster. Not the kind of disaster where things gradually go wrong – it was clearly wrong almost the moment everything went in the ground. The tall dahlias I’d planted at the front completely blocked the shorter plants behind them. Half the bed got maybe two hours …
Watering plants is something everyone thinks they know how to do. It couldn’t be easier, could it? You fill up a watering can or jug, pour it on the soil, job done. Except it’s not that simple and the proof is in the statistics. Overwatering is the main killer of houseplants. It’s responsible for more …
There’s a particular kind of garden that stops people in their tracks. One that has overflowing borders, an abundance of flowers, something always in bloom. That’s the cottage garden aesthetic and it’s one of the most popular styles in gardening for good reason. It’s charming and when it works it looks like the garden planned …
The first time I tried to train my Monstera to climb it was a disaster. I basically just shoved a bamboo stake into the pot and hoped for the best. Probably not a huge surprise it didn’t work! It just looked like it was trying to escape rather than climb. But after a few years …
I probably shouldn’t admit this but I’ve killed a number of Monsteras through watering mistakes. The truth is that a lot of people have. There’s this weird thing that happens when you bring home a monstera. You get all excited and start treating it like a needy pet. Which is a problem because before you …
When I first got my Monstera manny years ago now I thought it would just naturally grow into a full, gorgeous plant. Instead, what I got was a leggy mess. The problem is that monsteras don’t naturally grow bushy. In the wild they climb and so are programmed to grow UP, not OUT. So if …
Hyacinths fooled me for years. I always assumed they were pretty easy going. But like many plants and flowers they can be picky about what they’re planted with. And getting it wrong will result in everything struggling, not just the hyancinths. So I’ll take you through the plants to avoid planting with them, along with …
When I planted forget me nots for the first time in my backyard they made a real impact. Those beautiful and tiny blue flowers are wonderful. And I assumed they would be happy to be planted with anything else I decided to plant with them. Well, I was wrong! So I’m going to show you …