A teenager's impressive indoor plant collection | My Garden Path | Gardening Australia

We met Elisabeth when we visited her horticulture class at Footscray High School. Her love of plants continues at home, where she has an impressive collection of indoor plants. Subscribe 🔔 http://ab.co/GA-subscribe
At just 16 she already has about 150 plants in her room at home in Melbourne’s inner west. Elisabeth particularly loves anthuriums or flamingo plants.

For optimum plant growth she has installed full-spectrum grow lights. She also keeps her room at 80% humidity, ”which can get a little bit much,” she admits.

Elisabeth buys plants from collectors interstate and does a lot of propagation.

One is Philodendron ‘Dean McDowell’, which she points out has extra-floral nectaries that produce necta; in the wild this farmed by ants which, in turn, guard the plant, forming a mutually beneficial relationship.

A favourite plant is Anthurium warocqueenum, which has long, velvety leaves. She ordered this plant from Far North Queensland and it inspired her to create a vertical garden, because it need humidity and something to climb on.

The garden was built out of an old laundry sink and a piece of PVC foam board covered in two layers of horticultural felt; the plant roots sit between the two layers with no actual substrate. The roots attach to the felt, which absorbs liquid fertiliser from the sink and so provides all the nutrients the plants need to grow. The sink can be wheeled out to hose down and eliminate any mineral buildup.

Elisabeth was encouraged by her parents to join local planting days as a small child and grew to love colourful flowers and succulents as she got older.

A birthday gift of a Monstera deliciosa one year kick-started her collecting bug.

She now has a spreadsheet of all the plants she has, which has helped her learn the scientific names and work out what she wants to collect.

Elisabeth shows how she repots an anthurium she has propagated, first soaking it for a few hours in liquid fertiliser to reduce transplant shock, then removing any old substrate from the roots. She then put the rootball in a pot and gently backfills with growing mixture.

Her preferred substrate is a mix of LECA (lightweight expanded clay aggregate) and mineral blend designed for succulents - this reduces the risk of mould and ensures there’s no fungus gnats, which can live in potting mix. She sterilises the mix before using it; this can be done with boiling water, steam or in the microwave.

Filmed on Boon Wurrung & Bunurong Country in Newport, Vic
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