Philodendron stenolobum

Philodendron stenolobum is identified by its leaf stalks: thick, deeply ribbed and often flushed red, holding out long arching blades cut almost to the midrib into narrow finger like lobes. The habit is creeping rather than climbing, with the stem thickening and lengthening along the ground until it lifts itself into a short self supporting trunk. It is used as a single architectural specimen, in a shaded courtyard bed or a large pot, where the outline of one plant can be read against a wall or a fence.

Warmth, humidity and room to lean

Shade to part shade suits it. Outdoors that means filtered light under a verandah, a shadehouse, or the shaded side of a courtyard in a frost free climate; indoors it means a bright room out of any direct beam. This is a tropical plant and it behaves like one, wanting warmth, humidity and a chunky free draining mix with bark through it, and slowing right down over a cool winter. Water once the top of the mix has dried and let the excess run through. Allow real floor space when you place it, because the blades reach out sideways and a plant in a large pot finishes much wider than the pot. Standing it in a group with other pots lifts the humidity around the leaves where a room runs dry.

The failure mode is direct sun through glass. The blades are thin and they scorch, showing bleached patches and crisp brown edges that never recover, and the damage often happens over a single week when summer sun tracks onto a spot that was fine all winter. Watch where the sun actually lands across the year before you commit the pot to a position.

Stenolobum next to Xanadu

These two get shelved together and behave nothing alike. Xanadu is self heading and clumping, staying low and dense, which makes it the mass planting plant for a run of shaded ground or a row of planters. Stenolobum is a specimen: fewer, larger, longer leaves on ribbed stalks, and a spreading stem that eventually wants something behind it to lean on. Buy Xanadu when you need repetition and coverage, stenolobum when one plant has to carry a corner on its own. For that same corner with flowers and a tighter footprint, Sensation is the alternative. More in the tropical range.

Trimming an ageing stenolobum

There is no seasonal prune. Take lower leaves off as they yellow, cutting the stalk close to the stem, and when the creeping stem outgrows its position cut the top back in late spring or early summer and root the crown as a new plant. Feed through the warm months with a balanced liquid fertiliser at label rate, roughly monthly, and ease right off through winter while growth has stalled. Repot every second or third spring into a mix that has not broken down to mud. Leaf shine products are not needed here; a damp cloth does the same job. Aroid sap irritates skin, so wear gloves for cutting and keep prunings away from pets.

Choosing a size

This plant is supplied in one size, 250mm, at $76.95 per plant. The size shown is the pot it arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to when to plant in Australia.