Can anyone help please?

Bueller....?

Hi,

Pls. give it some time & have some patience.

It's the wknd, there are major weather problems all over the country right now & we are volunteers here.

That said, I don't know if many are familiar w/ this plant. I've seen it a few times but never grown it.

I question that ID, I think it's a Peperomia of some kind, not a Pilea.

Does the pot have a drainage hole? It looks like it may not, which would be key. That soil looks peaty & like it might be impeding the plant from drinking.

Has the soil hardened to your touch?

Thanks Karen for your response.

I didn't realize the weather issues were that bad. I appreciate your time.

I actually questioned the ID also just because the stems looked different from other pileas I've seen online, but I never found anything that it could be!

There are a few small drainage holes. I'm working on drilling more into the pot (tried last weekend and failed).

The soil is hard in a few place but mostly springs back if I push into it.

OK, I'm going to change the soil ASAP and either drill more holes or change the planter. I bought Perlite last week but didn't really know what to mix it with. Thanks for your help, Karen!

Chiming in to second all of Karen's advice.

I have several Pilea peperomioides growing very happily in Al's 5-1-1 mix and I feed them with Foliage-Pro 9-3-6, so that's another potting mix option. Good luck!

Hi Greenhouse,

Thanks for the input. Have you tried them in Al's Gritty Mix or just the 5-1-1? By looking at the plant, do you think the leaf curling could be from another issue besides overwatering?

I actually repotted the plant today in 50/50 Cactus soil and Perlite. Wasn't planning to do it so soon but my husband broke the pot it was in trying to drill more holes into it!

I have not tried them in the gritty mix, I only use that for succulents. I'm not sure that the Pilea was being overwatered...I think that the problem was more with the peaty soil. As Karen mentioned, when peat gets really dry it can be difficult to get it to reabsorb moisture, so I wonder if the roots were not being evenly watered when the plant was in the peat.

I usually water my Pileas at least once a week with the 5-1-1 mix, twice a week now because the air is so dry here. I am not sure about the curling leaves...that might sort itself out when the plant is in a better-draining mix that delivers water to the roots more evenly.

Oops I meant to say water retention, not over watering. I now understand about the peaty soil...retaining moisture or not being able to absorb properly. Hopefully the plant will do better in the mix I just planted it in.

It's a great plant, from China, and considered lucky. I have read that the leaves do curl sometimes, and I think that might be when it's too dry. I have a couple of small ones but haven't seen any leaf-curl yet. They are succulents, so I treat them much like my jades and they seem happy enough. Because they are succulents, there will be some sap when you remove a leaf, but it's no harm.

They definitely are a great plant...very unique. Thanks for the input! I didn't know about the sap/leaf removal.

Concerning the pot .... any pot with an incurving rim is a pain when it comes to repotting. You might even end up breaking the pot, if it wasn't broken already :-( Hence the traditional shape of flowerpots. I would repot into a container with a wider top than base and use the white ceramic vessel as a cache pot. If it had no holes it was probably intended for that function all along.

@Greenhouse: Hi there. You mentioned you've grown pileas from bare stems with no roots or leaves. Can you explain how you did that? I ordered a pilea online from Germany, unfortunately it didn't survive the long transport time and cold. It arrived without a pot (just roots in a bit of soil) wrapped in a moist paper towel and newpapers. By the time I got it all the leaves had rotted off and were black. I think the stem is also rotted. So all that's left is the root ball. From what I can tell the roots are still alive? I'm not sure. I put it in a small plastic pot but am not exactly optimistic. It's sitting on the mantel which gets a fair amount of sunlight. The soil is still a bit damp so I didn't water it after repotting, should I? Any tips would be appreciated. Thank you!

Unfortunately I'm not very optimistic either based on what you described. I'm betting that the plant froze at some point during the journey, and if the stem and leaves died, I'm not sure how the roots could have survived. Assuming the roots did survive, I wouldn't recommend any changes to what you have described already. Wait, keep the soil moist but not too wet, and keep your fingers crossed!

When I grew Pileas from woody stems, it was during the spring/summer months. I had ordered a plant from Germany, and the man who sent it sent a bunch of bonus stems that he said would sprout if planted. I was out of town when the package arrived, so my boyfriend opened it and potted the big plant. He figured the woody stems were not worth saving, so he threw them in the trash. A day or two later he (very kindly!) dug them back out after I said they would grow, and planted the stems about an inch of two deep in 5-1-1 mix. They looked just like little bare, brown stems, no leaves or buds or roots. Sure enough, they started sprouting little leaves within a week or so, and a few months later were ready to be given as gifts and sold.

Hopefully your Pilea will recover! If not, I would recommend waiting until the weather has warmed up before trying to buy a replacement.

@Greenhouse Thanks so much for your speedy response. Agreed, I definitely will not be trying again until warmer weather! Is there a way to tell if the roots are dead too? Should they be a certain consistency or texture? They just felt like normal roots to me, I didn't handle them too much as they were tightly in a ball of soil and I didn't want to risk breaking them. For now I'll just wait and see...Thank you again for your help!

No problem, good luck with your plant rescue effort!

If they felt like normal roots, maybe there is a chance. I am not a plant expert, but my rule of thumb for roots is that they are dead if they appear translucent / black / dark brown / squishy / etc.

Mine came from Germany too. Go figure. I got it before the temps were low and it still lost many leaves from being in transit.

Does anyone know why these are so popular right now? My friend was looking on Ebay and found a small one for $90! I follow many plant blogs on social media and it seems like everyone is raving about them during the last year or so. Just wondering what the hype was about...

Just thought I'd post an update on my pilea. As a reminder, after receiving advice here I repotted the plant into 50/50 Cactus soil/Perlite in a new container with multiple drainage holes.

After that, one of the older leaves yellowed and then fell off. A couple days later, I moved the plant to a different southern-facing window where it receives plenty of direct sunlight. Within days, a new leaf started to grow and since then 3 new leaves have grown. The new growth looks very healthy. I water maybe once every 10 days. There is only one leaf on the plant that is older, the rest is new growth from after I got it. I hope it has taken a turn for the better and will actually retain these leaves. Here's a pic:

@Krista I think this plant was chosen as plant of the year (not sure by who) and I've seen it on multiple instagram pages and blogs. I love plants that are unique and have beautiful foliage so that's why I personally sought out this plant. I would definitely not pay what some people are asking for this plant on eBay though!

The plant looks so happy!

It seems like greenhouses don't readily stock these guys and sources are limited to hobbyists selling offsets? I hope to find one at a reasonable price one day.

It's looking great! Makes me want one too!