For those of you who are having problems with your Monsteras, Philodendrons, Pothos etc who have been tempted (or advised) to 'take cuttings of your plants stems and start over', you usually don't need to do that. This is why. Even if your stem is totally leafless, because all the leaves either got insect damage or had some other issue and fell off or whatever, if your stem is still firm and green and has leaf nodes and you keep the base rooted and take judicious care of it, eventually you will get this result. I had a section of my Anthurium clavigerum that defoliated. I cut it off at the point that the leaves were lost and replanted the larger section, but kept the entire long defoliated section completely intact (about 4 feet) and just replanted the cutting. Now at several leaf nodes, I am getting a new leaf emerging. Eventually, it will look like Photo #2 again with leaves 2+ feet across, eventually even much larger

I've been surprised in the past, how plants can come back from what appears to be the end. Awesome, actually. I think sometimes the circumstance requires a cutting, because of root rot, or insects in the soil. But otherwise I agree with you, that it's worth a try to save the plant itself.

My husband has a running commentary with our daughter- "So how does an oak tree grow from an acorn?" Some things you just can't explain.

Alyssa, most vining aroids will do this. Its their nature, its how they are propagated most of the time. Real rrowers who sell (as opposed to large scale growers who buy tissue culture plugs from places like Agristarts) take stem cuttings and cut them into small pieces each of which contains a leaf node, and plants the node half buried in soil, and it grows roots and a new plant a lot faster than from seed. I could have cut this 4' piece into about 10 or more pieces and gotten 10 plants. But I don;t need 10 huge growing Anthurium clavigerums. I have enough LOL. But I won't throw away good plant material.

This will work with almost any vining aroid....monstera, vining philodendrons, vining anthuriums, spathoglottis...

So, when visiting the retail greenhouse just make sure no piece of vine falls into your pocket.

LOL I have actually picked up pieces of plants in the parking lot of Lowes and Home Depot that fall off of people's purchases on the way to the car and taken them home and rooted them. Got several coleus that way this summer. Coleus roots like a weed here, you just stick it in the ground and it does;t even wilt

Sorry, not a fan of Coleus so weed?, yes.

To each their own I guess

No dear, I didn't almost kill it. It was never in danger of death. A section had defoliated because it had come away from the totem (overgrown the totem by 4 feet) and the aerial roots had nothing to hang on to, then reattached later to the totem and started normal growth, so it dropped its leaves on that section before beginning growth again. I simply removed that section of stem and did a propagation 'in the center'. Now instead of one large plant, I have three.
Actually, all of these plants ARE related. More than just 'remotely'. Perhaps you should do a little research of your own? They are all DIRECTLY related. Aroids, which include the genus groups containing Philodendrons, Monsteras, Caladiums, Anthuriums, Syngonium, Anchomanes, Rhaphidophora, Amorphophallus Calliopsis, and many others, are all in the FAMILY ARACAE, the Arum family. They are primarily characterized by having inflorescences that produce the 'spathe and spadix' bloom. Some are vining, some are not. But they are all direct relatives.
I think you are incredibly missing my point. I am not discounting the previous advice of anyone here on this forum. I am simply saying, don't give it up for dead even if someone else suggests you should do that. DO your OWN research instead of relying on the advice of other people and you may find that there are many ways to revive or regrow a new healthy plant from something that other people may tell you that you should abandon.

We will not tolerate personal attacks and swearing on this forum. The offending post has been deleted.

Gina1960 said:LOL I have actually picked up pieces of plants in the parking lot of Lowes and Home Depot that fall off of people's purchases on the way to the car and taken them home and rooted them. Got several coleus that way this summer. Coleus roots like a weed here, you just stick it in the ground and it does;t even wilt

Glad I'm not the only one! I have even found like succulent leaves that fell off at the cash register still sitting on the counter and I've asked the cashier if I can have it. They are always more than happy to let me. Otherwise they would have just tossed it. So far I think only 1 of the ones I ever got like that has actually propagated (most are too damaged) but hey its worth a try lol!

I do the same thing!!

My opinion is if its free and it fell off the cart its mine., LOL. Once when we lived in California someone had decided that they did not want this HUGE about 4 ft tall 2 foot wide Jade Plant, dug it up and put it out for the trashman by the curb. I took that sucker home, potted it and grew it for 7 years. When we left CA for FL I could not bring any of my plants, Florida would not allow them in over the state line due to the California Brown Snail quarantine. So I left it for the next tenants along with a bunch of cacti and succulents, bromeliads and a big Dracaena. I think in So Cal Jade Plants in the yard are common, not in my part of Florida though. I also share things with people from my place, I have epiphytes like Anthurium scandens that you can take a couple snips off of and start a whole new basket tout suite.