It's almost a leaf!

10 years ago

I got this philodendron gloriosum in late December. The biggest leaves are about 10-12 inches long.

After several weeks, I saw a little green sprout emerging from part of the stem. It didn't grow much, but I figured maybe it was just r e a l l y slow with new leaves, and it was still winter, so, okay.

Then in March, I saw this funny pinkish sprout a the other end of the stalk, which seemed to appear out of nowhere. Like, one week there was nothing and the next week there's this inch-long sprout:

And that was obviously in active growth, while the green sprout just sat there, so about 3 weeks later, when it started to be doing something more interesting than just getting taller, I started taking more frequent pictures. The first one is from April 10.

At this point I was expecting it to pop loose from the sheath any day. But it kept getting bigger, more than it was leaving the sheath!

And with the picture from 2 days ago (aren't you out yet?!) I seem to have hit the photo limit, which is amusingly appropriate.

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Comments (5)

J Feathersmith
Original Author
10 years ago
OMG, I thought that failed to post completely! I got an error message and the forum didn't show it, and after waiting and waiting for each image to upload, I thought I would cry. . . well anyway, here's yesterday:

And today! Much excitement!

I also noticed a few days ago, with some slight alarm, that there is another little pink spike coming up right next to the base of this leaf. Already. o___o This plant may be working on crawling out of the pot much sooner than I expected.
tropicbreezent
10 years ago
That is a beautiful looking plant. They normally have a stem that runs along the ground but it looks like when yours was potted up that was buried. So the plant will be righting the situation and possibly taking off for distant places before long, LOL.
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Danielle N
10 years ago
Very cool plant!!!
J Feathersmith thanked Danielle N
J Feathersmith
Original Author
10 years ago
LOL, yeah. When I read up on it before buying it, I was a little concerned about how to eventually deal with its rambling habit . . . but the one in the store (which was REALLY big) was so gorgeous I couldn't resist. My original plan, though, was to get a smaller plant, but they decided not to get some small plants, so it was this one or nothin'.

About half its stem doesn't seem to be doing anything - the other little sprout it had is now dying back - so I'm wondering if, when I repot it (the soil it's in now is kind of awful, holds moisture a loooooooooong time, doesn't drain fast), I should chop it off and position the rest of the stem so the new foliage isn't right at the edge of the pot. That might keep it contained for, I don't know, maybe a year? LOL (Then I could pot the maybe-inactive stem separately and see if it makes a new plant. . . )

(Picture is from before the new leaf started up)
tropicbreezent
10 years ago
You can always trim off the plant when it starts to get too long and then use the off cuts to make more plants. I got one a few years ago but it doesn't do much. I suspect the problem is high temperatures with low relative humidity for too long during the year. But it's still there.