Celebes Pepper (Piper ornatum) Grown for its stunning foliage, this rare Celebes Pepper has mottled silver, pink and green leaves. Although a slow grower, Welcome to the famous Dave's Garden . Join friendly community that shares tips and ideas for gardens, along with seeds and plants.
Throughout the year water moderately, enough to make the potting mixture moist throughout, but allowing the top couple of centimetres (0.8 inch) of the potting mixture to dry out before watering again.
Grow these plants in direct filtered sunlight (a translucent blind or curtain is a useful filter). An east or west window is the best place for growing this plant.
Except in midwinter, feed plants every two weeks with standard liquid fertiliser. Piper crocatum do not have a distinct rest period, but they grow less actively in winter.
Piper crocatum must have warmth – a minimum of 15°C (59°F) – or they will shed most of their leaves. They do not flourish if subjected to fluctuating temperatures and dry air. Keep the temperatures as constant as possible and increase the humidity by standing pots on shallow trays of moist pebbles. Mist-spray the foliage once a week.
Piper crocatum have fairly small root systems and should not be planted in needlessly big containers. A 13-15cm (5-6 inch) pot should be the biggest needed for an ordinary potted specimen. Move a plant into a pot size larger only when it has made so much top growth that there is an obvious imbalance between top growth and pot size – a relatively dependable indication of the need for more root space.
