Uhmm...Hayes,

Just when did the earth's tectonic plates separate and send the Anniston area careening toward the equator?

The hardiness of "tropicals" in that area amazes me! Thanks for the pics - and further proof that gardeners should continue to think "outside the box".

Nelson

Hi Hayes,

I am AMAZED! That is GORGEOUS! I want to know details on what sort of microclimate you have there - what side of house it is on, windbreaks, etc. I have one that i would LOVE to put outside in the ground, rather than in a pot. (I actually have 2, only gonna put one in the ground.)

Thanks. Rosemary

Does it die back in the winter?

Thanks. Rosemary

the plant is planted on the ne corner of the house. it looses its foliage in the low 20s...but produces new leaves as soon as the weather warms. mulch the crown for the winter and should should have good luck with philodendrons in z8.

Split leaf philodendron became a very popular landscape ornamental while I was still living in the Hilton Head area, also zone 8a-b. As I recall, the trend started about 15 years ago. I was dubious at the time, but should have known better, lol! I'd been seeing spider plants as ground cover in the area for ages!

Rosey, at zone 8, where are you located? Microclimates make a BIG difference. I don't recall seeing philodendron in Charleston, for example. And maybe not even Beaufort!

I too am using my spider plants in the ground and loving it!

I am gonna try the philodendron, although i may wait until spring to plant it - or do you think i would be okay doing so now? I am in Elmore County, just north of Wetumpka (approx 30 miles N of Montgomery)

I assume it would need to go up near the house? I have a bed I built on the side of the house that it would probably do well in - hmmm, i also have a PERFECT spot for one in the bed around my deck, in a corner. But I doubt i could go deep enough for the roots there - it is clay soil, lots of roots throughout. What do ya'll think?

wait til spring to plant. i think youll get a better jump start without foliage loss from winter cold.

i know of a local philo planted beneath a jap maple and competing roots have slowth growth....but it comes back and grows a little larger each season.

I live in southern CA and it is very common to see this phildendron grow to gargantuan size. I have two in my yard. The largest begin life indoors as a tiny heart-shaped plant in a 4 inch pot about 18 years ago. I planted it into a 10 inch pot along with some other plants and placed it outside onto my patio. It grew into a foot tall split-leafed specimen, so I planted it into the ground. It become a rounded, 4 foot tall plant (like the photo in the first posting) beauty. 10 years ago we moved from that house, dug her up and replanted her in the yard of our current home where she continued to grow to her current height of about 12 feet with leaves that are anywhere from 24 - 36 inches long and about 2 ft wide. She constantly flowers (similar to those of a spath). Current gardeners are trying to trim her multiple stalks and the tangle of aerial and ground roots (they creep EVERYWHERE)to get her to become a multi-stalked erect grower similar to the diffenbachia. I am always so amazed to look at her because I remember that little teeny plant that I brought home from the grocery store . . . I had no idea.

The second one began life as a five gallon split leaf philodendren about 12 years ago. She is not as tall nor as full as her sister, but produces leaves about the same size. She never had the rounded, mounding growth . . . she was always an upright, but those creeping ground and aerial roots are just as bad.

I also have a miniature version of this philo that is called a "Xanadu". It has become very, very full and is about 3 feet tall. However the leaves will get no larger than about 7 or 8 inches long and 4 - 5 inches wide. It is growing in a pot on my front porch and is now filling its entire corner of the porch. I have considered putting it into the ground, but it may decide that it doesn't want to be miniature anymore and I don't know if I can handle another gargantuan philo in the yard.

I am also growing an arrowhead plant and a pothos outdoors. They too have become extremely large. The arrowhead leaves no longer look like the original leaves. It started when I stuck a pot with an old, tired arrowhead in it out in the yard under the jacaranda tree (common in So. CA) and it grew and wrapped itself around and up the trunk of the tree. It is growing from the pot! I've done nothing to the pot . . . no extra soil . . . nothing. Just water.

The pothos began as an old, tired pothos in a pot that i stuck on the side of my front porch stairs near a schefflera plant. The schefflera (trained to become a hedge-like shrub) grew larger and covered the pot and I forgot about it until one day I noticed this extremely large leaf growing from the top of the shrub that looked a lot like a golden pothos. Taking a closer look, that is exactly what it was. I followed it down to that pot that is still under there and that's what it is. . .that old pothos. I took a cutting and planted it under the jacaranda tree to encourage it to grow along the tree also. %

I have a split leaf about 4 feet tall and 6 feet wide. I need to move to a roomier space. Any tips on moving. Please help. I am scared it will be alot of work.