Polka Dot Plant Care: What to Know

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Today I am doing a plant care video on polka dot plant (Hypoestes phyllostachya). I love this plant! I love the fact that it’s easy to grow indoors, and it does really well in terrariums, fairy gardens, elf gardens, and mermaid gardens. I have videos on a lot of those. I have a terrarium series.

It’s just a beautiful little plant, and you can see the different color combinations. I really like variegated plants like this because it simulates a flower garden in your indoor garden. You glance at it, and you think flowers, even though they aren’t actually flowers, but you just think it. This plant actually does put up a little spray of flowers as well during its growth cycle.

So, just love that these are from the splash line of hybrids. This one, not surprisingly, is called White Splash. You also have the Pink Splash here too; this is another variation of that. You can see, especially with this one, why it’s called the polka dot plant because it has that little bit of a polka-dotty look to it. Very, very pretty!

Okay, as mentioned, it’s very easy to grow indoors if you just keep a few things in mind. So I’m going to go through those things so that you can have really good luck growing them. The plant is actually native to Madagascar, which also makes it pretty cool to know that indoors, it doesn’t grow as quickly as it does in its native climate, but it will grow fairly fast and fill up your indoor garden with some really nice color.

To keep it healthy and happy, first of all, you want to provide good lighting. Bright indirect light is ideal for the pink polka dot plant. This will keep the colors and the leaves vibrant while at the same time preventing the plant from becoming leggy and lanky. This plant does tend to do that, especially if it’s in low light. It will grow towards the light and then get very tall and lanky, which is when it starts to not look so good. So there are some things you can do to keep that from happening, and one is to provide nice bright indirect light.

In our eastern exposure window or a southern exposure window, I would stay away from western exposure windows because the light tends to be too hot, especially in the warmer months of the year, and can burn the delicate foliage. They do wonderfully with full-spectrum lighting, which simulates day length. You can get bulbs for just about any fixture that provide full-spectrum light, or you can get fixtures themselves that have built-in full-spectrum lighting. This is a really good addition to your garden for these plants, especially if you’re having problems with not having enough light for them.

Now, the next thing you want to keep in mind is to water them regularly. These are tropical plants, and if they are not watered enough, they will droop very quickly. The good news is if you catch it just in time and water them, you can often save them from demise, and they will spring back. They may lose some leaves because of the droughting that you did, but they will generally recover. Always water them and all your houseplants with warm to tepid water. I have videos on why that’s really important, and these guys definitely like the warmer water, so keep that in mind as well.

You want to fertilize them monthly, except for December and January, when they slow down. It’s wintertime, and they will slow down growth somewhat during that time. It’s usually good to give them a little bit of a rest then. But from February through November, they do like some nutrients, so they’re pretty good feeders. I have my Green Gourmet houseplant food, which is an organic fertilizer, so I would suggest using an organic fertilizer. You can also use liquid fertilizers, following package directions specifically, or even err on the side of under-fertilizing so you don’t burn their delicate roots. The polka dot plant does tend to have delicate roots, so keep that in mind when fertilizing them. As I mentioned, once a month is really good for them.

They are high humidity lovers, and they also like a moderate temperature. So what you want to be looking for is a humidity level of 45 to 65 degrees and a temperature range of 65 to 85 degrees. A really good way to determine if you’ve got good humidity and good temperatures for these guys is with a hygrometer. It’s really easy to use; all you do is look at it, and you’ll see that it has the temperature and the humidity level. Right now, I have 51% humidity, which they love, and the temperature is 68.5 degrees, so this is actually good for them.

Those hygrometers are fairly inexpensive. I’ll put a link for some below, and they provide a lot of information with just a quick glance. You can move them around your house looking for the right spot, which helps you do that.

Boosting humidity, if necessary, can be done using a humidity tray. I have a video on how to create that. There’s water underneath this layer of marbles, which humidifies the air around the plant, which is great. Plants also humidify each other because they transpire and release humidity that way. They will humidify each other and also provide some humidity to the air you’re breathing.

So that is another good thing to keep in mind: the more polka dot plants and other plants, the better. Misting occasionally will help a little bit, but it’s really not the most effective method unless you mist all day. Still, it’s an additional thing you can do for your plants to keep them humidified.

Okay, so the other thing to keep in mind is the soil that you put them in. You want rich, well-draining soil that will retain moisture. It should have some peat or coir in it, and at the same time, it should drain well. You can add either perlite or pumice to it. I do have a product that is pumice. If you find that your soil seems to be holding a lot of moisture but doesn’t have enough drainage, then add some pumice or perlite to it so it drains well.

Last but not least, to keep your pink polka dot or polka dot plant looking great, you need to prune on a regular basis. They will get rangy even with bright light; they will tend to grow up and start to look leggy and not have that nice mounding bushy look. You will need to pinch and prune back regularly. Depending on the time of year, when they’re growing very quickly in the spring and summer months when it’s warm, you may need to pinch weekly. Other times of the year, probably every two to four weeks, just keep an eye on them. You will notice they need it when they start to sprout parts here and there, and they are not looking great.

So, pinch them back at that point. I’m going to show you here what you want to do: pinch back to the next set of leaves. For example, here’s one; I’m going to pinch back here. You can see I’ve pinched back there, and that will encourage it to grow bushier from that point.

That is something important to do regularly with your pink polka dot plant to keep them looking healthy and happy and really lighting up your indoor garden.

So that is all for growing pink polka dot plants, or polka dot plants in general, because not all of them are pink.

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