Rub of the green Money grows on trees for house plant expert Tony
AGREEN-FINGERED Cheltenham man has grown the ultimate collection of house plants, including a species worth £12,000 a leaf… and he has already sold three.
Tony Le-britton, 30, turned his lounge into a jungle and transformed his spare room into a greenhouse to nurture his passion.
He has collected some of the world’s rarest plants – including one previously thought to have been extinct.
Tony is now selling the leaves of another rare species for thousands of pounds per leaf to eager collectors.
A professional hair and beauty photographer, he attributes his success with plants to not becoming obsessed by them.
His prized possession is the Rhaphidophora Tetrasperma Variegata – the most valuable species in his collection.
Tony said: “The non-variegated plant is really common – you can pick it up in most supermarkets and garden centres. But my version, that’s the genetic mutation – it’s completely random, which makes it rare. It’s the only one in the world [with that leaf pattern].
“I have already taken three preorders at £12,000 each, per leaf. There’s a waiting list. I have had so many people contacting me. It’s like growing money on trees!”
Tony is also the proud owner of a Monstera sp Bolivia – which is undocumented by science.
He said: “[It’s] from a botanical collector in Austria. I got it as a very small piece of stem. It’s grown to huge proportions.
“I put a picture online and a botanist in the field in Bolivia got in touch with me asking for more pictures – he had no record of the plant.
“The only way to find out what it truly is is to find it in the wild. Using the stem and leaf, we can then identify the family it belongs to.”
A Begonia Chlorosticta, an exotic plant previously thought to have been lost in the wild, also has a special place in Tony’s greenhouse.
He added: “It was thought extinct up until a couple of years ago. I managed to find one from a collector in Europe.”
Tony said his interest in plants stemmed from his grandparents, who would take him to their allotment when he was a small boy.
He also remembers being sat at his grandmother’s feet and watching TV programme Gardener’s World.
Tony said his grandmother Cora was known in the local area for her plant collection, and he had tried to emulate it.
He said: “It just stuck with me. I grew up in the garden. It’s all about the experiences I had when I was younger, being at the allotment with my grandparents.
“People always admired [Cora’s] garden, and she made me a part of that. It’s in my blood, I suppose.
“I didn’t study plants formally, but I feel like around 25 years of growing teaches you an understanding.”
Tony regularly post pictures to his 17,000 followers on Instagram, where he is the envy of the plant world.
Gardener’s World has even been in touch about doing a show from his house after seeing his social media page – which he described as life coming “full circle”.
He is now capitalising on that popularity by selling parts of his rarest plants to other eager collectors.
And he is working with an established fertiliser firm to sell his own brand to other plant lovers, which will be sold by his business Not Another Jungle.
Tony said he had never worked out the value of his collection, but added: “It’s probably worth more than some houses!”