Welcome back plant friends! Bigger is better, at least it is sometimes in the plant world. This week, I wanted to share with you one of my bigger house plants, the Monstera deliciosa.

This plant got wildly popular in the last few years, and for very obvious reasons. If you recall from last week’s article, I compared that plant to the monstera.

Monsteras are known for their humongous fenestrated leaves that look like they were eaten by a mouse or something.

When you start looking into purchasing these plants, oftentimes you’ll find a baby that has solid leaves that just look boring. Fear not! Those are just babies and will more than likely start growing fenestrated leaves in the next few months.

I got my monstera (Linda) last April, so I’ve had her for almost a year. I got her from the local plant shop in Colfax, A Modern Plantsman, which is where I get the majority of my plants from, as well as local nurseries in my hometown. She was just a small bebe, three leaves with no holes. Let me tell you, I was kind of annoyed that she looked that way.

I had her in my room right next to a humidifier, but my cat wouldn’t stop messing with her, so I placed her in my living room and kind of forgot about her.

She must have loved that because, in less than two weeks, she grew three fenestrated leaves, which I noticed when I was moving back home.

Linda’s care is pretty simple in case you couldn’t tell. She likes bright light, so I have her sitting directly in front of my only south-facing window, with no supplemental lighting.

I have a humidifier right next to her, but she is quite large, so I do supplement the humidity by spraying her with a mist twice a day.

One new thing I just started to do with her, and some of my other large houseplants, is giving her a shower. It’s pretty self-explanatory: I place her in my tub, set the water to be lukewarm (you don’t want to shock your plant with too hot of water or too cold of water), and spray her down, making sure to completely soak the soil and leaves.

I let her air dry in the tub for a while until the water stops dripping from the drainage hole of her pot. I wipe any excess water from her leaves, so it doesn’t drip all over my floor, and I set her back in her spot.

I only do this once a month, because it is a lot of water and it takes her about a week and a half to dry out. Then I just water with a watering can.

Monsteras are also super easy to propagate; you just cut below the node and aerial root, stick her in your choice of medium and let her grow roots.

I prefer to propagate my plants in LECA or sphagnum moss with some rooting hormone but to each their own. I can’t really tell you what to do, I just give you my opinion.