String of Hearts (Ceropegia woodii) is, without a doubt, the cutest plant in my collection, absolutely adorable. No other plant is abandoning itself to gravity like this, focusing the energy rather on growing at an incredible rate, I suspect.  

I’ve got my hands on some clippings about a year ago from a generous fellow plant enthusiast. Rooting was an easy task, I placed the chopped strings in a pot on top of succulent soil mix and made sure it had constant humidity at first. Shortly after, new vines emerged, and since then it kept growing uncontrollably. 

During the first year of life my strings tolerated relatively low light and full sun conditions; suffered a siege from an equally adorable kitten – some leaves from the end of the vines surrendered unconditionally. 

Recently, I kept postponing repotting and pruning because of the relentless waves of flowers. After one of the vines broke away – it’s not entirely clear if the same military genius that executed the siege, deployed different tactics – I had to do something. 

However, the new flowers prevented me from pruning. I moved it in a bigger pot, transparent this time, mostly because I have an unhealthy obsession with checking roots. Since it’s not the best time of the year for this changes in the life of a plant, I didn’t disturbed the root ball, that developed beautiful tubers, and placed it in the middle of my own succulent soil blend. 

Moreover, I spent a solid half-hour untangling and separating the vines, and twisted them on a done-it-myself trellis, obviously heart shaped. I used galvanised wire, green jute string, and a bit of superglue. I gently tangled the broken vine on top of the soil and secured it with handcrafted netting staples, made with thin and flexible wire. With the new propagation project, I’m hoping to achieve a trailing look in addition to the heart of String of Hearts. 

Clearly, a new makeover is not written in the stars, as the entangled I produced myself is a bigger challenge than the Gordian knot.