Chlorophytum spp. - Spider Plant

[Robert Salmon]

I have a common variegated spider plant with many children and planted one of its spiderettes after the baby had been accidentally cut from the plant. I potted it almost a year ago and it lives on.

The spiderette is growing, but I wouldn't say thriving, as a cluster of small, quite attractive, broad-leafed rosettes and has so far declined to produce any of the usual long, arching leaves. It gets perhaps an hour or so of morning sun in an east-facing window box, regular water, and very dilute fertilization once a month or so.

Is this rosette stage part of its development? (I can't find any mention of rosettes on chlorophytum sites.) And how do I get it to act normally? Or have I produced some mutant?

[Cereus-validus-...........]

You wish you produced some new mutant. More likely your plant is stressed out.

Since the plantlets, you call spiderettes, (they are not children) are produced only on the flower stems of a mature flowering plant, you should wait until the plant flowers and encourage it to do so.

If the plant gets enough daily light and is regularly watered and fertilized, it should bloom from a rooted plantlet within a year. Which of these requirement haven't you met? Here's a clue: an east facing window isn't good enough.

Also, the plants do very poorly in soggy soil. They do not do well in standing water. They grow best in a pot with drainage holes in the bottom. If you look at the rootstock, you will notice the plant has tuberous roots and is adapted to a soil that occasionally dries out.

[Robert Salmon]

Thanks, Cereus. I think I'm watering it correctly, but I will take your suggestion to find it more sun - not easy in my shady house.

[Cereus-validus-...........]

A south or west facing window would be much better.

Stick your finger deep down in the soil to see if it is too wet. Window boxes always have problems retaining too much water because they have no drainage.

[Robert Salmon]

Oh, my bad. By window box, I meant a window that projects from the side of the house with glass on all sides and top in which I'm growing a variety of plants, each in its own pot. I didn't mean one of those troughs that hang outside a window.

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