Tolmiea menziesii
The first sentence I find out a piggyback plant , I was hike Mount Hood in Oregon with a supporter who lived in the area .
I figure this cute herbaceous flora with a funky , flyspeck leaf growing out of its foliage .
I take my protagonist what the heck I was looking at , and he separate me it was call in youth - on - years .
Photo by Brewbooks, Wikimedia Commons, viaCC BY-SA.
We link to marketer to help you find relevant ware . If you corrupt from one of our nexus , we may earn a military commission .
turn out , not only is piggyback industrial plant , as it ’s also roll in the hay , a dear native in my area , but it ’s a valued ornamental in other region with a similar mood .
On top of that , it ’s a popular houseplant in areas not blessed with the perfect Pacific Northwest mood ( I might be bias ) .
Photo by Brewbooks, Wikimedia Commons, viaCC BY-SA.
Whether you designate to grow piggyback plant in a hanging pot in your kitchen , an urn for your entry , or even in the garden , this guide will help you out .
Here ’s a look at what I ’ll cover :
What You’ll Learn
Quick Look
How to Grow
Cultivars to Select
Maintenance
Propagation
Pests and Disease
Tolmei menziesiiis an herbaceous evergreen in the Saxifragaceae family , native to the Pacific Northwest in the cool , moist mood west of the Cascade mountains in southerly Alaska , Washington , Oregon , and northern California .
If you be in zone 6 to 9 , you may grow it outside in funny , moist field . Otherwise , it makes a delicious houseplant .
When not in its reproductive stage during the summer , it looks a fiddling like a small , herbaceous maple tree because the leaves have a similar pattern to those ofAcerspecies .
But then the tiny plantlets form at the point where the root word meet the leaf and all of a sudden piggyback plant life looks quite different from everything else .
This plantlet will eventually fall off and root in the earth . Basically , the youngsters live on the mature plant , absorbing nutrients and wet , until they ’re ready to head off on their own .
Common name(s):Curiosity plant life , pick - a - back , piggyback plant , youth - on - long time
industrial plant type : Herbaceous semi - evergreen perennial
Hardiness ( USDA Zone):6 - 9 ( out of doors )
Native to : Pacific Northwest
Bloom clock time / season : Spring , early summer
Exposure : Partial sunshine , part wraith , shade
dirt type : Loose , loamy , well draining
Soil pH:5.0 - 7.0 , somewhat acidic to neutral
metre to maturity:1 year
Mature size:2 ft wide x 2 foot high-pitched
Best practice : Woodland or pollinator garden , houseplant , ground covering
Taxonomy
parliamentary procedure : Saxifragales
Family : Saxifragaceae
Genus : Tolmiea
Species : Menziesii
T. menziesiihas several common names that reflect its funky generative habit .
It may be call curiosity industrial plant , female parent of thousands ( not to be confused with the succulent , Kalanchoe daigremontiana ) , beak - a - back plant , youth - on - age , and piggyback plant .
In increase to forming plantlets , this species can also regurgitate via seeds and rhizomes .
The seeds form inside fruit capsule on tall stalks following strange chocolate brown - over-embellished flowers with yellow anthers .
The theme are hairy and the leave-taking hirsute , heart - shape or palmate with toothy margins .
There is anotherTolmeispecies out there that is undistinguishable from piggyback works , T. diplomenziesii .
This 2d specie only grows in Oregon and a small part of northern California .
I observe it because you might now and again seeT. diplomenziesiilisted for sale as piggyback plant . It ’s basically the same , and only botanist will know or care about the conflict .
Youth - on - geezerhood grows to about two foot marvellous and wide-cut when fledged , so it ’s not too demand about blank space , and it will bide even small indoors , where it works well in a hanging planter .
alfresco it will spread promptly via plantlets , seeds , and rhizomes in moist surface area , so it ’s perfect for growing as a primer coat cover . When in bloom it will attract all the pollinator .
Piggyback flora is quite well-to-do to work provide you essay and replicate its natural timberland home ground .
Soil
Piggyback plants have it away loose , loamy , racy dirt , like what you would find on a moist woods base , with lots of decomposing organic issue .
Ideally , the ground should be well - draining , but this versatile species will digest both poorly draining and sandy soil . You ’ll just involve to be mindful about watering .
A pH of between 5.0 and 7.0 is okay .
If you ’re cultivating in a container , I love FoxFarm ’s Ocean Forest potting mix .
I use it in my potted industrial plant , raised beds , and to amend small areas of the garden . It ’s made using earthworm castings , bat guano , forest humus , and ocean meal .
FoxFarm Ocean Forest
you could incur FoxFarm Ocean Forest in one and a half cubic fundament bagsavailable via Amazon .
Light
If you ’re growing piggyback flora outdoors , choose a location in tincture or dappled twinkle .
The plant life will stomach fond Lord’s Day , but you ’ll require to be meticulous with your watering .
Indoors , bright , indirect light for most of the day is ideal .
Humidity
Many plants that arise in the Pacific Northwest need a good amount of humidity to survive , but piggyback plant is hunky-dory in the median home humidness .
Do n’t rile worrying about try out to increase the humidness unless you start to see crispy chocolate-brown edges on the leaves .
If that happens , you could aggroup plants together or move yours into a bath or kitchen , where the humidity tends to be higher .
Water
In many theatrical role of the Pacific Northwest , there is constant wet from October through May , but it can be totally ironical during the summer calendar month .
Piggyback plant have adapt to that variety of shift moisture point . If you let the soil dry out a piffling in the summer , it will be altogether fine .
Make certain you keep it equally moist from autumn through give , but curt period of drought should n’t be a trouble .
Ideally , the soil or potting spiritualist should feel like a well - wrung - out sponge , not mucky and wet .
Fertilizing
Plants outdoors do n’t necessitate to be prey unless your soil is exceedingly depleted .
Indoors , you should feed twice a twelvemonth : once in give and once in late summer . Whether indoors or out , practice a fertilizer with an NPK ratio of 1 - 1 - 1 or 2 - 2 - 2 .
In the US , you ’ll mostly find the specie for sale at garden mall and nurseries , but cultivated mixed bag are becoming more rough-cut , especially in Europe and the UK .
Here are a few to look out for :
Cool Gold
Talk about oculus - catching , ‘ Cool Gold ’ has golden foliation and it forms obtuse glob .
Beyond the foliage color , it ’s the same as the mintage in size of it and other characteristics .
Taff’s Gold
Tremendous ‘ Taff ’s Gold ’ is variegated with burnished yellow-bellied and dark-green foliation . It get a bit wider than the species but the same height .
The downside is that this cultivar is prone to revert back to green , so cut back off any totally unripened leaves that organise to encourage the gold variegation to stay .
Variegata
‘ Variegata ’ is a naturally - come about variety that was found growing in the wild .
It has creamy yellowish splotches on dark-green leaves . Otherwise , it ’s just like the species .
Pruning is n’t necessary unless you see stagnant or dying foliage . palpate spare to prune these off .
Otherwise , you’re able to prune leaves to make a shape that you like , but it ’s not necessary . If yours flowers , which does n’t always pass indoors , you may hit these at the basis , as well .
Over time , the original specimen will start to become a routine thin . When this happen , snub it back to the ground and it will re - emerge from the soil with a more impenetrable , thickset maturation .
If your piggyback industrial plant begin to go around where you do n’t want it , you could dig it up . It wo n’t spread into dry or sunny arena , so do n’t care ; it ’s not prone to taking over an arena .
you may propagate piggyback plants from the tiny plantlets it produce , as well as from seeds or by division .
From Seed
If you have access to an existing plant , you have a ready - made seed source . Or , you’re able to often bribe them from companies that specialize in rare or native seeds .
To glean your own seeds , you ’ll need to wait until late summer after it has flowered and the cod have developed .
When the seedcase turn brown and some of them commence to open , it ’s metre to reap .
you may pluck the entire pod or chafe it between your fingers to release the seeds . accumulate them in a bowl or cupful underneath as they fall .
The seeds need to be cold - stratify for at least a month before sow . To do this , meet a bag or sealable container with moist sand .
station the cum in the sand and set up the bag or container in the refrigerator . Set a reminder on your phone to hold them every workweek to ensure the sand is equally moist .
After a minimum of one calendar month , but preferably two , they can be seed in potful or trays indoors for transplant after the last frost date has passed .
Alternatively , you could sow the seeds directly in the ground outside in free fall and let Mother Nature deal the stratification .
Cover the seeds with a bite of soil and then put down chicken wire or some other meshing over the country to protect the seeds from cats , crows , squirrels , and other critters that love to fag in the soil .
Divisions
Piggyback plants spread via rhizome and it ’s easy to divide these to mature elsewhere .
To do this , face for a specimen with multiple chunk of stems . Gently poke down around one of the clumps and vacate it out of the priming .
You might demand to snip away some of the roots to to the full separate the plant .
Set the division in a new spot by dig a maw the same size of it as the root . Place the sectionalization in the gob and fill in around the roots with fresh soil .
Fill in the golf hole you left behind with soil .
From Offsets or Leaf Cuttings
Those offsets are what make youth - on - eld unique , and you know you ’re die out to try your hired hand at propagating them .
Spoiler alert : it ’s exceedingly easy .
The little plantlets that form at the center of the matured leaves can be lightly teased away and do it their own container .
Or , you could just take away the intact folio with its piggyback and all . I favor this method because there ’s no peril that you ’ll remove the plantlet too early on .
The offsets start showing up in the late summer and are commonly pass by spring .
see for those that are about the sizing of a pencil eraser or large on a healthy leafage . utilize your digit to gently tease it away from the parent .
Otherwise , pull or edit out a leaf with just a bit of petiole and an attached plantlet . Stick the petiole in potting medium with the bottom of the foliage just touching the surface of the spiritualist .
Moisten the ground and place the pot in an region with lustrous , collateral light .
Keep the intermediate moist and while roots develop . Either the plantlet will leap off the foliage and start itself in the soil , or the leaf will send out root . Maybe even both .
Either way , keep the fresh emerge specimen in its arise container until the undermentioned spring . Then you may transfer it out of doors or repot into a lasting container .
Transplanting
Most houseplant specialists will carry spring chicken - on - age . Your job is to move it from the grower ’s pot to a big , more lasting container or into the land alfresco .
This will be one of the easiest jobs you ’ve ever done .
Prep the new container by putting a slight potting medium in the base so that the cap sits at the same meridian it is in its be container .
Gently remove the specimen from the growing container and pose it in the new sens . Fill in around it with more potting medium . Water , add a bit more potting mass medium if it settle down , and you ’re done !
For planting in the garden , dig a hole the sizing of the grow container .
Lower the solution Lucille Ball into the hole and fill in around with additional territory , if need . Water , add more soil if it settles , and voila .
Managing Pests and Disease
For the most part , piggyback plant life are fairly easygoing .
Fungus gnatsare nettlesome , but they are n’t the ending of the world . They flow on dead textile in the earth and sometimes on roots .
Aphidsandmealybugsmight also make their mode to your piggyback flora . Slugswill also chomp on the foliage .
If you grow piggyback plant in heavy stiff or other unsuitable soil , chance are high that you ’ll end up facing radical putrefaction at some point .
While this species loves moisture , it does n’t prosper in badly - draining filth .
Too much standing wet , whether from overwatering or poor filth , will divest the rootage of oxygen and cause buncombe .
Root rot shows up as brown , dying folio , and the piggyback plant will finally collapse .
Learn more about root rot here .
Bring the Woodlands to Your Space
Whether you require to fill a woodland - like blank in your garden or you bring the temperate rainforest vibration into your home , piggyback plant is the perfect option .
Even if you just desire to enjoy the facial expression of the unusual plantlet , you ca n’t go untimely .
If you launch this guide utile and you ’re looking for a few moreplants with interesting leafage , arrest out these guides :
photograph by Kristine Lofgren © Ask the Experts , LLC . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.See our TOSfor more details . production pic via FoxFarm . Uncredited photos : Shutterstock .
About
Kristine Lofgren
