I've grown them from slips before in water, but am having the same problem this year with mine. Tried rooting them in water twice now, and they just die - wonder what gives?

~Annie

Nancy you had/have Persian Shield, I've been looking for that plant forever without success. I've rooted many things in one of those little plastic sundae cups with lids. A bit of moist potting mix, rooting powder on the cutting, pop the lid on and stick it on a window sill. If you manage to get another slip give this a try. If you get one going I'll come begging in the spring for a cutting, I'll pay the postage for fassssst shipping.

Annette

I have found that pearlite is by far the best medium to root cuttings in. I have had persian shield root in water, but it takes a lot longer than in pearlite. I just use a plastic cup (drain holes poked in the bottom) filled 2/3 with pearlite, wet it thoroughly, pop in the cuttings and put a baggie loosely over the top to hold the humidity. You will have roots in a couple of weeks. Pearlite holds water, but allows air, so things don't rot.

Persian shield can also be kept inside in pots over the winter. We have a few now that are 3-4 years old that are quite large.

I LOVE this plant and currently have 2 totally un-exciting plants in gallon pots that did nothing the entire season but stay the same as the day I bought them. Annette - if I somehow accidentally manage to bring these through the winter, you're most welcome to cuttings.

I grew my first Persian Shield plant in full shade a few years ago and when cold weather arrived, was sad when the frost killed it. This year when I saw it for sale at a nursery quite some distance from my little green acre, I grabbed TWO, determined to enjoy it once again. This summer was (and still is) gloomy, muggy, buggy, and wet which I'm marking down as conditions in which Persian Shield does NOT thrive...for me, anyway.

hmm it has been on my wish list for a while now and I have been keeping my eye out for it at the nurseries, etc. It is such a beautiful plant. I wish you success! :)

Annette, I am so excited to have another reason to eat sundaes!! WOO HOO!! That is a very good idea and Mandolls, I'm glad to hear that you have success with perlite and rooting. I'm trying to root coleus in perlite currently. I never see persian shield up here but bought a few down in NC when I saw them. Maybe I'll try rooting it in perlite in the sundae cup. Hmmmm......hot fudge or caramel.....definitely a cherry on top! LOL!!!

For the life of me I can't remember what they're called at the moment but there's a dessert made up of cake cubes, custard, fruit salad and topped with whipped cream.... and there's definitely a cherry on top :), hmmmm, memory is kicking in they're called Charlotte Rousse Cups. DH loves these so that's another one of my sources for these super little rooting chambers. The nice thing about them is once the top's on they're in their own little eco climate. Seldom do you have to lift the lid. I leave them alone until I can see roots. I use a soil-less mix for rooting most things.

Gardenweed, thanks so much for the offer but we have that darn border to deal with so I'm afraid it would be a no go darn it, but thanks for the offer it is much appreciated.

Mandolls your picture has me drooling, you're such a tease :).

Annette

Persian Shield has been fairly easy to find here. Despite the hot summer, it did well.

Ohhh,I'm drooling - now you know why I want it so!! Sundae cup, eh?? I wondering about a Timmie's Frozen cap cup....I wonder how that might work. It's my wine guy who has the plant outside his shop, and we haven't had a killing frost yet. I'm going to get some perlite and try again!!

Thanks All. I wish us all luck - and Annette, do you want to try this Fall??

Nancy.

Nancy I'm game if you are, The best way I've found to send unrooted cuttings is to wrap a piece of wet paper towel around the cut end, put the cuttings in a zip lock baggie. Place a straw in one end, zip it up to the straw, blow air in, pull straw and zip it quick, now they're sealed in a bubble.
I've done a lot of experimenting with this method, when I first tried this I did it with fuchsia cuttings, after I'd bagged them I boxed them and left them for a week, when I opened the box they looked better than when I put them in.

I think I still have your snail mail addy but we better make sure, my email is down right now for some reason, so will email you later..... Thanks.

Annette

I love these plants! If I was "stranded on a desert island with only 1 plant," this would be it. I had to ask the owner of the local garden center to order them for me this year and ended up with them on all sides of the house by now. Here are my 2 best ones this year:

is bigger than it looks from this angle. The "rock" to the bottom right is a bag of quickrete that got left outside and became a bag-shaped rock. is the biggest, with about a 10-foot "wing span."

This plant roots so easily, I think those having trouble may not be using the "juicy nodes" which I find are usually the 4rd-6th from the growth tip. They usually do as well in water as they do right in the ground. Remove most of the leaves except those at the tip.

is a cutting from about a week ago. You can see the roots forming at the 5th node.

When wintering inside, you are likely to see flowers on your PS, little purplish trumpets. Although they need shade outside in the summer, in the house over winter, they need a very sunny spot. Leaf loss/crispy edges are common but unless your plant dies, it will go back to looking great when it gets back outside.

These are tough plants as long as they don't get too dry or burned by too much sun. I had one plant that lived for years and survived a move from OH to AL but I neglected it while working a spell of overtime days a couple years ago and was really bummed when it died of dehydration.