The easiest houseplant to grow: root it from a cutting and it thrives into a full pot, blooms for three seasons, and is even edible

Introduction

Potted greenery is now an essential decorative touch for the home. Keeping some flowers and plants at home has many benefits: it beautifies your living space and lifts your spirits. "Flower Sound Potted Plant Diary · Issue 1105" introduces you to one of the easiest houseplants to grow.

Today's star

Plants that bloom freely all demand very high light levels, and when grown indoors they either fail to bloom or bloom sparsely. Plants that can be grown indoors, on the other hand, are generally very shade-tolerant, such as pothos and spider plants, but their drawback is that they do not bloom and can only be grown for their foliage. The plant introduced today falls somewhere between the two: it is shade-tolerant yet does bloom, with both flowers and leaves beautiful, and it is very easy to grow.

Cherry blossom string-of-hearts (Aptenia cordifolia)

This flower is called cherry blossom string-of-hearts, also known as peony string-of-hearts and by other names. It is not actually a spider plant (Chlorophytum); because its stems and vines are rather soft and take on a semi-prostrate form once elongated, with the branches drooping down, it looks very much like a spider plant, so people have always grown and cared for it as one. It is a perennial evergreen herbaceous plant of the family Aizoaceae, with thick, glossy green leaves, and belongs to the succulent plants. It bears small red flowers resembling peonies, hence it is also called "peony string-of-hearts".

Both flowers and leaves are beautiful

The small red flowers of cherry blossom string-of-hearts are scattered among a spread of green leaves. Red flowers paired with green leaves, a spot of red amid a sea of green, both flowers and foliage beautiful, with an excellent ornamental effect. Its blooming period is very long: apart from winter, it flowers in the other three seasons. Even when it does not bloom, it is itself a very attractive foliage plant, with fleshy leaves that stay evergreen year-round and even take on a glossy shine under light, giving it more ornamental value than pothos or spider plants.

Super easy to grow

Cherry blossom string-of-hearts may be the easiest houseplant to grow, a view unanimously agreed upon by flower lovers. Its vitality is extremely tenacious: snap off a section of stem, drop it in soil, and it will live. A small seedling needs only a year to grow into a full pot. Although it is not a vine, it has a prostrate habit; grow it in a hanging basket, and within two years it can grow into a waterfall of flowers. Day-to-day care is also simple: it has low demands for fertilizer and water, so water thoroughly only after the soil dries out, apply light fertilizer frequently, give it a bit of indirect light, and it is super easy to grow.

A waterfall of flowers

Besides its ornamental value, the leaves of cherry blossom string-of-hearts are also edible, and they are often seen in restaurants and supermarkets, though vendors generally call them "Tianqi vegetable", "edible creat" and so on. The texture is tender and smooth, and the taste is fresh and delicious. Grown as a potted plant indoors it also grows very fast, and can be harvested several times a year. It is not cold-tolerant, so in the north it must be kept indoors over winter.