Ladies and gentlemen of the plant world, the naysayers would have you believe all Philodendron Pink Princesses are bad, but when you look at the evidence - the REAL evidence - you'll find that every single charge traces back to not their failure, but to our own failed expectations. PPPs, beautiful, dark and brooding, were the "IT" plant not so very long ago...

The hype is everywhere, and I do mean EVERYWHERE. There are Burle Marx's Flames showing up on every plant site I visit. People raving over them, talking about fenestrations and height and plant maturity. Ooos and aaahs. Gag me with a spoon. I got one, because of course I did. I took it through the Soft Landing process all of my rescues go through, just to make sure it didn't have any bugs or whatnot. Can't be getting the fam-damly sick.

Did you know the Philodendron joepii was discovered in the wild because a guy named Joep Moonen thought it looked like it had been eaten by bugs? It's one of the rarest-looking shapes in the plant world, so when I found a pot with two of them in it near Gainesville, I just had to have it.