Hello and welcome to On the Ledge podcast, episode 288. I am your host, Jane Perrone.

And if you've ever looked at your plant and just thought,

I wish you could tell me what's wrong,

then this is the podcast for you.

In this week's show, I'm talking to Don Billington about all things to Lanzia. What are they?

Where do they come from and how do you grow these fascinating air plants? And in an extended

Q&A, I'm discussing the pineapple plant. How do you get ananas to grow successfully in your home?

And can you indeed get it to fruit? We shall see.

Welcome back to On the Ledge. If you are a new listener, then what is this all about? Well, it's my podcast where I talk about plants with cool, planty people and help you understand plants better, specifically the ones that grow in your house. And in this week's episode, I am following up on something I've been doing

for a while now, the RHS plant trials of airplants, aka telanzia. I am one of a group of people

who have been asked by the RHS to assess a group of tilanzia species and cultivars to see

which ones deserve an RHS-A-G-M award of garden merit.

So that involves going to Walton Hall in Warrington every so often to meet up with

Dong Billington of every picture tells a story, a Bramelead

grower, and looking at the tilanzas that he's been growing on the RHS's behalf to see which

ones are thriving, which ones would make a good plant for the average grower. So when I went up

last week, I caught up with Don and asked him to

chat with me about tilanzias to find out more about these fascinating bromeliads. And if you've

never heard of the RHS plant trials, go back and listen to On the Ledge episode 272 where you can

find out what they are all about.

I'll put the link in the show notes just in case you want to go back and check that out.

But now let's enjoy my chat with Don Billington about the wonders of airplanes.

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