If you have come to this page, you must have met one of the World Garden Schools’ cheese plants, who are dotted all over the world!
Yooooohooo. My name is Ellen Bella Frewer Ilowski Cheese and I live in England. I was named after Bella Frewer who is a very cool girl. I am a working cheese, meaning that I actually go out to the world to WORK for World Garden Schools. I go to schools, play cafes and festivals to teach the world about cheese plants, kindness and love. Here are some photos of me at work (at the Mucky Cow Play Cafe in Chobham, Surrey, at the Festival of Permaculture 2023, and at Portsmouth High Prep School, Portsmouth):
I was working hard modelling and selling plants at the BBC Gardeners World Spring Fair in Beaulieu in May. Click here to see more photos.
And that’s me (and my human) picking up an award in April 2024. Cheese Plant Books won the Prestige South England’s Independent Publisher of the Year Award !
These are the drawings that students in Pre-prep at Portsmouth High Prep School did of me (they are my fans!):
And here’s my baby photo (I was cute, right???) and another one of my dad Lech Ilowski Cheese. My dad likes to watch TV:
I went home to stay with my dad over Christmas, and he was DISTRAUGHT when I left:
A couple more of my relatives, my uncle Stanislaw Ilowski Big-Cheese and my cousin Frankie Big-Cheese. Frankie is still very young but he is a gangsta. He is a short fella, he has very short legs but a big face. Stuff from Soil Ninja is really good for cheese plants, just check out photo of my uncle Stanislaw.
And photos below are of my big brother (“big sigh”) Vlodney Frewer Cheese and his wife Girly. I am not very close to them.
And below is the young cheese that World Garden Schools gifted to Nexus International School Kuala Lumpur. This cheese comes from a nursery in Georgetown called August Fame and now lives in Nexus’s Forest Garden, under a shady tree.
And here’s the cheese plant that my staff gifted the British International School Phuket. Great school and we are spreading the love all over the world.
Here’s a heart-warming story about Stanley, who was rescued by World Garden Schools:
If you see a cheese plant, don’t forget to say YOOOOOOHOOOO. If you see a cheese plant (or any plant) that is thirsty, please give them a drink. Be kind to cheese plants and everyone else please. Thank you.
If you want to read the story of Roald and the Mindful Cheese Plant, featuring my cousin Aureliusz Cheese, please click here:
Photo: learners at Nexus International School Kuala Lumpur reading about my cousin Aureliusz:
And this is the story of how Aureliusz helped an angry boy:
Facts about cheese plants:
We have holes in our mature leaves so that rain water than fall through the gaps easily (because originally, we live in countries with heavy downpour).
Young cheese plants’ leaves don’t have holes in them. They need to be ‘teenagers’ first!
We thrive best under trees and we don’t like direct hot sun even though our ancestors came from hot countries.
Our full name is Monstera Deliciosa, which means “delicious monster”, though our leaves are poisonous to pets!
World Garden Schools 