Growing Spurflowers in Aquarium

Spurflower plant, whose scientific name is Plectranthus, has very pretty colored leaves and it is a flowering plant.

 I got a cutting of a Spurflower plant on May 29th, 2019. 

This cutting is12 cm long with a stem that is less than 1 cm thick at the base.

 I want to check if a Spurflower would grow in my aquarium gardens with its roots in water. 

Remove leaves on the bottom of the stem. 

I keep leaves on the top couple joints in this example.

 Let's put this cutting into one of my sustainable aquarium gardens with fish. 

The stem is long enough to stay in the water all the time. 

The planter helps to keep all the leaves of the Spurflower above the water and reduce water evaporation.

 It already looks nice! 

About two weeks later, on June 15th, the flower starts blooming.

The cutting does not have roots yet. 

3 days later. 

More blooms open.

June 20th. 

The Spurflower keeps blooming nicely.

 It took a couple weeks for roots to start growing. 

Here you can see them. 

Blooms start falling off on June 22nd - after one week of blooming.

 There are still many more blooming flowers to enjoy. 

August 16th.

 Two and half months passed by quickly. 

New branches have grown on the old stem.

 New leaves have green as their dominant color compared to the original burgundy. 

This new branch is about twice the length of the old stem, but noticeably thinner. 

The plant has short roots. 

I think this new branch is already long enough to grow on it's own.

 Let's cut the new branch right here. 

Remove the bottom leaves. 

And this cutting goes in the same aquarium garden for now. 

One week later, on August 24th, the bloomed stem dried out completely. 

Remove it. 

I add more cuttings of Spurflowers in my aquariums throughout the Summer.

 Spurflower plants look very attractive even in small 1 liter aquarium gardens. 

All cuttings from land plants bloomed and grow following the same pattern.

 Here is the first cutting with a new branch on September 21st.

 Roots remain the same. 

The old leaves start wilting and eventually fall off. 

The cutting I made a month ago is still alive but did not grow any roots. 

All new leaves have a dominant green color. 

October 3rd. 

Leaves on a new branch of the first cutting grow completely green. 

The cutting I made in August is still rootless. 

October 22nd. 

Blooms on the new branch! 

Noticeably, there are just a couple blooms.

November 8th.

 I keep this two aquarium gardens with snails on a windowsill for a couple months.

 And Spurflower grows very well exposed to direct sunlight. 

Here you can see new blooms growing on top of the old. 

The same two aquarium gardens two months later on January 13th, 2021. 

I enjoy Spurflower blooms in the middle of the Winter :) 

Blooming Spurflowers are very pretty! 

January 14th, 2021.

 This Spurflower has been growing about 8 months in this aquarium garden. 

The plant bloomed a couple times. 

All old leaves are gone.

 The new branch has grown too long and bends down. 

I should probably cut the bottom of the stem to make it shorter. 

This part.

 But first let's cut off the new branch. 

Now, let's trim the old stubs.

 And let's trim the bottom of the old stem.

The old plant goes back into the old aquarium. 

Let's remove the bottom leaves from the new cutting.

 And the new cutting goes into a new aquarium.

 Hmm...this one.

Spurflowers make a nice addition to my aquarium gardens as a blooming plant (basically all year around) to keep aquariums clean and pretty. 

Have fun and happy aquarium gardens :)