Mentha, I once saw a picture of a massive German Empress in full bloom and have never forgotten it. Last year I took some cuttings of what I think is oxypetalum from a plant down the street growing wild on public property along the road. No watering, no care and probably been there for many years. Another tough, survivor plant.

Russ

Oxy has canes as well as flat stems. I'll have to clean my plant up and take some pictures so you can see the growth. I agree oxy is about on the the most hardy epies out there. Mine suffered a lot when I was sick the last time. It hadn't been watered for a few months and still it thrived and even bloomed.

Mentha, the epi down the street has canes, so oxypetalum is the only epi that grows canes, or one of the few? That's something I didn't know and would certainly be an identifying characteristic on an old plant.

Thanks, Russ

I believe there is a dwarf version of oxy. I can't remember its name. This is mine. Never mind the damage. I still haven't cut out all of it. Sorry for the poor quality but I only have my phone camera right now. It used to reach the ceiling and was crawling about 5 feet in all directions. It was a sight to see. It was only two feet tall when I was gifted it, three years ago.

You can see the canes and the signature wavy flat growth that is pretty much a dead giveaway of it being oxy.

New growth, still wavy. It tends to get damage to the ends in which they will turn yellow or sometimes pink.

Even though it has tremendous damage. I already cut out half of the plant. After a quick feeding of osmocote a few weeks ago, it is showing new growth. It is also a heavy feeder if you let it be and will eat you out of house and home in a few months if you don't keep it in check.

Many of the branches broke off when a Rhipsalis fell on it. The stems tend to snap in the middle if they are not supported, it will just grow areal roots on the rib and continue on. I just snap or cut those off and stick them back in with the parent plant.

It's a good thing I went and took pictures, I found a mealy bug colony hiding in a fold.

That's an amazing plant Mentha! And obviously very, very tough. I guess California is the mecca for growers of epis, most of the magnificent blooming epis I've seen in pics were from there.

Thanks for all the pics.

Russ

Actually I have better luck growing epies in Tennessee than I did in California. It's too dry there. This guy will go out on the porch come spring and it will probably need a hand truck and saws all to bring it back in in the fall. The only reason it survived the cold is because it had so much growth that the outer stems protected the inner growth. It is in a 24 in pot and now stands 4 ft tall after I cut off damaged growth. It will get a severe root trim and new soil in a few weeks. It will get a good feeding then be ready for outdoor life about the time the dogwoods bloom.

Interesting you were in California Mentha, it's good to have experience in multiple climates. Will you add in a fertilizer to the soil mix when you root prune and repot? Obviously to say oxycardium is a strong grower is an understatement.

Russ

Yes, I will add a little osmocote and probably also a systemic insecticide like Bayer 3 in 1. I will also give it a top dressing of gravel before it's exposed to the rains.

Hi Woodnative. Do you still have this beautifull plant?

Unfortunately no it just wasn’t a strong grower for me.

Hi. Thank you for your fast answer! But that's soo sad, it was beautifull :( I would have loved to buy a cutting from it. Do you know if anyone have something similar, not the NJOY, but similar to the one you had with those patterns/colour variation? Kind regards, Iben

Maybe Nancy still has hers? I did distribute a few at the time. I have N'Joy (or similar) growing fine for me but that original plant, though beautiful, was just too temperamental and slow. I imagine it would need near perfect (e.g. stable temps, light and humidity) conditions to grow well.

If someone still got it, maybe Nancy? I would love to hear from them. I got good conditions (heated greenhouse with temperature control, humidity control and so) and i think i would be able to keep it alive. So please let me know if anyone still got this plant? :)

Woodnative sent me a cutting shortly after he first got it. The poor thing survived until just a few months ago, but it never thrived. It just kept producing small white leaves and finally just gave up and died. It’s really hard to grow. Other varieties are much more rewarding. I also have a Manjula, it is a very slow grower, but very pretty.

Oh, you got the manjula? That is so beautifull too, do you by any chance sell cuttings?

Whatever this one is it is a much easier grower

Woodnative, do you sell or are you interessed in exchanging cuttigs?

iben-rasmussen,

sorry, no selling for me. I would reccomend finding a nicely grown Costa Farms plant. Cuttings on this plant didn’t really work out for me.

I still have mine. New growth has no separation between leaves, they are just in clumps. Not interested in selling either and it's against forum rules.

Sorry to all, i had no idea it was against forum rules to buy/sell.

But i got some rare pothos and philodendron to Trade, and would badly want a cutting or 2 from that nancy just uploaded some photos of, i just think its soo incredible beautifull in that variagation! Would you be interessed in trading cuttings with some other kind of pothos or philodendron?

Is this a Pothos Manjula? I lucked out and got it in a 3" pot at WalMart for $3.74. It was in a group from Costa Farms but had no tag. I removed from the pot, separated them, and placed in a larger pot so it would show the leaves better.

Hey jay:

Yes, that is definitely a 'Manjula'. Nice find! :-)

BTW: Sorry it didn't have a tag...everything should go out with a tag, but once it's in the store, we don't have any way of controlling what happens. We've talked about the idea of doing sticky labels instead, but several retailers aren't on board with that.

---Justin
Costa Farms Horticulturist

Perfect! Thanks for clarifying that Justin. I plan to get more. It's the 4th in my recent collection of Philos and Pothos.

As each leaf ages it becomes a work of art. Most with 4-5 shades ranging from dark green to off-white. There actually are methods of artistic painting called Hydro Dipping and Paper Marbling that create a similar effect to what these leaves do naturally. Look these up and see.

Some tags can get moved or lost from so many people browsing the plants and that's everywhere for me. I have a couple other Costa Farms plants I've had for years that are doing well.

Also thanks to those who contributed to this post. Otherwise I wouldn't have known the name of this cultivar. I found an image of it on-line early this week and couldn't identify it until I landed here. I instantly added it to my wish list.

Jay, you might enable Messaging in your settings, some folks might want to contact directly. You scored well in finding Manjula in a small size. I Ithink initially it was only available in hanging baskets, which is normal policy for new introductions.

Russ

I checked my settings and it appears that's enabled. Could you please send a test mesg to me? Also, how do I send a message? BTW - some days I spend more time reading your posts here than time reading anything else.

Thanks Jay. I should see "Messages" with your other personal info when I click on your name at top of your posts, and it's not there. Clicking on Messages enables anyone to send a note directly. I'm no expert but you should be able to enable it thru your personal info page. Maybe someone else will clue us in on how to do it.

Russ

Jay, click on my name above and you'll see what I mean about Messages. Your info only lists Activities.

Russ

I found a setting that may have made a difference. I allowed msging even if I don't follow (or am followed?). I didn't see a way to message you though. Do I need to follow first? Thanks for the tech help.

When I click on your name it goes to your public profile. I see no 'from' and 'to' and box for comments. When I mouse-over your name I see some options but none that you mentioned. In my profile it has an empty 'messages' section with 'inbox', 'sent', & 'archived' but nowhere to compose. I'll try with some other browsers to see if there is a difference.

Jay, you should be able to click on my name above, then on Message, and send me a note. So you go to my name, not yours, to post. It will show a 'from' and 'to' and a box for comments

Russ

Hi everyone,

I just thought I would show you my Manjula after growing it inside my house in a bright window for 2 years. The leaves are smaller now, but look how nice and full it is. It doesn’t make long vines like the other varieties.

That's nice. Did it get direct sun? For now I'm keeping all my Philos & Pothos out of direct sun and I put them outdoors on nicer days when I can. I have outdoor chairs that have patterns like your metal table that I place them under. In the evenings I put a chair on its side to filter the sun. The improvised chair shades don't look nice like that but the plants are doing well in the warm humid breezes they get.

It's early to tell but mine seem to want to vine. A Pothos Neon I got 3 weeks ago is. My Philo Brasil grows about 3x faster thAn the Neon. For now I wonder if less direct light encourages vining.

Jay,

it just gets a little filtered sun through the window. The Manjula is the only one I have found to be slow growing and stays compact. This one hasn’t been cut back.

Very beautiful Manjula, Barb. I like the pot it's in too, as well as the surroundings.

Russ

Thank you Russ.

I wish my 'Manjula' would stay as compact as yours, barbmock! It looks fabulous! Mine is a tangled mess. :-(

---Justin
Costa Farms

I have really enjoyed my plant Justin. Thanks again!

My $3 P. Manjula is doing great despite leaving it in noon day summer sun for 3 hrs one day. I forgot about it that day. Here's a pic of it now. Compare it to the one above from June 1.

I'm trying to encourage it to vine by keeping it outdoors in the summer. That seems to be working. I keep it and my other house plant Aroids outdoors in the shade except during rain & wind events. For those in other parts of the world, July here is probably the hottest, most humid, and sunniest month of the year. Below are some side-by-side comparative growth pics:

Looking good, Jay!

Part of my 'Manjula' pothos has reverted back to a solid green color, and those sections have begun to grow much larger and faster than the rest of the plant. The variegated plant just doesn’t grow that much, and I keep it outside where it gets a ton of indirect sunlight and water every day. There's plenty of the variegated foliage, but it's being covered up by the solid green leaves. I'm planning on repotting it anyways, where I’ll separate the reverted vines from the main plant and plant it up separately. Seeing as how fast it's growing, I want to see how large it will eventually get. Is it still technically considered a ‘Manjula’ if it has lost its variegation? I was planning on planting my ‘Manjula’ into a hanging pot, but it just doesn’t grow very fast. So I’m thinking of just giving it a regular self-watering pot and using a metal plant trellis that's in the shape of a cone for it to grow up over time, since it doesn’t grow very fast anyways.

My 'Manjula' had a shoot that reverted, too. I wasn't as charmed as you are by yours, so I removed mine.

It's growing outdoors in a hanging basket, in deep shade, and still in the original pot so it has to be horrifically rootbound. But it's growing by leaps and bounds (the vines are about 8 feet now) --- however the leaves are staying much smaller than when I first brought it home. It's interesting how different growing conditions affect this cultivar, eh?

---Justin
Costa Farms Horticulturist

I wouldn't say that I’m charmed by it, perhaps curious. I definitely plan on isolating it from my ‘Manjula’ and plant up separately. It will go back it to the hanging pot because it does grow so fast. One of my neighbors had a similar plant hanging from her porch with the vines spread out to shield her place from the hot afternoon sun. I think I might do the same. My ‘Manjula’ has definitely been growing, albeit at a very slow pace. This reversion has only happened just recently. I noticed it, but thought it was just my plant finally deciding to grow. Which it was, but for an entirely different reason. Without the variegation, this plant definitely doesn’t hold back and grows like a weed. If only the variegated plants could do the same.

Does the Manjula reversion look and grow like a Pothos Jade or Philodendron Cordatum if you're famialir? I can't see that well from the photo but it resembles a Pothos Jade. Is it your fastest growing vining Pothos or Philo? Quite interesting.

My Philodendron Cordatum grows at about 10" per mo so far this summer that I've had it. It's followed by Philodendron Brasil which seems to be only slightly slower.

I bought a Pothos Neon which I discovered is actually about 25 individual plants when separating it. It came with 5 of the indiv plants showing some reversion to darker green. It may have had less light before I got it. I'm keeping some in only room light to see if they'll revert more. Here are pics of 4 of the 5:

1:

2:

3 and 4 (one shows some burn from the sun):

Jay, I have Neon running acoss the ground in and around my shadehouse, sometimes climbing 4x4s or oaks nearby. They all occasionally have the dark green areas you see on your plants, and I don't think it's caused by more or less light. Seems to be just a random occurrence and nothing to do with reverting to an all-green plant, in my experience Neon's beautiful yellow color is very stable.

Russ

I've been having difficulty finding a Pothos Jade. I want to combine one with my Manjula. I've only seen one and when I went back to buy it the next day it was gone. What I have seen being sold often is Pothos Marble Queens with green reversions. When they do that, they look like non-variegated Pothos Goldens to me. In fact, I bought a Marble Queen because it had 2 all green reversions.

Update: My $3 Manjula I got back in June is now a hanging plant with 4 vines. The longest of which is over a foot long. It's been outdoors all summer is dappled sun and I've been good about not over watering. The below photos show its growth progress:

It's interesting how different all of your Manjulas are compared to mine! Some of yours have that really nice "freckle" effect that Marble Queens get. They're beautiful! They also seem to have the more delicate, shiny, soft-looking leaves that are typical of a Marble Queen. My Manjula had matte, almost rough and slightly thick leaves compared to all other Pothos I've seen.

Here's my big hanging pot. I really miss it. I left it back in Virginia when I moved! (Excuse the bad lighting in the first picture, that's the only one I have of the whole plant. It was huge -- like 2 ft+ wide.)

Jay, I have some green reverted Manjula and could send you a couple of cuttings if you wish. Seems to me that reversions of Golden Pothos and Marble Queen would look the same, are they different in shape? Reverted Manjula has same wide leaf shape as it's parent.

Daxeek, your Manila's are well grown and beautiful.

I didn't realize there was much variation in the leaf appearances until I saw your pics daxeek.

The Manjula I have has leaves in tight bunches that are short, wide, often asymmetrical, and they bend up on the sides. They are almost in a funnel shape. The vines seem to have more segments too. The reverted Marble Queen leaves are more flat, larger, longer, and mostly symmetrical:

The 2 reverted Marble Queen vines were not reverted at their bases so I cut them and I'm rooting them in water. Here's one leaf from near a vine base that still shows some variegation:

At this point, to me, Marble Queen and Golden are about the same in shape except for color. The Marble Queen might have slightly narrower leaves but I need to compare more of them.

Russ - I sent you an e-mail.

Chris, not sure if you will be seeing this but wow! I have no idea where I was when you posted this but just amazing. I would of grabbed that one too) How does it look today?

Mike

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