Swiss Cheese Plant (Monstera Deliciosa)

I‘d like to introduce my Monstera (Swiss Cheese Plant) which lives in my front room, that I bought one rainy October evening last year for five pounds…an absolute bargain! I had to drive home with it taking up all of the passenger seat of my MINI! I found this lovely mid-century style taupe glazed plant pot in Homesense which works really well. I planted it within a plastic pot which was exactly the right size to fit in the plant pot because I find I can tell better how the plant is doing for water when it’s sat in a ‘pot-within-a-pot’. The pattern has a retro feel about it which I think looks a bit like inverted monstera leaves [see below]!

…Saw this monstera in Anthropologie in April… I hope mine grows this tall!

I thought I’d include this snapshot I took in Anthropologie because I am really impressed with the increase in stores that are embracing plants and greenery into their displays and store ‘aesthetic’. Anthropologie are always up there with some of the best in store design and their current use of large scale plants such as this work so well…I used to be a window dresser so always notice shop fixtures and fittings/design. I would love to be the person that gets to source and ‘curate’ the greenery for these places! On the same topic, one of my favourite stores for their prevalence of plants in store is & Other Stories… I actually enjoy looking at their display of cacti and succulents as much as I do shopping there (…their Regent Street store is consistently good but their Amsterdam store was even better)! I will add some photos from there in a later post, or maybe even dedicate a whole post to current store design that incorporates plants.

CARE TIPS:

So far I’ve found my monstera quite easy to care for, but over the winter it’s crucial not to over water it. I was definitely giving it too much water at first and found that the leaves would ‘weep’ at the edges slightly which means the compost is too wet. It doesn’t do so well in colder weather and definitely looks happier now it’s warmer and brighter.

My front room doesn’t get sun until later in the day so at first I was worried it would be too dark for the plant to thrive, but so far it’s been fine. I make sure to wipe the leaves with a damp cloth regularly too to help keep the dust off.

I feed my plant every 7-10 days with Baby Bio and often don’t find I need to water in between unless it’s been particularly hot weather. In terms of new growth, I’ve noticed about 5 or 6 new leaves since I’ve had it which have been appearing more regularly since spring [see photo below]. At the moment I’ve supported the monstera with a plastic rod but I’ve been looking into making a moss stick or using a coir rod as it gets bigger.