Spacing & sowing

Plant spacing

7.9 in

In-row spacing

7.9 in

Between rows

9.8 in

Square-foot density

Not suited to SFG

Growing

Type

Houseplant · Perennial

Botanical family

Mixed / other

Sunlight

Bright indirect light, with a little direct morning sun tolerated.

Watering

Water rarely, and only once the soil has dried out completely.

Feeding

Diluted cactus fertilizer once a month, spring and summer only.

Frost tolerant

No

Flowering

July

Pruning

Cut back the straggly strands and the growth comes back fuller.

Through the year

• Mar–Jul Spring Growth
• Jul–Dec Flowering
• Jan–Mar Flowering

Pests & problems

• Fungus gnats Fungus gnats where the potting mix never dries
• Mealybugs Mealybugs strung along the stems and into the leaf axils
• Root & crown rot Root rot, far and away the usual failure, from overwatering or poor drainage
• Shriveled leaves, which mean underwatering or damage below

Garden allies

Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. ★ companion plant

• Beneficial nematodes Steinernema & Heterorhabditis spp.
  Hunts Fungus gnats

  Microscopic worms watered onto damp soil that hunt down soil-dwelling grubs and release a bacterium that kills them within days. Timing is the whole thing: warm, damp soil and a small target grub, which means late summer for most of what they are used against.

• Centipedes Chilopoda
  Hunts Fungus gnats

  Flat, fast, one pair of legs to a segment — and a predator, unlike the slow round millipede it is constantly confused with. It hunts slugs, cutworms, springtails and woodlice by night under mulch and stones. Learn the difference and leave this one alone.

• Dragonflies & damselflies Odonata
  Hunts Fungus gnats

  Aerial hunters that take mosquitoes, midges and small flies on the wing all day, and whose larvae spend a year or more clearing the same insects from the water. A pond with planted margins and no fish is the way to have them.

  Plant nearby BulrushIrisNymphaeaPickerel Weed
• Green lacewing Chrysoperla carnea
  Hunts Mealybugs

  Its bristly larvae — "aphid lions" — impale aphids, mealybugs, thrips, and mite colonies, eating hundreds a week. Adults feed on nectar and pollen from small open flowers and overwinter in hollow stems left standing.

  Plant nearby CilantroCosmosDillSunflowerYarrow
• Hoverfly Syrphidae
  Hunts Mealybugs

  Bee-mimicking flies whose legless larvae graze aphid colonies clean while the adults pollinate. A ribbon of shallow, nectar-rich flowers kept in bloom all season recruits wave after wave of them.

  Plant nearby CalendulaChamomileFennelFrench marigoldPhaceliaSweet alyssum
• Ladybird (lady beetle) Coccinellidae
  Hunts Mealybugs

  The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.

  Plant nearby CalendulaCilantroCosmosDillFennelYarrow
• Predatory mites Phytoseiulus & Amblyseius
  Hunts Fungus gnats

  Fast orange mites that hunt spider mites egg-by-egg, and cousins that clear thrips and fungus-gnat larvae. Sold as a biological control for greenhouses; outdoors they follow humidity — mist and mulch, don’t dust with sulfur.

• Rove beetle Staphylinidae
  Hunts Fungus gnats

  Slim, quick beetles with short wing cases that hunt in soil and litter, taking root-fly eggs and larvae, fungus-gnat larvae, and mites. Mulch and undisturbed ground keep them resident year-round.

  Plant nearby MintThyme