How to Care for Chinese Money Plant (Pilea Peperomioides)

Here’s a complete guide on how to care and grow Chinese Money Plant wherever you want without any hassles. From start to end, this guide will cover everything you could require.

Intro

Chinese Money Plant, originally Pilea Peperomioides, has become the houseplant to have no matter what kind of space you have.

In recent times, the Chinese Money Plant has seen itself emerging into one of the most sought-after plants because of how beautiful they are and because of how well they blend with your interiors.

Most well known for making a dreamy combination with Scandinavian bright interiors that are full of light and life, the Chinese Money Plants are easy to grow and easy to care for but they do come with their challenges.

For people who haven’t cared for one before, we have written this blog to ensure that you can easily care for this plant without any problems.

In the US, the Chinese Money Plants are rare to find because their demand is high, but they are not easily available. Not many people grow them. These cute plants have become a checklist for every plant fanatic who wants something for indoors.

Because these Chinese Money Plants are so easy to grow and care for and yet incredibly rare at the same time, a lot of people give away the daughter plants to their families or relatives who are looking for these houseplants.

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Fortunately, now we can see people sharing their cuttings and daughter plants of these beautiful houseplants, and we can definitely hope that nurseries will soon catch up with the demand. In your area, it might already have happened.

So get ready to find yourself dazzled by this beautiful houseplant with its pancake-like leaves that will totally turn around the look of your place, especially if you have white walls because they go amazingly against those.

Read the following tips and extensive guide to know how to care for your rare Chinese Money Plant.

How to get one

If you are interested in getting a Chinese Money Plant, your best bet is to get it through a friend or a relative. In case nobody in your surroundings has it, you can go around looking for it. In some places, there is not much luck, but you should definitely browse the nurseries and garden shops near you.

In case you can’t find anything, you can order from online sellers. We prefer buying from major sellers like Amazon or eBay, but you can definitely look for whatever suits you the best. Warning: Some sellers do charge a fortune for these beautiful plants, but in some cases,  it is worth it. Anyways, that is entirely up to you.

How to care for Chinese Money Plant

While getting a Money Plant can be a very challenging task, if you got lucky and already got one, here’s your guide on how to care for the Chinese Money Plant. Even if you couldn’t get one, don’t worry about it because you can find something somewhere.

Read further to find out how you can take care of Money Plant and how you can turn up the ambiance at your place using these.

We will try to cover everything here about where to place, how to care, how much water, and all other aspects of it.

Where to grow/Where to Place

One of the first questions about any houseplant is where to place them. This is a subjective question as it varies from plant to plant depending upon the kind of light they require and for how long they require. While most plants prefer direct sunlight, the Chinese Money Plant does not.

In fact, the best place to grow a Chinese Money Plant is where there is bright light but no direct sunlight. This bright light can be light from electrical sources or indirect sunlight. Remember that direct sunlight might burn the leaves if left for longer periods. On the contrary, light shade or bright lights will help these houseplants produce larger leaves that look beautiful.

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One of the most rewarding things about the Money Plant is how they behave in winters. When the temperature is cool, they produce white flowers in pink stems, which look absolutely gorgeous. Winters really turn these plants into something else.

Containers

For containers, you can use whatever container suits you the best. The only prerequisite is to have drainage holes at the bottom. All else works fine. While you can go for glass containers, we don’t recommend those. We prefer clay or glazed ceramic pots, while plastic works fine as well.

Water

The next question after you have sorted out where to place the plants and what containers to use is how to care for them. Watering is one of the vital aspects of caring for any plant. While gardeners would know when to water and how frequently plants require watering, beginners or amateurs need to learn.

For the Chinese Money Plant, if you live in a moderate climate, you can water each plant once a week if placed indoors. If the temperature is colder, you can water less frequently as it will take more time to dry out the soil.

Remember that Pilea Peperomioides don’t like wet soil because it’s not comfortable for it. So make sure the soil isn’t wet, but not completely dry either. It might be confusing, but once you get into it, it’s really easy to balance it all out. One of the best tips about when to water is when the leaves of the Money Plant start looking a little droopy.

Sunlight

While we already covered placement above, it is important to understand how sunlight might affect your Money Plant. If you have a window facing south in your house or any room, it might be a nice spot to place your Money Plant. But make sure that it doesn’t get much direct sunlight.

The Chinese Money Plant responds a lot to the sun, and all of its leaves point in the direction of the direct sunlight. This might result in burning the leaves.

The Pilea Peperomioides is a rapid grower so keep an eye on its growth. It’s often much quicker than you anticipate, so you can’t be careless leaving it around in the sun. Winters are slower but much more pleasant in terms of care required.

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Propagation

One of the major reasons why Chinese Money Plants are so popular nowadays is because they are so easy to grow. It’s still very confusing why it is not widely available and why it is so short in supply, but we hope that it will change really soon and every person who desires one can get one.

In case of propagation, you need to keep an eye on these houseplants as they are quick growers and can grow quite a lot within the span of a month, but it’s mostly simple. If the Money Plant is happy, you can find plantlets in the soil which you can easily cut from the mother plant.

For cutting, you trace the stem about an inch and a half under the soil, then get a sharp knife to cut the plant free from the soil to place it elsewhere.

Once you have cut it, you can now plant the new baby plant in a separate pot. For the baby Money Plant, keep the soil moist until the plant has started producing leaves. You can repeat the process when the new plantlets are growing from the stem again, and you can cut those as well.

If you cut the plantlets, you can place them in water until roots are developed, which usually takes up to two weeks.

While both methods work fine, i.e., placing plantlets in water or directly into moist soil, the soil method is quicker and easier as you don’t need to do the extra step of taking out the roots to plant them in the soil. In around a month, you can easily see them developing new leaves.

Then you can plant them in a new pot and keep multiplying the plants. It will also help in covering up the supply issues if you can grow a few extra to gift them to your close people.

The easy propagation of these rare houseplants is one of our favorite aspects.

Conclusion

This was our complete guide on how to grow and care for Chinese Money Plants. There are no doubts about how these gorgeous plants can fill up your room with their ambiance, vibrance, and their beautiful leaves.

If you are lucky, you can even witness white flowers on pink stems that are breathtaking, but that happens in colder temperatures, so take it with a pinch of salt.

All of that covered, the Chinese Money Plant is very easy to propagate plant that is always short in supply. If you can get it from a close person, that would be great since finding them is a tricky task, and buying them might cost you quite a bit.

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