Philodendron

Philodendron is one of the genus, which has a great number of species. Each and every species vary a lot from each other. This plant has a tendency to grow on a well nourished tree, be a parasite on that and get the nutrition from the tree and air. Few species of Philodendron have a very beautiful pattern of cuttings on them which adds up the different essence placed in our garden and interior. It is really impossible to let go of their variety of leaves, which tends to attract everyone and can add a new look to our home. Let's discuss some points on taking care of them and how they can be beneficial to us in return.

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How to Care for Philodendrons:

Water: 

All Philodendrons take nutrients from air or they take nutrients from the host plant. By this behaviour, Philodendron don’t really need much water as it doesn’t take much nutrition from soil. Hence, we just need to water them only when the soil gets dry out. It just needs soil to be moist. For keeping soil moist for a longer time, we can use coco peat along with river sand while watering the soil, the excessive water will drain and the moisture will last for a longer time.

Light: 

Philodendrons don’t need direct sunlight. Rather we can keep these near a window, where it will get indirect light through curtains or through window coverings. It will be great, if we can provide fresh air and indirect sunlight, by merely keeping them in a shady region of our garden or in an open area.

Environment:

As outlined above, Philodendrons thrive in moist climates and indirect sunlight. They can grow really well, if we are staying in coastal regions and keeping them in our interiors and feeding them with low light. However, it doesn't mean that they will not perform well in non- coastal areas. If we are in dry climatic regions, we can sprinkle water on the leaves and stem to provide a misty environment for them. 

Fertiliser: 

This plant is also one of the super satisfactory plants. It can perform really well, only by nourishing them once a year with organic compost or cow dung compost, whether we are staying in an urban, semi-urban or coastal region.

Propagation: 

These plants are super easy to propagate. Though it's pruning is not required to provide it any shape or keep it dense. But for propagating this plant we can take a good healthy stem from an existing plant, remove its last foliage, place it in a mixture of ½ of sand and ½ of coco peat and water it as stated. Soon, we’ll see a new foliage growing.

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Advantages of Philodendrons

Reacts quickly to the provided care:  

Philodendrons are really spontaneous in what we feed them and provide them. Providing a suitable environment for their growth, they bless us with new foliage in a very less time and can grow their veins larger and healthier. Watering them, as suggested above will result in healthier foliage. However over watering can result in soggy leaves which is not good for their health. Again, less watering (when soil gets dry and not watering them for about one week or so) can lead to turning the tips of the leaves brown and eventually falling them off. However, giving them a correct environment to grow can grace us with a pleasing and healthy plant.

Adaptable to Change: 

These earthly bodies are really satisfactory once and are adaptive to the changes. If we’ll place them in shady outdoors and water them regularly, they will stay healthy. And if we’ll place them indoors with indirect sunlight with the correct amount of water, in this environment too, they will give us green and healthy leaves. These beauties don’t complain in changing their places or conditions, by turning their leaves pale or dropping off their foliage. 

Low Maintenance: 

We have already discussed that they are super satisfactory plants in terms of their maintenance or in terms of their environment. They demand water only when the soil is dry and fertilised once or twice a year. These will be more than enough to keep them happy. 

Clean the environment: 

Their broad leaves are the main reason to supply a great amount of oxygen to our surroundings. Again their glossy large leaves help in attracting the dust and harmful air particles and keep our air clean. It's scientifically proven that keeping plants in our interior will make us feel and attached to nature, which makes our mind, soul and body healthy. This helps us think positive and recreate things and our interests. Their presence will keep us calm, relaxed and help us increase our concentration.

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Prevention from Philodendrons

Due to the evolution of time, these plants have a nature to prevent themselves from animals and harsh climates. Just like Snake plant, Pothos, English ivy, Peace lily and Dumb cane, Philodendrons too are little toxic in nature. Consumption of leaves and sap of these plants may cause irritation, blisters and vomiting in children and pets. As a preventive measure, we can keep them in such places which will be out of reach for pets and children. We can either have them in a hanging vase or keep them on top of a rack. But just keeping them in our house does not harm anyone and will help us in cleaning our environment.