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Adding vibrant colored chinese evergreen house plants into your plant life has many benefits. From its exotic leaves to its ability to adjust in a variety of settings, there are many advantages of having this all-in-one popular houseplants in your home.
Aglaonema, known around the globe by the more common name – Chinese evergreen or sometimes Ag (short for aglaonema), these easy care plants will surely illuminate any dull lebensraum .
Although Chinese evergreen varieties are easy to grow, it’s also important to cater to their unique needs for them to bloom and thrive. Although these plants are easy to grow and care for, it is common for novice gardeners to face some annoying problems that have them scratching their heads. If you’ve been a victim of comparable circumstances, you don’t got to worry anymore.
This is a comprehensive beginners guide that takes you thru all aspects of an aglaonema’s care, the way to maintain your chinese evergreen houseplant, and the way to optimize the conditions for better growth.
Even if you don’t have a green thumb, growing and caring for aglaonema chinese evergreen is easy- but once you find the sweet spot you can have them grow into a large chinese evergreen with minimal effort.
Aglaonemas, commonly thought of as a “lucky plant” to as Chinese evergreens, are a genus of flowering plants in the Araceae family. Chinese evergreens’ broad leaves feature smatterings of white, yellow, orange, pink, and red hues throughout their foliage.
Types of Aglaonemas
There are more than 100 different varieties of aglaonema to choose from. Selectively cultivated for his or her leaf color variety and patterns.
The most popular types of chinese evergreen include:
How to Care for Aglaonema
This is the most comprehensive guide that takes you through all aspects of chinese evergreen care, how to keep it healthy, and how to optimize your home to make them flourish.
Do Chinese evergreens need sunlight?
Aglaonema are known to be low-light plants. They thrive in indirect sunlight and can even bloom in fluorescent light, making them an ideal pick for indoor gardening.
Not sure of the difference between direct and indirect light?
If you place your hand between your plant and the light; and if you feel the heat of the sun on your skin, or if the shadow your hand casts has sharp, hard edges, your plant is indirect light, which is just too extreme for most indoor house plants. If the shadow is soft, that placement has indirect light, and most likely your houseplants are going to be happy there.
They are known to light up compact spaces such as office cabins or indoor kitchens with their colorful leaves. However, depending upon the varieties, these plants vary in light requirements.
One thing common to all varieties is that they prefer indirect, diffused sunlight; direct sunlight can parch these plants of Asian origin.
These plants are native to Asian climes, where they grew in dimly lit environments; imitating any such environment with indirect sunlight and lots of humidity would ensure that your aglaonema blooms in no time.
Humidity preference
Aglaonemas prefer high humidity levels. Although they’re tolerant to low levels of humidity, you’ll use humid environments to your advantage.
Any humidity level ranging from 30-60% is beneficial for the growth of these plants. If you reside in a neighborhood with extremely low levels of humidity, you’ll use a humidifier, especially during hot summers.
These plants cannot bear dry environments and show poor growth under direct sunlight or in a room with no ventilation.
Best soil mix
Whenever you grow any indoor plant, choosing the simplest potting mix holds prime importance. Aglaonema does well in well-drained and moisturized soil. A soil mix prepared from perlite, coco peat, and garden soil would do wonders for your plant’s growth. These ingredients would allow your plants to carry water and remain moist for extended periods.
The soil itself shouldn’t be tight or densely packed. This sort of tropical plants type mix works well for all sorts of aglaonema and may be a proven method to reinforce the colour and appears of any plant.
Using the aforementioned soil mix would also make sure that the pH remains within its optimum range. However, if you employ the other soil mix, then confirm that the soil is slightly acidic, starting from 5.5-6.5.
Temperature
Indoor temperatures, starting from 60-80 F fosters the new growth of those exotic plants. While growing outdoors, it’s important to stay these plants faraway from cold temperature changes. These plants are sensitive to extreme colds and will not show the ideal growth in frosty conditions.
Storing them at any temperature below 60 F would mean inviting plant disease to line in. Apart from plant disease , cold restricts the expansion of Ag, and this may happen as white spots on its leaves.
While growing Ag indoors, confirm that they’re not in any cold room or within the vicinity of cold drafts. During the colder months, try moving them to a hotter room for better growth.
Propagation and division
Now that you simply have grown your aglaonema to its fullest and that they are becoming congested in their original resting place, it’s the proper time to propagate them. Bushy plants living in cramped spaces seldom show good growth.
There are some ways to propagate a plant; like stem cuttings, tissue culture, division, or via seeds.
The simplest thanks to do so is by division.
To do this, simply remove the grown aglaonema from its pot, separate the basis mass into multiple sections, and replant these into individual containers with the proper potting mix.
When your aglaonema plant has attained a particular size, it starts to propagate naturally via suckers. Make sure not to grow a new plant from suckers, since it does not produce the healthiest of foliage.
You can learn more about propagating houseplants here.
How often do you water Chinese evergreen?
The importance of water for plants cannot be overemphasized. The right quality and quantity of water can do wonders for a plant’s growth.
Aglaonema plants are drought tolerant and do not require extensive watering.
Too much water can adversely affect its growth and cause many pest problems. Deep watering them once or twice during a summer week is sufficient to satisfy their needs.
A useful rule of thumb for watering Chinese Evergreens is to water them whenever the soil feels dry.
Placement and location
Many developmental problems faced by Chinese evergreen plant are thanks to wrong placement. It is important to place them at a spot where they receive enough light, that is bright indirect light sunlight.
A few feet away from a well-lit window or in front of a window with a sheer curtain should do the trick. If you are growing these gorgeous plants outdoors, try to place the pot under some shade. Direct sunlight can decolorize an Evergreen’s leaves and is hazardous for its growth.
Pruning
Pruning away the rotten parts of your aglaonema is a good way to ensure its healthy growth. These easy-to-maintain plants don’t require pruning often and grow well on their own. However, it is important to prune them when they show dead or rotten leaves.
Pruning can be simply done using a pair of sterile pruners. While pruning, confirm to not cut the plant from its base- it could severely damage the plant’s growth.
Carefully snip the dead part of the leaves and remove them from the pot. One thing that you should consider is pruning any flower buds. Leaves are the highlights of any sort of aglaonema, while the flowers don’t boast any beauty.
The flowers could be an additional burden on the plant, and therefore should be pruned whenever they start budding.
Repotting
Ideally, aglaonema should be checked for the necessity to be repotted about every two years. If you witness root-bound aglaonema before this point, you ought to consider repotting chinese evergreen without waiting any longer.
The effect of healthy fresh soil ingredients wears off after a certain time and therefore it is important to change the soil afterward. After a year or two, the plant usually grows tall and bushy making repotting necessary.
It also allows you to propagate and divide your plants easily. Repotting is a good time to check the root health of your plant. While repotting, make sure to use a sufficiently spacious pot or container to hold your plant.
Repotting should be done in the following sequence:
- Fill half of the pot with a new soil mix.
- After taking out the plant from its previous pot, put it inside the new one while ensuring that the root structure is not damaged.
- Once it is placed in the new pot, cover the top of the newly potted plant with more potting mix.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where Should I Place My Chinese evergreen?
Put your Chinese Evergreen somewhere where it will get indirect sunshine. This could be in close proximity to a west-facing or east-facing window.
What Type Of Pot Should I Use For My Chinese evergreen?
Chinese evergreen thrive in both ceramic or plastic pots.
Allow enough room for growth and always ensure that your container has drainage holes.
When the plant’s growth slows due to root entanglement, it’s time to upgrade to a larger pot.
Are Chinese evergreen Toxic To Dogs?
Aglaonema, like other plants in the Araceae family, are dangerous to cats. Keep your pets away from this plant!
Symptoms include oral irritation, pain and swelling of mouth, tongue and lips, excessive drooling, vomiting (not horses), difficulty swallowing.
Are Chinese evergreen Toxic To Cats?
Chinese evergreens, like other plants in the Araceae family, are dangerous to cats. Keep your pets away from this plant!
Symptoms include oral irritation, pain and swelling of mouth, tongue and lips, excessive drooling, vomiting (not horses), difficulty swallowing.
Does Chinese evergreen clean air?
NASA lists the Chinese Evergreen Plant as one of the top 10 best houseplants to clean the air of harmful toxins.
Common growth problems
Yellowing leaves
Yellowish leaves suck the charm out of Aglaonema and is one of the most common problems faced by aglaonema growers. To counter this problem, first of all determine which leaves are turning yellow. It is common for lower leaves to exhibit a yellow color because of their old age.
However, if you see yellow color dominating your Ag, it is a sign of some problems at hand. Yellow leaves are caused by an imbalance in soil texture and moisture.
Tight soil without adequate water is the most likely cause of yellowing leaves. However, overwatering can also result in similar problems.
Therefore, it is important to maintain a balance and be moderate while watering your Aglaonema. The right soil mix and moderate watering should be enough to regain the multi-colored foliage of your aglaonema.
Brownish leaves with a paper-like texture
The most likely culprit behind brown crisp leaves is water quality or water quantity. If you’ve been using hard water to grow your plants, your leaves might be rendered brown and dull looking.
Even tap water with excessive amounts of halogens (chlorine and fluorides) could cause this problem. This problem can be solved easily; simply use either distilled water or rainwater in the appropriate quantity for the best results.
Leggy plants
Leggy aglaonema is often caused by inadequate care and maintenance. Scarce and insufficient watering along side turning a blind eye to yellowing leaves could end in the onset of leggy plants.
We have a quick solution for this problem as well.
All you need is to cut the stem 2-3 inches above their point of growth. This would stimulate the growth of new leaves that are erect and colorful.
i like aglaonema,useful article, thank you for the information.