Monstera Deliciosa Care Guide

What’s in a name? For this popular houseplant, its name packs a punch and carries a lot of mysteries. Known for a variety of monikers—the Swiss cheese plant, Mexican breadfruit, and hurricane plant, but to most green thumbs, even new plant parents, it’s popularly called Monstera Deliciosa, a species of a tropical flowering plant from the Araceae family that is native to the forests of southern Mexico.  While its name sounds like something you would hear from a popular comic book character, this tropical native plant makes a great statement whether indoor or at your outdoor garden being one of the most preferred houseplants for many plant parents.  With its name meaning “abnormal” in Latin, one would wonder how that name came to be. However, it makes perfect sense when you recall that one of its highlight features is it's unusual looking perforated leaves with punched-through holes. Also known for being climbers, they can grow to dozens of feet tall with spreading leaves that are almost two feet wide and they also produce an edible corncob-shaped fruit with a taste mix of banana, mango, and pineapple.  

Where To Place Your Monstera Deliciosa

One of the primary points to consider with Monstera Deliciosa is how it loves to trail and grow. It’s accustomed to outgrow trees and other plants in its native rainforest habitat, so it’s important to give it some support if you’re going to grow it indoors by placing a small stake, pole, or trellis to its sides to enhance its growth conditions.  When it comes to the right location at home, make sure you can draw attention to its statement-making qualities and excellent climbing abilities. Position it in areas with a lot of space such as the living room and never in a tight corner or on a windowsill.  It’s also isn’t fussy for its care and maintenance requirements and it’s generally pest-free. Known for being an easygoing houseplant, you only need to find a good balance between sun and shade to keep it thriving. While it tolerates low light making it well-conducive to indoor environments, it grows faster by giving it bright to medium indirect sunlight to avoid what is called “negative phototropism” [when new leaves grow dark instead of light]. 

How To Water

For watering needs, it prefers moderate and even watering about once or twice a week when the soil is reasonably dry. Remove any collected water from its plate and water more regularly in brighter light and less frequently in lower light. Also recommended is to gently mist it once a week in the morning and best keep it in a relatively humid environment, although it’s also good with normal room humidity. 

Maintenance

To encourage root health and optimum growth, feed the plant once a month during spring and summer. When leaves are dusty, just wipe them off with a damp cloth to keep them clean and healthy. During the winter season, keep it away from direct airflow from heaters and it prefers an indoor temperature of between 60-80 degrees.  A final reminder, to curtail its excessive growth, it is best to regularly trim it by nipping off new growth and do not repot every so often. Find Monstera Deliciosa and other amazing indoor plants available for online plant delivery on PlantX!