The self-confessed plant geek on the fun of putting the detective work into horticulture, his love of houseplants and his fascination with Instagram. Portrait Andrew Montgomery <\/p>
On James Wong<\/a>\u2019s website he describes himself as a professional plant geek, broadcaster and bestselling author. The unbuttoned \u2018plant geek\u2019 label is typical of James\u2019s desire to communicate with as many people as possible, to open eyes to the importance of plants and the wonder of gardening. <\/p> \u201cBotanist most accurately describes what I am,\u201d he explains, \u201cbut the trouble is, most people don\u2019t know what botanists are. Ethnobotany, which is half anthropology and half botany, is what I understand best. There are lots of botanists who have never planted a seed, they just know what it looks under a microscope, but an ethnobotanist has to understand how to use plants, where they come from, how they can be grown and harvested. You also need to be able to go to a rural market in the mountains of Ecuador, as I have done, and go up to people and ask them all about the herbs<\/a> they\u2019re selling.\u201d <\/p> “There are lots of botanists who have never planted a seed, they just know what it looks under a microscope.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote> One of James\u2019s favourite adages is \u2018desire plus frustration equals obsession\u2019 and an early example of his love affair with plants is when, as a five-year-old growing up in Singapore, he was sent a packet of mixed seeds by his Welsh grandmother that included snapdragons. \u201cThe plants came up in half the time they said on the packet and I thought \u2018I\u2019m a genius\u2019. But it was really because I was growing temperate plants in tropical conditions. They all got fungal disease and collapsed. I was so frustrated by the vision I had of flowers snapping at each other that I decided to try again, this time putting them in the fridge and opening the air conditioning vents.\u201d <\/p> James\u2019s \u2018bible\u2019 growing up was DG Hessayon\u2019s The Houseplant Expert. Not only did it show him how to make his first terrarium<\/a>, it also identified the plants that were growing next to his bus stop. Indoor gardening became an escape (his family lived in an apartment without a garden), which it still is, though his refuge now is a one-bedroom London flat, which is crammed with more than 500 plants. <\/p> \u201cThe fact that I only have tiny amounts of space and that most houseplants need to grow within two metres of a window, has meant I\u2019ve had to do things like experiment with grow lights<\/a>, bonsai and water lilies in fruit bowls. That\u2019s the exciting thing about horticulture for me: it\u2019s like a detective puzzle. I think many people are put off horticulture because there are rules that you have to memorise and if you don\u2019t, everything will die. We should just tell people there are different tips and tricks. They may not work for everyone \u2013 actually a whole bunch of Victorian ones are rubbish \u2013 but go ahead and experiment with different things and see what happens.\u201d <\/p> “That\u2019s the exciting thing about horticulture for me: it\u2019s like a detective puzzle.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote> James, who came to the UK to go to university in 1999 and then completed a MSc in ethnobotany with distinction, shares his indoor garden with some 245,000 followers on Instagram<\/a> and has become an energetic advocate of social media. \u201cI used to be quite dismissive of Instagram because I thought it was all about people taking pictures of themselves on holiday, in various stages of undress,\u201d he says. As well as posting most days on his own account, he spends several hours a week checking out others. \u201cI think it\u2019s really opening up a new world. I\u2019ve learned things about horticulture I would never have learned in a million years from traditional media.\u201d <\/p> He mentions a Japanese account (@Michikusa3193<\/a>) dedicated to making tiny moss gardens inside glass cases, which he tries to re-create, and another that shows weeds growing in cracks in the pavement (@botaworks<\/a>). \u201cI find it fascinating to see the Japanese aesthetic of appreciating a weed growing in a pavement crack, how they take the photo, what they choose to include, which plants are growing.\u201d <\/p> “I find it fascinating to see the Japanese aesthetic of appreciating a weed growing in a pavement crack.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote> He\u2019s encouraged by the surge in interest in houseplants from younger people, and although lack of home ownership may be part of the reason, he feels there\u2019s a more complex explanation. Partly it\u2019s about control: the kind of houseplants they are interested in are not necessarily the easy-to-care-for ones, they\u2019re the rare and unusual, and often expensive ones. And partly it\u2019s because people are looking to plants to improve their mental health. The hashtags from these new converts are about caring, nurturing, making people happy. <\/p> Anyone who owns a book by James \u2013 he\u2019s written six so far, all of them bestsellers \u2013 will know how thoroughly researched and packed full of accessible information they are. When he was writing James Wong\u2019s Homegrown Revolution<\/em> he knew he wanted to test all of the hundreds of unusual edibles but didn\u2019t have access to a field site or a greenhouse. Instead he grew them in his mother\u2019s front garden in Croydon. \u201cI could only get there once a week, which I was worried about, but then I found out that I was replicating how other people were growing at home. So, I can\u2019t tell you how to grow tomatoes in a greenhouse, but I can tell you how to grow them if you can\u2019t afford one.\u201d And because he has his finger on the pulse of scientific discovery, he continues to be the ideal person to share findings, whether through his online courses, journalism, broadcasting or social media. <\/p> USEFUL INFORMATION Find out more about James at jameswong.co.uk<\/a> and follow him on Instagram @botanygeek<\/a> <\/p> \n
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