Indoor Jungles: The Story of the Houseplant
Channel: British Library
Date: 2023-02-16

This event took place on the 2 of December 2022. The information below is correct as of the publication date.

Tony Le-Britton, Mike Maunder, Jane Perrone and Carlos Magdalena revel in plant love!

Discover the intimate and ancient history of houseplants with our self-confessed panel of #plantaddicts and get ready to show off your own indoor jungles by sending us your pictures.

In our increasingly urban lives, these green houseguests give us a vital connection to nature, improve our well-being and stir aesthetic obsessions. Houseplants are a social, cultural and economic sensation, both hyper-local and global; from clippings exchanged between friends to the billion-dollar flower industry. Expert guides on care and maintenance fill our shelves and ‘green content’ bursts from our social media feeds.

This event celebrates the humble houseplant with its long and fascinating history, from medieval gillyflower cultivation through Victorian fern-fever to the return of macramé.

With Mike Maunder whose new book House Plants tells how they were transformed from wild plants into members of our households. Also featuring Carlos Magdalena Scientific & Botanical Research Horticulturist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew London and Jane Perrone host of the houseplant obsessed podcast On The Ledge. 

Chaired by avid houseplant collector Tony Le-Britton who shares his home with some of the world's rarest plants.  

Part of our strand of events on nature writing, The Natural Word. View previous events in this season for free at the British Library Player. 

Tony Le-Britton is a self-taught houseplant grower and prolific collector of some of the world’s rarest plants. His debut book Not Another Jungle is a comprehensive guide to houseplant care and delves into the fascinating plant processes happening right under our noses. Since 2020 his Instagram account @notanotherjungle has built up over 170,000 followers with its stunning plant photography. Tony has spent years cultivating, exploring wild habitats and learning from large scale growers in The Netherlands and South America.

Mike Maunder is a conservationist and has worked on plant and ecosystem conservation in the UK, USA, Middle East and Africa. He trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and University of Reading. He is Executive Director of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, University of Cambridge. He is the author of House Plants (Reaktion, 2022).

Jane Perrone is host of houseplant podcast On The Ledge and author of forthcoming book Legends of the Leaf, which profiles 25 iconic houseplants. She is the founder and host of #HouseplantHour on Twitter every Tuesday evening. Jane works as a freelance journalist, writing for a range of publications including The Guardian, the Financial Times, Gardens Illustrated and RHS magazine The Garden.

Carlos Magdalena is an expert in aquatic plants and has been instrumental in efforts to save the planet's tiniest waterlily - the Nymphaea thermarum - from the brink of extinction. He led work to confirm a new species of giant waterlily the Victoria Boliviana, thought to be the largest of its kind. Carlos is author of the The Plant Messiah and has searched the mountains of Peru, remote Indian Ocean islands and the deepest Australian outback for rare exotic species. In the Tropical Nursery at Kew Gardens he uses pioneering, left-field techniques to help them grow.

In partnership with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

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