String of Pearls Care & Propagation – More Plants for Hypertufa Pot Fillers!

I truly love my String of Pearls. Growing fast and furious, it is now about 10 times the size that is was when we first purchased it last spring. I have searched to try and find a photo of it when it originally came into the house, but I just can’t find it. and I can’t find it in a video either. But believe me, it has grown A LOT!

This plant know as Senecio Rowleyanus or String of Pearls is known to be a vigorous grower. Once you get its soil conditions like it wants (freely draining, no wet feet) and cautious watering (dry out between waterings and then water well), it will just pop out more little pearls faster and faster on long trailing stems. Mine hangs about 15 inches from the edge of the pot now.

So…it’s time for a haircut!

Of course now I want more. So I will propagate this one and have some plants for fillers in my hypertufa pots for this summer on the deck. Here in Ohio, the String of Pearls cannot live outside in the winter (frost will kill it.) It really does best in temperatures no lower than 50°F and doesn’t particularly like humidity. 

I am  planning to root some cuttings to put in my succulent Aquarium Terrarim so that the plant can grow as it naturally does in its native East Africa. When found there growing in the wild, it forms a mat across the ground. Wouldn’t that be wonderful to have a mat across the terrarium?

Propagation of String of Pearls

I will use two different methods to propagate my String of Pearls. Some cuttings I will put in water and wait for some roots to form and then put them into soil. More cuttings will go directly into soil by just burying the stem where I have cleared off the pearls (leaves ) for a couple inches.

Additionally, I am going to curl some stems or strings in a planter and allow them to seek the soil and root by just sitting on the soil. ( I am throwing some of the pearls on the soil top too. Hopefully, I will get growth from them too.)

In a few weeks I hope to see that roots have formed on all of these. Those that are in water, I will plant into soil as soon as the roots are 1/2 to 1 inch long. It is better to let them adapt asap to soil if that is where I plan to put them anyway. The Senecio rowleyanus does have very shallow roots, so I must do this carefully.

If all of these sprout and grow roots, I will have so many plants! Enough to really populate the outdoor hypertufa planters and also maybe a hanging pot or two.

Spring is the best time for these as that is their normal growing season, so the timing couldn’t be better. Anxious to see my new plant babies!

Your String of Pearls likes a lot of light but doesn’t want harsh light or it will sunburn. I have mine in morning light and it seems to do very well. See those tiny “windows” in the side of each pearl? Those are called epidermal windows that let the sun shine into the pearl so that photosynthesis can occur.

Be sure to watch the video and see what I am doing with my Pearls. Please share and Pin the image. This helps me a lot! Thanks for reading.