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The butterfly method never ceases to amaze me!
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The butterfly method never ceases to amaze me!


Both my regular and variegated string of hearts started looking a bit ratty, so I decided to chop it all up on June 22nd. The first picture is how it's looking today, September 19th, but you can check out how fast it progressed on the second picture. I started noticing new baby vines emerging around July 1-2!

For those of you who aren't familiar with this propagation method, here's how to do it:

  • Cut each string up into tiny 2 leaf segments and bury the center part where the leaves grow out of into damp soil. This is where they will root. I find using tweezers makes this go much faster, especially if you're doing a big pot of them. You can pot up any tubers as well, which are the things that look like little potatoes, and they'll grow new vines as well!

  • My plant room is super dry and hot, as I primarily grow succulents and cacti, so I like to cover my whole pot in plastic wrap to keep the humidity levels nice and high. You may not need to do this, but this is what worked best for my growing conditions. I've used this method many times over the years and plastic wrap or a humidity dome always significantly speeds up the growth. I kept them under strong grow lights for 16 hours a day and take the plastic wrap off for an hour or two daily to prevent any mold or rot. For the first few weeks I mist them every day. When everything looks like it's rooted and putting out new growth, I take off the plastic wrap.

  • Once there are some decently established vines and the mother leaves are looking healthy again (they shriveled up a little during the initial rooting process) I started watering the pot like normal whenever I noticed the surface was dry, and that's pretty much it!

This is a super easy propagation method that is very beginner friendly and has always had a high success rate for me. A handful of the cuttings died off because the roots lifted them up off the surface of the soil and they dried up. I pushed some of them back into the soil, but for the most part I kind of just let them do their own thing and I'd say probably 90-95% of them survived.

by mothfoxtea

12 Comments

  1. Flimsy-Yak-6148

    Incredible work! Super appreciate the detailed steps

  2. cottoncandymandy

    Oh man. My VSOH is looking ratty and very long. I think I will try this!

  4. DuplicateJester

    I did this method after my plant was infested with mealy bugs and tried to save with a cleaned strand – maybe about 15. Only one butterfly survived, but I have completely regrown the plant bigger and better from the single butterfly.

  5. TitusTorrentia

    Every part of my strings of pearls and turtles that I tried to prop died, I’ll have to save this thread for the next time 🙏

  9. wikiwakawakawee

    This might be a dumb question but where does the “butterfly” thing come from?

  10. rezia7

    Does this work for string of pearls? And what do you do if the bit between the two leaves is very short? I’m imagining it may not want to stay under the soil.

  11. GoEatACookie

    Thank you! The vines o n my plant are healthy and happy but the top of the plant is looking ratty. Now I know what to do,, 👍

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