Fungus gnats. Overloved cacti. Fiddle fig failures. $20,000 specimens. It’s house plants — and it’s wild, folks. Widely beloved author, artist, house plant expert and Domestic Phytologist Tyler Thrasher joins to talk about root rot, what to grow in a dark basement, the rarest plants in the world, the punishments for poaching them, grow lights for people and plants, houseplant ethics, how to keep your cats from taking whizzes in them, if you should name your plants, how often to repot them, how to keep an orchid out of your trash can, pet-safe, plants, if one should use their own surplus blood to feed them, and what botany crimes I have committed against my own plants.
Visit Tyler Thrasher’s website) and follow him on Instagram), Bluesky) and TikTok)
Buy his book, The Universe in 100 Colors), at Bookshop.org) or Amazon), and his journal, Grow a Damn Plant Journal)
See Tyler at San Diego’s Oddities Flea Market) March 29 & 30, 2025
A donation went to The Loveland Foundation)
More episode sources and links)
Smologies (short, classroom-safe) episodes)
Other episodes you may enjoy: Cycadology (RARE PLANT DRAMA)), Dendrology (TREES)), Indigenous Pedology (SOIL SCIENCE)), Mycology (MUSHROOMS)), Pomology (APPLES)), Attention-Deficit Neuropsychology (ADHD)), Genocidology (CRIMES OF ATROCITY)), Zymology (BEER)), FIELD TRIP: I Go France and Learn Weird France Stuff), Carnivorous Phytobiology (MEAT-EATING PLANTS)), Suicidology (SUICIDE PREVENTION & AWARENESS)), Carobology (NOT-CHOCOLATE TREES)), Cicadology (CICADAS)), Chronobiology (CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS)), Tiktokology (THE TIKTOK APP) with Hank Green), Erethizonology (PORCUPINES)), Coffeeology (YEP, COFFEE))
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Editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions) and Jake Chaffee)
Managing Director: Susan Hale
Scheduling Producer: Noel Dilworth
Transcripts by Aveline Malek
Website by Kelly R. Dwyer)
Theme song by Nick Thorburn
