Welcome to our all-inclusive guide to growing, feeding, and caring for your tropical Polka Dot plant.
Our guide will summarize and present overarching research, from a variety of reputable published sources, giving you best, up-to-date knowledge, guidance and tips, for diving right into caring for your speckled pride and joy, so that it can flourish and thrive.
The Polka Dot plant
Latinate Title: Hypoestes phyllostachya
Family: Acanthaceae
Toxicity: Non-toxic and pet safe
It will also include instant data about soil and water propagation, let alone, the most common indications to watch for that suggest your plant is in distress and some tips for saving an ill or dying Polka Dot plant.
Lifespan: 12-24 Months (approx.)
The Polka Dot plant also known as the ‘Triple Splash’, ‘Flamingo plant’, or ‘Freckle Face’ sad to say, will die or go dormant fairly close to blooming.
However, by being housed in indoor spaces, the famous beautiful flowering plant can be cared for, which ultimately leads to a little extension of life just over a year to perhaps, around two.
According to Tovah Martin (Indoor Gardens, 1997), they will live rather conveniently in a terrarium, where they will, ‘thrive under artificial light.’
Terrariums are perfect for providing a humid atmosphere and the right moisture conditions.
Ideally: They can grow approximately 30 inches both horizontally and vertically.
Variations & Compatibility
There are several different kinds: a pink speckled plant, a pink spotted plant, some have purple, and others are ‘bright red splotches’, plus, a white speckled plant with green or lighter leafage.
These are some truly remarkable plants; they can bloom just before dying, or going dormant, with purple or pink flowers – making them an exceptionally decorative plant in their own right, as they have famously dark speckled leaves.
There are even some genetically spliced variations these days that switch the pink and green.
These plants mix well with other plants that prefer treated warmer climates such as, ‘impatiens’ ‘or caladiums’, or, as with many plants, will tolerate similar conditions.
Sowing Seeds
Children (especially young children) will find that planting Polka dot seeds are very fun and engaging.
You can plant these seeds indoors year round.
The seeds germinate in “4 days at 68 degrees Fahrenheit or 20 degrees Celsius”.
For every three inch plant pot adhere to three seeds for each pot but you can increase to 5 if you use a four inch pot.
The “cotyledon” (the first leaves that emerge) will be pale green while the first few true leaves will be color.
Propagation
Propagation can occur in either water or soil, but water is likely the ideal temporary environment to aid in propagation before either potting or transplanting the cutting into the soil for the longer term, either inside or out.
Soil Propagation
Embedding seeds or cuttings into compost full of nutrients, if possible, is the optimal growing method.
Whether it is a garden bed or in a grow pot they should be placed somewhere that has mostly intermittent but indirect exposure to sunlight and will do their best in warmer weather.
In other words, the more sun the better!
Although, the more sun that they get, the more water they will need and they will take less time to grow.
They are best placed:
- either should be placed a minimum of 12 inches from any other plant
- or in a separate 6 inch pot to allow adequate room for the roots to expand and to feed.
Nellie Neal (Gardener’s Guide to Tropical Plants, 2012) recommends that about 1 – 2 inches of mulch or other organic materials like barks or compost be place on top of the soil.
This helps lock in the moisture and creates a little extra humidity, around the roots of the plants, helping to more closely duplicate the plants original tropical environment.
It is also recommended that you incorporate moss and/or compost in with the soil, prior to planting (Marcia Tatroe, Cutting Edge Gardening in the Intermountain West, 2007).
One more thing to keep in mind is that while this plant does require moisture, it cannot be flooded.
Water Propagation
As a tropical plant, originally from Southeast Asia, South Africa, and Madagascar, the Polka Dot will thrive very well in water with an artificial lighting setup.
Subaquatic propagation does, indeed, take longer for most plants, but with the freckle-faced Polka Dot it is indeed faster.
Using a regular method, you would remove the lower leaves and dunk the new stems in the water; still keeping the leaves above the water line.
Utilize mild to moderate sunlight. After a few days, roots will develop and you will have a plant in 2-3 days!
If you experience any stretch of cloudy weather, it will take longer (Betsy Kreidler, Growing with Care, 2002) – I do change water every couple of days if this ever occurs.
Best: When roots grow a couple of inches long, you should transplant to fertilized soil in a planting medium or another potting medium.
Feeding & General Care
While a passionflower enjoys humidity and sun, always make sure it is not direct sun.
This will dry out the leaves, turn brown, and often, dry crispy.
Either over or under-feeding, as well as over or under-watering, can all drastically impact the plant and its appearance, which will deteriorate rapidly. Leaves will droop, and the color will lose some of its vibrancy.
They will require watering two times per day, during the first few weeks, until you see growth (Bost & Polomski, Carolinas Gardener’s Handbook, 2012).
Lightly water the plant (allowing to almost completely dry out between each watering) regularly, during its first year of growth.
Once the plant is active and has young leaves, it will require feeding ‘every 2-3 weeks’ and will need the food applied at ‘half strength’ (Deborah L. Martin, Your Houseplant’s First Year, 2021).
Mahr recommends periodically misting the plants ‘indoors during the winter months’.
It is also recommended to check, by placing your finger in the soil, one inch deep, to ensure it is only damp – before watering again.
Troubleshooting
In nearly all cases, any unhealthy or dying Polka Dot plant can be saved. Or at least salvageable.
If your plant has lost some vibrancy and is a little dull; is leggy and is unbalanced or is becoming crispy at the leaves, then you can try to do something.
A Leggy Polka Dot Plant
Should your Polka Dot plants not get sufficient light, the stems will grow in an effort to have the leaves reach any light available.
Since most of the plant will be in the shade, the stems will be positioned at an angle to shade the lower leaves and your bushiness will become lopsided and/or shabby.
In this case, your best course of action will be to either:
- Get them more light and move them closer to a window (if they are indoors)
- or put them in a less shaded area (if they are outdoors).
These lovely plants are quite hardy and have adapted to some shade; however, they need a general amount of indirect sunlight (and/or artificial light) and will become unhappy quickly if they don’t get enough.
Tackle un- bushy plants by cutting off the lanky stems, which also helps to encourage bushiness.
You might also “pinch young plants to facilitate bushiness” (Neal, 2012).
Pinching is a very simple process. The only tools you will be using are your index finger and thumb “to gently remove the tip of a plant’s new growth(s)”.
This “encourages a denser growth”, overall (Judy Lowe, Tennessee & Kentucky Month-by-Month Gardening, 1998).
Pruning Leggy Branches
According to Lowe (1998), there is a right and wrong way to even hold the pruners when it comes to pruning properly.
She advises placing “the thin blade” right up against “the trunk” and then directionally cutting at a slight angle.
Tip: The angle of cut should be “about ¼ inch above a bud pointing in the direction” the grower wants them to grow. It should provide a strong connection back to the trunk and nice healthy growth.
A Polka Dot with Crispy Leaves
If you notice that your Polka Dot plant has dry and crispy leaves, it is likely due to not enough water or too much light.
Water needs to be indirect, so make sure that light never directly hits the leaves. A lack of humidity can also cause this.
Many sources suggest a home humidifier to raise and maintain the moisture levels in the area of the plant.
Humidifiers come in all shapes, sizes, and prices, but simply putting a bowl of water in the room, along with the warmth of a radiator, should be sufficient to humidify it in Autumn and Winter months.
Through a process of elimination, you should start to see the plant’s moisture and color return.
A Wilting Polka Dot Plant
Most plants tend to suffer from wilting now and then.
With othe distress related symptoms, there are many possible causational influences for wilting. The most common of which, I discover works leading to wilting with a Polka Dot plant is lack of water.
These plants generally need less water than many other plants, however, they still need to be watered regularly. Allowing these plants to dry out too much leads to dry leaves and wilting of branches/stems.
Melanie Florence indicates that providing extra water will work provided you have rapid results.
She suggests, that this is the reason she uses the plant as her ‘water gauge’. In that, she waits for it to start sagging, and then provides water. (Florence, Glass Gardens, 2017.)
Other Things to Watch For
As with many plants, these tough heat lovers do face some challenges.
When they are outdoors, slugs and snails can be a concern, and to quote Toby Bost, “they like shady places too.” Slugs and snails can be damaging to most plants.
Other than that, it is an overwhelming conclusion that this plant is hardly affected by any pests at all.
However, there is a mention of some “whiteflies” and powdery mildew (Deardorff & Wadsworth, What’s Wrong with My Houseplant? 2016) which could be a warning.
The John Henry Company (1975) corroborates this to Toby Bost (2015), but some websites contend this and do not refer to any sources.
Fungal Infections
If you notice your polka dot plant has developed a white powdery coating on its surface, then your plant has a ‘fungus disease’ meaning there is little to do for the plant itself.
These can be seed-borne, soil-borne, and will ultimately rot the roots.
You will need to ‘sanitize’ by removing and destroying ‘infected plants’ to stop the spread from occurring throughout the garden.
This includes infected roots and other subsurface parts, as well as surrounding soil (Deardorff & Wadsworth, What’s Wrong With My Plant? (And How Do I Fix It?), 2009).
Whiteflies & Aphids
Whiteflies and aphids are primary virus vectors in crops that infect plants and cause disease (William Thompson, The Whitefly, Bemisia Tabaci, 2011).
While these pests can be damaging both directly and indirectly, they are generally harmless in low numbers.
However, once ‘population density’ increases to a high number, then ‘damage and virus transmission’ can occur (van Emden & Harrington, Aphids as Crop Pests 2017).
So what can be done?
There are some simple steps that can be taken to help keep your plant healthy.
- According to Mary Flint, ‘in gardens or small sites, spun-bonded polyester or other insect-proof covers’ can be done especially when the plants are young (Flint, Pests of the Garden and Small Farm, 2018).
- If you find that you have an infestation: spray the plants with water with a spray bottle or use a syringe for more persistent bugs. Trim off heavily infested areas of the plant and discard.
- You can also apply the good old sticky insect traps around the home and/or garden. Or, to be more humane, you could try to attract what are called ‘beneficials’ which are other insects who fend off these pests, such as bees or wasps.
- Having a lot of flowered plants can help attract these and others.
As a fifth always good reminder: it is also a suggestion to use fertilizers low in nitrogen.