Pickaback Plant (Mother‑of‑Thousands, Piggyback Plant)
Tolmiea menziesii. SAXIFRAGACEAE.
Planting and Growing Pickaback Plant
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow pickaback plant in the accompanying table’s tabs:
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- Flowers, foliage, and root structure of pickaback plant
- Plant hardiness and growing conditions for pickaback plant
- Season of bloom and planting time for pickaback plant
- When, how deep, and where to plant pickaback plant
- How to plant pickaback plant
- Watering, fertilizing, care, and pests or diseases of pickaback plant
- Landscape and container uses of pickaback plant
- Comments about pickaback plant and its features
Growing Pickaback Plant
Several cultivars of mounding or trailing, rhizomatous, evergreen perennial herbs, to 1 ft. (30 cm) tall. Hairy, textured, light green or variegated, heart-shaped, pointed, lobed, toothed, veined leaves, to 4 in. (10 cm) wide, on dangling stems.
Planting and Care Guide
Blooms
Insignificant red, tan, tubular flowers, to 3/8‑in. (9‑mm) long; grown primarily for foliage.
Best Climates
Tender. Zones 7–9.
Soil Type and Fertility
Moist, well-drained humus. Fertility: Rich. 6.0–7.0 pH.
Where and How to Plant
Spring in open to partial shade, 1 ft. (30 cm) apart, after frost hazard has passed and soil is workable.
Proper Care
Easy. Keep evenly moist; reduce watering in winter. Fertilize monthly during growth. Pinch growth tips to control growth. Propagate by division, layering.
Pickaback plants also are vegetatively propagated by removing and rooting or layering young plants found at leaf-stalk junctions.
About This Plant
Good choice for hanging baskets, borders, containers, ground covers in indoor, natural, rock, shade, woodland gardens. Good houseplant. Disease resistant. Mealybug, spider mite, whitefly susceptible.