Philodendron Orange Princess 4”

Philodendron ‘Orange Princess’ is grown for its mix of deep green foliage with orange, peach, yellow and lighter green variegation. Every new leaf can look a little different, which is part of what makes this plant so much fun to grow. Some leaves may have smaller splashes of color while others can develop larger sections of variegation. There is quite a bit of cultivar information repeated about ‘Orange Princess’ online, but I could not reliably verify its breeder or exact parentage, so I would rather leave that information out than tell you something we cannot confirm.

This is a climbing Philodendron. When it is young, it can look fairly compact in its nursery pot, but as it grows you will begin to see more stem between the leaves and aerial roots developing along the nodes. Giving it something to climb allows it to grow the way it naturally wants to grow and can help it produce stronger, larger foliage as it matures. Reliable mature indoor sizes for ‘Orange Princess’ are not well documented, so I am not going to give you a made-up number for how tall it will get or how large the leaves will become.

For natural light, start approximately 1–3 feet from an east-facing window or 3–5 feet from a south-facing window. Philodendron ‘Orange Princess’ prefers approximately 800–1,500 foot-candles at the leaves. Foot-candles simply tell you how much light is actually reaching your plant. With a variegated plant, useful light becomes especially important because the lighter portions of the leaf contain less chlorophyll than the green portions. Your window direction and distance give you a starting point, but trees, overhangs, neighboring buildings, window size, season, screens and glass can all change how much light actually reaches the plant.

If you are using grow lights, choose a 5000–6500K light and aim for the same 800–1,500 foot-candles at the leaves. Kelvin tells you the color of the light, not how strong it is. Foot-candles tell you how much light is actually reaching the plant. I don’t give a universal distance between a grow light and the plant because every fixture is different. Measure the light at the leaves and let that determine where the plant needs to sit.

Water when your plant needs watered. Orange Princess wants moisture available to its roots, but it also needs oxygen in that root zone. Use a chunky, well-draining mix that allows water to move through instead of staying dense and wet for long periods. Let the plant use a good portion of the available moisture before watering thoroughly again. How quickly that happens will change with your light, temperature, root system, plant size and season, so don’t put this plant on a watering schedule.

Pay attention to what the new growth is showing you. Smaller new leaves, increasingly long spaces between leaves or a plant stretching toward its light source are all reasons to check whether it is getting enough light. Yellowing, drooping or losing a leaf does not automatically mean it needs water. Check the root zone, how long the pot has been staying wet, your light and what has recently changed in the environment. Variegation will also naturally change from leaf to leaf, so one greener leaf or one highly variegated leaf does not tell you the whole story.

Success looks like steady new growth, a stronger climbing stem and leaves that continue developing in size while maintaining the characteristic mix of green and warm variegation. If you give it something to climb, watch what happens to the foliage as the plant establishes itself on that support. Don’t judge the plant by one leaf. Watch the direction it is moving. If it is growing, strengthening and continuing to produce healthy foliage, that is what we are looking for.