I've been hunting for PP since last year and could'nt believe my eyes when I spotted these two on the shelf of my local HD.
Does it look like the real thing?
Also if anyone has any tips on keeping the pink in the leaves and what makes this plant happy I would appreciate it.
I have grown the plant for years best to keep off any solid black leaves as the var can leave if not kept in check. Full sun or full shade are not good for it.
I found a good sized one last fall, I have kept it in my house with light coming from an large east facing window, never direct light.
This is one of the older leaves.
And one of the newer leaves, lots of new growth since I sprayed it with Messanger 3 weeks ago.
Beautiful.
Get out of town, you did not find that at HD! I can't find anything at HD except half dead garbage! My HD just bites!
Good to know about removing the plain dark leaves.
This is a brand new leaf this week, it starts out with the coppery sheen but you can see it does have some nice variegation.
I still have this in it's original pot but I have a layer of gravel below it that I add water to for some humidity, I hope, seems happy anyways. And I occasionly just mist with a spray bottle I keep nearby.
Thanks for the leaf advice. I will be sure to keep the dark leaves trimmed off.
Your plant is beautiful Sue. I have just the window for it.
I have been searching the HD's and Lowes for more than a year for this plant and had no luck.
I was shocked to see it at my local HD as I was there just a week ago and they had none. I must have got there just at the right time or I'm sure they would have been gone.
Lucky you to find them at HD. I didn't realize the leaves could get so big. Mine was such a puny plant and never grew. I gave up. Great plants, both of you.
woohoo! I found one today at a local nursery, 19.99 on sale for 12.99 & this is the best part, I had a 10.00 off coupon!!!! Now to repot and then will take a photo to share. I cannot believe that I found one here!!!!
They are so gorgeous. So now the question is, do I grow it in or out doors? I know that if I put it out I will have to bring it inside when the weather gets cold, but would it benefit from our hot humid summers?
Uh, April....what local nursery? I'm kinda local to you too!
Thanks,
Susan
Susan
Buchanan's Native Plants in the Heights. Usually they don't have much that interests me in the way of "indoor" plants but they had about 1/2 dozen of them or so marked 19.99 but for "card" holders they were 12.99. Still 19.99 is a good price. I guess if Buchanan's has them then Cornellius must have them as well and possibly Maas- that is just too far for me to go.
Good luck.
Here it is
another shot, I think.
Great news April ! It seems PP pops up when you least expect to find one and in the most unlikely places. LOL
Yes and boy was I happy. I probably wouldn't have looked for it if you hadn't posted yours to remind me. Thank you!
I also would have walked right past this one, if I hadn't been drooling over this thread last week, I found it on my recent shopping spree.
I know your supposed to take off the non-variegated leaves but I couldn't bring myself to do that just yet
it was a bit pricey but it has 4 different trunks/growth points and its very well rooted.
It's also marked Pink lady (seems to be listed as both on line)
Mostly they are listed as house plants , but I plan on putting mine in the garden .
does anybody else have one in the ground.
Heres one of mine. This may become my new parent plant.
How do you propagate it?
Brian start feeding that baby so you can start listing that for sale. I have one that I got off EBay but it doesn't have that much pink on it yet.
I am like celt33040 don't want to snip any leaves off yet. They do have some small areas of different colors.
Calif_Sue & Aprilwillis & Celt33040 yours are beautiful. Maybe some day mine will look close to yous.
BTW Brian what would a good fert. be for these?
Linda
Thank you Linda- I was wondering the same thing about fert- also what conditions would encourage more variegation?
Where's the experts when you need them.
I also got one on e-bay, although I enjoy the process of "ebaying" the end results are usually not as much of a thrill . Later Ill post a pic of my e-bay purchase and youll see what i mean.
Celt isn't that the truth!? I have been disappointed so many times that I wonder why I bother, but it's the lure of something that is hard to find locally that often catches me and the thought that I am getting a bargain, which I never am.
2pugs, I'd like to know that as well!!
Most philos love high humidity and regular type fertilizers I use the 20 20 20 formula usually also osmacote time release fertilizer. The more variegation the plant has the slower it is to grow usually but they look so much nicer.
As for Ebay. I rarely buy plants but I find that certain sellers are much better than others. I have a few personal favorites some are good friends. Being on ebay all the time I have to say I can feel for some sellers. Some people are very hard to please but then again their are certain sellers who are knowingly selling mislabled plants or worse. I can understand a few mistakes, I know what its like to ship plants and it is never a easy task to keep everyone happy a 100% of the time but many of us try.
Thanks for the info- is there any correlation to the amount of light and increase or decrease in variegation?
I believe your variegation usually depends on your original genetic material. If you have a piece with very low amounts of variegation it will unlikely produce highly variegated leaves further down the road. The only thing I have seen that can increase this is cutting the plants and keeping the stronger less variegated area from becoming dominate. In some cases some varieties will produce much nicer variegation once cut. But if you allow it to keep growing with out cutting it you will find that the less variegated areas will grow out faster.
Brian, does this mean you should cut off the less variegated leaves so that the more variegated ones can become dominant?
Thanks,
Trying to Learn
GH
I believe so not just the leaves but also parts of the main vine as well. In most cases you can see the variegation in the vine streaking usually. If this is disapearing cut the top portion back down to the streaked area. The new sprout will be much more variegated
Brian thanks for the tip on growing pink princess.
I also agree with you about EBay, I have gotten some very nice plants, and if I have questions I email them and they try to help me out. It is like anywhere else there are some merchants that do try to scam you, but with all that I have spent on there I have been real fortune to have received some excellent plants. Whenever I want something and can't find it I go to my favorite shopping web site and start looking.
Now back to the tropic at hand:
I am planning on siting my Pink Princess on some petals for some extra moisture, and feeding it with less nitrogen, I think I have read somewhere using less nitrogen will help with variegation. I'm not sure if it will work with the Pink Princess or not.
Brian, thanks for the info.
older photos of my other mother plant
And a close up of the leaf.
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!
Your's puts mine to shame! That is amazing!
I was just performing unvariated leaf surgery again, now that i have some more new leaves opening.
Can I propagate this plant from a leaf cutting?
I also just realised that the variegation on the back of the leaf is not the same as the front,
am I just having a duhhhhhhhh moment or does everybody know that ?
I have some cool patterns going on underneath the leaves.
celt I hadn't looked so hadn't noticed!
from previous posts I am guessing that if you propagate a leaf w/o variegation you will not get variegation?
Well I figured, I'd try it out on one of the sacrificail less variegated leaves, before I chop off a nice one pink one :)
Most of mine have some variegation but not all have pink .
Good idea! Why didn't I think of that?
April
How do I go about propagating a leaf cutting on a PPP, Is this one of the ones i can just leave in a glass of water. The leaf stems dont really have an open fleshy part they are kind of sealed where they met the growing trunk. Should I cut them so they have an open stem??
or root hormone and potting mix?
Ok, Brian, I really can't see any variegation on those leaves. Better cut it off and send the plain thing to CA where I can properly dispose of it. Just helping out.
