What a monster you are

Monstera Deliciosa AKA Swiss Cheese Plant

This plant has quickly become the “it” plant. No more fiddle leaf fig, everyone wants to get their hands on a swiss cheese. There is no wonder why either, this plant is beautiful. Of course, I am partial to the tropical plants known for their foliage rather than flowers. I currently own three of these beauties, two mature and one baby. When I got the “baby” monstera she only had 3 leaves. Now she has well over 20 and they keep on coming. It seems like there is a new leaf rolling itself out everyday. The mature plants are quite enormous and take up a good portion of my bedroom. Being swallowed by the plants around you is heaven so I don’t mind. Recently one of them was acting really strange. It was creating little yellow leaves and all of the mature leaves were wilting. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what was wrong. I always do my research when I bring a plant home (in order to match the conditions of its environment) so I knew I was doing everything right. Well it turns out, not everything you read and hear is always right. Since starting this plant journey, that will never ever end, the one thing I have learned it to just do what you feel is right. Just because my monstera likes to be treated a certain way doesn’t mean the one you have wants the same treatment. Everyones house has it’s own environment with different circumstances and you care accordingly. Anyway, back to what wail ailing my sweet baby, I carefully took her out of the pot and realized that she was so root bound she wasn’t getting any water. I let her soak in a pan full of water for about an hour and the next day she was back to normal, even putting out a new leaf. Given the right care they will flourish, very fast growers. I highly recommend getting one of these even for starters. The swiss cheese is by far one of the easiest plants I have ever taken care of. I love watching them grow. I have been counting leaves of this baby one ———-> for quite some time now and I can’t believe how big she has gotten, almost needs a new pot. I cut off a little piece of one of the big ones while trimming and put it in some water to get some roots going. I gave it about two weeks and today I decided it was time to pot it in some soil. Hopefully this goes well, I have never actually transplanted from water to soil. I’m going to go eat some french toast then I will come back and post a picture of the newly planted monstera!

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