String of Pearls
Curio rowleyanus
also called senecio rowleyanus
Beads on threads that spill over a pot rim — handsome, brittle, and quick to rot if it is watered like a leafy plant.
- Type
- Houseplant · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green
- Sunlight
- Bright indirect light, with the midday sun kept off it.
- Watering
- Water very sparingly, letting the potting mix dry almost through between times.
- Feeding
- A balanced feed monthly in spring and summer, nothing in winter.
- Frost tolerant
- No
- Flowering
- September
- Pruning
- Trim away dead or bare strands to keep it looking whole.
- Mar–Sep Spring Growth
- Sep–Dec Flowering
- Jan–Mar Flowering
- Plant spacing
- 7.9 in
- In-row spacing
- 7.9 in
- Between rows
- 9.8 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Shallow, wide and fine
- Working depth
- 4–12 in
- Can reach
- 18 in down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 12–20 in across, about 1.5–2.5× the width of the plant
- Shallowest pot
- 6 in of soil
Roots run out flat and near the surface to catch light rain before it drains past, and they rot in ground that stays wet. Width of pot and sharpness of drainage matter to it; depth of pot hardly does.
The habit is String of Pearls’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
- Cats
- Recorded toxic
- Dogs
- Not on a list we read
Recorded as toxic to cats by Pet Poison Helpline.
No ASPCA entry under either name. The Pet Poison Helpline row carries a Cats species tab and no Dogs tab, so the dog verdict stays unlisted rather than borrowing the cat one. That row prints no Latin name anywhere, which is why this citation records an entry title and no Latin: it is one of the three pages on that source with no scientific-name field at all.
- Aphids Aphids on the newest growth
- Mealybugs Mealybugs — white cottony clusters gathered at the stem nodes
- Root & crown rot Root rot, the reliable consequence of overwatering
- Pearls gone shriveled through underwatering or too much direct sun
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Green lacewing Chrysoperla carnea
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.
- Hoverfly Syrphidae
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.
- Ladybird (lady beetle) Coccinellidae
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.
- Aphid midge Aphidoletes aphidimyzaHunts Aphids
A tiny midge whose orange maggots paralyze aphids and drink them dry, twenty or more each. Sold as a greenhouse biological control and resident outdoors wherever there are small nectar flowers and an unsprayed aphid colony to find.
- Assassin bug ReduviidaeHunts Aphids
A patient ambusher with a curved beak it drives into whatever it catches — caterpillars, beetles, bugs, and the occasional bee, so count it a generalist rather than a specialist. It will jab a careless finger too, so admire it and leave it be.
- Big-eyed bug Geocoris spp.Hunts Aphids
A stubby 3 mm bug with enormous wrap-around eyes, working the soil surface and the low foliage for aphids, mites, thrips and insect eggs. It is the main natural check on chinch bugs in a lawn and it is killed outright by insecticide.
- Damsel bug NabidaeHunts Aphids
A slender, mantis-armed bug that grabs aphids, small caterpillars, and thrips in low crops and meadowy edges. Leave a strip of unmown grasses and flowers for it to overwinter in.
- Dragonflies & damselflies OdonataHunts Aphids
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.
- Garden birds PasseriformesHunts Aphids
Both things are true: birds strip your currants and a brood of blue tits takes several thousand caterpillars out of one fruit tree in a fortnight. Net what you must and welcome them everywhere else — a nest box near the apples is worth more than a spray.
- Minute pirate bug Orius spp.Hunts Aphids
A pinhead-sized true bug that is the best natural check on thrips, and happily spears aphids, mites, and insect eggs too. It needs pollen when prey is scarce, so keep something flowering nearby.
- Parasitic wasps Braconidae & TrichogrammaHunts Aphids
Tiny, stingless wasps that lay eggs in or on caterpillars, aphids, and moth eggs — the white cocoons riding a hornworm are their calling card, so leave that caterpillar be. Umbel flowers with shallow nectar keep the adults fuelled.
- Praying mantis MantidaeHunts Aphids
A sit-and-wait ambusher that snatches caterpillars, beetles, and anything else that wanders close — friend and foe alike, so count it a mixed blessing. Tall, structured plantings give it perches and egg-case anchors.
- Soldier beetle CantharidaeHunts Aphids
Soft-winged beetles seen mating on flower heads in high summer; adults and larvae both take aphids and soft grubs. Open composite flowers are their landing pads and hunting grounds.
- Spiders AraneaeHunts Aphids
Webs, ambushes, and night patrols make spiders the garden’s steadiest generalist predators, taking whatever flies or crawls past. Mulch, ground cover, and undisturbed corners keep the population dense.
Houseplants, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com