Repens

[Ellie Potts]

My partner got me a great birthday gift this year by ordering a house plant cuttings mystery box off of Etsy. I got all sorts of interesting plants that I haven't worked with before. One is the pink panther plant, or Callisia Repens. It's been giving me all sorts of trouble because it seems to dry out no matter where I put it. Finally, I decided screw it and threw it into water with just a small bit peaking above. All I knew is that repens is "creeping" in latin and is used in other aquarium plants latin names, like Staurogyne Repens. Well now all of a sudden the leaves are big and full and turning back to it's pink color! I'm not sure what I'll do with it now, but I'm leaving at least one of the cuttings in water with some pothos to see what happens

 

[GaryE]

They are supposed to be good terrarium plants, and they like a damp well drained soil. I suspect they'd be longer lived with the leaves above water but the roots submerged. I'm no expert though. We have one here, growing well in indirect sunlight, with a lot of very small amount of watering. I may take a cutting and try it as an emersed, on top of the tank plant out in my fishroom. It likes humidity, so it should do okay.

Fully submerged might work short term, but... you can tell us how it does. You may be on to something!

 

[Ellie Potts]

They are supposed to be good terrarium plants, and they like a damp well drained soil. I suspect they'd be longer lived with the leaves above water but the roots submerged. I'm no expert though. We have one here, growing well in indirect sunlight, with a lot of very small amount of watering. I may take a cutting and try it as an emersed, on top of the tank plant out in my fishroom. It likes humidity, so it should do okay.

Fully submerged might work short term, but... you can tell us how it does. You may be on to something!

I'm trying a few cuttings in a few environments-fully submerged, hard submerged, planted in wet soil, planted in dry soil, and half in my fish tank. Will see!

 

[GaryE]

Wet soilis supposed to give them root rot. It has to drain well but be kept damp.

Or so my daughter, who has been into plants for a long time, advises. Unfortunately, her nerd gene was for terrestrial things. I got the aquatic one and failed to pass it on.

 

[Ellie Potts]

Wet soilis supposed to give them root rot. It has to drain well but be kept damp.

Or so my daughter, who has been into plants for a long time, advises. Unfortunately, her nerd gene was for terrestrial things. I got the aquatic one and failed to pass it on.

I am familiar with the dreaded root rot. I'm trying to avoid it by making sure the wet soil has air flow and does occasionally dry out. But if root rot happens to that cutting, it happens. Will just have to be part of my little experiment.