Polka Dot Plants

How to choose a polka dot plant

The choice is simply colour. The Polka Dot Plant Red has red markings and gives the richest effect against dark green companions. The Splash Pink Polka Dot Plant is the familiar pink form. The Splash White Polka Dot Plant and the Confetti White Polka Dot Plant are white marked forms that brighten a shaded shelf and sit quietly beside any other colour.

The colours look good mixed, so three plants of different colours in one bowl is an easy display. For bedding, a block of a single colour reads more clearly.

Where polka dot plants grow

Indoors, give them bright indirect light. In low light the stems stretch and the spots fade towards green; in hot direct sun the leaves bleach and curl. A spot near an east facing window is ideal. They enjoy humidity, which is why they do so well in terrariums and bathrooms with good light.

Outdoors, they are used as shaded summer bedding and pot fillers in most of Australia, planted after the last frost and enjoyed until cold weather returns. They are frost tender. In frost free tropical and subtropical gardens they can carry on through winter, but they become leggy with age. They sit well among other indoor plants, as fillers in plants for pots, and outdoors with our plants for partial shade.

Polka dot plant has escaped gardens in warm, moist parts of Queensland and northern New South Wales. Keep it in pots and garden beds, remove the flower spikes before they seed, and never dump trimmings or old plants in bushland.

Planting and spacing

Use a quality potting mix in a container with drainage holes. A plant grows about 30 centimetres high and wide if pinched, taller if left alone. In a mixed bowl or a bedding scheme, space plants 15 to 20 centimetres apart so they knit together quickly. Outdoors, plant in spring once the nights are mild, into soil improved with compost, and water in well.

Care basics

Keep the mix evenly moist. Polka dot plants wilt dramatically when dry and usually recover within an hour of watering, but repeated wilting costs them their lower leaves. Do not leave the pot standing in water. Feed every few weeks from spring to autumn with a liquid fertiliser at half strength.

Pinching is the key to a good plant. Nip out the top pair of leaves on each stem every couple of weeks and the plant branches from below, staying low and dense. Left alone it runs up into a thin, leaning stem. Remove the small lilac flower spikes as they appear, since plants often decline after flowering. When a plant does get leggy, cut it back by half in spring, or strike a few tip cuttings in water or moist mix and start again.

Common questions

Why is my polka dot plant leggy?

Not enough light, not enough pinching, or both. Move it somewhere brighter, cut the stems back by half and pinch the new tips regularly.

How long does a polka dot plant live?

Usually a year or two before it becomes straggly. It is easy to renew from tip cuttings, so most growers replace plants regularly.

Can polka dot plants grow outside?

Yes, in shade or filtered light during the frost free months, and all year in warm frost free areas. Keep them contained in pots and beds.

Why are the spots fading?

The light is too low. Brighter indirect light brings the colour back in new growth.