hi everyone my name is memo this is my channel how's planty goodness and essentially it's a place
where i like to geek out about my big passion so today i want to talk about a specific plant one
which you might be able to see on the side of me here today i want to talk about the philodendron
florida ghost i'll bring it up and show you a bit closer so you can see some of the foliage
it's not quite at peak white at the moment but we'll dive into that in just a second
so if you look you can possibly see as to why this is called the florida ghost and
very very very cool plant i'll bring it up so you can see one of the leaves and it's starting to
mature quite quite nicely where you can get some of these extra ruffles and splits on the leaves
but i'm trying to find one where it might show it a bit better if i turn this leaf around you
might be able to see why this is called the florida ghost so you can see right at the top
there is maybe where the head would be these two bits here would be where the arms are and
the other two little bits at the bottom are like the little legs which is kind of cool
but yeah let me just do one more little view and i'll bring it up closer you can see
and note the color of the foliage because that's where i want to start with this i
know i've done a previous video talking about the philodendron florida ghost before but
i just wanted to dive in a bit more and talk about my experiences of owning this plant for coming up
to close to two years i would say now one more thing i wanted to show you before i dive in
just so you can see because i've got a lot of plants that have got similar growth patterns can
you see quite how thin the stem is at the bottom and also that there is a very significant bend
janky support sticks as always to the rescue but even then you you might be able to see if i turn
this around this is the most cumbersome of plants that i have you can see that the growing stem
is actually getting a lot thicker than it is at the base so this is one that i have chopped
and propped since it's doing quite well the propagation of that is in pond and i propagated
directly from cutting letting it callous over for a couple of hours and then putting it straight
into pond in a self self-watering pot and it's doing really well i'd like to say i'm just going
to look at it at the back yeah it's doing quite well i think there's two or three cuttings in
there all of them are growing new leaves doing really really well annoyingly i only took that
cutting just before we started going into autumn and winter so it's not as fast as i would have
liked it to be but i'm pretty sure that's gonna do quite quite nicely when spring comes around and
summer comes around again but talking about this awesome foliage one of the things that most people
might not might know probably at this point i think this has become a bit more of a coveted
plant and i know a lot of people want it it's become a lot more available both in the uk and
i think in europe in general i can't talk about other parts of the world but it is a philodendron
that for a while was quite difficult to come by i wouldn't say it would it was spectacularly rare
maybe in the very beginning and i think one of the first few people that had one of these was kaley
ellen and if you haven't checked out her channel please do amazing bits of information i started
my kind of plant journey a bit more seriously around the time when she was starting out as well
so i think a lot of us might have done something similar so we've all learned along the way
but this was one of her favorite plants and i saw videos and i saw pictures but i'm just a bit like
it's okay it's got a bit of cream it's got a bit of white is it really that cool of a plant until
i got one in my possession and yes i can say it is that cool of a plant and i can understand
why kaylee and a lot of other people online have got really really kind of an affinity
towards this plant because it is very easy to grow at least it has been in my experience it's
not been a particularly difficult plant to keep happy it's got slight bumping
on the actual petioles and i'll see if i can bring you in for a bit of a closer look on
that i don't know whether or not the camera is going to focus enough so you can pick that up
you might be able to see that there's a bit of texture on that petiole but if not take my word
for it there is a bit of texture to that patio and the other thing i was going to say i don't
know whether or not is to do with the texture of the patio or anything else this plant for me in
my situation in my experience has been one that hasn't had an awful lot of pest pressures now
you might have been able to see and i'll pick it up again i think this is going to be the up and
down for this plant i'm trying not to decapitate it with a fan that's going at the top you can see
a very dirty i need to clean this up at some point soon but this is probably going to be a summer job
um a net pot and i've still got this is one of the philodendrons that i've still got in a chunky
aroid soil mix mainly because i know and this is something that i kind of found out along the way
this is one that does generally appreciate going close to fully dry before being watered
i don't think i've ever had a chance to over water this plant but i've always
tried not to if that makes sense i don't know whether or not it's particularly fussy in that
respect if you do have some experiences with over watering the philodendron florida ghost
do drop it down in the comments below i'd like to know because i think the majority of people
that i know that have got this plant agree with what i'm saying that it's not a particularly
fussy philodendron now most philodendron aren't fussy and it makes sense because they're epiphytes
they grow usually off the side of trees this is one that does if you give it something
some form of a support janky support sticks because i am too cheap to buy moss poles
and i can't be bothered to make moss poles i think the extent of me doing any form of diy
in terms of giving support to plant plants would be doing the planks i haven't done it for
this plant possibly might try it on some of the propagations that i've got but because the foliage
is as large as it is and as mature as it is that i can see at least in my collection i don't know
whether or not i'm going to have a plank large enough on whether or not i'm going to have to do
several planks together and join them so i don't know whether or not this might be one that i'm
gonna put on a plank if i'd done it when it was a slightly younger plant then maybe but actually to
be fair i'm already seeing some of the secondary characteristics in the more mature leaves so
the slight ruffling within the leaves and i'll see if i can bring it in a bit closer so you
might be able to see it's a very very tricky plant to kind of you might be able to see you can see
some of these lines that are happening along the plant there and you can see that all these ribs
essentially are pulling out of the mid-rib and you can you might be able to see as well some of
the second i'd like to say fenestrations it might not be the just cuts that happens on the leaves
and you can see as well on the bottom leaves let me see if i can bring that up so you can see there
there you go you can see there that that is not smooth it's actually got some serration
that is happening and to be fair other than the janky support stick i haven't really given it
any other real support barring that so it is maturing without too much of an issue
let's talk about extra floral neck trees with this plant and i have got another video on my
channel and i've started getting better at putting things in playlists and you can go and find those
on my channel i think the way that i might have split them up for now and this might progress into
more specific playlists i think i've got a playlist for just the philodendron i've got
a playlist for just the aetherium and i've got a playlist at the moment for tips and tricks
i do need to create another playlist which would be for a lot of my other plants so for instance
the hoyers uh maybe some of my allocations i'm not sure if i've done an alocasia one just yet i might
have done but you should be able to find the video that i'm talking about with extra floral nectaries
on my tips and tricks if not i'll put a comment up here it might be on my instagram profile because
when i was starting instagram and uh youtube a bit more seriously i was doing videos on instagram as
well realize that people appreciate reels a bit more if you're not following me the instagram
details are down below in the description do come along be great to have you along for the ride
but uh yeah i'll find if it is on a playlist i'll see if i can i'm still trying to get used to how i
get videos linked to the top of other videos if i can i might see if i can link it up there
if not i'll kind of say on here that it's on my instagram and just check it out on my instagram
it will be there but extra floral nectaries so that was a very very long segway to talk about
a video about extra floral nectaries apologies but extra four nectaries are essentially little
they almost look like water droplets that happen along the petiole and maybe sometimes the back of
the leaves and that is to essentially harken the cavalry which in the forest or in yeah
in the tropical forest it would be things like ants because it's a slightly sugary
substance and that will bring the ants and the ants will then protect the plant from other pests
that would do the plant harm so really really cool but this is definitely a plant that gets
it not to a huge amount but in my experience it does actually get some extra floral nectaries
it doesn't happen quite as much in the winter and i think i've noticed this across a lot of
my other plants this is more something that you might see in the spring and summer which kind
of makes sense because that would be the time when the plant is a bit more actively growing
so yeah really really cool the other thing i would say in terms of watering with this
in the summer in the spring and summer when there's a lot more light in the conservatory and
it's very very warm in here the people that have been with me for a while will know the sweltering
heats of the summer in this conservatory but um yeah in the summer i think this plant was
getting watered once every three or four days it was drying out like that but it was also actively
growing like mad now that we're in the winter i think it's watering is maybe down to about 10
every 10 to 14 days and i will say this again and i've said this on previous videos
please please please try not to water on a schedule your plants conditions will change
day in and day out even if they're in the same spot in the same location the humidity might
fluctuate because the heating might come on a bit more strongly especially now in the winter
so the air might dry out a bit more even in the conservatory when i've got top-down lighting
i live in the uk a day like today is completely over cars so it's not getting as much light
but for instance yesterday it was a relatively sunny day so it would be needing more water
during the sunnier day especially because i try to keep the temperature a bit more constant during
the winter in the conservatory don't ask about my heating setup in here it's absolutely ridiculous
but yeah so it is one of those things that try not to water on a schedule try to maybe if you want to
be on a schedule use something and let me see if i can bring it up give me a sec the moisture
meter use your moisture meter to actually test the soil on the day that you're planning on watering
and don't water if it doesn't need it move the watering day by a couple of days the thing that
i found works really well for me and i think i've mentioned this on a couple of my older
videos and i do have an instructional video of how to use one of my favorite apps which is the
plant planner app i think if i'm not mistaken it's on my phone i'm also recording on my phone so
i can't check to tell you right now but if not i'll put a little note up there and i'll see
if i can link it maybe in the description as well for both the app store and the play store
as well and that is something that i keep track of my watering schedule my fertilizing schedule
also rotating the plants as well so they don't etiolate which means moving towards the light
all of these things but that's also got a really nifty feature of okay you can set it to remind
you every seven days not to water but to check but then you can kind of put it on and say okay
i want to delay it by a couple of days and it will remind you again in a couple of days time
and you can recheck again and rewater it always when you go to water check first if it's needed
and then water especially so in the autumn and the winter in the summer you can get away
and i hesitate to say this you can get away with a bit more frequent watering because the plants
if it's warm enough and if it's sunny enough they will use up that moisture a lot faster obviously
if it's sitting in sapping wet soil for a very long period of time even in summer and actually
even more so in summer because it's warm and bacteria grows exponentially when it's warm
as far as i'm aware yeah i think that's true um you will get root rot faster but balance it out
moisture meter would be your friend with all this so let me put this down and we can keep talking
one of the last things that i want to talk about and arguably something that has been spoken about
a lot and i'm quite glad that people like kaylee edelman there's a lot of other youtubers out there
that have actually made these comments is that there is no mint version of the florida ghost
and i'll see if i can bring it up and you might be able to see some of my lower leaves some of
the very very very early leaves that i got on this plant they are now looking a bit minty but
don't be fooled it's the way that this plant grows and it's the way that the leaves mature
they can come in uh almost white it's always going to be slightly off-white towards
a beige color it can be quite bright by the way almost white as i'm saying
and it can be a slightly creamier color so you might be able to see some of these leaves here
and then as it fades it fades into a green color which means it can photosynthesize
a bit better now the fade can happen entirely and the leaf can go entirely green and i'm going to
show you a leaf here and you can see that one's almost entirely green now but you can see maybe
some of the speckling that was there from when it was still creamy but i found with this plant not
all leaves will go fully green not all leaves will go mint some of them will stay relatively creamy
to be fair and i still don't understand how this plant photosynthesizes enough to then push out
more leaves because i've got creamy leaves back to back so i'm just like i don't know and it's a
relatively fast grower as well so very cool more kudos points for this plant but
in terms of the mint discussion it is to do with light this is a philodendron that
you can give it a bit more light don't give it scorching scorching light all day long like
you would do for a succulent maybe although it might be able to take it and that is the
secret to getting those whiter creamier leaves and not the minty leaves the minty leaves or
even ones that are coming out green from the get-go it's not getting enough light bump
your light up and if you see a slight bit of an improvement but not enough of an improvement
it needs more light so get it closer to a brighter source of light or closer to a window
that will all help to keep that creamy white almost white color that the leaves can get
when they're coming out which i know is the main reason why some people want this some people are
actually quite happy people were actually buying the mint version and hopefully they
weren't paying any more money than the regular version because essentially it's the same plant
but it is one of those things that some people i think might like the mint color they might prefer
it over the cream color and that's absolutely fine and you know what you can do that even if you've
got the white version just give it a tiny bit less light and you will get a slightly mintier color
it's very simple really it's kind of good because it means you've you've got the control with that
one and this is interesting because it goes against what a lot of the chimeric variegation
most of our plants are variegated tend to be chimeric varications and i've done an entire video
on this previously on my channel you can find it on there i think it's called something variegation
basically let's talk about variation but that and i know i ruffled quite a few feathers on this as
well but please do your own research i did my own research and came to the conclusions that i did
you cannot promote more variegation so more splotches of irrigation on your leaves
by giving it brighter light you can get brighter variegation by giving it more light but the
variegation especially in chimeric variegation is in the stem it's in the genetics of the plant
so if you can see the you've got for instance a monster elbow that has never done a half moon
leaf it doesn't mean it never will but it might take a very long time if most of the leaves on
that plant have only got about 10 to 20 percent variegation that might be all you might be able
to achieve with that plant you might get some nice white segments on it and yeah as i said you might
still get the the kind of half moon the half white and half green that a lot of people really want to
have but it's usually part of the genetics this i don't quite know how the quote unquote variegation
i don't know if it's technically variegation or if it's just part of the morphology of how the
leaves would grow but light does play a part in the brightness of the variegation actually saying
that i'm sorry i've just come a whole 360 around what i was saying it just makes it brighter same
thing applies here so for instance if you don't get enough light you'll be able into your color
if you do give it light it'll be a white color there you go sorry went all the way around there
but i think that's all i want to say about this plant hopefully i haven't prattled on for too long
yeah hopefully you've enjoyed if you've got any questions or comments as always please drop them
in the comments down below i'd love to have that conversation with you we're getting a bit more
active in the comments now which is great i'd love to see that and yeah all that's left to
do is to wish you a great great rest of your day and hopefully i shall see you here soon thanks bye