Welcome back, plant friends. To continue with the theme of collector plants this semester, I thought we could cover one of the prettiest and most popular collector plants: the philodendron Pink Princess.

Yes, you read that right. It is the princess of the plant world. And she is pink. 

Like any philodendron, the Pink Princess is very easy to care for, even though she is a collector plant. The only difference with this plant versus the Bob Cee we covered last week is that Pinky requires more humidity. 

You can tell when this girl needs humidity because the pink variegation on her leaves starts to get crispy and brown. In case you haven’t noticed, mine definitely lacked some humidity in the beginning because her first solid pink chunk is brown and crispy.

You could very easily just trim that leaf off for aesthetic reasons, but I like the reminder that not everything is perfect, and it can still be beautiful. 

With the amount of pink variegation on the leaves, this plant requires more light than a normal philodendron. I have mine sitting in an east-facing window right now, with two supplemental grow lights.

A little excessive, I know. But it makes me feel like a better plant mom. 

Like I stated before, Pinky requires quite a bit of humidity. She’s sitting right next to a humidifier that is constantly running. She must be loving it because she did release two new leaves since I arranged her perfectly.

Watering with her is simple: Water when the to 2 inches are dry. They don’t need to stay consistently moist, and they don’t need to dry out completely between waterings.

As we discussed last week, Pinky is chilling in some very well-draining soil. Because what is one of the most important parts of plant care? WELL DRAINING SOIL!

Pink Princesses are pretty easy to propagate; you just pop off the pups that grow off the main stem. The best part with that is they are already rooted! So there is no risk of losing the plant. 

Now, the best advice I can give you when purchasing a Pink Princess is don’t choose one that has pretty pink leaves. Look at the stems. The more pink on the stems, the higher the variegation will be on the leaves. 

For example, my Pinky has a half moon leaf (half of the leaf is pink, the other half is not) and the only reason she has that half moon is because half her stem is pink. 

Now is the perfect time to purchase a Pink Princess: more and more wholesalers are getting access to them; thus, they are becoming more “common.” That being said, their price is slowly decreasing from over $150 to anywhere between $70-$100.

That’s still kind of expensive, but it is a more reasonable price than what it used to be. 

I definitely recommend the Pink Princess; she’s a stunning addition to any collection.