Prince of Orange Philodendron Care

Philodendrons are popular house plants that you can find at many big box stores or your local nursery. They come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and leaf patterns. You may be lucky enough to live in growing zones 9-11, you can also grow them outdoors as a perennial plant. However, I will be covering indoor care for all of us zonally challenged plant lovers. Read on for my recommendations for Prince of Orange Philodendron care.

Prince of Orange Philodendron Care

In my experience, Philodendrons are fairly easy to care for. In fact, they often make the list of easiest plants to care for by experts. The Philodendron Prince of Orange pictured above is one of the few Philodendrons I have and it's about three years old now. I got it at a specialty plant shop as three tiny leaves and now it's grown significantly! For those of you looking for the quick basics of indoor Prince of Orange care, check out the table directly below. I'll also go into more detail for each care category beyond the table. Prince of Orange Philodendrons are toxic to dogs and cats. Be mindful of where you place them and do not let your pets ingest them.

Philodendron Light Requirements

Philodendrons are perfect indoor house plants because they do not require really bright direct light. In the wild, they are more likely to be found under a tree canopy receiving dappled sunlight. That said they do need some sun, and hybrids like the Prince of Orange require a certain amount of sunlight to maintain their colorful leaves. If you notice that new leaves of your Prince of Orange are not appearing orange, then your Philodendron may be reverting. It is normal for the lower leaves to become green as they age though, this is not reverting.

Your Prince of Orange will do well in an east or west-facing window. South-facing windows get the most direct sun. If you keep your Philodendron in a south-facing window, make sure there are some trees outside your window or you have a sheer curtain because your plant can become sunburnt. If you're not sure which direction your windows face you should be able to tell by opening up a map app on your phone.

If you're really invested in knowing whether your Philodendron is getting enough light, I like this plant monitor. I like this one because it hooks up to an app and measures the intensity of light all day giving you a readout of the accumulation of light and intensity. Most other affordable plant light meters on the market will only give you a single light reading when you are looking at it with your own eyes. You can imagine it can be hard to get an accurate read on light accumulation that way. I have a whole write-up on this meter in another post.

Prince of Orange Watering

Prince of Orange watering can be a bit tricky if you like to keep your plants on the dry side like me. One of my main reasons for doing this is to try to stick to a schedule, but also to prevent fungus gnats who really love moist soil. Philodendrons are tropical plants though, so they actually like a bit of moisture. A general rule of thumb is to check the top inch of soil with your finger to feel if it is dry before you water your Philodendron. Infrequent deep waterings are better than giving your Philodendron more frequent small sips of water because the former will help the roots grow downward and the latter will result in shallow roots.

If you don't like sticking your finger in the soil and having to clean dirt from your fingernail, I highly suggest a soil moisture meter. It's probably my most used plant tool. I have become better at knowing how often to water and how much water to give each of my plants from using it.

Prince of Orange Fertilizer

Indoor Philodendrons can be fertilized about every month during the growing season. The growing season means late spring through early fall. While your Philodendron might put out some new leaves during the winter, you really don't want to encourage that because there's just not enough light for healthy foliage growth.

Prince of Orange Philodendrons do not require a specialty fertilizer. They will do fine with an all-purpose balanced fertilizer. A balanced fertilizer is one that has even, or very close to even, ratios of the three nutrients n-p-k. N-P-K is nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium. If you're really looking to improve foliage growth, then nitrogen is the nutrient for that. However, I don't recommend using a nitrogen-heavy fertilizer unless you know your Philodendron has a nitrogen deficiency. If you suspect you have nutrient issues, you can test using soil rapitests which individually measure nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and pH.

Prince of Orange Soil

Like fertilizer, you don't need any kind of specialty Prince of Orange soil mix. Generally speaking, you want a well-draining soil mixture. I usually start with regular potting soil and amend it with a little extra perlite. Perlite is the little white stuff you find mixed in most potting soils on the market. It's added to the mix to improve drainage. I typically use a 4:1 ratio of potting soil to perlite when I pot up my Philodendrons.

The most important thing is that your soil is in a pot that has drainage holes. A pot without drainage holes is asking for trouble. If your pot does not have drainage holes look into getting a new pot or drilling holes. Follow my tutorial on drilling holes in ceramic and glass pots.

Have questions about Prince of Orange Philodendron care? Let us know in the Comments section below.