Finding Monstera deliciosa by the road side

For those into gardening and ornamentals, chances are the plant Monstera deliciosa is part of the bucket list, if you don’t already have it, that is. 

Instagram is where I go – to look at pictures after pictures of this beautiful plant. I love foliage. I like big leaves. Monstera with its huge green leaves is one that I want to be gracing our living room. A #plantgoal.

Then there comes the Arriba Cebu succulent, cactus, and plant road show, there were pots of Monstera among the other highly coveted items on sale. I expected an expensive price tag of this plant so when I finally checked the price, true enough it’s P1,500 per pot which I can’t afford.. I have to walk away consoling myself that it’s okay since I got two other plants that I wanted for about the same price. 

*We went home with a cobra fern and an anthurium golden jenmanii plus some cactus. 🙂

So anyhow there I was still hoping to have Monstera one day.

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Update June 11, 2020:

I will not be changing the content below so you can understand our excitement hehe but it turns out, what we stumbled upon was not Monstera deliciosa but an even more special big leaf plant – the Epipremnum pinnatum. This plant is native to the Philippines, how cool is that?!. <3 🙂

Epipremnum pinnatum is also called “Dragon Tail”, “Tibatib”, “Balikopkop”. There is a dedicated post about growing E.P. here on Penfires.

**The earliest leaves on a Epipremnum pinnatum looks more like a photos then as the plant age and mature, the leaves also changes until the newest leaves almost look nearer to the montseras and rhapidhophoras plant families.

I have uploaded a Youtube video sharing our Epipremnum pinnatum plants grown from cuttings. Check it out 🙂

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**Below are unedited content from when we discovered this plant and thought it’s a Monstera. 🙂

Simple Walk With An Unexpected Surprise

My husband and I take long walks, about 2 to 5 kilometers if time permits. There was this road that we have been meaning to take that we feel will allow us to get to a mall in our island, an alternate route. We weren’t sure yet if that particular road will get us to the mall, but one afternoon we decided to hit it to see what’s up.

Around 30 minutes of walking, with sweat covering our faces and back as the sun is still blazing on the sky, we chance upon a slight bend in the road, after rounding it, an amazing site was before us. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing! 

WOW! A huge mango tree with it’s main trunk covered and embraced by leaves upon leaves of Monstera deliciosa! 

We couldn’t believe our eyes, it’s Monstera in a natural habitat – free, climbing, feeding off on a tree and not force to grow smaller in pots. Can’t contain our excitement anymore so we walked closer to where it is.

Still marvelling at the sight, we took out our phones to take pictures of this natural beauty.

As we were taking pics, the lady owner, who turned out to be Ms Nette, was looking at us, amuse. We approached her to share our excitement over her tree and the monstera. She asked why the fascination with this particular plant?

‘That plant is a monster, it can kill-off other plants’. 

‘But…but… it is beautiful!’ we quipped haha.

A potted Monstera deliciosa as an indoor plant is our goal; it won’t be latching on other plants so there’ll be no killing or harming other flora specie.

We shared that what’s holding us back from having it is the price. It’s too expensive in garden stores, even in plant road shows and events, and we wouldn’t want to risk buying it online, though in online Monstera is selling at a bit cheaper prices. 

She said she have been planning to have some cuttings after she saw her friend posted a potted monstera on Facebook and it look striking, but unfortunately she just didn’t have anyone to climb the tree and cut some stems yet. We talk some more about cns and gardening before bidding adieu to continue our walk. 

‘We’ll be back Ma’am Nette!’

Oh, BTW we found out that the route we took, about 4 kms, indeed leads to the mall. 🙂

Back After 2 Weeks

The mango tree with its Monstera still fresh in our mind, I told my husband, let’s walk again the ‘Pajac sud road’; of course, the implicit understanding is that we will visit the tree again and hopefully this time, be back home with some cuttings of this famous plant.

Some sites list Monstera as among the top 10 most popular indoor plants being seek by most gardeners and plant collectors. Its leaves have also figured as design in tshirts, paintings, canvas prints, mugs, throw pillow covers, among others. 

We rounded the curve and there it is by the roadside. The mother plant of our soon to be Monstera. Yes, we were that positive and hopeful of getting one to bring home hehe. 

Chancing upon Ms Nette working on her garden, we cut to the chase. We approach her to request for some cuttings. The worst that can happen is she will say no. 

Without hesitation, she said ‘it’s okay, make sure there are nodes in between the cutting that you’ll get so the plant will live’. Yeyyyy!!! Thank you for your generosity Ms Nette! 

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An aside – the world is indeed small. 6 degrees of separation and all. Turns out both Ms Nette and I worked for the same company at the same time, back in 2001. I was in NEC’s EDP department while she work in Finance, that’s our first connection. The second connection is that our now defunct slipper store’s landlady is her sister in law! The world is indeed small especially if one’s family is a ‘lumad’ or a native/local of the island like both our families are. But the best thing is that I gain a new friend who is a gardener, how awesome is that! 

*Ms Nette sells cactus, ornamentals, and succulents from her garden. We got several plants for 10 pesos a piece. Nice!  I’ll feature the garden of Ms Nette in one of the nexts posts on Penfires.

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Hello To Our Own Monstera!

The universe aligned, we now have our own Monstera, for free!

This is the Monstera cutting that we got from the lower portion of the mango tree. We didn’t have a ladder then so we weren’t able to climb up. We settled with what we can get within our reach on tip-toe. 

We’ve divided the stems, put some in pots with soil, while 2 others are in water which we plan to move to pots once its grown longer roots. Are we doing it correct? Do leave a comment with your tips on planting Monstera cuttings. 

Oh by the way, I am spraying the plant twice a week with Silicic Acid, a foliar spray that we got from Succulent Haven Cebu. This spray is effective on our other ornamentals, hoping this can help our Monstera too to thrive and grow healthy. 

I’ll post an update in the coming weeks to let you guys see which of the pots thrive – the ones in water or the ones in soil. Keep visiting Plant Box by Penfires, follow the journey. Thank you.

~Cille, new to the garden realm 🙂

*Crossing fingers that the cuttings will survive and the Monstera deliciosa will grow big where it’s planted.