hypoestes phyllostachya

polka dot plant

This photo was taken in October 2020, when I purchased it from my local gardening centre.

I usually like to do lots and lots of research on plants and flowers before purchasing, so I know if I am capable of caring for them and also because when I first became interested in house plants, I spent a lot of money on plants which died a couple of weeks later due to over-watering and/or watering with the wrong type of water (tap, instead of distilled).

However, this was so pretty and cheap, I didn’t care!

After only a couple of weeks, new leaves were starting to grow but they also ‘drooped’ a lot too which after watering would instantly perk up.

I quickly realised that this plant was very sturdy (droopy leaves still looked ‘fresh’ rather than going brown) and had a fast growth rate.

february 2021

I had started to understand what it needed. Watering at least once a week (letting it drain through) and diffused light (through a net curtain).

I had given it a trim (cutting off individual leaves) and at least two new leaves would sprout from that spot so I was trimming it quite a lot as it was so satisfying to see! However, it was also prone to getting ‘leggy’ (long stems) so after giving it a deeper trim (closer to the base), I decided to just let it grow without touching it for a while, hoping that it would become ‘fuller’ looking.

may 2021

3 months later, it had definitely become a lot fuller and the leaves were much bigger, and pinkier!! I think the latter was due to the increased sunlight time and stronger rays. I would try to remember to turn the pot around every couple of days as I could see the leaves reaching towards the light.

I really loved how it was looking but I noticed during its watering, that some roots were sticking out at the bottom, which from my (little) experience, means it needs repotting into a larger pot.

I didn’t have a suitable sized pot to hand (only small ones) so I decided to try propagating it instead, especially as I had success propagating a snake plant so I had some confidence in it! However, I didn’t get round to doing this until a couple of months later.

june 21

I had cut off two chunks out of the ‘mother’ plant and propagated them. One was with longer, leggier stems (made up of 2 separate stems, lower leaves removed, leaving a couple of top ones) and another I emulated the look of when I had first bought it, where the stems are shorter and leaves are closer to the soil. This was made up with around 4 separate stems of leaves. I accidentally sprayed too much water on the leggier one and the leaves started to drop, so I just need to keep an eye on it.

july 21

The leaves on the longer stems haven’t improved but they haven’t turned brown or crunchy yet so I still have hope for them. I may just cut the leaves off and hope new ones grow in its place.

The other pot where the leaves were closer to the soil, is thriving! It took around 2 weeks for the roots to establish, well, I’m assuming the point when the leaves started to perk up was when the roots started to form from the areas I had cut and was taking in water well. Prior to that, I was watering them every day and also noticed I had to empty the outer pot out since there were no roots to absorb the water at the start of propagation. I only noticed this because it started to smell (since the weather had also turned very hot!).