Iridescent plants and their challenges
I seem to have discovered the cruelest rule of keeping iridescent plants: the better I make them grow, the less beautiful they become.
I’m really struggling with these plants because I can’t seem to find the balance between keeping them happy enough to grow, and keeping the iridescence that made me want them in the first place. Every time I adjust the conditions in favor of growth, the color fades. Every time I reduce the light enough to bring the color back, the plant practically stops growing.
I’ve been having this problem with both of my my Selaginellas.
I even managed to confuse my Megalura and Willdenowii, because under my conditions they look almost identical. The leaf spacing is very similar, as is the amount of iridescence they show — which should absolutely not be the case. Both arrived looking absolutely incredible, with amazing iridescence, but it slowly disappeared.
They’ve also only grown maybe 10 cm in a year at best, which makes me think they’re not particularly happy. From what I understand, these should be fairly fast growers. I doubt temperature is the issue, since that windowsil they are on stays at least around 22 °C, but whatever the problem is, I clearly haven’t figured it out yet.
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My Sarawak Begonia is giving me exactly the same headache. It’s losing its iridescence and isn’t thriving. I keep it about a meter away from a northern window, in full shade, and it still has some blue, but maybe only 30% of what it had when I got it. I moved one of the cuttings onto the windowsill, and that one is growing much better , but it has turned completely green. So once again, more growth, less color.
The Oil Fern has made the trade-off even more obvious. When I kept it in very little light, it maintained its iridescence beautifully, but it had basically zero growth. I got it when it was only around 4 cm tall, so obviously I didn’t want to keep it frozen at that size forever. Once I gave it more light, it finally started growing… and promptly lost the iridescence and turned green.
And honestly, this is driving me slightly mad. I don’t want to have to choose. I want the plant to grow and I want it to look like the plant I bought. I didn’t buy an iridescent plant just to slowly turn it into a green one.
The weirdest part is that my Uncinata is not fitting this pattern. It’s under essentially the same conditions as the others, yet it’s still blue and growing like a weed.
So now I’m wondering whether the answer is somewhere between the conditions I’ve tried so far. I have very bright grow lights that I use for stressing succulents and for Hoyas, but I also have a lamp that’s about half as strong. The Selaginellas are going under the grow light. At least, if they start growing, I might have enough plant material to experiment with however I choose to figure out the right balance.
So let’s see where I’m at in a few months with this. I still have a dream of owning a proper terrarium, and as long as these plants are alive, there’s still hope.
Diary written by: Jana Blomqvist
