I think I did something bad…
My Philodendron erubescens ‘Pink Princess’ when I first brought her home.
A few months ago in the middle of autumn I was looking at my Philodendron ‘Pink Princess’ that was starting to look super leggy and had pretty close to no variegation. I wish I took a picture now…the picture above was when I first got it, imagine it four times in height. Before I knew it I was taking my sheers to it. I ended up taking five cuttings from the plant (not including the parent already rooted plant). After I made the cuts the regret quickly set in… What did I just do! Again, I wish I took pictures of the cuttings, but I think I was just feeling shame and didn’t want to acknowledge what I just did!
So many thoughts crossed my mind. “I probably should have tried out air layering”, “why did I cut it five times?”, “Why didn’t I just take one cutting to see if it took?”.
Without even letting the cuttings callous over I stuck the cuttings back into the existing pot and a new one (three each including the rotted plant). Thinking back I’m not sure why I didn’t even bother with water propagation.
A few weeks passed and I didn’t really see any action, but the good news was that the leaves were all still alive. During this time I kept the soil moist, but not overly soggy. I also gentle pulled at the cuttings and noticed they were pretty snug, which hopefully meant they were rooting.
A couple of months later I noticed new growth points developing from all the cuttings. Eventually tiny new leaves appeared and new growth from beneath the soil surface emerged. To my surprise all the cuttings were rooted and pushing out new growth.
Looking back I’m not sure if I would have taken the same risk. But in the end it all worked out and instead of one Philodendron ‘Pink Princess’ I now have six that are all putting out new growth in the middle of winter (probably the worst time to take cuttings…such a noob move!). Hopefully I’ve just multiplied my chances of my variegation x6. But if there’s anything to learn from this experience is that plants are resilient and will find a way to survive (even if their owner is clueless).
Is that some pink I see?
In the spring I’m planning to move them into larger pots with moss poles for them to grow up on. I’m hoping as a group of three they won’t look as leggy. I’m looking forward to how they continue to grow. Here’s what it looks like today. I’m really looking forward to seeing them grow up and fill in. Wish me luck on variation :).