An interesting plant worth cultivating for both bloom and foliage is Acalypha hispida, commonly known as the chenille plant. It grows wild in the Fiji Islands and Polynesia.
Acalypha godseffiana, a dense shrub with a greenish flower spike, is grown mostly for its cream and green leaves, and another variety, called a copper leaf, or A. wilkesiana, is grown for its brownish foliage.
The flower spikes of the copper leaf are much thinner and shorter than hispid. The variety of Alba has creamy white flowers.
Growing Chenille Plant Indoors and Outdoors
In its native habitat, Acalypha grows to be a large shrub. It will reach a considerable size in a pot or tub outside during the summer and in the greenhouse or conservatory during the winter.
It may be kept small enough for the house or greenhouse by pruning the roots or top.
It is so easily propagated that I start a new plant each fall. The newly propagated plants grow 2′ to 3′ feet high in one season.
Acalypha, with its 10″ to 12″ inches blossoms of rich red chenille, needs full sun during the fall and winter but wilts rapidly unless the humidity is high. To keep the plant in good condition, I must spray it every other day.
Care must be taken to keep moisture from lodging around the flower spikes. Such a condition will encourage damping off. The chenille plant is subject to red spiders, but the sprayings can check it.
Acalypha is considered a permanent outdoor plant in the deep South, while in the North, it must be taken inside because it can’t stand temperatures below 55° degrees Fahrenheit.
Potting and Fertilizing
The best potting compost for this plant is three parts loam and one part decomposed cow manure. If the loam is heavy, sharp sand or sponge rock may be added to give the necessary soil aeration.
In the winter, a good fertilizer should be applied every two to three weeks. I like to use cow manure tea— a liquid fertilizer that adds water to the manure.
Propagation Method
I’ve tried various methods of propagating and find the pot air-layering method with oats the most successful. With this method, there is almost no shock to the young cutting, no loss of leaves, and no retarded growth.
In air layering or Chinese layering, the new plant’s roots are produced on a shoot of the mother plant.
This makes it possible to produce another plant of the size desired. Air-layering may be done anytime, but the roots come best in the spring. This method has proved successful with specimens that have lost their leaves and become leggy.
Process of Pot Air-Layering
It is a clean, simple operation. In April, I cut a notch in a stem, extending about one-third of the way through the shoot where root formation is desired. In this notched area, I put four or five healthy oats.
Over these oats and about the wound, I pack a large handful of sphagnum moss soaked in a vitamin B solution.
The moss is held in place by a sheet of polyethylene wound around the stem and sealed top and bottom with strips of masking tape so air can’t penetrate and dry out the moss.
Plant ties, raffia, or string can be used more conveniently than tape, especially outside in the summer.
I like to use oats with moss because they swell considerably before sprouting and can absorb a great deal of moisture, thus preventing stem rot.
Oats rate high in vitamin B, a vitamin important in propagating plants as a stimulant to the cells.
I moved the plant out to a flower bed on June 21. The pot was sunk into the ground, and the plant watered along with the rest of the garden.
During this period, rootlets formed around the notched area. I believe the temperature change, especially the cooler evenings outdoors, has some influence on the propagation.
It takes about 10 weeks before the plant has layered sufficiently for separation and potting.
Separation and Potting
At this stage, the new plant is cut off without disturbing the moss surrounding the roots and put into a potting soil consisting of loam, manure, and sponge rock. Merely pinch the oat blades off.
A polyethylene wrapping is placed over the entire plant, giving it a warm, moist atmosphere until re-established.
The climatic conditions of the greenhouse or house will determine the length of treatment and care.
The plant needs light and will tolerate some filtered sunlight, providing high humidity.
Additional Care
I do not recommend pinching out the top of the plant. It is there the blossoms form pinching back often distorts the flowers.
44659 by Gladys Reed Robinson