Thanks, Dellis. I received a message as well, with no means to reply. Josh

Michelle, monstera and philodendron are both aroids and therefore related, but they're not the same and names aren't interchangeable. They're like cousins in the same family. The plant in the pic at your link is an immature-stage Monstera deliciosa. They wrongly call it 'split leaf philo' in the title copy, a popular common name for it but totally incorrect. The pics you posted on Dec 8 ($280) are also of Monstera deliciosa. These and the green one in the link are both very slow-growing but I suspect the variegates, given less chlorophyll on leaves, are a little slower than an all-green one. Question... regarding the plant in your pic of Dec 8 (with books in the background), I can't enlarge the pic... are there holes in the interior of those leaves? I think we decided that Jessica and Henry might be the variety Borsigiana, so they'll be much smaller, faster growing and will be more vine-like than the full size deciosas. Regarding yellow variegation, my full-size deliciosa variegata specimens (from defunct Asiatica Nursery erroneously sold as Thai Constellation) have new leaves with distinctive creamy yellowish variegation but it slowly fades to a creamy white color. I'd be interested in knowing if there is a full-size deliciosa that has permanent yellow variegation, I've never seen one in person and don't trust pics. Years ago someone posted pics of a red-variegated deliciosa but turned out to be a photoshopped hoax. The Borsigiana variegates are different, the white one is white from the get-go, not yellowish, and stays that way. The color in the yellow one is permanent and doesn't fade. Russ

It will definitely grow much faster, but it won't immediately take over your patio just yet. I put mine outside every spring, and it does grow faster, but it's still a manageable size. Though it does come back inside for the winter months. It still grows, but at a slower pace. I've had it for about two or three years now. I think keeping it contained to the pot it's currently in has helped tame it somewhat. I may give it a larger pot next year. One more thing I might suggest is to use these adjustable locking ties. They're made of rubber and work great at harnessing in my Monstera's vines. They work great because its vines aren't exactly all that flexible. So rather than forcing the vines to immediately grow upwards and possibly breaking them, the locking ties let me gradually tighten their hold on them, pulling them up over time. It's been a few years now and the rubber locking ties haven't stretched out or lost their shape. I bought a pack of them from my local garden center for a couple dollars. I loved them so much, I went back and bought several more. Great stuff.

Ahhh you guys are lucky ducks with no real regular frost! We have anywhere between a few light freezes to several 20's F depending on the year One winter since I've lived here, we had a few nights in the upper teens. That was the year a tree limb fell on my gh and I lost a lot of stuff grrr. Our day temps usually bounce back up to 60's to 80'sF in the winter. tropicbreeze my 3 sausage trees were started from seed 7yrs or so ago now. No 'sausages' here yet either. I have to cut them back to get them in the gh. I started bending the tops over instead of cuttimg last winter to hopefully encourage flowering. They lose the leaves in yhe winter so idk if they will ever flower here. One year one grew into the ground and broke out the pot. So I tried to dig up the root and there way no way to get it so I just kinda cut it off at the bottom of the pot which was really the bottom tree trunk. Well it grew new roots just fine and even tho it was a cold winter here, with 20'sF temps, the roots left in the ground started growing a new tree in the spring!! I never thought they were that hardy lol. ~Sjn