Monstera deliciosa Seeds | Swiss Cheese Plant
LATIN NAME: Monstera deliciosa
COMMON NAME: Swiss Cheese Plant
Plant Profile
Known to gardeners as Swiss Cheese Plant, Monstera deliciosa is a climber in the arum family, native to warm forests of the central America, while it is treasured for its fine, bold, glossy, cut leaves. In arum family it is great, cut-leaved climber of warm forests, a plant whose holed, glossy leaves and creamy flower heads have made it best-loved room climber of the world. In good conditions it grows to around Twenty metres. Taken as a whole, it is a plant that repays a little attention many times over.
Science & Biotechnology
Seed science, comparative botany and horticultural selection all touch on Monstera deliciosa, a representative of the arum family with clear practical value. The Swiss cheese plant appears in climber papers of the central American forests, and botanists have studied fine, bold, deeply cut and holed leaves and their clever way of letting dappled forest light through to leaf below. Little about its garden performance is mysterious; it has been grown and observed for a very long time.
Uses & Benefits
In the garden, Swiss Cheese Plant earns its place in borders, containers and mixed plantings, and it also rewards growers who raise plants for cutting, drying or kitchen use. In warm room and the conservatory, the Swiss cheese plant is a bold-leaved climber of shaded corner. Its creamy flower head feeds insects, its scaly fruit feeds forest creatures, and large, glossy leaves give room a fine, lush presence. It has been treasured across world as one of great room plants, and it grows well in rich, moist, well-drained pot soil of warm, bright, sheltered spot. It establishes readily and then requires nothing out of the ordinary.
Monstera is the iconic houseplant; the ripe fruit of Monstera deliciosa is edible and pineapple-flavored only when fully ripe, since unripe fruit carries irritating oxalate needles.
Growing from Seed
Sow fresh seed of Swiss Cheese Plant under ordinary good conditions. Sow the seeds evenly over the surface and cover lightly in a loose, well-drained seed compost, keep the sowing evenly moist, and give the pot or tray bright light. Shift the seedlings into small pots as soon as they can be handled, and give them bright light until planting-out time.
Our Take
At around twenty metres, it stays at a scale that suits modest gardens. Once the young plants are away, there is little left to do but watch them grow.
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