Long story but I'll keep as brief as possible.

30+ years ago I brought home a couple of cuttings of a near dead Swedish ivy which had belonged to my late nan. Cuttings rooted and the plant we grew to call 'the mother tree' got so massive cuttings from it went to most family members and I gave the MT to mum as she had the space. Unfortunately after mum died one of her neighbours decided to hack the poor thing down to ground zero and again I restarted with 2 little sprigs.

It's going well but I wondered if I should be training it upwards on a moss pole or frame or leaving it to trail along willy nilly. We've always grown it as the latter but it does seem to have arial roots in the stems do I did wonder about a moss pole.

Any suggestions gratefully receive


TIA

Whatever you would prefer to see, or sounds like fun.

Stems root readily (I see nubs sometimes just in air) so I think you could stick it on a pole. But I think it more naturally just crawls and roots. The stems aren't that 'sturdy' in my experience.

sallyg said: Stems root readily (I see nubs sometimes just in air) so I think you could stick it on a pole. But I think it more naturally just crawls and roots. The stems aren't that 'sturdy' in my experience.

They are very brittle. That's the excuse mum's ghastly neighbour gave for demolishing the Mother Tree. 'it just fell apart ' apparently. Knowing her she was just heavy handed and it broke off. It was really beautiful. She was a bit of a concrete queen and thought plants indoor or outdoor were pointless as they needed looking after

I have one right now. It was given to my library workplace one autumn as it had grown HUGE for the owner. I never saw such big leaves! It declined indoors of course. and what I have now struggled with some leaf spotting. I admit, I mostly ignored it this summer, hung in a shade tree. Now I am salvaging a few nicer cleaner stems to try and share.

This is what it does in the ground here. Hardy in sheltered spots, but not evergreen.


If the ground doesn't freeze where you live, you might be able to establish some outside, which is great insurance against losing the potted plant, and grows so fast once it gets going in the spring, it can yield a lot of material to supplement your existing pot, or make more pots.

purpleinopp said: This is what it does in the ground here. Hardy in sheltered spots, but not evergreen.

• Swedish Ivy (Plectranthus verticillatus)
• Uploaded by purpleinopp

If the ground doesn't freeze where you live, you might be able to establish some outside, which is great insurance against losing the potted plant, and grows so fast once it gets going in the spring, it can yield a lot of material to supplement your existing pot, or make more pots.

I wouldn't have thought of growing it outside although I do put a lot of my houseplants outside during the summer. I've always groen Swedish ivy indoors. I'm lucky to have saved any of it tbh. The mother tree was massive and gorgeous o I'm hoping my little one does as well

I hope so too. Best luck!