Philodendron Care Guide

Philodendron is the second-largest genus in the catalogue and the one that most often arrives mislabelled. There are roughly five hundred described species, all tropical American, and the trade has built a folklore around them that is only half right: the climbing species with heart-shaped leaves are the cheap, fast, forgiving ones, and the velvet-leaved and mottled forms are the ones collectors argue about. What sells is a leaf that looks like nothing else on the shelf — atabapoense with its long, dark, almost black blade, gloriosum with its pink edge and flat crawling habit. Buyers come to the genus for the leaf and stay for the fact that most of it grows without a glasshouse.

Growing Philodendron

• LightBright filtered lightOut of direct sun, but brighter than the corner most people put it in. A philodendron that gets only reflected light grows long stems and small leaves; one that gets two or three hours of screened morning sun grows compact and produces leaves at their full size.
• WaterLet the top third of the mix dry between wateringsA third is deliberate: this is a genus with a thick, water-storing stem that tolerates a dry week far better than a wet one. In summer that means roughly weekly; in a cool room, every ten to fourteen days. Water until it runs from the drainage holes, then empty the saucer.
• Humidity55% – 75% relative humidity once acclimatisedIt leaves a nursery held at 70% – 85% RH and settles into 55% – 75% indoors without complaint. Ordinary room air is fine for the common climbing species; the velvet-leaved ones want the upper half of that range. Moving air matters as much as the number.
• SubstrateChunky aroid mix — bark, perlite and coco coirBark, perlite and coco coir in roughly equal parts, with the bark graded coarse enough that the mix does not collapse after a month of watering. Philodendron roots are thick and adventitious, and they need the air pockets a chunky mix leaves. Repot every two years, not every year.
• Temperature18 °C – 30 °CThe widest band in the aroid catalogue, and the reason so many of these plants end up in offices and hallways. Below 15 °C the plant stops growing and the roots slow to nothing; above 32 °C the leaves curl and the edges brown. Avoid a cold windowsill in winter.
• PropagationSingle-node stem cuttings in damp sphagnumCut a stem with one node and one leaf, bury the node in damp sphagnum, and cover it. Most species root in three to five weeks at 22 °C – 26 °C. The node is the part that matters; a leaf without one will sit green for a month and then fail.

Growth is a stem, not a rosette, and that is the whole of the genus's behaviour. A climbing philodendron extends a stem, roots from every node it can reach, and throws leaves from the growing tip; give it a pole or a plank and the leaves get bigger, give it nothing and the stem runs along the shelf. The crawling species — gloriosum is the example — do the opposite and travel across the surface of the mix. Neither is difficult. The genus is forgiving of low light, missed waterings and ordinary humidity, and its one real demand is drainage: a philodendron will rot at the node faster than most aroids.

Bare-root export and transit

Export suits the genus because the plants are lignified enough to travel. Each is lifted, washed free of substrate, dipped in an anti-fungal and bactericide solution, and its roots wrapped in sterile Chilean AAA sphagnum that is damp, never wet. The wrapped plant goes into an EPS-insulated box inside a corrugated carton, and that box holds an internal buffer of 18 °C – 24 °C at 70% – 85% RH against the ramp and the tarmac. Sealed, it keeps condition for 7 – 10 days. Because the nursery runs 18 °C – 32 °C, the plants leave already hardened; what they dislike is a cold hold on the way.

Questions buyers ask