I've been told by the person who sold this plant to me that she needs tons of sunlight to keep pink/purple. I asked if a north facing windowsill (I live in Brisbane, Australia) is fine, she said yes. I put her there and then saw signs of sunburn, so I moved her away from the window onto a bright spot in the house, but with no direct sunlight. She seemed happy there, but started going green. I did some research and decided to try giving her a couple of hours of sunlight in the morning and moving her away from the window before noon.
I've been doing this consistently for two months, even trimmed some of the sad branches, but I think she still looks sad.
I top water her when I touch the soil and it feels dry so maybe once a week. Her pot has drainage. I leave her in the kitchen sink while the pot drains and then place her back in her two spots around the house.
Please help!!
by Loochy1406
9 Comments
I am not positive but it kind of looks like this plant does not like being top watered. Some plants don’t like top watering as their leaves are sensitive to it. Maybe try bottom watering it and see what happens. Or maybe it could use a bigger pot? I can’t see the pot at all so I am guessing it is smaller. Whether or not it is too small for this plant or not I am not sure. I hope someone who is more knowledgeable can help.
If this plant is like its close relatives, it is super easy to propagate.
You could snip off the good bits, each with a length of at least four nodes (parts where leaves grow from), remove the bottom leaves and put them into a propagation station with water covering a couple nodes on each piece. Don’t change the water out and they should root in a couple weeks.
I’ve started mine over after a spider mite fiasco and it’s as happy as ever. This plant species can take a lot of abuse as long as it is not over watered and gets enough light
Another comment because why not:
I’m always talking about grow lights. I think I might be obsessed (so many of my comments are telling people that a grow light is a good option)
Anyways, I think you could benefit from a grow light. You can even get one with a timer, or purchase a timer attachment for the plug. This way, you can set up the light to the perfect brightness/distance from your plant to get those pink colours back.
She is very thirsty. My guess is the soil is getting so dry that it isn’t soaking up the water, the water is just draining right out. Sometimes the soil needs to soak a little before it can hold onto water.
So when you put her in the sink- water her once, wait an hour and then water again. Or when you water her also fill the sink with an inch or two of water and let her sit in that a while. Either way the pot should be noticeably heavier when you put her back in her spot. I don’t think this is a top vs bottom watering issue, it’s just a dry soil issue.
It’s ok to let the soil dry between waterings tho, she is definitely not going to like having wet soil all the time.
Also, she will tolerate full sunlight a lot better once she’s hydrated.
What is it?
Looks like a variegated Callisia repens. To me she looks under watered. I used to work at a plant store, and what I can say is that these guys don’t like dry soil and they also don’t like being waterlogged. My advice would be to water it before the soil is dry (when it still feels moist but just barely) or the leaves will start drying up right away. Also avoid direct sunlight (early morning might be okay) but give it lots of indirect bright light (try near an east facing window).
They can be finicky plants. The leaves die easily (lower ones die first) and the stems also break off easily, but they can handle abuse without giving up on life like calatheas lol. I think they also like more humidity because in the greenhouses they always grew so fast and pretty, and I’ve never seen one of these do as well in a home as it did in a greenhouse
Oh beautiful!! I love that she matches the pot☺️
This is just how they grow. You have to chop & prop. They’re like tradescantia. They need a good chop & prop or the base of the plant gets ugly
Fortunately, they’re insanely easy to propagate. Cut right before a node & stick it into soil.
These are groundcover plants so they don’t like too much light. Give it either morning light or a bright window with no direct light. You can tell it’s getting too much light when the leaves blanch and not enough light when they turn green. They are tradescantia-like in that they hate getting their leaves wet and will brown quickly because of it. Bottom-watering is definitely the way to go. Also like tradescantia, the leaves/stems will just brown and die for seemingly no reason. You have to keep pulling the dead stuff and putting new stems in the soil to propagate in order to keep it looking nice.