PlantFiles: Tree Philodendron, Cut-leaf Philodendron, Selloum
Philodendron bipinnatifidum

I always loved this plant when I was living in my old abode on the North East. It was a tough house plant and nice looking to boot. I had an old friend who lived in upstate NY and had a greenhouse she dismantled every spring. In it lived one of these philodendrons and when I first saw it on a summer day I thought I had stepped into some tropical paradise. The plant was huge! It turned out that the lady had cut off, with a sawzall! because it was so big, the top of the entire plant with the leaves when late fall came, and she reassembled the greenhouse over her tropical plants. By the time she was ready to re-disassemble it, the plant already had regrown its first leaves and was ready to continue growing in the sunny part of the year. I believe it even had flowers. Here in San Diego were have truly gigantic specimens growing in Balboa Park. I got mine, a flowering picture of which I uploaded to the picture collection, when I found a trunk of this plant laying on the side walk one day, baking in the sun. It had no leaves, but you could see a tiny green speck at the very tip of it. It looked like an incredibly large sausage, bent almost into an L shape. I took it home and dug a shallow groove into which I laid in one side of the L, the other side pointing straight upwards, attached to a stick. I covered the lower part with compost, and started misting the tip daily (via my irrigation system). It began growing leaves then aerials and by now (2 years later) it is taller than me, and flowering.

My family has had this plant for 33 years. It is in a container that probably 2 adults can fit in. It takes seven 40 lb. bags of dirt. It grew from a root. Now it is a big a two refrigerators side by side and is just as tall. One stalk grew then it just quit developing leaves. Then it like died off and this little shoot started growing. The stalk that died off, we had to take it out of its container and cut it off with a saw. The little shoot grew so huge to what I have now. The summer of "07" it looked like one more leaf was going to grow, but it never opened up. It was on the very top but it never opened up. I was so sad I thought it was dying. I live in Ohio, so I have cold winters. I was bringing it in for the winter (we have to move it with a dolly, and about 4 adult men to move it in the house) and I noticed these two new shoots coming out, now the are getting big. The original stalk looks like it is dying, like it could break off. Now I have 2 of them growing in the same container, the roots are wrapping around the old stalk and I don't know what to do with it now. I would llike to seperate them but I don't know how. I have never seen it bloom and I have never seen seeds. If anyone can help me or have advice please e-mail me at [e-mail:bigredbug41@yahoo.com] I would appriciate it sooo much.

This was the first houseplant I got for my apartment's east facing window (see pics). After it settled in, it quickly started growing numerous huge leaves. Each one is larger than the previous, so I must be doing something right. It gets watered after the top inch or two of the soil dries out, and I have given it 1/4 strength miracle grow once since the start of spring. Also, I repotted it up from a 10in to 12in pot a few weeks ago and I've already got new aerial roots appearing.
If you have space and morning light, you'll find this is a great starter houseplant.

We have a huge amount of this plant in our side yard and I love the Tropical Look it gives the Landscape. We have had hard freezes in the past which will knock this Philodendron right down, but it always comes back in the Spring. A beautiful, easy to grow Monster of a plant! We planted these in our yard 32 years ago, they've never been fertilized, get water twice a week when sprinklers are set and they have grown quite large!

Boring! All it does is produce leaves. The previous owner of our house evidently liked it a lot because it is planted in a number of places. It takes every exposure from full sun to full shade and handles a wide variation of watering. Nothing seems to affect it adversely. I plan to rip them all out and replace them with plants with flowers.

I bought this plant for in 1 gallon for $19.99 at a supermarket. I was so pretty all summer and then towards the end of the fall it started to look sad. As time went on, it just died but something told me not to throw it away. I recently just dumped to pot out to see what was going on, if anything and sure enough there were still some apparently healthy roots and even a tiny little leaf, completely white from being buried under the dirt!! I am glad that I repotted the tuber or crom or whatever it is. Cant wait for the spring time to see if it comes back!

I love it! Grows great in zone 8b. I have to cut it back every winter and comes back with a vengeance in spring. I have never seen any of mine flower. My newest one was purchased as a 1G and is now about 4 ft tall and wide after one growing season.

this is planted everywhere down here in hilton head and bluffton, sc. from what ive seen, it has little trouble in the winter here. the only thing i dont really like about it is that its flower stinks to high heavens when it gets old.

I love this plant. I bought it relatively small, and had it for years that way. When I moved a year and a half ago, it got very badly damaged, and I lost most of the folige. I kept watering it anyway, kept it in smewhat low light most of the day, and it came back. I put it outside in the spring and leave it there all year. This "houseplant" is a monster. I HAVE to move it outside so I can have my living room back! This plant thrives with or without attention. I love the roots that pop over the soil...a friend of a friend had one with roots wrapped completely around the outside of the container it was in, and it looked happy that way! Fantastic plant!

Grows fine in zone 9a, with total neglect. It's growing in a corner, getting little sun. I'm going to move it out to a more open area this year, and I hope it will really take off.

This plant is _definitely_ hardy in 9b and maybe even 9a. I see mature specimens growing all over the place around here.

I have had this plant since 1973. I set it out on the deck in the spring and move it inside in winter. I water it every Sunday morning with a gallon of tap water. So far I havent killed it. Haha. Last year I gave it a shot or two of Miracle Grow and it didnt seem to do anything so I didnt do it again. This is the 1st year I can remember that it has a flower, it could be that I have never looked before. I know this sounds silly but I am a single guy and it's the best I can do.

I got this plant as a house plant.
It got too big so i put it out side and it did well.
I have never seen it bloom and didn't know it would or could.
I cut it back in the winter and it comes back in spring.

Report:04-22-05,
I have had to dig this plant up and pot it for the move it is doing well,... digging it up didnt hurt it a bit.
it is happy in its little pot but will be finding a better home in the yard soon.
:}
RH

We have several huge specimens that have been growing on the east side of our house in Zone 9a with no attention for over 40 years. Cold that has killed citrus trees only nipped the edges of the leaves. I'd say it is pretty tough.

They give a true tropical appearance to the landscape.

I was given one of these plants out of a friends yard about a year ago. Last summer it did really well but this year the leaves turn brown and dry up a few weeks after they come out. The plant is continuously blooming new leaves though so I don't think it is dying. It gets plenty of water. Does anyone know of any diseases it may have or what might be wrong? (I am in zone 9.)
Thanks!
Marybelle (e-mail, [e-mail:mini62@ij.net])

I recieved this plant from one of my friends who was moving and no idea what it was or even how to take care of it but it has been growing woderfully. It is huge though, takes up ALOT of space.

This plant can grow to huge jungle-like proportions here in Hawaii. Very hardy and almost impossible to get rid of...any little bit of the root system left, even just laying in the ground, will take off and grow.

Beautiful leaves and it can fill in bare spots anywhere needed. Fast growing. Sometimes can be seen taking support on a tree trunk and managing to grow up high on the tree.

Phil was given to me 28 years ago by my best friend when she moved from Florida to California. We have been together ever since. He prefers a slightly acidic soil.When I made my last move he was just too big to bring in his pot; so we split him into 6 pieces.He hasn't fully recovered yet. But he is still hanging in there. About ten years ago I was sucessful at making seeds on him. Doing so is not for the faint hearted. It requires some amount of time and effort. If you have several plants blooming at once you need to: Cut the hood or shroud of the flower off about two or three inches down when it opens, Make sure you are going to have another open flower on another plant to put the pollen on. When the cut off shroud closes back up, it will produce pollen on the exposed part that you cut the shroud back on. Take this pollen and put it on the tip of the central part of the open flower that you did not cut the shroud off of. When it closes back up the seed making process begins. You will know you have been sucessful when you can gently rub the outside of the pollinated flower and feel what feels like corn kernals inside of it. These are the seeds. Wait for them to mature, open the pod and dry the seeds or plant them. I have been able to make seeds on mine several times using this method. Good Luck with yours.

Grows fine in 9a.

I have had tremendous success with this plant as a potted plant as well as in the yard. I moved from Melbourne, Forida, (where it was a common sight, looking very exotic on tall, bent stalks throughout the year) to Baton Rouge, Louisiana where the foliage died back during the winter and returned beautifully in the spring.

I am now living in Huntington, West Virginia and have one that I brought with me in a pot. I believe it would not be hardy here outside through the year, so I will move it inside for the winter. I had to sell a lot of my plants before I moved from Louisiana, but this one was just beginning to develop a stalk and I couldn't part with it. I cut all the leaves off so I could fit it in the back of my covered pickup, and so far one leaf has come back out. Even though this is a very common plant throughout the south, I cannot imagine living without it in my garden or house, especially now that I am not actually in the south.

Beware of the sap of this plant and also the pollen on the blossom. If the sap gets on you, it leaves a stain. Some people are allergic to it. I am, and I suffered with a rash (like poison ivy) at all the points of contact. It burned and itched for 3 weeks. I am now very careful when trimming this plant.

This plant grows well in Summerville, South Carolina (USDA Zone 8a). It dies when a hard frost hits and re-emerges in the Spring. We've had this plant over 20 years and it's never bloomed, probably because it's too far north. One of our favorites, deer have never nibbled it, and there's never been a problem with insect infestations.

This plant brings back memories of my childhood. My dad had half a dozen in various places around our New Orleans yard. He even harvested seeds.

I had one of these plants for many years. It started out as a houseplant, then I put it outside for some sunshine and rain. When I tried to take it back inside it had rooted through the bottom of the pot into the ground, where I left it. It was my baby and I really liked it. So when I moved I had someone dig it up for me (it was about 8 feet tall.) It survived the move and I enjoyed it many more years. I have moved again and I have some of the root and I'm hoping it will survive.

This plant has a mind of its own. I had it close to my last house and I had siding on it and shutters. The braces that this plant puts out for support started under my siding and into one of my shutters. I had to cut them. Every winter the first frost would do damage to it, even though I would try to cover it with old sheets. We usually severely cut it back and it would come back in the spring. I am in South Georgia, not far from the Florida line.

When you cut it back for the winter, cover it with several layers of sheeting or whatever if you are going to have below freezing temperatures as it can't stand lots of cold. I usually had blooms on my plant every year, which would open up and look like a large banana which I was told was edible.

I live in Maryland on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay. I just bought one of these at a garage sale. I transplanted it (my wife actually did it) to a larger pot and have it on the deck.

My mom has a few really good plants. Apparently all parts of the plant are poisonous if ingested except the fruits for most types. I have a couple, but they've not bloomed even yet.

Region: This plant thrives along the gulf coast from Texas to Florida

I got this as a house plant, and I hate houseplants so I planted it outdoors and it really took off. It likes rich soil and is a heavy feeder. Mine is not staked, it does not seem to need it. I have also uploaded a photo of the flower of which it had three this year.