We often think that gardening needs to involve good soil, compost, and lots of sunlight, but there are less traditional methods growing in popularity.
Alicia Qian and Nigel Rannard met through their love of plants via Instagram and initially got to know each other by plant swapping.
They're now in a relationship and have since created a home and business centred on growing wild and wonderful tropical plants powered by hydroponic systems.
Hydroponics is the technique of growing plants in water enriched with nutrients rather than in soil.
Alicia's background in science and research, combined with Nigel's engineering experience allows them to turn their large collection and hobby into a full-time job.
"I do most of the infrastructural building of systems, maintaining of systems," Nigel says.
"I focus more on genetics and breeding, and experimenting with making hybrids," Alicia adds.
Alicia and Nigel's garden fills the inside and outside of their home on Bidjigal Country in Rockdale, south-west Sydney.
The dining room operates as a "hydroponics test space." The former lounge room hosts a floor-to-ceiling tent filled with tropical plants while the backyard is a jungle filled with hybrid cultivars.
"Many species suit hydroponics but particularly a lot of the aroids we grow come from jungles where they're epiphytes and so they're growing on bark naturally without needing soil," Alicia says.
Nigel's hydroponic set up "can mimic the occurrence of a very strong wet and dry cycle" that allow tropical plants to thrive.
Hydroponic systems
Powering the majority of the plants is a flood and drain hydroponic system.
The system starts with a reservoir of water that is pumped up into a tray that the plants are sitting in. The system is set up on a timer so that the water is pumped up five times a day and stays in the tray for five minutes before completely draining away back into the reservoir.
This is to ensure the plants are never getting soggy. Nutrients and a pH adjusting chemical are added every month to the reservoir as well.
The plants grow in clay balls, or 'leca' that are great for drainage.
"They hold moisture inside them, but they allow any moisture that's held between the balls to just release and allow air into the root zone," Nigel says.
Lighting
Plants inside the house are growing with natural light and flood lights.
In the grow tents, Alicia and Nigel have set up specialised grow lights.
"A full spectrum light including ultra-violet and infrared wavelengths. It brings out more colour, it brings out better health in the plant," Nigel says.
Hybridising
Alicia creates new hybrid anthuriums by collecting pollen and controlling fertilisation.
"Hydroponics provide the optimum conditions for plants to go through more life cycles more quickly. They reach maturity faster, they flower more and therefore [we] have more opportunities to create more hybrids."
A hybrid is created when two genetically different parents are bred together. The aim is to create a bigger gene pool along with plants that have new, unique traits such as size, shape, colours, and textures.
Some species will cross well together, while others won't.
"It's really still trial and error though which is part of the fun and experimentation," Alicia says.
The hybridisation process starts with an inflorescence — for anthuriums this looks like a long spike which is covered in many tiny flowers.
The flowers start off as female and produce a sticky wet substance that indicates it is receptive to pollen. After a few days the flowers go through the male phase and produce pollen.
"By having the phases separately, the flower usually cannot pollinate itself," Alicia says.
Alicia collects pollen as it appears, bags and labels it and stores it in a freezer until a suitable mate is in the receptive female phase. Then she simply dabs it on with a paintbrush.
If fertilisation has been successful, red berries containing seeds will form and then the cycle starts again.
Some of the outcomes include beautiful anthuriums with large textured leaves or some have shiny crystalline patterns.
Once shared and sold online they get lots of feedback and progress photos that help to understand how the new plants develop over time and which hybrid crosses have been most successful.
"Our customers are avid collectors from around Australia who are really interested in the quirky, or the collectible, unique kind of hybrids that we create, and they in turn share with us," Alicia says.
Watch this story on the Gardening Australia website or on ABC iView.
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