Start over with a more substantial support system. In conjunction with a larger pot - the "root" of your problem is the small pot.

Embothrium, can you tell me what support system would work, and where I can get it?

Deanna

Gardenfanatic, IMO your philodendron is beyond the point of making it attractive again by propping vines up or repotting. I think you should limp this philo thru the winter as it is and not repot it at this time. In late spring, I would take 6 inch tip cuttings and pot them on their own or put several in a single pot. I'm assuming there is more than one growing point on the plant. Most philos of this type will have aerial roots along the stem, and these make for easy rooting of cuttings.

Regarding the base of the plant in the pot... I would cut the stems at a point 4 to 6 inches from the soil line of the pot. You're forcing the philo start over with new growth. The plant is likely rootbound, you could fertilize it and wait for new growth or unpot and root prune it. This is basically cutting several inches from the perimeter and bottom of the root ball and repotting into the same pot or a new one of the same size with fresh potting soil.

You could also wash all the old soil off the root ball with a hard spray from the garden hose, trim the roots back and repot it into a smaller pot, one that fits the size of the roots. From the looks of your plant you might only have a single stem to repot, it doesn't look like it's branched from the base.

So now you have all those vines between the base and the tip cuttings to deal with. Obviously you could just toss them, or if you want more plants you could cut the vines into 6 inch pieces, take off the leaves except 1 or 2 at the top, and pot them. After rooting, new growth will break from the nodes along the sides of the stems. Be sure to keep track of which end is up, planting upside down won't work.

Let me know if you need more info.

By the way, who's that cutie at the window trying to see what's going on?

Russ

Deanna, if you want to keep the philo intact and the pole you have is tall enough to support the long vines, you could repot into a heavy ceramic or clay pot that's 4 to 6 inches wider and a little deeper than the one it's in.

Then you can tie the vine to the pole without it pulling the pot over. This would at least get you thru winter without a sprawling plant on the floor. If it's not as attractive as you'd like you could deal with it in the spring. If you do tie it, be sure to use something relatively soft that won't cut into the stems like string will. There is green elastic tie material for this purpose, or I've used a narrow strip of cloth cut from an old T-shirt.

I think repotting this time of year is a little risky, but just don't overwater it.

All the best, Russ

The little cutie is Caffrey, my Boston Terrier/Pekingese mix. He's my sweet little buddy! :-) Here he is demonstrating his utter disregard for my garden (little stinker - hehehe):

Russ, the problem with the pole is that due to the weight of the plant, the pole won't stay up straight in the pot. It leans until it's laying against the edge of the pot, particularly after I water. How do I fix that?

And next spring after I cut it back severely, what's going to keep it from ending up the same way in a few years?

Deanna

I came across a photo of the same plant from two years ago. It's in the pot that has masking tape on it:

I've never liked tying plants to stakes or poles. Some kind of lattice/trellis would allow you to weave & wind the plant upward w/o any ties.

Tiffany, I agree with you, I don't care for them either. Also don't like tying philos up just to keep them off the floor but my suggestion was just to get Deanna thru the winter. I prefer the philo to actually root to something and climb on it's own, so the only tying would be initially to get it to attach. I'd prefer a rough-cut 1 x 4 or 1 x 6 board but a regular smooth board would work. When I've used these I've put the board against the back of the pot to keep from leaning, along with a fairly heavy or wide-bottomed pot.

I was going to suggest a trellis for Deanna but some of the leaves are damaged and I think it's past it's prime as far as attractiveness. However, beauty is in the proverbial eyes of the beholder.

Deanna, I've seen trellis' with two sticks that go in the ground, if you can find one of those I don't think it would lean if the sticks were far enough apart. Problem might be finding one small enough. Your pot is on the short side, if it was deeper with the post having more soil for support on the sides, it might not lean. But all that heavy vine makes for difficult solutions.

That Caffrey looks like trouble for sure but what a neat little dog! Through the window I thought he was a Boston, but the addition of the Peke is beyond cute!

I'll drop back by if I think of any easy solutions.

Russ

Interestingly, the hybridizer of Black Cardinal, Bamboo Nursery, says it is a self-header, which is non-vining. Every description of online nurseries indicates it's a self-header.

Here's an excerpt from one seller... "A hybrid, low growing, clumping tender perennial shrub, this philodendron is "self heading", meaning it does not climb or sprawl like a vine."

Black Cardinal is a hybrid with the vining species erubescens in it's heritage. So these sources are wrong, it's actually a semi self-header meaning it's a clumper, a philo that's in-between a self-header and a vining type. It's an extremely short vine with leaves that stack closely together and twists and turns on the pot, occasionally branching. True self-headers are the big non-vining meconostigmas like bipinnatifidum aka selloum, pinnatifidum, mello-barretoanum and many other large and generally single-trunk philos which only branch from the base after many years of maturity.

So this said, what's going on with Deanna's Black Cardinal acting like a normal vining-type philodendron? One source did say that it will sprawl in very low light conditions. Which brings me to the question, Deanna has your plant been grown indoors in very low light?

You asked the question... "And next spring after I cut it back severely, what's going to keep it from ending up the same way in a few years?" Possibly more light will keep it from vining so badly. If you need to keep it in the same location, cutting the tips once in a while will keep it branching and slow it down. If your plant was grown in good light, then it's a mystery to me why it's vining.

Russ

Maybe it's P. erubescens, non-cultivar, regular species.

Russ, it's in an east window which gets sun most of the morning. Although, come to think of it, it may not get as much sun as I'm thinking. I've lived in this house 20 years, and the neighbor's trees may be blocking more of that sun than they used to. But that's the room in my house that gets the most sun, so there's nowhere else to put it. I don't have windows on the south side, and my own trees block all sun on the west side. Do you think it would help for me to hang some plant lights over the area? I've got plenty of them because I used to start hundreds of perennials and annuals by seed every year under lights.

The leaves weren't damaged until my oak trees started dropping acorns. :-( They have lots of help from the squirrels, which seem to throw the acorns down judging by the force by which they hit things when they land.

The main stem on the philodendron is probably 3/4" thick. You don't think that's too large of a cutting to root? Thanks for all your help!!

Deanna

Good point Tiffany, I wondered myself if it was some philo other than Black Cardinal. But the leaves do look like it in color and shape. They don't look like erubescens to me but who knows at this point.

Deanna, I have over 40 big live oak trees on my acreage, so I well know the damage acorns, twigs and branches can do to plants. Even the smallest twig will punch right through leaves, as well as acorns.

If this philo is important enough to you to go to the trouble of putting up lights, it would no doubt help during the darker days of winter. However, I can't believe low light by itself could change a clumping type philo like yours into a pure vining type.

Thickness of the stem isn't a problem with propagating, as long as the tip cutting or section of stem has aerial roots it's very easy. Pieces without root nubs or aerial roots take longer to root, but can still be propagated. I'll bet your plant has aerials all along the stems.

If you do decide to cut the plant up next year, I hope you have lots of friends and neighbors that like gifts of plants, cuz you'll have a lot of them.

Russ